The Commentariat -- March 12, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Special counsel Robert Mueller is nearly done with his investigation into whether ... Donald Trump obstructed justice but may wait to publicize his findings until he has completed other parts of the Russia probe, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. Bloomberg News reported, citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials, that Mueller could finish the obstruction portion of the investigation once he has interviewed key officials like the President and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.... Mueller may hold off on revealing his findings on obstruction so that the results don't prompt Trump to attempt to shut down the special counsel investigation or fuel other pressure for Mueller to end the probe, as Bloomberg News noted." ...
... ** Julia Ainsley, et al., of NBC News: "Qatari officials gathered evidence of what they claim is illicit influence by the United Arab Emirates on Jared Kushner and other Trump associates, including details of secret meetings, but decided not to give the information to special counsel Robert Mueller for fear of harming relations with the Trump administration, say three sources familiar with the Qatari discussions. Lebanese-American businessman George Nader and Republican donor Elliott Broidy, who participated in the meetings, have both been the focus of news reports in recent days about their connections to the UAE and Trump associates.... NBC News previously reported that Qatari officials weighed speaking to Mueller during a visit to Washington earlier this year, and has now learned the information the officials wanted to share included details about Nader and Broidy working with the UAE to turn the Trump administration against Qatar.... Qatari officials believe Trump's verbal backing of the blockade [by neighboring nations] was a form of retaliation by ... Jared Kushner, whose family's negotiations with Qatari investors had recently fallen apart, according to several sources familiar with the Qatari government's thinking."
Today in American History. The President & the Porn Star, Ctd. Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "The pornographic film actress who says she had an affair with President Trump offered on Monday to return $130,000 she received from Mr. Trump;s personal lawyer in 2016 for agreeing not to discuss the alleged relationship. In exchange, the actress, Stephanie Clifford, seeks an end to her deal to keep quiet about what she says was an affair with Mr. Trump that started in 2006 and lasted for several months. In the letter, which was sent to Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, early Monday, Ms. Clifford's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, wrote that Ms. Clifford would wire the money into an account of Mr. Trump's choosing by Friday."
The Family That Grifts Together ...
Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "Ivanka Trump -- a senior White House adviser who is doing everything from lobbying the Senate on tax policy to representing her father at a G20 summit of world leaders -- will pull in more than $1 million a year from the family business that has continued to develop luxury resorts across the globe during the Trump presidency. Some of those Trump-branded developments are hiring state-owned companies for construction, receiving gifts from foreign governments in the form of public land or eased regulations and accepting payments from customers who are foreign officials. Ivanka Trump's continued relationship with the businesses affiliated with the Trump Organization creates countless potential conflicts of interest prohibited by federal law and federal ethics standards as she works as a special assistant to the president. And just like her father, she is being accused of violating the so-called emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution...."
Jake Pearson of the AP: "Donald Trump Jr. has a previously undisclosed business relationship with a longtime hunting buddy who helped raise millions of dollars for his father's 2016 presidential campaign and has had special access to top government officials since the election, records obtained by The Associated Press show. The president's oldest son and Texas hedge fund manager Gentry Beach have been involved in business deals together dating back to the mid-2000s and recently formed a company, Future Venture LLC, despite past claims by both men that they were just friends, according to previously unreported court records and other documents obtained by AP."
White House Surprised a Billionaire Can Be So Stupid. Kaitlan Collins & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "White House officials were alarmed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' struggle to answer basic questions about the nation's schools and failure to defend the administration's newly proposed school safety measures during a tour of television interviews Sunday and Monday, according to two sources familiar with their reaction.... Things worsened as DeVos continued her cable television tour Monday morning.... Though the [White House] proposals don't include raising the age limit to purchase firearms from 18 to 21 -- as ... Donald Trump once suggested -- DeVos told Savannah Guthrie ton NBC's 'Today" show that 'everything is on the table.'"
Susan Glasser of Politico interviews "sleepy son-of-a-bitch" Chuck Todd.
Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "Arnold Schwarzenegger's next mission: taking oil companies to court 'for knowingly killing people all over the world.' The former California governor and global environmental activist announced the move Sunday at a live recording of Politico's Off Message podcast [from Austin, Texas,] at the SXSW festival, revealing that he's in talks with several private law firms and preparing a public push around the effort. 'This is no different from the smoking issue. The tobacco industry knew for years and years and years and decades, that smoking would kill people, would harm people and create cancer, and were hiding that fact from the people and denied it. Then eventually they were taken to court and had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars because of that,' Schwarzenegger said. 'The oil companies knew from 1959 on, they did their own study that there would be global warming happening because of fossil fuels, and on top of it that it would be risky for people's lives, that it would kill.'"
Anushka Asthana of the Guardian: British PM "Theresa May has said it is 'highly likely' that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury and warned that her government will not tolerate such a 'brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil'. In a statement to the House of Commons after chairing a meeting of the national security council, the prime minister said the evidence had shown that Skripal had been targeted by a 'military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia'. She said the substance was from a group known as Novichok.... 'Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country. Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.'"
*****
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which ... the end learns to justify the means. -- John Dalberg-Acton, in an 1887 letter
... David Remnick of the New Yorker: "Minute by minute, the wheels are coming off the clown car that is the Trump Administration. The circus animals are deserting, wriggling through every available window and door.... But the spectacle on Pennsylvania Avenue diverts attention from an arguably more consequential matter; namely, who now speaks for the values and the institutions of a liberal democratic country? Donald Trump did not ignite but merely joined a miserable, destabilizing trend of illiberalism that has been under way for years [throughout the world].... The next significant chapter in this stress test for liberal values will be the midterm elections of November, 2018. If the Democratic Party fails to win a majority in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, Trump will be further emboldened. His capacity for recklessness will multiply and go unrestrained. The Republican leadership, which has already proved shocking in its cowardice, will be even less inclined to challenge him.... For Trump and Trumpism to be rendered an unnerving but short-lived episode, history will require ... that millions of men and women who do not ordinarily exercise their franchise ... recognize the imperatives of citizenship." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's fair to say that all of our political institutions are broken. One political party is profoundly corrupt & the other is moribund. Add up the ages of the Democratic leaders in the House -- Pelosi, Hoyer & Clyburn -- subtract them from 2018 & you get -- 1776! Birth of a nation! The Supreme Court functions as their co-conspirator in destroying democratic institutions: Citizens United, Shelby County v. Holder, etc. The MSM are owned by corporations or cranky old men, & reporters & pundits are usually more interested in calling horse races & scandals than they are in saving our dysfunctional system. The alternative media are largely uninformed nuts & polemicists (I'll include myself here). A weak public education system is getting weaker. And the voters are either disengaged and/or some god-awful combination of the traits of their "betters." Even if, by the miracle of existential discontent, there is a Democratic "wave" in November, we likely will simply carry on with the way we were -- with a cowardly authoritarian in the White House, an impotent Congress, a calcified court system & a press corps reverting to he-said/she-said "journalism." But, hey, maybe I'm wrong. I am, after all, one of the nuts. ...
... Masha Gessen, also writing in the New Yorker, is not much more hopeful than I. Even the resistance sucks.
The Weanie in the White House. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The White House on Sunday vowed to help provide 'rigorous firearms training' to some schoolteachers and formally endorsed a bill to tighten the federal background checks system, but backed off President Trump's earlier call to raise the minimum age to purchase some guns to 21 years old from 18 years old. Responding directly to last month's gun massacre at a Florida high school, the administration rolled out a series of policy proposals that focus largely on mental health and school safety initiatives. The idea of arming some teachers has been controversial and has drawn sharp opposition from the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers lobby, among other groups. Many of the student survivors have urged Washington to toughen restrictions on gun purchases, but such measures are fiercely opposed by the National Rifle Association, and the Trump plan does not include any substantial changes to gun laws." Mrs. McC: I don't think the U.S. ever has had a more cowardly president. Who's afraid of the NRA? Donald Trump is. But, hey, let's have a military parade. ...
... Jonathan Chait: "On February 21, President Trump met with survivors of the Parkland school shooting and attempted to convey a sincere intention to act.... A week later Trump held a surreal, televised discussion with members of Congress in which he advocated 'comprehensive' gun control, including 'powerful' background checks and raising the age of legal purchase for assault rifles. He accused fellow Republicans of being afraid of the National Rifle Association. It was classic Trump: full of confidence, insisting something big would happen, and having no idea what he was talking about. What happened next was predictable. Trump met with the head of the NRA. He stopped talking about the issue he was going to solve. He held a White House meeting about video games, an apparent attempt to deflect attention away from guns as a cause of mass murder. And now the Trump administration has unveiled its plan, which looks a lot like ... something a politician who was afraid of the NRA would support."
This Russia Thing. Bob Mueller, Take Note. Mark Follman of Mother Jones (March 9): "Just a month after Trump announced his campaign for the White House, he spoke directly to Maria Butina, the protégé of the powerful Russian banking official and Putin ally Alexander Torshin. During a public question and answer session at FreedomFest, a libertarian convention in Las Vegas in July 2015, Butina asked Trump what he would do as president about 'damaging' US sanctions. Trump suggested he would get rid of them.... After going off on [President] Obama and digressing into trade policy, Trump responded: 'I know Putin, and I'll tell you what, we get along with Putin ... I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin, OK? And I mean, where we have the strength. I don't think you'd need the sanctions....'" Via digby, who remarks, "And he said [he would lift the sanctions] ... because he was so close to Putin."
Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "Lawyers associated with ... Donald Trump are considering legal action to stop 60 Minutes from airing an interview with Stephanie Clifford, the adult film performer and director who goes by Stormy Daniels, BuzzFeed News has learned. 'We understand from well-placed sources they are preparing to file for a legal injunction to prevent it from airing,' a person informed of the preparations told BuzzFeed News on Saturday evening." ...
... Jim Rutenberg & Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "But as of Sunday night CBS had not received any legal threat."
Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday blasted Democrats for obstructing his nominations and urged the Senate to move faster to confirm his nominees.... However, Democrats argue that a number of Trump's nominees have withdrawn or faced intense scrutiny for conflicts of interest or a lack of qualifications for their nominated positions." (Also linked yesterday.)
So Much Winning. William Saletan of Slate: "Trump talks tough, but ... he focuses on competing with American politicians and defeating America's friends. Trump has always abused the people closest to him. He cheats on his wives. He insults his attorney general and his secretary of state. Last week..., he announced that he was looking to get rid of some people in his administration.... Trump also loves to keep score.... To build himself up, Trump tears down previous presidents of both parties. Last week at the White House, he took a shot at George W. Bush for failing to control North Korea. At Saturday's rally, he scorned Bush for wasting money in the Middle East. On Twitter, Trump blamed Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, for dumb trade deals and lost jobs. Now Trump is going after President Reagan. The Gipper was 'not great' on trade, the 45th president told the crowd in Pennsylvania. Trump added that his own tax cut was 'bigger than Reagan.'... He's so busy keeping score against political rivals and predecessors that he doesn't notice what he's giving away to other countries.... But the worst thing about Trump's perverse treatment of friends and enemies ... [is] that he strives to emulate dictators.... Congratulations, Mr. President. You've one-upped Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama. You've humiliated our allies, renounced human rights, and snagged a photo op with the head of the world's most repressive state." ...
... E.J. Dionne: "Trump has interests. He doesn't have a philosophy. But above all, he has needs, and the erratic nature of the Trump presidency can be explained by the interaction of his two compulsions: looking strong and being liked. They sometimes seem to collide, but they are actually of a piece. Both speak of a man for whom the personal is the only kind of political. It is impossible to know what his true policy commitments are because they are secondary. On any given day and at any given moment, his actions are dictated by what, in his eyes, will make him look forceful and bring him accolades." Mrs. McC: Of course needs are weaknesses. ...
... Steve M. figures out who Trump thinks the "public" is: Fox "News" & CPAC. "He hires from a narrow political pool -- relatives, friends, friends of friends, fellow CEOs, professional acquaintances of people who already work for him -- and he defines 'America' as his fan base. I don't know who he thinks the rest of us are -- undocumented immigrants and George Soros's massive payroll of 'globalist' trolls and saboteurs, I suppose." Mrs. McC: C'mon, George. Where's my check?
John Bowden of the Hill: "More than a dozen top election officials across the country are raising concerns about a provision in a Homeland Security Department reauthorization bill that would allow President Trump to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places. A letter signed by 19 bipartisan secretaries of state to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) demands the Senate leave out a proposal from final legislation that would allow Secret Service agents to accompany lawmakers to polling places when they vote.... A spokeswoman for the agency denied that the Secret Service agents would be used in a law enforcement capacity, stating that the clarifying language' was a response to a 2016 incident in which poll workers stopped agents from accompanying a lawmaker to vote over concerns it violated federal law. 'The only time armed Secret Service personnel would be at a polling place would be to facilitate the visiting of one of our protectees while they voted,' Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan told the [Boston] Globe." (Also linked yesterday.)
Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appeared on CBS’s '60 Minutes' show on Sunday night and stumbled in answering questions that journalist Lesley Stahl asked her during a pointed interview. Stahl repeatedly challenged the education secretary, at one point suggesting that DeVos should visit underperforming public schools to learn about their problems. DeVos responded, 'Maybe I should.'" A video & transcript of the segment is here. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In my experience, it's an American tradition to put dim bulbs in charge of K-12 education, from boards of education to school principals to U.S. education secretaries. Eeven tho she may be the only billionaire who's been on the job, Betsy fits right in. Or, as Margaret Hartmann sums up the Stahl interview, "Oh God, this person is the education secretary."
Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "Jewish groups and U.S. lawmakers condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's suggestion that the 2016 U.S. presidential election may have been manipulated by Russian Jews. Putin's remarks came during a long and occasionally surreal interview with NBC News on Saturday, in which he speculated that nearly anyone other than the Russian government could have been behind a program to disrupt the election. U.S. intelligence agencies believe Putin ordered the effort to undermine faith in the U.S. election and help elect Donald Trump as president. 'Maybe they're not even Russians,' Putin told Megyn Kelly, referring to who might have been behind the election interference. 'Maybe they're Ukrainian, Tatars, Jews -- just with Russian citizenship.' He also speculated that France, Germany or 'Asia' might have interfered in the election -- or even Russians paid by the U.S. government. But his remark about Jews, which seemed to suggest that a Russian Jew was not really a Russian, prompted particular outrage among those who remember Russia's centuries-long history of anti-Semitism and Jewish purges. Some groups compared the statement to anti-Jewish myths that helped inspire the Holocaust."
Congressional Races
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Organized labor has gone all in for [Conor] Lamb, the Democratic candidate in the 18th District House race. Union activists have been knocking on members' doors, standing at the gates of steel mills, and generally trying to claw back votes from 2016, when Hillary Clinton failed to connect with blue-collar voters across the industrial Midwest. Win or lose -- polls suggest Mr. Lamb is in a dead heat in a district that President Trump won by about 20 percentage points -- the lessons from his kitchen-table campaign will resonate throughout the heartland in November. Democrats will be defending vulnerable Senate seats and trying to pick up House districts and governors' mansions in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states where Mrs. Clinton fell short." ...
... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "There's a reason Trump said hardly anything about Republican candidate Rick Saccone during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night that was supposed to promote his candidacy.... Trump thinks Saccone is a terrible, 'weak' candidate, according to four sources who've spoken to the president about him. Trump held that opinion of Saccone before leaving for the rally.... Trump isn't the only top Republican who's found Saccone underwhelming. The widely-held view from Republican officials: Democrat Conor Lamb is a far superior candidate to Saccone and running a far better campaign. Lamb is running effectively as Republican Lite. He's pro-gun and says he personally opposes to abortion (though he supports abortion rights). The thing that most irks senior Republicans involved in the race: Saccone has been a lousy fundraiser. Lamb has outraised Saccone by a staggering margin -- nearly 500 percent."
California, Here He Comes. Rory Carroll of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's visit to California will generate a memorable image: the president inspecting prototypes of his planned border wall. Four years after he first proposed a wall, an idea that helped vault him to the White House, he will on Tuesday finally be able to touch solid concrete on some of the eight barriers, 30ft tall and 30ft wide, arrayed in the desert outside San Diego.... California's Republican leaders, however, may view this political theatre very differently: as the equivalent of a man sawing a tree branch on which they -- and he -- all sit.... GOP candidates, however, cannot renounce Trump without alienating Trump-adoring activists and donors. The president's visit will oblige them to do a delicate dance, close but not too close."
Beyond the Beltway
Getting a Public Space Right. Tracey Leong of CBS Baltimore: "Baltimore celebrated Harriet Tubman Day by rededicating Wyman Park Dell, which was once a Confederate site.... Last year, Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the removal of all four of Baltimore's Confederate statues, including the statue of Confederate Generals Thomas. J. 'Stonewall' Jackson and Robert E. Lee at Wyman Park Dell.... Saturday marked the 105th anniversary of Tubman's death. Dozens of people, including Tubman’s family members and city leaders, celebrated the rededication."
Way Beyond
Oh Why Can't the U.S. Be More Like China. Chris Buckley & Steven Myers of the New York Times: "President Xi Jinping set China on course to follow his hard-line authoritarian rule far into the future on Sunday, when the national legislature lifted the presidential term limit and gave constitutional backing to expanding the reach of the Communist Party.... The party-controlled legislature, voted almost unanimously to approve an amendment to the Constitution to abolish the term limit on the presidency, opening the way for Mr. Xi to rule indefinitely. The amendment was among a set of 21 constitutional changes approved by the congress, which included passages added to the Constitution to salute Mr. Xi and his drive to entrench party supremacy. Mr. Xi is using his formidable power to dismantle parts of the political order set in place in the 1980s and 1990s by Deng Xiaoping, who led China on a path of economic opening and liberalization." (Also linked yesterday.)
Ben Hubbard, et al., of the New York Times: "In November, the Saudi government locked up hundreds of influential businessmen -- many of them members of the royal family -- in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton in what it called an anti-corruption campaign.... As the architect of the crackdown, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, prepares to travel to the United States this month to court American investment, Saudi officials are spotlighting his reforms.... But extensive interviews ... revealed a murkier, coercive operation, marked by cases of physical abuse, which transferred billions of dollars in private wealth to the crown prince's control.... The opaque and extralegal nature of the campaign has rattled the very foreign investors the prince is now trying to woo.... Part of the campaign appears to be driven by a family feud, as Crown Prince Mohammed presses the children of King Abdullah, the monarch who died in 2015, to give back billions of dollars that they consider their inheritance.... Corruption has long been endemic in Saudi Arabia, and many of the detainees were widely assumed to have stolen from state coffers." ...
... Anne Appelbaum of the Washington Post (Nov. 17, 2017): "... Trump is also part of the story. By his own example -- through his disdain for courts and for the media, through his scorn for ethical norms -- Trump has cast doubt on the Western model. He may even have encouraged the Saudi prince more directly. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, a living embodiment of American nepotism, visited Riyadh for long talks -- officially to promote Mideast peace, but perhaps business and politics came up, too -- in the days before the arrest[s]. The image of two princelings, scheming late into the night, makes a textbook illustration of the decline of American prestige and American values, even in a country that is closely allied to the United States."
News Ledes
Houston Chronicle: "Pipe bombs hidden inside packages left at two separate Austin houses killed a teenage boy and seriously injured two women within hours Monday morning, spurring an investigation by Austin police who believe the attacks are linked to an earlier attack and may be racially motivated. The first box detonated Monday in the Springdale Hills neighborhood of east Austin after the teenager brought it from the front porch into the kitchen to open it. The 17-year-old was killed, and a woman in her 40s was injured, police said. Five hours later, as police were investigating the first explosion, another blast occurred at a home about five miles southeast in the Montopolis neighborhood near the airport. A 75-year-old woman suffered life-threatening injuries after she picked up a package left at her front door. The explosions appeared similar to an explosion on March 2 that killed a 39-year-old northeast Austin man. In each case, the explosions came in the early morning hours from boxes left on front doorsteps. None was delivered by a mail service, police said."
New York Times: "Hubert de Givenchy, the French couturier and nobleman who upheld a standard of quintessentially romantic elegance in fashion for more than four decades, dressing the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Grace Kelly and memorably Audrey Hepburn, in a little black dress, in the movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' died on Saturday. He was 91."
New York Times: All five passengers died when a helicopter crashed into New York's East River between Manhattan & Queens just north of Roosevelt Island. The pilot survived. ...
... New York Times: Rescue divers "told the tugboat captain to cut the propellers and resigned themselves to drifting with the current as they tried to cut five passengers out of the helicopter, their bodies underwater and cinched with harnesses heavy enough to let them lean over and snap photographs of the New York City skyline. By the time the divers plucked them out, it was too late. The crash revived calls for helicopter tours to be restricted over Manhattan and raised questions about the safety of amateurs being allowed on so-called photo flights, in which people are strapped in to helicopters with their doors off and given only knives to escape in an emergency."
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Reader Comments (16)
Democrats and surrogates should flood the airwaves at every opportunity on every channel to announce to the world that the Coward-In-Chief is "shaking in his boots afraid" of the NRA. All his talk of "freedom from special interests" is a total and complete sham.
Shout it to the mountaintops, ad nauseum, repeating his snide remarks about how everyone else BUT him was afraid of the gun lobby and yet, alas, Drumpf's nothing but a gun stooge like the rest of the swamp. Throw in the other Confederates occasional just to make connections, but absolutely hound Donald for his weakness.
Stay on message. And repeat.
With coordinated messaging, Drumpf will ultimately switch on his teevee while eating well-done steaks in bed and watch everyone ridiculing him for being a weak puppet, a sell-out. He'll fume and get distracted and provoke more petty drama via Twitter.
It'd be a great way to get under his skin, and it's damn good politics, too. He'd have few if any defenders, and those who support him would only propose the same transparently bullshit non-solutions that are palpable to the gun industry and wholly rejected by the sane populations. Come on Dems, get into pitbull mode and tear off some flesh.
A few media posts from today:
"backed off President Trump’s earlier call"
"To build himself up, Trump tears down previous presidents of both parties"
" Trump has always abused the people closest to him"
"On February 21, President Trump met with survivors of the Parkland school shooting and attempted to convey a sincere intention to act...." "He held a White House meeting about video games"
The problem? The words crazy, insane etc. are gone. We now consider obvious, serious mental illness just Trumpism. Maybe we should change NPD to TrumpPD.
All the best people, Cont.
As Trump, brave, brave, Sir Donald, knuckles under to the orders of the diseased mind of Wayne La Pierre, and does as he's told, it's worth looking at just two other Friends of Trump who are helping him to destroy the nation. Between them, Betsy Devos (worth $5.1 billion) and her rank, dangerous, delusional brother Erik Prince (worth $2.1 billion), are working to make America both stupider and less safe, less safe on many fronts. Oh, yes, they were big donors to the little dictator's campaign and also close bosom buddies of fellow Christian Warrior for Killing People they Believe Jesus Hates, like Muslims, little mikey pence, but that was then. Now they are on the inside.
Prince was with Trump watching returns the night he and Putin jiggered the election. That's pretty far inside. And Devos, well...the 60 Minutes interview, plus just about everything she's said and done for years, demonstrates not only her embarrassing lack of qualifications to have anything to do with education, including dry mopping the gym floor, but something far more dangerous. As Marie suggests, too many mucky mucks in Education are jamokes. But most of them, school board heads, principals, and the panoply of "consultants" brought in to help teach the little tykes readin', writin', and 'rithmetic, tend to be simply dead weight (except for the ones who insist that Jesus step in to teach science).
But Devos is a different animal entirely. Where the other losers simply tread water and collect a check, Devos actively seeks to undermine the entire system, converting all those "billions and billions and billions of dollars spent on education" to billions and billions and billions of dollars lining her own pockets and those of her charter school, for-profit billionaire pals who care about as much for education as Trump does womens' rights.
Last week I read a piece about Neil Degrasse Tyson talking about the rise of Flat Earthers. His complaint is that the education system has failed students, especially in a field that requires, above all, the ability to determine fact from fiction, what is probable from what is complete balderdash, how to think rationally from not thinking at all: science.
It's true that most kids (well, some kids) know that mitochondria play an important role in cellular development. They might even be able to tell you what that is. They probably know that DNA and RNA are two different things, and it's possible that they've heard about the Big Bang theory (the actual one, not the TV show). But what they don't learn, according to Tyson, is how science works. That's an important point.
Now, if you were studying English, it might be interesting to know why that language uses prepositive adjectives (before the noun) rather than placing them after the noun, as in French or Italian. Interesting, but not necessary. You can still speak and read with clarity not knowing exactly how or why language works. But in science, it's absolutely essential to understand the method by which theories are constructed. This makes it eminently easier to parse the bullshit.
(It's worth pointing out here that many teachers actually do try hard to convey decent information, but after the Decider's decision to force teachers to "teach to the test" it leaves a lot less time for unimportant things like, oh, teaching critical thinking. Also, in many areas, evangelicals control what teachers can say and do in a classroom, further diminishing the capacity for rational thought and truth based information.)
But for people like Devos, a billionaire who cares more about money and Jesus than actual education, an educated populace is a danger to her goals. So too to an ignorant fool like Trump, and, for that matter, the entire Republican Party. Better to make sure the "right people" get those billions of dollars. As you saw from the Devos interview, she has no real interest in understanding why some schools fail, only making sure she gets her cut. And NOW she's going to be deciding on how schools will respond to gun violence. Are you feeling more secure?
And the topic of gun violence brings us to brother Erik. Erik Prince, responsible for some of the worst scandals in the scandal plagued Decider's War of Choice, including the butchering of innocent Iraqi civilians--including children--has the ear of president* Doofus.
“Erik wants to be a real, no-shit mercenary. He’s off the rails exposing many U.S. citizens to criminal liabilities. Erik hides in the shadows …” is how one source describes Prince. He's a macho-man crazy person who sees money in violence and conflict and he wants to get his share before he's found out. Again. Oh, the company that killed those civilians, was his, Blackwater, which developed such a terrible reputation for unnecessary, unhinged violence, criminal activity, and incompetence, he had to change the name twice before he could finally sell it.
Since then Prince has suggested that the US government turn over all operations (and funding) in Afghanistan to a group of mercenaries he would organize. He's operated a training program for UAE thugs and has had a hand in the Trump/Russia clusterfuck. But in addition to that?
"This is a man whose loyalties are anything but clear. In fact, [Jeremy] Scahill and Matthew Cole reported last month that Prince is under investigation by the Justice Department and other federal agencies for money laundering and attempts to broker military services to foreign governments... The details of this investigation are astonishing. According to Scahill and Cole, Prince was working on this mercenary project, which includes alleged money laundering for the Libyan government through a Chinese investment bank, as recently as January. The source with close knowledge of Prince’s activities told the Intercept, 'If Erik is fucking around with the Chinese, I don’t even want to imagine what the U.S. government is thinking about.' This is the same time period in which, according to the Washington Post, Prince met with a representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin to establish a secret back channel of communication with President Trump. He’s a busy guy."
Did you get that? "If Erik is fucking around with the Chinese, I don't even want to imagine what the U.S. government is thinking about." That's right. This person means Trump.
Want to know exactly how delusional this fucker is? " It’s frightening to imagine how someone like Prince may have influenced Trump’s thinking. We know that last July he appeared on Steve Bannon’s radio show and recommended that Trump recreate the former CIA assassination ring known as the Phoenix program, as a means of fighting ISIS. He said: 'It was a vicious, but very effective, kill/capture program in Vietnam that destroyed the Viet Cong as a military force. That’s what needs to be done to the funders of Islamic terror.'"
This is what "...destroyed the Viet Cong as a military force"? Hate to break it to you Erik. The Viet Cong kicked our ass in that war. We LOST, you fucking idiot. But what does it matter as long as another Trump grifter makes some cash and has some fun shooting people along the way? (for Jesus, of course.)
Which brings us around to the essential determinant for working for Trump--actually, working for anyone inside the Republican Party: Post-patriotic self interest. None of these people, from La Pierre, whose "fixes" for gun violence include placing more people in jeopardy as well as continuing to allow anyone who wants, including terrorists on a watch list, to purchase deadly weapons, all so he and the gun lobby can continue to live high off the hog, Betsy Devos and her crackpot, douchebag brother Erik, give a single shit big enough to see under an electron microscope about the United States of America. Certainly even less about what makes America truly great (not the Trump sort of faux greatness). As long as they make out while an ignorant post-patriotic self-interested jackal is in the White House, it's all good.
And here we're only looking at two of Trump's inner circle. Two of "the best people". Just imagine the damage being done by the rest of the Trump mob.
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy: Trump's " vulgarity gets results "
Quote of the day from McCarthy: "The American public knew this going in," he added. "That's what the American public voted for."
Oh, really? (Overlooking the Electoral College).
All the best people? Just saw Larry Kudlow to replace Gary Cohn. Just when you think it can't get any worse...
....and oh, yes it can if John Bolton were to replace Tillerson.
It's an outrageous obscenity for any Republican to complain about "obstruction of presidential appointments". And for the little dictator to whine about it, given that he was gifted with a freebie appointment to the Supreme Court by dint of the treasonous obstruction of his own party directed at the previous (actual) president, is even more hideous.
Of course the Republican fatwah against Obama's many appointments that went nowhere, including, but especially that of Merrick Garland, whose place on the court has been taken by off the chain far-right rubber stamp, Neil Gorsuch, was naked political obstructionism in its most textbook form. Democrats balking at Trump's deluge of incompetent cronies and delusional nincompoops is nothing less than an attempt (probably vain) to maintain a sliver of legitimacy for the United States government as a going concern.
And picking up on MAG's suggestion that we may be getting a Bolton from the blue (or the red, as the case may be) perfectly illustrates Democrats' concerns about the unbalanced jamokes being foisted on us by the Coward in Chief.
For Bolton to come in as National Security Adviser would be like hiring Charles Ponzi to run the SEC.
The worst part about a Bolton return to power is not so much how unhinged and ignorant the guy is, but that he would be advising an unhinged, ignorant president, both of whom have a tendency to shoot first and ask no questions later. Or ever. Here's what a guy from CATO (fucking CATO!) thinks about Bolton: "'I operate on the assumption that John Bolton should be kept as far away from the levers of foreign policy as possible,' says Christopher Preble, the vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. 'I think I would rest easy if he was dog catcher in Stone Mountain, Georgia. But maybe not.'"
We have no idea how much or how often McMaster stepped in to halt, or try to halt, Trump's most stupid ideas, but we can guess, based on his imminent departure, that he had something to do with the fact that Trumpy has not yet broken out the big toys to play with. Bolton will exert no such moderating influence. In fact, it will be opposite. "Nuke 'em, Mr. President! Fuck 'em all. Goddam mooslim fuckers. Blow 'em to hell and gone!"
Jesus, could it get worse?
I suppose Trump could have appointed his compromised, ignorant, inexperienced, easily manipulated and highly prejudiced dimwit son-in-law to broker peace in the Middle East. Oh, wait...
@MAG & Akhilleus: Trump can have any dope he wants for head of the National Economic Council because the job doesn't require Senate confirmation. Since Trump had said, "I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things," it doesn't really matter what his economics advisor says. In fact, Gary Cohn wasn't bald till he tore his hair out over Trump's views on tariffs.
But Bolton as secretary of state is another matter. The Senate already refused to confirm him once, & it's possible the world's greatest deliberative body would do so again. But then -- with the help of mike pence -- that same great deliberative body gave us Betsy DeVos.
All Trump voters are stupid, low I.Q. sons of bitches.
LoL. JK.
See how much fun we're having?
Marie,
That would be the case if Trump were tapping Bolton for State, but from what I've been reading, he's looking at him to replace McMaster as National Security Adviser and that requires no Senate confirmation. McMaster's appointment did require the Senate involvement but that had less to do with the actual appointment than getting approval for the job change. All three and four star generals need Senate approval for this kind of arrangement. It's more a military thing than a White House issue.
So Bomb's Away Bolton, if he takes over as National Security Adviser whenever Trump gets the balls to boot McMaster, can sail right in and start planing nuclear holocaust with the Orange Headed Baboon.
@Akhilleus: Right you are. It all hangs by a whisker. Apparently, Trump didn't want Bolton around the White House because the mustache didn't look White House-y enough, & Bolton vowed never to shave the mustache. Flynn & McMaster, by contrast, are very handsome with their clean faces & spiffy military uniforms. What a mess!
The New Yorker has a detailed, informative article on Conor Lamb, the Democratic candidate in tomorrow's special Congressional election in Pennsylvania. https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/conor-lambs-campaign-for-trump-voters-in-pa-18
Godspeed, Conor!
Anent the McNeal TPM report:
Just wondering.
Why would Mueller hold his obstruction punch if there was nothing but a warlock hunt behind it?
For Bloomberg and other paywalls, I find that I can go there with an incognito window in Chrome (MacOs). Haven't tried the TOR dark web browser, too dark a learning curve.
Marie,
Despite the White House dress code and the Trump "Looky-looky, don't we look pa-fessional?" requirement, Trumpy may have no choice but to hire a dangerous retard like Bolton.
With the Niagara-like exodus from the Blight House, he'd be lucky to inveigle ex-felons who had barely escaped conviction for the torture and murder of young children. No one of any value or smarts wants to work there. As someone else put it, it's the Bermuda Triangle of American politics.
But Bolton is a near perfect choice (despite the Fuller Brush mustache).
Trump may have to dig down into the shit pile to replace Mobil-Ex Rex when he decides he's had enough out of him. He might even decide to hire Reagan ex-felon and all around lying creep douchebag, Elliott Abrams. Abrams was considered early on for something something at State, but after he penned an op-ed ripping Trumpy's qualifications to be an usher at a movie theater, Trump nixed his appointment. Just imagine, a rat bastard, conniving criminal fuck like Elliott Abrams thinks you're a bad choice. Holy Jumpin' Jesus. It's like Al Capone saying you're too psycho for him to do business with. But at this point, Trump might have no other options, so Bolton could be a godsend, ie, someone who will actually take the fucking job.
I mean, I heard that Lee Atwater decided not to take a job with the Trump administration (he's dead). And Louie Gohmert was ruled out because he was too smart. There are a few three card Monte guys Trump knows who used to fleece the tourists outside his gaudy mausoleum on Fifth Ave. whom he might hire as economic advisers, but they'd only accept because they had jobbed him multiple times for thousands of dollars even after he bet them he could beat their game.
He couldn't.
At this point, the only people willing to work for Trump are crooks, con men, traitors, felons, opportunistic douchebags, and
misanthropic assholes.
Ergo, Bolton.
@Whyte Owen: Thanks. It may well be that the times I've been able to access Bloomberg stories in the past few weeks, I was in an incognito window. I'll check it out the next time I try to look at a Bloomberg story.
Waiting for the snow to start falling. Again. It was actually a low-snowfall winter for the northeast through February, but last week's storm and the predicted snowfall amount for this week's will make up for it. March snowstorms are not anything new up here, but usually the snow is gone within days. Not true this time--three inches of the eight to ten we got last week are still on the ground. And this is particularly baffling since, as I walked around my NH neighborhood on February 1, I saw buds on the trees. A good six weeks early, by my reckoning. So the world's going to hell, and a porn star has a shot at bringing down the presidency. Which would be so fitting. For all the legal arguments, the referencing of this clause and the other in the Constitution that Trump et al. are breaking, the many ethical scandals, the questions about collusion with Russia, I love that it could be this, that a woman brings him down.