Tuesday
Mar272018
The Commentariat -- March 28, 2018
Afternoon Update:
NEW. Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: "President Trump is removing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin> from his post after a rocky couple of months that started with a scathing report accusing him of misusing taxpayer dollars.... 'I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs....'... '....In the interim, Hon. Robert Wilkie of DOD will serve as Acting Secretary. I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin's service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!' [Trump tweeted]."
Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Mr. Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The discussions came as the special counsel was building cases against both men, and they raise questions about whether the lawyer, John Dowd, was offering pardons to influence their decisions about whether to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation.... [Robert] Mueller's team could investigate the prospect that Mr. Dowd made pardon offers to thwart the inquiry, although legal experts are divided about whether such offers might constitute obstruction of justice.... It is unclear whether Mr. Dowd, who resigned last week as the head of the president's legal team, discussed the pardons with Mr. Trump before bringing them up with the other lawyers."
Karen Freifeld of Reuters: "A little-known former prosecutor with a doctorate in medieval history will play a central role on ... Donald Trump's legal team, as many top-tier lawyers shy away from representing him in a probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. Andrew Ekonomou, 69, is one of a handful of lawyers assisting Jay Sekulow, the main attorney representing Trump in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Sekulow told Reuters on Tuesday that after the departure of Washington attorney John Dowd from Trump's personal legal team last week, Ekonomou will assume a more prominen role. Ekonomou said he has been working with Sekulow on the Mueller probe since June."
Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "When ... Donald Trump lashed out against Robert Mueller by name earlier this month, the president's supporters sprang into action -- treating the chief Russia investigator to political campaign-style opposition research. Within hours, the Drudge Report featured a story blaming Mueller, the special counsel leading the Justice Department's Russia probe, for the FBI's clumsy investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks when Mueller ran the bureau. The independent pro-Trump journalist Sara Carter posted a story charging that Mueller, as a federal prosecutor in Boston in the mid-1980s, had covered up the FBI's dealings with the Mafia informant Whitey Bulger. Carter was soon discussing her findings in prime time with Fox News host Sean Hannity.... 'It looks like the beginnings of a campaign,' a source familiar with Trump's legal strategy said."
Aubree Weaver of Politico: "After more than a year in limbo, the Eliminating Government-funded Oil-painting Act was signed into law by ... Donald Trump on Tuesday. The law bars the use of federal funds to pay for federal officers and employees' official oil portraits.... The legislation specifically targets those heading up executive agencies and legislative offices, as well as the president, vice president and members of Congress. The official portraits of the president and first lady, along with key lawmakers, are typically commissioned with private funding -- but the House has, in the past, allowed federal funds to be used for portraits of House speakers."
Future Inmates Square off on Prison Reform. Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "In the final months of the Obama administration, the Justice Department ... created a prison school system, pledged money for technology training and promised to help prevent former inmates from returning to prison. Almost immediately after taking office, Trump administration officials began undoing their work. Budgets were slashed, the school system was scrapped and studies were shelved as Attorney General Jeff Sessions brought to bear his tough-on-crime philosophy and deep skepticism of Obama-era crime-fighting policies. Now, nearly a year and a half later, the White House has declared that reducing recidivism and improving prisoner education is a top priority -- echoing some of the very policies it helped dismantle. This whiplash approach to federal prison policy reflects the tension between Jared Kushner ... and Mr. Sessions, a hard-liner whose views on criminal justice were forged at the height of the drug war. It has left both Democratic and Republican lawmakers confused and has contributed to skepticism that the Trump administration is serious about its own proposals." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: Let's see if the prison system can come up with a way to retrain Kushner & Sessions.
Matt Novak of Gizmodo: "Playboy has become the latest brand to delete its Facebook pages, claiming that Facebook is both 'sexually repressive' and contradicts Playboy's values. Playboy's decision follows other companies that have recently left the social media platform like Tesla and SpaceX, and even mentioned Facebook's 'recent meddling' in the American electoral process. 'There are more than 25 million fans who engage with Playboy via our various Facebook pages, and we do not want to be complicit in exposing them to the reported practices,' Playboy said in a statement issued overnight."
*****
Josh Dawsey & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "President Trump, who repeatedly insisted in the 2016 campaign that Mexico would pay for a wall along the southern border, is privately pushing the U.S. military to fund construction of his signature project. Trump told advisers he was spurned in a large spending bill last week when lawmakers appropriated only $1.6 billion for the border wall. He has suggested to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and congressional leaders that the Pentagon could fund the sprawling construction, citing a 'national security' risk. After floating the notion to several advisers last week, Trump told House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) that the military should pay for the wall, according to three people familiar with the meeting Wednesday in the White House residence. Ryan offered little reaction to the notion, these people said, but senior Capitol Hill officials later said it was an unlikely prospect." ...
... Go Fund My Wall. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump should set up a fund to get his millions of supporters to kick in for the wall & promise them Mexico will pay them back. This could be the biggest scam of all time.
Ah, Watergate. Katie Rogers & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "President Trump kept a relatively low profile and did not make any public appearances on Tuesday, but emerged for a rare evening trip outside the White House to meet with deep-pocketed donors at a real estate developer's home in Virginia. Mr. Trump ... traveled to the McLean, Va., home of Giuseppe Cecchi, according to a person with knowledge of the president's plans. Mr. Cecchi is a loyalist who previously hosted Mr. Trump for a $10,000-a-couple fund-raising dinner in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign.... Mr. Cecchi who at one point was known as the 'condo king' of Washington, is known for developing the Watergate complex."
Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The White House on Tuesday downplayed reports it is investigating more than $500 million in loans made last year to ... Jared Kushner's family real estate firm.... Sarah Huckabee Sanders said White House attorneys are 'not probing whether Jared Kushner violated the law' by taking meetings with executives whose companies later loaned large sums to his family's business.... 'I have discussed this matter with the White House counsel's office in order to ensure that they have begun the process of ascertaining the facts necessary to determine whether any law or regulation has been violated,' acting OGE Director David Apol wrote last week to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) Kushner's private attorney, Abbe Lowell, told the Journal that after looking into reports about the loans, 'the White House counsel concluded there were no issues involving Jared.' That explanation did not satisfy the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), who along with Krishnamoorthi requested documents related to the White Houses internal investigation. Asked if the White House would comply with the request, Sanders said 'we don't have anything further' beyond the statement she delivered." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As usual, Sanders' response is, "They gave me only one anodyne line to memorize on this, & that's all you get." Reporting suggests Sanders is being deceptive here rather than simply "downplaying" a White House "investigation"/whitewash. She does that a lot. See Kira Lerner's report below.
Guardian & Reuters: "Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to special legal status for certain immigrants from Liberia, thousands of whom escaped the violence of war and have lived in the United States for decades. They will now face the prospect of deportation, with the law that will end their protection coming into effect next year. The president cited improved conditions in the west African country." --safari
Michael Wines & Emily Baumgaertner of the New York Times: "At least 12 states signaled Tuesday that they would sue to block the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census, arguing that the change would cause fewer Americans to be counted and violate the Constitution." ...
... Liarbee Sanders. Kira Lerner of ThinkProgress: "White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders falsely claimed on Tuesday that the citizenship question the Trump administration decided to add to the 2020 Census has been part of the national survey for decades. 'This is a question that's been included in every census since 1965, with the exception of 2010 when it was removed,' Sanders said, later repeating the same claim. The citizenship question has not been part of the census since 1950." --safari ...
... Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A coalition of state attorneys general advised the Commerce Department last month against including the citizenship question, saying that in addition to undermining participation among immigrants, it would result in an undercount of the overall population in many areas. The state of California has already filed suit, arguing that including the question is a violation of the United States Constitution, and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of New York announced he would lead a separate multistate legal challenge." Many undocumented workers say they will not respond to the census at all. Mrs. McC: Neither will I answer the question regarding citizenship. I stand with the people who mowed my lawn, trimmed my trees, built my swimming pool, harvest the vegies I eat & so forth. ...
... Tara Bahrampour of the Washington Post: "The NAACP said it is planning to file a lawsuit against the Census Bureau the secretary of commerce and President Trump to force a more accurate count of minority populations such as those residing in Prince George's County, Md., which had one of the highest undercounts nationwide in the last census." ...
... Reid Wilson of the Hill: "Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who heads the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said his group would sue the administration to block the question. 'Make no mistake -- this decision is motivated purely by politics,' Holder said. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez called the addition 'a craven attack on our democracy and a transparent attempt to intimidate immigrant communities.'"
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Spencer Hsu & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The FBI has found that a business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, including during the 2016 campaign when Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were in touch with the associate, according to new court filings. The documents, filed late Tuesday by prosecutors for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, also allege that Gates had said he knew the associate was a former officer with the Russian military intelligence service. The allegations underscore Mueller's interest in Manafort and Gates, who continued to interact with business associates in Ukraine even as they helped lead Donald Trump's presidential campaign.... Prosecutors made the allegation without naming the Manafort associate but described his role with Manafort in detail. The description matches the Russian manager of Manafort's lobbying office in Kiev, Konstantin Kilimnik."
Murder Mystery -- Solved. Jason Leopold, et al., of BuzzFeed & other correspondents: "The FBI possesses a secret report asserting that Vladimir Putin's former media czar was beaten to death by hired thugs in Washington, DC -- directly contradicting the US government's official finding that Mikhail Lesin died by accident. The report, according to four sources who have read all or parts of it, was written by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele.... The bureau received his report while it was helping the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department investigate the Russian media baron's death, the sources said.... The BuzzFeed News series also revealed new details about Lesin -- including that he died on the eve of a scheduled meeting with US Justice Department officials.... Steele's report says that Lesin was bludgeoned to death by enforcers working for an oligarch close to Putin, the four sources said. The thugs had been instructed to beat Lesin, not kill him, but they went too far, the sources said Steele wrote. Three of the sources said that the report described the killers as Russian state security agents moonlighting for the oligarch. The Steele report is not the FBI's only source for this account of Lesin's death: Three other people, acting independently from Steele, said they also told the FBI that Lesin had been bludgeoned to death by enforcers working for the same oligarch named by Steele." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If true, I don't see how this murder differs in intent from the attempted murders in England of Sergei & Yulia Skripal. If the allegations are true, this is Russia coming into the U.S. to kill a Russian. It appears the FBI is covering up Lesin's murder. Why? ...
... Patrick Wintour & Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the permanent size of the Russian mission would be cut from 30 to 20 people, adding the announcement was 'a clear and very strong message that there was a cost to Russia's reckless actions' in poisoning the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury earlier this month. He claimed Russia had underestimated Nato's resolve and said the announcements would reduce Russia's capability to do intelligence work across Nato." --safari
Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "The National Rifle Association is acknowledging that it accepts donations from foreign entities, and that it moves money between its various accounts 'as permitted by law.' The gun group insists it has never received foreign money in connection with an election. But campaign finance experts say that, since money is fungible, that assurance doesn't mean much. Though it's a long way from being confirmed and may never be, the NRA's new admissions offer perhaps the most compelling evidence yet that foreign money could have allowed the group to conduct political activities boosting Trump. The admissions came in a recent letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who has sought answers about the group's foreign funding...."
On Another Murder in the District. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "The brother of Seth Rich, the slain Democratic National Committee staffer whose unsolved murder became the basis for conspiracy theories on the far-right, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against individuals and media organizations that he alleges peddled false and unfounded claims about him. The lawsuit, filed by Aaron Rich in US District Court in the District of Columbia, accuses Ed Butowsky, a wealthy Texas businessman; Matt Couch, a fringe internet activist; America First Media, Couch's media company; and The Washington Times, a conservative newspaper, of acting 'with reckless disregard for the truth.'" ...
... This video, which accompanies Darcy's story, is very good. Tom Kludt explains how the Seth Rich conspiracy theory conveniently washes away This Russia Thing:
Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "Stormy Daniels's attorney [Michael Avenatti] is asking a federal judge in California for permission to depose President Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen about the nondisclosure agreement the porn actress says she signed to keep quiet about her alleged affair with the president.... The court is scheduled to hold a hearing on the matter on April 30."
** Danny Vinik of Politico: "A Politico review of public documents, newly obtained FEMA records and interviews with more than 50 people involved with disaster response indicates that the Trump administration -- and the president himself -- responded far more aggressively to Texas than to Puerto Rico.... A comparison of government statistics relating to the two recovery efforts strongly supports the views of disaster-recovery experts that FEMA and the Trump administration exerted a faster, and initially greater, effort in Texas, even though the damage in Puerto Rico exceeded that in Houston.... Nine days after the respective hurricanes, FEMA had approved $141.8 million in individual assistance to Harvey victims, versus just $6.2 million for Maria victims.... Nine days after Harvey, the federal government had 30,000 personnel in the Houston region, compared with 10,000 at the same point after Maria. It took just 10 days for FEMA to approve permanent disaster work for Texas, compared with 43 days for Puerto Rico." The authors report more comparative stats. Read on for their devastating comparisons of Trump's responses to the two hurricanes. Even if you buy some of the excuses for the difference in relief efforts, this is a damning report. FEMA is supposed to help all Americans, not just those who might vote for Trump.
All the Best People, Ctd. Tom Scheck of American Public Media: "The lure of another television personality has President Trump reportedly considering Fox News' Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. But while Hegseth's experience as a combat veteran and commentator on Fox would seem to appeal politically to the president, his appointment could extend two disruptive narratives playing out in the White House: marital infidelity and nepotism. An APM Reports investigation has found Hegseth engaged in two extramarital affairs with co-workers during two marriages and paid his brother -- who had no professional experience -- $108,000 to work for him while chief executive of a non-profit. And while running a political action committee in his native Minnesota, Hegseth spent a third of the PAC's money on Christmas parties for families and friends."
Burgess Everett & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Republicans are dreaming of passing another round of tax cuts this year -- or at least making vulnerable Democrats squirm by voting against them. GOP leaders are weighing a series of votes to make last year's temporary tax cuts for individuals permanent, according to Republicans in both chambers. The strategy would portray the party as the guardian of Americans' paychecks, Republicans say, and buoy the GOP during a brutal election year.... Either Democrats support the legislation, giving the GOP a major legislative accomplishment in its scramble to save its majorities. Or, more likely, Democrats block the bill -- allowing Republicans to paint them as opponents of the middle class.... Much, if not all, of the maneuvering over tax cuts is pure politics. If Republicans were serious about passing a second batch of tax cuts, they'd use the powerful tool that allows for passage by a simple majority, as they did last December."
Senate Race. Addy Baird of ThinkProgress: "Mitt Romney is more conservative than President Trump on immigration, the 2012 Republican nominee for president and current candidate for Senate in Utah said at a forum Monday ... when he was asked about his conservative credentials at the event at the Provo Library. 'My view was these DACA kids shouldn't all be allowed to stay in the country legally.'... Romney's comments about the DACA program Monday are consistent with his hardline views during previous runs for office." --safari
Former Justice John Paul Stevens, in a New York Times op-ed: "Overturning [the 2008 5-4 District of Columbia v. Heller] decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A.'s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option." Mrs. McC: Yeah, getting 2/3rds of the Congress to pass an amendment & 3/4s of the states to ratify a repeal of the Second Amendment would be "simple." However, if you're not sure how the Second Amendment became an individual right, Justice Stevens provides a short primer. ...
... digby wrote a while back, "Indeed, such right-wing luminaries as Joe the plumber, who not long ago shared the stage with the Republican nominees for president and vice president, said explicitly: 'Your dead kids don't trump my constitutional rights.'" Mrs. McC: Actually, yeah, I'd say they do. An individual's "rights" are not privileged over the rights of others. ...
... Steve M.: "Matt Yglesias makes a good point:... 'Doesn't take a constitutional amendment to get a Supreme Court ruling that the right to bear arms pertains specifically to membership in a state-organized militia.'... We could have been on our way to a Supreme Court that might issue a ruling like that, but then there was that 2016 election." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah but, stare decisis. Even more liberal members of the Court are loathe to overturn recent decisions.
** The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Is So Digital. Nicholas Confessore & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "As ... Cambridge Analytica sought to harvest the Facebook data of tens of millions of Americans in summer 2014, the company received help from at least one employee at Palantir Technologies, a top Silicon Valley contractor to American spy agencies and the Pentagon. It was a Palantir employee in London, working closely with the data scientists building Cambridge's psychological profiling technology, who suggested the scientists create their own app -- a mobile-phone-based personality quiz -- to gain access to Facebook users' friend networks, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.... The revelations pulled Palantir -- co-founded by the wealthy libertarian Peter Thiel -- into the furor surrounding Cambridge, which improperly obtained Facebook data to build analytical tools it deployed on behalf of Donald J. Trump and other Republican candidates in 2016. Mr. Thiel, a supporter of President Trump, serves on the board at Facebook.... The connections between Palantir and Cambridge Analytica were thrust into the spotlight by [whistleblower Christopher] Wylie's testimony [before British lawmakers] on Tuesday. Both companies are linked to tech-driven billionaires who backed Mr. Trump's campaign" ...
... Julia Wong & Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has agreed to testify before the United States Congress in the wake of a data harvesting scandal that has sent the company's share price tumbling and prompted numerous investigations and lawsuits. Zuckerberg has accepted an invitation to testify before the House energy and commerce committee, according to an aide familiar with the discussions.... His decision to testify before the US Congress was first reported by CNN, and contrasts with his refusal to appear before members of parliament in the UK."
... Charles Bagli of the New York Times: "Fair housing groups filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday saying that Facebook continues to discriminate against certain groups, including women, disabled veterans and single mothers, in the way that it allows advertisers to target the audience for their ads. The suit comes as the social network is scrambling to deal with an international crisis over the misuse of data belonging to 50 million of its users. Facebook ... provides advertisers with the ability to customize their messages and target who sees them by selecting from preset lists of demographics, likes, behaviors and interests, while excluding others." Facebook has repeatedly promised to fix the problem; the suit alleges the company has not.
"Capitalism Is Awesome," Ctd. Arthur Nelsen of the Guardian: "Bank holdings in 'extreme' fossil fuels skyrocketed globally to $115bn during Donald Trump's first year as US president, with holdings in tar sands oil more than doubling, a new report has found. A sharp flight from fossil fuels investments after the Paris agreement was reversed last year with a return to energy sources dubbed 'extreme' because of their contribution to global emissions.... The bulk of new 'extreme' investments came in a doubling of loans and bonds to Canada's government-backed tar sands industry, even though its success would be disastrous for climate mitigation efforts...Support for coal among the 36 banks surveyed was also up by 6% in 2017 after a 38% plunge in 2016." --safari
Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post: "More than a week after one of Uber's self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, government officials and technology firms have begun reconsidering their rapid deployment of some autonomous technology amid fears it's not ready for public testing. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) banned Uber's self-driving cars from the state's roads Monday, saying he was 'very disturbed' by police video showing one of the company's self-driving cars striking and killing a pedestrian in Tempe last week. The ban was limited to Uber, but it held special significance because Ducey had previously welcomed Uber's testing in the state by pitting Arizona's comparatively relaxed regulatory framework against neighboring California's. Separately, Uber agreed to discontinue testing its autonomous vehicles in California.... Meanwhile, computer-chip-maker Nvidia suspended its autonomous-vehicle tests Tuesday...." ...
... Mark Harris of the Guardian: "Arizona's Republican governor repeatedly encouraged Uber's controversial experiment with autonomous cars in the state, enabling a secret testing program for self-driving vehicles with limited oversight from experts, according to hundreds of emails.... The previously unseen emails between Uber and the office of governor Doug Ducey reveal how Uber began quietly testing self-driving cars in Phoenix in August 2016 without informing the public. On Monday, 10 days after one of Uber's self-driving vehicles killed a pedestrian in a Phoenix suburb, Ducey suspended the company's right to operate autonomous cars on public roads in Arizona. It was a major about-face for the governor, who has spent years embracing the Silicon Valley startup."
"Capitalism Is Awesome", Booze Edition. Alternet, via RawStory: "The past few years have revealed some disturbing news for the alcohol industry.... What do [the] events all have in common? Monsanto's Roundup.... French molecular biologist Gilles-Éric Séralini released shocking findings in January of 2018 that of all the brands of Roundup they tested, over a dozen had high levels of arsenic -- over five times the allowable limit along with dangerous levels of heavy metals." --safari: Not even organic booze is safe.
Sara Moniuszko of USA Today: WalMart "will remove the women's fashion magazine [Cosmopolitan] from checkout lines at 5,000 stores across the country. In a statement..., Walmart spokesperson Meggan Kring said: '... Walmart will continue to offer Cosmopolitan to customers that wish to purchase the magazine, but it will no longer be located in the checkout aisles. While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised were heard.' The news was shared Tuesday via a press release from National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), an organization that says it helped instigate the policy change. The [NCOSE, which changed its name from Morality in Media in 2015, has been working to cover or remove Cosmo from store shelves for years, deeming it porn.... The Me Too movement ... has focused on sexual harassment and assault rather than pornography."
Beyond the Beltway
Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "The brother of an unarmed black man who was shot and killed by police temporarily shut down a city council meeting about the shooting. Stevante Clark, whose brother Stephon was shot last week, walked into the Sacramento City Council meeting Tuesday night chanting his late brother's name. He led a group of protestors into the meeting chambers in city hall, all chanting Stephon Clark's name. Stephon Clark, 22, was shot and killed by police in his grandmother's backyard in Sacramento. Officers were responding to a report of a suspect breaking car windows and shot Clark 20 times, believing he had a weapon. They only found a cell phone on him." ...
... Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "Protesters in Sacramento blocked the entrance to Golden 1 Center, the arena where the Sacramento Kings play, because of the police shooting of Stephon Clark last week. The protesters led the venue to temporarily close the arena’s entrances and -- despite a delay being initially announced -- the game between the Kings and the Dallas Mavericks began as scheduled." ...
... Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Responding to public outcry over a police shooting in which an unarmed black man was killed in his own backyard in Sacramento, Attorney General Xavier Becerra of California said Tuesday his office would step in to oversee the investigation. The shooting of Stephon Clark, 22, widely viewed in publicly released police videos, has triggered demonstrations and community anguish, the latest example of an African-American man killed by the police under ambiguous circumstances. Mr. Becerra, speaking with city officials, including the mayor and police chief, announced that the California Department of Justice would also review the Sacramento police's training and policies regarding the use of force." ...
... Alan Blinder & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A pair of white police officers in Baton Rouge, La., will not be prosecuted by the state authorities in a fatal shooting of a black man there almost two years ago. The decision brings another closely watched and widely scrutinized investigation of potential police misconduct to an end without charges. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced his conclusion at a news conference on Tuesday, almost 11 months after the United States Department of Justice declined to bring charges in the death of the man, Alton B. Sterling. The attorney general's decision was widely expected, in part because officers are rarely charged in connection with on-duty shootings."
Matt Shuham of TPM: "Yet another Wisconsin judge said Tuesday that Gov. Scott Walker (R) must call special elections by Thursday to fill the vacant seats of two state legislators. Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess denied the state's Justice Department's request that Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds's order from last week be delayed until April 6.... After Reynolds' ruling last week, the Republican-controlled legislature called an extraordinary session for April 4 to change the very special election law in question. The proposed change to the law would prohibit the governor from calling for special elections after primaries in years when the seats would otherwise be filled. The primaries, it so happens, fall on April 3." --safari
** Political Theatrics. Matt Dixon of Politico: "When Gov. Rick Scott and U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced on Jan. 9 that Florida was 'off the table' for offshore oil drilling, the governor cast the hastily arranged news conference at the Tallahassee airport as unplanned and the Trump administration's decision as something Scott had influenced at the eleventh hour. In fact, Zinke's top advance staffer, whose job it is to plan ahead for such events, was in Tallahassee the previous day. And top officials from the offices of both Scott and the secretary were in regular contact for several days leading up to the announcement, according to more than 1,200 documents reviewed by Politico Florida as part of a public records request." --safari
Way Beyond
Emily Rauhala of the Washington Post: "North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited China for an unofficial visit this week, Chinese state media confirmed Wednesday. This is believed to be Kim's first trip abroad as leader since he came to power in 2011. It came in the run-up to summits with leaders from South Korea and the United States." ...
... New Lede: "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a surprise trip to China this week, meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of planned summits with South Korean and U.S. leaders, Chinese and North Korean state media confirmed Wednesday."
News Lede
Washington Post: "Dr. [Johan] van Hulst, who was credited with saving more than 600 Jewish babies and children during World War II and, in 1972, was named Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem, died March 22 in Amsterdam. He was 107."
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Reader Comments (21)
Two bedtime thoughts:
Bea's idea and A Go-Fund-Me Border Wall site, with weekly tweeted pleas the mechanism?
I also have a citizenship question. Do you like citizenship? Answer "yes" or "no."
Finally!!! Chris Wylie ties Mercer's Cambridge Analytica to Thiel's data mining Palantir. I have found it amazing that until now there has been no known linkage between the two. What more perfect marriage could there be than a union of a data mining entity and another which weaponizes that data to fight the political foe of both right wing billionaire owners.
In the unlikely case the Feds don't adopt my version of the "citizenship question," I think it's difficult to predict the result of adding the kind the Repugnants have in mine to the 2020 census.
Just checked the proportion of undocumented immigrants in each state. According to a 2014 Pew estimate, the states ranking highest include Nevada, CA, TX, NJ, and AZ, in order from high to low, from about 7 to 5 %. Other states with significant numbers of the undocumented include CO, MD, NM, NY (D.C) at around 4 %, with Virginia and WA in the middle 3's.
So....if it's a matter of congressional seats, TX and AZ are in the crosshairs, too. I understand Nevada is purpling already, so don't what to think about that state and as I type I'm wondering how and why the two states with the highest proportion of undocumented immigrants, TX and CA, would be so different in their politics...
ARSENIC AND BOOZE LACED:
Gee, whiz, now we learn that a little bit of poison is in many of our wines and beers–– once succor for this nation's daily dose of political poison, we'll now have to resort to hard liquor or run through the streets shouting obsentities. Early on in this administration I recall Trump telling the CEO of Monsanto during a meeting with corporate heads, that "We are going to get rid of that ban on [some pesticide]" patted the Monsanto guy on the back, and added, "You bet!"
And I also recall Trump in two other meetings talk about bringing back ear marks––"Everyone was much nicer to each other when we had earmarks"––stunned faces around the table at this. Now we have him wanting to bring back the "line-eyed" veto that was found unconstitutional years ago by the S.C. Yesterday we learned that he now wants the military to pay for his damned wall (Marie's nifty option not withstanding). Is it too extreme to conclude that very soon this other wall that Trump has been hiding behind is going to collapse, exposing him for the liar and charlatan that he is?
Giuseppe Cecchi is straight out of central casting––a good fella from way back. Oh, to be a fly on THAT wall the other night when G.C. hosted a little get together.
Jennifer Palmeri, Hillary's right hand during the campaign, has written a book, "Dear Madam President", advising young women who might be thinking of going into politics, urging them not to emulate males but embrace their femaleness––cry if you want to. When Hillary showed her compassion, warmth and yes, tears, she was much more effective and real. There is something profound in the words, "Mother country,"–– in a woman running that country. Of course there are those whose distain for women in general will always have problems with a woman in charge. But if you look at this issue carefully, women are the most qualified to take on the job. Through centuries women have been executives––running their homes, raising their children, cooking, cleaning, financial planning, planting, etc. We are multi-taxers. We are also, by George, pretty darn clever by half.
I was reading about Japan's Shinzo Abe in a piece by Glen Fukushima, who reckons in some respects Abe would have preferred Clinton as president. She would have kept the U.S. more assertively engaged in Asia, counterbalancing China and protecting Japan from North Korea. She would also have continued the "pivot" to Asia that began when she was S.of S.–––the ten point program for giving Asia "a greater degree of strategic regard."
Trump, by contrast, has withdrawn the US from TPP, the centerpiece of that pivot, creating a vacuum that China has been only too happy to fill. He has made it clear that that he does not intend to pursue a multilateral approach to the region, cooperate with Europe in Asia, or promote freedom, democracy, and human rights in Asia.
As a result––Abe now has more freedom to move his country in a nationalist direction. Keep your eyes out for changes. When Bannon gave a speech in Tokyo in December, he praised Abe, calling him a "Trump before Trump" and celebrating his drive to "re-instill the spirit of nationalism."
Way to go, Merica–––!!!!
Among the many oops's in the above, forgot Florida at 4.2%.
Since red states have something to lose, too, I wonder how many red state AG's will join the suits.
@Ken Winkes: I think the problem is -- and I'm making this up out of thin air, so I may be wrong -- is that the Hispanic vote is largely concentrated in some states, largely in urban areas. That would mean to Republicans that even if their state loses a US. Congressional district as a result of this Census question, it would likely be a majority-Democratic Congressional district. Would Texas Republicans care if San Antonio lost Rep. Joaquin Castro? (D) I doubt it.
It's true the states with heavy concentrations of people whom the Census "disappears" will lose federal funds, but even there, those federal funds are often (but not entirely) dedicated to social services -- you know, the money goes to poor people/Democrats! & it makes the poor people feel more positive about government.
Also, too, there's a high likelihood that the AGs in red states are already dedicated to Trump. Think Pam Bondi in Florida & Ken Paxton in Texas. These are not exactly your civil rights heroes.
The Cure That Kills
So the Seth Rich thing is still out there? Jesus. Maybe this is a good time to connect the dots, and they do connect. Perhaps it's not a "vast right-wing conspiracy" in terms of a master plan being put into place. It's more a case of opportunistic ratfucking enabled by small attacks on democracy over a long period of time that have added up.
Rather than a true conspiracy in which a bunch of people get together and decide on a plan then follow through, action in right-wing world often bubbles up from a shared sense of 1. the idea that they are the only true Americans, 2. because of their special status, they can do whatever is necessary to grab and hold on to power, and 3. that power then allows them to spread both disinformation, to fuck with their enemies, and propaganda to mollify the base, keep them in line and keep them fired up.
But there are still dots to connect.
Here's an example. A week or so ago, we had a brief back and forth on how the broadcast and cable landscapes have changed since Reagan performed wingnut vivisection on the original Communications Act of 1934. The root of that act was that broadcasters (at the time, radio) had a responsibility to the public. The airwaves belonged to the people, not to broadcasters, who had to serve the public good in addition to selling toothpaste, playing music, and producing radio shows.
Reagan turned that paradigm on its head. Now, the broadcasters own the airwaves (effectively) and the public requirements of their licenses are an annoyance at best and almost non-existent when Republicans are in charge.
Which brings me to this chart. If you choose not to check it out, here's what it shows. It's a graph of broadcast/television groups that control the airwaves in one state, Alabama.
When most of us were kids, a group that owned a television facility operated one station. If you watched WGN, you watched that one station. Now, you could be watching three or four, all run by WGN. These are called subchannels. The main station is called the .1 (or dot one). The others are .2 and .3, etc. Compression technologies allow for this. Back in the day, you could get a license for one (count 'em--one....) station in a market. That was it. But not anymore.
So in Alabama, there are seven licenses owned by one group, Sinclair, the right-wing Darth Vader of broadcasters. But they operate 20 stations in that state alone. Far more than any other groups operating in Alabama. And this model is being replicated all over the country.
Why is this a big deal? Thought you'd never ask!
Because it's so much easier to spread that disinformation and propaganda mentioned above. And that's a big part of the Sinclair model which is requiring all the news directors in their group to run "news" packages which lean so far right they almost fall over.
So when Liarbee Sanders comes out with an atrocious (and easily disproved) whopper, like she did with the question about citizenship (see above), that such questions have always been part of census taking, she's not talking to informed people, she's talking to Trump's base. And outfits like Sinclair make sure that lie is successfully propagated. Trump's many, many lies get the same treatment. Ditto the Seth Rich thing, Benghazi, the Hillary emails, the Parkland kids, women's rights, Planned Parenthood, and now, attacks on Bob Mueller.
So, while it's not an actual textbook conspiracy, it's an example of a seed planted by Reagan years ago, that grew into a dense thicket of broadcast nodes allowing for a coordinated attack on truth and the American Experiment for the benefit of right-wing power centers and politicians who support that power.
The attempt here is to make it less likely that millions of people won't be part of the census and won't be counted, which could benefit Confederates probably as much as gerrymandering, because if districts are drawn with the "new" numbers, that is, without millions of residents who don't fit the winger model of people who should be represented, the Supreme Court can't say shit about it (at least not on its face. They may be asked to respond to whether or not such questions can be asked, however).
The point here is that there is nothing remotely like this on the left. The most prevalent danger of the right-wing conspiracy is that it never rests. They never stop finding newer and more effective ways to grab power, spread lies, and attenuate the impact of truth and factual information.
It's like they're injecting anti-anti-pathogen medications into the body politic. They're filling us with poison and passing it off as a cure for what ails America.
The cure that kills.
Bea,
I'll go with your analysis. I suspect (made up or not) it's right on.
Did think of the gerrymander elephant (how appropriate!) and its possible consequences and know that while the R's can't govern, they can do arithmetic. Comes from all that practice counting their money.
But arithmetic and its real consequences aside, I'll speculate further that another of the citizenship question's motives is an appeal to the base emotions of the Pretender base, another way to distinguish "us" from "them" and symbolically to deny and seem to stand against the inevitable demographic shifts we're experiencing.
What I was thinking about in my "vast right-wing conspiracy" header was that Thiel, the co-founder of Palantir & Mercer, the backer of Cambridge Analytics, had employees working together to cook the data that Facebook provided & surprise, surprise, Thiel is on Facebook's board of directors. And both of these billionaire wingers, once Cruz left the race, were working for Trump/Bannon, Ltd. They don't have to get together in a dark room to conspire. They have underlings make the connections while we pawns sit with our "devices" posting puppy pictures on our Facebook pages.
@Ken Winkes: Yes, you're right about that. State AGs are elected officials, so in addition to their own right-wing thinking, Republican AGs can't afford to piss off Trump voters who think it's damned right to ferret out "aliens." Even if the math doesn't work especially well on funding for their states, they have personal incentives to back off any attack on Trump's exclusionary Census question.
Hey kids, you got your Mouseketeer Ears ready? Well, break 'em out.
The newest Trumpy member of the "best people" at the Blight House is....(cue Mickey Mouse music), Caroline Sunshine (c'mon, is that a real name?), former Disney "star". She played in some teen dance series (wondering if Trump spotted her during a visit to the show's dressing room for underage talent) but now she'll be helping to spread Trump lies!
Cool! We already have a Donald, a Scrooge McDuck (Munchkin), Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Jared, Junior, and Little Dracula), now little miss Sunshine. Can Goofy and Pluto be far behind?
Seriously, it looks like Ms. Sunshine has been doing her best to get into politics, and that's great. But after a couple of internships she goes straight to the White House??
I'm betting if she looked less like one of those Fox blondie babes she'd be lucky to get into the place with a visitor's pass.
All the best people, cont.
Confederate Oopsie, part 27,456.5
Poor Rick Savonarola. After being kicked around the block a few thousand times for his stupid, stupid, stupid (did I mention that it was stupid?) comment about how students should learn CPR in order to help victims of gunshot wounds at their high school, Ricky boy has issued a statement.
He "misspoke".
Oh. Okay. He misspoke. So, what did he meant to say? The kids should learn CBR? Championship bull riding? Hmm...probably not hugely useful in those circumstances. Oh, I know, he meant that they should learn BPR, business process reengineering. They could help restructure the workflows for medical personnel taking out the bodies. No? Well....um, what about EPR, Enhanced permeability and retention effect, the property by which certain sizes of molecules tend to accumulate in tumor tissue?
Maybe not.
Sorry, Rick. You said "CPR" and that's what you meant, you useless hump.
"I misspoke". Yeah. Sit on it, asshole.
I'm still bowled over by a link yesterday to Ian Millhiser's Think Progress piece on how unfair American elections have become, and how far the game is rigged in favor of Republicans.
I knew it was bad but I didn't realize exactly how bad. Pretty soon it will be as long as three people vote Republican versus 25,000 for the Democrat, their guy wins.
But the worst outcome of all the cheating and election rigging is what will happen (and already is happening) to the judiciary. We'll have right-wing hanging judges all across the board. Confederates will have destroyed not only democracy but the concept and the fair application of justice.
Justice Stevens did no good for responsible gun safety legislation. I seriously doubt that many gun owners would support repeal of the 2nd Amendment. And by so proposing, Stevens plays right into the NRA stance of "You'll only get my guns by prying them from my cold dead hands."
Ken and Bea: CA and TX -- why?
Texas was part of the Confederacy and was initially founded as a republic (in large part) so it could maintain African chattel hereditary slavery, which Mexico prohibited.
California, also separated from Mexico, would not allow establishment of chattel slavery when it became a state.
There's more, but the confederacy+slave thing explains a lot about Texas, even now.
Patrick,
You're undoubtedly right. That "The past is never dead. It's not even past," thing (ala Faulkner) certainly isn't dead.
It's in our national genes.
Jack,
I think you’re right. A repeal of any amendment can be difficult, but for this, the nuts would be out in force. The real issue is that the original intent of the amendment (attention originalists!), the arming of a well regulated militia, has been ignored in favor of arming unregulated yahoos, mass murderers, terrorists, and Uncle Buck who sees Yankee soldiers under the command of General Sherman storming his backyard garden shed at three in the morning.
@Ak I think Scrotum, or uh, Santorum, meant PBR. Like, "Learn to love cheap piss beer and sit your asses on the sidelines while us brain farts continue to undermine your futures."
And I really hope Andrew Ekonomou, Donald' s new Medieval specialist, tries to advocate for a simple tar and feathering of his client as punishment for his myriad crimes and subversions. I'd be okay with positioning his fat ass in front of the Capitol building secured in a pillory for a few hours per day, for a few months. Maybe with a carton if eggs placed strategically in front for any adept passers-by.
It's a cheap joke and therefore worthy of me, but it makes sense that a Pretender attorney was attracted to the Middle Ages. For these guys, the nineteenth century remains too close to the Enlightenment and the bothersome present.
@safari, I'm leaning more toward drawing and quartering with his puss on a pike afterward.
I can't wait for the next Trump rally so I can hear the latest chant "Who's going to pay for the WALL?"
"The TROOPS"