The Commentariat -- Sept. 21, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
** Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit. Mr. Rosenstein made these suggestions in the spring of 2017 when Mr. Trump's firing of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director plunged the White House into turmoil. Over the ensuing days, the president divulged classified intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office, and revelations emerged that Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Comey to pledge loyalty and end an investigation into a senior aide. Mr. Rosenstein was just two weeks into his job. He had begun overseeing the Russia investigation and played a key role in the president's dismissal of Mr. Comey by writing a memo critical of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But Mr. Rosenstein was caught off guard when Mr. Trump cited the memo in the firing, and he began telling people that he feared he had been used.... Mr. Rosenstein disputed this account. 'The New York Times's story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,' he said in a statement."
Anthony Cormier & Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed News: "On June 3, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. received [an e-mail] offering dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of the Russian government's 'support for Mr. Trump.' The very day that email was sent..., $3.3 million began moving ... between two of the men who orchestrated the meeting: Aras Agalarov, a billionaire real estate developer close to both Vladimir Putin and ... Donald Trump, and Irakly 'Ike' Kaveladze, a longtime Agalarov employee once investigated for money laundering. That money is on top of the more than $20 million that was flagged as suspicious, BuzzFeed News revealed earlier this month, after the money ricocheted among the planners and participants of the Trump Tower meeting. Special counsel Robert Mueller's team ... is examining the suspicious transactions, four federal law enforcement officials said.... Many of the transfers seemed to have no legitimate purpose, bankers noted."
Stephanie Kirchgaessner, et al., of the Guardian: "Russian diplomats held secret talks in London last year with people close to Julian Assange to assess whether they could help him flee the UK, the Guardian has learned. A tentative plan was devised that would have seen the WikiLeaks founder smuggled out of Ecuador's London embassy in a diplomatic vehicle and transported to another country. One ultimate destination, multiple sources have said, was Russia, where Assange would not be at risk of extradition to the US. The plan was abandoned after it was deemed too risky."
Trump Blinks. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday abandoned plans to quickly declassify and release sensitive documents connected to the FBI's Russia investigation, citing a 'perceived negative impact' on the probe and concerns raised by 'key allies' about dumping the materials. Trump instead announced that he would defer to a Justice Department watchdog -- Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who he once derided as an 'Obama guy' -- to finish a review of whether anti-Trump bias affected the FBI's handling of its 2016 Russia probe."
Elana Schor & Burgess Everett of Politico: "The Senate Judiciary Committee is giving Christine Blasey Ford attorney's until the end of the day Friday to work out terms of next week's proposed hearing on Ford's allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, according to a Republican senator. The GOP is offering to hold the hearing on Wednesday after Ford sought Thursday and is meeting some of her requests but not others, the senator said. The senator added that Republicans are not inclined to agree with Ford's lawyers that she should only be questioned by lawmakers -- not an outside counsel." Mrs. McC: Grassley's deadlines & threats are getting old.
Eric Russell of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she was 'appalled' by President Trump's tweets Friday morning that criticized Christine Blasey Ford for not coming forward sooner with her allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Speaking at an event in Portland, Collins appeared to offer support for Ford, who has said Kavanaugh tried to sexually assault her 36 years ago when they were both in high school. The senator stopped short, though, of saying whether she believed Ford."
AP: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is telling evangelical activists the Senate will 'plow right through' and move to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. McConnell told the annual Values Voter conference Friday 'in the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court.' He urges the Republican-leaning activists to 'keep the faith' and predicts senators will do their jobs." Mrs. McC: I listened to a clip of McConnell's remark & the "good Christians" in the audience cheered his assurances. As we learned earlier today, sex abuse is A-OK with the good Christians; of course if the victims get pregnant in the course of an attack, she'll have to bring the fetus to term. God's will, I guess.
Frances Robles & Jugal Patel of the New York Times: "A year ago, on Sept. 20, the deadliest storm to hit Puerto Rico in over 100 years slammed into the island's southeast coast, just 14 miles south of ... Punta Santiago.... Times journalists visited 163 homes in two neighborhoods in Punta Santiago to cover what progress had been made in the last 12 months.... It looks like the hurricane just hit. In neighborhoods where residents live on meager pensions and disability checks, there were gutted kitchens and electrical wires running randomly along unfinished walls. Roofs were covered with plywood or plastic, many near collapse. Some houses still had no running water. A number of families lived in single rooms in unfurnished houses, sleeping on the floor.... Hundreds of thousands of people across the island are still living in homes in desperate need of repair.... All told, FEMA spent nearly twice as much for housing repair grants in Texas as it did in Puerto Rico, though the money went to 51,000 fewer people."
John Wagner & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday pointedly questioned the credibility of the woman who has accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were teenagers, contending that she or her parents would have reported the attack to law enforcement at the time if it were as bad as she has said." The full tweets are cited below.
Our Ignoramus President*, Ctd. Ted Mellnik & Aaron Williams of the Washington Post: "On a recent campaign trip, Trump said Canada was 'ripping us off' and threatened a tariff on cars from Canada that 'would be the ruination of the country.' It would be a massive escalation of the trade hostilities that began this year with U.S. tariffs on washers, solar cells, aluminum and steel. But the auto trade with Canada doesn't look one-sided, if you take into account where the parts to make the cars came from. Yes, car imports from Canada far exceed cars shipped the other way. But those cars assembled in Canada are often made up of engines, bodies and parts imported from the United States. Add up the trade in all automotive goods with Canada, and it comes out about even. The United States exports 99 cents' worth of automotive goods to Canada for every dollar of imports." Thanks to Marvin S. for the lead.
*****
What happens at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep. -- Brett Kavanaugh, in a speech in March 2015 ...
... all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. -- Akhilleus, yesterday
Did anyone really think the White House could keep Trump from attacking the victim of a sexual assault for a whole week?
Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a fine man, with an impeccable reputation, who is under assault by radical left wing politicians who don't want to know the answers, they just want to destroy and delay. Facts don't matter. I go through this with them every single day in D.C. -- Donald Trump, this morning ...
I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place! -- Donald Trump, this morning ...
The radical left lawyers want the FBI to get involved NOW. Why didn't someone call the FBI 36 years ago? -- Donald Trump, this morning
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This matters. Trump admitted in the second tweet that Kavanaugh attacked Blasey. It just wasn't "as bad as she says." Although Kavanaugh was in the West Wing for hours for at least three days this week. Reportedly, staff kept him away from Trump to protect the president*. But it's pretty clear staff advised Trump of what was going on, and what was going on is that Kavanaugh told them some story that verified the attack. Now Trump has let that cat out of the bag. BTW, the staff preparing Kavanaugh for testimony against his accuser: Don McGahn, who knew Rob Porter had abused his wife but didn't think it mattered, and Bill Shine, who spent years protecting Roger Ailes from suffering any ramifications for his assaults on women. ...
... The Reluctant Witness, Ctd. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The woman who has accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault has told the Senate Judiciary Committee, in an apparent bid to jump-start negotiations, that she 'would be prepared to testify next week,' so long as senators offer 'terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,' according to an email her lawyers sent to committee staff members. In the email, obtained by The New York Times, the lawyer for Christine Blasey Ford said that testifying Monday -- the timetable Republicans have set for a hearing -- 'is not possible and the Committee's insistence that it occur then is arbitrary in any event.' The lawyer reiterated that it is Dr. Blasey's 'strong preference' that 'a full investigation' occur before her testimony -- wording that stopped short of demanding an F.B.I. probe and suggested she is open to testifying without one." ...
... Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "Amid the maneuvering, the nomination was roiled further late Thursday by incendiary tweets from a prominent Kavanaugh friend and supporter who publicly identified another high school classmate of Kavanaugh's as Ford's possible attacker. Ed Whelan, a former clerk to the late justice Antonin Scalia and president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center [Mrs. McC: a right-wing think propaganda tank], pointed to floor plans, online photographs and other information to suggest a location for the house party in suburban Maryland that Ford described. He also named and posted photographs of the classmate he suggested could be responsible. Ford dismissed Whelan's theory in a statement late Thursday: 'I knew them both, and socialized with' the other classmate, Ford said, adding that she had once visited him in the hospital. 'There is zero chance that I would confuse them.' Republicans on Capitol Hill and White House officials immediately sought to distance themselves from Whelan's claims and said they were not aware of his plans to identify the former classmate, now a middle school teacher.... Whelan did not respond to requests for comment. He had told people around him that he had spent several days putting together the theory.... Whelan has been involved in helping to advise Kavanaugh's confirmation effort and is close friends with both Kavanaugh and Leonard Leo, the head of the Federalist Society who has been helping to spearhead the nomination. Kavanaugh and Whelan also worked together in the Bush administration." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I had read of Whelan's theory -- in broad outline -- early yesterday, but considering the source, I ignored it, even though Whelan claimed to be "close to 100 percent" certain. As Brett might say, I stand by my decision. Nothing like accusing an innocent schoolteacher of violent sexual assault because it suits your corrupt purposes. I hope that man sues Whelan's ass for defamation for millions. This is the kind of libel suit a person can win. ...
... Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "Four Harvard Law School students are calling for the school to investigate the sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh -- or cancel the course that he is scheduled to teach as a lecturer at the Ivy League school this winter. The students made their case in the Harvard Law Record, an independent newspaper affiliated with the law school. 'The credible allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee and Harvard Law School lecturer Brett Kavanaugh have left us with more questions than answers,' the students wrote. 'Women at this law school are already forced to opt out of clerkships and employment opportunities in order to avoid alleged sexual predators; they should not also be forced to opt out of classes. The administration diminishes women's access to education when they fail to address allegations of abuse.'... [One of the four, Jake] Meiseles, said that a course taught by Kavanaugh, who is known as an influential judge who can help students land prestigious jobs, would put an 'unfair burden on women,' who would have to forgo potential career opportunities rather than take his class...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Not only that, the female students would have to go to class dressed like fashion models in order to get a favorable notice from Kavanaugh. ...
... Michelle Goldberg: "What is being asked of Blasey is deeply unfair. Nevertheless, I really hope she does it.... Blasey has been put in a nightmarish position.... Now, reportedly in hiding with her family amid death threats, she's living what seems like her worst-case scenario. People on the right, including the president's son, are mocking and smearing her.... Republicans have subjected her to an ultimatum. She can agree by Friday to recount one of her life's defining traumas to hostile men on extremely short notice, or lose her chance to have the Senate consider her story.... 'Unfazed and determined. We will confirm Judge Kavanaugh,' Mike Davis, the Judiciary Committee's chief counsel for nominations, tweeted, and then deleted, early Thursday." Mrs. McC: Whaddaya mean, it's not an impartial panel of her peers? -- Eleven old "unfazed and determined" white guys, sure she's "mixed up" and "misremembering"? But we are here to listen -- we the people. ...
... Paul Campos in LG&$: "You know the very last thing the GOP wants is for Blasey to testify. (Actually the very last thing they want is a real investigation, but they can stop that from happening at what no doubt seems like an acceptable cost to them). But I don't think it's a realistic option for Grassley et. al. to just go forward without her on Monday. The outrageous bad faith involved in such an act would be too much for even the Village to swallow. It's difficult to overstate the courage that Christine Blasey Ford is demonstrating in this situation. The odds that she's the only woman that Brett Kavanaugh has 'allegedly' sexually assaulted are very low.... But I don't think it's wrong to beg her to be the hero we don't deserve." ...
... Jeremy Peters & Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "Worried their chance to cement a conservative majority on the Supreme Court could slip away, a growing number of evangelical and anti-abortion leaders are expressing frustration that Senate Republicans and the White House are not protecting Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh more forcefully from a sexual assault allegation and warning that conservative voters may stay home in November if his nomination falls apart. Several of these leaders, including ones with close ties to the White House and Senate Republicans, are urging Republicans to move forward with a confirmation vote imminently unless the woman who accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford, agrees to share her story with the Senate Judiciary Committee within the next few days." Mrs. McC: Hey, the Old Testament has quite a few rape stories, doesn't it? Get on with it, boys, unfazed & determined. ...
... ** It Was Just Horseplay! Jia Tolentino of the New Yorker: "... a startling number of conservative figures have reacted as if they believe Ford, and have thus ended up in the peculiar position of defending the right of a Supreme Court Justice to have previously attempted to commit rape.... These defenders think that the seventeen-year-old Kavanaugh could easily, as Ford alleges, have gotten wasted at a party, pushed a younger girl into a bedroom, pinned her on a bed, and tried to pull off her clothes while covering her mouth to keep her from screaming. They think this, they say, because they know that plenty of men and boys do things like this.... The people who appear willing to believe Ford include Rod Dreher, the American Conservative writer..., the former congressman Joe Walsh..., and anonymous lawyer close to the White House ... [former Bush press secretary] Ari Fleisher ... [and] Carrie Severino, the policy director for the conservative Judicial Crisis Network. Kavanaugh's defenders are putting plainly a previously euphemized message: white and wealthy teen-age boys have the right to engage in criminal sexual cruelty as long as they later get a good job, start a family, and 'settle down.'" Tolentino recounts her own youthful, & remarkably similar, experience. Read it. ...
... Sandra Newman, in a Washington Post op-ed: "When Christine Blasey Ford came forward with allegations that Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape her at a party when he was 17..., what was surprising ... was how many insisted that, if it happened, it didn't matter. Minnesota state Sen. Scott Newman breezily tweeted: 'Even if true, teenagers!' In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Lance Morrow said: 'No clothes were removed, and no sexual penetration occurred. The sin, if there was one, was not one of those that Catholic theology calls peccata clamantia -- sins that cry to heaven for vengeance.' On MSNBC, Bari Weiss mused: 'Let's say [Kavanaugh] did this exactly as she said. Should the fact that a 17-year-old, presumably very drunk kid, did this, should this be disqualifying?' It's a question that can only be answered affirmatively.... Making a show of just how terrible it is on the world stage might help stop other men from perpetrating similar abuses.... If we care about all the sexual assaults that haven't yet occurred; if we care about the girls and boys who will become victims; if we care about preventing the debilitating, life-threatening trauma disorders victims often suffer, we must treat attempted rape as disqualifying for a Supreme Court justice." ...
... Stephanie Kirchgaessner & Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "A top professor at Yale Law School who strongly endorsed supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as a 'mentor to women' privately told a group of law students last year that it was 'not an accident' that Kavanaugh's female law clerks all 'looked like models' and would provide advice to students about their physical appearance if they wanted to work for him, the Guardian has learned. Amy Chua, a Yale professor who wrote a bestselling book on parenting called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, was known for instructing female law students who were preparing for interviews with Kavanaugh on ways they could dress to exude a 'model-like' femininity to help them win a post in Kavanaugh's chambers, according to sources.... Jed Rubenfeld, also an influential professor at Yale and who is married to Chua, told a prospective clerk that Kavanaugh liked a certain 'look'." Mrs. McC: Yes, I'll bet he does. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Adam Edelman & Kasie Hunt of NBC News: "The dean of Yale Law School on Thursday responded to reports that a prominent professor at the school had advised students seeking judicial clerkships with Brett Kavanaugh on their physical looks, saying the reported allegations of faculty misconduct are 'of enormous concern' and calling on anyone affected to come forward. According to reports..., Amy Chua, a professor at the law school, would advise students on their physical appearance if they wanted to seek a clerkship for Kavanaugh. Specifically, Chua would help potential applicants to have a 'model-like' appearance. In a letter Thursday to the law school community, Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken wrote that she wanted to 'address the press reports today regarding allegations of faculty misconduct' and that 'the allegations being reported are of enormous concern to me and to the School.'"
... Republican Leaders Offer Their Thoughts on Sexual Assault
Jamie Lovegrove of the (Charleston, S.C.) Post & Courier: "South Carolina Republican congressman Ralph Norman made light Thursday of the ongoing drama surrounding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, joking that another judge has emerged with her own accusations of sexual assault. 'Did y'all hear this latest late-breaking news from the Kavanaugh hearings?' said Norman, R-Rock Hill, at a Kiwanis Club debate. 'Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out that she was groped by Abraham Lincoln.'"
... Sen. Heller Dismisses Attempted Rape Allegation as an Annoyance. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) reportedly characterized the sexual assault allegation against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh as a 'hiccup' and predicted that President Trump's nominee will soon be confirmed for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Heller made his remarks during a conference call arranged by the Nevada Republican Party on Wednesday night in advance of Trump's planned visit to the state Thursday, according to an account by the Nevada Independent. 'I'm really grateful for the White House, for the effort of President Trump and what he has done, and the excitement that we have,' Heller reportedly said. 'We got a little hiccup here with the Kavanaugh nomination. We'll get through this and we'll get off to the races.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Howard Koplowitz of al.com: "Former Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore called on Republicans to 'take a stand' and support suggested U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh following the sexual misconduct allegations levied against him, adding that he believes the Democrats are using Kavanaugh's accuser as a political pawn." Mrs. McC: Oh, don't worry, Roy. The attempted rape allegation is just a "hiccup." But thanks to you & Dean Heller for weighing in & reminding us of what top Republicans think of girls & women. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Rafia Zakaria of the Nation: "The White House has dismissed [Blasey Ford] as a liar; conservative commentator Tomi Lahren implied that she was an opportunist; and a Wall Street Journal editorial not only impugns her but suggests that going to therapy can result in invented memories." ...
... Jeet Heer: "The president is getting credit in some circles, especially among his own staff, for the supposed restraint he's shown toward Christine Blasey Ford.... Trump has cleared a very low bar by not insulting Dr. Blasey, but the fact is, he has repeatedly expressed sympathy for Kavanaugh and not even pro forma concern for Dr. Blasey. Further, Republicans have more than filled the void.... [These insults are] yet another reminder that Trump is not an anomaly within the Republican Party; he has plenty of allies to do his dirty work for him." ...
... Underwater. Mark Murray of NBC News: "More American voters now oppose Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination than support it after he was accused of committing sexual assault while he was in high school, with opposition increasing 9 points since last month, according to a new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. In the poll -- which was conducted Sunday (when the accusation from Christine Blasey Ford was first made public) through Wednesday -- 38 percent of voters say they oppose Kavanaugh's nomination to serve on the nation's highest court, including 27 percent who 'strongly' oppose him. That's compared with 34 percent who support his nomination, including 25 percent who 'strongly' support him. Twenty-eight percent say they don't enough to have an opinion. This is the first time in the NBC/WSJ poll -- dating back to John Roberts' nomination in 2005 -- that a Supreme Court nominee has been underwater on this confirmation question."
It's not very often -- likely never -- than a Supreme Court nominee gets three Pinocchios -- three times -- for lying under penalty of perjury, but Brett Kavanaugh is an extraordinary nominee. (Also linked yesterday.)
Uh-oh. George Stephanopoulos, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has participated over the last month in multiple interview sessions lasting for hours with investigators from the office of special counsel, Robert Mueller, sources tell ABC News. The special counsel's questioning of Cohen, one of the president's closest associates over the past decade, has focused primarily on all aspects of Trump's dealings with Russia -- including financial and business dealings and the investigation into alleged collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign and its surrogates to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. Investigators were also interested in knowing, the sources say, whether Trump or any of his associates discussed the possibility of a pardon with Cohen."
Simon Shuster of Time: "From the very beginning of his 19 years in power, [Vladimir Putin] has turned his country's wealthiest men into a loose but loyal band of operatives. In exchange for lucrative deals with the government, or simply protection from the authorities, these billionaires have gathered contacts at the highest levels of U.S. politics, high enough to influence policy in the service of the Russian state.... And in the Trumps, the oligarchs found plump targets.... Reviews of legal records and interviews with oligarchs and their associates in Russia and the West show just how far they have gone. They also show how deeply they penetrated the 2016 U.S. presidential contest, and the campaign of Donald Trump." Mrs. McC: Shuster portrays Trump as a useful idiot who somewhat accidentally fell into Putin's orbit.
Damian Paletta & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump lashed out at congressional Republicans on Thursday, questioning their strategy of pushing off a messy fight over border wall funding until after the midterm elections in November. His outburst could raise fresh questions about whether Trump will force a government shutdown in just 10 days, when funding for numerous programs expires.... This is the second time in recent days Trump has suggested Republican leaders are being duped by Democrats when it comes to wall funding, openly questioning the GOP's calculated strategy to avoid a shutdown. Earlier this week, the Senate passed a short-term spending bill that would keep the government running through Dec. 7. It aims to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month and includes less far less funding than Trump sought for his long-promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. 'I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms?' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Dems are obstructing Law Enforcement and Border Security. REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Adam Raymond of New York: "The Saudi Arabia-led war against Houthi rebels in Yemen is the 'worst humanitarian crisis in the world,' according to the European Union. Nearly 17,000 civilians have been killed or injured by the coalition's unrelenting air campaign, and millions more face the risk of starvation and the rampant spread of disease. None of this has stopped the United States from supporting the efforts though. The U.S. continues to sell arms to Riyadh and provide refueling services to aid the air offensive. But mounting civilian casualties, and high-profile tragedies, such as the bombing of a school bus that killed dozens, have led to dissension in Washington. Some members of Congress have publicly pushed back against U.S. support for the coalition and, The Wall Street Journal reports, so have experts within the State Department. Like the lawmakers though, State Department staffers have had no luck convincing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to turn away from the coalition. Not necessarily because he believes the war is just, but because he wants to protect U.S. weapons sales, the WSJ reports[.] Emphasis added. ...
... Jeet Heer: "Aside from valuing Gulf allies as markets for weapons, the Trump administration is likely motivated by more general strategic concerns. Supporting Saudi Arabia in its regional conflict with Iran has become a pillar of Trump's foreign policy. The administration is also eager to get Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries to increase their oil production, which might be easier to achieve if the United States continues to support its regional allies in Yemen."
Tal Kopan of CNN: "Federal officers have arrested dozens of undocumented immigrants who came forward to take care of undocumented immigrant children in government custody, and the Trump administration is pledging to go after more. The news will serve as confirmation of the worst fears of immigrants and their advocates: that a recent move by ... Donald Trump's administration to more fully vet people who come forward to care for undocumented immigrant children who are alone in the US has been a way for the administration to track down and arrest more undocumented immigrants. On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement senior official Matthew Albence testified to Congress that, after Health and Human Services and ICE signed a memorandum of agreement to background-check and fingerprint potential 'sponsors' of immigrant children, ICE arrested 41 people who came forward. In response to an inquiry from CNN, an ICE official confirmed that 70% of those arrests were for straightforward immigration violations -- meaning they were arrested because ICE discovered they were here illegally."
Filling the Swamp. Tracy Jan of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded promotions and pay increases to five political operatives with no housing policy experience within their first months on the job, demonstrating what government watchdogs and career staff describe as a premium put on loyalty over expertise. The raises, documented in a Washington Post analysis of HUD political hires, resulted in annual salaries between $98,000 and $155,000 for the five appointees, all of whom had worked on Donald Trump's or Ben Carson's presidential campaigns. Three of them did not list bachelor's degrees on their résumés. The political hires were among at least 24 people without evident housing policy experience who were appointed to the best-paying political positions at HUD, an agency charged with serving the poorest Americans."
Donie O'Sullivan & Alex Marquardt of CNN: "The personal Gmail accounts of an unspecified number of US senators and Senate staff have been targeted by foreign government hackers, a Google spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Thursday. On Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, wrote in a letter to Senate leadership that his office had learned that 'at least one majo technology company has informed a number of Senators and Senate staff members that their personal email accounts were targeted by foreign government hackers.'Google confirmed it was the company Wyden was referring to, but would not say which senators were targeted or when the attempted intrusions were detected. The senators and their staff targeted were both Republicans and Democrats, a Senate aide told CNN."
2018 Election
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump implored Nevada voters on Thursday to turn out for the midterms to elect Republicans, warning that Democrats would reverse the gains experienced since he won the White House if they wrested control of Congress. Making a rare campaign appearance in a state he lost in the 2016 election to support Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, who is facing a steep re-election battle, Mr. Trump dispensed with some of his usual bravado and predictions of victory and instead told an audience in a cavernous convention center in Las Vegas that the Republican majority was on a razor's edge.... In a state where Hispanics make up more than a quarter of the population, Mr. Trump's crowd broke into several chants of 'Build that wall!' and he argued that immigrants were dangerous and a drain on social programs.... Mr. Trump, seldom one to drop a personal grudge, even put aside his sour history with Mr. Heller -- who vehemently opposed him during the 2016 campaign...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Besides, it was only the day before that Heller showed his support for Trump by calling the credible sexual assault complaint against Trump's Supreme Court nominee a "hiccup." But Heller says I've "misinterpreted" his remark. So my bad.
Florida Gubernatorial Race. Dean Obeidallah of the Daily Beast: "... just a few months before [Florida goobernatorial candidate Ron] DeSantis [R] formally announced his candidacy for governor, the then member of Congress attended and spoke at an event organized by the nation's most vile anti Muslim group: ACT For America. To Muslim Americans like myself, this organization is akin to neo-Nazis who seek to demonize and marginalize blacks and Jews. But in the case of ACT, they target Muslims." (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Dana Hedgpeth & Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: "Six people were shot, three of them fatally, by a 26-year-old woman who opened fire with a handgun Thursday morning at a Rite Aid distribution center in Maryland, authorities said. They said she then shot herself in the head and died at a hospital. The Harford County sheriff's office identified the woman as Snochia Moseley, whose last known address was in Baltimore County. Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said Moseley was a temporary employee who reported for work 'as usual' on Thursday before brandishing a 9mm Glock semiautomatic handgun. Gahler said two victims were pronounced dead at the scene and another died in a hospital. Three other victims remain hospitalized with wounds that are not believed to be life-threatening, Gahler said. Moseley had 'two, perhaps three' extra clips of ammunition, Gahler said. She was taken to a hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Gahler said the handgun was legally registered to Moseley."
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Reader Comments (14)
Jacob Pramuk has a piece on cnbc.com on the growing opposition to Trump's Supreme Court pick in recent NBC/Wall Sreet Journal poll.
and, also that
"...A Gallup survey also found a plurality of voters is against his confirmation. However, that poll suggests opposition to Kavanaugh increased even before Ford went public with her allegation."
(Boldface added by me in last paragraph.)
Akhilleus, on many occasions, brings us tales of past kings and emperors. In the latest New Yorker, George Packer does the same. He says that Woodward's book "Fear" belongs on a shelf next to Robert Grave's "I, Claudius," featuring the Roman emperor Caligula, and Ryszard Kapuscinski's "The Emperor"about the last days in the court of Ethiopia's Haile Selassie. These books are masterpieces of fictionalized history while "Fear", he says, is a remarkable feat of reporting conveyed in prose that couldn't be called literary but they resemble one another in their atmosphere of antic dread–-the claustrophobic,gut-tightening sense that power has come utterly unmoored from reality and no one in the palace is safe from the wild impulses of the ruler. Packer is not one to get all dramatic on us so when he ends with "We don't know the outcome of Robert Mueller's investigation into collusion and obstruction, but in a sense it doesn't matter. The real crime is already in plain sight" we know exactly what he means.
And with the concentration of the Kavanaugh kerfuffle ( over on Fox, by the way, this situation is all blamed on the democrats discussed in-between their airing of Trump's rally in which he tells "his people" that everything is coming up roses and he has done for this country what no other president has ever done) other important news goes by the wayside.
The Other Important News:
Mike Pompeo's reason for continuing arms support for the Saudi's because he wants to protect weapon's sales? Whoa Nelly! I'm trying to wrap my head around that one.
The tracking down of undocumented workers as they come to get their children–––like a trap––wham! We gotcha ya! Evil––absolutely evil!
Pay increases in the Hud story for unqualified people. see above "Filling the Swamp."
And here's a story that makes my blood boil: What it's like for many teachers in America.
"I work 3 jobs and donate blood plasma to pay the bills"
http://time.com/longform/teaching-in-america/
So when Packer says you half expect Woodward's Trump ordering the execution of the entire Security Council, declaring himself a god on Twitter, then anointing his daughter as heir to the throne our laugh is absent. Change "execution" for firing and nothing here is far fetched.
A word about Christine B.Ford: I suddenly thought last night after seeing her picture as a fifteen yr. old remembered what it was like to be fifteen and how that assault on her person at that age must have been terrifying. When I was that age a 17yr.old boy I had met that summer before high school during a vacation with my family at one of the lake resorts took a shine to me. He was from Milwaukee, and one day came all the way up to Sheboygan to see me. He asked my parents if he could take me to a movie and they gave him permission. Throughout the film he stared at me, touched my arm, my hands, and pushed his leg against mine. I was mortified, and so uncomfortable I felt sick. At fifteen many of us are still girls not ready for close encounters; the naysayers out there just don't "get it."
Re: "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world" in Yemen, and the claim that SoS Pompeo is happy for it to continue in order to "protect US weapons sales." So, our military-industrial complex continues to thrive at the expense of ... well, probably millions if you consider all the intended and unintended consequences of armed conflict. The "shoot first and keep shooting to avoid being asked any questions" mentality of too many people in charge of too many countries or rebel groups with access to way too many weapons seems too hard-wired ever to eradicate. So, this scene from Lord of War--a film based on an actual person--may be perennially true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njCaRmpzxSo
WaPo has an article about our so-called POTUS:
"Trump says Canada is ‘ripping us off’ on trade. Here’s what the numbers show.
President Trump has repeatedly vowed to punish Canada with auto tariffs, saying that the trade is one-sided. But an analysis shows that the $4 trillion in goods exchanged between the United States and its northern neighbor is about evenly divided between imports and exports."
And Canada does a better deal with us than just about anyone. But Trump doesn't need anything like a fact before opening his mouth.
Trump wants to know why the 15 year old Ms. Ford didn't go to the authorities, didn't call the FBI immediately.
At the risk of being obvious, this is a drearily disingenuous question.
Trump, of all people, as a practiced and admitted sex offender, knows good and well why many women don't report being attacked. He knows all the tricks, all the ways women can be bullied, threatened, cajoled, and if all else fails, bought off to keep their silence.
I'm pretty sure most men, and even perhaps some women, who have never been in a situation like that, have no clue what it means, what sexual assault can do to someone. Yes, some women fight back. Some do go to the authorities, but most realize the risk that incurs. Public humiliation, attacks, aspersions on their character, questions about what they were wearing or why they were at a certain place at a certain time, and didn't they know something like that could happen? Well, maybe they WANTED it to happen. Slut. The other side of the coin is that if they didn't go that route (and accept the slanders and questions and character assassination), and decided to stay quiet and internalize the pain and the fear, well then, it probably never happened at all, and here is some trouble making little bitch trying to slander a good man's reputation. Liar.
You're either a slut or a liar. It's heads you lose, tails they win.
But this is pretty much the tack being adopted by Grassley and company. This is a well trod path and they know all the angles. I can't tell you what Fox is saying because I don't want to know, but I'm betting that that network, infamous as a shop where women have been subjected to sexual assault, rape, and retribution, for decades, has not all of a sudden discovered a newfound sensitivity. In fact, it's likely that many men like Hannity, who were brought along by Ailes, are still resentful of the women who took him down. Fox became a hothouse of sexual abuse and the bosses learned the same lessons Trump did: intimidation, abuse, bullying, and when those tactics fail, payoffs with NDA's attached.
The sexual predators at places like Fox, and NBC, CBS, Miramax, and the White House, may not give two shits about the damage that can be done to women through violent sexual predation, but they surely understand how to keep them from talking about it (or did).
Dissembling and deception are nothing new for Trump, he just finds new ways to increase his hypocrisy quotient. Every day, it seems.
Justice, as Practiced by the Judiciary Committee.
So, what do we have so far? Let's review the R's tactics for rescuing Kavanaugh's nomination and upholding JUSTICE, and fer crissakes, let's get this over with!.
1. He didn't do it. This "person" is either lying, or deluded, or just a dizzy dame. In any event, it's all made up.
2. He didn't do it. So okay, she went to see a shrink. Patients are always coming out with "recovered" memories that are just invented, aren't they? That's what's going on here too.
3. He didn't do it. 65 other women he hardly knew say so.
4. He did it, but hey, it couldn't have been THAT bad. She's overly emotional. He didn't take her clothes off and there was no penetration. No harm, no foul.
5. He did it, but if it WAS that bad, she didn't go to the authorities right away, and something's just fishy about all that. She's probably lying about how bad it was, or maybe lying about the whole thing. It was just kids having a little fun, is all.
6. We don't know what happened, it's a he-said, she-said thing, but we'll humor the little lady. All she has to do is sign this, write this up, fly to Washington on our timetable, and undergo a 10 or 12 hour grilling by people who absolutely fucking hate her and then we'll vote for him anyway.
7. Who knows? It was a long time ago. Who can remember what happened so many years ago, can you? This is just a ploy by Democrats to undermine a good man. That lady, whatshername, can come talk to us, just so's we don't look like fucking cavemen, but our boy Brett is going to the court. What a pain!
8. It happened, but it wasn't our boy Brett. It was some other guy, a middle school teacher. We're almost 100% sure. Brett is cleared!
9. There was a witness--and partial participant--to the whole thing, but he sez he didn't do it, it never happened, he was too drunk, um, a thing happened but he's sure it wasn't rape. And we're not gonna ask this guy to testify because.....well....um....never mind. We're not gonna make him testify. He said it didn't happen and that's good enough for us.
10. Obama did it.
Let's vote!
Akhilleus, you remind me of an event in college. Four of us were living in an apartment. We had a party. After I thought everyone left, a girl comes down the stairs and tells me that she was attacked. No details but she was a mess. I asked if she wanted me to call the cops. No, just a taxi. This was about 58 years ago. I bet she still remembers every moment. All I did was invite the scumbag and I still feel guilty.
Marvin,
It's completely understandable why that girl just wanted to get the hell out of there, go home, take a shower, and go to bed. Assholes like Trump who sniff that nothing could have happened because she didn't go to the cops are either liars or cynical creeps who understand all too well that this sort of dynamic has saved them many times from a knock on the door and a ride downtown in handcuffs.
I have to say that the most chilling thing to come out of this whole affair (besides the violent act of attempted rape itself), is this revelation that certain R's think that this sort of thing is no big deal, that rich, white boys get to attack girls with impunity, oh, as long as later on, they get a job at dad's law firm or, like Uday and Qusay, nepotistic no show jobs at daddy's company, marry a trophy wife, then cheat on her at every opportunity.
Are these people Republicans because they're assholes or is it the other way around?
I know there are plenty of Democrats who are creeps, but I have yet to hear it expressed by anyone on the left that this Droit du Seigneur attitude is acceptable and just comes with the territory, and women and namby pamby men should just shut up about it already.
Elizabeth,
You're right to be concerned about the preference on display by the Trumpies for war and weapons and, above all, money and power, over the lives of millions of human beings. I'd suggest that this is not just a Trump issue, but an ongoing problem in a longstanding series of conflicts all around the planet. This is one reason why people like Stone and Manafort are such reprehensible reptiles. They take dictators and dangerous war lords and clean them up, bring them to Washington cocktail parties and get connected congresspeople to authorize the delivery of more weapons allowing for the murder of even more civilians. As long as a few of the "right" people get shot, it's A-Ok with those congressional enablers of murder and war. Oh, also, the money is right too.
I'm reading a book right now that looks at this cycle of violence in a different way than most who are not diehard lefties, "Terror and Consent" by Philip Bobbitt, a writer and academic specializing in the crossroads of military adventurism and constitutional law. Bobbitt is no card carrying leftie, but he does see the problem of feeding the maw of war with more weapons and more violence and is not afraid of pointing out that American adventurism, especially in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is a direct trigger for terrorism. Allowing Mike Pompeo to maintain this cycle of weapons, money, war, terror, and more weapons does nothing to insulate the US from fingers pointed by radicals who, in many instances, rightly see us as the enemy, and a very effective recruiting tool for more terrorists.
For anyone interested, I'd also recommend Bobbitt's earlier work, "The Shield of Achilles", a massive overview of the historical parallel developments of military powers and constitutional nation-states, leading to what he terms the Long War, the period from 1914 to the end of the Cold War, and the development of market-states, a term that is much more complex than it seems, carrying, as it does, Bobbitt's belief in a system that can help prevent social instability that leads to conflict and war. You might not agree with all of it, or even with some of his premises, but it's never uninteresting.
But it's not just international arms dealers like Adnan Khashoggi, Manuchar Ghorbanifar, and Viktor Bout (the real life inspiration for Nick Cage's character in "Lord of War") who are proponents and primers and enablers of war for profit and power. People like Pompeo and Manafort and Stone qualify as well.
Oh, and something I forgot to mention about lords of war and how they're considered necessary to the real lords of war.
Viktor Bout, the real-life inspiration for Nick Cage's international arms smuggler, was arrested in Bangkok in 2008. He was extradited to the US and tried for conspiracy to kill US citizens by selling weapons to foreign terrorist groups. He was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years. He's in prison now. But there's a move afoot to get him released for a new trial where, his lawyer hopes, he will be found innocent.
His lawyer? John Ashcroft, former Attorney General to warlords George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
As Cage's character says in "Lord of War": "You know who's going to inherit the Earth? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other."
So far, he ain't wrong.
Paul Campos in a piece linked above from Lawyers Guns&Money, believes that Grassley, et al., moving ahead with the canonization of Blessed Brett Kavanaugh without at least letting Ford speak "...would be too much for even the Village to swallow."
I beg to differ. The number, size, and putridity of things "the Village" is able and willing to swallow changed dramatically the moment they swallowed a cheap, crooked, sexual predator, liar, racist, and con man as president*.
Anything is possible now. The whole point behind the Kavanaugh sham nominating process is to ram a sure-thing onto the court to overturn Roe. What's ignoring the attempted rape of one woman compared to guaranteeing the assault they can perpetrate on tens of millions of women?
I still hope she testifies. Can you imagine the flop sweat streaming from Rape Boy Kavanaugh? If, as Marie believes, he was in the White House to 'fess up about the fact that "something" happened, thus leading to president* pussy grabber's declaration that "it wasn't that bad", and Ford's claim is absolutely true, just imagine how quickly those little privileged frat boy balls will disappear when he sees her walk into that hearing chamber. Of course, Grassley won't allow that to happen. They have to protect their boy at all costs. It wouldn't do for millions of people watching on TV to see him sweating like a perp under the hot lights.
The bribe is in the mail. This month the government began sending checks to farmers impacted by Trumps trade war with China. Over 7000 claims have been approved so far.
Where is mike pence right now flabbergasted at the idea of Kavanaugh's sexual impurities? I feel like he needs to book some teevee shows on Sunday with his mother holding his hand to remind us heathens what sex is all about.
And don't you love the reporting that Kavanaugh is spending hours at the White House "prepping" for his testimony? How much practice does it take to flatly deny everything and strategically claim ignorance? I bet Kellyanne Conjob is doing some heavy lifting. Few can smile and shamelessly lie like her. Comes naturally.