Bloomberg: “The Senate parliamentarian told lawmakers that Republicans’ ability to pass an Obamacare replacement with just 51 votes expires at the end of this month, Senator Bernie Sanders said Friday….”
There’s something profoundly wrong with Dinesh D’Souza. Incidentally, URLs shared by Kremlin propaganda Twitter this week include petitions to the WH to have “Antifa” (absurdly) declared a terrorist organization and to have George Soros declared a terrorist and his assets seized by the government.
This is so stupid. When PEN gave Charlie Hebdo the award, CH had spent years mocking white people and Christians (the amount of satire dedicated to Christians far outweighed that dedicated to Muslims). They had published satirical cartoons about 9/11. They had mocked, and been sued by, French Nazis for years. The people who supported the PEN award knew this. The only reason Greenwald and others believe those supporting CH and their work (which doesn’t mean not ever criticizing them) after the massacre would feel differently now is that they project their own continuing ignorance onto us, ignoring everything we said at the time.* You have to be very ignorant to believe that the latest cartoons that are receiving attention are anything different from what CH has always published. Greenwald can be such an intellectually dishonest dipshit.
* And it’s outrageous that Greenwald lumps all of us in with the Right and Christian bigots who obviously, as everyone knew at the time, were free-speech hypocrites.
I didn’t detail the later additions to the NYT article last night because I was annoyed that they didn’t just publish a subsequent article with all of the new information, but they include:
– “The New York Times has not seen a copy of Mr. Trump’s letter…and it is unclear how much of the letter’s rationale focuses on the Russia investigation.”
– “Several people who saw Mr. Miller’s multi-page draft described it as a ‘screed’.”
– “Mr. Trump was back in Washington on Monday, May 8, when copies of the letter were handed out in the Oval Office to senior officials, including Mr. McGahn and Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Trump announced that he had decided to fire Mr. Comey, and read aloud from Mr. Miller’s memo.”
– “During the May 8 Oval Office meeting with Mr. Trump, Mr. Rosenstein was given a copy of the original letter and agreed to write a separate memo for Mr. Trump about why Mr. Comey should be fired.”; “Unlike Mr. Trump’s letter, it made no mention of the times Mr. Comey had told the president he was not under investigation.”
Ah, at last there’s closure regarding one of Trump’s ridiculous lies.
In a brief filed late on Friday, the Department of Justice confirmed that it has no evidence to support President Donald Trump’s assertions this spring that he was the target of surveillance by the Obama administration while running for office last year. […]
After Trump took to Twitter in early March to accuse the Obama administration of “wire tapping” his phones at Trump Tower, a charge that then-FBI Director James Comey assured Congress was baseless, American Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records of any wiretaps of Trump Tower. […]
“Given that the president publicly confirmed the wiretaps (in his March tweets) and former FBI Director Comey publicly denied their existence (in his testimony to Congress), we have argued that FBI and DOJ ought to be able to provide a straight answer about whether any wiretap records do or don’t exist,” the organization’s spokesperson Clark Pettig told TPM.
On Friday, the DOJ released a motion acknowledging they have no evidence of any wiretaps.
“The FBI and Department of Justice have now sided with former Director Comey and confirmed in writing that President Trump lied when he tweeted that former President Obama ‘wiretapped’ him at Trump Tower,” American Oversight’s Executive Director Austin Evers said in a statement. “As the president and his legal team continue their smear campaign against Mr. Comey, Special Counsel Mueller and others investigating him, this filing confirms that even Trump’s own Department of Justice does not believe he has credibility on a key element of the Russia investigation.” […]
President Trump has instructed advisers to prepare a withdrawal from the United States’ free-trade agreement with South Korea, several people close to the process said, a move that would stoke economic tensions with the U.S. ally at a time both countries confront a crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
While it is still possible Trump could decide to stay in the agreement in order to renegotiate its terms, the internal preparations for terminating the deal are far along and the formal withdrawal process could begin as soon as this coming week, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A number of senior White House officials are trying to prevent Trump from withdrawing from the agreement, including national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, these people said….
Trump and Melania returned to Texas. They did a better job this time of interacting with actual flood victims and with rescue workers.
However, Trump managed to be offensive in his own inimitable way. Here are some excerpts from comments he made while helping to hand out food a an emergency refuge center:
[…] It’s been really nice. It’s been a wonderful thing. As tough as this was, it’s been a wonderful thing, I think even for the country to watch it and for the world to watch. It’s been beautiful.
[Trump said of the children he visited who had been displaced by the storm], They’re doing great.
The flooding? Oh, yeah, yeah, there’s a lot of water, but it’s leaving pretty quickly. But there’s a lot of water, a lot of water, but it’s moving out.
My hands are too big! (He said this while putting on sanitary plastic gloves.) […]
Have a good time, everybody! (He said that when leaving the refuge.)
So go to your church and pray and enjoy the day. (He said that to workers at the First Church Pearland in reference to his having designated Sunday as a national day of prayer.)
The death toll from Harvey is now 47, and is expected to rise.
Trump is arriving in Louisiana and both MSNBC and CNN are locked in on and panning across the group of probably 100 supporters gathered there. For some reason, they won’t zoom out to show how many there are, say if there are any protesters, or give any sense of where these people are.And they insist on talking about how great it is to see “smiling faces” after the disaster. It’s just weird. Now CNN has a report on contaminated water in the affected areas, which inexplicably has to share a split screen with the little group of Trumpers.
…The narrative surrounding last weekend’s protests in Berkeley took shape on social media and was picked up, at least in part, by mainstream news outlets. The result was a skewed presentation of events that was almost entirely devoid of the context in which they took place. Even more troubling: that narrative was influenced by pro-Russian social media networks, including state-sponsored propaganda outlets, botnets, cyborgs, and individual users….
“North Korea says conducts ‘perfect’ hydrogen bomb test”: “North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, which it said was an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile, marking a dramatic escalation of the regime’s stand-off with the United States and its allies.”
…Emergency managers began [after Katrina] to grasp that if they didn’t make room for family dogs, cats, birds and turtles in rescue boats, buses, and shelters, they wouldn’t be able to persuade a lot of people to leave their homes. So a bill was passed with bipartisan support — remember that?
The 2006 Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act was sponsored by Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska in the Senate and Democrat Tom Lantos of California in the U.S. House of Representatives. It charges the Federal Emergency Management Agency with telling local emergency officials that they must include pets and service animals in their disaster evacuation plans.
This week, we saw what an act of Congress can do. It may have saved not only the lives of cats and dogs, who were carried out in the arms of their owners and rescuers, but the lives of people who love those animals as members of their family and wouldn’t have left them….
…In finding their voices and becoming a band, they say they have endured criticism from their families, friends and neighbors, and have received hundreds of online death threats for supposedly blaspheming Islam and not acting like proper Muslim girls — in other words, submissive, they said.
One night, while riding motorcycles home from a recording studio, they were pelted with rocks wrapped in paper inscribed with profane messages.
But they have fought back, through songs about intolerance, gender equality and the rights of young people in a country where issues like forced underage marriage are still prevalent, especially in rural areas like West Java….
Here’s the video. Again, I don’t understand what they’re saying, but it sounds like the Russian word for “impeachment” might be “impeachment,” and like when he suggests that this is what she’s getting at the audience applauds.
[…] he keeps saying things like “Have a Good Time!” to people stranded in a shelter. Or, ‘it’s going great‘ to people who’ve just lost everything. Or, look at this huge turnout to people who … well, you get the idea. When it comes to acting human or compassionate it’s like the part of his brain governing that species of behavior has been removed. It’s like watching a person who has profound social awkwardness in a meet and greet situation at a cocktail party. It’s painful. But again, with Trump it’s not social awkwardness. It’s a basic, seemingly fundamental inability not only to experience but even to fake the experience of empathy or human concern. […]
How Trump got this way I have no clue. But it’s the behavior of a very damaged or emotionally stunted person.
Some experts responded to Trump’s playground tactics:
[…] Ely Ratner, a top national security official in the Obama administration, told the New York Times that Trump is “coming out swinging” at South Korea and China at a time when the United States is going to need close cooperation with the two countries. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) told CNN on Sunday that he opposes undoing the trade agreement with South Korea and found the move by the Trump administration a “troubling sign.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, responded to Trump with his own tweet: “Foreign policy, unhinged. Find me one expert whose advice on how to deal with North Korea is ‘Pick a fight with South Korea.’”
The critical tweets on South Korea and the provocative statements directed toward North Korea are leading experts to question whether Trump fully grasps the seriousness of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. “That the administration would even consider canceling the agreement in the midst of the North Korean missile and nuclear crisis is astonishing,” Michael Green, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the New York Times. “It’s probably all theater, but it has negative strategic consequences as we try to manage the North Korean threat.” […]
Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, responded to the pressure on Trump to rescind DACA:
I call on @POTUS to keep his promise to Dreamers and #defendDACA.
#DACA protects 800,000 young immigrants who are American in every way except their immigration status.
If #DACA is ended in this way, it will not show heart for the #Dreamers. It will be a humanitarian and economic disaster. […]
This is a crisis manufactured by Republicans and it can only be solved by Republicans. @POTUS has the power to keep #DACA in place. [House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)] and [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)] have the power to bring up the bipartisan #DREAMact I introduced with [Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)]. Let’s get to work.
I should be very surprised if there is a native Russian word for impeachment. There’s never been a need for such a word; to Russians, the idea of the parliament or congress ousting a leader just because he might have committed some crime is and has been virtually unthinkable. Anyone see Putin putting down the reins of power, just because the Duma or a court said he had to?
From Secretary of Defense James Mattis statements, which he made today:
[…] Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam, or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming.
[He suggested that Kim Jong Un] take heed of the United Nations security council’s unified voice.
All members unanimously agreed on the threat North Korea poses and they remain unanimous in their commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said we have many options to do so. [….]
Sam McLure is running for attorney General of Alabama. McLure is a bonkers rightwing dunderhead that thinks militias could be used to shut down abortion clinics:
[…] McLure said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. […] If you are not willing to die for your political beliefs then get another hobby. Thievery and murder are the order of the day. Tyranny is not the greatest enemy of freedom, apathy is. I long for the day when Alabamians are more concerned about being on the wrong side of eternity rather than being on the wrong side of history.” […]
The adoption attorney in his first run for office, said that if a Pro-Life Governor, backed by a Pro-Life Attorney General and Legislature shut down abortion in the State, there is nothing anyone could do to stop it. “Sure Judge Myron Thompson would rule it unconstitutional but who would enforce it? Would President Trump intervene with troops? I don’t think so. They could cut off Federal funding,” but McLure doubted that they would. “The Second Amendment provides ‘for a well regulated militia.’ Where is Alabama’s militia? The armed people of Alabama are the militia and they would prevent a Federal officer from moving against a Pro-Life Alabama Governor who ended abortion in the State. You must be willing to die for your political beliefs and to protect your neighbor’s lives.” [….]
“As [Iraqi refugee Mustafa] Herby’s mind raced, he remembered the box in his bedroom closet. It held an inflatable raft he’d bought seven years earlier in Syria, where his family had taken refuge from the Iraq war. The raft had never been used.”
He used it to save other people from the flood in Texas.
31-year-old Alonso Guillen had come down with his friends to rescue people from the flooding in Houston. He was a DACA recipient.
…His father is a lawful permanent, but his mother is still in the application process for legal status.
Reached at her home in Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, Rita Ruiz de Guillen, 62, said she is heartbroken.
“I’ve lost a great son, you have no idea,” she said, weeping softly. “I’m asking God to give me strength.”
She said she hoped U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would take pity and grant her a humanitarian visa so that she could come to Houston and bury her son, but she was turned back at the border….
Betsy Woodruff: “To fellow DC reporters: Now is a real bad time to treat a policy decision like it’s a ‘Who’s up who’s down, Good for Trump?’ horserace. If you write about DACA like the person who has the most on the line is Trump (cc: columnists who will not be named), you are doing it wrong.”
Incidentally, I just read this 2011 Julia Ioffe article to check a claim in The Red Web. It has so much of the information with which we in the US are belatedly becoming familiar – funneling of stolen funds through fake charities, V.T.B. Bank, accounts in Cyprus,… It’s also just a very good article.
Meanwhile, I came across this article about Paul Manafort’s alleged involvement with demonstrations and violent actions against US Marines in Ukraine in 2006.
SC @39, thanks for that link. Those excerpts from survivors lives tell a very different story from Trump’s “happiness” talk when he visited Texas. Trump should read it.
Well, the Environmental Protection Agency is certainly showing the negative influence of Pruitt’s helmsmanship:
After an Associated Press journalist reported this weekend that seven of Houston’s 41 Superfund sites were flooded with several feet of water, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a lengthy statement countering the claims and attacking the reporter.
The reporter, Michael Biesecker, visited seven of the 41 toxic waste sites impacted by Hurricane Harvey’s flooding in Houston and reported that all seven had been “inundated” by water.
The EPA had yet to visit any of the sites, according to the AP story, which noted a study completed under former President Barack Obama’s administration that concluded flooding at these sites could cause the spread of toxic materials.
The EPA responded with a statement calling the reporter lazy for “reporting from the comfort of Washington” even though Biesecker was in Houston and calling the story “incredibly misleading.”
The EPA also attacked Biesecker’s previous reporting and tried to debunk his story, saying the agency had viewed, but not visited, all the toxic waste sites through “aerial imaging.”[…]
At least one state attorney general is threatening to sue the Trump administration if Trump rescinds DACA. It will be interesting to see if other state attorneys general follow suit.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman threatened to sue the Trump administration if […] Trump rolls back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which grants legal status to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
“President Trump’s decision to end the DACA program would be cruel, gratuitous, and devastating to tens of thousands of New Yorkers—and I will sue to protect them,” Schneiderman said in a statement.
“Dreamers are Americans in every way. They played by the rules. They pay their taxes. And they’ve earned the right to stay in the only home they have ever known. More than 40,000 New Yorkers are protected under DACA. They pay more than $140 million in state and local taxes. They are vital members of our community,” he added.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) also issued a statement supporting Schneiderman’s lawsuit threat over DACA.
“Ending this policy represents an assault on the values that built this state and this nation. The President’s action would upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people who have only ever called America their home, including roughly 42,000 New Yorkers. It will rip families apart, sow havoc in our communities and force innocent people—our neighbors, our friends, and our relatives—to live in fear,” Cuomo said.
The President is set to announce his decision on the DACA program on Tuesday. He has reportedly decided to end the program but with a six month delay in implementation that would allow Congress to restore DREAMers’ legal status through legislation. Several Republicans in Congress have voiced their opposition to Trump’s reported decision to end DACA and pledged to pass legislation restoring DACA.[…]
China is pushing back against Trump’s ridiculous and impractical threats:
China on Monday criticized President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off U.S. trade with countries that deal with North Korea […]
A foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, criticized Trump’s stance as unfair to Beijing.
“What is definitely unacceptable to us is that on the one hand we work so hard to peacefully resolve this issue and on the other hand our interests are subject to sanctions and jeopardized,” Geng said at a regular news briefing. “This is unfair.” […]
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi responded to Trump’s decision to rescind DACA:
[Trump’s decision] should break the hearts and offend the morals of all who believe in justice and human dignity.
This cruel act of political cowardice deals a stunning blow to the bright young DREAMers and to everyone who cherishes the American Dream. […]
[Trump] has chosen to pardon someone who shares his anti-immigrant views, [former Arizona] Sheriff [Joe] Arpaio, who was convicted, while punishing young children who are innocent. […]
House Republicans must join Democrats to pass legislation to safeguard our young DREAMers from the senseless cruelty of deportation and shield families from separation and heartbreak. Democrats will stand firm with DREAMers and redouble our efforts to protect our nation’s families from the Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson also says that he will sue the Trump administration if the DACA program is ended:
If President Trump follows through on his reported decision to cancel DACA after a six-month delay, the Washington Attorney General’s Office will file suit to halt this cruel and illegal policy and defend DACA recipients.
We have been working closely with legal teams around the country, and we expect to be joined by other states in this action.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Interesting segment of Meet the Press Daily with Chuck Todd. Sorry, no link yet (nothing since 9/1), but the interview was with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe was on riffing on that there are jobs available, especially since Hugo, but they require some movement on the part of physical laborers to go where the jobs are, rather than complaining they aren’t in their zip codes. Also, of course, the need for those willing to get their hands dirty while working.
Houston, doesn’t need me, a retired chemist, they need carpenters, drywall installers, and painters, to help them recover from the disaster. Meanwhile, I’ll do what I can locally to help those less fortunate than myself. Starting tomorrow morning driving a poor Sr. Citizen to their doctor’s appointment.
(Manafort’s team seems to be spinning pretty furiously, as I noted in the last thread. It’s evident the dubious claim I quote there – I love the “largely” part – came from them, but in keeping them anonymous the report presents it as fact, which is weird.)
Meanwhile,…“Chechnya’s Persecuted Gays Find Refuge in Canada”: “The Canadian government, working with a Toronto-based nonprofit, has quietly allowed gay men and lesbians from the Russian republic of Chechnya to seek safety in Canada over the past three months….”
More details concerning the Trump administration’s rescinding of DACA:
[…] “I’m here today to announce that the program known as DACA, that was effectuated under the Obama administration, is being rescinded,” Sessions said.
[…] a DHS official said on background that current DACA beneficiaries whose permits expire before March 5, 2018 would be eligible to re-apply for an extra two years of protected status over the next six months. However, that means hundreds of thousands of people whose permits expire after March 5 would be eligible for deportation as early as the next day, […]
The official claimed that DHS “will not take action to remove active DACA beneficiaries. The transfer of information from USCIS to ICE would only take place where there is a significant law enforcement or national security interest.”
The attorney general did not take any questions after his announcement Tuesday, but Trump made clear earlier Tuesday that he wished to wash his hands of the problem, telling Congress to legislate a solution — “do your job – DACA!” he tweeted — and allowing underlings in his administration to deliver the news in his place.
DACA currently protects nearly 800,000 young undocumented people from deportation, and it could have protected many more had Trump chosen to maintain the program. Some in Congress, including Republicans, have begun attempts to replace DACA with legislation, but it’s far from likely that both the Republican-controlled House and Senate and the President will agree on a solution to protect undocumented people. […]
Sessions seemed to agree with the attorneys general who threatened the lawsuit, saying that former President Obama had overstepped his authority in establishing the program. […]
[…] the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, said in late July that deportations of non-criminal undocumented immigrants had gone from “zero to 100” under Trump’s watch. […]
One example of congressional push-back against the demonization of immigrants:
[…] “It’s regrettable that some fringe elements in our politics have a sick obsession with scapegoating immigrants, for blaming them for all our economic struggles in this country,” he [U.S., Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Republican from Florida] said, adding if that group wants a “culprit” for “stagnant economic growth,” Kobach and others should look at the country’s tax code and education system.
He also called out Kobach for blaming immigrants for struggles young Americans face when it comes to finding a job after college.
“It’s young Americans who overwhelmingly support the Dreamers’ cause and want to see Congress take action to afford them a permanent solution,” he said. “Why? Because they understand that these young people went to school with them, grew up in this country.” […]
He said his bill has bipartisan support and alluded that another Republican from the state of New Jersey had signed on as a co-sponsor for the bill.
Reactions being posted on Twitter and other social media outlets:
Remember, the decision to cancel DACA is all Trump. Sessions is just the willing white nationalist who jumped at the chance to announce it. [from David Leopold
—————–
Donald Trump is saying in every way possible that power in America is white, straight and male and all else are targets. #DACA [from Charles M. Blow]
———————
The labor movement will stand with these brave young workers,” while SEIU 32BJ called Trump’s move “a disgusting act of cowardice and cruelty.” [from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka]
———————
We see what you’re doing, Jeff Sessions, by repeatedly calling fellow humans “illegal aliens.” We reject your attempt to dehumanize. #DACA [from Connie Schultz]
—————-
Jeff Sessions talking about teaching new immigrants our “cultural understandings” is not a good look. [from Matthew Miller]
————–
If you want to try to spin this as compassionate, don’t think Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is your best choice. [from Frank Sharry]
——————-
Today’s another reminder why Sessions stuck it out through his turn at ritual humiliation. [From Irin Carmon]
Trump doesn’t get to be a little pregnant on DACA. His administration is formally ending it today. The “delay” is window dressing.
No one should fall for the White House spin that there was a modicum of humanity embedded in their decision today. There is no middle ground or equivocation when it comes to Dreamers. It’s a time for choosing, and we all should stand with Dreamers in today, their time of need, and push Congress to advance a clean, bipartisan, and permanent bill to extend the protections and opportunities they deserve and we all benefit from.
From the Department of Homeland Security’s Acting Secretary, Elaine Duke:
In an accompanying press release, the Department of Homeland Security’s Acting Secretary, Elaine Duke, will say that no people currently on DACA “will be impacted before March 5, 2018, nearly six months from now, so Congress can have time to deliver on appropriate legislative solutions.”
“However,” says Duke, “I want to be clear that no new initial requests or associated applications filed after today will be acted on.”
Martin Shkreli, “Big Pharma Bro,” is asking people to pull hair out of Hillary Clinton’s head during her book tour. He wants people to send him hair samples for a DNA analysis.
[…] That’s right, Shkreli is offering $5,000 to some sicko fan of his to obtain a hair from Hillary Clinton so he can sequence her DNA. All without her consent. Seems like the Secret Service might have something to say about this creepy bounty.
Why would Shkreli be attacking Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the Clinton Foundation has helped lower the cost of HIV/AIDS medications for 11.8 million people worldwide. […]
As if on cue, here’s another story about the investigations that seems powered in good part by Manafort spin. I don’t even think the main thesis – that there’s some big conflict brewing between the Mueller probe and the congressional investigations – is really supported well. But there are several unsubstantiated, one-sided claims that almost have to come from Manafort’s team,* but since that can’t be said the claims are often presented unskeptically. It’s irksome.
* And probably some partisan Republicans who want to protect Trump and maybe themselves.
Renato Mariotti on an aspect of the CNN report linked @ #68. Again, I don’t see how this is supposed to show a conflict between Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee. He’s not being blocked from getting the transcripts by the committee but by Manafort’s lawyers. The title “Intensifying Russia probes could pit Hill against Mueller” and some of the reasoning are kind of puzzling.
Martin Shkreli, “Big Pharma Bro,” is asking people to pull hair out of Hillary Clinton’s head during her book tour. He wants people to send him hair samples for a DNA analysis.
The obsession with Clinton is really sick. Grotesque.
Robert Wright Lee IV, the Lee descendant who spoke at the MTV VMAs advocating for the removal of Confederate statues and denouncing white supremacy, has been forced out of his church.
[…] In a telling sign of how the administration wants to justify this decision, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced DACA’s fate at a news briefing Tuesday morning, referring to the program as an “unconstitutional exercise of authority by the executive branch.”
[…] The Department of Homeland Security has also cited the possibility that an anti-immigrant judge in Texas may order an immediate end to the DACA program as justification for winding it down more gradually.
The legal case against DACA, however, is nonsense. If Trump believes that the program is bad policy, then he should make that case to the American people. But he should not be allowed to claim a legal justification for a political decision.
The DACA program was created by the Obama administration through a 2012 executive action — that is, the executive branch relied on a combination of its own authority and the powers delegated to it by Congress in order to form DACA. Indeed, the case for or against DACA isn’t really a constitutional case at all. It is a question of whether federal laws enacted by Congress permitted the Obama administration to act as it did. […]
It’s tempting to think of DACA as a single act of the executive branch — the government offers certain immigrants a package of benefits as part of a single, unified program. Legally, however, it is a mistake to envision DACA this way. The program offers its beneficiaries a basket of certain freedoms, including security against deportation, permission to work in the United States, and the opportunity to become eligible for Social Security and Medicare benefits after 10 years of working and paying taxes. So the proper legal question is whether the executive branch has the authority to offer each of these benefits on their own.
Permission to remain in the United States
The question whether the executive can simply choose not to deport certain individuals turns out to be very easy. As the Supreme Court explained in Arizona v. United States, “a principal feature of the removal system [used to remove immigrants from the country] is the broad discretion exercised by immigration officials.” […]
As a practical matter, moreover, the administration could not remove everyone who is subject to deportation even if it wanted to. As the Obama administration explained in a memo justifying its efforts to expand DACA-like relief more broadly, “there are approximately 11.3 million undocumented aliens in the country,” but Congress only appropriated enough resources “to remove fewer than 400,000 such aliens each year.”
If Congress had wanted the executive to round up every undocumented immigrant in the country, rather than prioritizing certain immigrants over others, it would have appropriated enough money to make such mass deportations possible.
[…] A lower court’s injunction challenging Obama’s immigration authority, Texas explained, “does not require the Executive to remove anyone, and it does not touch the removal prioritization memorandum. The Executive has been free all along to issue ‘low-priority’ identification cards to aliens.”
Work authorization, Social Security, and Medicare
Having established that the executive does have the unilateral authority to permit certain undocumented immigrants to remain in the country — a process known as “deferred action” — the rest of the benefits afforded to DACA beneficiaries flow from federal law. Federal regulations promulgated in 1981, for example, list “an alien who has been granted deferred action” as one of several kinds of immigrants who may “apply for employment authorization” from the federal government. […]
A similar law governs Social Security and Medicare benefits. Though federal law ordinarily provides that “an alien who is not a qualified alien . . . is not eligible for any Federal public benefit,” the same law allows Social Security and Medicare benefits to be paid “to an alien who is lawfully present in the United States as determined by the Attorney General” (a power that, again, was later transferred to the Secretary of Homeland Security). […]
the case for providing Social Security and Medicare benefits to DACA beneficiaries is a little weaker than the case for the other benefits. […] the lion’s share of DACA’s benefits — the ability to live in America openly and work freely — are firmly within the executive branch’s authority.
Nothing requires Trump to sweep so broadly as to cancel clearly lawful benefits in order to prevent DACA beneficiaries from receiving a benefit that is, at least arguably, unlawful. […]
President Obama created this mess and it has landed in President Trump’s lap and our lap and the Congress’ lap. The reason we know it’s unlawful is President Obama himself said it was unlawful in 2010 and 2011 when he was asked to take these steps and did not. But he did so in 2012 in the middle of his reelection. I don’t know of any capable and forthright lawyer who argues that the administration can defend this proposition in court.
[…] This argument is belied by a Supreme Court decision in June 2016 on DAPA, a program which would have expanded the DACA program, and was found valid by four of the eight Supreme Court Justices on the court at the time. The fifth seat remained vacant because the Senate refused to even consider the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice following Antonin Scalia’s death in February 2016.
DACA, however, is not currently being challenged in court. Republican attorneys general from nine states (Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia) threatened to sue and force Trump to stop granting deportation relief and work permits to DACA recipients, but it remains to be seen whether they will actually take their cases to a judge. […]
[…] If we’re worried about keeping families together, then the illegal alien parents who brought them here should also be removed to the home country along with the DACA recipient alien. There is nothing wrong with asking people to go home, and if they’ve been able to violate our laws for 10 years or more, well, congratulations, you got a huge benefit from the American taxpayer, you got the best high school education in the western hemisphere, but now it’s time to go home and if you want to get in line and try to come in legally with those hundreds of thousands of your fellow countrymen who are waiting to do it the right way.
Heartless, ignorant dunderhead.
Koback is the chair of Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity, a commission that is looking for ways to restrict the votes of minorities, for ways to purge minorities and other Democratic-leaning voters off the roles, and for ways to prove Trump’s false claim that 3 million people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton. The commission is also looking for ways to reduce legal immigration.
More stupidity from Kobach:
It’s a tough job market. Those in Congress saying the president should not get rid of DACA amnesty should remember our young U.S. citizens are having a tough time. Why would you give amnesty to one million more aliens to compete with them?
The DACA program does not grant “amnesty” to anyone. Economic studies have shown that Kobach is wrong, and that deporting DACA recipients would negatively impact the U.S. economy.
The almost 1 million young undocumented people who have applied for Daca protections gave the federal government their addresses, fingerprints and more
Donald Trump’s decision to dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program from next March will leave almost a million young immigrants in fear that the personal information they voluntarily handed the federal government in signing up for the scheme could now be turned against them to facilitate their own deportations.
Tuesday’s announcement […] puts the spotlight on the huge government database that has been compiled over the past five years. The records contain highly sensitive information on every individual who has applied for legal protection under the scheme, as well as relatives who might also be vulnerable to removal from the US.
[…]
The storage of the home addresses of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers alone could make the work of federal immigration officers vastly easier in deporting them. That knowledge in turn is likely to spread alarm among Daca recipients that their voluntarily divulged information may now be exploited against them, rendering them vulnerable even in their own homes.
The database is currently under the control of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Under present rules, the data is not shared with the agency responsible for deportations — Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) — but as both outfits fall under the same Department of Homeland Security, the potential for data sharing remains.
[…]
An added concern for many Daca recipients is that in filling out the requisite forms, they were forced to give information that could reveal the locations of their undocumented parents, thus putting them also at risk. […]
[…]
In December 2016, shortly before leaving office, Obama’s homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson released a public letter [PDF] in which he set out the historic convention adhered to by successive administrations that erected a wall between USCIS and immigration enforcement. In the letter, Johnson pointed out that the US government had promised Daca applicants that “the personal information they provided will not later be used for immigration enforcement” unless there were evidence of a threat to national security or public safety.
Johnson’s letter could provide a way for civil rights and immigration advocacy groups to sue the Trump administration should it begin to use the Daca database to help Ice round up Dreamers for deportation. Several prominent legal groups are already preparing strategies for trying to protect the young immigrants should the database be breached in this way.
[blockquote]900,000 Bogus Arrests And Summonses That Were Forced To Be Dropped
A Coverup of a Massive Deleted-Email Scandal Concerning the NYPD Police Commissioner
“Hero” Cops With Extensive, Villainous Records Of Police Brutality and Corruption
Well-Documented Conspiracies to destroy Innocent Black and Brown Lives
An Illegal Racial Arrest Quota System – That Implicates New York City Leaders At The Very Top
15 Good Cops Putting Their Lives On The Line
To Fight
The City of New York,
The Mayor of New York,
The Police Commissioner,
and the Commanding Officer of Patrol Services[/blockquote]
[…] For Congress, meanwhile, it’s a political hand grenade without a pin. As if lawmakers didn’t have enough challenges on their plate, Trump’s “way out” involves shifting responsibility for Dreamers’ future to Capitol Hill – making it easier for the president who rescinded DACA to effectively declare in six months, “Don’t blame me; I told Congress to clean up the mess.”
That the president created the mess is a detail he apparently expects everyone to overlook.
Previewing Sessions’ brief remarks […] Trump said this morning via Twitter that members of Congress should prepare to “do [their] job” on DACA, but it’s not at all clear what, specifically, the White House expects from lawmakers. Does Trump want the Dream Act? Would he sign it? Does he envision any protections for Dreamers? If no bill passes, is it possible he’d create another six-month extension?
What’s more, the odds of Congress meeting this challenge are remote. Republicans have, by and large, opposed the Dream Act in recent years, and they don’t welcome the opportunity to enrage the GOP’s far-right base ahead of next year’s midterms. There’s talk of using Dreamers’ fate as a bargaining chip – trading DACA for border-wall funding, for example – but Democratic leaders have so far dismissed such talk as ridiculous.
Political failure is the most likely outcome.
Stepping back, it’s striking to appreciate just how many constituencies Trump failed today. Business leaders urged him not to do this. So did university leaders, the faith community, and veterans’ groups. Polls show DACA is popular with the American mainstream, which wasn’t exactly clamoring for any kinds of regressive changes.
The only group of people who wanted to see a move like this were elements of Trump’s far-right base – some of the same folks who cheered the president’s Joe Arpaio pardon and defended Trump’s nauseating reaction to violence in Charlottesville.
The president, in other words, is increasingly focused on representing the wishes of a radicalized sliver of the country – and practically no one else.
Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday responded to President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and called on Congress to “step up” and help those granted legal protection under the program.
Obama said in a Facebook post that undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, who the program grants legal protection, “are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper.”
He said that he spent “years” as president asking Congress to send him a bill that would give such immigrants a path to citizenship.
“That bill never came,” Obama said. “And because it made no sense to expel talented, driven, patriotic young people from the only country they know solely because of the actions of their parents, my administration acted to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people.”
He said his administration “did so based on the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike,” pushing back on Trump’s claim that Obama overextended executive authority by implementing the program.
“To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating,” Obama said. “And it is cruel.”
He said Trump’s decision was not “required legally” but rather “a political decision, and a moral question.”
“Now that the White House has shifted its responsibility for these young people to Congress, it’s up to Members of Congress to protect these young people and our future,” Obama said. “I join my voice with the majority of Americans who hope they step up and do it with a sense of moral urgency that matches the urgency these young people feel.”
[…] If reports are to be believed – and I suspect they generally are – the President was conflicted on this decision. He wanted to satisfy his promise to his core voters but he also did not want to get the blame for the impact of the decision. This is an important distinction between not wanting to inflict human suffering and not wanting to get blamed for it. In any case, as he put it in his tweet this morning, he’s leaving it up to Congress to prevent the carnage.
It’s important to note that there’s a way a normal President would handle this if you were not averse to the policy itself but believed it was either not legal or would not survive a judicial challenge. In that case a President brings together members of both parties in Congress and tries to put together a legislative fix. […] It is worth noting here that there are almost certainly enough votes in Congress to make some version of DACA law. The key question is whether Speaker Paul Ryan would allow such a bill to come to a vote in the House since it would probably need to pass mainly with Democratic votes.
In any case, that’s how you do it. Take no action until there’s a prepackaged plan ready to go in Congress that has buy-in from all the key players: the White House, congressional leadership of both parties etc. […]
What Trump is actually doing is designed not to get a good outcome but rather to avoid blame for a bad outcome. […] Now Democrats will rightly see any negotiations with the President on this front as negotiation with a bad actor. It’s not much better for the GOP. […] This triggers as significant intra-party fight under duress. No Republican leaders can be happy about that. […]
What the President is doing is the executive action equivalent of flying the plane up to 10,000 feet, tossing the Dreamers out the door and yelling after them, “I hope you have a parachute or if you don’t that Paul Ryan can get you one really fast!’ Actually, one small difference. He had Jeff Sessions toss them out of the plane. The big picture is the same: this is an approach meant not to achieve any good outcome but to get out of the blame when bad things start happening.
It ’s not clear what time Donald Trump, our restless President, was told of the latest North Korean nuclear test, which took place close to midnight Saturday, Washington time, and was that nation’s largest yet—Kim Jong-un’s first hydrogen bomb, apparently. But it only took until 7:30 a.m. for Trump to make an extremely dangerous and volatile situation worse. He did so, in part, by attacking South Korea, America’s ally and a country at risk in any confrontation—its capital, Seoul, home to ten million people, is close to the border, within range of the North’s artillery—for a supposed lack of toughness. Even at a moment of historic crisis, Trump can’t shake his bully’s instincts: disdain those who you think are weak; home in on and mock the vulnerable; blind yourself to the realities of your own circumstances and character; and pretend that a brawl will make it all better, despite the certainty that it won’t. […]
Debunking just one of the many lies Jeff Sessions told when he announced Trump’s decision to rescind DACA: Sessions lied when he said that DACA contributed a “surge of minors” streaming across the border.
[…] The program [DACA] was implemented in 2012, while the border surge started a year earlier, in 2011. One study by San Diego State University researchers in 2015 found the surge had much more to do with increasing violence and worsening economic conditions in Central American countries, which were forcing people to flee.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and San Diego State conducted separate surveys of children crossing the border around this time and found that a very small percentage knew anything about DACA or how it could benefit them. Only one out of 400 refugee children surveyed by the UN had ever heard of it. About 15 children out of the 400 surveyed by San Diego State believed they would be treated differently by US border patrol agents, but they didn’t know the specifics of the DACA program. If children were unable to tell border patrol agents that they would be in danger if they were sent back, they were still vulnerable for deportation. […]
[…] As we expected, Donald Trump dispatched the […] racist attorney general from the Confederate States of America to announce they will “wind down” the DACA program for undocumented children brought here illegally by their parents, giving Congress six months to fix it, and giving almost 800,000 innocent DREAMers six months to prepare to go back to their own countries, which is weird, since America is the only country most of them have ever known. […]
Sessions claimed, baselessly, that the DACA program led to a surge of unaccompanied minors at the border, which is funny since DACA doesn’t remotely apply to those people. Of course, Trump and Sessions are only doing this for their base of […] white supremacists, and those people won’t be swayed by simple facts like that.
Sessions said DACA beneficiaries took away precious American jobs, another lie he pulled out his ass. And he said Barack Obama’s executive action on DACA was “unconstitutional,” which is weird, because if executive actions involving immigration are unconstitutional, then how about Trump’s constant attempts to ban Muslims through executive fiat? […]
[…] a White House official who said Sessions had put Trump “in a box,” since he was just flat dang unwillin’ to defend the policy in court. The New York Times reports that Trump had been looking for “a way out” of taking this action, and adds, unbelievably, that “as late as one hour before” Sessions’s statement, White House people were worried “Mr. Trump might not fully grasp the details of the steps he was about to take, and when he discovered their full impact, he would change his mind.” […]
To be clear, all Trump wanted was to get out of being blamed for the fallout from this fulfillment of one of his most hateful campaign promises. […]
What is bugfuck amazing about this, especially coming from a president who enjoys approval ratings only slightly higher than cat shit, is that literally NOBODY WANTS THIS. (Nobody who matters or contributes to the American economy in any meaningful way, anyway.) Over 75% of Americans support DACA, including TWO THIRDS OF TRUMP VOTERS, as Philip Bump reports in the Washington Post. Over 400 business leaders told Trump to keep his tiny paws off DACA, too.
So let’s be clear about what just happened: This was a love letter from Trump and Sessions to the Nazis and white supremacists who marched through Charlottesville with tiki torches, some of whom Trump reminded us were just lovely folks. […]
If you want to fight back, check out the DREAM Act Toolkit, which identifies key swing votes in Congress and offers tools to get the message to them that, on top of being cruel and terrible and evil, this action will fuck the American economy right up. It even has handy images for you to tweet at them, that show exactly how much money those folks’ states stand to lose if DACA goes away forever […]
blfsays
Bits of this are fairly Ozland-specific, but much of it doesn’t require translation, First Dog on the Moon in the Grauniad, Welcome to the Roots and Tubers for Perpetual Historical Society (cartoon): “Ian the Climate Denialist Potato is sick of history being rewritten. It’s time to go back to when Australia Day was 30 July and doctors used leeches to expel toads lurking inside people!”
Assange is also hanging out with Dana Rohrabacher and Chuck C. Johnson. There’s no doubt where Assange’s sympathies lie. He likes far-right, white nationalist, anti-feminist men.
[…] At the heart of his [Sessions’] speech were two lies, straight from Breitbart, explaining why DACA must end:
The effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of unaccompanied minors on the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences. It also denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same jobs to go to illegal aliens.
Let’s examine these falsehoods in turn.
First: Sessions claimed that DACA “contributed to a surge of unaccompanied minors on the southern border.” This allegation, often touted by far-right xenophobes, is false. A study published in International Migration, a peer-reviewed academic journal, found that the surge in unaccompanied minors actually began in 2008. (DACA was announced in 2012.) The authors pointed to a host of factors contributing to this phenomenon, including escalating gang violence in Central America, as well as drug cartels’ willingness to target and recruit children in Mexico. But the study found that DACA was not one of these factors. Its authors concluded that “the claim that DACA is responsible for the increase in the flow of unaccompanied alien children is not supported by the data.”
Even without the study, it should be obvious that DACA played no role in this surge of unaccompanied minors because the theory itself makes no sense. Undocumented children who arrived in the United States following DACA’s implementation would not qualify for the program. Only those individuals who “have continuously resided in the United States since June 15, 2007” and “were physically present in the United States on June 15, 2012” could receive DACA status. […]
Second: Sessions alleged that DACA has “denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same jobs to go to illegal aliens.” This line is obviously drawn from the false narrative that immigrants steal jobs from American citizens. There is no actual evidence that DACA recipients have taken jobs from any Americans, let alone “hundreds of thousands.” […]
Once DACA is fully rescinded, its former recipients will lose their work permits (and thus their jobs) and face possible deportation. According to the left-leaning Center for American Progress, about 30,000 people will lose their jobs each month as their DACA status expires. The loss of these workers could reduce the national GDP by $280 billion to $433 billion over the next decade. […]
[…] Sessions praised the RAISE Act, a Republican-backed bill that would tightly curtail immigration into the U.S. Sessions claimed the act would “produce enormous benefits for our country.” In reality, the measure marks an effort to return America to an older immigration regime that locked out racial and ethnic minorities. Sessions has praised the 1924 law that created this regime—a law whose chief author declared that his act was meant to end “indiscriminate acceptance of all races.” On Tuesday, Sessions revived this principle in slightly more polite language.
[…] after Sessions’ speech, it is difficult to view this move as anything other than an attempt to implement the white nationalism that Trump and Sessions campaigned on.
From remarks Sessions made in 2015, when he was interviewed by Steve Bannon:
In seven years we’ll have the highest percentage of Americans, non-native born, since the founding of the Republic. Some people think we’ve always had these numbers, and it’s not so, it’s very unusual, it’s a radical change. When the numbers reached about this high in 1924, the president and Congress changed the policy, and it slowed down immigration significantly, we then assimilated through the 1965 [Immigration Act] and created really the solid middle class of America, with assimilated immigrants, and it was good for America. We passed a law that went far beyond what anybody realized in 1965, and we’re on a path to surge far past what the situation was in 1924.
An excerpt from a paper by a Georgia state historian named Paul Lombardo who discussed a Congress-appointed eugenecist named Harry Laughlin who helped create the 1924 law:
Using data for the U.S. Census Bureau and a survey of the number of foreign-born persons in jails, prisons and reformatories, he argued that the “American” gene pool was being polluted by a rising tide of intellectually and morally defective immigrants – primarily from eastern and southern Europe […]
His research culminated in his 1924 testimony to Congress in support of a eugenically-crafted immigration restriction bill. The Eugenics Research Association displayed a chart beneath the Rotunda of the Capitol building in Washington showing the cost to taxpayers of supporting Laughlin’s “social inadequates.”
The resulting law, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, was designed consciously to halt the immigration of supposedly “dysgenic” Italians and eastern European Jews. […]
The Republican-leaning Chamber of Commerce, dissed Trump’s decision to end DACA:
The original DACA program announced in 2012 was premised on sound public policy, and unlike DAPA, it was not challenged in court. Individuals enrolled in good faith and became ingrained in our communities and the nation’s economy. To reverse course now and deport these individuals is contrary to fundamental American principles and the best interests of our country.
What Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during today’s press conference:
We can’t just have one tweak to the [immigration] system.
Translation: Congress can’t just create a permanent fix for DACA recipients. If they try that, Trump won’t sign the bill. Congress has to include funding for Trump’s border wall.
Is it usual to be this far into the alphabet this early in the year? It looks like there is another little one behind Irma. Hopefully Irma will weaken before landfall. It is reaching these speeds with an eye pressure of 916 mb, so it could even get worse.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Lawrence O’Donnell on the Last Wordhad a segment with author/journalist Kurt Anderson on promoting his new book Fantasyland, which perfectly describes Trump and how he came to his belief system (fake news, etc.)
Congress critters have returned to Washington D.C. after their August vacation. But, the Senate has scheduled only 16 legislative working days in the month of September.
Here’s a partial list of the stuff they’re supposed to get done:
1. Pass spending bill to keep the federal government from shutting down.
2. Raise the debt ceiling (Steve Mnuchin says Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling by Sept. 29 to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debts and sending the economy into a tailspin.)
3. Approve at least one disaster-relief package related to Hurricane Harvey.
4. Reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
5. Reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
6. Reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Some conservatives in Congress continue to insist that a debt limit increase should be offset by cost-cutting measures in other areas.
And … Hurricane Irma is on the horizon.
Other things on the to-do list for Congress, (actions that are less time sensitive):
1. National Defense Authorization Act
2. Tax Reform
3. Taking another run at passing a health care bill (by September 30th, according to Trump, but most people are ignoring him). September 30th is also the deadline if the Senate wants to pass a bill with only 51 votes instead of 60. After the 30th, the rules change.
4. Pass an infrastructure bill.
Trump’s confusing tweet calling for Congress to “legalize DACA” and promising to “revisit this issue” if they don’t—that tweet directly contradicts a Trump administration memo that was distributed to legislators yesterday.
[…] the talking points from the Trump administration told Congress that DACA recipients should “prepare for and arrange their departure from the United States.”
“The Department of Homeland Security urges DACA recipients to use the time remaining on their work authorizations to prepare for and arrange their departure from the United States — including proactively seeking travel documentation — or to apply for other immigration benefits for which they may be eligible.” […]
Some people really do have their heads on straight, and their hearts in the right place:
If any of the 39 Microsoft employees who are recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) face legal challenges when the program ends, the tech company will defend them in court, President and CLO Brad Smith wrote in a blog post Tuesday.
“[…] we need to put the humanitarian needs of these 800,000 people on the legislative calendar before a tax bill. … In short, urgent DACA legislation is both an economic imperative and a humanitarian necessity.”
He called DACA recipients young people who are “part of our nation’s fabric” and said “they belong here.” He said Microsoft will work with other companies and the business community as a whole to “vigorously defend the legal rights” of all recipients.
“For the 39 Dreamers that we know of who are our employees, our commitment is clear. If Congress fails to act, our company will exercise its legal rights properly to help protect our employees,” he said.
If those Microsoft employees are deported, Smith said the company will back them up.
“If the government seeks to deport any one of them, we will provide and pay for their legal counsel. We will also file an amicus brief and explore whether we can directly intervene in any such case. In short, if Dreamers who are our employees are in court, we will be by their side,” he said.
Sketchy, disorganized, and run by total dunderheads:
Members of President Donald Trump’s bogus “election integrity” commission vice chaired by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) used personal email to conduct official business, plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the commission claimed Tuesday.
The claims appeared in a joint status report filed by both sides Tuesday in the case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Members of the panel “have been using personal email accounts rather than federal government systems to conduct Commission work,” according to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which filed suit against the committee in July.
The lawyers’ group said in the filing that the use of personal accounts is a violation of the Presidential Records Act and claimed that lawyers for the commission said “they did not yet have any settled plan for how they would collect emails from these personal, non-federal government systems.”
The lawsuit is against the panel at large, a number of its members and a number of federal offices.
The committee alleged in its lawsuit that the election panel’s “failure to disclose communications and make its meetings open to the public” was a violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). […]
Wonkette covered the fact that Republican dunderheads in the House of Representatives are sending subpoenas to the FBI, trying to discredit the Steele dossier, and taking other actions that may damage investigations into connections between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
[…] Devin Nunes “recused” himself (he really didn’t) from the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into connections between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, […] Rep. Mike Conaway, was going to act growned up and patriotic and work with Democrats to get to the bottom of one of the most important questions our nation has ever faced, namely whether the sitting president and/or his people colluded with a hostile foreign power to steal the Oval Office. That has not happened. Instead, […] Republicans on the committee, actually led in everything but name by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-Benghazi), have turned their efforts to trying to smear the very existence of the Steele Dossier, the collection of raw intelligence compiled by British spy Christopher Steele.
In that spirit, Gowdy and his fellow Republicans on the committee have sent subpoenas to the FBI and the Justice Department, because … wait, what? No, for real, what the fuck is Gowdy up to here? […] the House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed the bureau and the Justice Department for documents relating to the dossier, the FBI’s relationship with dossier author Christopher Steele, and the bureau’s possible role in supporting what began as an opposition research project against candidate Donald Trump in the final months of last year’s presidential campaign. […]
Hahaha, let us translate from Washington Examiner into normal human reality-based English! Trey Gowdy and Devin Nunes […] are really pissed off that the FBI and the Justice Department […] are actually focused on the Trump-Russia investigation, as opposed to doing Trump’s bidding by investigating “leaks” and “wire tapps” and the REAL Trump-Russia conspiracy, which is that the Democrats concocted the Trump-Russia conspiracy in order for Hillary Clinton to steal the election FROM HERSELF, and that Fusion GPS, the intelligence firm that originally hired Steele, also had a Russian client one time, which must mean ALL THE FIRM’S WORK is for the Russians. […]
If you’ll remember, Senator Chuck Grassley, whose sexually active brain raccoons are named Fran and Gunther, has been leading his own similar effort in the Senate Intelligence Committee, putting the dossier on trial, instead of actually trying to do a Trump-Russia investigation. […]
The FBI’s involvement in … the creation of the dossier? But we literally just explained that McCain gave them the … oh fuck it. […]
Perhaps somebody can sit Gowdy’s dumb ass down and […] explain that yes, the FBI has used the dossier of raw intelligence, to investigate and verify its claims, and in some cases to debunk them, because THAT’S WHAT YOU DO WITH RAW INTELLIGENCE, […]
So far, the FBI and Justice Department have told Gowdy’s subpoenas to pound sand, so Gowdy has extended their deadline to September 14, which gives the FBI and Justice eight more […]
We are enraged and need more coffee right now, so let’s just agree that we’ve answered the question of how Trey Gowdy is fucking the American republic right now. He’s always doing it in some way or another. […]
Yes, government databases will be used against DACA recipients:
Shortly after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration will end the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program, the Department of Homeland Security released an FAQ that confirmed immigration advocates’ worst fears.
To receive DACA benefits, applicants had to turn over a huge amount of personal information to the government. Now, the FAQ explained, the government will provide this information to immigration enforcement agents if they ask for it. Undocumented immigrants who applied for DACA placed an enormous amount of faith in the government. On Tuesday, the government revealed it will betray their trust.
[…] Trump has performed this kind of bait-and-switch before. In July, the president announced he would ban transgender individuals from the military just one year after the Pentagon invited trans troops to serve openly. Trans service members who revealed their gender identity may soon be purged based on information they provided.
DACA beneficiaries and transgender service members thus find themselves in the same bind: encouraged to provide sensitive information to a government that may now use that information against them. This duplicity is plainly unfair—so radically unfair, in fact, that it may cross a constitutional line. […]
Propaganda, blatant conflicts of interest, and Trump using the presidency to put money in his pocket … again:
Trump’s new [reelection campaign ad] talks about creating jobs, while it shows working class Americans make coins with his face […]
The video opens with a clip from Trump’s June announcement that he would “expand apprenticeships and vocational training.” Although the executive order is described as intended to help Americans develop fruitful careers about which they can be passionate, the video soon makes it clear that the ad isn’t promoting run-of-the-mill jobs — it is specifically showing ordinary citizens manufacturing “Make America Great Again” coins.
With Trump’s face engraved into the front and an American flag on the back, the coins can be purchased online from the Trump re-election campaign store for $45.
One apprentice at Medalcraft Mint, which manufactures the coins, tells the camera that the apprenticeship “will allow me to advance at Medalcraft which, in part, is gonna help me make America great again.” […]
[…] the majority of the video shows off either the coins being made or people talking about the honor of being able to make them. […]
Stephen Colbert reacted to Trump’s rescinding of DACA, and to announcements made by Jeff Sessions and by Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The video is 5:34 minutes long.
If you scroll down on the same page, Jimmy Kimmel’s segment responding to the DACA issue is also presented; as is Trevor Noah’s segment on “The Daily Show”; and ditto for Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show.”
Here’s a partial list of the stuff they’re supposed to get done:
1. Pass spending bill to keep the federal government from shutting down.
2. Raise the debt ceiling (Steve Mnuchin says Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling by Sept. 29 to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debts and sending the economy into a tailspin.)
3. Approve at least one disaster-relief package related to Hurricane Harvey.
From MSNBC reporting, it sounds like the Harvey relief bill now combines those three based on a bipartisan/WH agreement. If the Democrats have agreed to it, the Republicans who oppose it probably won’t have the numbers to block it.
Wonkette covered the fact that Republican dunderheads in the House of Representatives are sending subpoenas to the FBI, trying to discredit the Steele dossier, and taking other actions that may damage investigations into connections between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
And as Adam Schiff was pointing out yesterday, they actually subpoenaed the WH a while back asking for any documents related to the Comey firing and didn’t receive the letter draft(s) which have recently been revealed in the press. At the same time, the Republicans went ahead and subpoenaed the FBI/DoJ (over the objections of Democrats) before even asking them to voluntarily provide the documents, which is disrespectful and antagonizing for no legitimate reason. It’s such garbage. The one positive aspect (aside from their showing their true colors) is that it might be an indication that they know what’s coming and how bad it is for Trump and the Party.
Voters overwhelmingly support allowing undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to stay in the country, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, placing President Donald Trump’s decision to wind down the controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program at odds with public opinion.
A majority of voters, 58 percent, think these undocumented immigrants, also known as Dreamers, should be allowed to stay and become citizens if they meet certain requirements — a sentiment that goes well beyond the existing DACA program. Another 18 percent think they should be allowed to stay and become legal residents, but not citizens. Only 15 percent think they should be removed or deported from the country.
Support for allowing these immigrants to remain in the U.S. spans across party lines: 84 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of independents and 69 percent of Republicans think they should stay.
…
The same holds true for Trump’s electoral base. Two-thirds of self-identified Trump voters think the Dreamers should stay; only 26 percent think they should be deported….
SC @115, thanks for the reminder that the White House did NOT responded properly to an investigative committee’s request for documents because the response did not include the draft letter (the letter some called a “screed”) that team Trump had come up with before the firing of Comey. Another obstruction of justice?
And, in a follow-up to SC’s comment 114, it looks like Democrats may have pushed Trump to acquiesce to their compromise, short-term plan:
During a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday, […] Trump backed a proposal from Democrats to tie aid for Hurricane Harvey to a three-month debt limit increase and a short-term government funding bill through December – much to the reported consternation of congressional Republicans.
“In the meeting, the President and Congressional leadership agreed to pass aid for Harvey, an extension of the debt limit, and a continuing resolution both to December 15, all together. Both sides have every intention of avoiding default in December and look forward to working together on the many issues before us,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), announced in a statement after meeting with Trump. […]
Republican sources told the Washington Post and Politico’s Jake Sherman that Trump backed the Democrats’ plan despite opposition from Republican leaders present in the meeting. […]
Jennifer Jacobs: “Trump says he thinks Congress wants to take care of DACA. ‘Chuck and Nancy want to see something happen and so do I’, he tells press on AF1.”
blfsays
From MSNBC reporting, it sounds like the Harvey relief bill now combines those three based on a bipartisan/WH agreement.
Both the Washington Post and New York Times concur, but point out there is a catch: The funding and debit ceiling increase are merely a three month extension until December-ish. (I gather that all three are not yet(?) in the bill, but am under the impression that is mostly a formality.) Whether or not it’s a done deal which will pass and be signed, I will not try to predict one way or the other — both hair furor and the thugs are too unpredictable & hostage to the most unhinged, and the dummies tend to shoot themselves in the feet.
McConnell doing a press conference right now confirming that Trump sided with Pelosi and Schumer against the Republicans on the 3-month CR and debt-ceiling increase and combining this with the Harvey relief bill, really leaving him no choice. Schumer talking to press now. He seems quite pleased.
CNN is reporting that Devin Nunes sent a letter threatening Sessions and Wray with contempt for not turning over the documents. Nunes isn’t even supposed to be involved with this.
[…] One senior Republican aide spoke more bluntly on background: “The president of the United States just handed a loaded gun to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.”
The meeting came after congressional Democrats turned the screws on the president and GOP leaders, who need Democratic votes to raise the debt limit and avert a default. […]
The move by congressional Democrats is intended to preserve their leverage later this year on other issues […] Democratic leaders are emboldened because Republicans will need significant Democratic support on the spending and debt legislation, which is expected to split congressional Republicans. […]
FEMA officials told lawmakers Tuesday that they’ll run out of emergency funding as soon as Friday. Compounding that, Treasury officials say they will not be able to pay FEMA claims to victims unless the debt ceiling is increased immediately. […]
Trump appeared to tire of the back and forth when Democrats wouldn’t cave to the six-month increase. So he struck a deal — or at least, what he saw as one.
Republicans disagree and one senior GOP aide said the whole thing was “mystifying.”
“Maybe it’s about the wall, I don’t know,” this person said. “None of it makes any sense.”
[…] Democratic leadership staff began discussing a short-term debt ceiling strategy before the August recess, […] Some staff floated the idea of only agreeing to temporary increases in the debt ceiling until Republicans promised that tax reform will not add to the deficit.
The ongoing conversation suggests Democrats were ready to play hardball on the debt ceiling even before the hurricanes that have threatened Texas, Louisiana and Florida.
The short-term debt-limit strategy allows Democrats to say they’re not flirting with default but also buys them the time they want to negotiate and use their leverage for other big-ticket items from immigration to government funding. […] a debt limit hike, government spending, hurricane aid and protection for Dreamers — could in theory be rolled into one giant package later this year, […]
[Republican leaders] are already pulling teeth to get one increase in the nation’s borrowing limit over the finish-line. . […]
Dozens of lobbyists, contractors and others who make their living influencing the government pay President Trump’s companies for membership in his private golf clubs, a status that can put them in close contact with the president, a USA TODAY investigation found.
Members of the clubs Trump has visited most often as president — in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia — include at least 50 executives whose companies hold federal contracts and 21 lobbyists and trade group officials. Two-thirds played on one of the 58 days the president was there, according to scores they posted online.
Because membership lists at Trump’s clubs are secret, the public has until now been unable to assess the conflicts they could create. USA TODAY found the names of 4,500 members by reviewing social media and a public website golfers use to track their handicaps, then researched and contacted hundreds to determine whether they had business with the government.
The review shows that, for the first time in U.S. history, wealthy people with interests before the government have a chance for close and confidential access to the president as a result of payments that enrich him personally. It is a view of the president available to few other Americans.
Among Trump club members are top executives of defense contractors, a lobbyist for the South Korean government, a lawyer helping Saudi Arabia fight claims over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the leader of a pesticide trade group that sought successfully to persuade the Trump administration not to ban an insecticide government scientists linked to health risks….
I haven’t seen anything about whether or not it’s been introduced. (I love that the TPM URL says “shite nationalists.” Don’t know if it was intentional or a happy mistake.)
Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that it has discovered it sold ads during the U.S. presidential election to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company’s findings.
Facebook officials reported that they traced the ad sales, totaling $100,000, to a Russian “troll farm” with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, these people said.
A small portion of the ads, which began in the summer of 2015, directly named Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the people said. Most of the ads focused on pumping politically divisive issues such as gun rights and immigration fears, as well as gay rights and racial discrimination.
The acknowledgment by Facebook comes as congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller are probing Russian interference in the U.S. election, including allegations that the Kremlin may have coordinated with the Trump campaign.
…
Even though the ad spending from Russia is tiny relative to overall campaign costs, the report from Facebook that a Russian firm was able to target political messages is likely to fuel pointed questions from investigators about whether the Russians received guidance from people in the United States — a question some Democrats have been asking for months.
,,,
Facebook discovered the Russian connection as part of an investigation that began this spring looking at purchasers of politically-motivated ads, according to people familiar with the inquiry. It found that 3,300 ads had digital footprints that led to the Russian company.
Facebook teams then discovered 470 suspicious and likely fraudulent Facebook accounts and pages that it believes operated out of Russia, had links to the company and were involved in promoting the ads.
A Facebook official said “there is evidence that some of the accounts are linked to a troll farm in St. Petersburg, referred to as the Internet Research Agency, though we have no way to independently confirm.” The official declined to release any of the ads it traced to Russian companies or entities….
“Hundreds of EPA Workers Leave in Recent Days”: “Nearly 400 workers have left the Environmental Protection Agency in recent days, the agency said Tuesday, a wave of departures that soon could take the agency’s staffing to its lowest point in almost 30 years….”
Susan Rice had to testify to the House Intel Committee today. Donald Jr. will testify tomorrow at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both are closed-door.
Colin Kaepernick: “This violation that happened against my Brother Michael Bennett is disgusting and unjust. I stand with Michael and I stand with the people.”
The problem with this argument is that FB has a history of manipulating data/analysis to downplay its role (I discussed their earlier report here a few months ago). They’re not to be trusted on this.
NYT – “Trump Jr. Says He Wanted Russian Dirt to Determine Clinton’s ‘Fitness’ for Office”: “Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Thursday that he set up a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer because he was intrigued that she might have damaging information about Hillary Clinton, saying it was important to learn about Mrs. Clinton’s ‘fitness’ to be president.”
Yeah, it was especially important “later in the summer.”
Jr.’s statement is so wildly implausible and in conflict with known evidence that it seems to me (IANAL) to skirt kind of close for his lawyers to subornation of perjury.
MSNBC is saying that Trump called Pelosi this morning, and not the other way around. During the conversation, Pelosi asked Trump to tweet a more positive message about DACA.
Trump is basing his case for tax reform on a falsehood.
Ahead of his event in North Dakota yesterday in support of tax reform, Donald Trump insisted that the United States is “the highest taxed nation in the world.” […]
“So we’re here today to talk about a plan to create a new age of American prosperity by reducing the crushing tax burden on our companies and on our workers. The taxes are crazy — the highest taxed nation in the world.” […]
America’s tax revenue is 26 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is significantly lower than the average 34 percent other developed countries pay relative to their GDP, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Denmark, France and Sweden are among those nations that top America on taxes. […]
An Associated Press report added that the overall U.S. tax burden “is actually one of the lowest among the 32 developed and large emerging-market economies tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.”
There are different metrics for measuring a country’s tax rates, but there is literally no metric in which the United States is “the highest taxed nation in the world.” […]
To hear the president tell it, Congress needs to approve the pending tax reform plan – a “plan” that does not yet exist – in order to help the economy. In his next breath, however, Trump generally likes to tell the public that the economy is in amazing shape thanks largely to the awesomeness of his awesome presidency.
Trump then says tax reform needs to pass because the United States is “the highest taxed nation in the world.” Except, that’s wrong, too.
What we’re left with is a curious dynamic: the president wants tax reform, but he can’t seem to think of any legitimate reasons why.
[…] Donald Trump’s core drive is dominance. We see that in his politics which is revanchist and destructive and in its less dire manifestations driven by a zero sum vision of human and economic relations. For me to win, you have to lose. The more fluid and collaborative aspects of human interaction seem entirely lost on Trump. This is why he is the leader of the revanchist, racist far right.
[…] Trump needs to dominate people. Clearly Trump felt that McConnell and Ryan are not serving him well enough or loyally enough or both. So he lashed out or tried to damage them. Schumer and Pelosi were simply the most convenient cudgels available.
I don’t say this to discount the two Democrats’ savvy in pulling this off. I think they managed quite a coup. […] It’s not clear to me whether Trump doesn’t realize that he hurt himself as much as he did Ryan and McConnell or whether he does realize it and simply doesn’t care. The core take remains the same. Trump’s core personal drive is the need to dominate. […] People who are driven by the need to dominate are also often self-destructive. None of this is surprising. […]
Hmmm. The Trump administration approved funds directed towards recovery from Hurricane Harvey, but refused federal assistance that Governor Kate Brown of Oregon requested to fight wildfires and to recover from wildfires.
[…] “I talked with the federal authorities two weeks ago, asking for additional federal assistance, I was told point-blank ‘no’,” said Brown.
[…] Oregon accounts for nearly one-third of the scorched acres in the country. Of 1.5 million acres or more burning across the country about a half million acres are in Oregon. […]
National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn is Donald Trump’s top economic policy aide. He was also, until recently, widely regarded as a leading candidate to succeed Janet Yellen at the helm of the Federal Reserve when her term expires next year. But a report from Michael C. Bender, Harriet Torry, and Nick Timiraos at the Wall Street Journal says that’s now “unlikely”.
Trump, it seems, soured on Cohn when Cohn told the Financial Times on August 25 that the Trump administration “can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning” neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.
Cohn, who is still the administration’s point person on the development of a tax reform plan, is apparently in the doghouse.
[Cohn] tried to walk the line between Trump-fueled ambition and maintaining his sense of self-respect only to find that it’s impossible. […] Trump is interested in making slavish personal loyalty to Donald Trump a core qualification for the Fed job — a potentially dangerous situation.
Cohn himself was never all that promising as a Fed candidate.
He’s an experienced financial markets practitioner and successful businessman, but he has no training in economics, and the job of running a central bank in the public interest is not closely related to the job of running an investment bank for profit. […]
[…] that “the president visibly bristles at the mention of his economic adviser” ever since the August 25 interview — does not instill a ton of confidence.
The Fed is independent, with good reason.
The power to appoint a Federal Reserve chair is among the president’s most important powers. […]
The Chair runs a significant freestanding government agency. He or she is not part of the president’s “team” and isn’t supposed to try to narrowly serve the president’s agenda. That’s because the job of presiding over stable long-term economic growth is inherently in conflict with serving the president’s political interest — timing rapid economic growth to coincide with his reelection campaign.
Reasonable people can disagree about exactly how much independence it’s realistic to expect. But “is willing to defend the president’s defenses of neo-Nazis” is an extraordinarily high bar for obsequiousness […]
Here’s Jr.’s full prepared statement. It’s…not remotely believable. There are reports that he’s said he didn’t tell his father about the meeting at the time (or doesn’t recall doing so), and doesn’t recall being aware of his father’s involvement with the bogus public statement about the meeting crafted on the way back from Europe. Neither of these claims is plausible, either.
[…] right now, there aren’t enough construction workers in Texas to do it. The US unemployment rate, at 4.4 percent, is at its lowest level since the Great Recession started, and construction companies across the country have been struggling to find workers. In August, about 77 percent of US builders reported a shortage of framing crews and 61 percent faced a shortage of drywall installation workers, according to the National Association of Home Builders. […]
If the story of rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is any indication, undocumented immigrants will be a crucial part of Houston’s recovery.
After Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush temporarily suspended certain labor laws, allowing contractors to hire workers without checking their legal status. The idea was to make it easy for people who lost their documents in the storm to get work — but in effect, the law also allowed companies to hire undocumented workers who didn’t have papers at all. […]
Undocumented laborers — mostly from Mexico and Central America — did the dirtiest jobs in rebuilding the city, making an average of about $10 an hour. They started by sweeping streets and removing moldy debris from buildings. They cleaned out rotting food from refrigerators. They put FEMA tarps on homes. They ended up removing more than 38 million cubic yards of trash and debris from the city. When reconstruction began, they were the ones installing new roofs and sheet rock on buildings. […]
Steve Bannon said this during an interview recorded for CBS’s “60 Minute” program:
The bishops have been terrible about this [DACA]. By the way, you know why? You know why? Because unable to really — to — to — to come to grips with the problems in the church, they need illegal aliens, they need illegal aliens to fill the churches. […]
They have — they have an economic interest. They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration.
Here is the statement from the US conference of Catholic Bishops:
The cancellation of the DACA program is reprehensible. It causes unnecessary fear for DACA youth and their families. These youth entered the U.S. as minors and often know America as their only home … This decision is unacceptable and does not reflect who we are as Americans.
As we speak, wad of flesh and disappointment BabyShits McTrumpenStuff, AKA Donald Trump Jr., is sitting with staffers from the Senate Judiciary Committee, trying to figure out how to weasel his way out of whatever questions they’re asking about his Russia ties without getting himself or Daddy in big trouble. Reportedly he’s told them he didn’t collude with Russia, which is possible. Russia may have simply deemed him too stupid to collude with. […]
He would find out — from the Russians — whether Hillary was qualified to be president. He would do it FOR AMERICAN PATRIOTIC REASONS. Of course, if they gave him some really good shit, he would do that weird toddler bouncy run through the halls of Trump Tower […]
Social media company’s advertising data doesn’t tally with census data for millennial and other demographics to the tune of millions of people
[…]
In the UK, Facebook says it can reach 7.8 million users aged between 18 and 24. The Office of National Statistics, however, says there were only 5.8 million people in that age group in the whole in the country in 2016.
The problem appears to be systematic and global, with similar discrepancies having been found in various different countries around the world in Facebook’s key markets.
[… other examples …]
The question marks over Facebook’s audience reach will further erode relations with advertisers still angry about ads running around fake news sites, and the social media site’s admission of a string of measurement errors affecting their campaigns inflating the average time people spend watching videos, in some cases by up to 80%,
Facebook said in a statement that its audience estimates did not match census data, but added that this was by design as ad reach numbers are designed to estimate how many people in a given area are eligible to see an ad a business might run. They are not designed to match population or census estimates.
The company added: This is just an estimator and campaign planning tool. It’s not a business’ actual reach or campaign reporting, and is not billable.
[…]
In order words, because we claim we don’t charge based on these figures it’s completely Ok we deliberately lie to our benefit. Just like we did with video viewing times and other statistics.
So in addition to not protecting user’s privacy, placing legit ads on illegit posts (implying endorsement by the legit advertisers), and being unable to distinguish historically iconic / correct contentand the resultant protests about inappropriate takedowns from vastly more dubious content, farcebork itself frequently & deliberately generates & publishes / circulates fake data.
The participants in the lawsuit:
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia.
Here’s a video clip of the shooting @ #172. Strange that they would choose a moment when guys are washing the window unless they were shooting at them.
blfsays
Although the “ship of hate” C-Star — crowdfunded by nazis to attack NGO-operated migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean — has ended it’s activities, it is still causing problems on Malta. (And, according to vesselfinder, is still just outside Malta’s waters, where it’s been for weeks, low on supplies and refused permission to dock. Cue a very small violin.)
According to this somewhat confusing article in the Malta Independent, a local anti-EU politician, Ivan Grech Mintoff, is being attacked by the nazis for saying “[my party] condemns the far right and racist stance, which this ship represents, as well as the indifference to the plight of genuine refugees risking their lives to seek a better future”, and the local nazis (known as “MPM”) for providing supplies to the ship: “Such action shows that MPM supports racist, violent and dangerous extreme right causes instead of the Christianity to which they profess to adhere.”
The nazis are in an uproar: A Muslim lover and traitor to your Maltese brother, to call him human is too much. He’s a disgusting being, and have accused him of being bribed and bought. Grech Mintoff has apparently filed a complaint with Malta’s police.
[…] The trail that leads from the Russian operation to the bogus Melvin Redick, however, is fairly clear. United States intelligence concluded that DCLeaks.com was created in June 2016 by the Russian military intelligence agency G.R.U. The site began publishing an eclectic collection of hacked emails, notably from George Soros, the financier and Democratic donor, as well as a former NATO commander and some Democratic and Republican staffers. Some of the website’s language — calling Mrs. Clinton “President of the Democratic Party” and referring to her “electional staff” — seemed to belie its pose as a forum run by American activists.
DCLeaks would soon be followed by a blog called Guccifer 2.0, which would leave even more clues of its Russian origin. Those sites’ posts, however, would then be dwarfed by those from WikiLeaks, which American officials believe got thousands of Democratic emails from Russian intelligence hackers through an intermediary. At each stage, a chorus of dubious Facebook and Twitter accounts — alongside many legitimate ones — would applaud the leaks.
During its first weeks online, DCLeaks drew no media attention. But The Times found that some Facebook users somehow discovered the new site quickly and began promoting it on June 8. One was the Redick account, which posted about DCLeaks to the Facebook groups “World News Headlines” and “Breaking News — World.”
The Redick profile lists Central High School in Philadelphia and Indiana University of Pennsylvania as his alma maters; neither has any record of his attendance. In one of his photos, this purported Pennsylvania lifer is sitting in a restaurant in Brazil — and in another, his daughter’s bedroom appears to have a Brazilian-style electrical outlet. His posts were never personal, just news articles reflecting a pro-Russian worldview. […]
Might Mr. Redick, Ms. Fulton, Ms. Donovan and others be real Americans who just happened to notice DCLeaks the same day? No. The Times asked Facebook about these and a half-dozen other accounts that appeared to be Russian creations. The company carried out its standard challenge procedure by asking the users to establish their bona fides. All the suspect accounts failed and were removed from Facebook. […]
On Twitter, meanwhile, hundreds of accounts were busy posting anti-Clinton messages and promoting the leaked material obtained by Russian hackers. […]
The researchers discovered long lists of bot accounts that sent out identical messages within seconds or minutes of one another, firing in alphabetical order. […] On Election Day, one such list cited leaks from Anonymous Poland in more than 1,700 tweets. Snippets of them provide a sample of the sequence:
@edanur01 #WarAgainstDemocrats 17:54
@efekinoks #WarAgainstDemocrats 17:54
@elyashayk #WarAgainstDemocrats 17:54
@emrecanbalc #WarAgainstDemocrats 17:55
@emrullahtac #WarAgainstDemocrats 17:55
[Some of the Twitter accounts] had previously been used for illicit marketing, suggesting that they may have been purchased on the black market. Some were genuine accounts that had been hijacked. […]
I started to expect this when I listened to the oral arguments, but I didn’t want to be too optimistic. The Department of (currently In)Justice lawyers couldn’t pull off the argument about these organizations – the underlying case was just too weak.
* (also the relatives they were trying to exclude)
Nerd, there aren’t any other stories yet, since the BI one just came out. It’s another report by Natasha Bertrand about Trump’s lawyer Ty Cobb (and Sarah Huckabee Sanders) being fooled by and responding to someone posing as Dan Scavino. For now, you can read more on Bertrand’s Twitter.
If these are real, Cobb literally commented on the investigation over email to someone who even if he was Scavino was not a member of the legal team but was in any case emailing from an account ending “…emailprankster.co.uk.”
tomhsays
@ #186
If you happen to use Chrome browser, the Mercury reader extension solves that problem, bypassing the adblocker blocker.
With fires and heat on the west coast, hurricanes barrelling down on the east, the national disaster that is Trump, amongst all this carnage, this is the one story that most concerns me.
This could be a killing blow. Our economy depends on credit ratings. If that system goes down, we’re beyond fucked. A year from now we might be wishing hurricanes were our biggest problem.
inb4 anyone accuses me of minimizing the destruction of these hurricanes. What’s left of my family is mostly in FL. I’m worried sick about it right now.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Rachael Maddow just announced Hillary Clinton will be live in the studio next week (Thursday 9/14) shilling her (Hillary’s) new book about last year’s election. Keep tuned….
tomhsays
@ #192
Glad if it helps, but what’s remarkable is your dedication to this thread. I guarantee you there are a lot of people you never hear from that appreciate your work.
First Dog on the Moon, Which threatened species will pee on a politician in the fight for justice? (cartoon): “You’re here to represent Australia’s 1700 threatened species so be nice.” There are a few Ozlanders mentioned but they don’t require translation, just substitute the name of USAian thug, UK nasty party swivel eyed loon, or… well, you get the idea.
blfsays
Apropos of not too much, the emailprankster.co.uk domain is real, and was registered in late-June this year by what is described as an “UK Individual”. It’s currently geolocating to someplace in Germany (possibly Karlsruhe), but it looks like that is just an exit point for the ISP.
Trump now appears to be instructing Republicans to back off ACA repeal (his sabotage of the ACA continues, as far as I’m aware). It’s amusing that he’s trying to pretend he hasn’t been centrally involved in the repeal efforts. They only have until the end of the month, and there are signs they’ve largely dropped the plan to repeal, but you can’t trust them. Even with Trump changing tack, we need to be vigilant until the 30th, and demand that he ends the sabotage immediately.
From the Moses & Singer site, who are the legal firm in Mr Davis’s e-address (see the @212 link):
Jeffrey M. Davis is a partner in Moses & Singer’s Corporate / M&A [Mergers & Acquisitions –blf] practice and co-chair of the Hospitality practice. He advises on a broad range of general corporate matters affecting middle market companies, such as media, healthcare, consumer products, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, and financial services. He further specializes in the legal needs facing the hotel and hospitality industries and the advertising industry.
[…]
For the hotel and hospitality industry, Jeff assists hotel owners, developers and operators in the negotiation of management, technical services, and trademark licensing agreements. He represents large hotel and leisure companies as well as private investors.
[…]
As such, Mr Davis was presumably part of hair furor’s legal team for some aspects of the proposed Trum-prat Moscow eyesore deal.
Josh Marshall discussed the latest article by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The article is titled, “The First White President.”
[…] the central premise contained in the title is exactly right. […] While it is of course true that every American President before Barack Obama was a white man, Donald Trump is the first President for whom his whiteness is an explicit part, really the central part of the why and how and what of his presidency.
The critique of ‘identity politics’ is that ‘whiteness’ is just as much an expression of ‘identity politics’ as black or hispanic or other forms of ethnic or group expression and activism. But in America, whiteness has always been treated as the baseline, the norm, the default. The group identity of white people has always been so pervasive and dominant that it’s seldom needed to be explicit. In a sense it’s barely even conscious of itself. But what people on both sides of the Trump divide noted last year was that the 2016 campaign was a watershed in which many whites started thinking of themselves as a threatened ethnic group, another ‘identity group’ if you will.
[…] whites aren’t new arrivals to power. They’ve always had the power and they mostly still have it. Trolls and racists sometimes ask what’s wrong with having National Association for the Advancement of White People if there’s a NAACP and no one thinks there’s anything wrong with that. But most people, even if it’s more intuitive than reasoned, realize that it’s fundamentally different. The ethnic consciousness and demands of the powerful and dominant are intrinsically aggressive and threatening in a way that those of the powerless or marginalized are simply not.
On another level, though, I found Coates essay what I can only call baffling.
Coates seems to be reacting to a consensus both among white pundits and ‘the left’ that Trumpism is driven by the economic privation of the white working class or a backlash against cultural condescension against the white working class. Since Coates is able to assemble a broad assortment of statistical, public opinion and historical data pointing to race as the central and overriding force behind Trumpism, he further argues that the focus on economic hardship of the white working class is a form of denial, an unwillingness to grapple with the centrality of race in American politics and the catastrophic damage (in the form of Trump’s election as just the most recent and cataclysmic example) of white supremacy and white backlash.
I should say that I basically agree with all of this. Race and class are never really separate in American or any other society. But virtually all the arguments about Trumpism as driven by economic insecurity or as a product of the white working class generally fall apart on even cursory inspection. Anyone who’s looked at the public opinion data, the electoral data knows that race and particularly perceptions of threat to the power or cultural dominance of white people and more generally white Christians is the overwhelming determinant of who supported and supports Trump. […]
Much more at the link.
On another subject, I will second the praise that others have posted for SC. I cannot take care of all of my job obligations and also be the only major commenter/curator on this thread. From the start, others have helped enormously, but SC is exceptional.
NY AG Eric Schneiderman, who has a lot on his plate: “I am launching a formal investigation into the #Equifax breach. Today, I sent a letter to @Equifax seeking additional information.”
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt doesn’t want you talking about climate change when you discuss Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma.
To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm; versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced. […]
To discuss the cause and effect of these storms, there’s the… place (and time) to do that, it’s not now.
Congress should address that [Climate Change and its effects] at some point. And Congress hasn’t. All I’m saying to you is, to use time and effort to address it at this point is very, very insensitive to this [sic] people in Florida.
SC @220, I’m glad to see that an attorney general as meticulous and dogged as Eric Schneiderman is not going to let Equifax head honchos get away with dumping their stock before they informed the public about the data breach.
In other news, a leaked Department of Justice memo recommends that the sexual history of rape victims should be allowed to be presented during campus hearings. [Insert long string of swear words of your choice.]
[…] While the specific changes to Title IX guidance have yet to be shared, we can get an idea of what to expect from a leaked memo courtesy of @ALT_USCIS on Twitter, which is run by self-proclaimed insiders at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
In a Feb. 15, 2017, memo from the Department of Justice to the deputy attorney general, the authors express concern about the consequences faced by students accused of sexual misconduct. They list a few recommended changes in policy to shift even more favor on the side of the accused—one of which is particularly alarming.
• Every complainant’s sexual history, if relevant, may be introduced at the hearing. Currently, questions about the complainant’s sexual history with anyone other than the accused perpetrator should not be permitted.
This recommendation is in direct contraction to rape shield laws, which bar the defendant from bringing up the victim’s sexual past in sex crime cases. In the 1970s some states created their own rape shield laws; 1994’s Violence Against Women Act created a federal version. Now the highest law enforcement agency in the land is pointedly recommending a policy that’d only serve to shame survivors who dare to report—and discourage others from speaking up in the process. […]
Wildfires in western states are threatening drinking water supplies. As of today, 81 large fires are burning across about 1.5 million acres in the USA. Similarly bad conditions are challenging land managers in Canada. And the fire season is far from over.
[…] USGS scientists studied climate, fire, and erosion models for 471 large watersheds across the West and found that by 2050, the amount of sediment in more than one-third of watersheds could at least double. In nearly nine-tenths of the watersheds, sedimentation is projected to increase by more than 10 percent. […]
From the political side, there are issues with funding:
The Senate approved a bipartisan funding bill on Thursday to help with the cost of fighting the wildfires in western states as part of a disaster and government funding bill that is expected to pass the full Congress. But the funding would not fix the consistent under-funding of fire suppression, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators from the West wrote in a letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
“The accounts being robbed to fight fires are those that fund wildfire preparedness and mitigation projects in our forests,” the senators said. “Instead of robbing one set of priorities for another, what the nation needs is a consistently funded Forest Service that can address wildfire prevention, as well as emergency wildfire suppression, in the same years.”
Oh, good, a shadenfreude moment: Republican legislators booed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. The two Trump administration bigwigs met with Republicans behind closed doors, but news of the booing/hissing incident is now widely disseminated.
[The meeting] quickly went off the rails when Rep. Tim Walberg stood up to say President Donald Trump needed to play more with the team. The Michigan Republican said he was all for bipartisanship, but he argued that Trump shouldn’t have blindsided the conference when he struck a deal with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, undercutting GOP leadership.
Walberg was the first of more than a dozen lawmakers who echoed that same sentiment, according to sources in the room. Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker of North Carolina asked Mnuchin why he even bothered meeting with conservatives over the summer if he was just going to ignore their input entirely. Another lawmaker said Trump “pissed off a whole lot of people in here” when he went against a joint leadership-White House plan to advocate for a longer debt limit increase that took the issue off the table until after the midterm elections.
And the room booed when Mulvaney and Mnuchin refused to commit to spending cuts during the next debt ceiling debate — and then asked for their vote on the current legislation.
“[Mnuchin’s] last words, and I quote, were ‘Vote for the debt ceiling for me,’” Walker said as he left the meeting. “You could hear the murmurs in the room there. There was some hissing and I don’t know if there was booing but there were some groans.” […]
Just to bring you up to date on the vote for the 3-month extension plan that Trump agreed to when Pelosi and Schumer proposed it:
[…] 133 House Republicans, more than half of the GOP Conference, voted for Trump’s agreement with Democrats when the House passed the legislation Friday morning, 316-90. But most did so out of obligation to help the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma — not for anyone in the Trump administration.
“There’s a lot of disappointment in the decision that the president made, and the way our leadership was treated. That’s a sore spot,” said former House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.). “However, this bill — we have no choice but to raise the debt ceiling, and we have no choice but to help those people in desperate need in Texas and other places. … But it’s not a happy camp.” […]
They said they were shell-shocked that they were being scolded into raising the nation’s borrowing limit without spending cuts by a GOP administration . […]
Shellshocked by moves orchestrated by Pelosi and Schumer. That’s got to hurt.
Nerd @228, the “Grifter in Chief” pocketed part of a $17 million insurance payout for damage he claimed to Mar-a-Lage—damage that was, for the most part, not real. The Grifter put the money into his personal accounts, a fact that he admitted. I was glad to see Hayes cover that.
In other news, newly unrestrained Steve Bannon claimed that Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are “trying to nullify the 2016 election.” For now at least, it looks like Bannon is going to cause more trouble for Republicans than for Democrats.
[…] Federal prosecutors want to revoke Shkreli’s [“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli] bail as a result of his harassment against Clinton, according to The Washington Post. Shkreli is currently out on a $5 million bond after his conviction for securities fraud, but following this essentially violent, illegal request, it could be revoked. […]
In their letter to U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, federal prosecutors claimed that “Shkreli has engaged in an escalating pattern of threats and harassment that warrant his detention pending sentencing. The Court should further find that there is no condition or combination of conditions to which the defendant will abide that will ensure that he does not pose a danger to the community.” […]
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has alerted the White House that his team will probably seek to interview six top current and former advisers to President Trump who were witnesses to several episodes relevant to the investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the request.
Mueller’s interest in the aides, including trusted adviser Hope Hicks, former press secretary Sean Spicer and former chief of staff Reince Priebus, reflects how the probe that has dogged Trump’s presidency is starting to penetrate a closer circle of aides around the president.
Each of the six advisers was privy to important internal discussions that have drawn the interest of Mueller’s investigators, including his decision in May to fire FBI Director James B. Comey and the White House’s initial inaction following warnings that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn had withheld information from the public about his private discussions in December with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, according to people familiar with the probe.
The advisers are also connected to internal documents that Mueller’s investigators have asked the White House to produce, according to people familiar with the special counsel’s inquiry.
…
In addition to Priebus, Spicer and Hicks, Mueller has notified the White House he will probably seek to question White House counsel Don McGahn and one of his deputies, James Burnham. Mueller’s office has also told the White House that investigators may want to interview Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman who works closely with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
White House officials are expecting that Mueller will seek additional interviews, possibly with family members, including Kushner, who is a West Wing senior adviser, according to the people familiar with Mueller’s inquiry….
Evidently Mueller’s team has requested documents related to the Flynn and Comey matters and the drafting of the public statement about the June ’16 meeting, and has been receiving them over the past few weeks.
Around the time presidential candidate Donald Trump was touting his real estate dealings at a Republican primary debate, a proposal was in the works to build a Trump Tower in Russia that would have given his company a $4 million upfront fee, no upfront costs, a percentage of the sales, and control over marketing and design. And that’s not all: the deal included the opportunity to name the hotel spa after his daughter Ivanka.
An internal Trump Organization document from October 2015, obtained by CNN on Thursday, reveals the details of a 17-page letter of intent that set the stage for Trump’s attorney to negotiate a promising branding venture for Trump condominiums, a hotel and commercial property in the heart of Moscow. Trump signed the document later that month, according to Michael Cohen, his corporate attorney at the time. The document CNN obtained does not have Trump’s signature because it is a copy of the deal that Cohen brought to Trump to sign.
Cohen pulled out of the arrangement three months later as the project failed to get off the ground.
…
While the potential Russian deal was still on the table, Trump was speaking positively about working with Russian President Vladimir Putin and also minimized Russia’s aggressive military moves around the world. His willingness to accept narratives favored by the Kremlin contrasted with not only the Obama administration but also his Republican opponents.
At the debates, Trump went after those opponents — but not Putin. In a primary debate in September 2015, he said he “would get along with” Putin and articulated a more conciliatory posture toward the Kremlin. In October 2015, days before he signed the letter of intent, Trump tweeted a link to an article titled “Putin loves Donald Trump.”
…
The general outlines of the potential deal, and its collapse, came to light in Cohen’s statement last week. But the new details in the document obtained by CNN reveal a branding bonanza in which the Trump Organization would have had no responsibility for financing the project — the potential cost of which is not even mentioned — but have control over the property’s management and appearance.
…
There is nothing in the document about where the Russian company would get the money to finance the project, or which banks it would work with. Sater told the New York Times last month that he lined up financing from VTB Bank, which is partially owned by the Kremlin and is under US sanctions.
I.C. Expert Investment Company lists seven “banking partners” on its website, including VTB Bank. Three of the other banks are either partially or completely controlled by Russian government entities. The other three are private….
This description of Sater: “a Russian-born former Trump business associate and mob-linked felon who figured prominently in development of the Trump SoHo property in New York.”
Rick Scott: “If you are in an evacuation zone & do not have a way to evacuate due to traffic- call 1-800-342-3557. We will do all we can to get you out.” This also goes for people without transportation or with other issues that make evacuation difficult.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Dang, looking at the news in prelude to Irma’s landfall. Better warm up the credit card for South Florida emergency help.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Between the Redhead and myself, several family members would have been in the path of Irma if it comes up the peninsula as predicted a few years ago. Fortunately, they are all either up north or dead.
SC #237, just saw the owner of the old Hemingway house in Key West. He was staying, along with a few of his emplyees.
And apparently several cats who live there and have no choice. I saw that he was going to be on and had to change the channel – my blood pressure couldn’t take it.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
I had to e-mail the Redhead’s BFF. Even though it is early for the Snowbird to go south, I hoped that hadn’t happened yet.
Looks like Irma is going up the West coast of Florida. Glad my mother has moved back to Michigan from Fort Meyers Beach. She was on the third floor of a high-rise condo, which wasn’t effected by Andrew, but Irma’s winds could do a number on the glass of her condo.
My sister, her husband, my niece, her two daughters, my other niece and her three kids and my nephew are all in FL, some in Tampa and some in Melbourne. I’m losing my mind.
Ichthyicsays
just saw the owner of the old Hemingway house in Key West.
I toured that place back in 2004.
I sure hope it survives the storm, along with the rest of Key West.
French artist JR erected the cut-out of the boy that stands nearly 20 metres tall and is meant to prompt discussion of immigration
A photo of a giant toddler stands in Mexico and peers over a steel wall dividing the country from the United States.
The boy appears to grip the barrier with his fingers, leaving the impression the entire thing could be toppled with a giggle.
A French artist who goes by the name JR erected the cut-out of the boy that stands nearly 65 feet (20 metres) tall and is meant to prompt discussion of immigration.
On Friday, a steady stream of people drove to the remote section of wall near the Tecate border crossing, about 40 miles (64km) south-east of San Diego. Border Patrol agents warned visitors to keep the dirt road clear for their patrols and not pass anything through the fence.
[…]
On the Mexican side, families scrambled down a scrubby hillside to take selfies with the artwork. Children in school uniforms played tag under the scaffolding supporting the photo.
People on each side of the wall waved to each other. Salma Montoya […], a student in Tecate said her town is abuzz about it. “It’s beautiful,” she said.
[…]
For artists and activists, the 650 miles of existing wall and fencing between the US and Mexico has long been a blank canvas.
Musicians have played simultaneously on both sides. A giant wooden Trojan-style horse was once parked near a crossing in Tijuana. There have been volleyball games and church services held simultaneously on each side of the border.
Sections of wall on the Mexican side have been covered with paintings of everything from butterflies to an upside-down American flag.
[…]
It’s apparently completely coincidental the artwork went up the same week hair furor & teh injustice dalekocrats (sounds like a bandname!) bellowed about the Dreamers program — JR has been working the project for over(?) a year — but, for me, that coincidence adds a certain poignancy.
Trump is such a petty, small-minded man. He is giving Gary Cohn the cold shoulder, in a manner of speaking.
[…] Trump has given his top economic adviser Gary Cohn, who leads the White House’s National Economic Council, the cold shoulder after he publicly criticized Trump for his lackluster response to violence that erupted at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The New York Times reported, citing several unnamed White House aides, that Trump refuses to make eye contact with his top economic adviser whenever Cohn greets the President.
Cohn in August said Trump’s administration “can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning” groups like “white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.”
“I am reluctant to leave my post as director of the National Economic Council because I feel a duty to fulfill my commitment to work on behalf of the American people,” he said. “But I also feel compelled to voice my distress over the events of the last two weeks.”
Former vice president Joe Biden on Friday urged activists to demand college authorities “step up” to uphold protections for sexual assault survivors, a day after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced she would change the way schools investigate and resolve complaints of sexual violence on campus.
“This administration does not speak for the American people on this issue,” Biden said on a call, according to BuzzFeed News. […]
“I know many of you are survivors, I know how you might feel betrayed today,” Biden said, according to the report. “Your government’s let you down. Well, I want you to know that not only I stand with you but the majority of the American people stand with you. I believe you.”
Former President Barack Obama’s administration established rules in 2011 to guide how colleges enforce Title IX, a federal law prohibiting gender-based discrimination in education, in cases of sexual assault. […]
blf @ 246, I first saw that portrait of the child near the border wall on Instagram. That’s a totally brilliant use of art to make a statement. I like the photo, further down the page to which you linked, of JR in front of the wall, (in the photo taken from the USA side and from the right angle).
On Instagram, a few photos of JR and his team working on the display were posted. That’s inspiring.
Avoid the comments on Facebook and Instagram. Some commenters are saying things like, “Yeah, as if only innocent babies cross the border.” Other comments are worse.
Hurricane Irma weakened to a category 3 storm when it encountered Cuba. It is expected to strengthen again as it crosses bathtub-warm (85-89 degrees) water on its way to the Florida Keys. Reporters are driving from the east coast of Florida to the west coast as the hurricane is now predicted to take a more westerly track. The impact cone is still huge.
You can add Hope Hicks to the long list of team Trump people who have lawyered up.
Rachel Maddow covered the story, with an emphasis on the fact that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will be interviewing current and former White House aides. The video is 6:06 minutes long.
So far, Mueller’s list of interviewees includes:
Reince Priebus
Sean Spicer
Hope Hicks
Don McGahn
James Burnham
Josh Raffel
Wonkette covered some of the religious rightwing dingbat response to Hurricane Irma:
[…]Apparently, Kerr [Christian Prophetess, Revelator and Weather Warrior Kat Kerr] is “taking authority” over the storm, like how Jesus did one time. […] I watched the video approximately 14 times in a row, and what I gather is that this means that she is yelling at the storm to get out of Florida while waving her scepter at it, and commanding “the millibars” to rise, rise RIIIIIIIIIIIISE!
Towards the end of the video, she gets a little huffy and starts telling Floridians that they really need to get it together start doing this Jesus scepter millibar magic themselves, because she has got better things to do, other things she needs to be doing for Jesus. Kat Kerr cannot be doing all of the wizarding herself!
She is, however, not entirely alone. Her fellow “prophet” Lance Wallnau is ALSO commanding the millibars to rise. He does not have a scepter though. Just his fingers. […]
[…] many Americans have been unable to flee, including huge numbers of prison inmates. The two states together are home to a quarter million incarcerated people. Texas has the largest prison population in the country, and Florida has the third-largest.
During Hurricane Harvey, many Texas prisoners were locked in their cells with limited access to water and electricity. After officials decided not to evacuate a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, hundreds of guards struggled to show up for work. Inmates said that they lost access to medication, and one prisoner told his wife that cells flooded up to calf-height. […]
Sherrard Williams, who is serving a life sentence for being party to a murder when he was seventeen, weathered the storm in a two-person cell in Connally Unit, a maximum-security prison in Kenedy, Texas. He is thirty-eight. His account has been edited and condensed.
“[…] we went through the experience of the power being shut off, to where everything was completely in disarray. No lights, no electricity. The generators couldn’t even function where I was at. After that, hours later, the water was cut off. […]
“When the water got cut off, you couldn’t use the restrooms in the cell. Now you gotta watch what you eat, you gotta watch what you drink. They came around with some water and brought us sack lunches—sandwiches, things like that. I couldn’t eat because it was going to make me use the restroom, and then the whole cell is gonna be messed up. […]
“They had problems with some of the locks. The doors, they’re controlled by a mechanism, so when the power went out, they couldn’t control them. They got a key—but if the key doesn’t work, or perhaps there’s something wrong with the locks, the inmate is trapped in there. They had to come down and basically break the door down. […]
“Monday they was able to get Porta Potties placed on the recreational yard. That really saved us. If you want to eat a little something, now you can eat.
“[…] They’re gonna worry about the officers first. In Beaumont, a federal prison, they didn’t evacuate the prisoners. I think that’s the most frightening thing. That could have been us. […]
More at the link.
KGsays
Trump refuses to make eye contact with his top economic adviser whenever Cohn greets the President. – Lynna@247
Maybe it’s shame.
(/s, as if it’s necessary!)
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Just saw an interview with the owner of the Hemingway House on Key West. All the cats are accounted for, and are housed on the upper floors of the house. With THREE back-up electrical generators. They might ride it out, if the walls don’t collapse from the storm surge.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Also seeing on MSNBC another group staying in place. Alzheimer patients in a nursing home. Moving them may cause more problems than staying in place and trying to maintain normal routines. Providing the structure is likely to be out of the storm surge. Since this was in the Miami area, this might not be a problem due to the westerly movement.
Delicacies such as brie and gorgonzola contain too much bacteria, officials say, sending expats scrambling to buy up remaining stocks
Customs officials in China have banned a host of soft, mould-ripened cheese for containing too much bacteria, with authorities reportedly alarmed the mould contained colonies of bacteria that had not been officially approved.
The ban mainly affects French and Italian cheese, including brie, camembert, gorgonzola and roquefort, as well as the English delicacy stilton.
Sinodis, a distributor of foreign-based cheeses in Shanghai, sent a letter to customers announcing “cheese products containing certain moulds cannot temporarily be imported in China”. The company has stopped importing a laundry list of nearly 50 kinds of cheese since 23 August. The ban started in July in some cities, but was expanded nationwide this week.
“There is no good reason for the ban, because China considers the same cheese safe if produced in China,” William Fingleton, a spokesman for the delegation of the European Union to China, told CNN. “This effectively means that China is banning famous and traditional European cheeses that have been safely imported and consumed in China for decades. The entire Chinese market for soft cheeses is now closed.”
[…] Most of the strong, pungent cheeses affected by the ban are unpopular with Chinese people and are mostly consumed by foreign residents.
[…]
Hard cheese such as cheddar, comté, gruyère and manchego are unaffected by the new rules, but the arbitrary nature of the ban on soft cheese has European officials worried.
[…]
Other sources suggest / clarify what Big China has banned are certain mold-ripened cheeses, albeit the list of cheeses is notably arbitrary. At least one source claims:
[… S]ources have also told us that canned soups and baking powder have also been axed. Say goodbye to Campbell’s soup.
According to a source who wishes to remain anonymous, “The Chinese government believes there is a harmful substance in baking powder and has therefore banned importation. Even though everybody else in the world eats/uses/needs it for baking. For soup, it may have something to do with meat stock.”
[…]
The mildly deranged penguin is, of course, quite agitated (well, she’s always quite agitated, just more so than usual). I’m trying to point out this means less cheese will leave France / Europe, meaning moar cheese locally for her (and anyone else who manages to hide some from her), but at the moment she’s jumping up-and-down so much, so high, and so fast she could be mistaken for multiple ballistic missile launches, so I’m probably not getting through.
snuffcurrysays
re the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shooting SC reported back in comments 172, 3, police are now saying the shots that injured the person washing windows were fired from a moving car, targeting inhabitants of an adjacent car, and that the Sentinel’s offices were not the target. Hopefully this is true. And if it is, it’s better news. Not good news but good to know journalists (and the victim) aren’t being targeted.
snuffcurrysays
re images provided by a twitter account claiming to represent employees of USCIS and purporting to be from a leaked DoJ memo regarding coming changes to title IX that will include probing the sexual histories of victims of rapes and assaults committed on campuses as mentioned at 223 and elsewhere, Daily Kos has included updates to the initial story and quote correspondence from the head of Department of Affairs who says that the memo is “clearly a fake” but won’t, as of now, elaborate what’s false and why that should be obvious to anyone. Best case scenario is she’s admitting the relevant portion is a monstrous idea.
It’s looking very bad for Naples and the surrounding area. Extreme Wind Warning for the county. They’re warning people: “Don’t be fooled by low water conditions on the FL W coast ahead of Irma, water will rapidly surge back when the winds change direction.” (It will also be high tide – another three feet on top of a 10-15 foot predicted surge.) Still dangerous winds and storm surge in the Keys,* and more strong gusts forecast in Miami.
* Almost no news is coming out of the Keys for the past few hours.
NHC Storm Surge Unit: “The FL Keys are not out of the woods yet, strong winds on the backside of Irma could produce significant surge flooding from Florida Bay.”
Brock Long, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, looks worried and sleep-deprived.
[…] “This is a worst case scenario for Monroe County, Florida Keys and the west coast of Florida,” Long said on “Fox News Sunday.”
He said areas in the “northeast quadrant” are “where the maximum radius winds are, that define the intensity of the storm, that’s where storm surge is most prevalent.”
“Storm surge has the highest potential to kill the highest amount of people and cause the most amount of damage,” Long said. “If the water starts to rise around you and you become isolated, try to get into a facility that you think can withstand the winds and get elevated. Get out of the storm surge.”
[…] On CBS’ “This Morning,” Clinton said she is doing well but not “complacent or resolved about what happened.”
“It still is very painful. It hurts a lot,” she said.
Asked whether her career is over, Clinton said, “As an active politician, it’s over.”
Clinton said the “most important of the mistakes” she made “was using personal email,” and that she “missed a few chances” during her campaign.
“I am done with being a candidate,” she said. “But I am not done with politics, because I literally believe that our country’s future is at stake.”
Clinton said President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech “was a cry from the white nationalist gut,” and said he successfully referenced “a nostalgia that would give hope, comfort, settle grievances, for millions of people who were upset about gains that were made by others.”
“What you’re saying is millions of white people,” CBS’ Jane Pauley said.
“Millions of white people,” Clinton said, nodding. “Yeah.”
She called the election “a reality show” that led to the election of Trump, who Clinton said “turned out to be a very effective reality TV star.”
“He ends up in the Oval Office. He says, ‘Boy, it’s so much harder than I thought it would be, this is really tough, I had no idea.’ Well, yeah, because it’s not a show,” she said. “It’s real. It’s reality for sure.” […]
Oh, FFS. Some gun owners in Florida have jumped on a very strange bandwagon: they are shooting their guns at Hurricane Irma in response to a Facebook event called “Shoot at Hurricane Irma.”
LETS SHOW IRMA THAT WE SHOOT FIRST
Enough dunderheads took up the call that the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning:
To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma. You won’t make it turn around & it will have very dangerous side effects
I was say that this morning to Mariana in Miami Beach/Miami (she was listening as well as Bettis).
Appears the high winds might might help the surge. 4 feet in thirty minutes in Naples. And just starting.
Bill McKibben: “As we helplessly watch Florida suffer today, remember that the the fossil fuel companies knew all about climate change in 1980s. And lied.”
John Morales on NBC-6 in Miami has been amazing – all day on Twitter answering general and individual questions about conditions in various towns.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
MSNBC is indicating per the National Weather Service, that Irma is trending slight to the East. Makes a difference in wind damage but not storm surges.
The 54 cats (and the humans) at the Hemingway house in Key West are OK. Such a relief.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
MSNBC has the owner of the Hemingway House in Key West on. Appears the storm surge didn’t do much to the House, or even the Key. Still no electrical power, phone, cable, etc. The cat are all safe and accounted for.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Appears that the Naples storm surge might be peaking at 4-5 ft. *fingers crossed*
I was wary of early reports about the Naples storm surge being much lower than predicted, but it seems, optimistically, to be the case. (I’ll relax about it tomorrow morning.)And then I see reports like this from South Carolina…
Yes, the White House social media director, Dan Scavino, Jr., posted fake IRMA news. That’s not helpful.
[…] Fake images and videos of Hurricane Irma that are making the rounds on social media can fool anyone, including, apparently people who are actually working at tracking the storm. The White House’s own director of social media, Dan Scavino Jr., sent out a tweet that he thought showed massive flooding at the Miami International Airport as a way to demonstrate how President Donald Trump’s administration was keeping track of Irma’s devastation. The problem? The video was not actually of the Miami airport.
Miami International Airport quickly replied to Scavino’s tweet to inform him that the video did not depict the situation at the airport. […]
Online reply from the official Miami Int’l Airport Twitter account:
This video is not from Miami International Airport.
From others:
You would hope that the “White House Director of Social Media” would know better about authenticating videos before sharing them with POTUS
—————
You have a duty to ‘verify’ before sharing. Literally your job. Your improperly punctuated Tweet skips over that. Not okay.
—————–
Might I suggest @MSNBC or @CNN for, you know, ACTUAL REAL NEWS. K? Thx! xox
———————
Yeah, who would want to verify information was accurate before passing it on to the President?
———————–
You’re not very professional. Why do you have to “share” with POTUS and VP on social media anyway? Aren’t they briefed on events?
———————-
Maybe research *before* sharing?
———————–
you didn’t think to do proper due diligence before sharing a video during a disaster??
———————-
your job isn’t to effing crowdsource. You have legitimate sources of info ffs. Fire yourself.
———————-
Try ‘extreme vetting’
———————
Fake news, Dan! Might want to vet your sources next time.
——————–
Dan! Dan! Dan! Mar-a-Lago’s under water! Please share!!
A construction company owned by the Chinese government has been hired to work on the Trump’s new golf club in Dubai […]
The Trump Organization’s partner on the project, DAMAC Properties, hired the Middle East subsidiary of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation despite President Donald Trump’s pledge upon taking office that his family business would not enter into any new contracts with a foreign government. […]
Trump had also pledged that his businesses would refrain from starting any new deals with foreign companies. However, in February the Trump Organization re-engaged in a deal in the Dominican Republic.
More news regarding Steve Bannon’s “war” against Republicans he doesn’t like:
[…] The effort is being led by Steve Bannon, Trump’s bomb-throwing former chief strategist, who is launching an all-out war against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican establishment.
Bannon has begun holding private meetings with insurgent challengers, vowing his support. He’s coordinating with conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer, who is prepared to pour millions of dollars into attacks on GOP incumbents. Bannon has also installed a confidant at an outside group that is expected to target Republican lawmakers and push the Trump agenda. […]
“The issue is: Do you invest your time and energy in attacking people who are carrying this president’s water in Congress to the benefit of people who are trying to impeach him? That seems like an incredibly short-sighted strategy,” said Josh Holmes, a former McConnell chief of staff. […]
Trump appellate court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, says that, “judges should be bound by their religious faith, not the law.”
WTF? Even most religious people do not think Barrett’s statement makes sense.
More on this:
Anyone serving in the U.S. Government has to abide by the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land, but that is not the ardent belief of Trump’s nominee to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
The idea that the Constitution is secondary to a judge’s religious belief has been a growing threat for a decade or so, but now that threat is becoming reality as America lurches toward an evangelical theocracy. […]
[Barrett] has written extensively on the Catholic Church’s need to dismantle an American long-standing legal medical procedure adjudicated as constitutional in Roe v. Wade.
Barrett also does not subscribe to the idea of adhering to long-established legal precedents if they conflict with her religious belief that laws, or High Court rulings “were gross mistakes” because they are not founded on her Christian religion.
Barrett is a law professor at the Catholic Notre Dame University and except for serving as a “law clerk” for dead SCOTUS justice Antonin Scalia and appellate Judge Laurence H. Silberman, she has not served as a judge; and she damn well never should for good reason. […]
Another far-rightwing dunderhead tried to run down counter protestors:
Far-right rallies in and around Portland descended into violence on Sunday, as groups of demonstrators clashed — with one man,in a harrowing echo of Charlottesville, reportedly attempting to drive his car into a group counter-protesters.
The clashes started in Portland, where the far-right group Patriot Prayer had scheduled a “Peaceful Portland Freedom March.” At the last minute, the event was moved to Vancouver, Washington, on the other side of the Columbia River.
As the counter-protesters marched through downtown Vancouver, a Chevrolet pick-up truck with two large American flags and a Confederate flag decal drove up towards them. According to Willamette Week the crowd behind the truck started pelting it with rocks and water bottles. Suddenly, the driver then put the truck in reverse and sped down the street, narrowly missing several people and causing others to jump out of the way.
Counter-protesters changed their march’s path and proceeded a street over to avoid the truck, but it re-appeared and cut marchers off. At this point police arrested the man. Local television station KGW reported that he was driven away in cuffs but then released without charges. […]
Like most of the TV-watching audience, I missed the Miss America Pageant that aired last night. Here’s an excerpt from the question-and-answer segment:
Question 2, from judge Jess Cagle: “Last month, a demonstration of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and the KKK in Charlottesville, Va., turned violent and a counterprotester was killed. The president said there was shared blame with ‘very fine people’ on both sides. Were there? Tell me yes or no, and explain.”
Miss Texas, Margana Wood: “I think that the white supremacist issue, it was very obvious that it was a terrorist attack. And I think that President Donald Trump should have made a statement earlier addressing the fact, and making sure all American feel safe in this country, that is the No. 1 issue right now.”
Miss Texas had only twenty seconds to answer the question. She did well, especially when compared to past question-and-answer segments in the pageant.
This is from Miss North Dakota:
Question 3, from judge Maria Menounos: “One hundred ninety-five countries signed the Paris agreement, in which each country sets nonbinding goals to reduce man-made climate change. The U.S. is withdrawing from the agreement, citing negligible environmental effects and negative economic impact. Good decision? Bad decision? Which is it and why?”
Miss North Dakota, Cara Mund: “I do believe it’s a bad decision. Once we reject that, we take ourselves out of the negotiation table. And that’s something that we really need to keep in mind. There is evidence that climate change is existing, so whether you believe it or not, we need to be at that table. And I think it’s just a bad decision on behalf of the United States.”
Former Miss USA beauty pageant owner, Donald Trump, took a beating from the contestants. Good news.
Steve Bannon said some more stupid stuff. In reference to Trump’s actions to rescind DACA, Bannon said that he wants Dreamers to “self deport.” He added, “There’s no path to citizenship, no path to a green card and no amnesty. Amnesty is non-negotiable. […] America’s built on our on our citizens…. Economic nationalism is what this country was built on.”
Alex Jones thinks someone is drugging Trump. I guess that’s one excuse for Trump’s displays of willful ignorance and thoughtless actions.
Jones said:
[…] I’ve talked to people, multiple ones, and they believe that they are putting a slow sedative that they’re building up that’s also addictive in his Diet Cokes and in his iced tea and that the president by 6 or 7 at night is basically slurring his words and is drugged. Now first they had to isolate him to do that. But yes, ladies and gentleman, I’ve talked to people that talk to the president now at 9 at night, he is slurring his words. And I’m going to leave it at that. I’ve talked to folks that have talked to him directly. […]</blockquote.
An update on cities and counties fighting the Trump administration’s threats to withhold public safety grants from “sanctuary cities”:
Attorneys for Chicago will urge a federal judge[…] to block […] Trump’s administration from following through on threats to withhold public safety grants from so-called sanctuary cities unless they agree to tougher enforcement of immigrations laws.
Chicago is among at least seven cities and counties, including Seattle and San Francisco, as well as the state of California, refusing to cooperate with the new federal requirements. […]
The city’s lawsuit focuses on conditions set by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to qualify for the grants, including that cities give federal agents access to detention facilities. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said Chicago won’t “be blackmailed” into changing its values as a city welcoming of immigrants.
[…] The city says complying with the federal rules would harm relations between the immigrant community and police on crime. […]
The Justice Department argues that tying public safety grants to conditions isn’t new. It says cities had to meet more than 50 special conditions, including demonstrating compliance with civil rights laws, to receive grants in 2016, “none of which generated … legal challenges” from Chicago.
In April, a federal judge suspended the Trump administration’s orders in San Francisco and Santa Clara County, California.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick said federal money that “bears no meaningful relationship” to immigration can’t be threatened simply because Trump doesn’t like local policies. […]
Some cities that don’t have formal sanctuary policies said they’ve been targeted, including Baltimore. Two California cities, Stockton and San Bernardino, said they were told they wouldn’t qualify for a federal anti-crime program unless immigration agents had access to their jails.
The FBI recently questioned a former White House correspondent for Sputnik, the Russian-government-funded news agency, as part of an investigation into whether it is acting as an undeclared propaganda arm of the Kremlin in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
As part of the probe, Yahoo News has learned, the bureau has obtained a thumb drive containing thousands of internal Sputnik emails and documents — material that could potentially help prosecutors build a case that the news agency played a role in the Russian government “influence campaign” that was waged during last year’s presidential election and, in the view of U.S. intelligence officials, is still ongoing.
The emails were turned over by Andrew Feinberg, the news agency’s former White House correspondent, who had downloaded the material onto his laptop before he was fired in May. He confirmed to Yahoo News that he was questioned for more than two hours on Sept. 1 by an FBI agent and a Justice Department national security lawyer at the bureau’s Washington field office.
Feinberg said the interview was focused on Sputnik’s “internal structure, editorial processes and funding.”
…
The investigation appears to center on whether Sputnik should be covered by the foreign agents registration law, a 1938 act passed by Congress to combat Nazi propaganda. The law mandates that foreign entities seeking to influence American public opinion and engage in lobbying must file detailed reports with the Justice Department on their funding and operations. If the Justice Department concludes that Sputnik is covered by the law, its executives in the U.S. could face criminal charges and fines, while the news agency’s reports would have to be explicitly labeled as foreign propaganda rather than presented as news.
There is an exemption under the law for media organizations that engage in legitimate news-gathering activity. But Feinberg, the former Sputnik reporter, said the FBI agent and Justice prosecutor who interviewed him focused their questions on how Sputnik determined what stories it would cover, where its directions came from and what he knew about its sources of funding.
(Yahoo first learned about the FBI inquiry from a U.S. intelligence source. Feinberg then confirmed he was interviewed and showed the business cards of the FBI agent and Justice Department lawyer who questioned him.)
…
The FBI reached out to Feinberg shortly after another former Sputnik staffer, Joseph John Fionda, sent a letter to the Justice Department’s national security division detailing a series of similar accusations against the news organization and requested that it be investigated for FARA violations.
In a brief conversation over an encrypted messaging app, Fionda told Yahoo News he also sent “a big packet” of information to the division on or about Aug. 15.
…
Fionda said his last straw with Sputnik came on Oct. 19, 2015, after excerpts of private emails from then-CIA Director John Brennan were published by a hacker on Twitter. He claimed Gavasheli, Sputnik’s U.S. editor in chief, asked him to “obtain the CIA Director’s stolen emails” from the hacker.
“I refused because I believed this was a solicitation to espionage,” Fionda wrote….
Melber had two good interviews on the subject, one with McFaul, who said it’s obvious and explicit that Sputnik and RT are instruments of Kremlin power. I mentioned the book The Red Web @ #46 above. The Kremlin’s exploitation and instrumentalization of democratic freedoms and rights (and the rhetoric thereof) in the US while they’ve done everything possible in Russia to destroy these freedoms and rights is really breathtaking.
I said @ #208 above that you can’t trust Republicans on the ACA. Lindsey Graham, in the midst of everything happening in the country and the world, is bound and determined to make people’s lives as stressful as possible to the very last possible moment. He said the other day that he was confident the Graham-Cassidy bill would pass before time runs out on the 30th. He predicted they would have a CBO score within two weeks, which would be the 23rd. It appears Hatch is throwing a wrench into that plan, but you can’t trust him, either. Heartless jerks.
Chris Hayes is broadcasting his show from Naples, Florida. No “normalcy” in his backdrop. And the congresscritter from the Virgin Islands was interviewed. Both uplifting (everybody trying to help) and depressing (hit from Cat 5 Irma).
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Gasp, a rethug Florida county official official believing in AGW, and folks acknowledging that we need undocumented peoples to rebuild Houston and Florida on All In What next? Supporting Medicare for all?
The Trump administration opened the door to allowing more firearms on federal lands. It scrubbed references to “L.G.B.T.Q. youth” from the description of a federal program for victims of sex trafficking. And, on the advice of religious leaders, it eliminated funding to international groups that provide abortion.
While these initiatives lacked the fanfare of some of President Trump’s high-profile proclamations — like his ban on transgender people in the military — they point to a fundamental repurposing of the federal bureaucracy to promote conservative social priorities.
The aggressive regulatory effort, which runs counter to the Trump administration’s less-is-more credo about government meddling, has led to policy changes related to gun ownership, gay rights, reproductive choices, immigration and other divisive political issues, according to a New York Times review of government documents and court records, as well as interviews with more than four dozen people involved in or briefed on the efforts.
…
The turnabout stems in part from lobbying by evangelical Christians and other conservative groups. In interviews, these groups said they have regular discussions on domestic and foreign policy with the administration — more so than during the presidency of George W. Bush, the last Republican to occupy the White House and someone who identified as a Christian conservative.
“Everybody has points of contact, and not just secretaries either,” said Johnnie Moore, a Christian leader who owns a public relations firm and advises the White House on religious matters. “It is higher up people — directors or deputy directors. And it is all across the government.”
Top White House officials have led the outreach, including Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s Orthodox Jewish son-in-law, and Vice President Mike Pence, a staunch social and religious Christian conservative. Kellyanne Conway, a senior aide, counted some of these groups among her paying clients before joining the White House.
Yet the new direction has also met some resistance among rank-and-file civil servants. Within the Justice Department, several long-serving lawyers have decided to retire or quit rather than help carry out the new policies, according to people briefed on the departures.
…
With the shift in Washington, many top conservative groups have increased their spending on lobbying. In the first half of this year, the National Rifle Association almost doubled what it spent in the same period last year, according to Senate data.
Spending by the top anti-abortion lobbying groups increased as well. The Susan B. Anthony List spent $390,000 in the first half of this year and projected it would spend $400,000 in the second half, almost doubling the yearly total for 2016, which had been its biggest year.
And, for the first time, the group has directed some of that money toward lobbying the White House and Health and Human Services Department, instead of targeting only Congress.
…
The round of rule-making, social conservative groups say, signals the willingness of like-minded officials in the Trump cabinet and across the federal bureaucracy to take up their causes.
Anti-abortion groups, for example, pointed to multiple allies in the administration.
…
Since taking office, President Trump and his top staff have gone to great lengths to cultivate the ties that he built with social conservatives during his campaign. He delivered a commencement speech at the conservative Liberty University and addressed the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference, saying, “We will always support our evangelical community.”
Some of the groups have a particular rapport with Ms. Conway, whose client list in her private consulting business included dozens of conservative groups, including the Susan B. Anthony List and the National Right to Life Committee. The White House granted Ms. Conway a waiver to continue communicating with the groups as a White House employee.
The religious and conservative leaders say the access across the administration is bearing fruit….
…For those who have worked inside the agency, the backtracking on diversity represents a threat to the workforce and national security, according to Nada Bakos, a former CIA analyst who helped track high-level terrorist targets like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The agency needs employees from different backgrounds and orientations to effectively recruit agents abroad. “What if you have to recruit someone who’s gay and that’s the only reason they’re talking to you?” she asked.
“This isn’t just about today’s diversity issue. It’s about tomorrow’s lack of diversity that will erode the agency,” Bakos told FP. “You can’t hire someone who’s typically white American to walk around Baghdad.”
…
“This is heartbreaking,” said Bakos, the former CIA analyst, of reports that diversity efforts are backsliding. “It’s already too easy to get these flag-waving, chest-bumping people” hired into the agency.
Some recently retired intelligence officers worry that Pompeo’s approach could mean the agency is headed in a damaging direction.
“An intelligence service that purposefully excludes and marginalizes people is making the conscious decision to limit the success of their service and their country,” one former intelligence official who served under Brennan wrote in a message to FP.
…
According to four sources familiar with the matter, Pompeo, who attends weekly Bible studies held in government buildings, referenced God and Christianity repeatedly in his first all-hands speech and in a recent trip report while traveling overseas. According to a profile by the Washington Post’s Greg Miller, Pompeo is working on starting a chaplaincy for the CIA campus like the military has.
The CIA did not dispute these events. “Director Pompeo is a man of faith,” the spokesperson said. “The idea that he should not practice his faith because he is Director of CIA is absurd.”
Michael Weinstein, a former Air Force officer who founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, says he has been seeing increasing complaints from those inside the intelligence community. Weinstein’s foundation, which focuses on preventing religious pressure from creeping into the military, also has clients in the intelligence community, mostly from the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
…
The foundation’s intelligence community clients have doubled since the July 2016 Republican National Convention, Weinstein said. While he wouldn’t specify the number of intelligence community clients he works with, Weinstein said it was in the hundreds — the majority of them working out of Langley. “In the intelligence community, we see supervisors wanting to hold Bible studies during duty hours [and] inviting lower-ranking individuals to their homes for Bible studies,” Weinstein told FP….
Russian operatives hiding behind false identities used Facebook’s event management tool to remotely organize and promote political protests in the U.S., including an August 2016 anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rally in Idaho, The Daily Beast has learned.
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Beast that the social-media giant “shut down several promoted events as part of the takedown we described last week.” The company declined to elaborate, except to confirm that the events were promoted with paid ads. (This is the first time the social media giant has publicly acknowledged the existence of such events.)
The Facebook events—one of which echoed Islamophobic conspiracy theories pushed by pro-Trump media outlets—are the first indication that the Kremlin’s attempts to shape America’s political discourse moved beyond fake news and led unwitting Americans into specific real-life action.
…
Facebook did not explain if the “several promoted events” were upcoming ones at the time of the account deactivation or were events that had already occurred at the time of deactivation. But the spokesman confirmed that the “promoted” events were paid events, akin to the inflammatory ads that the company disclosed last week.
Far-right, pro-Trump firehoses Breitbart, InfoWars, and WorldNetDaily had pushed a series of stories implying immigrants were taking over Twin Falls since the beginning of 2016. The stories reached a fever pitch in the month before SecuredBorders’ event….
Twin Falls is the town where Chobani is located. Much more detail in the article.
Floodwaters in two Houston neighborhoods have been contaminated with bacteria and toxins that can make people sick, testing organized by The New York Times has found. Residents will need to take precautions to return safely to their homes, public health experts said.
It is not clear how far the toxic waters have spread. But Fire Chief Samuel Peña of Houston said over the weekend that there had been breaches at numerous waste treatment plants. The Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday that 40 of 1,219 such plants in the area were not working.
The results of The Times’s testing were troubling. Water flowing down Briarhills Parkway in the Houston Energy Corridor contained Escherichia coli, a measure of fecal contamination, at a level more than four times that considered safe.
In the Clayton Homes public housing development downtown, along the Buffalo Bayou, scientists found what they considered astonishingly high levels of E. coli in standing water in one family’s living room — levels 135 times those considered safe — as well as elevated levels of lead, arsenic and other heavy metals in sediment from the floodwaters in the kitchen.
…
The E.P.A. and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have expressed concern about toxic floodwaters, but have not made public the results of sampling they may have done.
…
The dearth of information about the safety of the water has upset many residents,…
RT, the Russian government television network, disclosed Monday that one of its U.S. affiliates has been notified by the Justice Department that it must register as a foreign agent that is disseminating propaganda in the United States.
The statement issued by RT’s editor in chief Margarita Simonyan in Moscow is the strongest sign yet the Justice Department may be moving to crack down on the operations of RT and another Russian news agency, Sputnik, by forcing them to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act — a World War II-era law that requires foreign principals that are seeking to influence U.S. public opinion to disclose their full activities and sources of funding….
This part:
But Simonyan, the RT editor who formerly served on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign staff, strongly hinted that any Justice Department actions could have repercussions for the U.S. news organizations that operate in Moscow.
“I wonder how U.S. media outlets, which have no problems while working in Moscow, and that are not required to register as foreign agents, will treat this initiative,” she said. She also blasted the Justice Department’s action as part of a “war” against freedom of the press and journalists. “Those who invented [freedom of speech] have buried it,” she said.
Republican lawmaker Devin Nunes’ investigation into whether Obama administration officials used classified intelligence reports to discredit Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign team could backfire on the congressman – and the president, sources familiar with the reports said.
The reports contain no evidence that any aides to former Democratic President Barack Obama acted improperly, the sources said, but they do indicate some Trump associates may have violated an obscure 1799 law, the Logan Act, which prohibits unauthorized U.S. citizens from negotiating with a foreign government that has a dispute with the United States.
The spying reports also are relevant to the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia worked to tilt last November’s election in Republican Trump’s favor, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity….
Russian politician Vyacheslav Nikonov, a member of the Duma, said U.S. “intelligence missed it when Russian intelligence stole the president of the United States.” He made the remarks on a Russian panel show, “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov.”…
SC, Bannon said that “Hillary Clinton is not very bright.” I read the link to the excerpt from an interview with Clinton that you posted in comment 325. Yes, just as I thought, she is exceptionally bright.
Bannon also said that Clinton doesn’t know what’s important, but the excerpt shows that she really does know what is important, that she knows what is really important.
Bannon also claimed that Trump knows what is important, and that Trump doesn’t get bogged down in the marginalia. Sheesh.
[…] the dam is breaking when it comes to the Democratic Party embracing government-funded health care. […]
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) became the fourth co-sponsor of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) “Medicare for all” health-care bill Monday. In doing so, he joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.).
[…] [Senator Chris Murphy] is moving forward with a separate bill that would allow American consumers and business to buy into the Medicare system. As we discussed last week, this isn’t single-payer, but because Medicare is a socialized system, it’d be a significant step in a progressive direction – and offer an interesting alternative to lawmakers who aren’t yet on board with Sanders’ model. […]
[Senator Brian Schatz] has an alternative of his own, which would allow Americans to buy into Medicaid. […]
Trump bestowed an unwanted kiss on MSNC news host/correspondent Katy Tur.
[…] Katy Tur wrote in her book published Tuesday that Donald Trump, then a Republican candidate for president, gave her an unwelcome kiss on the cheek during his campaign.
Describing the incident in her book “Unbelievable,” […] Tur said Trump kissed her before an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“Before I know what’s happening, his hands are on my shoulders and his lips are on my cheek,” she wrote. “My eyes widen. My body freezes. My heart stops.” […]
Tur was one of Trump’s favorite targets on the campaign trail; he derided her as “little Katy” and called her a “third rate reporter” during a rally, after which Tur said the Secret Service walked her to her car.
The President on Tuesday lashed out at “people writing books and major articles” about him with “zero access,” an attack that coincided with the release of Tur’s book.
In the third month of Donald Trump’s presidency, Vladimir Putin dispatched one of his diplomats to the State Department to deliver a bold proposition: The full normalization of relations between the United States and Russia across all major branches of government.
The proposal, spelled out in a detailed document obtained by BuzzFeed News, called for the wholesale restoration of diplomatic, military and intelligence channels severed between the two countries after Russia’s military interventions in Ukraine and Syria.
The broad scope of the Kremlin’s reset plan came with an ambitious launch date: immediately.
By April, a top Russian cyber official, Andrey Krutskikh,* would meet with his American counterpart for consultations on “information security,” the document proposed. By May, the two countries would hold “special consultations” on the war in Afghanistan, the Iran nuclear deal, the “situation in Ukraine,” and efforts to denuclearize the “Korean Peninsula.” And by the time Putin and Trump held their first meeting, the heads of the CIA, FBI, National Security Council and Pentagon would meet face-to-face with their Russian counterparts to discuss areas of mutual interest. A raft of other military and diplomatic channels opened during the Obama administration’s first-term “reset” would also be restored.
“This document represents nothing less than a road map for full-scale normalization of US-Russian relations,” said Andrew Weiss, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, after reviewing the proposal provided by BuzzFeed News.
Besides offering a snapshot of where the Kremlin wanted to move the bilateral relationship, the proposal reveals one of Moscow’s unspoken assumptions – that Trump wouldn’t share the lingering US anger over Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 election and might accept a lightning fast rapprochement.
…
In pushing its reset plan, Moscow seemed to underestimate the political blowback the Trump administration would face if it carried out a large scale rapprochement amid high-profile investigations by the FBI and Congress into allegations of collusion with Russia….
* I was just reading about Krutskikh in The Red Web yesterday! He’s up to no good.
“The surprising new strategy of pro-Russia bots”: “Co-ordinated groups of Twitter bots pushing pro-Russian propaganda have developed an odd but occasionally effective strategy – retweeting messages that the bot-makers disagree with and flooding their enemies with followers.”
SC @331, that was an interesting read. The explanations for why bots would flood their enemies with retweets and supposedly new followers were especially intriguing.
The flood can trigger cancellation of a Twitter account.
The flood can simply make a Twitter account unusable.
etc.
I liked the specific examples given in the article. Those examples made the problems clearly understandable. And scary … how does one combat something like that?
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is the subject of a Justice Department corruption probe which alleges he misappropriated billions of dollars from a government fund he controlled. In June, the Justice Department moved to seize $540 million in assets, including “[a] Picasso painting given to the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the rights to two Hollywood comedies and a $27.3 million diamond necklace belonging” to Najib’s wife. In all, the Justice Department alleges $4.5 billion was misappropriated, including $731 million directly into Najib’s own bank accounts.
Despite the ongoing investigation into Najib, Trump invited the him to the White House for a friendly visit. The official agenda includes discussion of North Korea, among other topics. The meeting, which will take place on Tuesday, gives Najib a “much-needed dose of legitimacy” in advance of elections, which are expected in the next year.
Najib is returning the favor by spending cash at the Trump International Hotel, which Trump still owns. Upon arrival to the United States, the Malaysian leader and his large diplomatic contingent have set up camp at the Trump family’s wildly expensive D.C. hotel, ThinkProgress has learned….
Ichthyicsays
Nine people at once, or two more than the entire Manson family managed to kill in three different locations. In one day. In a suburban home. In Texas, a place with maximum Second Amendment freedoms. The motive wasn’t immediately apparent, but it turned out to be pretty much what you expected.
Investigators examine former Trump adviser’s alleged links to private plan to build Middle East power plants
US congressional investigators are examining whether Michael Flynn […] secretly promoted a plan by private business interests to build US–Russian nuclear power plants in the Middle East while he was serving in the White House.
[…]
Among startling new details unearthed by investigators working for a congressional committee is that the nuclear power plan Flynn was allegedly secretly promoting, during the campaign and once he joined the White House, involved a Russian state-owned company currently under US sanctions.
They are also examining whether the proposal is still being promoted by the Trump administration, months after Flynn was forced out of his role.
[…]
The plan called for the creation of an international consortium of US, French, Dutch, Russian, Gulf Arab, British, Ukrainian, and Israeli companies to design and build 40 nuclear power reactors. The plan included a service to maintain control of dangerous spent fuel. One slide provided to the committee said that Rosoboron, a Russian state-owned weapons exporter that is under US sanctions, would provide “total regional security” for the project.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has fired people investigating him, and he dismisses the charges of corruption against him as “fake news.” No wonder Trump felt comfortable (“honored,” he said) meeting with Razak.
The scheme that Flynn backed was a for-profit expansion of nuclear power reactors in the Middle East. Yes, for profit, which in Flynn’s world guarantees massive opportunities for money laundering and other forms of corruption. Add that to the Russia connection, and add that to the corrupt weapons exporters who were involved … sheesh. Now there’s a plan that epitomizes the fever dreams of rightwing asshats in Trump’s orbit.
I would not be surprised to hear that former Blackwater doofuses were also involved.
[…] So anyhoo. YEAH. That house that got decimated does most definitely not belong to Yiannopoulos. […] So no, this wreck of a place does not belong to Milo, so don’t be fooled and DON’T FEEL BAD FOR HIM. […]
Follow-up to comments 165, 230, 304, 308, and 327.
Writing for Slate, Jamelle Bouie shows that Steve Bannon’s reputation as an intellectual is bogus.
Excerpt:
As both chairman for Donald Trump’s campaign and onetime chief strategist for his White House, Steve Bannon cultivated a reputation for a kind of vulgar brilliance […] And the political press has obliged this image. Joshua Green […] approvingly quotes one scholar who says that Bannon is “someone who comes out of a very serious intellectual tradition,” not “just some weird guy who likes playing politics.” […] Glenn Thrush argued that “Whether [you] respect him or not Bannon is a deep if narrow reader who is trying to create an ideological/intellectual foundation for Trumpism.” […]
[…] it’s not obvious that Bannon deserves his reputation for deep thinking or even tactical brilliance. Just the opposite. His recent statements and White House record show someone skilled at self-promotion but unable to advance a coherent (or even accurate) narrative or take advantage of political opportunity. […]
Bannon’s opening declaration that America was “built on our citizens” is pure ideology, with little relationship to the facts of the matter. It ignores the critical role enslaved Africans played in building—and through the trade in their bodies, financing—the nation’s infrastructure. It ignores the labor of Chinese immigrants who performed backbreaking labor to help build the transcontinental railroad. It ignores those immigrants, none of them “citizens,” who fought to preserve the union in the face of secession. And to say that this America was built on the control of borders is to imagine a regime of immigration control where none actually existed. […]
As for Bannon’s alleged tactical genius? His ability to craft potent messages against Hillary Clinton lost its utility on the day after the election. What we should judge instead is his seven months as “chief strategist,” where, far from bolstering the president, he led him into a series of missteps and blunders, including a de facto “Muslim ban” that immediately mobilized large parts of the public against him. You can see the fruits of Bannon’s influence in Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, a response that earned near-universal condemnation from both parties and large numbers of Americans. What has Steve Bannon helped President Trump accomplish? Nothing, save a low and sinking approval rating. […]
The Department of Justice will not charge the six Baltimore police officers responsible for the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died in their custody in April of 2015.
I see this has a direct result of having Jeff Sessions as head of the DOJ.
Michael G. Flynn, the son of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, is a subject of the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign, according to four current and former government officials.
The inquiry into Flynn is focused at least in part on his work with his father’s lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group, three of the officials said. It’s unclear when the focus on Flynn began….
Two special elections for state legislative seats in New Hampshire, and Oklahoma, were won by Democrats on Tuesday night in districts that President Donald Trump had won by double-digit margins last November. […]
Trump’s appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court is having the effect that right-wingers hoped for. This is all bad news.
[…] the Supreme Court ruled that Texas should not be required to promptly redraw federal and state legislative districts that a federal court had found violated the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act […] The decision was rendered by a 5-4 margin, with the conservative judges (John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch) in the majority. […]
the Supreme Court blocked another federal appeals court ruling — this one about Trump’s travel ban […] Five justices came to the decision that approximately 24,000 refugees who had agreements with resettlement organizations to come to the United States couldn’t do so until a decision has been made about the legality of Trump’s travel ban. The decision could indicate a desire to uphold the travel ban — or can simply maintain the status quo until the court can hear the case in full in October.
In related disgrace news, Sarah Huckabee Sanders continues to execute the WH plot to falsely accuse Comey of criminal acts. It’s another low from them in dishonesty, abuse of power, obstruction of justice, and trashing the rule of law. On the bright side, it’s evidence of how afraid they are of the Mueller investigation.
Trump’s FEMA nominee for deputy administrator withdrew after questions arose about him falsifying records.
Trump’s FEC nominee, Trey Trainor (a Texas lawyer), is facing troubling questions about his repeated disagreements with state-level campaign finance regulators. Looks like Trump wants to weaken the Federal Election Commission.
Congress on Tuesday passed a bipartisan resolution condemning white supremacists and other hate groups and sent it to President Trump’s desk, Politico and The Hill reported.
With the bill on its way to the White House, sponsors urged President Donald Trump to not hesitate in signing it.
“Tonight the House passed my resolution condemning hate groups and the Charlottesville attack. POTUS should send a clear message and sign it ASAP,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who co-sponsored the legislation in the Senate, tweeted Tuesday evening….
Russia’s effort to influence U.S. voters through Facebook and other social media is a “red-hot” focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election and possible links to President Donald Trump’s associates, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
Mueller’s team of prosecutors and FBI agents is zeroing in on how Russia spread fake and damaging information through social media and is seeking additional evidence from companies like Facebook and Twitter about what happened on their networks, said one of the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing the ongoing investigation.
…
The focus of Mueller’s probe comes as the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own investigation, say social-media companies including Facebook have to be more forthcoming about what they saw occurring on their platforms last year and how they have responded….
tomhsays
@ #339
Milo is always consistent — it was all a joke, of course.
“It’s a joke, not a dick, but apparently you can’t get either,” Yiannopoulos wrote to Newsweek in response to a reporter’s question about the Instagram and Facebook post—which showed someone else’s house losing its roof to high winds.
He then insulted the reporter’s appearance.
I’ll bet the guy who lost his house thought it was pretty funny.
SC @350, yeah, I have a hard time watching Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Trump has the right person for that job. She is willing to stand up there and lie over and over again. She’s standing behind a podium with the presidential seal and she feels no obligation to cut back on the number of lies and threats.
I think the repetitive claims that Comey gave false testimony, that he should be investigated by the DOJ, etc. — I think all that is going to come back to haunt Sarah and Trump.
[…] Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been hollerin’ like a pissed off Arkansas hoot owl all week about how James Comey is bad and James Comey should be investigated […]
[…] the White House’s bullshit story has been pounding the narrative that Comey broke America by FULLY EXONERATING Hillary Clinton in the email investigation, before he even had a chance to figure out how many email crimes she had committed. WHOA IF TRUE, except for how it’s not. That brings us to Press Secretary Sarah Hucka-Spawn Sanders’s behavior this week in the press room.
On Tuesday, responding to Maggie Haberman’s question about Bannon’s comments on the Comey firing, Sanders READ VERY CAREFULLY from her pre-written talking points about how Trump has been FULLY VINDICATED! YOOGE SUCCESS! for his decision to fire Comey. But she went even further than usual, suggesting that maybe the Department Of Justice should look into prosecuting Comey for committing CRIMES. Like, she’s not telling DOJ what to do, but she is just saying, OK?
She did this Monday too. None of this is an accident. Of course, the only appropriate response is “Oh, can it, you asshole,” but it’s clear Sanders is speaking Donald Trump’s mind right now. […]
“Exclusive: Rice told House investigators why she unmasked senior Trump officials”: “Former national security adviser Susan Rice privately told House investigators that she unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York late last year, multiple sources told CNN….”
Tony Schwartz, who wrote The Art of the Deal: “Trump is raging about Mueller because Trump knows what he did and it is far beyond anything anyone currently imagines. Tick tock.”
Most of you will by now have heard or read about Sen. Sanders’ proposal for a bill to expand Medicare in the U.S. (well, duh, thought I). Not being an American, however, this was news to me – I first heard about it in an interview (aired this morning on CBC radio), with a Canadian M.D. who was in Washington supporting the bill.
Negative reaction from Republican legislators was swift and predicable – so predictable, in fact, that I would be bothering to comment on it at, were it not for one particularly egregious lie that came out of the GOP camp, and which I cannot allow to pass.
The lie came from Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), who said of the Canadian single-payer system that “once they spend a certain amount of money … [their coverage] is cut off, usually around Hallowe’en, that’s why the call Canadian Medicine ‘trick- or- treat medicine’….”
(The above quotation – which begins at about 06:55 in the CBC programme I refer to above – may well have been recorded prior to Sen. Sander’s announcement; I cannot, unfortunately, find an original source.)
Hi, Sen. Barrasso – calling you out on this; you, sir, are a liar, plain and simple. There is no upper limit on the amount of money that Canadians can bill through the single-payer system, people do not get “cut off” at any time, and “trick- or- treat medicine” is not a phrase “they” use, it’s just something you made up. And I don’t for a second that you are so ignorant (being an MD yourself, and all) that you actually believe this – you are just telling a bald-faced lie to spook people who, you fear, might be on the fence with respect to health care reform in your country.
No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote.
Well, yes, any border security plan would be subject to a vote in Congress. So why is he saying this? Does he want to walk back the verbal deal he made with Pelosi and Schumer over dinner last night? Or does he just want to confuse the issue so that it doesn’t look like Pelosi and Schumer rolled him again? Still sounds like a deal to me.
From Trump’s later tweets:
Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really! They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own – brought in by parents at young age. Plus BIG border security.
Trump is the asshat who decided to throw them out in the first place. It looks like Trump is trading protection for DACA recipients for a “border security” deal for which we do not have details.
Pelosi and Schumer issued this statement:
President Trump’s tweets are not inconsistent with the agreement reached last night.
To summarize Trump’s self-defeating DACA statements: During his campaign, Trump promised repeatedly to rescind DACA and to deport Dreamers. After he was elected he lied and said that Dreamers can “rest easy.” Recently, Trump trashed DACA with a six-month window for Congress to come up with a substitute. After that stupid move, Trump promised on Twitter that he would “revisit” the DACA issue if Congress did not act. Trump’s next move was to tell reporters that he has not issued any mixed signals, “no mixed signal at all.”
Some commenters have postulated that Trump just wants to rebrand DACA so that it is his own supposed compassion on display, and that he first has to thrown out anything Obama did before the rebranding can begin.
And, as one of SC’s links up-thread pointed out, Trump has started to redefine construction of his border wall as working on repairing and updating existing fences and walls.
Other commenters have postulated that Trump has a hamster wheel instead of a brain inside his head.
More on what Trump said about DACA and his stupid-ass wall (from comments made to reporters before he flew to Florida):
The wall will come later. The wall is going to be built and it’ll be funded a little bit later.
We are working on a plan for DACA. People want to see that happen. You have 800,000 young people brought here, no fault of their own, so we’re working on a plan. We’ll see how it works out. We are going to get massive border security as part of that. And I think something can happen. We’ll see what happens, but something will happen.
We want to get massive border security, and I think both Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, I think they will agree. I think we are fairly close, but we have to get massive border security.
Ryan and McConnell agree with us on DACA. We are very much on board. I spoke to them, yes.
President Trump’s Tweets are not inconsistent with the agreement reached last night. As we said last night, there was no final deal, but there was agreement on the following: We agreed that the President would support enshrining DACA protections into law, and encourage the House and Senate to act.
What remains to be negotiated are the details of border security, with a mutual goal of finalizing all details as soon as possible. While both sides agreed that the wall would not be any part of this agreement, the President made clear he intends to pursue it at a later time, and we made clear we would continue to oppose it. Both sides agreed that the White House and the Democratic leaders would work out a border security package. Possible proposals were discussed including new technology, drones, air support, sensor equipment, rebuilding roads along the border and the bipartisan McCaul-Thompson bill.
Almost everyone in the White House has lawyered up, and many have employed multiple lawyers. The Trump administration changed White House ethics rules so that anonymous donations can be made to their legal defense funds (Mercers will pony up, no doubt, as will many of Trump’s followers).
The U.S. Office of Government Ethics has quietly reversed its own internal policy prohibiting anonymous donations from lobbyists to White House staffers who have legal defense funds.
The little-noticed change could help President Donald Trump’s aides raise the money they need to pay attorneys as the Russia probe expands — but raises the potential for hidden conflicts of interest or other ethics trouble.
“You can picture a whole army of people with business before the government willing to step in here and make [the debt] go away,” said Marilyn Glynn, a former George W. Bush-era acting OGE director who worked in the office for 17 years.
[…] . President Donald Trump claimed that he was taking “no action” on DACA because permits that expire before March 2018 can still be renewed, and he hopes that Congress will provide a legislative solution before then. But with last week’s announcement, the administration immediately ended advance parole. As a result, nearly 700,000 Dreamers can no longer leave the United States to take classes, work, visit ailing relatives, or attend funerals. (Dreamers who have already been approved for advance parole can still travel, but pending applications are being returned.) […]
Buried at the bottom of the Politico piece is an interesting tidbit: Justice Department lawyers and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team still have “full authority to examine who’s footing the bill for potential witnesses in the Trump administration if they have reason to believe other federal laws are being violated from the donations.”
From Ann Coulter (in reference to Trump pushing a potential deal to protect DACA recipients if “massive” border security measures are taken):
Not to keep score or anything, but the American Revolution was fought and won over vastly lesser perfidy.
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“Put a fork in Trump, he’s dead.”
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At this point, who DOESN’T want Trump impeached?
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If we’re not getting a wall, I’d prefer President Pence.
KGsays
There is an imminently looming political crisis in Spain, which may have wide repercussions in Europe and beyond, but which has received remarkably little coverage. On 1st October, the government of Catalonia is holding a referendum on independence, which the government of Spain has denounced as illegal, and is trying to block, while taking or threatening action against anyone – politicains, media or the general public – supporting it. Last night I attended a meeting at which Luke Stobart, a British journalist who spends a lot of time in Catalonia, and supports the independence movement, spoke, along with Kim Arrufat (by Skype), a senior representative of Candidatura d’Unitat Popular, the left (socialist, municipalist, environmentalist, feminist) component of the independence movement. Polls indicate that a clear majority of Catalonia’s inhabitants want a referendum – but opinion on independence itself is very evenly divided, possibly with a small majority against. Ironically, the Spanish government and its allies, by calling on people not to vote (and indeed, the government’s threatening attitude) is very likely to give the pro-independence side a win, if it cannot block the vote altogether. The Catalan government has promised to declare independence if “Yes” wins – although in practice, I think it might draw back if the turnout is too low. It has been unable to gain any official support abroad; there is a rumour that the EU authorities have told the Spanish government they can take any action they want so long as there is no violence – although Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, gave an ambiguous response when asked about the referendum today. I do not feel that absence of violence can be guaranteed, if Spanish authorities try to arrest pro-independence politicians and media; arrest warrants have already been issues for local mayors who have agreed to implement the referendum, some media have been shut down, and threatening Guardai Civil (Spanish police) and military activities have taken place.
[…] If given a choice between protections for Dreamers or an opportunity to use Dreamers’ plight for political gain, Democratic leaders en masse prefer the former to the latter. This might give Trump a “win” – if the deal comes to fruition, he’ll take credit for doing something popular and bipartisan – but most Dems don’t care, so long as the young immigrants get the protections they need and deserve.
For Republicans, this dynamic is flipped. The party’s policy goals have largely been replaced with slogans and soundbites, and few in the party care about working on substantive outcomes. For much of today’s GOP, an ideological crusade and a constant search for electoral advantage is the driving motivation behind every decision.
Given a choice between working with Dems to achieve a goal and blaming Dems for standing in the way of the goal, most Republican leaders choose the latter, not the former.
It’s the difference between a governing party and a post-policy party. The more Donald Trump is willing to make concessions, the more Pelosi and Schumer will work to advance their agenda.
Former Rep. Joe Walsh, a Republican who is now a conservative talk show host, said what a lot of Republicans are thinking about Trump’s agreement to back a DACA-like immigration policy in exchange for border security that does not include a wall:
[…] This is a betrayal. Look, this issue is different. Republican voters will not line up lock, step and barrel behind President Trump. This issue got Trump elected, period. No amnesty. Build the damn wall. … If he betrays that promise, he’s dead. He is dead among his base. Millions and millions of voters will abandon him.
This was the primary issue of his campaign, so if he walks away finally from this one I think he’s done. If there’s no wall, forget about it. … If he doesn’t, he won’t get reelected.
Okay then. Lot’s of emotional gnashing of teeth and wailing on the conservative front. Good. Über rightwing doofus, Ann Coulter also predicted that this will the death of Trump. (See comment 375.)
I kind of doubt that this will kill Trump. He will just claim that the Evil Media did not report the story honestly. Then he will continue to issue contradictory and/or confusing tweets until his followers give up out of sheer exhaustion and wander back into the fold.
This is kind of funny: McConnell is calling for Trump to send Congress his DACA proposal. McConnell says he and other Republicans in Congress “look forward” to receiving Trump’s proposal.
He knows damn well that Trump is not going to do any actual work on this. Trump expects Congress to come up with the entire proposal.
As Congress debates the best ways to address illegal immigration through strong border security and interior enforcement, DACA should be part of those discussions. We look forward to receiving the Trump administration’s legislative proposal as we continue our work on these issues.
Shortly after learning in May that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate links between his campaign associates and Russia, President Trump berated Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an Oval Office meeting and said the attorney general should resign, according to current and former administration officials and others briefed on the matter.
The president blamed the appointment of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, on Mr. Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s Russia investigation — a move Mr. Trump believes was the moment his administration effectively lost control over the inquiry. Accusing Mr. Sessions of “disloyalty,” Mr. Trump unleashed a string of insults on his attorney general.
Ashen and emotional, Mr. Sessions told the president he would quit and sent a resignation letter to the White House, according to four people who were told details of the meeting. Mr. Sessions would later tell associates that the demeaning way the president addressed him was the most humiliating experience in decades of public life.
…
Mr. Trump ended up rejecting Mr. Sessions’s May resignation letter after senior members of his administration argued that dismissing the attorney general would only create more problems for a president who had already fired an F.B.I. director and a national security adviser. Mr. Trump once again, in July, told aides he wanted to remove Mr. Sessions, but for a second time didn’t take action.
The relationship between the two men has improved marginally since midsummer, as Mr. Sessions has made a public display of hunting for the leakers among the administration’s national security officials. His allies said that despite the humiliation, the attorney general has stayed in the job because he sees a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity as the nation’s top law enforcement official to toughen the country’s immigration policies.
But he may be losing that battle as well….
Trump was set off when McGahn got a call from Rosenstein during the meeting informing him he was appointing Mueller as special counsel.
As I’ve said before, this is nothing to celebrate. It’s tragic that such a pathetic, cruel, destructive person is in a position of great power. It’s awful to see someone humiliated, and to know that kids are growing up seeing this happen in the Oval Office, regardless of how bad Sessions himself is.
Trump did an impromptu press conference on AF1 this afternoon, in which he told lie after lie – about Susan Rice, the GDP, corporations, antifa protesters in Charlottesville, communications with EPN, the JCPOA (which he claimed the Iranian regime has violated in letter and in spirit, whatever that could mean in this context), and more.
Josh Marshall: “Trump[‘]s being a stone cold liar AND having no idea what he’s talking about does pose serious interpretive challenges.” (He’s also bringing the gifs.)
… President Trump doubled down on his ‘many sides’ talk about Charlottesville. The exchange was specifically about Trump’s meeting yesterday with Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only African-American Republican in Senate.
This is from the pool report (my emphasis added) …
“We had a great talk yesterday. I think especially in light of the advent of Antifa, if you look at what’s going on there. You have some pretty bad dudes on the other side also and essentially that’s what I said. Now because of what’s happened since then with Antifa. When you look at really what’s happened since Charlottesville, a lot of people are saying and people have actually written, ‘Gee, Trump may have a point.’ I said there’s some very bad people on the other side also. But we had a great conversation.
“There are a number of people, plenty of whom we don’t even know about yet, who are torn” about running again, said one national GOP strategist involved in House races. “Whether there’s measurable progress on tax reform the next 30 days will be determinative. If we get to November 1st and it looks like tax reform isn’t happening, I think there’ll be a mass exodus.”
“It’s a disaster if it doesn’t happen,” conservative Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) warned, referring to a failure to make meaningful progress on tax reform. “That has an effect. People like me who are here for the cause, if we see no hope for the cause, which in my case will never happen, that would have a terribly damning effect on our stamina here.”
Other conservatives offer similar warnings.
“If we don’t perform, sure, you’re going to see more resignations just because they don’t want to see the wrath of the voter. It’s real. If we don’t get it done, having the majority can no longer be taken for granted,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) told TPM on Wednesday. “There’s more talk about the frustration of not getting things done than I’ve heard in a long time. … If you can’t get something done, why stay in the fight?”
Add in the Democrat’s success in flipping seats in special elections, and this suggests 2018 could be a big loss for the House GOP.
In addition to being wrong, it’s another example of Trump’s very disturbing relationship with time: if he says there’s been a terrorist attack in Sweden and then subsequently there’s rioting in Sweden he was proven right. If he equates the two sides in Charlottesville and evidence later emerges of bad antifa dudes somewhere,* he had a point about Charlottesville. (Alexandra Petri wrote a remarkable piece about this back in March.)
* Which he likely believes because he reads the Kremlin/far-Right propaganda @ #12.
“Kaspersky Lab co-founder accepts invitation to testify to U.S. Congress”: “Eugene Kaspersky, the co-founder and chief executive of Moscow-based anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, said on Thursday he accepted an invitation to testify to U.S. lawmakers later this month over the security of his company’s products, but that he needed an expedited visa in order to do so.”
““This unfortunate circumstance is not reflective of the value we place on female photographers and their enormous contributions to the field of photography,” the company said in the statement.”
@391 – That will be extremely interesting. I’m going to make a bold prediction here. I think he asks for asylum and immunity to give up the goods on quite a bit of cyber-intelligence. Equally possible, he never makes it out of Russia, alive anyway.
“N.Y.U. was one of several top schools that recruited [Michelle Jones] for their doctoral programs. She was also among 18 selected from more than 300 applicants to Harvard University’s history program. But in a rare override of a department’s authority to choose its graduate students, Harvard’s top brass overturned Ms. Jones’s admission after some professors raised concerns that she played down her crime in the application process.” (Actually, fretted over how her admission would be portrayed on Fox News.)
The chief executives of some of the largest coal and mining companies in the country have chosen the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., for a private conference next month, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.
The hotel is a natural venue for such an event. The host of the conference, the National Mining Association, an industry lobby group, has won a string of policy victories and carve-outs from the Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress.
The NMA board of directors meeting, which takes place October 3-4, is yet the latest example of a special interest group spending thousands of dollars on a property owned directly by the Trump family. The Trump International charges over $800 a night for the days the mining event is scheduled.
…
Since Trump’s campaign victory, lobbyists for domestic and foreign interests have flocked to properties owned by Trump and his family, especially the hotel in Washington, D.C. Lobbyists for the candy industry, oil industry, funeral industry, as well as representatives of the governments of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have booked events at the Trump International Hotel since November.
I’m unhappy that comments on this thread aren’t appearing on the sidebar. :(
blfsays
Follow-up to @167, where fracebork deliberately lies — to its benefit — about viewing statistics, now it has been caught intentionally selling ad-space to nazis, Why does Facebook allow advertisers to target Jew haters? (the Grauniad’s edits in {curly braces}; in addition, I’ve made a few unmarked corrections to the punctuation, which was atrocious†):
The social media site has been caught targeting racists with ads […]
[…] A bit of quick and easy reporting by ProPublica this week found that it’s now possible for advertisers to pay the platform to target their content to people who indicated interest in such topics as Jew hater,How to burn jews {sic}, or History of ‘why jews {sic} ruin the world.’
To test it, ProPublica paid for three ads to be targeted to these people: Facebook approved the ads promptly. When pressed, Facebook representatives pointed out that it wasn’t down to human error, not exactly: the people sharing antisemitic interested [sic] had been identified by an algorithm. It wasn’t anyone’s fault! Well, no one in particular. […]
We all knew that antisemites (and other flavors of racists and other kinds of jerks) like to connect with each other on Facebook, but this is an insight in particular about how Facebook has allowed hate speech not just to propagate, but to bloom.
[…]
This isn’t the first time ProPublica has caught Facebook ad targeting being racist: a year ago, they demonstrated that they could prevent ads for housing from being shown to people of color. It was old-fashioned Fred Trump-style housing discrimination updated for the digital age […]
† Despite this being the Grauniad, I’m not convinced they originally fecked it up; the embedded link has identical or similar Typos offerings.
blfsays
I’m unhappy that comments on this thread aren’t appearing on the sidebar.
SC @392, yeah, I figured that Trump would sign the resolution condemning Nazi’s etc. However, as you point out, just hours before that Trump had reiterated his “some pretty bad dudes on the other side” and “some very bad people on the other side” statements. He still doesn’t get it. He should not even come close to comparing Nazis and the KKK to any other group, nor to excusing Nazis because there are other “bad” people in other groups.
White supremacists will be happy with what Trump did because he spoke them about his real feelings. I think he sees them as “on his side.”
Trump’s actual statement:
Now because of what’s happened since then with Antifa, when you look at really what’s happened since Charlottesville, a lot of people are saying, and people have actually written, “Gee, Trump may have a point.” I said there’s some very bad people on the other side also.
Note the whining. Trump inserted a sense of personal grievance, of having been personally insulted because people questioned the false equivalence he set up between Nazis and anti-facists.
Also, note the standard Trump phrasing of “a lot of people.” That’s bullshit.
“Senators propose 9/11-style commission on Russian interference”: “Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced legislation on Friday to establish the National Commission on Cybersecurity of U.S. Election Systems to study the election-related cyberattacks — which the intelligence community has attributed to Russia — and make recommendations on how to guard against such activity going forward.”
More stupid and embarrassing stuff that Trump said:
Q: Mr. President, the severity of these storms — the one in Florida, the one in Texas — has that made you rethink your views of climate change?
TRUMP: Well, we’ve had bigger storms than this. And if you go back into the 1930s and the 1940s, and you take a look, we’ve had storms over the years that have been bigger than this. If you go back into the Teens, you’ll see storms that were as big or bigger. So we did have two horrific storms, epic storms. But if you go back into the ’30s and ’40s, and you go back into the Teens, you’ll see storms that were very similar and even bigger, okay?
Before the issue of climate change was brought up, Trump repeated the words “epic,” “historic,” “worst,” “largest ever recorded,” and “bigger than we have ever seen” when describing Hurricane Irma. That was, as the Washington Post pointed out in reference to both hurricanes, Trump’s way of lauding himself:
By focusing on the historic epicness of the hurricane, Trump has repeatedly turned attention to his role in confronting the disaster.
Bring up climate change, and Trump changes his tune. Bullshitter in Chief.
From The New Republic’s Emily Atkin:
This is a near-perfect example of how climate deniers will bury their heads in the sand to keep pretending climate change doesn’t exist. Harvey inundated Houston with more than 50 inches of rain – there has never been a bigger rain event in America. Irma, at its peak, reached sustained winds of 185 miles per hour, making it the strongest storm recorded in the Atlantic Ocean outside of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Trump knew all these things a week ago – but now, suddenly, he doesn’t.
I left out one of Trump’s stupid statements. At a White House reception that was held yesterday evening, Trump said, “I never even knew a Category 5 existed.”
Background to #400 – “Trump tweeted about Scotland Yard at 642 am. At 619 am on Fox/Friends @kilmeade talked about Scotland Yard having terrorists on their radar.”
As everyone knows, Rachel Maddow interviewed Hillary Clinton last night.
Of the many segments, (all of them well worth watching), I really enjoyed Clinton’s look forward to see herself playing an active role as a political activist and as a supporter of non-profit groups with good goals.
Q: What I’m wondering, Mr. President, is that Susan Rice has finally come out and said that she did unmask officials in your campaign, and I’m wondering what your reaction is.
TRUMP: She’s not supposed to be doing that, and what she did was wrong. And we’ve been saying that, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What she did was wrong. Not supposed to be doing that. You know it. The unmasking and the surveillance, and I heard she admitted that yesterday. Just not right.
How is it possible for even a dunderhead like Trump to not know that his smear campaign against former National Security Advisor Susan Rice was found to be baseless a long time ago?
[…] a very senior member of the Emirati royal family, the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, came to the United States in December in secret […] He didn’t notify the State Department or the White House, which in turn raised concerns among U.S. officials who were curious why.
And so, the U.S. intelligence community took note when Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahya traveled specifically to New York City and went to a meeting in Trump Tower. More specifically, the Emirati crown prince, without coordination with the State Department, decided to have a chat with Mike Flynn, Steve Bannon, and Jared Kushner during the presidential transition process.
Back in D.C., White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice received an intelligence intercept trying to figure out what the Emirati crown prince was doing in the United States as part of a visit that he explicitly did not declare with the U.S. government. And so, Rice unmasked the names so the administration would know with whom the crown prince was visiting.
[…] it’s routine: when a foreign surveillance target shows up unannounced in New York for a meeting, intelligence professionals tend to want to know who the meeting is with.
From Trump’s strange perspective, Rice doing her job was “wrong.” Why? Because Donald Trump says so. The president added that Rice “admitted” she unmasked the names in the intelligence report – which is a bit like saying she “admitted” to doing something routine and legal as part of her everyday duties.
In fact, congressional Republicans […] have already said publicly that the former national security adviser didn’t do anything wrong.
[…] it’s obvious that Rice is a popular villain in Trump World, but the president’s allegations aren’t just mistaken; they’re ridiculous.
After waiting months for a response to our request for comprehensive visitor logs from the President’s multiple visits to Mar-a-Lago and having the government ask for a last minute extension, today we received 22 names from the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit to Mar-a-Lago and nothing else. The government does not believe that they need to release any further Mar-a-Lago visitor records. We vehemently disagree. The government seriously misrepresented their intentions to both us and the court. This was spitting in the eye of transparency. We will be fighting this in court.
In a rare face-to-face conversation, Castro told U.S. diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis that he was equally befuddled, and concerned. Predictably, Castro denied any responsibility. But U.S. officials were caught off guard by the way he addressed the matter, devoid of the indignant, how-dare-you-accuse-us attitude the U.S. had come to expect from Cuba’s leaders.
The Cubans even offered to let the FBI come down to Havana to investigate. While U.S.-Cuban cooperation on law enforcement had improved, this level of access was extraordinary. […]
The list of confirmed American victims was much shorter on Feb. 17, when the U.S. first complained to Cuba. Today, the number of “medically confirmed” cases stands at 21 — plus several Canadians. Some Americans have permanent hearing loss or mild brain injury. The developments have frightened Havana’s tight-knit diplomatic community.
The French government has started checking their diplomats, too. It sounds like these attacks have been intermittently happening for roughly a year, and may still be ongoing.
SC @ 416, well, well, well. This creates another “what are they hiding” moment for the Trump administration.
In other news, Republicans in the House of Congress just passed a bill that contains a provision that will weaken the separation between church and state:
[…] The U.S. House of Representatives quietly passed a spending bill on Thursday that could transform churches and other houses of worship into entities more closely resembling SuperPACs.
[…] according to the House Appropriations Committee press release, the bill contains a rider with a provision that would make it difficult to enforce the so-called Johnson Amendment, a part of the tax code that prohibits churches and other houses of worship from endorsing political candidates. […]
The provision […] would stop funding most attempts by the IRS to penalize churches that violate tax law by engaging in explicit political action. Rather, the provision states any funds used to enforce the Johnson Amendment on churches would require agents to notify two congressional committees, endure a 90-day waiting period, and obtain sign-off from the IRS commissioner (nonprofits that are not faith based would still be subject to enforcement). […]
The bill now goes to the Senate, where the fate of the provision that would allow churches to receive funds even if they endorse political candidates is unclear.
Trump made a lot of promised to black college leaders … and then Trump delivered nothing.
In early February, in a high-profile meeting with black leaders in the Oval Office, […] Trump promised to make historically black colleges and universities an “absolute priority.”
Leaders of HBCUs left that meeting, the culmination of weeks of frequent communication with the incoming Trump administration, feeling enthusiastic. But then Trump unveiled his budget proposal in May: HBCUs got none of the financial boost leaders anticipated. Moreover, Trump planned to cut key grant programs that help a majority of HBCU students. And now, Trump has yet to make good even on the promises contained in an executive order he signed in February, including moving an HCBU liaison into the White House and convening an advisory board for the schools.
Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.), a leader on the issue for the Congressional Black Caucus, offered a blunt assessment […] of what the Trump administration has done to date for HBCUs: “Nothing.”
Beyond Trump’s unfulfilled promise to relocate the HBCU office from the Department of Education into the White House, his administration hasn’t even announced a pick to lead the office. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the White House has had difficulty finding someone willing to take the job. The advisory board, which would guide Trump on issues important to the HBCU community, has yet to convene, says Michael Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund. “And we’ve had no real consistent communication with the White House or the Department of Education since the meeting in February,” he adds. […]
Trump just further muddied the waters around the DACA issue, and around his immigration policies in general:
President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he will not sign any immigration bill that would set the stage for chain immigration, in which the extended family of legal immigrants are given a smooth path into the country.
“CHAIN MIGRATION cannot be allowed to be part of any legislation on Immigration!” Trump tweeted. […]
Some Republicans see legislative to replace Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as part of “chain migration”. It’s a sort of slippery slope argument from the rightwing.
From the National Review:
[…] amnesty serves as a magnet for new illegal immigrants, and its recipients could become the next link in chain migration if granted legal status or especially citizenship.
[…] Democrats were behind last month’s white nationalist riots in Charlottesville, Va. Oh, and calling them white nationalist riots is a liberal media deceit, he said.
“It’s all baloney,” Rohrabacher said.
Under Rohrabacher’s scenario, a former “Hillary and Bernie supporter” got Civil War re-enactors to gather under the guise of protecting a Robert E. Lee statue there.
“It was a setup for these dumb Civil War re-enactors,” Rohrabacher said. “It was left-wingers who were manipulating them in order to have this confrontation” and to “put our president on the spot.”
Seth Meyers presented a “Closer Look” segment in which he judged Trump’s skills as a negotiator, and talked about the false narrative that Trump is an “independent.”
The video is 8:54 minutes long. DACA was included in the discussion.
Excerpt:
Being an independent isn’t the same as being a rudderless narcissist. And in every political sense that matters, [Trump is] a Republican.
The bedroom suites at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, available only to members and their guests, feature hand-painted Moorish ceilings, antique Spanish-tiled mosaics and sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.
On a weekend in early March, during one of seven trips by Trump and his White House entourage to the posh Palm Beach property since the inauguration, the government paid the Trump-owned club to reserve at least one bedroom for two nights.
The charge, according to a newly disclosed receipt reviewed by The Washington Post, was $1,092.
The amount was based on a per-night price of $546, which, according to the bill, was Mar-a-Lago’s “rack rate,” the hotel industry term for a standard, non-discounted price.
The receipt, which was obtained in recent days by the transparency advocacy group Property of the People and verified by The Post, offers one of the first concrete signs that Trump’s use of Mar-a-Lago as the “Winter White House” has resulted in taxpayer funds flowing directly into the coffers of his private business….
The Russian lawyer who met with President Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law, and campaign manager in June 2016 was representing a client under scrutiny in an ongoing criminal investigation related to a money-laundering case opened in 2013 by former US Attorney Preet Bharara.
Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian prosecutor with ties to the Kremlin, was representing the real-estate company Prevezon Holdings in a civil suit filed by the US government in the Southern District of New York when she visited Trump Tower on June 9, 2016.
Prevezon, which is owned by the son of a powerful Russian government official, was part of a parallel criminal investigation, according to court documents filed late last year. A person familiar with the matter told Business Insider that the criminal case is ongoing, corroborating a Bloomberg report published earlier Friday.
The criminal investigation had not yet been disclosed when Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired Bharara in March, and there was no mention of it when the civil case was settled in May for $5.9 million.
Veselnitskaya has staunchly denied discussing the Prevezon case during the Trump Tower meeting. But the developments suggest the stakes for her client were higher than previously known….
The Bloomberg piece to which the article in #427 links, which provides a lot more detail about the case, includes: “‘There was no discussion of a deal — you repeal one and then we in turn repeal the other’, Veselnitskaya said. ‘I categorically wasn’t authorized to discuss something like that’.”
…Earlier this year, the MRFF told Newsweek that the number of complaints it has received from servicemen and -women in the Army, Air Force, Marines and other branches has doubled since Trump’s election.
Many of the recent charges are coming from members of minority religions, including Roman Catholics, Jews and Muslims, and from atheists. Among the complaints: military family and marital therapy programs are being infused with Protestant Christianity, which would violate the U.S. Constitution; open anti-Semitism; anti-LGBT statements, posters, symbols and bullying; openly anti-Muslim teachers and Islamophobic attacks; a rise in on-base evangelizing; and increased pressure on recruits or lower-level personnel and service members to convert to fundamentalist Christianity….
Oh, FFS. Republicans in the House of Congress want to make life more difficult for people with disabilities.
[…] H.R. 620 would completely change the way in which a business is required to comply with the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act]. Instead of requiring that a business comply proactively, the bill would place the burden on the individual who is being denied access. This bill proposes that after an individual with a disability is denied access she must first notify the business owner, with exacting specificity, that her civil rights were violated, and then wait for six months to see if the business will make “substantial progress” toward access, before going to a court to order compliance.
Business owners can spend years out of compliance and face no penalty even after they receive notice, so long as the owners claim “substantial progress.” By allowing a business an endless amount of time to become compliant with the ADA’s reasonable requirements, H.R. 620 removes any incentive for a business to proactively ensure that people with disabilities have access. Instead, the bill encourages businesses to just wait until an individual’s civil rights are violated before making any changes. […]
In the days leading up to Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, when his soon-to-be national security adviser Michael Flynn was reportedly pushing a multibillion-dollar deal to build nuclear reactors in Jordan and other Middle East nations, Flynn and two other top Trump advisers held a secret meeting with the king of Jordan.
The meeting — details of which have never been reported — is the latest in a series of secret, high-stakes contacts between Trump advisers and foreign governments that have raised concerns about how, in particular, Flynn and senior adviser Jared Kushner handled their personal business interests as they entered key positions of power. And the nuclear project raised additional security concerns about expanding nuclear technology in a tinderbox region of the world. One expert compared it to providing “a nuclear weapons starter kit.”
On the morning of Jan. 5, Flynn, Kushner, and former chief strategist Steve Bannon greeted King Abdullah II at the Four Seasons hotel in lower Manhattan, then took off in a fleet of SUVs and a sedan to a different location.
People close to the three Trump advisers say that the nuclear deal was not discussed. But a federal official with access to a document created by a law enforcement agency about the meeting said that the nuclear proposal, known as the Marshall Plan, was one of the topics the group talked about.
…
The meeting with the king of Jordan had extremely high stakes: a discussion with the head of a key American ally that might have included plans about spreading nuclear power to one of the world’s least stable regions, possibly with the help of one of America’s main geopolitical enemies, Russia. The revelation of the meeting comes as Abdullah plans to visit the United States next week and speak with Trump….
[…] H.R. 620 would completely change the way in which a business is required to comply with the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act]. Instead of requiring that a business comply proactively, the bill would place the burden on the individual who is being denied access. This bill proposes that after an individual with a disability is denied access she must first notify the business owner, with exacting specificity, that her civil rights were violated, and then wait for six months to see if the business will make “substantial progress” toward access, before going to a court to order compliance.
This is exactly what they did, to great effect, with pre-clearance in the Voting Rights Act.
Also, incidentally, Trump is notorious for not complying with the ADA in his businesses.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain is backing a bipartisan bill that would block […] Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.
“When less than one percent of Americans are volunteering to join the military, we should welcome all those who are willing and able to serve our country,” McCain said in a statement.
“Any member of the military who meets the medical and readiness standards should be allowed to serve—including those who are transgender,” he said.
McCain, committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.), committee member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced the bill as stand-alone legislation on Friday.
Gillibrand and Collin earlier introduced the bill as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. But the amendment is not expected to get a vote amid a larger dispute of which amendments will make it to a vote.
The bill would prohibit the Pentagon from involuntarily separating or denying the re-enlistment of currently serving transgender troops solely on the basis of gender identity.
It would also require Defense Secretary James Mattis to complete the study of accession – recruitment and training – of transgender recruits that he started before Trump announced the ban. […]
Further to #376: Catalonia referendum: Spanish state poised to seize Catalan finances. This is bound to solidify support for independence, I wolud think: one of the main Catalan grievances is that they pay more in taxes to the centre than they get back in services (there is some truth in the charge that the movement for Catalan independence is motivated by economic selfishness – at least as far as the centre-right element of the movement is concerned).
Facebook Inc….has handed over to special counsel Robert Mueller detailed records about the Russian ad purchases on its platform that go beyond what it shared with Congress last week, according to people familiar with the matter.
The information Facebook shared with Mr. Mueller included copies of the ads and details about the accounts that bought them and the targeting criteria they used, the people familiar with the matter said. Facebook policy dictates that it would only turn over “the stored contents of any account,” including messages and location information, in response to a search warrant, some of them said.
A search warrant from Mr. Mueller would mean the special counsel now has a powerful tool in his arsenal to probe the details of how social media was used as part of a campaign of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. Facebook hasn’t shared the same information with Congress in part because of concerns about disrupting the Mueller probe, and possibly running afoul of U.S. privacy laws, people familiar with the matter said….
From the WSJ story @ #435: “Mr. Rohrabacher’s travel wasn’t paid for by the U.S. House of Representatives and wasn’t an official government trip, aides said.”
I wonder who did pay for it.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Chris Hayes of All In had author Ta-Nehisi Coates on two segments tonight talking about Trump and his White Supremacist policies and attitudes (Seg 1, Seg 2).
Last night he had Michael Moore on talking about Trump and his politics, again over two segments (Seg 1, Seg 2). The two interviews overlap to a large degree.
Here’s Rachel Maddow’s interview with one of the journalists who reported on the meeting described @ #432. It’s a strange thing. Flynn, Kushner, and Bannon (and according to witnesses around six others who haven’t yet been identified)? What was Bannon doing there? They met with the King of Jordan at a bar in downtown Manhattan?
Mariano Gómez […] won an award for his working installing a wireless internet network in the remote community, but was told he couldn’t apply for a US visa
A Mexican elementary school teacher who won an award for his efforts to connect an isolated indigenous village to the internet has been barred from traveling to the US to collect the prize.
Mariano Gómez […] was to have been honoured by the Internet Society (Isoc) at a ceremony in Los Angeles on 18 September for his working installing a wireless internet network in the remote community of San Martín Abasolo, which has no telephone or radio service.
But when Gómez travelled 16 hours from his home in Chiapas state for a visa appointment at the US embassy in Mexico City, he was told that he could not apply.
Gómez, a member of the Tseltal indigenous community, said was told his application was rejected because he was unable to provide a street address and because he does not have a bank account. Rural Mexican villages often have no street names, while 70% of the population of Chiapas live in poverty.
Another factor for the rejection was that he comes from a “marginalized community in a region that’s considered to be one of the places most migrants travel from to go to the United States illegally”, Gómez wrote in an open letter published online.
[…]
Isoc said in a statement that three awardees would not attend the ceremony because they were not granted visas.
[…]
blfsays
There is a bill moving through Ozland’s joke of parliament to abolish restrictions on concentrated media ownership. It has a fig-leaf of providing some support for smaller media, but with an astonishing exception: That support does not apply to the Grauniad’s Australian operation. Specifically. Totally. There is a confusing array of reasons given for this blatant censorship, each apparently carefully tuned to apply to the Grauniad. A point that, apparently, has been admitted: “Privately, the government was frank, the foreign parent company veto was aimed at Guardian Australia, something that became evident when they selectively waived it for other media groups in last-minute negotiations.” — How the Coalition’s ‘blind ideology’ over media reform stiffed Guardian Australia (“In backroom dealing, ministers showed their support for independent media had limits. We’ll keep producing Australian journalism our readers can be proud of”).
“Still no charity money from leftover Trump inaugural funds”: “What is left from the massive fundraising is a mystery, clouded by messy and, at times, budget-busting management of a private fund that requires little public disclosure. The Associated Press spoke with eight people — vendors, donors and Trump associates — involved in planning and political fundraising for the celebration, an event that provides an early look at the new president’s management style and priorities. The people described a chaotic process marked by last-minute decisions, staffing turnover and little financial oversight.”
Renato Mariotti: “THREAD: Why news that Mueller obtained a search warrant for Facebook content may be the biggest news in the case since the Manafort raid….”
This is just a super interesting article. I knew nothing about the “Wolf of Wall Street” case* or the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which evidently “is probing the transfer of assets overseas by Ukrainian officials, including former President Viktor Yanukovych.” Freeny was at the grand jury yesterday when Manafort’s former spokesman Jason Maloni testified.
Nerd @446, the interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates is great. If anyone hasn’t seen both segments yet, please do. Nerd provided links.
Coates’ comments on the phrase “white working class” are a good example of his finely honed intellect at work. He sees the broad picture and the details simultaneously. He focuses on the most important factors and clearly explains them.
Chris Hayes did well. He drew Coates into a meaningful discussion.
In the wake of heated protests in St. Louis following the acquittal of the cop who killed Anthony Lamar Smith, a self-described Christian lawmaker from Pennsylvania endorsed running over protesters who block roads.
[…] Pennsylvania Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R) tweeted that “[i]f anyone EVER tries to stop my car on a highway with negative intentions… I will not stop under any conditions.” […]
In subsequent tweets, Bernstine called protesters “thugs” and “snowflakes” and vowed he “won’t be assaulted in the name of ‘free speech.’” [..]
Running over protesters with cars is a tactic conservatives have sought to protect. […] Republicans in six states “have pushed for laws this year that would shield drivers who hit protesters. The bills are part of a wave of anti-protest proposals […]”
As recently as August 15, Fox News’ website was home to a page glorifying running over protesters. A video on the page, which was republished from the conservative Daily Caller, was headlined, “Here’s A Reel Of Cars Plowing Through Protesters Trying To Block The Road.” […]
The Department of Justice headed by Jeff Sessions made yet another bad decision. The Congressional Black Caucus will not remain silent:
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) ripped the Trump administration’s move on Friday to roll back an Obama-era program that oversees and rates how police officers work with members of the communities they serve.
“This is yet another example of what the black community has to lose under this administration,” Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) said in a statement.
“This decision is wrong, reckless, insensitive, and immature. It also further divides police departments and communities – rich and poor, black and white,” Richmond said.
he Department of Justice announced changes Friday targeting the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance.
The initiative was created under former President Barack Obama and allowed police departments and cities to seek federal help on various issues, including police shootings and alleged brutality. […]
“Changes to this program will fulfill my commitment to respect local control and accountability, while still delivering important tailored resources to local law enforcement to fight violent crime,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Friday. […]
Cameron Mease, a senior staff attorney with Brooklyn Defender Services, was walking in downtown Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday morning when he saw a group of six or seven men shove someone against a fence, put him in handcuffs, and drag him into an unmarked van. The men were dressed in jeans and T-shirts. Given their behavior and attire, a passerby would’ve had good reason to think he’d just witnessed a kidnapping.
But Mease had seen such scenes unfold before, and he was pretty sure he knew what he’d just seen. He believed these were plainclothes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and that they’d come to the Brooklyn courthouse to take someone into custody who they knew would be there for a court date. […]
Mease then watched as some of the men drove off with their apparent suspect while others stayed behind. “I heard them talking about how they had two more people to get,” Mease said.
Mease’s instinct was right. The men were ICE officers, and the agency confirmed that it made four arrests at the courthouse on Thursday, all of them involving undocumented immigrants suspected of participating in criminal gang activity. According to Gothamist, the four arrestees had come to the courthouse Thursday morning to face misdemeanor charges stemming from a trespassing incident in July.
Note the huge discrepancy between the charges as reported by ICE (criminal gang activity), and the actual charges of misdemeanor trespassing.
The presence of ICE agents at a New York courthouse was not, in and of itself, news. […] the agency had arrested 53 people at courthouses across the state as of early last month. What made Thursday different was that Mease was able to brief his colleagues at Brooklyn Defender Services quickly enough for one of them, Scott Hechinger, to blast it out over Twitter. Hechinger asked journalists to come watch, and he urged “all noncitizens with court dates” to “stay away” from the courthouse and contact their lawyers. […]
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the State of New York Office of Court Administration, told me in an email that statewide protocol requires all law enforcement agents, including ICE officers, to inform courthouse personnel when they show up to make arrests. Chalfen said that didn’t happen on Thursday—the agents did not check in or show any warrants before entering the courthouse. […]
Re @462, giggles. Any word on the concurrent Juggalos (Insane Clown Posse fans) rally, apparently about a mile away at the Lincoln Memorial?
And I imagine the nazi’s spin will include claims the @462 (and similar) pictures are of the Juggalos’s rally. And possibly visa-versa, albeit the distinct face-paint worn by many Juggalos (to say nothing of the surroundings and other discrepancies) will make that speculated claim patently absurd.
Re @464’s image, moar giggles!
And I concur, the on-the-ground images suggest the Juggalos’s rally is larger, and I assume significantly larger, but I’ve not located any aerial images or similar. (It’s also been planned, apparently, for a year or so, and hence presumably is far better organised.)
Heh, the first excuse I’ve spotted for the minuscule turnout — no reliable count yet — at the mother of all rallies is that the images being circulated were taken before the rally started. Jokes about the nazis being dressed in green to blend into the grass is more plausible.
The same Republican legislator who blamed health care failures on “repugnant” Republican female senators is now calling for a boycott of the University of Texas at Austin. Why? He wants all of the Confederate stature reinstalled.
[…] Representative Blake Farenthold [said], “I can tell you as a University of Texas graduate, I’ve never been more embarrassed for my school. They’re not getting another dime from me until those statues go up, and that includes football tickets or anything.” […]
The University of Texas decided to take down four Confederate monuments during the early morning hours of August 21 — about a week after white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest that city’s plan to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. […]
[University president Gregory Fenves] characterized Confederate monuments as “symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.”
“Erected during the period of Jim Crow laws and segregation, the statues represent the subjugation of African Americans,” Fenves added. “That remains true today for white supremacists who use them to symbolize hatred and bigotry.” […]
Texas’ 178 public memorials to the Confederacy are second in the country, behind only Virginia.
About Trumps “bad Twitter” feed, (as noted by SC in comment 471): the faked video showing Trump hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball and knocking her down—that video that Trump retweeted originated from an account that posts racial, anti-gay, and anti-semitic comments on a regular basis. So, sure, Trump would use that as a source. Sheesh.
From Hillary Clinton: “What Trump just did is a disgrace.” She posted that yesterday, but really, we could use that response for everything Trump does.
More about the posts of the Twitter user that Trump chose to retweet:
[…] The post, by Twitter user Fuctupmind was part of a slew of early morning retweets of pro-Trump memes by the Preisdent. Fuctupmind has previously pedaled in a number of far-right conspiracy theories, including the belief that Obama is a Muslim, and that Hillary Clinton was involved in the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. […]
The account has also consistently made racist comments as well as posted memes and GIFs of Hillary Clinton showing her as weak and demented. Fuctupmind also uses Gab, a social media platform which is popular with white nationalists. […]
More details, presented in plain language, of the effects that the Graham-Cassidy bill to repeal and replace Obamacare would have:
[…] currently the Affordable Care Act forbids insurers from discriminating against sick patients by denying them coverage or charging them higher premiums. Graham-Cassidy, however, wouldn’t simply allow waivers of Obamacare’s protections for people with preexisting conditions. It would also permit insurers to charge higher premiums to people who are currently insured through the Obamacare exchanges as a condition of “continued enrollment.”
In essence, an insurer could take someone’s money for years while that individual is healthy. Then, on the day that that person is diagnosed with cancer, jack up their premiums so high that they are no longer affordable. Healthy people would have insurance until the moment they need it, at which point their premiums could become prohibitively expensive.
Health “insurance” under Graham-Cassidy, in other words, would no longer provide any real insurance whatsoever. […]
Say what now? This judge’s brain is not working well.
In what can charitably be described as an idiosyncratic reading of the First Amendment, a George W. Bush-appointed federal judge in western Michigan held that businesses can discriminate against LGBTQ customers so long as they explain why they did so on Facebook.
Prior to Judge Paul Maloney’s Friday opinion in Country Mill Farms v. City of East Lansing, it was well understood that the First Amendment does not protect business owners who post signs announcing “blacks need not apply” or “we don’t serve women here.” As the Supreme Court once explained in a related case, “discrimination in employment is not only commercial activity, it is illegal commercial activity,” and “we have no doubt that a newspaper constitutionally could be forbidden to publish a want ad proposing a sale of narcotics or soliciting prostitutes.”
Yet Judge Maloney’s opinion does not simply disregard this longstanding rule, it suggests that a business that is actively engaged in discrimination can immunize itself from the law simply by writing about its discrimination on Facebook. […]
We’ve talked about the takeover of local media outlets by the Sinclair Broadcast Group before. Here’s an excerpt from an article that describes Sinclair’s takeover of WJAR-TV in Cranston, Rhode Island:
The company that owns WJAR-TV is mandating the broadcast of multiple programs favorable to President Donald Trump on the state’s most-watched television station.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, a rapidly growing media company that bought Channel 10 in 2014, produces “must-run” segments and distributes them to its local stations nationwide. They must air during daily news programming, Sinclair executives said. […]
Three of the segments have rattled viewers and WJAR’s own news reporters,[…]:
‒ The Terrorism Alert Desk, advertised as a daily news update about terrorist activity.
‒ News pieces from Epshteyn, Sinclair’s chief political analyst. […]
These pieces are fed to Sinclair’s 174 stations in the United States every day.
Sinclair’s insertion of the segments into news programming has been harshly critiqued by Rhode Islanders and national commentators. […]
Rep. David N. Cicilline condemned the practice, saying: “Rhode Islanders rely on our local news being produced in Rhode Island, not directed by a national conglomerate for local broadcasters to deliver.”
Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote, “What Fox News is for cable, Sinclair could become for broadcast: programming with a soupçon — or more — of conservative spin.” […]
A closer look at Epshteyn illuminates the potential for conflict. He was recently on the White House payroll as the communications director on the president’s inaugural committee, and before that worked as a Trump campaign strategist. […]
The company’s controversies date to the era of George W. Bush, when, among other things, the broadcaster sent a team to Iraq to report “good news” about the war; aired “Stolen Honor,” a documentary critical of John Kerry’s anti-Vietnam war activism, weeks before the 2004 election; and refused to air a “Nightline” program that listed the name of every American soldier killed in Iraq. […]
“Sinclair gave a disproportionate amount of neutral or favorable coverage to Trump during the campaign while often casting Clinton in an unfavorable light,” the Post reported. […]
I actually saw great potential right across the street, to be honest with you, and it was only for the reason that the United Nations was here that that turned out to be such a successful project.
Trump was referring to Trump World Tower, which is across 1st Avenue from the U.N.
From Ambassador Nikki Haley’s remarks:
[Trump has] a businessman’s eye for seeing potential, and he sees great potential not just in this reform movement, but in the United Nations itself.
After Trump won the 2016 election, his transition website, greatagain.gov, incorrectly claimed that he owned the property, Bloomberg reported. The same publication noted in March that, amid Russian domestic financial turmoil in 2001, Trump World Tower “became a prominent depository of Russian money.”
Fox News is backing Trump up as talk of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border slowly morphs into not actually a wall.
Fox News personality Greg Gutfeld [claimed]Trump’s frequent, strident calls for a physical wall on the U.S.-Mexico border were actually just a metaphor for border security.
“Saying ‘build a wall’ is just a catchier way of saying ‘fix our borders,’” Gutfeld said.
He said Trump negotiated with Democrats to fund “the wall, which is to say border security,” and called the President’s demands for a literal, physical border “his blunt way of raising the issue.” […]
Hurricane Maria is now a category 3. Maria is likely to cause major damage to the Virgin Islands and to Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria is expected to strengthen as it approaches the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Martinique and St. Lucia and other islands.
We’ve seen some news reports that say Trump his reconsidering the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Gary Cohn, head of the White House’s National Economic Council, is definitely not saying that.
[…] Cohn made the remarks at a breakfast for international officials focused on energy and climate issues before the beginning of the United Nations General Assembly, a senior White House official told reporters, per the travel pool.
The official said Cohn made it “very clear” to those at the breakfast that the U.S. will withdraw from the agreement pending future negotiations.
“Consistent with the President’s announcement in June, we are withdrawing from the Paris Agreement unless we can reengage on terms more favorable to the United States,” the official said. “This position was made very clear during the breakfast.” […]
Two of Hair Furor’s lawyers took an outside table at a DC restaurant for lunch, and then they proceeded to discuss cooperation or non-cooperation with the Mueller probe so loudly that a nearby New York Times reporter overheard the conversation.
[…] Among the nuggets Vogel overheard in Cobb’s and Dowd’s conversation were that there’s a dispute among Trump’s attorneys about how forthcoming to be with Mueller’s probe. Cobb favors maximal cooperation, while McGahn wants to hold some cards closer to the vest. The White House counsel’s office “is being very conservative with this stuff,” Cobb told Dowd, according to Vogel. He added that McGahn has “a couple documents locked in a safe.”
One of McGahn’s allies must have also felt his ears burning around lunchtime Friday.
“I’ve got some reservations about one of them,” Cobb said about the unnamed lawyer. “I think he’s like a McGahn spy.” […]
Sounds to me like Cobb is trying to throw McGahn under the bus, along with anyone on the legal team who works closely with McGahn.
[…] Cobb and Dowd went on to shower McGahn with praise when later contacted by the Times, perhaps to paper over what is likely to be an awkward Monday morning at work. […]
Some on Twitter were putting forward the rather charitable theory that maybe Cobb’s indiscretion was some master plan to rat out McGahn. […]
Kellyanne Conway dissed the Emmys, claiming that too many jokes were told at Trump’s expense:
[…] “You’re showing the world that you are so easy with an insult about our leader,” she told Fox News of the stars in attendance. “I think that’s really unfortunate, actually.” […]
“Between the Emmys… the Miss America pageant was very politicized, our sports are very politicized, and it looks like the ratings are suffering,” she said. “It looks like America is responding by tuning out because they want you to stick to your knitting.” […]
“People have the right to speak freely,” she said. “That’s very obvious. We live in the greatest democracy in the world that allows that. We’re doing it presently. But again, to what end? In other words, it doesn’t really — You’re alienating at least 63 million Americans who supported this President last time. But you’re alienating many more who want the President to succeed. […]”
She predicted that Trump would not congratulate Alec Baldwin on his award for impersonating the President.
“He probably barely noticed,” Conway said of Trump.
Oh, FFS. Trump and members of his team are again threatening to scrap the nuclear agreement with Iran. They are also looking for cohorts in the United Nations to back them up on this stupid move.
[…] Donald Trump warned that he would scrap the deal if he felt that the UN was not policing the terms of the deal closely enough.
Speaking on behalf of the president, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry told the IAEA General Conference in Vienna on Monday that the United States “will not accept a weakly enforced or inadequately monitored deal.”
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) […] Iran has complied with the terms of the deal. IAEA Chief Yukio Amano said on Monday that Iran “is fulfilling the commitments it entered into” under the deal.
Also attending the IAEA meeting in Vienna, Ali Akbar Salehi, the Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, slammed the “hostile approach of the U.S. government with measures to mar the nuclear agreement and prevent Iran from enjoying the benefits of the agreement.” He added that the U.S. tone and demands are in “in contrast with the spirit and letter” of the agreement. […]
So why does Trump keep allowing the deal to continue while threatening to pull out of it?
“There’s clearly tension inside his administration on what steps to take — with, on the one hand, folks who want to keep the deal but pressure Iran on other fronts and, on the other hand, those who want to pull out of the agreement,” said Ariane Tabatabai, director of curriculum of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Services. […]
In the absence of any evidence that Iran is violating the terms of the deal, Trump has accused Iran of violating the “spirit” of the agreement, applying additional sanctions in July that target the country’s ballistic missile program and using Haley’s voice at the U.N., demanding that Iran open its military facilities to IAEA inspectors. […]
As Matthew Bunn, a professor of practice at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government specializing in nuclear proliferation and control told ThinkProgress in August: “It’s not up to the Trump administration where to inspect in Iran. It’s up to the professional inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency.” […]
Macron, for one, is not going along: “[…] weakening or scrapping the deal would not only add fuel to a regional powder keg but deter North Korea from negotiating on its nuclear program.”
The two are bound by their mutual loathing of Obama’s foreign policy deal, even as it sets them apart from other world leaders at the UN general assembly
[…]
The US and Israeli leaders are expected to use their speeches to the UN general assembly on Tuesday to highlight the threat to Middle East stability and security represented by Tehran.
While anxiety about Iran’s expansive role in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon is widely shared, Trump and Netanyahu’s antipathy to the multilateral deal agreed in Vienna two years ago binds them together, even as it sets them apart from the overwhelming majority of other world leaders attending the annual UN summit.
Western allies in Europe — most notably the UK, France and Germany, co-signatories of the 2015 deal — remain committed to the agreement and have signalled they are willing to disagree sharply and openly with Trump on the issue.
[…]
On a visit to Buenos Aires on Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister declared: Our position is straightforward. This is a bad deal. Either fix it — or cancel it. Netanyahu is supported in that position by his defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, and the US ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer. But he is reportedly not backed by the Israeli defence and intelligence establishment, which believes Iran is abiding by the agreement and its strict limits on nuclear activities and stockpiles of fissile material.
“The nuclear agreement is a good example of the kind of solutions to which I aspired,” Carmi Gillon, a former chief of the internal security service Shin Bet, wrote in July. “It has neutralized a major threat to the world, while ensuring that the United States and its allies have the tools, the information and the leverage that they need to confront the Iranian danger and make the region, and the world, a safer place.”
[…]
There’s considerably more analysis in what is a lengthy article, which concludes:
Another driving motive appears to be a desire to undo as much of Obama’s presidential legacy as possible, at home and abroad.
“President Trump himself appears motivated to oppose reflexively nearly all of President Obama’s major agreements,” Nicholas Burns, a former undersecretary of state for political affairs. “That is a major mistake in judgement on his part.”
The desire to obliterate Obama’s mark on history may be something else that Trump and Netanyahu share. The Israeli leader had an acrimonious relationship with Obama, who successfully fended off Netanyahu’s bid to derail the Iran deal in the US Congress two years ago.
“What Netanyahu and Trump have in common, among other things, is their inability to accept criticism, their tendency to turn critics into enemies and their fervent wish to wipe the smile off what they see as Obama’s condescending face,” Israeli commentator Chemi Shalev, wrote in Haaretz on Sunday.
“This is the backdrop to the meeting in New York on Monday between Trump and Netanyahu, the two senior members of the Obama Victims Club, who are both seeking payback by trying to erase his signature foreign policy achievement.”
From the embedded link, Netanyahu at Odds With Israeli Military and Intelligence Brass Over Whether to Push Trump to Scrap Iran Nuclear Deal (my added emboldening):
[…]
Netanyahu and Lieberman’s position is at odds with most Israeli experts in Military Intelligence and in the IDF’s Planning Directorate, the Mossad, Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Committee.
Despite Netanyahu’s wish that Trump announces that Iran isn’t complying with the nuclear deal, all Israeli intelligence bodies dealing with the Iranian issue are united in the opinion that in the two years and two months that have passed since the agreement was signed in Vienna, Iran hasn’t been caught violating a single clause. Also, the Israeli intelligence community has no evidence that the Iranians have resumed their nuclear project and gone back on their commitments.
[…]
According to Israel’s intelligence agencies, the Iranian effort to comply with the agreement is clear, creating an advantage for Iran in the international arena. A similar picture emerges from the information gathered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and from the periodic reports published by the agency.
Furthermore, while Netanyahu and Lieberman are aspiring to see Trump take action that would lead to the United States’ withdrawal from the agreement, the senior ranks of the Israeli security establishment, intelligence community and Foreign Ministry believe that even though the agreement is bad for Israel, an American withdrawal from it would be even worse. The professional ranks of Israeli statecraft think that if America withdraws from the agreement, the other world powers will not follow through[†], and thus Iran will not become isolated nor face new international sanctions. Instead, the international community will be divided and the monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program could suffer a setback.
[…]
[…] The Israeli intelligence community believes Israel has a clear interest in improving the agreement through stronger validation and inspection measures, especially in light of the international community’s failure to deal with North Korea’s nuclear program.
Some senior sources also doubt it would be possible to improve the agreement, or to convince Russia, China and the European Union to pressure Iran to accept new terms for the deal. In addition, no detailed plan has yet been prepared — in Israel or in the US — outlining what to do if an attempt to improve the agreement ended in failure and led to an international confrontation over the nuclear program.
[…]
† I’m uncertain what is meant by “the other world powers will not follow through”: Will not also withdraw? (Indeed, they very probably not.) Will not continue with commitments (e.g., IAEA inspections?)? (Not continuing also seems unlikely, albeit some aspects will presumably be more difficult, perhaps especially if Congress applies additional sanctions.) Or what… But the point, that after a USAnnihilate!Annihilate!Annihilate! withdrawal, the international community would be divided and mistrustful seems very plausible.
Oh, no. this is bad news indeed. Arizona’s Governor, Doug Ducey, has officially endorsed the Graham-Cassidy bill to real the Affordable Care Act. His endorsement makes it more likely that Senator John McCain will vote for the bill. Senator Jeff Flake is going to vote for the bill.
[…] Calling the bill the “best path forward,” Ducey instructed Congress to “get the job done” in the next 12 days, before the clock runs out on Republicans’ ability to pass the bill with only 50 votes instead of the usual 60. […]
According to an analysis by the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Arizona would lose as much as $1.6 billion in federal health care funding if the bill is signed into law. States like Arizona that expanded Medicaid would be hit harder and sooner, as the plan would completely eliminate Obamacare’s 90 percent federal match for the Medicaid expansion starting in 2020.
McCain and Flake’s support brings Republicans closer to the 50-vote threshold they need to ram the bill through (with Republican Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie), but several GOP senators are either undecided or openly hostile to the proposal.
McCain will still have really good health insurance to pay for his cancer treatments. However, if he votes for this bill, he will taking coverage away from millions of other Americans.
Part of Trump’s recent tweet about North Korea claimed that “Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!”
Nope, not true.
Contrary to President Donald Trump’s claims, there aren’t any “obvious signs” of gas lines in North Korea, according to the Washington Post.
At the United States’ urging, the United Nations Security Council recently passed additional sanctions against the totalitarian state for its leader Kim Jong Un’s continued testing of nuclear-capable missiles, and recently, another underground nuclear test. The sanctions slash North Korean oil imports by 30 percent, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations said. The U.S. had originally requested a complete oil embargo but faced potential vetoes from China and Russia, the Post reported. […]
One foreign resident of Pyongyang told the Post, “we are not aware of any long queues at the gas stations,” adding: “At least, I haven’t noticed anything. I asked a few Koreans, and they haven’t seen anything either.”
Another foreign resident told the newspaper that traffic “was as heavy here as I’ve seen it” on Friday, “normal” on Saturday and “quieter” on Sunday. […]
Here are some details concerning the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Republicans in order to increase their chances of passing the Graham-Cassidy version of Trumpcare:
[…] In order to get the bill through, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell intends to cut off all debate, prevent any amendments, and refuse any discussion. It’s a combination that has never been used before. It’s a genuinely unprecedented shutdown of the Senate. […]
In addition to a process that’s ripping up the Senate rules …
– There have been no public hearings.
– There is no CBO score.
– The total amount of discussion will be limited to two minutes, with no amendments, no other votes.
But you can’t say there will be no hearings, because there is going to be a hearing. A single hearing. The way that hearing is going to be structured shows the fundamentally bizarre lengths Republicans are reaching to force this bill to the floor. That one hearing won’t be in front of any committee that has control over health care. It will be in front of the Homeland Security Committee. This committee has never before had a hearing on healthcare.
Why this apparently nonsensical choice? Because Republican Committee Chair Ron Johnson has agreed to limit witnesses on the Graham–Cassidy healthcare bill to just two: Graham and Cassidy, the authors of the bill. […]
Republicans are still enthusiastically moving forward on a bill, and a process, that would destroy any concept of the Senate as a debating body. Why? Because Graham-Cassidy could be better named the Bill To Screw Blue States and Steal Their Money.
Under the current proposal, federal healthcare funding in California would drop by $57,547 per person. New Yorkers would see a loss of $33,058. No other state even comes close. For many red states like Wyoming and South Dakota, the bill is a wash, dropping funding less than $1,000 over a decade. The formula has been deliberately crafted to punish states that vote for Democrats while protecting those that vote for Republicans. The effect could not be more brazen if they simply announced it.
And they don’t have to. Because they all know what they’re voting on: The Screw Blue Act. It’s a bill that punishes the elderly, the disabled, and the poor everywhere, but especially when those people live in blue states.
Wonkette reported on Trump’s crazytalk about trade wars, and other stupid ideas regarding global economics. The article focus on Peter Navarro, from whom Trump gets many of his indefensible policy proposals concerning trade.
[…] Navarro is best known for penning anti-China polemics such as The Coming China Wars (2006) and Death by China: Confronting the Dragon – A Global Call to Action (2011). […]
But when the New Yorker’s Adam Davidson interviewed the Harvard-trained economist during the 2016 campaign, he couldn’t find any other actualfactual economists to back him up: “Navarro’s views on trade and China are so radical, however, that, even with his assistance, I was unable to find another economist who fully agrees with them.”
In brief, here are three of the dumbfuckingest things Peter Navarro believes.
– If the U.S. kicks China (or Korea, or Mexico, or a rabid dog), we won’t get kicked back.
– If I buy a dozen eggs from you for $2, my net worth declines by $2.
– If the U.S. starts a trade war, we will manufacture VCRs in Cleveland, just like the good old days.
Even conservative outlets think Navarro is a total loon. The National Review refers to him as Trump’s Nutty Professor. Forbes calls him Alarmingly Ignorant About Trade. And Foreign Policy wonders why Trump’s Top China Expert Isn’t a China Expert. But Donald Trump don’t need no stinkin’ experts, so he made Navarro Director of the White House National Trade Council. […]
Prior to John Kelly bringing the hammer down as White House Chief of Staff, Navarro had open access to Donald Trump. Per Politico, Navarro’s reputation as a trade warrior has so ingratiated him with Trump that when other administration officials initially cut Navarro out of trade negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago in April, the president insisted that he be by his side, asking “Where’s my Peter? Where’s my Peter?” according to a former White House official. […]
From the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Navarro leads the White House Trade Council, but he’s largely a one-man band, with only two staffers. Prior to Kelly’s entry, Navarro enjoyed a private 15-minute conversation with Trump at least once a week, where he would “rile him up” on trade, according to a senior administration official.
As a deputy assistant to the president, he’s lost access to some key policy meetings in the White House that under Kelly are now reserved for principals or key senior staffers. […]
“The president has never been shy that it’s an America-first policy when it comes to trade,” [Sarah Huckabee] Sanders added. Navarro did not respond to a request for comment. […]
“No one gives a damn what he says other than Trump,” [one prominent White House] lobbyist said. “With Bannon gone, they look at their watch when he talks.”
Thanks for not crashing the global economy, we guess? At least Gary Cohn is good for something.
Hair furor really, really, wants to be Putin, or Franco, or Kim, or numerous others, and is now trying to claim his latest wheeze is due to Macron, Donald Trump considering military parade for Fourth of July (short article quoted in full):
● President [sic] impressed by Bastille Day parade he witnessed in Paris
● White House chief of staff told to look into display of US military might
Donald Trump is considering staging a US military parade in Washington on the Fourth of July Independence Day holiday, inspired by the parade he saw on Bastille Day in Paris.
Meeting France’s President Emmanuel Macron on the fringes of the UN general assembly, Trump said he had asked his White House chief of staff, retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, to look into the possibility of holding such a display of US military might.
Trump said he marveled at the French parade that he saw with Macron on France’s 14 July national holiday.
To a large extent because of what I witnessed, we may do something like that on July 4 in Washington down Pennsylvania Avenue, he told reporters. We’re actually looking into it.
Trump has often displayed an enthusiasm for military pageantry and had reportedly hoped for some kind of parade at his own inauguration.
War-mad racist lying thieving eejit.
Hj Hornbecksays
McCain on Graham-Cassidy: “I’m not interested in only having an up-or-down vote on what’s one-fifth of the gross national product.”
Sounds like McCain is talking himself towards a “no.”
Sounds like he is saying, how you do it is more important than what you do. Don’t cheat. You cheat, I vote “no”. And the rethugs are cheating again with their non-hearings, etc.
Hj Hornbecksays
Rand Paul’s a no. I saw a Tweet earlier on which portrayed McConnell as happy with how things are progressing; I wonder if that was true then, because it probably isn’t true now.
US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe.
The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump.
Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence is not conclusive.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the election, has been provided details of these communications.
Paul J. Manafort was in bed early one morning in July when federal agents bearing a search warrant picked the lock on his front door and raided his Virginia home. They took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, then followed the house search with a warning: His prosecutors told Mr. Manafort they planned to indict him, said two people close to the investigation.
The moves against Mr. Manafort are just a glimpse of the aggressive tactics used by Mr. Mueller and his team of prosecutors in the four months since taking over the Justice Department’s investigation into Russia’s attempts to disrupt last year’s election, according to lawyers, witnesses and American officials who have described the approach. Dispensing with the plodding pace typical of many white-collar investigations, Mr. Mueller’s team has used what some describe as shock-and-awe tactics to intimidate witnesses and potential targets of the inquiry.
Bloomberg: “The Senate parliamentarian told lawmakers that Republicans’ ability to pass an Obamacare replacement with just 51 votes expires at the end of this month, Senator Bernie Sanders said Friday….”
This week the Kenyan Supreme Court threw out the election results and ordered new elections. Less noticed is the role of Cambridge Analytica in the campaign.
There’s something profoundly wrong with Dinesh D’Souza. Incidentally, URLs shared by Kremlin propaganda Twitter this week include petitions to the WH to have “Antifa” (absurdly) declared a terrorist organization and to have George Soros declared a terrorist and his assets seized by the government.
This is so stupid. When PEN gave Charlie Hebdo the award, CH had spent years mocking white people and Christians (the amount of satire dedicated to Christians far outweighed that dedicated to Muslims). They had published satirical cartoons about 9/11. They had mocked, and been sued by, French Nazis for years. The people who supported the PEN award knew this. The only reason Greenwald and others believe those supporting CH and their work (which doesn’t mean not ever criticizing them) after the massacre would feel differently now is that they project their own continuing ignorance onto us, ignoring everything we said at the time.* You have to be very ignorant to believe that the latest cartoons that are receiving attention are anything different from what CH has always published. Greenwald can be such an intellectually dishonest dipshit.
* And it’s outrageous that Greenwald lumps all of us in with the Right and Christian bigots who obviously, as everyone knew at the time, were free-speech hypocrites.
I didn’t detail the later additions to the NYT article last night because I was annoyed that they didn’t just publish a subsequent article with all of the new information, but they include:
– “The New York Times has not seen a copy of Mr. Trump’s letter…and it is unclear how much of the letter’s rationale focuses on the Russia investigation.”
– “Several people who saw Mr. Miller’s multi-page draft described it as a ‘screed’.”
– “Mr. Trump was back in Washington on Monday, May 8, when copies of the letter were handed out in the Oval Office to senior officials, including Mr. McGahn and Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Trump announced that he had decided to fire Mr. Comey, and read aloud from Mr. Miller’s memo.”
– “During the May 8 Oval Office meeting with Mr. Trump, Mr. Rosenstein was given a copy of the original letter and agreed to write a separate memo for Mr. Trump about why Mr. Comey should be fired.”; “Unlike Mr. Trump’s letter, it made no mention of the times Mr. Comey had told the president he was not under investigation.”
Ah, at last there’s closure regarding one of Trump’s ridiculous lies.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-tower-wiretap-foia-doj
Something being disproven and debunked will not stop it being used by RWA’s
AP: “BREAKING: AP Exclusive: Many Houston ultra-polluted Superfund sites are flooded, concerns about toxins spreading; EPA not on scene.”
“Trump preparing withdrawal from South Korea trade deal, a move opposed by top aides”:
Trump and Melania returned to Texas. They did a better job this time of interacting with actual flood victims and with rescue workers.
However, Trump managed to be offensive in his own inimitable way. Here are some excerpts from comments he made while helping to hand out food a an emergency refuge center:
The death toll from Harvey is now 47, and is expected to rise.
Trump is arriving in Louisiana and both MSNBC and CNN are locked in on and panning across the group of probably 100 supporters gathered there. For some reason, they won’t zoom out to show how many there are, say if there are any protesters, or give any sense of where these people are.And they insist on talking about how great it is to see “smiling faces” after the disaster. It’s just weird. Now CNN has a report on contaminated water in the affected areas, which inexplicably has to share a split screen with the little group of Trumpers.
This is very good – “How Russian & Alt-Right Twitter Accounts Worked Together to Skew the Narrative About Berkeley”:
Tweet o’ the day.
“North Korea says conducts ‘perfect’ hydrogen bomb test”: “North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, which it said was an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile, marking a dramatic escalation of the regime’s stand-off with the United States and its allies.”
“A Bipartisan Bill Helped Save Pets From Harvey, And Maybe Their Humans Too”:
“In Indonesia, 3 Muslim Girls Fight for Their Right to Play Heavy Metal”:
They’re 17, 17, and 15.
And he wasn’t done.
I mentioned this amazing account on the previous thread, but just in case… – “I livetweet the 2nd World War, as it happened on this day in 1939 & for 6 years to come (2nd time around).” Today in 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
People in Vladivostok felt tremors from the NK nuclear test.
In response to the nuclear test, Trump has decided to double down on alienating the South Korean government.
Further to #17.
Peggy Whitson now “has a total of 665 days in space, the U.S. record and places 8th on all-time space endurance list.” These landings are so beautiful.
Another Trump lawyer showing signs of stress.
CNN obtained the letter Obama left for Trump in the Oval Office.
Here’s the story behind #23.
I don’t know what this means, but it’s a bit unnerving.
Here’s the video. Again, I don’t understand what they’re saying, but it sounds like the Russian word for “impeachment” might be “impeachment,” and like when he suggests that this is what she’s getting at the audience applauds.
Follow-up to SC’s comment 20.
On Twitter, Trump also insulted the Chinese government:
That warmongering doofus, Hair Furor, is going to continue down the road to nuclear war. He needs to be impeached sooner rather than later.
From Josh Marshall:
Direct action resource: ACA enrollment information to share.
Follow-up to comment 28.
Some experts responded to Trump’s playground tactics:
Link
Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, responded to the pressure on Trump to rescind DACA:
I should be very surprised if there is a native Russian word for impeachment. There’s never been a need for such a word; to Russians, the idea of the parliament or congress ousting a leader just because he might have committed some crime is and has been virtually unthinkable. Anyone see Putin putting down the reins of power, just because the Duma or a court said he had to?
Now, how about Trump in that situation…?
Just in case anyone missed some of Joy Reid’s recent segments.
The economic impact of Trump ending DACA. Ali Velshi and others discuss the issue with Joy Reid.
Joy Reid and a panel discuss Trump’s real reasons for firing Comey.
Dreamers (DACA recipients) were among the first responders to help when Hurricane Harvey hit.
Voices of the DACA generation.
Joy Reid and guests debate the GOP tax plan.
From Secretary of Defense James Mattis statements, which he made today:
Sam McLure is running for attorney General of Alabama. McLure is a bonkers rightwing dunderhead that thinks militias could be used to shut down abortion clinics:
Alabama Political Reporter link
McLure is licensed as a lawyer in the state of Alabama. He should be disbarred.
Malala Yousafzai’s statement about the violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
I still remember seeing Beyond Rangoon in 1995, with its reverent portrayal of Aung San Suu Kyi….
Wow.
This article about people surviving Harvey is what compassionate, talented journalists can do.
He means this week.
As I said on the previous thread, there are several indications a mammoth shoe is about to drop in the Trump-Russia saga.
Burbank, CA.
From the story @ #39:
“As [Iraqi refugee Mustafa] Herby’s mind raced, he remembered the box in his bedroom closet. It held an inflatable raft he’d bought seven years earlier in Syria, where his family had taken refuge from the Iraq war. The raft had never been used.”
He used it to save other people from the flood in Texas.
It seems as if the current state of physics might be as bad as the current state of politics in the US.
“Missing volunteer pulled from Cypress Creek.”
31-year-old Alonso Guillen had come down with his friends to rescue people from the flooding in Houston. He was a DACA recipient.
Betsy Woodruff: “To fellow DC reporters: Now is a real bad time to treat a policy decision like it’s a ‘Who’s up who’s down, Good for Trump?’ horserace. If you write about DACA like the person who has the most on the line is Trump (cc: columnists who will not be named), you are doing it wrong.”
LOL – #FAIL.
Incidentally, I just read this 2011 Julia Ioffe article to check a claim in The Red Web. It has so much of the information with which we in the US are belatedly becoming familiar – funneling of stolen funds through fake charities, V.T.B. Bank, accounts in Cyprus,… It’s also just a very good article.
Meanwhile, I came across this article about Paul Manafort’s alleged involvement with demonstrations and violent actions against US Marines in Ukraine in 2006.
SC @39, thanks for that link. Those excerpts from survivors lives tell a very different story from Trump’s “happiness” talk when he visited Texas. Trump should read it.
Well, the Environmental Protection Agency is certainly showing the negative influence of Pruitt’s helmsmanship:
Link
At least one state attorney general is threatening to sue the Trump administration if Trump rescinds DACA. It will be interesting to see if other state attorneys general follow suit.
Link
China is pushing back against Trump’s ridiculous and impractical threats:
Link
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi responded to Trump’s decision to rescind DACA:
Link
Follow-up to comment 49.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson also says that he will sue the Trump administration if the DACA program is ended:
Interesting segment of Meet the Press Daily with Chuck Todd. Sorry, no link yet (nothing since 9/1), but the interview was with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe was on riffing on that there are jobs available, especially since Hugo, but they require some movement on the part of physical laborers to go where the jobs are, rather than complaining they aren’t in their zip codes. Also, of course, the need for those willing to get their hands dirty while working.
Houston, doesn’t need me, a retired chemist, they need carpenters, drywall installers, and painters, to help them recover from the disaster. Meanwhile, I’ll do what I can locally to help those less fortunate than myself. Starting tomorrow morning driving a poor Sr. Citizen to their doctor’s appointment.
A state of emergency has been declared for all of Florida.
Loathsome.
Irma is now a Category 5 storm. Puerto Rico is also under a state of emergency. Cuba and the Caribbean islands are currently in its path.
This is useful – “How to Read a News Story About an Investigation: Eight Tips on Who Is Saying What.”
(Manafort’s team seems to be spinning pretty furiously, as I noted in the last thread. It’s evident the dubious claim I quote there – I love the “largely” part – came from them, but in keeping them anonymous the report presents it as fact, which is weird.)
Tweet o’ the day.
Sessions is announcing that DACA is being rescinded. Trying to couch it in respect for the rule of law, which is nauseating. Muted.
Four british soldiers have been arrested for Neo-Nazi terrorism.
The arrests are for both past actions and planned actions.
SC @59, Sessions also hammered home, once again, that this is a safety issue. However, DACA recipients are famous for being NOT criminals.
I do not think that Republicans in Congress will come up with a decent replacement for DACA.
Meanwhile,…“Chechnya’s Persecuted Gays Find Refuge in Canada”: “The Canadian government, working with a Toronto-based nonprofit, has quietly allowed gay men and lesbians from the Russian republic of Chechnya to seek safety in Canada over the past three months….”
More details concerning the Trump administration’s rescinding of DACA:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-ends-daca
One example of congressional push-back against the demonization of immigrants:
Reactions being posted on Twitter and other social media outlets:
From Frank Sharry:
From the Department of Homeland Security’s Acting Secretary, Elaine Duke:
Martin Shkreli, “Big Pharma Bro,” is asking people to pull hair out of Hillary Clinton’s head during her book tour. He wants people to send him hair samples for a DNA analysis.
Daily Kos link
You can also go to Shkreli’s Twitter account to view the creepy offer of $5000, but I don’t want to link to his Twitter feed.
As if on cue, here’s another story about the investigations that seems powered in good part by Manafort spin. I don’t even think the main thesis – that there’s some big conflict brewing between the Mueller probe and the congressional investigations – is really supported well. But there are several unsubstantiated, one-sided claims that almost have to come from Manafort’s team,* but since that can’t be said the claims are often presented unskeptically. It’s irksome.
* And probably some partisan Republicans who want to protect Trump and maybe themselves.
Renato Mariotti on an aspect of the CNN report linked @ #68. Again, I don’t see how this is supposed to show a conflict between Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee. He’s not being blocked from getting the transcripts by the committee but by Manafort’s lawyers. The title “Intensifying Russia probes could pit Hill against Mueller” and some of the reasoning are kind of puzzling.
The obsession with Clinton is really sick. Grotesque.
Mariotti on another aspect of the CNN article.
I don’t know why news outlets are presenting Manafort’s spin so uncritically.
A “climate change equation.”
There are growing protests in DC against the undoing of DACA.
Robert Wright Lee IV, the Lee descendant who spoke at the MTV VMAs advocating for the removal of Confederate statues and denouncing white supremacy, has been forced out of his church.
Sorry – forgot to note that he was the pastor of the church.
Ian Millhiser, writing for Think Progress, pointed out that the Trump administration’s case against DACA, (that DACA is unconstitutional), is nonsense.
Much more at the link.
From Republican doofus, Senator Tom Cotton:
From Rebekah Entralgo:
From Kris Kobach:
Heartless, ignorant dunderhead.
Koback is the chair of Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity, a commission that is looking for ways to restrict the votes of minorities, for ways to purge minorities and other Democratic-leaning voters off the roles, and for ways to prove Trump’s false claim that 3 million people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton. The commission is also looking for ways to reduce legal immigration.
More stupidity from Kobach:
The DACA program does not grant “amnesty” to anyone. Economic studies have shown that Kobach is wrong, and that deporting DACA recipients would negatively impact the U.S. economy.
Dreamers’ new risk after Daca: US could use their personal data to target them:
Who wants to be mad?
[blockquote]900,000 Bogus Arrests And Summonses That Were Forced To Be Dropped
A Coverup of a Massive Deleted-Email Scandal Concerning the NYPD Police Commissioner
“Hero” Cops With Extensive, Villainous Records Of Police Brutality and Corruption
Well-Documented Conspiracies to destroy Innocent Black and Brown Lives
An Illegal Racial Arrest Quota System – That Implicates New York City Leaders At The Very Top
15 Good Cops Putting Their Lives On The Line
To Fight
The City of New York,
The Mayor of New York,
The Police Commissioner,
and the Commanding Officer of Patrol Services[/blockquote]
http://www.exposethequota.com/
Lets see if this has more legs than one white nurse being wrongfully arrested. All signs point to no.
Well super I fucked that up something great
From Steve Benen:
President Obama’s reaction:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-responds-trump-termination-of-daca
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-responds-trump-termination-of-daca
Whoops. That second link in comment 83 was supposed to be to President Obama’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/posts/10155227588436749
No, seriously, almost one million false arrests and summonses.
HOW IS THIS NOT BIGGER FUCKING NEWS
ONE WHITE NURSE TOOK MORE MEDIA SPACE THAN NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND NOT WHITES
From Josh Marshall:
From Amy Davidson Sorkin, writing for The New Yorker:
Much more at the link.
Debunking just one of the many lies Jeff Sessions told when he announced Trump’s decision to rescind DACA: Sessions lied when he said that DACA contributed a “surge of minors” streaming across the border.
Vox link
From Wonkette:
Bits of this are fairly Ozland-specific, but much of it doesn’t require translation, First Dog on the Moon in the Grauniad, Welcome to the Roots and Tubers for Perpetual Historical Society (cartoon): “Ian the Climate Denialist Potato is sick of history being rewritten. It’s time to go back to when Australia Day was 30 July and doctors used leeches to expel toads lurking inside people!”
Julian Assange tweeted:
Assange is also hanging out with Dana Rohrabacher and Chuck C. Johnson. There’s no doubt where Assange’s sympathies lie. He likes far-right, white nationalist, anti-feminist men.
From Mark Joseph Stern, writing for Slate:
From remarks Sessions made in 2015, when he was interviewed by Steve Bannon:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/jeff-sessions-1924-immigration/512591/
An excerpt from a paper by a Georgia state historian named Paul Lombardo who discussed a Congress-appointed eugenecist named Harry Laughlin who helped create the 1924 law:
The Republican-leaning Chamber of Commerce, dissed Trump’s decision to end DACA:
What Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during today’s press conference:
Translation: Congress can’t just create a permanent fix for DACA recipients. If they try that, Trump won’t sign the bill. Congress has to include funding for Trump’s border wall.
Follow-up to comment 49.
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has joined other states attorney general who say they will defend DACA recipients in the courts.
Attorneys general in California, New York and Washington state have also pledged to defend DACA in the courts.
Kasie Hunt: “Intel Chair Burr quite chatty today — says there hasn’t been an investigation like this Russia one ‘since Watergate’.”
Burr seems especially keen on getting some distance.
John McCain: “Filed amicus brief w/ @SenWhitehouse calling on #SCOTUS to reassess constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering”
Terrifying.
Really terrifying.
Seriously.
SC @100
Hosea 8:7 comes to mind.
Is it usual to be this far into the alphabet this early in the year? It looks like there is another little one behind Irma. Hopefully Irma will weaken before landfall. It is reaching these speeds with an eye pressure of 916 mb, so it could even get worse.
Lawrence O’Donnell on the Last Word had a segment with author/journalist Kurt Anderson on promoting his new book Fantasyland, which perfectly describes Trump and how he came to his belief system (fake news, etc.)
Oh, FFS.
It looks like Trump watched TV last night and saw that he is the main cruel monster behind senselessly ending DACA. So, he tweeted:
What does that even mean? I wish somebody could yank his chain.
He just softened his own threats aimed at Congress and at DACA recipients, while simultaneously muddying the waters even more.
Nobody knows what he means. From a Justice Department official, “You’ll have to ask the president exactly what he meant.”
The great negotiator is really a cruel buffoon. Ignorant Bullshitter in Chief. Intolerable Asshat.
Congress critters have returned to Washington D.C. after their August vacation. But, the Senate has scheduled only 16 legislative working days in the month of September.
Here’s a partial list of the stuff they’re supposed to get done:
1. Pass spending bill to keep the federal government from shutting down.
2. Raise the debt ceiling (Steve Mnuchin says Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling by Sept. 29 to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debts and sending the economy into a tailspin.)
3. Approve at least one disaster-relief package related to Hurricane Harvey.
4. Reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
5. Reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
6. Reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Some conservatives in Congress continue to insist that a debt limit increase should be offset by cost-cutting measures in other areas.
And … Hurricane Irma is on the horizon.
Other things on the to-do list for Congress, (actions that are less time sensitive):
1. National Defense Authorization Act
2. Tax Reform
3. Taking another run at passing a health care bill (by September 30th, according to Trump, but most people are ignoring him). September 30th is also the deadline if the Senate wants to pass a bill with only 51 votes instead of 60. After the 30th, the rules change.
4. Pass an infrastructure bill.
I left out funding for Trump’s ridiculous border wall in the congressional list of things to do in comment 105.
Follow-up to comment 104.
Trump’s confusing tweet calling for Congress to “legalize DACA” and promising to “revisit this issue” if they don’t—that tweet directly contradicts a Trump administration memo that was distributed to legislators yesterday.
Link
Some people really do have their heads on straight, and their hearts in the right place:
Link
Sketchy, disorganized, and run by total dunderheads:
Link
Wonkette covered the fact that Republican dunderheads in the House of Representatives are sending subpoenas to the FBI, trying to discredit the Steele dossier, and taking other actions that may damage investigations into connections between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Yes, government databases will be used against DACA recipients:
Link
Propaganda, blatant conflicts of interest, and Trump using the presidency to put money in his pocket … again:
Link
Stephen Colbert reacted to Trump’s rescinding of DACA, and to announcements made by Jeff Sessions and by Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The video is 5:34 minutes long.
If you scroll down on the same page, Jimmy Kimmel’s segment responding to the DACA issue is also presented; as is Trevor Noah’s segment on “The Daily Show”; and ditto for Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show.”
From MSNBC reporting, it sounds like the Harvey relief bill now combines those three based on a bipartisan/WH agreement. If the Democrats have agreed to it, the Republicans who oppose it probably won’t have the numbers to block it.
And as Adam Schiff was pointing out yesterday, they actually subpoenaed the WH a while back asking for any documents related to the Comey firing and didn’t receive the letter draft(s) which have recently been revealed in the press. At the same time, the Republicans went ahead and subpoenaed the FBI/DoJ (over the objections of Democrats) before even asking them to voluntarily provide the documents, which is disrespectful and antagonizing for no legitimate reason. It’s such garbage. The one positive aspect (aside from their showing their true colors) is that it might be an indication that they know what’s coming and how bad it is for Trump and the Party.
“Poll: Majority opposes deporting Dreamers”:
SC @115, thanks for the reminder that the White House did NOT responded properly to an investigative committee’s request for documents because the response did not include the draft letter (the letter some called a “screed”) that team Trump had come up with before the firing of Comey. Another obstruction of justice?
And, in a follow-up to SC’s comment 114, it looks like Democrats may have pushed Trump to acquiesce to their compromise, short-term plan:
Link
Update to #23. What on earth?
Jennifer Jacobs: “Trump says he thinks Congress wants to take care of DACA. ‘Chuck and Nancy want to see something happen and so do I’, he tells press on AF1.”
Both the Washington Post and New York Times concur, but point out there is a catch: The funding and debit ceiling increase are merely a three month extension until December-ish. (I gather that all three are not yet(?) in the bill, but am under the impression that is mostly a formality.) Whether or not it’s a done deal which will pass and be signed, I will not try to predict one way or the other — both hair furor and the thugs are too unpredictable & hostage to the most unhinged, and the dummies tend to shoot themselves in the feet.
McConnell doing a press conference right now confirming that Trump sided with Pelosi and Schumer against the Republicans on the 3-month CR and debt-ceiling increase and combining this with the Harvey relief bill, really leaving him no choice. Schumer talking to press now. He seems quite pleased.
Honestly, Trump’s lawyers appear to be cracking up.
Follow-up to comment 107.
I think that the talking points put out by the Trump administration can be translated as, “Dreamers, prepare to self-deport.”
I’m still offended by how obviously Jess Sessions was nearly jumping for joy when he announced that DACA was being rescinded.
CNN is reporting that Devin Nunes sent a letter threatening Sessions and Wray with contempt for not turning over the documents. Nunes isn’t even supposed to be involved with this.
LOL.
From Rachael Bade, Burgess Everett and Josh Dawsey, writing for Politico:
Here’s the CNN report about #124, with a link to Nunes’ letter.
That’s right! Sessions isn’t supposed to be involved, either.
More impressive investigative reporting from USA Today – “Trump gets millions from golf members. CEOs and lobbyists get access to president”:
The NYT is hiring Michelle Goldberg as a columnist – great news.
“Bipartisan Resolution Will Force Trump To Go On Record On White Nationalists.”
I haven’t seen anything about whether or not it’s been introduced. (I love that the TPM URL says “shite nationalists.” Don’t know if it was intentional or a happy mistake.)
“Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election”:
“Hundreds of EPA Workers Leave in Recent Days”: “Nearly 400 workers have left the Environmental Protection Agency in recent days, the agency said Tuesday, a wave of departures that soon could take the agency’s staffing to its lowest point in almost 30 years….”
What?!
Susan Rice had to testify to the House Intel Committee today. Donald Jr. will testify tomorrow at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both are closed-door.
“Free lunch announced for all students at all NYC public schools”: “Free lunch will be offered to all students at New York City public schools, the district announced Wednesday.”
DACA protesters and an asshole in the Emoluments International Hotel in DC.
“Security, wait staff form perimeter surrounding DACA activists.”
The police pushed them outside, where the protest continues. I love these people.
Colin Kaepernick: “This violation that happened against my Brother Michael Bennett is disgusting and unjust. I stand with Michael and I stand with the people.”
Tweet o’ the day.
The problem with this argument is that FB has a history of manipulating data/analysis to downplay its role (I discussed their earlier report here a few months ago). They’re not to be trusted on this.
Here’s my brief discussion of the FB white paper mentioned @ #142.
“A Second Look at the Steele Dossier—Knowing What We Know Now.”
I’m not sure why this isn’t getting covered: “Bipartisan Senate Committee Rejects Proposed State Department Funding Cuts.”
It’s actually a subcommittee, but the article claims it’s expected to pass the full committee tomorrow.
Last night Louise Mensch fired her lawyers, who were representing her pro bono, on Twitter. For insulting Evan McMullin.
…but the article claims it’s expected to pass the full committee tomorrow.
Which is today.
Jeff Sessions continues to try to avoid any congressional accountability.
OK, sure.
#149 confirmed.
Questions for Mark Zuckerberg, who should testify before the Senate Intel Committee (more importantly, though, Mueller has the data).
Reuters: “JUST IN: Twitter to give congressional committees an analysis of Russian activity similar to the one Facebook provided: Senator Warner.”
I assume Mueller has also been given the information.
CNN and MSNBC need to be covering this a lot more than they are.
NYT – “Trump Jr. Says He Wanted Russian Dirt to Determine Clinton’s ‘Fitness’ for Office”: “Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Thursday that he set up a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer because he was intrigued that she might have damaging information about Hillary Clinton, saying it was important to learn about Mrs. Clinton’s ‘fitness’ to be president.”
Yeah, it was especially important “later in the summer.”
“Upbeat Trump raves to Schumer, Pelosi about news coverage of their deal.”
Jr.’s statement is so wildly implausible and in conflict with known evidence that it seems to me (IANAL) to skirt kind of close for his lawyers to subornation of perjury.
Manu Raju: “WARNER told me Intel exploring whether Trump associates helped Russian actors geographically target ads on @facebook; BURR declines comment.”
SC @153 and 154.
If I wanted someone to determine Hillary Clinton’s fitness for office, I would hire Donald Trump Junior. /sarcasm
From Matthew Miller:
This is good Saturday Night Live fodder. And I have to think that Hillary must have gotten a good laugh out of that.
Update to 149 and 150.
MSNBC is saying that Trump called Pelosi this morning, and not the other way around. During the conversation, Pelosi asked Trump to tweet a more positive message about DACA.
Trump is basing his case for tax reform on a falsehood.
Link
From Josh Marshall:
Hmmm. The Trump administration approved funds directed towards recovery from Hurricane Harvey, but refused federal assistance that Governor Kate Brown of Oregon requested to fight wildfires and to recover from wildfires.
Link
From Jake Tapper:
Analysis from Matthew Yglesias, writing for Vox:
Here’s Jr.’s full prepared statement. It’s…not remotely believable. There are reports that he’s said he didn’t tell his father about the meeting at the time (or doesn’t recall doing so), and doesn’t recall being aware of his father’s involvement with the bogus public statement about the meeting crafted on the way back from Europe. Neither of these claims is plausible, either.
All the relief money in the world won’t rebuild Houston. Undocumented workers will.
Steve Bannon said this during an interview recorded for CBS’s “60 Minute” program:
Here is the statement from the US conference of Catholic Bishops:
SC @163, I don’t understand why Don Junior thinks he can get away with continuing to lie.
From Wonkette’s coverage:
Apropos of fracebork, the company itself is of very dubious reliability, Facebook claims it can reach more young people than exist in UK, US and other countries (added emboldening):
In order words, because we claim we don’t charge based on these figures it’s completely Ok we deliberately lie to our benefit. Just like we did with video viewing times and other statistics.
So in addition to not protecting user’s privacy, placing legit ads on illegit posts (implying endorsement by the legit advertisers), and being unable to distinguish historically iconic / correct content and the resultant protests about inappropriate takedowns from vastly more dubious content, farcebork itself frequently & deliberately generates & publishes / circulates fake data.
Follow-up to comments 49 and 52.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (New York) is now the lead attorney in a federal lawsuit filed yesterday by 15 states and the District of Columbia.
The group is suing to block the Trump administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).
LA Times link
The participants in the lawsuit:
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia.
blf @167, thanks for that useful background information on Facebook.
In other news, Stephen Colbert mocked the speech Trump gave in North Dakota.
The video is 6:50 minutes long.
NYT – “The Fake Americans Russia Created to Influence the Election.”
CNN is saying Mueller is looking to interview WH staff about the AF1 statement about the June ’16 meeting.
Someone fired shots into the window of the office of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, hitting and injuring a window washer.
Here’s a video clip of the shooting @ #172. Strange that they would choose a moment when guys are washing the window unless they were shooting at them.
Although the “ship of hate” C-Star — crowdfunded by nazis to attack NGO-operated migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean — has ended it’s activities, it is still causing problems on Malta. (And, according to vesselfinder, is still just outside Malta’s waters, where it’s been for weeks, low on supplies and refused permission to dock. Cue a very small violin.)
According to this somewhat confusing article in the Malta Independent, a local anti-EU politician, Ivan Grech Mintoff, is being attacked by the nazis for saying “[my party] condemns the far right and racist stance, which this ship represents, as well as the indifference to the plight of genuine refugees risking their lives to seek a better future”, and the local nazis (known as “MPM”) for providing supplies to the ship: “Such action shows that MPM supports racist, violent and dangerous extreme right causes instead of the Christianity to which they profess to adhere.”
The nazis are in an uproar: , , and have accused him of being . Grech Mintoff has apparently filed a complaint with Malta’s police.
Tweet o’ the day.
me@174: “has ended it’s activities” — The spurious apostrophe will be shot at dawn.
Holy shit.
Interesting.
From SC’s link in comment 170:
This is true. And I’m remembering this Chris Hayes segment about the emails referring to the phone calls.
Sen. Feinstein: “BREAKING: Senate Appropriations Committee just voted to restore vital funding for the UN climate change panel—a big victory.”
“BREAKING: Ninth Circuit upholds expanded injunction against Muslim Ban 2.0. Refugees protected. Rejects US government appeal entirely.”
This is so, so bad.
Wow.
This can’t be real: “The prankster, who has also targeted other White House officials, sent the email from ‘dan.scavinojr[AT]emailprankster.co.uk’.”
SC #185, your link requires turning off my ad blocker. Please find a third party who is ad blocker free. Too many links are being assholes on ads.
“This means refugees who have a contractual relationship with a resettlement org* can come in, blocking travel ban once again.”
I started to expect this when I listened to the oral arguments, but I didn’t want to be too optimistic. The Department of (currently In)Justice lawyers couldn’t pull off the argument about these organizations – the underlying case was just too weak.
* (also the relatives they were trying to exclude)
Nerd, there aren’t any other stories yet, since the BI one just came out. It’s another report by Natasha Bertrand about Trump’s lawyer Ty Cobb (and Sarah Huckabee Sanders) being fooled by and responding to someone posing as Dan Scavino. For now, you can read more on Bertrand’s Twitter.
Update to #s 182 and 187 – the Department of Injustice is appealing.
Josh Marshall: “Trumper opsec is truly amazing.”
If these are real, Cobb literally commented on the investigation over email to someone who even if he was Scavino was not a member of the legal team but was in any case emailing from an account ending “…emailprankster.co.uk.”
@ #186
If you happen to use Chrome browser, the Mercury reader extension solves that problem, bypassing the adblocker blocker.
(As an aside, thank you, tomh, for your suggestions on these matters, which have proven remarkably helpful to me.)
Department of Injustice.
Adam Schiff on Jr.’s statement about the June ’16 meeting.
Re #178 – “The only way Senator Coons’ statement on Don Jr’s testimony today could be more direct is if it were entitled ‘Liar, Liar Pants on Fire’.”
Why why why did I click on the link?
Why?
Equifax was hacked and literally every detail needed to steal someone’s identity is now public domain for 143 million Americans… almost half the country; SSN’s, DOB, DL#, and all of their credit details.
With fires and heat on the west coast, hurricanes barrelling down on the east, the national disaster that is Trump, amongst all this carnage, this is the one story that most concerns me.
To add to it, Equifax executives blatantly dumped stock during the period that they would have known this, and the public would not.
This could be a killing blow. Our economy depends on credit ratings. If that system goes down, we’re beyond fucked. A year from now we might be wishing hurricanes were our biggest problem.
Read Maxine Water’s statement about this if my take didn’t give it enough weight for you.
inb4 anyone accuses me of minimizing the destruction of these hurricanes. What’s left of my family is mostly in FL. I’m worried sick about it right now.
Rachael Maddow just announced Hillary Clinton will be live in the studio next week (Thursday 9/14) shilling her (Hillary’s) new book about last year’s election. Keep tuned….
@ #192
Glad if it helps, but what’s remarkable is your dedication to this thread. I guarantee you there are a lot of people you never hear from that appreciate your work.
*looking for the “love” button for comment # 200. *
“As Irma heads for Florida, remember that Gov. Scott’s climate change denial has explicitly and seriously hindered his state’s preparedness….”
tomh and erik,
I’m deeply touched. Thank you so much for saying that.
This incredible kid has a 3d printed hand.
On that note, good night. Hugs.
Sorry – checking back in to say…if “savage claw-hammer beating” isn’t a disqualification then nothing is.
First Dog on the Moon, Which threatened species will pee on a politician in the fight for justice? (cartoon): “You’re here to represent Australia’s 1700 threatened species so be nice.” There are a few Ozlanders mentioned but they don’t require translation, just substitute the name of USAian thug, UK nasty party swivel eyed loon, or… well, you get the idea.
Apropos of not too much, the
emailprankster.co.ukdomain is real, and was registered in late-June this year by what is described as an “UK Individual”. It’s currently geolocating to someplace in Germany (possibly Karlsruhe), but it looks like that is just an exit point for the ISP.Trump now appears to be instructing Republicans to back off ACA repeal (his sabotage of the ACA continues, as far as I’m aware). It’s amusing that he’s trying to pretend he hasn’t been centrally involved in the repeal efforts. They only have until the end of the month, and there are signs they’ve largely dropped the plan to repeal, but you can’t trust them. Even with Trump changing tack, we need to be vigilant until the 30th, and demand that he ends the sabotage immediately.
LOL.
“Limbaugh evacuates South Florida after claiming Hurricane Irma was a liberal hoax”: “…Limbaugh did not recant his earlier statements about Irma, and he did not encourage his listeners in the area to evacuate. In fact, Limbaugh seemed to even double down on his earlier views….”
“How Russia Created the Most Popular Texas Secession Page on Facebook.”
Felix Sater’s letter to Michael Cohen about the Trump Tower Moscow deal, explicitly connecting it to a political agreement with Putin. (Who’s Jeffrey M. Davis?)
This is very interesting – a Russian paper published a piece arguing that Putin has been in power too long and it’s harming the country.
From the Moses & Singer site, who are the legal firm in Mr Davis’s e-address (see the @212 link):
As such, Mr Davis was presumably part of hair furor’s legal team for some aspects of the proposed Trum-prat Moscow eyesore deal.
Made me laugh.
Thanks, blf!
“.@nytimes please correct your headline. I am not an Equifax customer. I am its product, and now its victim.”
Yesterday, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee brought up Bill Pascrell’s resolution to compel the release of Trump’s tax returns in order to vote it down so that Republicans in the full House wouldn’t have to vote on it.
Josh Marshall discussed the latest article by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The article is titled, “The First White President.”
Much more at the link.
On another subject, I will second the praise that others have posted for SC. I cannot take care of all of my job obligations and also be the only major commenter/curator on this thread. From the start, others have helped enormously, but SC is exceptional.
NY AG Eric Schneiderman, who has a lot on his plate: “I am launching a formal investigation into the #Equifax breach. Today, I sent a letter to @Equifax seeking additional information.”
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt doesn’t want you talking about climate change when you discuss Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma.
Thanks, Lynna. Very kind of you to say.
SC @220, I’m glad to see that an attorney general as meticulous and dogged as Eric Schneiderman is not going to let Equifax head honchos get away with dumping their stock before they informed the public about the data breach.
In other news, a leaked Department of Justice memo recommends that the sexual history of rape victims should be allowed to be presented during campus hearings. [Insert long string of swear words of your choice.]
Link
Up-thread, SC called the DOJ the Department of Injustice. That’s appropriate.
Wildfires in western states are threatening drinking water supplies. As of today, 81 large fires are burning across about 1.5 million acres in the USA. Similarly bad conditions are challenging land managers in Canada. And the fire season is far from over.
https://thinkprogress.org/relentless-western-wildfires-e6acdf241a53/
From the political side, there are issues with funding:
Oh, good, a shadenfreude moment: Republican legislators booed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. The two Trump administration bigwigs met with Republicans behind closed doors, but news of the booing/hissing incident is now widely disseminated.
Link
Follow-up to comment 225.
Just to bring you up to date on the vote for the 3-month extension plan that Trump agreed to when Pelosi and Schumer proposed it:
Shellshocked by moves orchestrated by Pelosi and Schumer. That’s got to hurt.
Tweet o’ the day.
Chris Hayes had a segment last night with Bernie Sanders. Interesting.
Thing One/Thing Two was about our Grifter In Chief during a previous hurricane at Mar a Lago. No surprise there.
“Russia’s Facebook Fake News Could Have Reached 70 Million Americans.”
Nerd @228, the “Grifter in Chief” pocketed part of a $17 million insurance payout for damage he claimed to Mar-a-Lage—damage that was, for the most part, not real. The Grifter put the money into his personal accounts, a fact that he admitted. I was glad to see Hayes cover that.
In other news, newly unrestrained Steve Bannon claimed that Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are “trying to nullify the 2016 election.” For now at least, it looks like Bannon is going to cause more trouble for Republicans than for Democrats.
Follow-up to comments 67 and 70.
Link
“Spicer, Priebus, Hicks among current, former Trump aides Mueller eyes interviewing for Russia probe”:
Evidently Mueller’s team has requested documents related to the Flynn and Comey matters and the drafting of the public statement about the June ’16 meeting, and has been receiving them over the past few weeks.
“Document details scrapped deal for Trump Tower Moscow”:
This description of Sater: “a Russian-born former Trump business associate and mob-linked felon who figured prominently in development of the Trump SoHo property in New York.”
Rick Scott: “If you are in an evacuation zone & do not have a way to evacuate due to traffic- call 1-800-342-3557. We will do all we can to get you out.” This also goes for people without transportation or with other issues that make evacuation difficult.
Dang, looking at the news in prelude to Irma’s landfall. Better warm up the credit card for South Florida emergency help.
Between the Redhead and myself, several family members would have been in the path of Irma if it comes up the peninsula as predicted a few years ago. Fortunately, they are all either up north or dead.
Someone (I think it was the mayor) on MSNBC a few hours ago was saying he thinks about a quarter of the people on Key West were staying.
SC #237, just saw the owner of the old Hemingway house in Key West. He was staying, along with a few of his emplyees.
The link in my previous comment was to a tweet from National Weather Service Key West information:
And apparently several cats who live there and have no choice. I saw that he was going to be on and had to change the channel – my blood pressure couldn’t take it.
I had to e-mail the Redhead’s BFF. Even though it is early for the Snowbird to go south, I hoped that hadn’t happened yet.
FEMA has an app to help people find shelters.
(Shelters are required by law to accept pets.)
Looks like Irma is going up the West coast of Florida. Glad my mother has moved back to Michigan from Fort Meyers Beach. She was on the third floor of a high-rise condo, which wasn’t effected by Andrew, but Irma’s winds could do a number on the glass of her condo.
My sister, her husband, my niece, her two daughters, my other niece and her three kids and my nephew are all in FL, some in Tampa and some in Melbourne. I’m losing my mind.
I toured that place back in 2004.
I sure hope it survives the storm, along with the rest of Key West.
*sigh*
This is brilliant, Giant portrait of toddler peers over US-Mexico border wall (pictures at link):
It’s apparently completely coincidental the artwork went up the same week hair furor & teh injustice dalekocrats (sounds like a bandname!) bellowed about the Dreamers program — JR has been working the project for over(?) a year — but, for me, that coincidence adds a certain poignancy.
Trump is such a petty, small-minded man. He is giving Gary Cohn the cold shoulder, in a manner of speaking.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/report-trump-refusing-to-make-eye-contact-with-gary-cohn
Follow-up to comment 223.
blf @ 246, I first saw that portrait of the child near the border wall on Instagram. That’s a totally brilliant use of art to make a statement. I like the photo, further down the page to which you linked, of JR in front of the wall, (in the photo taken from the USA side and from the right angle).
On Instagram, a few photos of JR and his team working on the display were posted. That’s inspiring.
Avoid the comments on Facebook and Instagram. Some commenters are saying things like, “Yeah, as if only innocent babies cross the border.” Other comments are worse.
Hurricane Irma weakened to a category 3 storm when it encountered Cuba. It is expected to strengthen again as it crosses bathtub-warm (85-89 degrees) water on its way to the Florida Keys. Reporters are driving from the east coast of Florida to the west coast as the hurricane is now predicted to take a more westerly track. The impact cone is still huge.
You can add Hope Hicks to the long list of team Trump people who have lawyered up.
Rachel Maddow covered the story, with an emphasis on the fact that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will be interviewing current and former White House aides. The video is 6:06 minutes long.
So far, Mueller’s list of interviewees includes:
Reince Priebus
Sean Spicer
Hope Hicks
Don McGahn
James Burnham
Josh Raffel
Imagine This — The DACA Song (video), parody of Imagine. From The Parody Project, also responsible for the brilliant Confounds the Science (video) parody of Sound of Silence.
Wonkette covered some of the religious rightwing dingbat response to Hurricane Irma:
Videos are available at the link.
Writing for The New Yorker, Daniel Gross discussed what it is like to weather a hurricane in prison:
More at the link.
Maybe it’s shame.
(/s, as if it’s necessary!)
Just saw an interview with the owner of the Hemingway House on Key West. All the cats are accounted for, and are housed on the upper floors of the house. With THREE back-up electrical generators. They might ride it out, if the walls don’t collapse from the storm surge.
Also seeing on MSNBC another group staying in place. Alzheimer patients in a nursing home. Moving them may cause more problems than staying in place and trying to maintain normal routines. Providing the structure is likely to be out of the storm surge. Since this was in the Miami area, this might not be a problem due to the westerly movement.
Forget the hair furor–N.Korea dueling penises, a much more serious problem is starting. Big China is trying to annoy the mildly deranged penguin, Whiff of discontent as China bans imports of soft European cheese:
Other sources suggest / clarify what Big China has banned are certain mold-ripened cheeses, albeit the list of cheeses is notably arbitrary. At least one source claims:
The mildly deranged penguin is, of course, quite agitated (well, she’s always quite agitated, just more so than usual). I’m trying to point out this means less cheese will leave France / Europe, meaning moar cheese locally for her (and anyone else who manages to hide some from her), but at the moment she’s jumping up-and-down so much, so high, and so fast she could be mistaken for multiple ballistic missile launches, so I’m probably not getting through.
re the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shooting SC reported back in comments 172, 3, police are now saying the shots that injured the person washing windows were fired from a moving car, targeting inhabitants of an adjacent car, and that the Sentinel’s offices were not the target. Hopefully this is true. And if it is, it’s better news. Not good news but good to know journalists (and the victim) aren’t being targeted.
re images provided by a twitter account claiming to represent employees of USCIS and purporting to be from a leaked DoJ memo regarding coming changes to title IX that will include probing the sexual histories of victims of rapes and assaults committed on campuses as mentioned at 223 and elsewhere, Daily Kos has included updates to the initial story and quote correspondence from the head of Department of Affairs who says that the memo is “clearly a fake” but won’t, as of now, elaborate what’s false and why that should be obvious to anyone. Best case scenario is she’s admitting the relevant portion is a monstrous idea.
It looks like the construction cranes are coming down in Miami.
Subsequent reports suggest my two previous links refer to the same crane. Hope it’s the only one.
It’s looking very bad for Naples and the surrounding area. Extreme Wind Warning for the county. They’re warning people: “Don’t be fooled by low water conditions on the FL W coast ahead of Irma, water will rapidly surge back when the winds change direction.” (It will also be high tide – another three feet on top of a 10-15 foot predicted surge.) Still dangerous winds and storm surge in the Keys,* and more strong gusts forecast in Miami.
* Almost no news is coming out of the Keys for the past few hours.
Good to see some people reporting out of the Keys. But this.
NHC Storm Surge Unit: “The FL Keys are not out of the woods yet, strong winds on the backside of Irma could produce significant surge flooding from Florida Bay.”
NWS Miami: “1:05 PM: #Irma eyewall to move to #MarcoIsland by 1:45 PM, then to #Naples. 115+ mph winds. Large storm surge imminent. Shelter in place!”
Brock Long, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, looks worried and sleep-deprived.
Link
Update from Hillary Clinton:
Link
Oh, FFS. Some gun owners in Florida have jumped on a very strange bandwagon: they are shooting their guns at Hurricane Irma in response to a Facebook event called “Shoot at Hurricane Irma.”
Enough dunderheads took up the call that the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning:
https://twitter.com/PascoSheriff/status/906712903868469249
The warning is accompanied by a graphic representation of Hurricane-force winds changing the trajectories of bullets.
Monroe County (FL Keys): “Monroe County is closed until further notice. Evacuated residents do not return until further notice. More info to come.”
NHC: “Urgent warning about the rapid rise of water on the SW FL coast with the passage of #Irma’s eye. MOVE AWAY FROM THE WATER!”
They’re talking about minutes, seconds for the water to surge in after the eye passes.
On the east coast, there are multiple tornado warnings.
A second construction crane has collapsed in Miami.
130 MPH wind gust on Marco Island.
The water is coming.
Jesus. (This is evidently from Mexico City a couple of weeks ago. The airport in Miami is closed.)
Meanwhile, on Florida’s east coast…
MSNBC is reporting that Irma slowed enough that they are past high tide on Marco Island, so the surge won’t be the very worst it could be.
Get inside, Mike Bettes!
142 MPH wind gust at Naples Municipal Airport.
I was say that this morning to Mariana in Miami Beach/Miami (she was listening as well as Bettis).
Appears the high winds might might help the surge. 4 feet in thirty minutes in Naples. And just starting.
LOL – I’m not alone.
The storm surge in Naples is now above “normal sea level”.
Bill McKibben: “As we helplessly watch Florida suffer today, remember that the the fossil fuel companies knew all about climate change in 1980s. And lied.”
Downtown Miami earlier.
Tweet o’ the day.
ABC: “Florida Power & Light official predicts ‘wholesale rebuild’ of electrical grid on FL coast, possibly ‘longest restoration…in US history’.”
Chris Hayes on MSNBC is pushing the result climate change on Florida. Two thumbs and two big toes up.
Excellent thread: “Some things worth remembering as #Irma batters the Florida coast and the recoveries in Houston, Miami, etc. begin to take shape:…”
John Morales on NBC-6 in Miami has been amazing – all day on Twitter answering general and individual questions about conditions in various towns.
MSNBC is indicating per the National Weather Service, that Irma is trending slight to the East. Makes a difference in wind damage but not storm surges.
I really hope it isn’t this bad – emergency management officials telling the press it’s a “humanitarian crisis” in the Keys.
Florida and other southeastern states are going to get drenched.
The 54 cats (and the humans) at the Hemingway house in Key West are OK. Such a relief.
MSNBC has the owner of the Hemingway House in Key West on. Appears the storm surge didn’t do much to the House, or even the Key. Still no electrical power, phone, cable, etc. The cat are all safe and accounted for.
Appears that the Naples storm surge might be peaking at 4-5 ft. *fingers crossed*
I was wary of early reports about the Naples storm surge being much lower than predicted, but it seems, optimistically, to be the case. (I’ll relax about it tomorrow morning.)And then I see reports like this from South Carolina…
Cuba, St. Maarten/Martin, Barbuda, the Virgin Islands,… – so much loss.
I’m still extremely concerned about people on some of the Keys.
Flooding in Havana.
I really hope the water doesn’t continue to rise overnight on the FL Gulf Coast.
“Reminder: The west coast of the U.S. is literally on fire…”
Follow-up to a link posted up-thread by SC.
Yes, the White House social media director, Dan Scavino, Jr., posted fake IRMA news. That’s not helpful.
Link
Online reply from the official Miami Int’l Airport Twitter account:
From others:
Business as usual:
Link
More news regarding Steve Bannon’s “war” against Republicans he doesn’t like:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/10/bannon-gop-primaries-mcconnell-trump-242522
Trump appellate court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, says that, “judges should be bound by their religious faith, not the law.”
WTF? Even most religious people do not think Barrett’s statement makes sense.
More on this:
Link
Another far-rightwing dunderhead tried to run down counter protestors:
Link
Like most of the TV-watching audience, I missed the Miss America Pageant that aired last night. Here’s an excerpt from the question-and-answer segment:
Miss Texas had only twenty seconds to answer the question. She did well, especially when compared to past question-and-answer segments in the pageant.
This is from Miss North Dakota:
Former Miss USA beauty pageant owner, Donald Trump, took a beating from the contestants. Good news.
Steve Bannon said some more stupid stuff. In reference to Trump’s actions to rescind DACA, Bannon said that he wants Dreamers to “self deport.” He added, “There’s no path to citizenship, no path to a green card and no amnesty. Amnesty is non-negotiable. […] America’s built on our on our citizens…. Economic nationalism is what this country was built on.”
Ignorant as well as cruel.
Alex Jones thinks someone is drugging Trump. I guess that’s one excuse for Trump’s displays of willful ignorance and thoughtless actions.
Jones said:
An update on cities and counties fighting the Trump administration’s threats to withhold public safety grants from “sanctuary cities”:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chicago-lawsuit-sanctuary-city-threat-court
Catching up on the news by watching Ari Melber…
“Sputnik, the Russian news agency, is under investigation by the FBI”:
Melber had two good interviews on the subject, one with McFaul, who said it’s obvious and explicit that Sputnik and RT are instruments of Kremlin power. I mentioned the book The Red Web @ #46 above. The Kremlin’s exploitation and instrumentalization of democratic freedoms and rights (and the rhetoric thereof) in the US while they’ve done everything possible in Russia to destroy these freedoms and rights is really breathtaking.
“Trump Has Nominated 42 US Attorneys So Far. Only One Is A Woman.”
I said @ #208 above that you can’t trust Republicans on the ACA. Lindsey Graham, in the midst of everything happening in the country and the world, is bound and determined to make people’s lives as stressful as possible to the very last possible moment. He said the other day that he was confident the Graham-Cassidy bill would pass before time runs out on the 30th. He predicted they would have a CBO score within two weeks, which would be the 23rd. It appears Hatch is throwing a wrench into that plan, but you can’t trust him, either. Heartless jerks.
“Liberal Celebrities Who Helped Elect Trump, Kindly STFU About DACA.”
Chris Hayes is broadcasting his show from Naples, Florida. No “normalcy” in his backdrop. And the congresscritter from the Virgin Islands was interviewed. Both uplifting (everybody trying to help) and depressing (hit from Cat 5 Irma).
Gasp, a rethug Florida county official official believing in AGW, and folks acknowledging that we need undocumented peoples to rebuild Houston and Florida on All In What next? Supporting Medicare for all?
“Where Trump’s Hands-Off Approach to Governing Does Not Apply”:
Much more at the link.
“More White, More Male, More Jesus: CIA Employees Fear Pompeo Is Quietly Killing the Agency’s Diversity Mandate”:
“Exclusive: Russia Used Facebook Events to Organize Anti-Immigrant Rallies on U.S. Soil”:
Twin Falls is the town where Chobani is located. Much more detail in the article.
“Houston’s Floodwaters Are Tainted With Toxins, Testing Shows”:
Follow-up to #311 – “Russian news agency RT now under scrutiny as foreign agent”:
This part:
How does she keep a straight face?
(By the way, does anyone else remember that weird incident in January when C-SPAN was replaced by RT for about 10 minutes? Has there ever been any explanation for how that happened?)
From Maddow last night: “Devastation across Caribbean in wake of Hurricane Irma.”
Maddow also discussed these two stories:
“Republican attempt to deflect Trump-Russia probes could backfire: sources”:
“Russian politician says on live TV that Russia stole U.S. presidency”:
Update to #182 – ugh.
Yesterday’s tweet o’ the day.
This is a significant question and answer from Clinton. I haven’t yet listened to the podcast.
OT: I did not know this.
SC, Bannon said that “Hillary Clinton is not very bright.” I read the link to the excerpt from an interview with Clinton that you posted in comment 325. Yes, just as I thought, she is exceptionally bright.
Bannon also said that Clinton doesn’t know what’s important, but the excerpt shows that she really does know what is important, that she knows what is really important.
Bannon also claimed that Trump knows what is important, and that Trump doesn’t get bogged down in the marginalia. Sheesh.
An update on single-payer health care:
The quoted text is from the Washington Post.
From Steve Benen:
Trump bestowed an unwanted kiss on MSNC news host/correspondent Katy Tur.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/katy-tur-says-trump-gave-her-unwanted-kiss
“Russia Sought A Broad Reset With Trump, Secret Document Shows “:
* I was just reading about Krutskikh in The Red Web yesterday! He’s up to no good.
“The surprising new strategy of pro-Russia bots”: “Co-ordinated groups of Twitter bots pushing pro-Russian propaganda have developed an odd but occasionally effective strategy – retweeting messages that the bot-makers disagree with and flooding their enemies with followers.”
“Lawyer says extradition of oligarch tied to Trump campaign chief imminent”: “Billionaire Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash is at ‘great risk’ of being brought from Austria to face justice in a Chicago courtroom ‘within weeks’, his lawyer told a federal judge Monday….”
SC @331, that was an interesting read. The explanations for why bots would flood their enemies with retweets and supposedly new followers were especially intriguing.
The flood can trigger cancellation of a Twitter account.
The flood can simply make a Twitter account unusable.
etc.
I liked the specific examples given in the article. Those examples made the problems clearly understandable. And scary … how does one combat something like that?
“Scandal-plagued foreign leader gets surprise invite from Trump, checks into Trump’s hotel”:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a12229806/texas-mass-shooting-9-dead/
*sigh*
Michael Flynn ‘promoted US-Russian nuclear project from White House’:
Follow-up to SC’s comment 334.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has fired people investigating him, and he dismisses the charges of corruption against him as “fake news.” No wonder Trump felt comfortable (“honored,” he said) meeting with Razak.
Follow-up to blf @336.
The scheme that Flynn backed was a for-profit expansion of nuclear power reactors in the Middle East. Yes, for profit, which in Flynn’s world guarantees massive opportunities for money laundering and other forms of corruption. Add that to the Russia connection, and add that to the corrupt weapons exporters who were involved … sheesh. Now there’s a plan that epitomizes the fever dreams of rightwing asshats in Trump’s orbit.
I would not be surprised to hear that former Blackwater doofuses were also involved.
Milo Yiannopoulos posted a photo of a house destroyed by Hurricane Irma, along with the comment, “My house is gone.”
That was not his house. That was Gerard Duhart’s house. Milos lives in the Miami Beach area. His house was not devastated.
http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/celebrities/article172687231.html
Follow-up to comments 165, 230, 304, 308, and 327.
Writing for Slate, Jamelle Bouie shows that Steve Bannon’s reputation as an intellectual is bogus.
Excerpt:
The Department of Justice will not charge the six Baltimore police officers responsible for the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died in their custody in April of 2015.
I see this has a direct result of having Jeff Sessions as head of the DOJ.
More details from Slate.
“Mike Flynn’s Son Is Subject of Federal Russia Probe”:
Ari Melber will have more on The Beat at 6 ET.
Is the tide turning?
Link
Trump’s appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court is having the effect that right-wingers hoped for. This is all bad news.
Link
Follow-up to comment 343.
So far this year, the Democratic Party has flipped six state legislative seats from red to blue.
3 in Oklahoma
2 in New Hampshire
1 in New York
Republicans have flipped one seat from blue to red in Louisiana.
“Trump Election Commissioner Sought to Exclude Democrats and ‘Mainstream Republicans’: In a bombshell email, Hans von Spakovsky worried that they would undermine the commission’s focus on voter fraud.”
This commission should be disbanded in utter disgrace.
In related voting news, votes continue to swing Democrats’ way.
In related disgrace news, Sarah Huckabee Sanders continues to execute the WH plot to falsely accuse Comey of criminal acts. It’s another low from them in dishonesty, abuse of power, obstruction of justice, and trashing the rule of law. On the bright side, it’s evidence of how afraid they are of the Mueller investigation.
“All the best people” …
Not exactly.
Trump’s FEMA nominee for deputy administrator withdrew after questions arose about him falsifying records.
Trump’s FEC nominee, Trey Trainor (a Texas lawyer), is facing troubling questions about his repeated disagreements with state-level campaign finance regulators. Looks like Trump wants to weaken the Federal Election Commission.
From the NYT:
“Purged Facebook Page Tied to the Kremlin Spread Anti-Immigrant Bile.” (more information about the page described @ #319)
“RT, Sputnik and Russia’s New Theory of War: How the Kremlin built one of the most powerful information weapons of the 21st century — and why it may be impossible to stop.” (long, detailed background piece to #s 311 and 321)
“Congress Sends Resolution Condemning White Supremacists To Trump’s Desk”:
I no longer watch these “press conferences,” but it sounds like SHS today went all in behind authoritarianism.
“Mueller Probe Has ‘Red-Hot’ Focus on Social Media, Officials Say”:
@ #339
Milo is always consistent — it was all a joke, of course.
“It’s a joke, not a dick, but apparently you can’t get either,” Yiannopoulos wrote to Newsweek in response to a reporter’s question about the Instagram and Facebook post—which showed someone else’s house losing its roof to high winds.
He then insulted the reporter’s appearance.
I’ll bet the guy who lost his house thought it was pretty funny.
SC @350, yeah, I have a hard time watching Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Trump has the right person for that job. She is willing to stand up there and lie over and over again. She’s standing behind a podium with the presidential seal and she feels no obligation to cut back on the number of lies and threats.
I think the repetitive claims that Comey gave false testimony, that he should be investigated by the DOJ, etc. — I think all that is going to come back to haunt Sarah and Trump.
From Wonkette:
Tweet o’ the day.
“Exclusive: Rice told House investigators why she unmasked senior Trump officials”: “Former national security adviser Susan Rice privately told House investigators that she unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York late last year, multiple sources told CNN….”
This guy was literally preceded and introduced at an event by a dude calling for gay people to be executed.
Tony Schwartz, who wrote The Art of the Deal: “Trump is raging about Mueller because Trump knows what he did and it is far beyond anything anyone currently imagines. Tick tock.”
LOL.
Update to Lynna’s #231 – Shkreli’s bail has been revoked.
A summary of the Graham-Cassidy bill they’re sadistically trying to sneak through before the deadline.
“Treasury Secretary Mnuchin requested government jet for European honeymoon.” Of course he did.
Ha.
This is completely unacceptable – “Exclusive: Facebook Won’t Reveal if Russia Targeted You During the Election: Facebook refused to commit to releasing the Kremlin-backed propaganda it uncovered. Users may never know if they were targeted during the election—or are still being targeted now.”
Here’s Rachel Maddow’s interview with Senate Intelligence Committee co-chair Mark Warner last night.
Fucked up CIA ideology example #9598346.
I find myself responding to much this morning with “Heh.” It’s a heh kind of day.
Most of you will by now have heard or read about Sen. Sanders’ proposal for a bill to expand Medicare in the U.S. (well, duh, thought I). Not being an American, however, this was news to me – I first heard about it in an interview (aired this morning on CBC radio), with a Canadian M.D. who was in Washington supporting the bill.
Negative reaction from Republican legislators was swift and predicable – so predictable, in fact, that I would be bothering to comment on it at, were it not for one particularly egregious lie that came out of the GOP camp, and which I cannot allow to pass.
The lie came from Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), who said of the Canadian single-payer system that “once they spend a certain amount of money … [their coverage] is cut off, usually around Hallowe’en, that’s why the call Canadian Medicine ‘trick- or- treat medicine’….”
(The above quotation – which begins at about 06:55 in the CBC programme I refer to above – may well have been recorded prior to Sen. Sander’s announcement; I cannot, unfortunately, find an original source.)
Hi, Sen. Barrasso – calling you out on this; you, sir, are a liar, plain and simple. There is no upper limit on the amount of money that Canadians can bill through the single-payer system, people do not get “cut off” at any time, and “trick- or- treat medicine” is not a phrase “they” use, it’s just something you made up. And I don’t for a second that you are so ignorant (being an MD yourself, and all) that you actually believe this – you are just telling a bald-faced lie to spook people who, you fear, might be on the fence with respect to health care reform in your country.
*spits*
From Trump’s tweets posted this morning:
Well, yes, any border security plan would be subject to a vote in Congress. So why is he saying this? Does he want to walk back the verbal deal he made with Pelosi and Schumer over dinner last night? Or does he just want to confuse the issue so that it doesn’t look like Pelosi and Schumer rolled him again? Still sounds like a deal to me.
From Trump’s later tweets:
Trump is the asshat who decided to throw them out in the first place. It looks like Trump is trading protection for DACA recipients for a “border security” deal for which we do not have details.
Pelosi and Schumer issued this statement:
To summarize Trump’s self-defeating DACA statements: During his campaign, Trump promised repeatedly to rescind DACA and to deport Dreamers. After he was elected he lied and said that Dreamers can “rest easy.” Recently, Trump trashed DACA with a six-month window for Congress to come up with a substitute. After that stupid move, Trump promised on Twitter that he would “revisit” the DACA issue if Congress did not act. Trump’s next move was to tell reporters that he has not issued any mixed signals, “no mixed signal at all.”
Some commenters have postulated that Trump just wants to rebrand DACA so that it is his own supposed compassion on display, and that he first has to thrown out anything Obama did before the rebranding can begin.
And, as one of SC’s links up-thread pointed out, Trump has started to redefine construction of his border wall as working on repairing and updating existing fences and walls.
Other commenters have postulated that Trump has a hamster wheel instead of a brain inside his head.
More on what Trump said about DACA and his stupid-ass wall (from comments made to reporters before he flew to Florida):
Well, that clears that up. Not.
Heh.
More from Pelosi and Schumer:
Almost everyone in the White House has lawyered up, and many have employed multiple lawyers. The Trump administration changed White House ethics rules so that anonymous donations can be made to their legal defense funds (Mercers will pony up, no doubt, as will many of Trump’s followers).
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/13/trump-ethics-watchdog-legal-defense-242690
From Walter Shaub:
What members of The Swamp, and what foreign governments will be financing the Trump administration legal defense?
Trump’s tweet on the border wall:
Link
Follow-up to comment 371.
From Steve Benen:
From Ann Coulter (in reference to Trump pushing a potential deal to protect DACA recipients if “massive” border security measures are taken):
There is an imminently looming political crisis in Spain, which may have wide repercussions in Europe and beyond, but which has received remarkably little coverage. On 1st October, the government of Catalonia is holding a referendum on independence, which the government of Spain has denounced as illegal, and is trying to block, while taking or threatening action against anyone – politicains, media or the general public – supporting it. Last night I attended a meeting at which Luke Stobart, a British journalist who spends a lot of time in Catalonia, and supports the independence movement, spoke, along with Kim Arrufat (by Skype), a senior representative of Candidatura d’Unitat Popular, the left (socialist, municipalist, environmentalist, feminist) component of the independence movement. Polls indicate that a clear majority of Catalonia’s inhabitants want a referendum – but opinion on independence itself is very evenly divided, possibly with a small majority against. Ironically, the Spanish government and its allies, by calling on people not to vote (and indeed, the government’s threatening attitude) is very likely to give the pro-independence side a win, if it cannot block the vote altogether. The Catalan government has promised to declare independence if “Yes” wins – although in practice, I think it might draw back if the turnout is too low. It has been unable to gain any official support abroad; there is a rumour that the EU authorities have told the Spanish government they can take any action they want so long as there is no violence – although Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, gave an ambiguous response when asked about the referendum today. I do not feel that absence of violence can be guaranteed, if Spanish authorities try to arrest pro-independence politicians and media; arrest warrants have already been issues for local mayors who have agreed to implement the referendum, some media have been shut down, and threatening Guardai Civil (Spanish police) and military activities have taken place.
Watch this space – I’ll report developments.
Cogent analysis from Steve Benen:
Former Rep. Joe Walsh, a Republican who is now a conservative talk show host, said what a lot of Republicans are thinking about Trump’s agreement to back a DACA-like immigration policy in exchange for border security that does not include a wall:
Okay then. Lot’s of emotional gnashing of teeth and wailing on the conservative front. Good. Über rightwing doofus, Ann Coulter also predicted that this will the death of Trump. (See comment 375.)
I kind of doubt that this will kill Trump. He will just claim that the Evil Media did not report the story honestly. Then he will continue to issue contradictory and/or confusing tweets until his followers give up out of sheer exhaustion and wander back into the fold.
This is kind of funny: McConnell is calling for Trump to send Congress his DACA proposal. McConnell says he and other Republicans in Congress “look forward” to receiving Trump’s proposal.
He knows damn well that Trump is not going to do any actual work on this. Trump expects Congress to come up with the entire proposal.
Like I said, funny.
“Trump Humiliated Jeff Sessions After Mueller Appointment”:
Trump was set off when McGahn got a call from Rosenstein during the meeting informing him he was appointing Mueller as special counsel.
As I’ve said before, this is nothing to celebrate. It’s tragic that such a pathetic, cruel, destructive person is in a position of great power. It’s awful to see someone humiliated, and to know that kids are growing up seeing this happen in the Oval Office, regardless of how bad Sessions himself is.
Trump did an impromptu press conference on AF1 this afternoon, in which he told lie after lie – about Susan Rice, the GDP, corporations, antifa protesters in Charlottesville, communications with EPN, the JCPOA (which he claimed the Iranian regime has violated in letter and in spirit, whatever that could mean in this context), and more.
Josh Marshall: “Trump[‘]s being a stone cold liar AND having no idea what he’s talking about does pose serious interpretive challenges.” (He’s also bringing the gifs.)
Today in 1939:
“The Soviet newspaper Pravda has launched an anti-Polish campaign, with articles alleging Polish mistreatment of ethnic minorities.”
“Soviet Union has so far remained neutral in war in Poland on its western border, following Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact signed 3 weeks ago.”
As part of that press conference,
There’s a chance that brief flurry of GOP retirements could resume later this year.
Add in the Democrat’s success in flipping seats in special elections, and this suggests 2018 could be a big loss for the House GOP.
In addition to being wrong, it’s another example of Trump’s very disturbing relationship with time: if he says there’s been a terrorist attack in Sweden and then subsequently there’s rioting in Sweden he was proven right. If he equates the two sides in Charlottesville and evidence later emerges of bad antifa dudes somewhere,* he had a point about Charlottesville. (Alexandra Petri wrote a remarkable piece about this back in March.)
* Which he likely believes because he reads the Kremlin/far-Right propaganda @ #12.
I needed this today.
WaPo helpfully summarizes and annotates the AF1 press gaggle. (Unfortunately, it’s missing several lies.)
North Korea has fired another missile.
This is true.
This is…weak.
Tweet o’ the day.
“Kaspersky Lab co-founder accepts invitation to testify to U.S. Congress”: “Eugene Kaspersky, the co-founder and chief executive of Moscow-based anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, said on Thursday he accepted an invitation to testify to U.S. lawmakers later this month over the security of his company’s products, but that he needed an expedited visa in order to do so.”
Update to #349 – Trump signed the resolution condemning Nazis and white supremacists. A few hours after he once again gave away the game during the AF1 gaggle.
Topher Spiro: the ACA urgently needs to be shored up. Lives depend on it.
:).
““This unfortunate circumstance is not reflective of the value we place on female photographers and their enormous contributions to the field of photography,” the company said in the statement.”
Oh, GFY.
@391 – That will be extremely interesting. I’m going to make a bold prediction here. I think he asks for asylum and immunity to give up the goods on quite a bit of cyber-intelligence. Equally possible, he never makes it out of Russia, alive anyway.
“Harvard Withdraws Fellowship Invitation To Chelsea Manning.” (Spicer and Lewandowski still in.)
“N.Y.U. was one of several top schools that recruited [Michelle Jones] for their doctoral programs. She was also among 18 selected from more than 300 applicants to Harvard University’s history program. But in a rare override of a department’s authority to choose its graduate students, Harvard’s top brass overturned Ms. Jones’s admission after some professors raised concerns that she played down her crime in the application process.” (Actually, fretted over how her admission would be portrayed on Fox News.)
I’m sure fears of losing sweet government contracts had nothing to do with Harvard’s decision.
“News: Jason Maloni, former Manafort spox, has arrived at the US District Court in DC to testify before a grand jury as part of Russia probe.”
Once again, world, we apologize.
“After Massive Giveaways to Industry, Mining Executives Will Spend Big at Trump’s D.C. Hotel”:
That’s right – CREW gets the Mar-a-Lago visitor logs today.
I’m unhappy that comments on this thread aren’t appearing on the sidebar. :(
Follow-up to @167, where fracebork deliberately lies — to its benefit — about viewing statistics, now it has been caught intentionally selling ad-space to nazis, Why does Facebook allow advertisers to target ? (the Grauniad’s edits in {curly braces}; in addition, I’ve made a few unmarked corrections to the punctuation, which was atrocious†):
† Despite this being the Grauniad, I’m not convinced they originally fecked it up; the embedded link has identical or similar Typos offerings.
Other people are also unhappy, and other threads are also affected; see the comments in poopyhead’s recent Bugginess lately? Should be better now.
WTF.
SC @392, yeah, I figured that Trump would sign the resolution condemning Nazi’s etc. However, as you point out, just hours before that Trump had reiterated his “some pretty bad dudes on the other side” and “some very bad people on the other side” statements. He still doesn’t get it. He should not even come close to comparing Nazis and the KKK to any other group, nor to excusing Nazis because there are other “bad” people in other groups.
White supremacists will be happy with what Trump did because he spoke them about his real feelings. I think he sees them as “on his side.”
Trump’s actual statement:
Note the whining. Trump inserted a sense of personal grievance, of having been personally insulted because people questioned the false equivalence he set up between Nazis and anti-facists.
Also, note the standard Trump phrasing of “a lot of people.” That’s bullshit.
“Senators propose 9/11-style commission on Russian interference”: “Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced legislation on Friday to establish the National Commission on Cybersecurity of U.S. Election Systems to study the election-related cyberattacks — which the intelligence community has attributed to Russia — and make recommendations on how to guard against such activity going forward.”
More stupid and embarrassing stuff that Trump said:
Before the issue of climate change was brought up, Trump repeated the words “epic,” “historic,” “worst,” “largest ever recorded,” and “bigger than we have ever seen” when describing Hurricane Irma. That was, as the Washington Post pointed out in reference to both hurricanes, Trump’s way of lauding himself:
Bring up climate change, and Trump changes his tune. Bullshitter in Chief.
From The New Republic’s Emily Atkin:
Follow-up to comment 409.
I left out one of Trump’s stupid statements. At a White House reception that was held yesterday evening, Trump said, “I never even knew a Category 5 existed.”
Background to #400 – “Trump tweeted about Scotland Yard at 642 am. At 619 am on Fox/Friends @kilmeade talked about Scotland Yard having terrorists on their radar.”
As everyone knows, Rachel Maddow interviewed Hillary Clinton last night.
Of the many segments, (all of them well worth watching), I really enjoyed Clinton’s look forward to see herself playing an active role as a political activist and as a supporter of non-profit groups with good goals.
OMG.
Stupid stuff Trump said about Susan Rice:
How is it possible for even a dunderhead like Trump to not know that his smear campaign against former National Security Advisor Susan Rice was found to be baseless a long time ago?
From Steve Benen:
More stupid stuff Trump tweeted today:
Jemele Hill was right to call Trump a white supremacist. I don’t think that ESPN should apologize to Trump.
Update to #402 – holy shit. From CREW:
An update on the long-term attack on diplomats in Cuba:
The French government has started checking their diplomats, too. It sounds like these attacks have been intermittently happening for roughly a year, and may still be ongoing.
SC @ 416, well, well, well. This creates another “what are they hiding” moment for the Trump administration.
In other news, Republicans in the House of Congress just passed a bill that contains a provision that will weaken the separation between church and state:
Link
The bill now goes to the Senate, where the fate of the provision that would allow churches to receive funds even if they endorse political candidates is unclear.
Trump made a lot of promised to black college leaders … and then Trump delivered nothing.
Link
Trump just further muddied the waters around the DACA issue, and around his immigration policies in general:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/15/trump-chain-migration-242766
Some Republicans see legislative to replace Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as part of “chain migration”. It’s a sort of slippery slope argument from the rightwing.
From the National Review:
Follow-up to SC’s comments 400 and 411.
More of Trump’s response to the terrorist attack in the London subway:
From Representative Dana Rohrabacher:
San Francisco Chronicle link
The article includes a lot of other details that highlight Rohrabacher’s Putin-loving extreme rightwing dunderheadedness.
“Manafort Spox Mostly Tight-Lipped After Testifying To Mueller Grand Jury.”
Came out, said he’d answered questions and been dismissed, “was generally upbeat.”
Seth Meyers presented a “Closer Look” segment in which he judged Trump’s skills as a negotiator, and talked about the false narrative that Trump is an “independent.”
The video is 8:54 minutes long. DACA was included in the discussion.
Excerpt:
“Taxpayers billed $1,092 for an official’s two-night stay at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club”:
Here’s the CNN story on Trump stonewalling CREW: “Trump administration withholds almost all Mar-a-Lago visitor logs.”
“New details about major Russian money laundering probe raise the stakes of Trump Tower meeting”:
The Bloomberg piece to which the article in #427 links, which provides a lot more detail about the case, includes: “‘There was no discussion of a deal — you repeal one and then we in turn repeal the other’, Veselnitskaya said. ‘I categorically wasn’t authorized to discuss something like that’.”
Authorized by whom?
Sorry – here’s the link to the Bloomberg article.
Perfect.
From the linked article:
Oh, FFS. Republicans in the House of Congress want to make life more difficult for people with disabilities.
ACLU link
Yeah, that’s right, Republicans are trying to undermine the civil rights of people with disabilities.
“Trump Advisers Secretly Met With Jordan’s King While One Was Pushing A Huge Nuclear Power Deal”:
This is exactly what they did, to great effect, with pre-clearance in the Voting Rights Act.
Also, incidentally, Trump is notorious for not complying with the ADA in his businesses.
Good move, Senator McCain:
Link
“WSJ: Rohrabacher sought WH deal to pardon Assange in exchange for evidence he said exonerated Russia of email hacks.”
Wait…what?
Further to #376: Catalonia referendum: Spanish state poised to seize Catalan finances. This is bound to solidify support for independence, I wolud think: one of the main Catalan grievances is that they pay more in taxes to the centre than they get back in services (there is some truth in the charge that the movement for Catalan independence is motivated by economic selfishness – at least as far as the centre-right element of the movement is concerned).
Chuck Schumer: “[police light emoji]Red Alert[police light emoji]
#Trumpcare is back & Senate GOP has until Sept 30 to pass their bill. We need your voices more than ever!”
“call
—Murkowski & Collins on PP+Medicaid
—Capito & Portman on Medicaid
—Alexander & McCain on process
—Lee & Paul
—CA/NY Reps on huge $ cuts”
This is stupid in so many ways.
“Facebook Gave Special Counsel Robert Mueller More Details on Russian Ad Buys Than Congress”:
“CHICAGO (AP) — Federal judge says U.S. attorney general cannot withhold grant money from cities over so-called sanctuary cities status.”
LOL.
Chuck Todd of Meet the Press and Meet the Press Daily visited the American Virgin Islands with Fmr. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NBA All-Star Tim Duncan, who are both helping with the recovery effort after Hurricane Irma. Tim Duncan is from the Virgin Islands, and lived through Hurricane Hugo and its recovery.
I love Ted Lieu more than words can say. The SWAMP Act.
From the WSJ story @ #435: “Mr. Rohrabacher’s travel wasn’t paid for by the U.S. House of Representatives and wasn’t an official government trip, aides said.”
I wonder who did pay for it.
Chris Hayes of All In had author Ta-Nehisi Coates on two segments tonight talking about Trump and his White Supremacist policies and attitudes (Seg 1, Seg 2).
Last night he had Michael Moore on talking about Trump and his politics, again over two segments (Seg 1, Seg 2). The two interviews overlap to a large degree.
Here’s Rachel Maddow’s interview with one of the journalists who reported on the meeting described @ #432. It’s a strange thing. Flynn, Kushner, and Bannon (and according to witnesses around six others who haven’t yet been identified)? What was Bannon doing there? They met with the King of Jordan at a bar in downtown Manhattan?
Well done, Walter Shaub.
Mexican teacher barred from traveling to US to collect Internet Society award:
There is a bill moving through Ozland’s joke of parliament to abolish restrictions on concentrated media ownership. It has a fig-leaf of providing some support for smaller media, but with an astonishing exception: That support does not apply to the Grauniad’s Australian operation. Specifically. Totally. There is a confusing array of reasons given for this blatant censorship, each apparently carefully tuned to apply to the Grauniad. A point that, apparently, has been admitted: “Privately, the government was frank, the veto was aimed at Guardian Australia, something that became evident when they selectively waived it for other media groups in last-minute negotiations.” — How the Coalition’s ‘blind ideology’ over media reform stiffed Guardian Australia (“In backroom dealing, ministers showed their support for independent media had limits. We’ll keep producing Australian journalism our readers can be proud of”).
“Still no charity money from leftover Trump inaugural funds”: “What is left from the massive fundraising is a mystery, clouded by messy and, at times, budget-busting management of a private fund that requires little public disclosure. The Associated Press spoke with eight people — vendors, donors and Trump associates — involved in planning and political fundraising for the celebration, an event that provides an early look at the new president’s management style and priorities. The people described a chaotic process marked by last-minute decisions, staffing turnover and little financial oversight.”
“Young #Kurds gathering now for pro-independence rally in Erbil park. #Kurdish president says he won’t postpone vote.”
Renato Mariotti: “THREAD: Why news that Mueller obtained a search warrant for Facebook content may be the biggest news in the case since the Manafort raid….”
“AARP stands ready to work with Congress on commonsense, bipartisan solutions to improve health care. #GrahamCassidy is not that bill….”
“Another prosecutor joins Trump-Russia probe: Kyle Freeny jumps to Mueller staff from money laundering unit”: “An attorney working on the Justice Department’s highest-profile money laundering case recently transferred off that assignment in order to join the staff of the special prosecutor investigating the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia, POLITICO has learned….”
She’s the 17th hire to date.
This is just a super interesting article. I knew nothing about the “Wolf of Wall Street” case* or the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which evidently “is probing the transfer of assets overseas by Ukrainian officials, including former President Viktor Yanukovych.” Freeny was at the grand jury yesterday when Manafort’s former spokesman Jason Maloni testified.
* I now understand the DiCaprio reference @ #334!
Sad!
Nerd @446, the interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates is great. If anyone hasn’t seen both segments yet, please do. Nerd provided links.
Coates’ comments on the phrase “white working class” are a good example of his finely honed intellect at work. He sees the broad picture and the details simultaneously. He focuses on the most important factors and clearly explains them.
Chris Hayes did well. He drew Coates into a meaningful discussion.
I love this.
This looks like an incitement to violence to me:
Link
The Department of Justice headed by Jeff Sessions made yet another bad decision. The Congressional Black Caucus will not remain silent:
Link
Some ICE agents are totally out of control.
Note the huge discrepancy between the charges as reported by ICE (criminal gang activity), and the actual charges of misdemeanor trespassing.
Link
So, so sad. *hee*
Re @462, giggles. Any word on the concurrent Juggalos (Insane Clown Posse fans) rally, apparently about a mile away at the Lincoln Memorial?
And I imagine the nazi’s spin will include claims the @462 (and similar) pictures are of the Juggalos’s rally. And possibly visa-versa, albeit the distinct face-paint worn by many Juggalos (to say nothing of the surroundings and other discrepancies) will make that speculated claim patently absurd.
It appears to be larger. And…this is pretty funny.
Re @464’s image, moar giggles!
And I concur, the on-the-ground images suggest the Juggalos’s rally is larger, and I assume significantly larger, but I’ve not located any aerial images or similar. (It’s also been planned, apparently, for a year or so, and hence presumably is far better organised.)
The Russians intentionally struck SDF/Coalition forces east of the Euphrates.
Heh, the first excuse I’ve spotted for the minuscule turnout — no reliable count yet — at the is that the images being circulated were taken before the rally started. Jokes about the nazis being dressed in green to blend into the grass is more plausible.
The same Republican legislator who blamed health care failures on “repugnant” Republican female senators is now calling for a boycott of the University of Texas at Austin. Why? He wants all of the Confederate stature reinstalled.
Link
Tweet o’ the day.
David Cay Johnston on AM Joy this morning.
Bad Twitter.
Good Twitter.
Heh.
About Trumps “bad Twitter” feed, (as noted by SC in comment 471): the faked video showing Trump hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball and knocking her down—that video that Trump retweeted originated from an account that posts racial, anti-gay, and anti-semitic comments on a regular basis. So, sure, Trump would use that as a source. Sheesh.
From Hillary Clinton: “What Trump just did is a disgrace.” She posted that yesterday, but really, we could use that response for everything Trump does.
Follow-up to comment 471 and 473.
More about the posts of the Twitter user that Trump chose to retweet:
Link
More details, presented in plain language, of the effects that the Graham-Cassidy bill to repeal and replace Obamacare would have:
Link
Yes, that’s Trumpcare.
Say what now? This judge’s brain is not working well.
Link
We’ve talked about the takeover of local media outlets by the Sinclair Broadcast Group before. Here’s an excerpt from an article that describes Sinclair’s takeover of WJAR-TV in Cranston, Rhode Island:
Providence Journal link
From Trump’s remarks at the United Nations:
Trump was referring to Trump World Tower, which is across 1st Avenue from the U.N.
From Ambassador Nikki Haley’s remarks:
From Matt Shuham, writing for Talking Points Memo:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-11/trump-transition-website-said-he-owns-buildings-that-he-doesn-t
Fox News is backing Trump up as talk of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border slowly morphs into not actually a wall.
Link
Hurricane Maria is now a category 3. Maria is likely to cause major damage to the Virgin Islands and to Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria is expected to strengthen as it approaches the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Martinique and St. Lucia and other islands.
We’ve seen some news reports that say Trump his reconsidering the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Gary Cohn, head of the White House’s National Economic Council, is definitely not saying that.
Link
I do not know what “reengage on terms more favorable” to the U.S. means, and it is highly likely that no one on team Trump knows what that means.
Two of Hair Furor’s lawyers took an outside table at a DC restaurant for lunch, and then they proceeded to discuss cooperation or non-cooperation with the Mueller probe so loudly that a nearby New York Times reporter overheard the conversation.
Sounds to me like Cobb is trying to throw McGahn under the bus, along with anyone on the legal team who works closely with McGahn.
Link
Trump hires “all the best people.”
Kellyanne Conway dissed the Emmys, claiming that too many jokes were told at Trump’s expense:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/conway-criticizes-emmys
Oh, FFS. Trump and members of his team are again threatening to scrap the nuclear agreement with Iran. They are also looking for cohorts in the United Nations to back them up on this stupid move.
Link
Macron, for one, is not going along: “[…] weakening or scrapping the deal would not only add fuel to a regional powder keg but deter North Korea from negotiating on its nuclear program.”
Follow-up to @484, hair furor is not the only authoritarian who wants to sink the nuclear deal with Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu (nuclear-armed Israel) also wants to, Trump and Netanyahu ready united assault against Iran nuclear deal:
There’s considerably more analysis in what is a lengthy article, which concludes:
From the embedded link, Netanyahu at Odds With Israeli Military and Intelligence Brass Over Whether to Push Trump to Scrap Iran Nuclear Deal (my added emboldening):
† I’m uncertain what is meant by “the other world powers will not follow through”: Will not also withdraw? (Indeed, they very probably not.) Will not continue with commitments (e.g., IAEA inspections?)? (Not continuing also seems unlikely, albeit some aspects will presumably be more difficult, perhaps especially if Congress applies additional sanctions.) Or what… But the point, that after a USAnnihilate!Annihilate!Annihilate! withdrawal, the international community would be divided and mistrustful seems very plausible.
Oh, no. this is bad news indeed. Arizona’s Governor, Doug Ducey, has officially endorsed the Graham-Cassidy bill to real the Affordable Care Act. His endorsement makes it more likely that Senator John McCain will vote for the bill. Senator Jeff Flake is going to vote for the bill.
Link
McCain will still have really good health insurance to pay for his cancer treatments. However, if he votes for this bill, he will taking coverage away from millions of other Americans.
Part of Trump’s recent tweet about North Korea claimed that “Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!”
Nope, not true.
Link
Here are some details concerning the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Republicans in order to increase their chances of passing the Graham-Cassidy version of Trumpcare:
Link
There may be good news, though.
Wonkette reported on Trump’s crazytalk about trade wars, and other stupid ideas regarding global economics. The article focus on Peter Navarro, from whom Trump gets many of his indefensible policy proposals concerning trade.
Also, it’s not that there is no CBO score, it’s that there will be no CBO score until well after the vote. A preliminary estimate will be available early next week, but the full impact won’t be known.
Hair furor really, really, wants to be Putin, or Franco, or Kim, or numerous others, and is now trying to claim his latest wheeze is due to Macron, Donald Trump considering military parade for Fourth of July (short article quoted in full):
War-mad racist lying thieving eejit.
Sounds like McCain is talking himself towards a “no.”
Some reps are also opposed to Graham-Cassidy for unusual reasons:
Sounds like he is saying, how you do it is more important than what you do. Don’t cheat. You cheat, I vote “no”. And the rethugs are cheating again with their non-hearings, etc.
Rand Paul’s a no. I saw a Tweet earlier on which portrayed McConnell as happy with how things are progressing; I wonder if that was true then, because it probably isn’t true now.
Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, to whom we may all owe our lives, has died at the age of 77. Condolences to his family and friends.
Well then.
And it seems Mueller is getting aggressive:
This is breathtaking.