“Lindsey Graham is on @foxandfriends, where he says that if any other American did what Clinton did with her emails ‘they’d be in jail’ and that Russia did interfere in the election…using the Steele dossier. Topic then moved on to John McCain.”
“Sen. Graham on Trump’s response to McCain’s death: ‘It is all over now. The flag is down. When the president mentioned John he got applause … Clearly they had a tentious (sic) relationship but he’s not the only one to have a tense relationship with John McCain’.”
Earlier this month, as all eyes were on the courtroom dramas unfolding in Virginia—where President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman was just convicted on bank- and tax-fraud charges—and in New York—where the president’s longtime personal lawyer pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations and implicated Trump in a crime—the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee was in London, seeking out new information about the former British intelligence officer and Trump-Russia dossier author Christopher Steele.
According to two people familiar with his trip across the pond who requested anonymity to discuss the chairman’s travels, Devin Nunes, a California Republican, was investigating, among other things, Steele’s own service record and whether British authorities had known about his repeated contact with a U.S. Justice Department official named Bruce Ohr. To that end, Nunes requested meetings with the heads of three different British agencies—MI5, MI6, and the Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. (Steele was an MI6 agent until a decade ago, and GCHQ, the United Kingdom’s equivalent of the National Security Agency, was the first foreign-intelligence agency to pick up contacts between Trump associates and Russian agents in 2015, according to The Guardian.)
…Nunes came away meeting only with the U.K.’s deputy national-security adviser, Madeleine Alessandri. The people familiar with his trip told me that officials at MI6, MI5, and GCHQ were wary of entertaining Nunes out of fear that he was “trying to stir up a controversy.”…
…His trip to London at such a precarious moment for the president, and the intelligence agencies’ decision to decline him a meeting, is emblematic of the political island on which Nunes finds himself—along with a handful of other Trump allies in Congress and the media—as he continues his search for wrongdoing by the Justice Department.
…
[Bruce] Ohr, a high-level Justice Department official whose wife works for the opposition-research firm Fusion GPS—the firm that hired Steele to research Trump’s Russia ties—has landed on Nunes’s radar, too. In an interview with the Fox News host Sean Hannity last month, Nunes said that Ohr “is at the heart” of the FBI’s alleged misconduct “because his wife was working for Fusion GPS.” There is no evidence that his wife’s work influenced his own, however. Ohr, who is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committee panels on Tuesday, has known Steele since 2007, when Steele was still in MI6, according to The New York Times. With the FBI’s knowledge and approval, Ohr met with Steele repeatedly from late 2016 to early 2017 to debrief him on any new intelligence he may have obtained about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Steele, a 20-year MI6 veteran whose work focused mostly on Russia, has worked with the FBI on and off for years, offering valuable intelligence on Russian organized crime….
Tom Watson, the deputy leader of the Labour party, has called on the government to confirm if the National Crime Agency is looking into whether there was Russian interference in the EU referendum.
Watson suggested the vote may have been “stolen” and said that if the NCA was not investigating then a full public inquiry with powers similar to those of the US special counsel Robert Mueller must be held. Mueller is investigating Russian interference into the 2016 US presidential election.
It is the first time that a member of Labour’s frontbench has called into question the legality of the referendum and has been seen by backbench MPs as a significant intervention.
…
Watson made the remarks in a question and answer session at the Byline festival in Nutley, East Sussex where Damian Collins, the Conservative MP for Folkestone who chairs the culture, media and sport committee, also spoke of the need for a British Mueller-style investigation with powers to compel witnesses and evidence.
…
Watson said he had decided it would be cowardly of him not to respond to the questions being raised by journalists and said it was plainly “in the public interest” for the government to confirm or deny that the NCA was investigating. “And if they’re not, I think there does need to be an adequately resourced public inquiry so that people know the facts of the referendum,” he said. “They need to know whether that referendum was stolen or not.”
…
“There’s half a dozen different bodies looking at different aspects of this and I just don’t think this is the way for the British people will get the truth of what happened. I really do think we need a Mueller-style inquiry to establish the facts and there’s obviously an urgency to this.”
There is now growing cross-party disquiet with questions of illegal overspending and interference in the referendum campaign.
Collins, who made a similar call to Watson’s when he published the DCMS’s committee interim report on fake news a month ago, stated the case even more strongly this weekend saying that a Mueller-style investigation was now the only way to uncover the truth….
“#Russia’s state TV:
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov admits that Russia is punching above its weight & is unable to respond to the U.S. sanctions symmetrically. He says Russia’s response will include blacklisting more Americans & utilizing its ‘powerful info-component’.”
At a White House dinner Monday night, a Florida pastor who has gained a following preaching on television and advising the president gave Donald Trump a Bible signed by more than 100 leading evangelical Christians with an inscription that said “History will record the greatness that you have brought for generations.” … At the dinner, Trump claimed he ended “attacks on communities of faith.” … Meanwhile, advocacy groups say that hate-motivated attacks on Jews rose nearly 60 percent last year and attacks on Muslims rose 15 percent.
…On Monday, a three-judge federal court held that North Carolina’s congressional maps are an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
Judge James Wynn’s opinion for two of the three judges on this panel is a masterpiece of trolling. Wynn cites Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion in NIFLA four times. He constructs much of his opinion through citations to conservative campaign finance decisions such as Citizens United v. FEC. He even quotes two opinions by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Will Wynn’s opinion survive an appeal to the Supreme Court? Not if Kavanaugh is confirmed! But Wynn appears determined to expose the Court’s Republicans as a bunch of partisan hacks if they do reverse his decision.
…
Of course, in the end, the joke is likely to be on Judge Wynn. Kavanaugh will probably be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, and Kavanaugh will almost certainly give Republicans the fifth vote they need to reverse Wynn’s opinion if he is confirmed.
But there is a bit of a twist here. Justice Anthony Kennedy retired from the Supreme Court on July 31, meaning that that the Court is now evenly divided between four Democrats and four Republicans. Wynn’s opinion, moreover, strongly implies that his court may order North Carolina to draw new maps for the 2018 election. If Wynn’s court ultimately orders new maps drawn, Republicans may not have enough votes on the Supreme Court to prevent that order from taking effect.
As election law expert Rick Hasen notes, there is some risk that Democratic Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan could decide that Wynn’s opinion came too close to this November’s election to permit such a swift redrawing of the state’s maps. It is also true that, the last time the Court had only eight members, Breyer gave the four Republicans a “courtesy” vote to stay a lower court decision allowing a young transgender man to use the men’s bathroom at his high school. It’s possible that Breyer will show similar “courtesy” here, potentially in a effort to extract some similar concession from Chief Justice Roberts at a future date.
But if Kavanaugh is not confirmed — or if Senate Democrats can merely delay his confirmation until the Supreme Court disposes of a request to stay Wynn’s opinion — then North Carolinians may actually be able to vote in a free and fair election this November.
A federal judge in D.C. postponed Paul Manafort’s trial on conspiracy and money laundering charges related to his lobbying work until Sept. 24. It had been set to begin Sept. 17.
Prosecutors and attorneys for Paul Manafort are set to appear Tuesday morning in federal court in Washington to argue over whether evidence of his alleged past “bad acts” should be shown to a jurors at his September trial.
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to introduce such evidence, arguing it could help convince jurors that President Trump’s former campaign chairman knowingly committed charged crimes, including conspiring against the United States, money laundering and obstructing justice.
Manafort’s attorneys asked Jackson to reject the requests, saying the law bars prosecutors from using past acts simply to suggest a defendant is likely to commit crimes.
DC jurors weren’t particularly impressed with Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff’s claims that attending a protest makes one part of a conspiracy, as they failed to convict any of the nearly 200 people arrested during an anti-Trump protest. And Chief Judge Robert Morin, was similarly unimpressed by Kerkhoff’s decision to withhold evidence from the defense and mislead the court about it, which is why he sanctioned the prosecution. Yet, someone at the US Attorney’s Office must have been impressed, as since her ignominious defeat Kerkhoff has been promoted.
From January 2017 to July 2018, the US Attorney’s Office attempted to criminalize protest itself through felony prosecutions of Trump Inauguration (J20) protests. According to their shocking theory, anyone who attended a protest was part of a criminal conspiracy. Acts such as marching or chanting were elements of a crime. In addition to this appalling assault on the First Amendment, was the draconian nature of the charges themselves–multiple felony counts carrying over 60 years in prison.
As lead prosecutor, Kerkhoff did everything she could to push this narrative….
…
Even when prosecutors withhold evidence, it is extremely rare for them to be sanctioned. Yet, in spite of this Kerkhoff appears to have been promoted. Former J20 defendant and activist Elizabeth Lagesse noted that Kerhoff has been promoted to Felony Major Trial Section Chief. This would mean she is now head of her department.
This is absolutely unacceptable. Kerkhoff and anyone else involved in the J20 prosecutions should be held accountable for electing to bring mass felony prosecutions, which attempted to criminalize core First Amendment freedoms. And a prosecutor who violates the due process rights of defendants while making material misrepresentations to a judge should not be section chief.
“#BREAKING: One of Paul Manafort’s primary bankers had his Manhattan penthouse burglarized overnight, law enforcement sources tell @Jonathan4NY; A briefcase, iPad and sneakers were stolen.”
Fundagelicals: “At a White House dinner Monday night, a Florida pastor who has gained a following preaching on television and advising the president gave Donald Trump a Bible signed by more than 100 leading evangelical Christians with an inscription that said “History will record the greatness that you have brought for generations.”
Damn! I threw up in my mouth a little bit!
The Republican Party’s economic policies have grown so corrupt and regressive as to be literally unbelievable. In focus groups, Democratic operatives have found that swing voters will often dismiss simple descriptions of the GOP’s self-avowed fiscal priorities as partisan attacks — after all, how could any major political party actually favor slashing Medicare benefits to lower taxes on the one percent?
Alas, a plain recitation of the Trump administration’s agenda on student debt is sure to strike many Americans as even more implausible.
…
The Trump administration looked out on a student-debt crisis that was financially ruining millions of young people, sapping economic growth, and allowing scam artists to grow rich off taxpayer funds — and concluded that the core problem with Obama’s college-affordability agenda was that it had failed to hold students and federal regulators accountable for their abuses of loan servicers and for-profit colleges.
Students might still find a way to be our nation’s future – but kleptocracy is its present.
The judge will entertain the motion, but that’s not going to happen.
JURY SELECTION SET FOR SEPT. 17
[Judge Amy] Berman said jury selection for the second trial would start on Sept. 17 and set opening statements for Sept. 24 – a scheduling tweak she said was aimed in part at appeasing Manafort’s lawyers, who had requested a week delay in the trial’s start date of Sept. 17.
The move came after an earlier bench conference in which Kevin Downing, one of Manafort’s lawyers, could be heard complaining to the judge about the time pressure they were under. The conference was supposed to be inaudible to attendees in the courtroom thanks to a white-noise machine.
“We don’t have the resources,” Downing said. “We just finished a trial last week.”
Also on Tuesday, Jackson approved the prosecution’s request to allow evidence about Justice Department inspections in the 1980’s that found Manafort’s had failed to disclose lobbying activities for foreign governments – one way the government planned to show that Manafort knowingly broke the law. But she said she would limit the scope of what it can show.
a_ray_in_dilbert_spacesays
An observation for how to advance high-energy particle physics.
Required materials:
1) A single very large room with a clear path from one diagonally opposite corner to another, and the rest of the room filled with sensitive particle detectors
2) Lanny Davis in one corner.
3) Rudy Giuliani in the opposite corner
4) A microphone in the middle of the room, equidistant between them.
The energy released in the resulting collision would create millions of Higgs Bosons…or possibly end the Universe. On the other hand, since we would have seen Lanny and Rudy in the same room at the same time, an end to the Universe might be the most compassionate outcome.
More thoughts on the decision to renovate instead of relocate FBI headquarters, (SC provided discussion of the issue in the previous chapter of this thread):
[…] the president doesn’t just rant about the current building’s appearance, he also “wants to oversee the project at an excruciating level of detail.”
[…] there’s been a debate ongoing for quite a while about whether to leave the FBI where it is or relocate the bureau’s headquarters to a nearby suburb. An Axios source said Trump is “dead opposed to plans to move it out of D.C.” The president was reportedly heard saying, “This is a great address. They need to stay there. But it needs a total revamp.” […]
President Donald Trump was more intimately involved in the debate over relocating the FBI headquarters than Congress was told […]
In a press statement, the Virginia congressman [Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, a Democrat representing parts of Northern Virginia] said, “When we began this investigation, the prospect that President Trump was personally involved in the government-led redevelopment of a property in close proximity to the Trump Hotel was dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Now, the president’s involvement in this multi-billion-dollar government procurement which will directly impact his bottom line has been confirmed by the White House Press Secretary and government photographs.” […]
For those unfamiliar with D.C., the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently located along Pennsylvania Avenue, about four blocks east of the White House.
It’s also about a block from the Trump International Hotel, which the president still owns and profits from. If the current FBI headquarters were redeveloped in its existing space, it’d benefit Trump’s investment: many of the hotel’s rooms have a view of the bureau’s current home.
[…] the GSA’s inspector general concluded that the agency’s officials “may have misled Congress about the White House’s role in canceling a decade-long search for a new FBI headquarters campus in the Washington suburbs last year.” […]
As for why the Republican president might have a keen interest in the usually obscure GSA, this is the agency responsible for overseeing the lease on the president’s hotel – a lease that seems to include a provision that suggests the hotel can’t benefit a public official.
In case Trump weren’t already facing enough corruption allegations, he may have another controversy on his hands.
[…] after a Google search for “Trump News,” Trump said Google was “RIGGED” because it mostly showed “BAD” results, and pressured the company to show more favorable coverage. […]
This made me laugh out loud. Of course most of the results are “BAD,” because Trump is a bad president. He can’t even handle ceremonial duties, like properly acknowledging the death of a Senator. Also, Trump thinks that anything less than fulsome, extravagant praise is “bad.”
When users type queries into the Google Search bar, our goal is to make sure they receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds. Search is not used to set a political agenda and we don’t bias our results toward any political ideology. Every year, we issue hundreds of improvements to our algorithms to ensure they surface high-quality content in response to users’ queries. We continually work to improve Google Search and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment.
Trump could change the tenor of the Google search results by becoming a good president. [LOL]
Russia wouldn’t even touch the bank, but the former GOP nominee [Bob Dole] had no problem joining.
[…] Last week, the Russian media outlet Project revealed that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, now a convicted felon, had attempted to kick the American military out of the U.S.’s final Central Asian military base, located in Kyrgyzstan.
Since then, former Kyrgyzstani officials have denied that they’d ever heard of Manafort’s reported work in the country […]
the report offers a chance to re-examine a mystery that has long clouded U.S. relations with Kyrgyzstan — specifically, ties between former American officials and the most notoriously crooked bank in Central Asia, AsiaUniversalBank (AUB). […]
accounts at AUB maintained “significant indicators that suggest money laundering: hundreds of millions of dollars seemed to be moving through their accounts while they were not engaged in any real business activity.” One company even apparently used a dead Russian to mask the identity of someone passing $700 million through the company’s AUB account. […]
The key to overcoming allegations of financial impropriety? Installing former American officials — specifically onetime GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, as well as former senator J. Bennett Johnston — on its board. […]
While Dole’s involvement with the bank didn’t generate much coverage in the United States, it played a seminal role in revealing just how easily supposedly pro-democracy American officials could be bought. As one former Kyrgyz official told ThinkProgress about Dole, “I remember being disgusted by how cheap U.S. politicians [were] on sale.”
For years, it’s been a mystery how and why Dole ended up joining AUB’s board. Not anymore. ThinkProgress spoke with Eugene Gourevitch, one of the key players in AUB’s operations, about Dole’s role with the bank. Described by Bloomberg as a “finance whiz” — and identified by Foreign Affairs as Kyrgyzstan’s “premier financier” — Gourevitch, an American citizen, was sentenced in 2014 on fraud charges stemming from his work in Kyrgyzstan.
Gourevitch — who was recently released from prison — described to ThinkProgress how Dole, who didn’t respond to ThinkProgress’s request for comment, first joined the bank’s board, how few questions Dole asked about the bank’s operations, and what that said about the state of affairs in Washington. […]
Back in 2006, the Russian Central Bank issued a letter basically instructing its client banks to suspend all operations with AUB because AUB was involved with an [illegal] imports scheme. The Western partners that AUB had, they came running to us saying, “We can’t possibly continue clearing your dollar and Euro transactions, because even though this is Russia, it just doesn’t look good on us to continue doing this.” […] One of the ideas that we had was to bring in, since we had U.S.-based shareholders, a U.S. consulting company to see if there was anything we can to do to sort of reassure Western partners. […]
What really surprised me, jumping ahead a bit, was how little understanding the senators and the professionals at APCO had about anything having to do with the banking business. And I like Dole — he’s obviously a war hero, and it’s not like I have anything personally negative to say about him. But there was this lack of even the most basic curiosity about what we do, even just as simple as asking, “How is this Central Asian bank able to generate the money to pay me what they pay me?” […]
[…] “I’m your mommy, sweetheart, I’m your mommy,” she cried as the boy tried to squirm out of her arms. He got away. She turned, weeping to her husband: “Ever, what’s wrong with my son?” Her husband Ever, holding their 5-month-old daughter, said nothing as the boy crawled to a wall, turned around, and looked at his mom with no expression. When she again attempted to hold him, the boy again rushed away. “What happened … my son is traumatized, Ever,” she cried. […]
“I felt like I could no longer take anymore,” Sammy’s mom said about the months she spent without her child. According to the ACLU, “after several attempts, Sammy allowed his mom to pick him up, and the family made their way through the airport.” But it’s clear the road to this child healing will be a long one. “My soul was destroyed,” she continued. “I didn’t know where he had gone or know if my son was alone in a cage without his father.” […]
“NEWS: DNC staffer tells me entire DNC/DCCC was evacuated from their building about half an hour ago. Told to go home and work from there for the rest of the day. No details on why, but several staffers speculating a bomb threat.
Staffer says COO Laura Chambers walked around telling people, ‘There’s no cause for alarm, but we have made the decision that people should work from home. Don’t panic but everyone should move expeditiously out of the building’.”
There’s a lot going on right now — understatement of the year. The separation of families and the failure of the administration to reunite them has been eclipsed in the news in recent days, but these tragic circumstances persist.
First, it’s been nearly five weeks since the deadline for the administration to reunite families they separated at the border, but 528 children are still waiting to see their parents again.
These are just a few of countless stories that we should never read about events happening within our borders.
We have to be better than this. Make sure your representatives continue to hear from you that families belong together, and give what you can to the efforts to reunite these children with their families.
Trump is stoking violence while pretending to warn against it:
[…] Trump reportedly told evangelical leaders at the White House on Monday that Republican losses in this year’s midterms will lead to liberals “violently” overturning his administration’s accomplishments for the Christian community.
“This Nov. 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it’s a referendum on your religion, it’s a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment,” Trump said during a private portion of an event in the State Dining Room, according to recorded excerpts obtained by NBC News.
He added that there is an “unbelievable” amount of hatred and anger “for you and for me and for my family,” partly because of what he’s accomplished.
If the GOP loses control of Congress, he warned, “they will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently, and violently.” It’s unclear who specifically Trump was referring to.
“There’s violence. When you look at Antifa and you look at some of these groups — these are violent people,” he said.
Trump and other Republicans have frequently tried to connect liberals to the far-left group of anti-fascists known as Antifa, which has been responsible for violence and escalated tensions at various rallies around the country. […]
[…] Trump on Monday falsely told evangelical leaders that he got “rid of” the Johnson Amendment, a law that prohibits churches from endorsing political candidates, according to NBC News.
“Now one of the things I’m most proud of is getting rid of the Johnson Amendment,” the president said, according to NBC News. “That was a disaster for you.”
But the law actually remains in place after an attempt to kill it last year was unsuccessful.
A version of the House Republican tax bill released in November would have allowed churches to endorse political candidates, rolling back the provision inserted into law by then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson (D) of Texas in 1954.
The repeal of the amendment was removed from the final version of the GOP tax-cut bill.
Trump did, however, sign an executive order in May of last year meant to ease enforcement of the amendment. […]
Fox News host Shepard Smith told the truth. He does that fairly regularly. Smith was reporting on Trump’s threats against Google.
[…] “What he doesn’t like is the news,” Smith said on his show. “It’s not the people who are delivering it or the platforms on which they receive it. It seems to be the news itself, because around there, the news is not good except the fake news.”
Smith added that “the fake news seems to be pretty good for” Trump, but that “the real news seems to be unpleasant.”
The anchor’s comments came hours after Trump accused Google of rigging its search engine results against conservative news. […]
Wonkette comments on Glenn Greenwald wanting to be a “kinder, gentler, Russian stooge, white nationalist, fucking moron”:
Oh happy day, there is a new longform profile of Glenn Greenwald for us to look at, in The New Yorker! But ain’t nobody got time for that, so Wonkette will do the public service of summarizing it for you […]
Let us please call him what he is, which is a white nationalist, […]
He’s also a motherfucker, whose website The Intercept completely fucked that NSA contractor Reality Winner, who leaked to it a document showing serious Russian attempts to hack into US voting systems mere days before the 2016 election. (Greenwald hated that story, according to The New Yorker.) The Intercept ended up exposing its source and now Winner has been sentenced to five years in prison, for leaking a thing that went against Glenn Greenwald’s narrative that Russia is a goddamn angel and America is bad.
[…] Greenwald acknowledges that The Intercept “fucked up” that one. […]
Glenn Greenwald has a new tennis-playing friend from Tennessee named Tennys Sandgren. They made friends because Tennys the Tennis-ist from Tennessee always tweets white supremacist and anti-Muslim and #PizzaGate stuff. Tennys got in a real pickle for all that! […]
Tennys and Glennys are BFFs now, and it is very “intense,” says Glennys. They talk every day! […]
Did Glennys make friends with Tennys because Glennys is a white nationalist? Unclear solid maybe! Glennys says Tennys is not racist, though, just misunderstood.
Glennys is still banned from MSNBC because of yucky Rachel Maddow, but it’s OK because he has Tucker Carlson now. And Tennys.
Glennys is trying to chill the fuck out these days and his husband […] Glennys can hear gunshots from his gated community in Brazil. […]
Glennys recently deleted 27,000 of his tweets, because he thought they could be “distorted.” By whom? The feds, we are just wildly guessing.
Glennys, whom we are tired of calling Glennys, has lost a lot of his cool Twitter followers, the sane ones who used to consider him a good journalist, but that’s OK because he has rad new followers like Sebastian Gorka and Donald Trump Jr. and Susan Sarandon. […]
Glenn Greenwald is clearly happy with his new white nationalist followers […]
Glenn Greenwald is pretty sure it’s unfair to call Russian assets like WikiLeaks “Russian assets.” He’s not as close to Julian Assange as he used to be though. […]
Glenn Greenwald thinks John Brennan should be “shunned,” just like Donald Trump does!
Glenn Greenwald made the phrase “Deep State” go VIRAL for the first time, and now Donald Trump screams it on Twitter. Thanks, Glenn Greenwald!
Even some of Glenn Greenwald’s colleagues at The Intercept, including his editor-in-chief Betsy Reed, think his Russia denialism is LI’L BIT BATSHIT at this point. […]
Glenn Greenwald thinks the Deep State is going after Paul Manafort just because he’s a Trump person, just like sometimes racist cops only go after black people. […]
Glenn Greenwald continues to believe Democrats and other patriots are just INSANE to think Russia did anything bad in the 2016 election, and at this point we’re pretty sure Trump would literally have to give Putin America’s nuclear codes in the middle of Fifth Avenue for him to change his mind. Or maybe that would also be OK with Glenn Greenwald. After all, whatever Russia did, America is WAY MORE BADDER.
Glenn Greenwald thinks even if Vladimir Putin directed the anti-US hacking operation (he did, but Greenwald is still skeptical), and “worked with WikiLeaks and Michael Cohen and Jared Kushner to distribute the e-mails” (wow, Glenn, kind of specifically naming names!), that is all just “standard shit,” because we guess Glenn Greenwald is pretty cool with treason. […]
Hey, remember that time Glenn Greenwald wrote an article on October 9, 2016, based on stolen emails from the Clinton camapign delivered unto him directly by Guccifer 2.0, which we now know is a bunch of swarthy Russian intelligence officers? This profile reminds us of that! […]
Glenn Greenwald isn’t sure Russia poisoned those Russian nationals in the UK, because does Russia even do bad stuff ever? […]
“What he doesn’t like is the news,” Smith said on his show. “It’s not the people who are delivering it or the platforms on which they receive it. It seems to be the news itself, because around there, the news is not good except the fake news.”
The neo-Nazi goes on the attack. He throws his arms above his head, yells and waves toward the parade of demonstrators in an attempt to get his comrades to follow him. Then, along with a group of 10 to 12 others, he storms up the stairs to a terrace in front of the Stadthalle, an event venue in the heart of the city of Chemnitz. On the terrace are cameramen, onlookers and counterdemonstrators — and they don’t see the attackers coming. The neo-Nazi grabs a young man from behind, jerks him to the ground and hits him. Over and over again.
Only then do four police officers show up and push the neo-Nazis back. The officers are clearly overwhelmed, just as the entire police force had been throughout the demonstrations on Monday evening — demonstrations that eventually turned into a riot.
A riot fueled by xenophobic hatred.
Chemnitz is the third-largest city in the eastern state of Saxony and initially, over a thousand people had gathered on Monday to protest the kind of right-wing violence seen here on Sunday. Later, several thousand participants in a right-wing rally gathered at the city’s iconic monument to Karl Marx. The two camps were separated only by a single road and handful of law enforcement officers. The mood was tense – and turned violent once darkness began to fall. Fireworks were set off and the two groups began throwing projectiles at each other. There were several injuries….
The counter-demonstrators were far outnumbered, but I think that’s due primarily to how quickly things developed. A lot summed up in this exchange:
And yes, Faschner says she understands why [Syrian refugees] left their country, but she says there are 2 million children in Germany who live below the poverty line. “Why,” she asks, “is nobody doing anything for them?” She says that social inequality makes her furious – furious at a federal government that, she says, does nothing. She plans on retiring next year, but her pension will be small, she says. And her son doesn’t earn much either.
If you ask why she blames the refugees instead of, for example, unfair income distribution, she says: “Because you have to be against someone, and with them, it’s easy.”
Canada’s foreign minister cut short a trip to Europe and rushed to Washington on Tuesday as President Trump’s top trade advisers reiterated that the United States is prepared to leave Canada out of a revised North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico.
Touting the agreement with Mexico as a major win, Trump administration officials attempted to ratchet up the pressure on Canada, emphasizing the need to get a deal completed by the end of the week.
“Well, this deal is pretty well put together with Mexico. So the president, as he’s indicated, is fully prepared to go ahead with or without Canada,” Wilbur Ross, the Commerce secretary, said on Fox Business. “We hope that Canada will come in.”
He added: “If not, they will then have to be treated as a real outsider.”
Those comments are putting pressure on Canada to decide whether it would join the pact negotiated by its North American neighbors or allow itself to be cast out of a three-country agreement that has endured for nearly a quarter of a century. […]
It remains unclear whether the United States can press ahead with a deal with just Mexico without terminating Nafta and restarting the process of notifying Congress about the administration’s intentions. […]
Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican and frequent critic of Mr. Trump, said it appeared that the White House was making a deal that could hurt consumers. […]
Trump tweeted:
I smile at Senators and others talking about how good free trade is for the U.S. What they don’t say is that we lose Jobs and over 800 Billion Dollars a year on really dumb Trade Deals….and these same countries Tariff us to death. These lawmakers are just fine with this!
From the comments:
When Captain Bone Spurs keeps repeating the lie that the US loses $800 billion a year do his minions actually believe him. The US ran a trade surplus with Canada last year. More importantly Captain Bone Spurs doesn’t even have a grade school grasp of economics. A trade deficit does not mean a country has lost money. It means a country was able to buy more goods and services from another country than it sold to them. That’s not a bad thing it’s a good thing.
Also, it seems that aside from the dispute over dairy, the “deal” Captain Bone Spur struck with Mexico contains most of the demands Canada was requesting all along. Especially no sunset clause. Remember when Captain Bone Spur called into question our Prime Minister the remarks our PM made included that Canada would not agree to an automatic sunset clause. Thank you Captain Bone Spur for being so anxious to spin a “victory” for your minions that you have already given Canada what it wants before even sitting down to hammer out the final details.
Captain Bone Spurs is negotiating a “great” trade deal for the US like he negotiated that great nuclear disarmament deal with North Korea. What an incompetent statesman.
It remains unclear whether the United States can press ahead with a deal with just Mexico without terminating Nafta and restarting the process of notifying Congress about the administration’s intentions.
President Trump on Tuesday renewed his pledge to build a border wall paid for by Mexico, prompting a sharp rebuttal from the Mexican government one day after both countries announced plans for a sweeping new trade agreement.
The offhand comments by Trump were made to reporters in the Oval Office as he met with the head of international soccer’s governing body, FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The remark underscored the lingering tensions between the two allies over the president’s oft-touted campaign pledge.
“Yeah, the wall will be paid for very easily, by Mexico,” Trump said when asked about plans for a wall at the southern border. “It will ultimately be paid for by Mexico.”
After footage of Trump’s remarks was widely broadcast on television, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray immediately fired back, maintaining that Mexico will never agree to fund a border wall.
“We just reached a trade understanding with the US, and the outlook for the relationship between our two countries is very positive,” Videgaray said in a tweet. “We will NEVER pay for a wall, however. That has been absolutely clear from the very beginning.”
A former C.I.A. officer running for Congress accused a super PAC aligned with Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Tuesday of improperly obtaining her entire federal security clearance application — a highly sensitive document containing extensive personal information — and then using it for political purposes.
Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate challenging Representative Dave Brat of Virginia, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Corry Bliss, the executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has raised more than $100 million to help Republicans in the midterm elections. She demanded that the super PAC destroy all copies of the form and agree to not use the information in any fashion.
“I write as a former civil servant and as an American, in shock and anger, that you have tried to exploit my service to our country by exposing my most personal information in the name of politics,” she wrote.
The super PAC released a statement on Tuesday strongly denying Ms. Spanberger’s charge, saying that the document was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the United States Postal Service by America Rising, a separate Republican-aligned research firm.
…
The group also released a portion of the security clearance application, blacking out some personal information.
Graham Wilson, a lawyer for Ms. Spanberger’s campaign, said that explanation, which laid the mistake on the Postal Service, did not ring true. “In this unredacted form, this is not a document that the government can provide under the Privacy Act,” he said.
Ms. Spanberger, 39, said in the letter that she had “clear evidence” that the Congressional Leadership Fund had provided a copy of her security clearance application to “at least one news outlet,” adding, “I am not aware of any legal way that C.L.F. could have this document.”…
Our committee has received only 6% percent (6!!!) of #Kavanaugh’s White House documents, and not even half of the limited set the #Republicans requested.
Where are the rest, and why aren’t they ALL being made public? #ReleaseTheRecords
The Russian hackers indicted by the U.S. special prosecutor last month have spent years trying to steal the private correspondence of some of the world’s most senior Orthodox Christian figures, The Associated Press has found, illustrating the high stakes as Kiev and Moscow wrestle over the religious future of Ukraine.
The targets included top aides to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who often is described as the first among equals of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christian leaders.
The Istanbul-based patriarch is currently mulling whether to accept a Ukrainian bid to tear that country’s church from its association with Russia, a potential split fueled by the armed conflict between Ukrainian military forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The AP’s evidence comes from a hit list of 4,700 email addresses supplied last year by Secureworks, a subsidiary of Dell Technologies.
The AP has been mining the data for months, uncovering how a group of Russian hackers widely known as Fancy Bear tried to break into the emails of U.S. Democrats , defense contractors , intelligence workers , international journalists and even American military wives ….
The targeting of high-profile religious figures demonstrates the wide net cast by the cyberspies.
Patriarch Bartholomew claims the exclusive right to grant a “Tomos of Autocephaly,” or full ecclesiastic independence, sought by the Ukrainians. It would be a momentous step, splitting the world’s largest Eastern Orthodox denomination and severely eroding the power and prestige of the Moscow Patriarchate, which has positioned itself as a leading player within the global Orthodox community.
Ukraine is lobbying hard for a religious divorce from Russia and some observers say the issue could be decided as soon as next month.
“If something like this will take place on their doorstep, it would be a huge blow to the claims of Moscow’s transnational role,” said Vasilios Makrides, a specialist in Orthodox Christianity at the University of Erfurt in Germany. “It’s something I don’t think they will accept.”
…
The Russian hackers’ religious dragnet also extended to the United States and went beyond Orthodox Christians, taking in Muslims, Jews and Catholics whose activities might conceivably be of interest to the Russian government.
John Jillions, the chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, provided the AP with a June 19, 2015, phishing email that Secureworks later confirmed was sent to him by Fancy Bear.
Fancy Bear also went after Ummah, an umbrella group for Ukrainian Muslims; the papal nuncio in Kiev; and an account associated with the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, a Byzantine rite church that accepts the authority of the Vatican, the Secureworks data shows.
Also on the hit list: Yosyp Zisels, who directs Ukraine’s Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities and has frequently been quoted defending his country from charges of anti-Semitism. Zisels said he had no knowledge of the attempted hacking. Vatican officials did not return messages.
Protestants were targeted too, including three prominent Quakers operating in the Moscow area.
Hovorun said Protestants were viewed with particularly intense suspicion by the Kremlin.
“There is an opinion shared by many in the Russian establishment that all those religious groups — like Quakers, evangelicals — they are connected to the American establishment,” he said.
Secureworks’ data shows hacking attempts on religious targets that took place in 2015 and 2016, but other material obtained by the AP suggests attempts to compromise the Ecumenical Patriarchate are ongoing….
…
Priests and prelates don’t make obvious targets for cyberespionage, but the stakes for the Kremlin are high as the decision on Tomos looms.
Granting the Ukrainian church full independence “would be that devastating to Russia,” said Daniel Payne, a researcher on the board of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University in Texas.
“Kiev is Jerusalem for the Russian Orthodox people,” Payne said. “That’s where the sacred relics, monasteries, churches are … it’s sacred to the people, and to Russian identity.”
Donald Trump’s victory wasn’t the only 2016 election result to shock the world. Just months earlier voters in the United Kingdom made history when they opted for Brexit, thereby initiating the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. While the two elections took place on opposite sides of the world, the roots of both winning movements can be traced to similar origins. British journalist Mehdi Hasan talks about the role of racial grievances from the US to the UK, where things stand with Brexit, and how many people are feeling intense ‘Bregret’.
KGsays
I haven’t listened to the Chris Hayes podcast, but as I think I’ve already noted here, in the last few weeks there’s been a definite rise in discussion both of the links between the Leave campaigns and Russia, and of a possible new referendum on the terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary (i.e. Labour’s main spokesperson on the issue) has said such a referendum should be on the table, and his remarks strongly suggest Labour (except for the small group of hard Brexiteers in the parliamentary party) will vote against whatever deal May gets (if any). Starmer is strongly tipped as a possible future party leader.
Meanwhile the campaign to push Corbyn out continues unabated. Every time the issue leaves the news, another supposed example of his antisemitism, cosying up to terrorists, etc., is brought out. There is just enough substance in some of them to give the mainstream media excuse to keep the issue going* (no mainstream outlet is pro-Corbyn, or even neutral), but the terms in which his enemies discuss them are absurdly hyperbolic. Their real concerns are that Corbyn is undoubtedly pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist – and for many both outwith and within the party, that he’s a democratic socialist. There are rumours that some of his prominent enemies within the party will leave it, but others are begging them to stay, at least until after the Brexit issue is settled (this refers to those who are both anti-Corbyn and strongly anti-Brexit).
I haven’t listened to the Chris Hayes podcast, but as I think I’ve already noted here, in the last few weeks there’s been a definite rise in discussion both of the links between the Leave campaigns and Russia, and of a possible new referendum on the terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
I’ve seen a number of comments from Leavers recently arguing that a second referendum would be undemocratic (attempting to overturn the will of the public) and unfair (because it would likely split the Leave vote between “hard” and “soft” – annoying language – Brexiteers, so Remainers would win).
To me, these arguments just underscore how undemocratic and unfair the 2016 referendum was. Even setting aside foreign interference, illegal behavior by the Leave leadership, and the low level of public debate during the campaign, the whole design of the referendum was fundamentally unfair to Remain. A referendum should have two or more substantive, defined choices. In this case, there was one substantive and known choice and one vague, undefined notion. If you voted Remain, you knew what you were voting for; if you voted Leave, you didn’t, and couldn’t. So the Leave campaigns not only could – and did – lie extensively about their option but didn’t have to present the public with any concrete option at all. Leave voters could imagine for themselves what the substantive policy brought about by their vote would turn out to be, despite the fact that people imagined it in various contradictory ways or not at all. That’s an absurdly unfair advantage that was built into the structure of the referendum.
That isn’t a fair or democratic design for a policy referendum. Really, the only fair and democratic process for this decision would be one in which the public is presented with two concrete policy options: to remain or to put in action a specific Brexit plan whose likely consequences are understood.
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was being paid by a global consulting firm when he sent a letter to the president of Romania last week that contradicted the U.S. government’s official position.
Giuliani’s letter to Romanian President Klaus Iohannis appeared to take sides in a fight at the top of the Romanian government over how to rein in high-level corruption.
The former New York mayor’s letter criticized the “excesses” of Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), contrary to U.S. State Department policy which has been supportive of the agency’s efforts. Although the missive did not claim to be sent on Trump’s authority, Romanian politicians seeking to blunt the power of the DNA have already used it to sow doubt about the U.S. government’s position.
In the letter, dated August 22 and first reported by Mediafax, Giuliani wrote that the DNA had overstepped its bounds, “including: intimidation of judges, defense lawyers, and witnesses; unconstitutional phone tapping; forced confessions; and, unfair judicial processes.”
Giuliani called for an amnesty to be extended “to those who have been prosecuted and convicted through the excesses of the DNA.”
The U.S. State Department has expressed concern at recent political upheaval in Romania around attempts to dial back those anti-corruption practices, including the firing of the country’s top anti-corruption prosecutor, Laura Codruţa Kövesi.
Giuliani — who regularly appears in the media as a public representative of Trump — told POLITICO Tuesday that his letter “was based on a report I reviewed” by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who runs a global consulting firm called Freeh Group International Solutions. “They are paying my fee,” Giuliani said of the Freeh Group.
He would not say how much he was paid or whether the Freeh Group retained him on behalf of a client, and he directed further questions to the Freeh Group, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
…
The intervention in Romania will add to criticism of Giuliani for carrying out other foreign business while acting simultaneously as Trump’s personal lawyer. According to the Washington Post, he has represented clients in Brazil and Colombia and the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, an Iranian resistance group.
…
A State Department official said the involvement of both men, who are not government officials, was perplexing. “Why are they suddenly interested in Romanian justice processes?” the official asked.
“Romania is approaching crisis level in regard to the rule of law and legitimacy of institutions,” the official said. “The positions Giuliani and Freeh are espousing are diametrically opposed to bedrock positions of the U.S. government.”…
By then the former New York City mayor’s letter had been criticised by Romania’s ambassador to the US, George Maior, who said Giuliani appeared to be speaking on behalf of Romanians “who have problems with the justice system”. Asked if he knew the identity of Freeh’s Romanian client, Giuliani said he would defer to Freeh, who did not respond to an email.
The ambassador’s response in turn angered the Romanian foreign ministry, which said in a statement his words “does not represent the position” of the government. It said Maior was being recalled to Bucharest to discuss his remarks.
The ministry also noted that the country’s ambassadors should “refrain from public statements that could negatively affect bilateral relations with other states”.
Uh…
tomhsays
The White House previously posted a transcript of Trump’s remarks to evangelical leaders at a dinner in the White House. CNN today reports on other quotations which it says were taken from a recording of the President’s “closed-door remarks” in the State Dining Room. Apparently these preceded or followed the remarks posted by the White House. Here are the quotes as reported by CNN:
This November 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it’s a referendum on your religion, it’s a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment. It’s a referendum on so much.
It’s not a question of like or dislike, it’s a question that they will overturn everything that we’ve done and they will do it quickly and violently. And violently. There is violence. When you look at Antifa — these are violent people.
You have tremendous power. You were saying, in this room, you have people who preach to almost 200 million people. Depending on which Sunday we’re talking about.
You have to hopefully get out and get people to support us. If you don’t, that will be the beginning of ending everything that you’ve gotten. The polls might be good, but a lot of them say they are going to vote in 2020, but they’re not going to vote if I’m not on a ballot. I think we’re doing well, I think we’re popular, but there’s a real question as to whether people are going to vote if I’m not on the ballot. And I’m not on the ballot.
I just ask you to go out and make sure all of your people vote. Because if they don’t — it’s November 6 — if they don’t vote, we’re going to have a miserable two years and we’re going to have, frankly, a very hard period of time. You’re one election away from losing everything that you’ve gotten. Little thing: Merry Christmas, right? You couldn’t say ‘Merry Christmas.’
Trump tweeted: “White House Counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. I have worked with Don for a long time and truly appreciate his service!”
Trump’s announcement of McGahn’s departure came as a surprise, including to McGahn.
He was not aware that Trump planned to send the tweet before it posted, according to a person close to McGahn who was not authorized to speak publicly.
“He was surprised,” this person said. While it had been an open secret inside the White House that McGahn planned to leave after Kavanaugh’s confirmation process concludes, he had not discussed his plans directly with Trump, according to this person.
McGahn, who has told many friends that he has wearily endured countless political and legal battles, saw Trump’s tweet as abrupt but typical of how the president acts — and it did not make him angry, according to two people familiar with his reaction. His reaction was, “Of course it happened this way,” one person said.
So Trump tweeted a bogus claim that had apparently gone from the ravings of Louie Gohmert to the Daily Caller to Fox to his tiny peabrain, which has now compelled the FBI to refute it: “‘The FBI has not found any evidence the (Clinton) servers were compromised’, an FBI official tells @KenDilanianNBC.”
(They have, however, found substantial evidence that Trump was compromised.)
KGsays
If you voted Remain, you knew what you were voting for; if you voted Leave, you didn’t, and couldn’t. So the Leave campaigns not only could – and did – lie extensively about their option but didn’t have to present the public with any concrete option at all. – SC@42
That’s an excellent point. There’s an interesting contrast with the Scottish Independence referendum of 2014. The SNP (which was not the whole of the pro-independence camp, but was running the Scottish government, and would have been negotiating the terms with the UK government if “Yes” had won) laid out its proposed negotiating strategy, and plans for an independent Scotland in a 670-page White Paper. There were, inevitably, weaknesses in it, notably the intention to keep the pound Sterling, which the UK government said it would not agree to – the SNP had to resort to saying: “They’re just saying that to put you off.” Maybe “Yes” would have won if they’d been as brazenly dishonest as the Leavers? (Actually, I doubt it – there was a considerable swing to “Yes” during the campaign, up from around 28% when the vote was announced to 45% on the day, despite most of the media backing “No”. If the “Yes” campaign had been as vacuous as that of “Leave”, it would quite reasonably have been excoriated for it.)
KGsays
I think we’re popular, but there’s a real question as to whether people are going to vote if I’m not on the ballot. And I’m not on the ballot. – Trump, quoted by tomh@45
Trump getting his excuses for a bad result out early.
Sixteen hours after President Trump tweeted about a right-wing media story alleging that China hacked Hillary Clinton’s private email server, an FBI official is refuting the report in a comment to NBC News.
“The FBI has not found any evidence the (Clinton) servers were compromised,” the official said.
It’s the latest example of the widening breach between a president who traffics in unverified news accounts and the law enforcement agencies he frequently maligns.
The FBI official, speaking for the bureau, also pointed to a report issued in June by the Justice Department inspector general that examined the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server.
Yes, Trump lied about the recent Arizona Senate race. He claimed that Senator Jeff Flake tried to endorse Representative Martha McSally, but that McSally “turned it down.” Nothing of the kind happened.
Trump’s tweet:
Martha McSally, running in the Arizona Primary for U.S. Senate, was endorsed by rejected Senator Jeff Flake….and turned it down – a first! Now Martha, a great U.S. Military fighter jet pilot and highly respected member of Congress, WINS BIG. Congratulations, and on to November!
Flake’s reply:
Sorry, @realDonaldTrump. I made no endorsement in this race. I think the last endorsement I made was in the Alabama race.
Flake endorsed Doug Jones in that Alabama Senate race. He wrote, “Country over party,” in the memo line on his $100.00 donation check.
Six years ago he said, “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud.”
Yesterday, Trump said: “When you see ‘anonymous source,’ stop reading the story, it is fiction! The fact is that many anonymous sources don’t even exist. They are fiction made up by the Fake News reporters.”
A few more examples of Trump projecting, (text is from Steve Benen):
[…] In June, for example, he described a chat with “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon that Trump made up. In August the president described a phone conversation with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto that, in reality, never occurred. Before that, Trump was excited about a phone call he’d received from the head of the Boy Scouts, which also hadn’t happened.
In July 2017, he offered details of a phone conversation with the head of a large nation, with over 300 million people, who complained to the American president about the foreign country’s 9% GDP growth rate. There is no such country. Though Trump talked about the phone call more than once, he made it up.
A year later, he went into quite a bit of detail about the behind-the-scenes discussions he participated in over border-wall construction in California, despite the fact that those conversations apparently weren’t real.
What was that Trump was saying about “fiction”?
KGsays
An interesting item from Scottish politics. Alex Salmond, the ex-leader of the SNP, has resigned from the party while it was investigating him for alleged sexual harrassment (or worse, the details have not been made public) when he was leader. Complaints have been made by two Scottish Government staff. Last week, he sued the party, claiming its complaints procedure was unfair. He now says he wants to avoid division in the party (I don’t know if he’s dropped his case), and will apply to rejoin when he has had an opportunity to clear his name. Whether the party will continue to investigate the claims, or what “opportunity” he’s referring to, I don’t know, but clearly it has no legal power to compel him to attend any tribunal. It looks to me as though Salmond (who has admitted he’s “no angel” – what could that possibly mean in the circumstances?) knows damn well he’s guilty and that the party investigation would likely find him so.
Salmond lost his seat as an MP in the 2017 general election, and has since hosted a talk show on RT, for which he’s been widely criticised, including from within the SNP.
KGsays
p.s. to #58.
Tomorrow I’m attending a “Left Against Brexit” meeting in Glasgow, at which a senior leftist member of the SNP, Tommy Sheppard MP, will be speaking. He’ll probably avoid the topic of Salmond, but may get asked about it.
not sure what you’re going for here…? It’s not cool to have friends and be in a band…? Seriously, I don’t even live in TX & I donate regularly to the @BetoORourke campaign for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is having friends and being in a band is COOL AS HELL.
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Ted [Cruz] was a mime and there’s pictures floating around. “Act out the Creation in mime.”
——————
While everyone is here dunking on the TexasGOP…
Kick In $5 to Beto’s campaign.
The good people of Texas appreciate it!
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hey @TexasGOP this is what kids call being “ratioed” [Posted with an arrow pointing to the 3000+ comments compared to 604 likes.]
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Yes, making your opponent look cool is a very smart strategy that you should definitely keep doing.
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Here’s another reason that playing in a band is cool. You get to hang out with the most Texas Texan in the world, @WillieNelson. Rafael @tedcruz can only make bacon with an assault rifle. [Posted with a photo of Beto playing on stage with Willie Nelson.]
Mueller’s prosecution team is also asking for more time:
Special counsel Robert Mueller has asked for more time to decide whether to retry former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort on 10 bank and tax fraud charges that an Alexandria, Va. jury failed to resolve earlier this month.
In a filing to Judge T.S. Ellis, Mueller’s team noted that they’re still waiting for Manafort’s team to file post-trial motions and for those to be resolved.
“The government does not at this time have sufficient information to make an informed decision on whether it will seek retrial of the remaining counts,” prosecutors wrote. They noted Manafort’s team had no objection to the delay.
If Ellis agrees, the decision means it’s unclear whether Manafort, who was already convicted on eight counts, could face even more legal proceedings following a second criminal trial that begins later this month in Washington to deal with charges related money laundering and his work for foreign governments.
Thought the Alexandria jury convicted Manafort on some of the bank fraud, tax fraud and conspiracy charges he faced, a single juror opposed conviction on the remaining 10 counts, resulting in a mistrial on those charges. […]
David Fahrenthold: .@realDonaldTrump once had 19 companies paying him to use his name on their products. By this yr, just 2 were left. Now, it might be 1. Panamanian company HomeStudio S.A., which sold Trump-branded bed linens in Latin America, has shut website and stopped answering the phone.
[…] His official American birth certificate shows he was delivered by a midwife in Brownsville, at the southern tip of Texas. He spent his life wearing American uniforms: three years as a private in the Army, then as a cadet in the Border Patrol and now as a state prison guard.
But when Juan, 40, applied to renew his U.S. passport this year, the government’s response floored him. In a letter, the State Department said it didn’t believe he was an American citizen.
As he would later learn, Juan is one of a growing number of people whose official birth records show they were born in the United States but who are now being denied passports — their citizenship suddenly thrown into question. The Trump administration is accusing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Hispanics along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown.
In a statement, the State Department said that it “has not changed policy or practice regarding the adjudication of passport applications,” adding that “the U.S.-Mexico border region happens to be an area of the country where there has been a significant incidence of citizenship fraud.”
But cases identified by The Washington Post and interviews with immigration attorneys suggest a dramatic shift in both passport issuance and immigration enforcement.
In some cases, passport applicants with official U.S. birth certificates are being jailed in immigration detention centers and entered into deportation proceedings. In others, they are stuck in Mexico, their passports suddenly revoked when they tried to reenter the United States. As the Trump administration attempts to reduce both legal and illegal immigration, the government’s treatment of passport applicants in South Texas shows how U.S. citizens are increasingly being swept up by immigration enforcement agencies. […]
President Trump’s advisers and allies are increasingly worried that he has neither the staff nor the strategy to protect himself from a possible Democratic takeover of the House, which would empower the opposition party to shower the administration with subpoenas or even pursue impeachment charges.
Within Trump’s orbit, there is consensus that his current legal team is not equipped to effectively navigate an onslaught of congressional demands, and there has been broad discussion about bringing on new lawyers experienced in white-collar defense and political scandals.
The president and some of his advisers have discussed possibly adding veteran defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who currently represents Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, to Trump’s personal legal team if an impeachment battle or other fights with Congress emerge after the midterm elections, according to people familiar with the discussions. […]
Trump has not directed his lawyers or his political aides to prepare an action plan, leaving allies to fret that the president does not appreciate the magnitude of what could be in store next year.
This account of the president and his team grappling with a potential crisis is based on interviews this week with 26 White House officials, presidential advisers, and lawyers and strategists close to the administration, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. […]
More at the link. The article is by By Philip Rucker, Carol D. Leonnig, Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker, writing for The Washington Post.
KGsays
A correction to my #58: it’s the Scottish Government, not the SNP, which runs the complaints procedure, and which Salmond is suing.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team wants to review emails between Paul Manafort and one of his former lawyers — messages that would typically be protected by attorney-client privilege.
Manafort’s emails are a special case, Mueller’s team argued in a court motion Wednesday. Attorney-client privilege doesn’t apply when the client enlists a lawyer’s help to commit a crime — and that’s what Mueller’s team is arguing that Manafort did.
The special counsel asked the court’s permission to review “four documents.” It’s not clear what those messages contain. The sections of the motion that appear to describe them are redacted.
…
Manafort’s lawyer isn’t named in court documents. Prosecutors have, however, named Melissa Laurenza of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld as a potential witness.
Laurenza didn’t respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Manafort also declined to comment.
Mueller’s team is now asking the court to let them read the four emails in addition to requiring the attorney to testify.
…
In addition to arguing that attorney-client privilege doesn’t apply to the documents in question because Manafort committed a crime, Mueller’s team is also arguing that it should be waived because Manafort was consulting the attorney about a filing that he was making to the government, rather than about a confidential matter.
“In such cases, both the information that the client expected the lawyer to reveal and ‘the details underlying’ it are subject to disclosure,” Mueller’s team wrote in the motion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin touched a political third rail on Wednesday, and it had nothing to do with election meddling, Cold War theatrics or his relationship with US President Donald Trump.
No, it was a pocketbook issue: the Russian government’s proposed overhaul of the country’s pension system.
In a rare address to the nation, Putin took to the airwaves to defend the deeply unpopular new proposal to raise the retirement age, a measure that has dented his popularity and spurred calls for protests.
“The conclusion is clear,” Putin said. “The active working-age population is decreasing, along with our capability to pay and adjust pensions for inflation. Therefore, changes are necessary.”
It was a buck-stops-here moment for Putin, who said the country “will inevitably face serious demographic problems” by the next decade if there are not changes to Russia’s retirement system.
But the speech also underscored that Putin’s popularity is not bulletproof.
Putin, who has dominated political life in Russia for 18 years, has enjoyed sky-high approval ratings, and his confrontations with the West often shore up his domestic political support. But Putin is not a Teflon President when it comes to domestic policy matters.
…
The government may be keen to reverse the impact of long-term population decline, but it also appears to want Russians off the streets. On Monday, a Moscow court sentenced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 30 days of administrative arrest for organizing an unsanctioned rally in the capital in January.
Navalny had called for nationwide protests on September 9 against an unpopular government proposal to raise Russia’s retirement age, and in a statement on Twitter that followed Putin’s speech, Navalny urged his supporters to turn out for the protests, which occur on the same day as local elections in Russia….
This, as Putin and his cronies loot the country of billions. Darkly comical: “A proposed five-year increase in retirement age for men, to 65, remains intact. The average Russian male life expectancy is 66, according to the World Health Organization.”
Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani is being paid to assist lawyers working to free a wealthy Romanian-American real estate magnate who was convicted and sentenced to prison over a corrupt land deal.
…
The former New York City mayor said on Tuesday that he wrote the letter under a retainer he is paid by the Freeh Group, a private consultancy run by Giuliani’s friend Louis Freeh, a former FBI director and federal judge. Giuliani declined to say how much he was paid.
Freeh represents Gabriel “Puiu” Popoviciu, who was convicted in 2016 of crimes relating to his purchase of land in Bucharest that he developed into a shopping mall. The conviction was upheld last year by an appeals court and Popoviciu was sentenced to seven years in prison. After police struggled to find him, he was located in London and arrested.
…
Popoviciu was last reported to have been bailed in the UK pending extradition. The Metropolitan police did not respond to questions about his case. According to Romanian media reports, Freeh Group has also been retained by Alexander Adamescu, a second wealthy Romanian awaiting extradition from London to face charges in his home country.
Popoviciu moved to the US from Romania in the early 1990s with his then wife Doina, the daughter of a former senior official in Nicolae Ceaușescu’s communist regime. Both registered to vote in the US, having apparently obtained US citizenship.
The Popovicius lived in New Jersey before buying a $3m condominium together in midtown Manhattan. The couple is reported to have divorced in 2012. Doina Popoviciu now owns the apartment and a neighbouring unit that she bought for $3.6m, according to city records.
Interesting detail.
WaPo reports that Giuliani has been contacted by the State Department about the letter.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is trying to reach an understanding with Moscow before a deadline for imposing sweeping new sanctions against Russia for allegedly poisoning a former Russian spy in Britain, said diplomats familiar with the efforts.
The outreach reflects a desire by President Trump to open up a constructive dialogue with Moscow and break the cycle of tit-for-tat sanctions that the Kremlin has decried as ruinous to bilateral relations.*
The prospect for rapprochement between the two adversaries remains slim as U.S. lawmakers demand strict enforcement of existing sanctions laws and deliberate a new package of even more punitive measures against Russia, limiting the Trump administration’s maneuverability.
…
To find a way forward on the sanctions dispute, Pompeo asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an Aug. 10 phone call to meet before the United States takes action, said U.S. and European diplomats. Pompeo underscored that he was asking for the meeting at the direction of the president of the United States. The diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive diplomatic discussions….
This and other sentences in the article read like stenography for both Trump and Putin.
We write to request that your office conduct an investigation into the reported release by the United States Postal Service of a former employee’s unredacted Standard Form 86 (SF-86) and any other related personal information that was released in violation of privacy statutes and other laws and regulations.
On August 28, 2018 the New York Times reported that the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee (PAC), obtained the federal security clearance application, SF-86, of Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for the Commonwealth of Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. Press reports indicate that an unredacted copy of Ms. Spanberger’s SF-86 was obtained by America Rising, a political research firm, through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Postal Service, which then shared it with the PAC. It was also reported that the Postal Service provided America Rising with Ms. Spanberger’s entire personnel file. It is unclear whether any of these disclosures conformed with laws and regulations including FOIA or the Privacy Act.
The release of Ms. Spanberger’s unredacted SF-86 to any individual or entity without her permission in violation of the law would call into question the Postal Service’s processes for responding to FOIA requests. We request that your office investigate the Postal Service’s role in the release of Ms. Spanberger’s SF-86 and related personnel information and, at a minimum, address the following questions:
1. Did anyone at the Postal Service disclose Ms. Spanberger’s SF-86? If so, who and what were the circumstances of the disclosure?
2. Did the disclosure of Ms. Spanberger’s SF-86 or any other documents provided under America Rising’s FOIA request violate any laws, regulations, or policies governing disclosure of such materials?
3. What, if any, information provided under America’s Rising’s FOIA request should not have been provided?
4. Why did the Postal Service not seek a privacy waiver from Ms. Spanberger before releasing her personnel file and SF-86 pursuant to a FOIA request?
5. Were any individuals in the Postal Service who handled America Rising’s FOIA request aware of Ms. Spanberger’s candidacy for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District or the political nature of America Rising’s request?
6. Does the Postal Service have adequate procedures in place to process FOIA requests and prevent disclosure of protected information?
7. What actions, if any, has Postal Service management taken to prevent unauthorized and impermissible disclosures of such information in the future?
Thank you for your immediate attention to this urgent request.
Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh wanted to cap the amount victims of 9/11 and their family members could receive from the federal government at $500,000, records obtained by the Daily News show.
Kavanaugh, who served as associate White House Counsel during President George W. Bush’s administration, sought to limit the federal government’s liability following the terrorist attacks.
Pushback from Sen. Chuck Schumer and other federal lawmakers squashed that proposal.
As Congress was debating the parameters of the fund, Kavanaugh wrote to Bush aide Kristen Silverberg on Oct. 14, 2001, that questions were being raised about “3 aspects of our proposal” including a “$500,000 cap.”
Kenneth Feinberg was appointed special master of the Victims Compensation Fund, which put no constraints on the amount he could award to any victim. He decided compensation based on a number of factors such as “the economic loss suffered as a result of the victim’s premature death” as well as “pain and suffering.”
Payments ranged from $220,000 to as high as $7.1 million. The average payout was $1.8 million, dwarfing the proposed cap.
…
“This window into the thinking of Brett Kavanaugh days after the horrific 9/11 terror attack raises real questions about Judge Kavanaugh’s priorities and judgement, but it doesn’t tell us everything we are entitled to know,” said Schumer.
“Millions of pages just like these remain locked up and withheld from public view for no good reason. These documents prove we need his entire record, no matter how bad it looks.”…
SC @74, that was a great thread. Daniel Dale is a treasure. Fox News should just read his threads over the air in order to counter all the propaganda they pump out.
Yesterday afternoon, Donald Trump promoted a new video, apparently created by the White House, that the president saw as proof of political bias at Google. The video showed the Google homepage promoting Barack Obama’s State of the Union addresses, but not Trump’s.
The president’s allies were impressed. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) pointed to Trump’s video, telling the public, “When they try to silence our views we must speak louder.” Like Trump, the GOP leader included the #StopTheBias hashtag in his tweet.
The truth, as Google soon after explained, was far less dramatic. Google’s homepage didn’t promote Trump’s first speech to Congress last year, since it technically wasn’t a State of the Union address. The tech giant similarly didn’t promote Obama’s 2009 speech to Congress, either. This year, however, the Google homepage did promote Trump’s State of the Union address, treating it the same as Obama’s addresses.
In other words, Trump’s proof was wrong and easily debunked. And yet, the president is nevertheless convinced there’s a tech conspiracy working against him. […]
Trump may be planning to blame Jeff Sessions for the zero-tolerance immigration policy:
[…] When Dickerson noted the president could fire a Cabinet member for any reason and asked if there is a substantive basis for firing Sessions, Graham brought up immigration.
“I think the immigration issue was poorly handled. The zero-tolerance program, I don’t know where that came from,” Graham said. “And I think that sort of blindsided the president. The bottom line is, this relationship is not working, it’s not good for the Department of Justice.” […]
The New York Times reported Thursday that Donald Trump and Michael Cohen allegedly devised a plan to purchase decades worth of dirt that the National Enquirer and its parent company had compiled about the playboy real estate magnate.
In the fall of 2016, around the time the pair were negotiating the purchase of McDougal’s story about her alleged 10-month affair with Trump, they grew worried about what could happen to this trove of damaging stories if Trump ally David Pecker left his post atop the tabloid empire, according to the Times report.
The National Enquirer kept a safe of documents about hush money payments and other damaging Trump stories, as the Associated Press recently reported.
Per the Times, Cohen discussed buying all the publication’s dirt with Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg. Though the deal reportedly never came together, the Times’ report sheds new light on a recorded conversation released by Cohen’s attorney.
“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info, regarding our friend David,” Cohen tells Trump in the September 2016 recording, referring to Pecker.
“I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up,” Cohen says later in the conversation.
According to the Times, Cohen was referring to Pecker when he added, “We’ll have to pay him something” for the full stash of negative stories. […]
Is the beginning of a wholesale departure of lawyers from the sinking Trump ship?
White House ethics lawyer Stefan Passantino’s, a deputy to soon-departing White House counsel Don McGahn, is leaving his post on Friday, according to reports from The Washington Post and NBC News.
Bloomberg reported Passantino’s last day would be Thursday.
Passantino has worked to keep officials in compliance with ethical standards, while navigating a minefield of controversies, like Kellyanne Conway’s promotion of Ivanka Trump’s clothing line during a television interview. […]
Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner had NOTHING to do with the so called “pushing out” of Don McGahn.The Fake News Media has it, purposely,so wrong! They love to portray chaos in the White House when they know that chaos doesn’t exist-just a “smooth running machine” with changing parts!
The “smooth running machine” phrase is good for a laugh.
More detail regarding the seemingly impending ouster of Sessions by Hair Furor:
Republican senators—including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA)—have made recent statements indicating their cooling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, seemingly a result of an aggressive lobbying campaign by President Donald Trump.
According to a Wednesday Politico report, Trump has hitched onto Graham and Grassley’s anger with Sessions for blocking their criminal reform bill, venting his frustration with his attorney general to them and any other senator who will listen.
His lawyers have reportedly also grown weary of trying to hold the furious President back from ousting Sessions, maintaining the notion that if Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to build a case around Trump’s intimidation and bullying of the attorney general, he already has enough evidence to do so.
Per Politico, though recusing himself from Mueller’s probe was Sessions’ greatest sin in Trump’s eyes, the President also hates his southern accent and lack of Ivy League background. He apparently tells aides that Sessions “talks like he has marbles in his mouth.”
It is unclear if Congress would be able to confirm a replacement for Sessions this fall due to a massive workload, but as Republican senators leave Sessions’ side, it is looking increasingly likely that Trump is nearing the inevitable culmination of months of festering anger.
Betsy Devos is at a again. The Education Secretary wants to change policy so that colleges do not have to take sexual harassment seriously. Her new policy would not only let colleges off the hook, it would make it harder for assault survivors to report to college authorities, and it would make it easier for assaulters to get off scot free.
[…] The new rules would adopt a new Supreme Court definition of “sexual harassment” that appears to be reserved for repeated complaints or the most egregious allegations. The new rules would define sexual harassment to mean “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the school’s education program or activity.” […]
The new rules would require that institutions only be held legally responsible for investigating formal complaints and responding to reports that school officials have “actual knowledge” of happening. A formal complaint is one made to “an official who has the authority to institute corrective measures,” not, for instance, a residential adviser in a dormitory. […]
[…] So if someone suffering sexual harassment doesn’t make the exact right formal complaint to the exact right person, the college is off the hook. Unless harassment actually “denies a person access to the school’s education program or activity,” it doesn’t count. And don’t forget, that complaint could mean giving your harasser power over your life and further personal access to question and demean you. Needless to say, men’s rights groups are thrilled.
Oh, and by the way, “the Trump administration’s new rules will have the force of law and can go into force without an act of Congress, after a public comment period.” Just perfect.
a_ray_in_dilbert_spacesays
I saw the following on Daniel Dale’s list:
“Trump stood beside West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and said, “He’s all man: 6-foot-11.”
Justice is 6-foot-7.”
I thought, “Well, that seems fairly innocuous.” Then I realized it is probably part of a pattern. I would imagine that Trump exaggerates all lengths by 4 inches.
Florida’s Republican nominee for governor, Rep. Ron DeSantis, quit his role as an administrator for a racist, Islamophobic, and conspiratorial Facebook group Wednesday, shortly after media outlets reported his affiliation with the group.
DeSantis was one of 52 administrators and moderators of the “Tea Party” group (which is not affiliated with the official Tea Party Patriots), including former Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kelli Ward and Virginia GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart, both of whom still serve as admins. The group’s admins also include notorious anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller.
According to Media Matters researcher Natalie Martinez, several members of the group have shared DeSantis campaign posts, with one specifically naming the candidate as an admin of the group, with has nearly 95,000 members. […]
The group’s members have shared racist, misogynist, and offensive posts, including posts slamming Parkland shooting survivors and disparaging Black Lives Matter activists, comparing both to Hitler. Members have made statements against NFL players who kneel during the anthem in protest of police brutality, calling them “overpaid ball chasers” who “kneel like ISIS.” Users have also posted bigoted statements against Muslims, referring to Islam as a religion of “pedophilia, sex slavery, rape gangs, and honor killings.” […]
Democrats, including Gillum, accused DeSantis of using a racist dog whistle, with Democratic Governors Association Deputy Communications Director David Turner telling CNN that the Republican candidate “showed Floridians who he really is … a desperate candidate who will stoop to new lows in order to court and give voice to fringe elements of society.” […]
Trump’s characterization of the media as the “enemy of people” is having some disturbing effects:
A California man was arrested Thursday for making violent threats to The Boston Globe, including threatening to shoot the newspaper’s employees and calling them the “enemy of the people.”
It was the clearest example yet of someone using President Donald Trump’s insults to target journalists.
Robert Chain of Encino, California, was charged with one count of making threatening communications in interstate commerce, according to the Department of Justice. Chain threatened Globe reporters after the newspaper called on other media organizations across the nation to rebuke Trump’s rhetoric toward the media.
Chain, 86, will appear in federal court in Los Angeles Thursday afternoon and will be transferred to Boston at a later date, the DOJ said. […]
Here are some of Trump’s media-bashing statements, (statements he made today):
“The hatred and extreme bias of me by @CNN has clouded their thinking and made them unable to function. But actually, as I have always said, this has been going on for a long time. Little Jeff Z has done a terrible job, his ratings suck, & AT&T should fire him to save credibility!” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to CNN chief Jeff Zucker. […]
Trump went on Thursday morning to attack NBC News, suggesting without evidence that an interview he sat for with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt had been doctored, an alleged infraction for which NBC News chairman Andrew Lack will be fired, Trump predicted.
“What’s going on at @CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks – with @NBCNews being the worst. The good news is that Andy Lack(y) is about to be fired(?) for incompetence, and much worse. When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!” Trump wrote on Twitter. […]
“I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is. Truth doesn’t matter to them, they only have their hatred & agenda. This includes fake books, which come out about me all the time, always anonymous sources, and are pure fiction. Enemy of the People!” Trump wrote online.
The DCCC has bested its total digital fundraising mark from the 2016 election cycle, passing $75.27 million raised with months still to go in the 2018 midterms.
The committee passed the milestone early Tuesday morning, 10 weeks before the polls open on Election Day, a DCCC aide said. It is possible the DCCC could pass $100 million raised online by Nov. 6, since online giving rates grow so rapidly in the final weeks of an election. […]
“While Republicans are reliant on an unprecedented amount of dark outside money, we’re proud to be fueled by online contributions from every part of the country,” said Julia Ager, the DCCC’s chief digital officer.
The Democrats’ Trump-era digital bonanza is also boosting their battleground House campaigns. Fifteen candidates running in GOP-held districts raised at least $250,000 online in July, according to a POLITICO analysis of FEC data, while another 17 raised between $150,000 and $250,000 during that time. […]
The Trump administration is not exactly filled with smart people, but credit where it’s due: They have a certain low cunning when it comes to finding excuses to harass brown people and attack some pretty basic rights — like people’s basic identity as US citizens. The latest fuckery of this sort is playing out in southern Texas, where large numbers of citizens, born in Texas with completely legal Texas birth certificates, have had their US passports revoked or not renewed, and some have even been arrested and placed in deportation proceedings. Why? Because the government has decided maybe those legitimate birth certificates were actually faked. […]
As the Washington Post explains in one of those investigative reports that will have you smacking your forehead and saying “Holy shit, these fuckers!” every other paragraph, these cases are built on one slender wisp of a fact. From the 1950s through the 1990s, a small number of midwives and doctors in the border region filled out paperwork for an unknown number of babies that were actually born in Mexico. That’s proven; several birth attendants admitted to it in the 1990s. BUT! There’s a complication:
The same midwives who provided fraudulent birth certificates also delivered thousands of babies legally in the United States. It has proved nearly impossible to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate documents, all of them officially issued by the state of Texas decades ago.
A 2009 government settlement in a case litigated by the American Civil Liberties Union seemed to have mostly put an end to the passport denials.
But now, in a move that we suspect has Stephen Miller’s pawprints all over it, the government seems to have decided anyone born with the help of any of those midwives or doctors should be assumed to be a frauder, regardless of whether they have a criminal record or have served in the military or have voted for decades, because why not start taking citizenship away from everyone we possibly can? The onus is now on US citizens with actual Texas birth certificates to prove they came by their own birth records legitimately.
Why, yes, that IS insane. […]
Even more insane? Of the supposed birth certificate frauders and midwives WaPo tracked down, one doctor — who died in 2015 — was accused of falsifying birth records for one baby born in Mexico. He delivered over 15,000 babies in his long career, and immigration lawyers are hearing again and again from adults he delivered decades ago, after their passport applications were denied. A midwife who assisted at 600 births in the US admitted she faked records for two babies born on the wrong side of the border.
Just how arbitrary is this idiocy? WaPo notes that when people can afford to sue to have their passports reinstated, most actually win. But only after government lawyers grill them with some perfectly Kafkaesque questions, as Brownsville immigration attorney Jaime Diez notes:
For a while, we had attorneys asking the same question: “Do you remember when you were born?'” I had to promise my clients that it wasn’t a trick question.
Fortunately, people targeted by what sure as hell looks like a start at ethnic cleansing may not have to scratch up their own attorneys’ fees much longer: The ACLU tweeted yesterday that this story is “all a part of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant, racist agenda — and we won’t be quiet about it.” Might be a good time to send some cash to the ACLU of Texas. Before registered Democrats are determined disloyal and have their assets frozen as enemies of the state.
The article opens with some generalities, but soon changes to present concrete examples. Excerpt:
White Christian evangelicals overwhelmingly support Donald Trump. To them, he is God’s tool for creating a semi-theocratic Christian state. Trump understands the power and influence of evangelical leaders over their gullible public. On Monday, he hosted a meeting for a group of 100 or so evangelical pastors in the State Dining Room of the White House where he told the attendees that the Democrats and “antifa” “will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently. And violently. There’s violence.”
Trump has made a habit out of admitting things — often via Twitter — that he perhaps shouldn’t. Did he just do it again?
In a tweet Thursday morning, Trump called it “fake news” that now-outgoing White House Counsel (or “Councel,” in Trump’s spelling) Donald McGahn stopped him from firing both special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“I am very excited about the person who will be taking the place of Don McGahn as White House Councel!” Trump tweeted. “I liked Don, but he was NOT responsible for me not firing Bob Mueller or Jeff Sessions. So much Fake Reporting and Fake News!”
What’s clear is that Trump protests too much. What’s less clear — but also potentially troublesome — is the idea that he just admitted he tried to fire both men. […]
[…] Last year, for example, one of the president’s lawyers originally told Trump the whole unpleasantness [the Mueller probe] “would conclude by Thanksgiving.”
The president was then led to believe the investigation would end “by the end of the year.”
The Wall Street Journal soon after reported, “Attorneys for the president … have said the date could stretch to the end of January.”
About a month later, a Trump lawyer pointed to the end of March as an expected endpoint.
Then Giuliani looked at early May as when it’d be all over. When that didn’t happen, he revised his prediction to Sept. 1, which will also apparently be wrong.
As we discussed a while back, I’m curious about the behind-the-scenes dynamic. It’s possible, for example, that Trump is optimistic about the looming end of the investigation because his lawyers keep feeding him dubious good news that he chooses to believe.
In other words, it’s possible they keep saying, “This will all be over very soon, Mr. President,” to which a delighted Trump responds, “Sounds great.” […]
U.S. President Donald Trump sought to backtrack on comments last year in which he tied his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey to a probe into Russian election meddling, accusing NBC News on Thursday of “fudging” their interview, but offering no supporting evidence….
Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017, a move that Comey said later was aimed at undercutting the probe.
The Trump administration said at the time of Comey’s dismissal that the president had acted on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and No. 2 Justice Department official Rod Rosenstein.
In an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt that aired two days after the firing, Trump accused Comey of being incompetent and noted the recommendation, but also raised the issue of the Russia investigation, saying he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he fired him.
In a Twitter post on Thursday, Trump accused the news outlet and Holt, of “fudging my tape on Russia,” but gave no evidence to back up his claim.
From Josh Marshall, some thoughts on the seriousness of the “Constitutional crisis” we are facing:
The President is getting rid of staunch right-wing ideologues because they will not allow him – whatever their other faults – to prevent the rule of law to apply to him and his family. To use a analogy, they’ll help him with his misdemeanors but so far at least not with his felonies. That’s what the laying the groundwork to fire Jeff Sessions is about. That’s what the firing of Don McGahn is about. When your boss announces you are leaving and you didn’t know you were leaving, that’s called being fired. Even the inability to state this obvious fact is a symptom of a larger problem: since there’s no apparent solution to the President’s push to make himself invulnerable to the law, we prefer not to say what is happening.
[…] the President is apparently intent on pardoning Paul Manafort – something that even by Trumpian standards has no real justification other than obstructing justice – and either ending Robert Mueller’s investigation or putting it under the control of a loyalist who will defang it.
This is happening before our eyes. There’s as yet no apparent path by which any of this will be prevented. The one partial path, which is political in nature as it should be, is if the House of Representatives moves to Democratic control in January. […] The key is oversight and investigation: of the countless threads of post-2016 corruption but particularly the Russia investigation.
Everything we’ve seen about the Mueller probe suggests that he is conducting exactly the kind of professional, highly confidential investigation anyone should want. But the key for the country is not just that people who have committed crimes should be punished. An even higher goal is that the country know what happened, whatever it is that happened. […]
[…] The most plausible logic of all the charges that have been brought against Manafort is that they want him to admit what they know to be true based on highly classified information that cannot be presented in a courtroom. That is why President Trump is so intent on pardoning him.
Trump appears to know he cannot let the Special Counsel’s investigation continue, not in its present form, not without risking his presidency, his wealth and perhaps his freedom. For now, there’s no reason to think anyone will stop him. Republicans are becoming more accommodating rather than less in helping him to do so. The check will be a Democratic congress which can not only investigate but conduct a largely public investigation.
“Appeals court denies the request by Concord Management — the Russian firm fighting Mueller’s social media meddling charges — to intervene in the subpoena fight brought by Andrew Miller (Roger Stone’s ex-aide). Court says Concord can file an amicus brief instead.”
Good news: “BREAKING: Colin Kaepernick’s collusion grievance to go to trial after arbitrator denies NFL’s request for summary judgment.”
tomhsays
@ 96
Not exactly a trial, it means there will be a hearing in front of the same arbitrator. It doesn’t mean Kaepernick is more likely to win, though he now has a shot, but it does open the possibility that the NFL will settle, rather than having owners, general managers, coaches, or commissioner Roger Goodell’s wife testify in an arbitration hearing.
Clint Watts re the reports @ #s 86 and 92: “Here it comes, Trump suggesting to his followers anything negative toward him ‘may have been altered’. Fake audio, fake video will soon be a cover for getting away with anything.”
A personal pet peeve. I’ve probably mentioned this somewhere once or twice, but watching the latest movie version of Murder on the Orient Express brought it up again.
Agatha Christie is the best-selling fiction author in the world. Her work is ridiculously popular. But while you can find endless academic articles and syllabi about even obscure male writers, you’ll search in vain for the same level of critical intellectual attention to Christie. She fucking revolutionized her genre. Her work deals with class, race and imperialism, gender, sexuality, psychology, criminology, policing, law, justice, war, politics, art, grief, the family, friendship, travel, medicine, espionage, morality, childhood, science, epistemology, writing,… How is it possible that there aren’t thousands of articles analyzing it from every angle? It really burns my biscuits.
President Trump is preparing to thrust the country into a crisis as soon as the midterm elections are behind him—irrespective of which party wins the race for control of Congress—and Republicans are lining up to make sure he gets away with it, on the condition that he takes no disruptive steps until after they confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
It’s hard to interpret the events that have transpired over the past several weeks any other way. The exact contours of the crisis he will ultimately provoke aren’t entirely clear, but the basic shape of it is: He has concluded that he can only escape serious personal and legal consequences—from a number of threats, but particularly from Special Counsel Robert Mueller—with brazen abuses of power, and is laying groundwork to take those steps as soon as he can get away with them, aware that a change in partisan control of the House could stymie him just after the new year.
The most alarming thing about it is there may be no way to stop him.
…
This is the backdrop against which we should interpret the Republicans’ urgency to confirm Kavanaugh, marked most importantly by their abrupt reversal on the question of whether the Senate should insist upon reviewing Kavanaugh’s paperwork from his service as George W. Bush’s staff secretary—records that comprise the vast majority of Kavanaugh’s correspondence. That reversal followed a private meeting between key Senate Republicans and McGahn, who is the White House point man for judicial nominations, and whose personal lawyer—Kavanaugh’s former colleague Bill Burck—is managing Kavanaugh’s document production.
Democrats see these unorthodox machinations as part of an effort to bury damaging information in Kavanaugh’s records, and they may well be. But they could just as easily constitute an effort to make sure Kavanaugh is confirmed more quickly than a thorough review of his paper trail would otherwise allow.
Yes, it’s possible that Republicans will lose control of the Senate in January, but they are intent on confirming Kavanaugh before the election, foreclosing on the possibility of using the lame duck session to more completely review Kavanaugh’s public-service record. Their haste looks fairly arbitrary, unless we interpret it as an effort to lock in another Supreme Court justice before Trump takes drastic steps to protect himself from Mueller—steps that might otherwise place the Supreme Court seat itself at risk.
…
If Republicans do well in the elections, all this scheming will have proved unnecessary, and Trump will be given a free hand to obstruct any investigation he’d like. But if Republicans lose one or both houses of Congress, the lame-duck period will be the critical window during which Trump can take corrupt steps to insulate himself from justice. By the time Democrats took control, their ability to set things right would be limited. They could conduct oversight, which would damage Republicans politically, but Republicans would at the very least have the power to block impeachment and the restoration of the Mueller investigation.
Ironically, Democrats may be better positioned to preempt a series of events like this now, from the minority, than after the election….
“BREAKING: 497 of the 2,654 migrant kids the Trump administration separated from their parents are still in custody, according to a just-filed government update.
Parents of 322 of those kids have already been deported.
22 of the still-separated kids are under 5 years old.”
Further to #73 above – Maggie Haberman: “Woodward book is on the mind of top Trump advisers; discussions already going on about how to handle events in relation to it, per people briefed.”
“Trump: ‘They want to raid Medicare to pay for socialism’.”
Crowd: “Boooooooo!”
KGsays
One of the most ardent Brexiters in the Labour Party, Frank Field, has resigned the Labour whip, while remaining in the party, calling himself an “independent Labour MP”. Field is a “social conservative”, who holds an odd mixture of views and was a personal friend and admirer of Margaret Thatcher. There are rumours he jumped before being pushed, but I doubt it: Corbyn would find it very difficult to withdraw the whip from any Labour MP, given his own long record of defying the party line before he became leader. This could be the start of a raft of defections, but again, I doubt it: Field has never been a team player. However, if he resigns his seat and stands in a by-election, a win on his part against the official Labour candidate – the Birkenhead seat is one of the safest Labour seats in the country – could trigger a revolt against Corbyn.
Last night I attended a meeting of “The Left Against Brexit”, a cross-party campaign holding its first meeting in Scotland. Only about 50 people attended – meetings in England have reportedly been larger, but the speakers were quite hopeful of getting a new referendum. The way it was suggested this could come about was:
* Theresa May comes back from negotiations with the EU in October/November with a proposed deal.
* The Tory “hard Brexit” group reject it, almost all non-Tory MPs apart from the “Democratic” Unionists who are propping up the government join with them to vote it down.
* There is no majority in the Commons for any alternative (a “No Deal” Brexit, sending May or a replacement PM back to ask for more, abandonment of Brexit).
*In desperation, May or her successor proposes a new referendum, which the Commons votes for.
Oddly, one of the speakers, Tommy Sheppard, a leftist SNP MP, didn’t know the terms of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. He thought a new general election (another possible outcome of a failure to agree any course of action) could only happen with a 2/3 majority vote in the Commons (this is how the 2017 election came about). But it could also be triggered if the government loses a confidence vote, and then neither it nor any other potential government wins such a vote within 14 days.
President Trump’s disapproval rating has hit a high point of 60 percent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that also finds that clear majorities of Americans support the special counsel’s Russia investigation and say the president should not fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
At the dawn of the fall campaign sprint to the midterm elections, which will determine whether Democrats retake control of Congress, the poll finds a majority of the public has turned against Trump and is on guard against his efforts to influence the Justice Department and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s wide-ranging probe.
Nearly half of Americans, 49 percent, say Congress should begin impeachment proceedings that could lead to Trump being removed from office, while 46 percent say Congress should not.
And a narrow majority — 53 percent — say they think Trump has tried to interfere with Mueller’s investigation in a way that amounts to obstruction of justice; 35 percent say they do not think the president has tried to interfere.
Overall, 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance, with 36 percent approving, according to the poll. This is only a slight shift from the last Post-ABC survey, in April, which measured Trump’s rating at 56 percent disapproval and 40 percent approval. [? – SC]
…
…63 percent of Americans support Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, with 52 percent saying they support it strongly; 29 percent oppose the probe.
…
…67 percent of Americans think Mueller’s case against Manafort was justified, while 17 percent say it was unjustified, according to the poll.
Trump’s praise of Manafort has stirred speculation that he might pardon his former campaign chairman, but the poll finds that it would be a political land mine for the president. Two-thirds of Americans oppose Trump pardoning Manafort — 53 percent strongly oppose it — and 18 percent support a pardon….
…It’s unprecedented that multiple, simultaneous election irregularity investigations overlap around a single family’s company, the nexus of Cambridge Analytica. For those of us fascinated by the story, this complexity is engrossing, but it’s devilishly confusing for most. At times it feels Cambridge Analytica designed it this way, to overwhelm the capacity of government, media, and citizens. Important details still have not worked their way through the public investigations, including whether or not data crimes have been committed under UK law, or if election coordination violations have occurred under both British and American laws. We’re not even sure if we’ve unmasked all the mysterious companies weaponizing voters’ personal data to advance the will of elites.
But without paying closer attention to what our allies in Great Britain and Canada have uncovered on our behalf, Americans are doing our own democracy a grave disservice. The fact that lawmakers around the world are working so hard to understand the actions of a single family should alarm everyone concerned with the consent of the governed.
Bruce Ohr. Lisa Page. Andrew Weissmann. Andrew McCabe. President Donald Trump has relentlessly attacked these FBI and Justice Department officials as dishonest “Democrats” engaged in a partisan “witch hunt” led by the special counsel determined to tie his campaign to Russia. But Trump’s attacks have also served to highlight another thread among these officials and others who have investigated his campaign: their extensive experience in probing money laundering and organized crime, particularly as they pertain to Russia….
President Trump on Thursday headed off a potential substantial raise for federal workers in the event of a congressional budget deadlock, repeating his call for lawmakers to freeze the salaries of 2 million federal employees in 2019.
The House has passed legislation making no mention of a raise, effectively endorsing the freeze that Trump originally proposed in February. The Senate has passed a competing measure allowing a 1.9 percent increase, a dispute that adds another sticking point to already delicate budget talks on Capitol Hill.
…
Trump’s move Thursday means federal pay rates will remain flat unless Congress passes — and the president signs — a bill that includes a raise by the end of the year.
…
“This is a deeply disappointing action and one more indication that this administration, in this economic environment, simply does not respect its own workforce,” National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon said in a statement.
“Federal workers truly are America’s workforce – more than 2 million dedicated and committed federal workers who care for our veterans, support our military, protect our environment, and help working families make ends meet. More than one-third are veterans themselves, while many more work to support spouses or children who are actively serving,” said American Federation of Government Employees president J. David Cox. Sr….
One of the reasons McCain’s death was so deeply enjoyed by the pro-establishment Russians is that they don’t see a worthy replacement for the anti-Trump, anti-Putin elements anywhere within the Republican party. Karen Shakhnazarov, a prominent film director who is a regular on Russian state TV, summed up that perspective on the political opinion show 60 Minutes: “Global empires like the United States are destroyed from within… The U.S. is deteriorating. They won’t find other fighters like McCain. There won’t be any others like him. This process is irreversible.”
With respect to the sanctions, Russian experts see them as Trump’s “pre-election trump cards,” a set of measures designed to make him look “tough on Russia” in the run-up to midterms.
Kremlin experts believe that most of these measures are being proposed just for show and will never materialize. Indeed, the Russians don’t perceive the Republicans as a viable threat.
Pro-Putin talking heads appear to be particularly fond of Trump’s core constituency, whose interests they believe to be the most compatible with Russia’s global goals.
The Kremlin is interested in having the U.S. withdraw from the world stage, giving up its role as the dominant superpower, retreating to domestic affairs and global commerce, including a radical 180-degree shift from sanctions to business dealings with Russia. “With Americans, it’s all very clear,” said Russian state TV host Evgeny Popov. “In Iowa or someplace in Montana, they’re more concerned with the price of corn or beef than Crimea.”
Russian government officials, experts and state TV hosts are quick to point out that Russia does not intend to change its behavior on the world stage. They point to “a global conspiracy” as the sole cause of the sanctions imposed against Russia, while obfuscating direct links between the Kremlin’s actions and the consequences that followed.
…
Pro-Kremlin experts and propagandists have no doubt that the Republicans will fall in line with Trump’s agenda, unless they’re “suicidal” in terms of their political prospects. Konstantin Zatulin, first deputy chairman of the committee for relations with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Russian nationals abroad or the Duma, or lower house, is a leading figure in Putin’s United Russia party.
In discussing the outcome of the Helsinki summit, Zatulin asserted: National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “just sat there. Did you hear them voicing any accusations against Russia?… Naturally, Trump’s team—if they aren’t suicidal—will find arguments in support of the president. Those who don’t, won’t be on his team—or maybe they won’t be in Congress.”
(“Suicidal” seems to be a favorite Russian word for anyone who dares oppose Trump.)
…
As long as Trump’s—and by extension the Republican Party’s—interests are believed to match Putin’s objectives, hacking, cyber-attacks and info-offensives against the Democrats will continue to be considered “patriotic” by the Kremlin.
Dale – “NAFTA BOMBSHELL: The Star has obtained inflammatory secret comments about Canada that Trump made ‘off the record’ yesterday, and they have upended the talks this morning:…”
Today the President invoked powers available to him only during a “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare” to cancel the upcoming federal pay raise.
The President has used a similar argument to invoke emergency powers which have allowed him to levy tariffs on foreign goods.
The President has now repeatedly invoked emergency powers when no national emergency exists. It is hard to imagine something more anti-democratic, authoritarian than this. Congress simply must step in and challenge the President on these outrageous abuses of power.
(It’s strange that Trump’s invoking emergency powers again wasn’t the central focus of the WaPo piece I linked to @ #112. I don’t think it was even noted.)
A senior Justice Department lawyer says a former British spy told him at a breakfast meeting two years ago that Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump “over a barrel,” according to multiple people familiar with the encounter.
The lawyer, Bruce Ohr, also says he learned that a Trump campaign aide had met with higher-level Russian officials than the aide had acknowledged, the people said.
The previously unreported details of the July 30, 2016, breakfast with Christopher Steele, which Ohr described to lawmakers this week in a private interview, reveal an exchange of potentially explosive information about Trump between two men the president has relentlessly sought to discredit.
They add to the public understanding of those pivotal summer months as the FBI and intelligence community scrambled to untangle possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. And they reflect the concern of Steele, a longtime FBI informant whose Democratic-funded research into Trump ties to Russia was compiled into a dossier, that the Republican presidential candidate was possibly compromised and his urgent efforts to convey that anxiety to contacts at the FBI and Justice Department.
…
Ohr told lawmakers he could not vouch for the accuracy of Steele’s information but has said he considered him a reliable FBI informant who delivered credible and actionable intelligence, including his investigation into corruption at FIFA, soccer’s global governing body.
In the interview, Ohr acknowledged that he had not told superiors in his office, including Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, about his meetings with Steele because he considered the information inflammatory raw source material.
He also provided new details about the department’s move to reassign him once his Steele ties were brought to light.
Ohr said he met in late December 2017 with two senior Justice Department officials, Scott Schools and James Crowell, who told him they were unhappy he had not proactively disclosed his meetings with Steele. They said he was being stripped of his associate deputy attorney post as part of a planned internal reorganization, people familiar with Ohr’s account say.
He met again soon after with one of the officials, who told him Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did not believe he could continue in his current position as director of a drug grant-distribution program — known as the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Sessions and Rosenstein, Ohr was told, did not want him in the post because it entailed White House meetings and interactions, the people said….
“Patten was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, according to a source familiar with the investigation, but his case isn’t being handled by Mueller’s office. According to court records, the US attorney’s office in Washington, DC, and the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting Patten.” But TPM notes that Omer Meisel and Andrew Weissmann from Mueller’s team were at Patten’s hearing this morning.
Republicans may have misused “law enforcement sensitive” documents in their closed-door interview with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr this week, two senior House Democrats charged Friday.
Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler of New York and Elijah Cummings of Maryland say Republican lawmakers who interviewed Ohr — part of a GOP-driven investigation into allegations of anti-Trump bias in the FBI and Justice Department — read aloud from emails and texts between Ohr and former British spy Christopher Steele, as well as Ohr’s handwritten notes about his meetings with Steele.
But those documents were never produced to the panel leading the interview — a task force that includes members of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees. Rather, they appear to have been part of a batch of files requested by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes in March, the Democrats say.
“During Mr. Ohr’s interview, the Republican members never introduced these documents into the official record, never marked them as exhibits, never explained how they obtained them, and never provided copies to Democratic staff participating in the interview,” Nadler and Cummings wrote in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy. “We have serious concerns with these actions.”
The two Democrats are seeking “an immediate bipartisan meeting” with the Justice Department to review “whether any ongoing investigations or human sources may have been compromised.” The Justice Department marked documents it sent to the Intelligence Committee as “law enforcement sensitive,” and Democrats say they want to know whether Republicans consulted with the Justice Department about disseminating them before deploying them in the Ohr interview.
…
They also suggest Republicans appeared to be “cherry-picking” from the documents to create a “highly misleading narrative” about Ohr. They note that in one of Ohr’s emails from Steele — which recently appeared in an opinion column in The Hill — Steele said he wanted to “informally and separately” discuss “our favorite business tycoon!”
Republican lawmakers in the interview, the Democrats say, suggested this was a reference to Trump. But Ohr, in his interview, refuted the claim, saying the reference was to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Update – Patten is cooperating: “A former associate of Paul Manafort agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors after pleading guilty to failing to register in the U.S. as a foreign agent for his work lobbying on behalf of a Ukrainian political party.”
SC @124, they have no shame. I hope Our has good legal counsel.
Excerpts from the thread to which SC linked in comment 116, (the Toronto Star obtained comments made by Trump that were quite insulting to Canada):
Trump told Bloomberg he isn’t compromising at all with Canada but can’t say this publicly since it’d ruin the talks: “Here’s the problem…The answer’s no. If I say no, then you’re going to put that, and it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal.”
Trump also said off the record that any deal would be “totally on our terms.”
Trump said he is scaring Canada into submission by repeatedly threatening auto tariffs, showing the Canadians “a picture of a Chevrolet Impala,” which is assembled at the GM plant in Oshawa, Ontario.
What happened: I obtained these quotes. I’m not bound by Bloomberg’s “off the record” promises. I asked the White House and the Trudeau team for comment. The Trudeau team, which is certain the quotes are accurate, sprung them on Trump’s team at the meeting this morning.
White House hasn’t disputed the authenticity of the quotes but suggested I shouldn’t publish. Deputy Press Sec Lindsay Walters said, “If this was said, it was said in an off the record capacity. I understand you guys have obtained it; I’m not sure where you’ve obtained it from.”
The Canadian team won’t comment on what has happened at this morning’s meeting, but the White House has made clear to me that the comments were indeed raised.
The Canadian side was complaining to me about the Trump team showing no flexibility even before I asked them for comment this morning on the Trump quotes. They see the quotes as confirmation of suspicions that the Trump team isn’t working to make a win-win deal today. […]
Joyce White Vance: “Interestingly, the same judge presiding over the Manafort case is taking Patten’s plea, which is taking place on a timeline that would make him available to testify against Manafort during his September trial in DC.”
Occasionally, we hear from a Republican who is so fed up with Trump that the only option left is to leave the Republican Party:
Michael London, a former member of the Trumbull Town Council in Connecticut, said he’s resigning from the Republican Party and blamed President Trump, calling him “the worst president our country has had — ever.”
In a op-ed published by the Hartford Courant on Friday, London wrote his decision to resign from the Republican party and register as an unaffiliated voter was “something that I never thought I would do.”
London described himself as a “loyal member of the Republican Party for most of my adult life,” but he said the GOP “is no longer the party that I believed in all these years.”
“I blame President Trump for turning the Grand Old Party into a lame, extreme right-wing group of people unwilling or unable to see the truth. […]
“I have had it with the state and federal branches of the Republican Party that tolerated the president’s behavior. None of our GOP candidates for governor denounced Trump. None of the leaders of Connecticut’s GOP will speak out.” […]
“He is almost dictatorial and he has severely hurt our standing in the international community. People around the globe are laughing at us,” London fumed. “His patriotism is really egotism.”
London said he was compelled to write the op-ed because he could no longer “ignore Trump’s lies and his verbal and physical abuse of women.”
“Imagine the average man calling a woman a ‘dog’ in his workplace and watch how quickly he is fired,” London wrote, referencing Trump’s tweet earlier this month in which he referred to former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman as a “dog” after she released tapes from her time at the White House.
“Disavowing my party is no easy thing,” he wrote. “But I can’t take it any more.”
Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, has been killed in a bomb blast at a local cafe, officials say. Several others have been injured.
The attack happened at about 5:30 p.m. local time on Friday when a blast ripped through the Separ cafe in central Donetsk, a city that is controlled by the rebel republic. A fire broke out at the scene.
Zakharchenko, a pro-Russian separatist who led the rebel republic for nearly 4 years, was killed in the explosion. At least two others were injured, including Alexander Timofeyev, the rebel republic’s finance minister [also a pretty big deal – SC].
It was not immediately known who was responsible for Zakharchenko’s assassination, but the Russian news agency Interfax reported that several people had been taken into custody.
…
As authorities scrambled to respond to the attack, the rebel republic was put on an effective lockdown. The DPR Joint Command said all roads in and out of the region have been shut down until further notice….
Thanks for posting the information related to Sam Patten. Patten’s association with Paul Manafort, Konstantin Kilimnik, and Cambridge Analytica are points of interest.
[…] There are several similarities between Patten’s work and the unregistered Ukrainian lobbying allegations against Paul Manafort. Like Manafort, Patten worked for Ukraine’s pro-Russian political faction. Like Manafort, his payments went through offshore accounts in Cyprus.
Also like Manafort, Patten worked closely with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national who Mueller claims is tied to Russian intelligence services. (Mueller indicted Kilimnik alongside Manafort this year for attempted witness tampering, but he is overseas and has not been arrested.) […]
Patten and Kilimnik (who is not named but referred to as “Foreigner A”) founded a lobbying and consulting company together. They did campaign work in Ukraine and lobbying work in the US, and were paid over $1 million between 2015 and 2017.
Patten’s ties to Kilimnik were known publicly and described in profiles by the Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay and the Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand earlier this year. […]
Intriguingly, Patten is also tied to the controversial political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. Patten told the Daily Beast earlier this year that he worked with the company in its 2014 US elections work and on “several overseas campaigns.”
Cambridge later did work for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and came under investigative scrutiny for, among other things, its use of Facebook data. Mueller’s team reportedly looked into Cambridge Analytica in their Russia probe, but has not charged any matter related to the firm. […]
Wonkette’s coverage of a black woman being sent to prison for voting while she was on probation.
Voter fraud, it turns out, is not just something that takes place in the raccoon-infested Grey Gardens residence that serves as Donald Trump’s mind. It is a very real scourge on the nation. Case in point is criminal mastermind Crystal Mason of Rendon, Texas. She voted when she shouldn’t have. Now she’s going down hard.
Crystal Mason, 43, of Rendon, who was convicted in state court in March of illegal voting, was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison Thursday for violating the terms of her parole that were issued in a 2011 tax fraud case.
She was also given two years and two months of probation in the case. Mason has two weeks to get her affairs in order before reporting to federal prison to begin her sentence, U.S. District Judge John McBryde ruled on Thursday.
Mason is one of 500,000 Texans and 6 million Americans nationally who’ve lost their right to vote. That’s crappy enough and needs to change, but why is Texas acting like Mason stole a loaf of bread in Victor Hugo’s France? Mason wasn’t acting maliciously. She was on parole and claimed she didn’t realize Texas felons couldn’t vote until they’d completely finished their sentences. She went on to say that a poll worker told her the vote would either be “counted or not” and helped her through the paperwork. […]
It’s not like she was a Russian spy trying to influence the outcome of the election under orders from a hostile nation. But Judge McBryde pointed to a laundry list of past crimes Mason had committed going back to when she was just 17 (you know what I mean), including attempted arson and passing off forged checks. Mason is no “angel,” but that has nothing to do with why she’s going back to prison.
One can reasonably argue that making the effort to vote and participate in the democratic process is a positive step toward rehabilitation. […]
Judge McBryde told Mason he was giving her a “break” and sending her away for 10 months instead of two years. That kinda feels like that sort of “break” that comes at the end of a hangman’s noose, but whatever. That’s less time away from her kids for her totally non-malicious act.
Now, someone who got a real “break” was Terri Lynn Rotte of Des Moines, Iowa, who deliberately tried to vote for Donald Trump twice (frankly, just once is criminal enough). She claims she feared the first vote would be changed to one for Hillary Clinton. […] This wasn’t an accident like Mason. She intentionally broke the law. But Rote’s past was pearly white enough that she got off with with two years probation and a $750 fine. […]
A North Carolina prosecutor didn’t even bring charges against a 67-year-old woman who cast a vote on her dead mother’s behalf for Trump. […] The prosecutor wouldn’t release the woman’s name but it’s safe to assume she’s white because she voted for Trump and she’s not currently on death row.
Steve Curtis, actual Colorado GOP chairman, was sentenced to just probation and community service for willingly committing voter fraud. He filled out his ex-wife’s ballot […]
The Daily Caller, of course, believes Mason’s sentence is just and not at all racist. This should surprise no one, but it does reflect how many on the right view these cases. Mason’s true crime was literally voting at all, whereas her white counterparts went out of their way to corrupt the electoral process. […]
[…] Black people are criminals who are treated as such. White people just make honest mistakes. […]
“!!!!
Prosecutors say Samuel Patten sought tickets to Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on behalf of a prominent Ukrainian oligarch. Patten acted as a ‘straw purchaser’, funneling the Ukrainian’s money secretly to the inauguration committee through a Cypriot bank account.
Reminder from a previous story:
Mueller’s team asking whether wealthy Russians illegally funneled cash donations directly or indirectly into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and inauguration.”
It’s actually worse – he didn’t act as a straw purchaser, but recruited someone else to. Who was it?
Today is Molly Ivins’s birthday, and when we finally make this a more just world, it will become a national holiday. As it is, we’ll keep celebrating it right here at Wonkette and do what we can to keep alive the spirit of Texas’s greatest contribution to American humor and political commentary. She’d have been 74 today, […] It’s a goddamned shame Molly missed the last election, which would have left her whomperjawed. […]
There’s never a bad time to quote Molly Ivins, so let’s light some birthday candles, have some of those cakes we like, and remember a woman with a unique talent for looking at public idiocy, holding it up to the light, and blowing it to rags and atoms with a few words. […]
There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity — like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule — that’s what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel — it’s vulgar. […]
The trouble with blaming powerless people is that although it’s not nearly as scary as blaming the powerful, it does miss the point […] Poor people do not shut down factories. Poor people are not in charge of those mergers and acquisitions in which tens of thousands of people lose their jobs so a few people in top positions can make a killing on the stock market.
[If] we can make ourselves believe that poor folks are responsible for their own problems, then the rest of us are absolved of any responsibility for them […] The reason we like to blame the victim is because if it’s not the victim’s fault, why then, it could happen to anybody. It could even happen to you. And that is scary. […]
I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn’t actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle. […]
Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.[…]
[…] We bet Donald Trump would come up with a particularly lame Twitter nickname to try to insult her with — to which she’d reply with a column of far better ones, both for herself and for him. After all, she gave us “Shrub” Bush when W became Texas governor, and, for his successor Rick Perry, “Governor Goodhair.”
If you tire of the New York Times lecturing us on the need to be civil when Trump is putting children in cages, feel free to go back to Molly’s own thoughts on the matter, when there was a minor dustup over something Bill Clinton said about the old racist turd:
The lead on two TV networks was that he had waxed somewhat sarcastic on the subject of Sen. Jesse Helms. Anyone who can limit his reaction to Helms to mild sarcasm deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. That poisonous old hate sow, suckling all the little hate pigs — if ignorance is bliss, that man must be ecstatic (My own civility has distinct limits).
[…] Now, of course, the economy is on an upswing — but mostly for millionaires — and even with record low unemployment, Republicans want to deport everyone, even citizens who were born here. It’s become a reflex. In 2006, Molly noted again the same lies she’d mocked a dozen years earlier:
You gotta admit, prejudice is as American as apple pie. I hear tell these Mexicans keep crossing the border so they can get on welfare and get healthcare and all these goodies. Funny, we don’t have goodies in Texas, but they keep moving here to work anyway.
What would Molly say if she were here now? […] She’d remind us that Americans really are better than this bunch of crooks in power. And she’d remind us to laugh, because a well-honed sense of the ridiculous is vital for survival. […]
Good thread: “THREAD: As the summer winds down, we’ve seen some potentially significant and interesting developments in the Mueller investigation this week. There are some big open questions still remain and fresh evidence about Mueller is specifically pursuing….”
(And this doesn’t even include side questions like: who was the congressional candidate who contacted Guccifer 2.0? where is Mifsud? etc.)
Lynna @ #131, Christopher Wylie tweeted: “BREAKING: Ex-Cambridge Analytica contractor Sam Patten just charged by FBI after Mueller referral. This guy was responsible for CA operations in the US that involved covertly testing US voter attitudes on Putin’s leadership… I know there’s more to come…”
Others have pointed out that, in addition to Weissmann and Meisel being present for the hearing, Patten’s plea includes his promise to cooperate with Mueller.
Papadopoulos’ sentencing memo is fascinating. I’m more suspicious of him now than I was before I read it. Some highlights:
The biography at the beginning largely undercuts their strategy of portraying him as just a young man out of his depth. His undergrad work focused on national security, he got an MS in Security Studies from Kings College, and then he worked on “energy security projects” at the Hudson Institute.
He first tried to get a job with the Trump campaign during the summer of 2015, allegedly because he “supported candidate Trump’s policy positions” and thought he had the best chance of beating Clinton. What policy positions (other than blatant racism) had Trump even announced in the summer of 2015? This seems highly implausible.
Failing to obtain a job with the Trump campaign, he applied to and was hired by the Ben Carson campaign. After that folded in January 2016, he “doubled down on his efforts” to get a job with the Trump campaign, since he was “still a stalwart supporter of Trump’s bid for the presidency.” So stalwart he’d gone to work on a competing campaign.
He interviewed for a Trump campaign job in early March 2016. “In a meeting with a senior Trump campaign official [Manafort? Clovis? Kushner? Jr.?], George learned that the campaign’s foreign policy focus would be improving relations with Russia.”
He first met Mifsud on March 14, 2016, “while traveling in Italy.” At no point in any of this does he appear to be wanting for money.
At the “national security” meeting on March 31, 2016, at Trump’s unfinished hotel, he told them about his Putin contacts who wanted to set up a Trump campaign-Kremlin meeting. “While some in the room rebuffed George’s offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it.”
In these days, “young George” was “eager,” “giddy,” and “had a sense of unbridled loyalty to the candidate and his campaign.” “To say George was out of his depth would be a gross understatement.” Despite his being a “young energy policy guru” (I don’t think “guru” was the word they were looking for there), he had no experience with Russia. (Never mind his undergrad and graduate degrees in national security or his paid work in energy security.)
It’s mentioned once again that he wanted to help the Trump campaign “promote its foreign policy objective: improve U.S. and Russian relations.” To reiterate: in March 2016, top Trump campaign officials described this as the foreign policy objective of the campaign.
On April 26, 2016, he had breakfast with Mifsud, who told him about the “dirt” Putin had on Clinton – the “thousands of emails.” “Not knowing what to make of this comment, George continued his efforts to make the Trump-Russia meeting a reality.” Hilarious sentence, especially since we know he got drunk and bragged about it to the Australian diplomat (a meeting not mentioned in the memo), and see below. It says later that he “doesn’t recall” telling anyone on the campaign about the “dirt.” I believe that’s the only use of the legalistic “doesn’t recall,” and the claim is dubious.
In a fairly unconvincing string of paragraphs, it argues that when FBI agents came to interview him on January 27, 2017, they misled him into believing that their questions pertained solely to his relationship with Sergei Millian. Which is funny, because I had forgotten all about Millian’s role and connection to Papadopoulos. “George knew Mr. Millian only as a businessman pitching an opportunity to George in his personal capacity.” Um, what? What business opportunity?
At the time of the interview, during which he was lying to the agents about material facts, he was angling for a job in the White House (his personal ambition always the overriding concern), and was allegedly loyal to the Trump people. Nevertheless, “The agents asked George if he would be willing to actively cooperate and contact various people they had discussed. While George did not think he would be able to get information from those individuals, he stated his willingness to try.” The context of this sentence implies that the “various people” included people from the campaign. It’s worth noting that the government’s memo states that: “On January 27, 2017, in the hours after being interviewed by the FBI, the defendant submitted his biography and a description of work he did on the campaign in an effort to obtain a position as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Energy Department.”
The memo doesn’t say anything about Simona Mangiante’s numerous TV interviews, during which she first claimed that he would be the John Dean of the investigation and then later openly attacked the Mueller investigation and said he would try to pull out of his plea agreement.
This paragraph is significant:
Additionally [after he’d been caught lying and destroying evidence and agreed to cooperate – SC], George provided investigators with critical information. George told investigators about interactions and meetings with other members of the campaign. He detailed a meeting in late May 2016 where he revealed to the Greek Foreign Minister that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. He explained that this meeting took place days before President Vladimir Putin traveled to Greece to meet with Greek officials.
So he wasn’t aware, or “didn’t recall” being aware, of any collusion, and didn’t think other members of the campaign would have relevant information about Russia, but information about his interactions and meetings with them was somehow “critical” to the investigation. And he didn’t know “what to make of” the information about the Clinton “dirt” and didn’t mention it to anyone on the campaign, but while meeting with Greek officials as a representative of the campaign in advance of a Putin visit he told the Greek foreign minister about it. (I think maybe they mean the SVR-linked defense minister, Kammenos.) That would seem to have the makings of an international incident. Also, the government’s memo (p. 8) describes how he wasn’t at all forthcoming with information.
A brass band played, fighter jets streaked the clear blue sky and a red carpet adorned the airport tarmac on the day in May 2016 when Vladimir Putin came to Athens for a visit.
“Mr. President, welcome to Greece,” the Greek defense minister, Panos Kammenos, said in Russian as he smiled broadly and greeted a stone-faced Putin at the base of the stairs from the plane.
Kammenos, a pro-Russian Greek nationalist who bragged often of his insider Moscow connections, would receive a second key visitor that day, but with considerably less fanfare.
Not yet 30 years old, George Papadopoulos had been unknown in Greece — and everywhere else — only two months before.
But suddenly, just as Putin arrived, he was in Athens, quietly holding meetings across town and confiding in hushed tones that he was there on a sensitive mission on behalf of his boss, Donald Trump.
…
Before his spectacular fall, he was lavishly wined and dined by local business kingpins, celebrated in official tweets and rewarded with the perks — judge in an island beauty contest — of a favorite Greek son.
He also received access to officials at the highest levels of the Greek government, many of whom shared links to Russia and sympathies that would be unusual in other Western capitals. Kammenos, in particular, stood out both for his pro-Russian views and his determination to forge a bond with the young Trump adviser.
Although Papadopoulos’s plea deal focused on his contacts with an obscure and mysterious Maltese professor who claimed Russian ties, Greek politicians and analysts say his best and most obvious path to Moscow would have run through Athens.
…
Throughout the worst of Greece’s economic crisis, Kammenos had been outspoken in arguing that the country could pivot to Russia for help if negotiations with Europe turned sour.
He also pushed for an end to sanctions imposed on Russia, championed a plan for Russia and Greece to jointly manufacture Kalashnikov assault rifles and befriended a number of influential Moscow players, including the wealthy Greek Russian businessman and politician Ivan Savvidis.
“He’s been one of the strongest Putin supporters in Greece,” said Adonis Georgiadis, vice president of Greece’s center-right New Democracy party.
…
“Papadopoulos was totally unknown. But then Kammenos took him by the hand and promoted him everywhere,” Georgiadis said.
In short order, Papadopoulos had soon had meetings not only with the defense minister, but also with Greece’s foreign minister [ah, so it may have been him – SC], its president and a former prime minister — a remarkable level of access for such a young aide.
…
Others who met with Papadopoulos around that time described him as acting as though he were on a secret mission, refusing to confirm the location of meetings until half an hour before they began.
…
When Papadopoulos returned to Greece the next month, he told Marianna Kakaounaki, an investigative reporter for Kathimerini, that he had “a blank check” for any job he wanted in the Trump administration because of his services to the campaign.
“Everyone knows I helped him [get] elected, now I want to help him with the presidency,” Papadopoulos boasted in a text message.
When prominent Greeks and Greek Americans gathered at Washington’s Metropolitan Club for a party the night before Trump’s inauguration, Kammenos and Papadopoulos were both there to celebrate.
Eight days later, Papadopoulos was interviewed by the FBI — and lied, according to his plea agreement, about the timing and nature of his interaction with the Maltese professor. There would be no White House job. In both Athens and Washington, Papadopoulos virtually disappeared from view.
But he became a frequent guest on Mykonos, the Greek island that’s a paradise for the well-heeled.
During the late spring and into the summer, locals said he was a regular if discreet visitor at the island’s poshest clubs. He judged a beauty contest — watching impassively as bikini-clad contestants marched by — and onlookers at the clubs described him as partying hard and spending freely.
“He didn’t say where he got the money,” said one witness to an expensive night of revelry. “He just told us he worked for the Trump administration.” …
As Marcy Wheeler (still conflicted about linking to her) suggests here, much of what’s included in the sentencing memo really has no business there and appears to be a message to the Trump camp that he didn’t spill the beans on them.
So Papadopoulos’ conflict is plain in the memo. Since he wants no prison time, he has to try to argue that he cooperated fully and substantially; but since he wants the Trump gang to think he hasn’t dropped a dime on them, he has to keep suggesting he didn’t tell Mueller anything significant. So he didn’t think others on the campaign were involved with collusion, but the information he provided about his interactions and meetings with them was “critical” to the investigation. He was boundlessly loyal to them and didn’t think they would say anything incriminating, but he agreed to wear a wire. He withheld the Millian-campaign connection, but told investigators about his interactions with Millian. He told the FBI he doesn’t recall telling anyone on the campaign about the “dirt” Mifsud informed him about, but he told the FBI that he had told the Greek Foreign Minister about it during his meetings with Greek officials on behalf of the campaign (could well be a means of signalling to the Trump people – too late, I’m sure – what Mueller already knows about the Greek connection).
SC, here are some excerpts from Josh Marshall’s writeup that you mention in comment 144.
[…] The most notable claim is that President Trump personally signed off on Papadopoulos’s offer to develop a relationship with and set up a meeting with Vladimir Putin during the campaign.
1. We knew that Papadopoulos had worked for Ben Carson before getting his gig with candidate Trump. It turns out he first tried to work for Trump in the summer of 2015. (Interesting. Not terribly important.)
2. Papadopoulos continues to say that he never mentioned the Clinton dirt information to anyone on the campaign. “In his later proffer sessions, George reiterated that he does not recall ever passing the information [the ‘dirt’ and emails Russia alleged had on Clinton] along to the campaign.”
However he told investigators that he did tell the Greek Foreign Minister about the ‘dirt’ when he met with him in May 2016. This was days before Putin made a visit to Greece.
3. We hear again that in his first meeting with a “senior Trump campaign official” he “learned that the campaign’s foreign policy focus would be improving relations with Russia.”
4. You know the March 31st, 2016 foreign policy meeting in which Trump met with his new foreign policy advisory team. As the document says this was largely a meet-and-greet event. To a great degree it was a photo op to show Trump even had advisors. By this time Papadopoulos had already established his relationship with Joseph Mifsud, the alleged Russian intelligence cut-out or asset. At that meeting, Papadopoulos said he could help set up a meeting between Trump and Putin. Trump “nodded with approval.” Sessions seemed on board as well. […]
Based on that affirmative reply he continued to work his relationship with Mifsud and other Russians in London to set up such a meeting and his lawyers claim “George kept the campaign in the loop …”
It seems clear to me that the most important detail in this document is President Trump hearing and responding in the affirmative to the idea of establishing contact with and arranging a campaign-period meeting with Vladimir Putin. Also of note is Jeff Sessions apparently also believing this would be a good idea. Remember that we’ve never had a good explanation of why Sessions met privately in his Senate office with then-Russian Ambassador Kislyak in September 2016.
The other two key points are that Papadopoulos’s denial of ever having told the campaign about the ‘dirt’ on Clinton is phrased as “does not recall.” That’s less than definitive.
The related point is that the government’s sentencing memorandum states that Papadopoulos provided no ‘substantial assistance” to the investigation and continued to hold out on investigators, basically only admitting to things when confronted with specific evidence already investigators’ hands. In other words, there’s some reason to believe that the claims in this new document were ones the government did not believe.
Anti-Trump sentiments from John McCain’s memorial service:
[…] Obama spoke of the long talks he and McCain would have privately in the Oval Office and the senator’s understanding that America’s security and influence came not from “our ability to bend others to our will” but universal values of rule of law and human rights.
“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, tracking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage,” Obama said in another not-so-veiled nod to Trump. “It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.”
[…] Bush recalled a champion for the “forgotten people” at home and abroad whose legacy will serve as a reminder, even in times of doubt, of the power of America as more than a physical place but a “carrier of human aspirations.”
“John’s voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder — we are better than this, America is better than this,” Bush said. […]
Trump was not on hand for the ceremony, after McCain’s family made clear he was not invited.
But Meghan McCain made sure Trump was part of the memorial in another way, leveling pointed criticism at the president in her eulogy.
“We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness — the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served,” she said, her voice first choking back tears then raising to anger.
Later, she said to applause, “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.” […]
“His death seems to have reminded the American people that these values are what makes us a great nation, not the tribal partisanship and personal attack politics that have recently characterized our life, ” said former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut,
Betsy DeVos and team Trump in general show their lack of judgement when it comes to guns in schools:
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced on Friday that she would not stand in the way of states that want to use federal grants to purchase guns for schools, emphasizing that it’s a decision for local officials to make.
“I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the [Elementary and Secondary Education Act],” DeVos said in a letter to Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House education committee.
DeVos’ letter comes as Democrats and some education groups had asked the Trump administration not to allow federal education grants to be used for firearms after The New York Times first reported last week that the Education Department was considering the issue.
Education Department officials said that they believe that states and school districts already have the flexibility to purchase firearms using federal education grants.
States and school districts have “substantial flexibility” in deciding how they spend the money under the more than $1 billion Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants program, DeVos said in her letter. […]
A neo-Nazi group began bombarding the phones of Florida Democratic voters Friday with a robocall narrated by a person who mocks the party’s first African-American gubernatorial nominee, Andrew Gillum, in a black minstrel-style voice as jungle noises play in the background.
The automated calls were issued by the Road to Power, an Idaho-based white supremacist group linked to other racist robocall campaigns in Charlottesville, Va., Oregon and California, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, which first reported the calls and is the hometown newspaper of Gillum, the city’s mayor.
The calls were made in the racially charged atmosphere of the Florida governor’s race after GOP nominee Ron DeSantis on Wednesday called Gillum an “articulate” spokesman for socialism who would “monkey up” Florida’s finances. DeSantis denied accusations that his remarks were racist.
On Thursday, DeSantis withdrew as a moderator for a Tea Party-themed Facebook page that was rampant with racist posts. DeSantis did not post on the page and was added to it as a moderator without his knowledge, the campaign said.
The DeSantis campaign denounced the robocalls. […]
Another moment from former President George W. Bush’s eulogy for John McCain:
Above all, John detested the abuse of power. He could not abide bigots and swaggering despots.
One friend from his Naval Academy days recalled how John, while a lowly plebe, reacted to seeing an upperclassman verbally abuse a steward. Against all tradition, he told the jerk to pick on someone his own size. It was a familiar refrain during his six decades of service.
I wish more Republicans saw Trump as a “bigot” and as a “swaggering despot.”
Just part of Trump’s morning session of hate-tweeting today:
There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don’t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off…
….Remember, NAFTA was one of the WORST Trade Deals ever made. The U.S. lost thousands of businesses and millions of jobs. We were far better off before NAFTA – should never have been signed. Even the Vat Tax was not accounted for. We make new deal or go back to pre-NAFTA!
Report: There were no FISA hearings held over Spy documents.”It is astonishing that the FISA courts couldn’t hold hearings on Spy Warrants targeting Donald Trump. It isn’t about Carter Page, it’s about the Trump Campaign. You’ve got corruption at the DOJ & FBI. The leadership….
….of the DOJ & FBI are completely out to lunch in terms of exposing and holding those accountable who are responsible for that corruption.”
Commentary:
The commander in chief then went on to play victim of the “Fake Dossier” and blast Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama while he was at it. The president quoted a conservative commentator who accused Trump’s predecessor of violating Trump’s privacy to spy on him, accusing Obama of running “a police state.”
[…] Trump will not release more than 100,000 pages of records from Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh’s tenure in the George W. Bush White House, claiming executive privilege.
The White House’s decision was disclosed in a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday ahead of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings next week. A Bush representative who has led a team of attorneys reviewing Kavanaugh’s papers confirmed that lawyers have finished going through the records and have turned over about 415,000 pages to the committee, although about 147,000 of those pages are being withheld from public view. […]
President Barack Obama did not claim privilege on any of the documents involving now-Justice Elena Kagan, the last Supreme Court nominee to have served in a White House, according to Christopher Kang, who was a deputy counsel under Obama.
“This may be the latest and most dramatic breach in the process, but we already knew it was a sham, broken at every step along the way,” said Kang, who is now with Demand Justice, an advocacy group working to defeat Kavanaugh and other conservative judicial nominees. “The issue now is what are Democrats going to do about it? Unite in opposition? Boycott the hearing? This kind of brash coverup requires an equally forceful response.”
A senior Senate Democratic aide said Democrats believe this is the first time a sitting president exerted privilege under the records law to prevent disclosure of presidential documents to Congress, citing their conversations with National Archives officials.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the disclosure that the Trump White House is withholding more than 100,000 pages of Kavanaugh’s records a “Friday night document massacre” and said it has all the makings of a coverup. […]
[…] You had to control your gag reflex watching Vice President Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) extol McCain’s greatness as he was accorded the honor of lying in state.
Consider Pence for a moment. He began with a ludicrous declaration that broke all records for disingenuousness: “The president asked me to be here on behalf of a grateful nation, to pay a debt of honor and respect to a man who served our country throughout his life, in uniform and in public office. It’s my great honor to be here.” President Trump despised McCain and routinely mocked him. Suggesting that Pence was there to represent Trump would require him to insult and mock McCain. Pence accepted the vice presidency and stuck with Trump despite the “Access Hollywood” tape, despite Trump’s denigration of McCain’s service, despite overt racism and contempt for human rights. He has not batted an eye over the hush-money payments to women, the attacks on the rule of law, the evisceration of decorum. Only in Washington could such a spineless creature sally forth to declare McCain a hero.
[…] You can worship Trump or admire McCain; it’s metaphysically impossible to do both. Meghan McCain’s glare was an appropriate reaction to Pence’s hypocrisy.
[…] McConnell said that McCain represented all the values the Capitol stands for. But what does McConnell stand for? He has accommodated Trump, ignoring or rationalizing his worst behavior. McConnell personally destroyed the comity in the Senate by denying Judge Merrick Garland a hearing and then extinguishing the filibuster for Supreme Court justices. He has refused to protect the rule of law by preventing a bill protecting the special counsel from reaching the floor. […] McConnell cares about power, ready to enable Trump at every turn. There is no principle for him beyond winning.
And then there was Ryan, come to pay his respects. When he repeated McCain’s admonition that “our identities and sense of worth were not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves,” you wondered whether Ryan is capable of self-reflection. He lauded McCain: “The sense of purpose that a battle joined can bring. The common humanity that burns in each of our hearts. . . . This is one of the bravest souls our nation has ever produced.” When exactly has Ryan exemplified those qualities? When has he demonstrated an ounce of courage to do what is right rather than expedient? […]
[…] isis may already have numbers sufficient to rebuild. Two stunning reports this month—by the United Nations and Trump’s own Defense Department—both contradict earlier U.S. claims that most isis fighters had been eliminated. The Sunni jihadi movement still has between twenty thousand and thirty thousand members on the loose in Iraq and Syria, including “thousands of active foreign terrorist fighters,” the U.N. said, despite the fall of its nominal capital, Raqqa, last October.
The Pentagon report is more alarming: isis has fourteen thousand fighters—not just members—in Syria, with up to seventeen thousand in Iraq. More important, isis has successfully morphed from a proto-state into a “covert global network, with a weakened yet enduring core” in Iraq and Syria, with regional affiliates in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, the U.N. reports. It can “easily” obtain arms in areas with weak governance; it is now a threat to U.N. member states on five continents. […]
So the Trump Administration has reversed course; it is now keeping U.S. troops in Syria indefinitely. […] (isis fighters are holed up in the Middle Euphrates Valley, including around the small city of Hajin.) U.S. troops will also need to train local forces to hold the ground so isis cannot return, McGurk [Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter isis] said. “So this mission is ongoing.”
[…] The goal is for the Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by U.S. airpower, to liberate about four hundred square miles in northeast Syria along the Iraqi border. […] But U.S. officials acknowledge that that alone will not eliminate isis. It is also active in other areas south of the Euphrates River and near the city of Palmyra, which is under the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its allies—where the U.S. does not have a presence.
The U.S. intelligence community is deeply divided, however, over the scope of the isis threat—and even the numbers put out in the Pentagon report. […] Other agencies, including the C.I.A., have offered estimates that conflict with the Defense Intelligence Agency (D.I.A.), a U.S. official told me. “There’s a very big discrepancy.”
Even top military officials have cast doubt on the Pentagon report, which was assembled by the Inspector General based on D.I.A. reporting. “I don’t have high confidence in those particular numbers,” General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week. “Over the last two and a half years, isis has lost about ninety-eight per cent of the ground that they’ve held. They’ve lost significant access to resources, and the flow of foreign fighters has been significantly reduced. Those are all quantifiable, and we know that.”
The numbers game echoes the problem the U.S. faced during the Vietnam War—namely, what constitutes an effective strategy, a military victory, or even a fighter. According to an article by the Soufan Center, which was founded by Ali Soufan, a former F.B.I. terrorism specialist, “From at least 2014, estimates of the group’s strength have varied greatly, with the coalition against the Islamic State having somehow reportedly killed 100% of the group’s estimated members several times.” The center suggests “the only clear conclusion from the lack of clarity is that IS was and remains likely much larger than many had reported” and remains “among the most powerful terrorist groups in history, with no shortage of weapons or willing recruits.” […]
In the estimation of American officials, Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, has faced credible accusations of extortion, bribery and even murder.
They also thought he might make a good source.
Between 2014 and 2016, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department unsuccessfully tried to turn Mr. Deripaska into an informant. They signaled that they might provide help with his trouble in getting visas for the United States or even explore other steps to address his legal problems. In exchange, they were hoping for information on Russian organized crime and, later, on possible Russian aid to President Trump’s 2016 campaign, according to current and former officials and associates of Mr. Deripaska.
In one dramatic encounter, F.B.I. agents appeared unannounced and uninvited at a home Mr. Deripaska maintains in New York and pressed him on whether Paul Manafort, a former business partner of his who went on to become chairman of Mr. Trump’s campaign, had served as a link between the campaign and the Kremlin.
The attempt to flip Mr. Deripaska was part of a broader, clandestine American effort to gauge the possibility of gaining cooperation from roughly a half-dozen of Russia’s richest men, nearly all of whom, like Mr. Deripaska, depend on President Vladimir V. Putin to maintain their wealth, the officials said.
Two of the players in the effort were Bruce G. Ohr, the Justice Department official who has recently become a target of attacks by Mr. Trump, and Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled a dossier of purported links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The systematic effort to win the cooperation of the oligarchs, which has not previously been revealed, does not appear to have scored any successes. And in Mr. Deripaska’s case, he told the American investigators that he disagreed with their theories about Russian organized crime and Kremlin collusion in the campaign, a person familiar with the exchanges said. The person added that Mr. Deripaska even notified the Kremlin about the American efforts to cultivate him.
…
While Mr. Steele did discuss the research that resulted in the dossier with Mr. Ohr during the final months of the campaign, current and former officials said that Mr. Deripaska was the subject of many of the contacts between the two men between 2014 and 2016.
A timeline that Mr. Ohr hand-wrote of all his contacts with Mr. Steele was among the leaked documents cited by the president and his allies as evidence of an anti-Trump plot.
The contacts between Mr. Steele and Mr. Ohr started before Mr. Trump became a presidential candidate and continued through much of the campaign.
Mr. Deripaska’s contacts with the F.B.I. took place in September 2015 and the same month a year later. The latter meeting came two months after the F.B.I. began investigating Russian interference in the election and a month after Mr. Manafort left the Trump campaign amid reports about his work for Russia-aligned political parties in Ukraine.
…
The timeline sketched out by Mr. Ohr shows contacts stretching back to when Mr. Ohr first met Mr. Steele in 2007. It also shows what officials said was the first date on which the two discussed cultivating Mr. Deripaska: a meeting in Washington on Nov. 21, 2014, roughly seven months before Mr. Trump announced that he was running for president.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an initiative that remains classified. Most expressed deep discomfort, saying they feared that in revealing the attempts to cultivate Mr. Deripaska and other oligarchs they were undermining American national security and strengthening the grip that Mr. Putin holds over those who surround him.
But they also said they did not want Mr. Trump and his allies to use the program’s secrecy as a screen with which they could cherry-pick facts and present them, sheared of context, to undermine the special counsel’s investigation. That, too, they said they feared, would damage American security….
The NYT is not good for my blood pressure. First, Deripaska and the people tied to him might be telling the truth about refusing to cooperate (the sanctions on Deripaska would seem to support that), he’s obviously lying about (his knowledge of) the Kremlin’s and Manafort’s actions. (I am wondering if any of the other oligarchs they approached were more cooperative, and the official sources in this report are trying to cover that up to protect their sources.) Second, the way they frame the piece is disjointed; but what does come through are the same idiotic tropes that marred their reporting about Clinton’s fucking emails during the campaign (emphasis added):
But the fallout from the efforts is now rippling through American politics and has helped fuel Mr. Trump’s campaign to discredit the investigation into whether he coordinated with Russia in its interference in the election.
The revelation that Mr. Ohr engaged with Mr. Steele has provided the president’s allies with fresh fodder to attack the investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, casting it as part of a vast, long-running conspiracy by a “deep state” bent on undermining Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump and his allies have cast Mr. Steele’s research — and the serious consideration it was given by Mr. Ohr and the F.B.I. — as part of a plot by rogue officials and Mrs. Clinton’s allies to undermine Mr. Trump’s campaign and his presidency.
The role of Mr. Deripaska has gotten less attention, but it similarly offers fodder for the theory being advanced by the president’s defenders.
Is there some sort of “fodder” quota at the NYT? And why do they think they can repeatedly put this out there without ever fucking explaining how exactly this new information in reality, and not just in Trump’s and his defenders’ fevered imagination, supports their absurd claims? “Fuels,” “offers fodder for,” and the like are lazy tropes for which they’ve been criticized for many months, and yet they continue to do this, apparently oblivious to or heedless of the danger.
Lynna @ #147, thanks! My only potential disagreement would be with his characterization of the news that Papadopoulos had tried to get a job with the Trump campaign in the summer of 2015: “Interesting. Not terribly important.” It’s a strange fact I can’t quite make sense of, and possibly important.
SC @158, I agree. Something was going on in 2015 … and we don’t have the full story.
In other news, even though it will be Labor Day on Monday, Rachel Maddow will be on the air at her usual time. Her special program will take a closer look at Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. That should be a good show, informative.
In other, other news, here is an update on Mariia Butina:
Mariia Butina, the Russian graduate student and gun enthusiast indicted in July for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, pursued a plan to deliver a massive amount of jet fuel to the United States from Russia in cooperation with a former NRA president and his wife, a prominent lobbyist, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Butina’s boyfriend, the Republican strategist Paul Erickson, was also deeply involved in the attempted fuel shipment […]
Butina’s lawyer told the Times the deal was “just further evidence that she wasn’t here on any mission on behalf of the Russian Federation. She was essentially operating on her own account.”
The Times, reporting on the attempted jet fuel deal based on interviews with people involved and “hundreds of pages of previously unreported emails,” noted that Butina, Erickson and the Keenes [lobbyist, Donna Keene, Keene’s husband is the former NRA president] — in addition to “a pair of Pakistani-American businessmen, an Israeli-American salesman for a Virginia-based lawn care and sprinkler equipment company and a purported international fuel broker with no record of successful deals” — appeared to be in way over their collective heads.
Butina had no experience in the jet fuel business, the Times said, and Erickson wrote many of her emails to the Keenes for her.
The search for five million barrels of jet fuel — nearly double of the total amount exported monthly from all of Russia’s refineries, the Times noted — began when Donna Keene contacted Butina and offered $1 million if she could connect an unnamed buyer in the States with a Russian refinery who could supply the fuel.
Butina offered to connect the buyer with multiple smaller refineries rather than the Russian giant Gazprom, the Times reported, and pressed for $25,000 up front. That, apparently, would not work.
Two months later, Keene arranged for Erickson and Butina to meet a Virginian jet fuel broker named Roger Pol. Erickson would later say in an email that Pol “seems to lack any operating history in his own name or that of a company he controls.”
Butina kept trying, contacting Russians of all sorts in search of a source for the massive jet fuel order.
One final meeting arranged by Keene ended ironically: An unnamed person familiar with it said the potential partners Keene had provided “feared it was some kind of scam,” in the Times’ words, and reported Butina and Erickson to the FBI. The bureau, as it happened, was already tracking Butina.
Analysis from Josh Marshall regarding the Butina/CPAC/NRA oil deal in comment 161:
The news that alleged Russian agent Maria Butina was trying to partner with the wife of the former President of the NRA and CPAC on a ridiculous and massive oil deal with fuel from Russia is entirely, wholly expected, entirely to form. […]“During her time in the United States, she surrounded herself not only with high-profile American conservatives but also with dubious characters who seemed bent on making a fast buck — and it was not always easy to tell one from the other.”
[…] They’re often the same people. That’s why the Russians targeted them in the first place. Across the board, in their efforts to infiltrate American politics by way of the conservative movement and the GOP, Russian efforts were based on a simple insight: contemporary conservative politics is notoriously corrupt. It is no accident that President Trump now embodies the GOP and what now counts as conservatism. His corruption, his addiction to the grift, does embody it. […]
This will unquestionably be a big part of the story of what brought Russia and President Trump together. It’s why they focused so much attention on the NRA in the first place: openness to corruption is always an indicator for openness to subversion. The NRA, whatever its role in promoting gun extremism, is also a huge grifting operation. The Russians knew and know just who they were dealing with.
I will be doing a major rally for Senator Ted Cruz in October. I’m picking the biggest stadium in Texas we can find. As you know, Ted has my complete and total Endorsement. His opponent is a disaster for Texas – weak on Second Amendment, Crime, Borders, Military, and Vets!
Michael Avenatti’s response:
I am excited to announce that I will be leading a large resistance rally in Texas at the exact same time of Trump’s (details tba). All groups are welcome to join. We must fight fire with fire and we must send a message that we will fight to make America America again.
Trump likes to brag about the number of followers he has on Twitter. Alyssa Milano conducted an experiment of sorts with this tweet:
It’s super weird to me that @realDonaldTrump has 54 MILLION followers and his tweets rarely get over 20 thousand retweets.
He’s screaming into the wind.
I bet this tweet gets more RT’s.
Yes, Milano’s tweet garnered over 59K retweets and 88K likes in short order. Trump’s tweets do not usually exceed 20K retweets, and about 70K likes. Are the retweeters and likers of Trump tweets also bots? The only conclusion that makes sense is that many of Trump’s 54 million followers are mindless bots.
More reaction to the speeches given at John McCain’s funeral service, this time from Fox News:
The host of Fox & Friends were outraged on Sunday over what they perceived as indirect criticism of President Donald Trump at John McCain’s funeral on Saturday. Co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy said she was sure that a lot of “elites” were “gleeful at some of the shots taken at President Trump.” The hosts appeared to concede that praising decency and criticizing despotism now means criticizing the President. The speakers at the funeral never mentioned Trump’s name.
Fox News correspondent Garrett Tenney highlighted three examples of what he said many people interpreted as “subtle and not so subtle shots at the current commander in chief:” Barack Obama lamenting “mean and petty” discourse, George W. Bush saying McCain “detested the abuse of power” and “could not abide bigots and swaggering despots,” and Meghan McCain, the late Senator’s daughter, saying America was always great.
Campos-Duffy went on to highlight a fourth criticism: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) tweeting a photo of Bush, Obama, and Clinton at the funeral captioned “Decency Wins.” Fellow host Ed Henry said a funeral was an odd place to talk about “winners and losers.” […]
More details regarding people laughing at, and preparing to resist Trump for announcing a rally to support the man he had slandered before:
[…] A GoFundMe page by USA Latinx seeking to put one of Donald Trump’s anti-Cruz tweets from 2016 on a billboard raised nearly $10,000 in one day, nearly doubling its fundraising goal.
“President Donald Trump will be campaigning to help Sen. Ted Cruz win his re-election. A rally is being planned, according to Trump “at the biggest stadium in Texas,” the page organizers write. “We are planning to display the presidents own words about Cruz from 2016 on a mobile billboard, to remind Texans of the truth.”
The tweet in question dates back to February 2016 when Trump and Cruz were campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination ahead of the Texas primary.
Why would the people of Texas support Ted Cruz when he has accomplished absolutely nothing for them. He is another all talk, no action pol!
[…] One of the campaigns organizers is March for Our Lives co-founder David Hogg, the Stoneman Douglas High School student who along with his classmates was thrust into the national spotlight after February’s tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida. […]
More sour grapes and pettiness from Trump followers who are complaining about John McCain’s funeral services:
“It was a very nice gesture by Jared and Ivanka to attend,” said Sam Nunberg. “I find it contemptible that the McCain family couldn’t seat them in a better, more respectable section.”
KGsays
The UK Parliament is back this week, with Theresa May’s “Chequers plan” for Brexit under attack from all sides (Michel Barnier, Boris Johnson, Tory Remainers and ex-Remainers, the press). According to Tory Remainer Justine Greening (who is now supporting a “Peoples’ Vote”), MPs are coming back having found only a small minority of their constituents supporting the plan. While she didn’t say May had to go, Greening certainly didn’t express support.
May’s best hope of survival seems to be that both the largest opposition parties, Labour and the SNP, have their own internal splits – Labour on the “antisemitism” brouhaha as well as on Brexit and Corbyn’s leadership generally, the SNP on the accusations of sexual assault against ex-leader Alex Salmond. Even many of Corbyn’s supporters are frustrated that he and the leadership have not been able to attack the government on Brexit, austerity etc., over the summer – not only because of the attacks on Corbyn, but because Labour has no coherent position on Brexit, and is itself badly split on the issue. Labour’s ruling body, the NEC, is apparently likely to vote to adopt the IHRA guidelines and examples in full (which would in my view be a surrender to Zionism, since the very point of some of the examples is to label any anti-Zionist position, or more than the most anodyne criticism of Israel, as antisemitic). The Salmond accusations have apparently been passed to the police, and Salmond is bringing a court case against the Scottish Government, claiming its complaints procedure is unfair and unlawful. He has, extraordinarily, launched a crowfunding appeal to meet his costs, and has received vocal support from a number of senior SNP figures. But ultimately, almost all Labour and all SNP MPs are likely to oppose whatever deal May comes up with, so unless she can unify the Tories behind her, it will be rejected – and it’s hard to see how she could then continue in office.
North Carolina Republican state legislators are so upset by the fact that they have a Democrat as a Governor, (Roy Cooper), that they are continuing to come up with various schemes to strip him of power.
[…] Cooper (D) lost his lawsuit Friday against the Republican-lead General Assembly to keep two state constitutional amendments off the fall ballot which would transfer power from the governor to the assembly […]
Cooper immediately appealed the decision and is hoping to win his case before the state comes up against federal ballot printing deadlines.
The two amendments in question would weaken the governor’s authority in the spheres of judicial appointments and the makeup of the North Carolina Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement. […] lawmakers have attempted to alter the Board before—by removing its ninth, politically impartial member—but the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, prompting the attempt to amend the constitution.
Cooper’s lawyers reportedly argue that voters will be ignorant of this previous decision, as the history will be omitted from the generally vague ballot propositions. Cooper won his first case in this matter when the court sided with him that the amendments and ballot questions had to be rewritten in a clearer way.
Republicans are accusing Cooper of undermining the will and agency of the voters, while Cooper and his allies argue that GOP Assembly members are trying to fool their constituents into giving them more power will ballot propositions written in opaque and bureaucratic language.
All eyes are on the appeals court as the state hurtles towards crucial ballot printing deadlines.
Soon before the Trump administration announced that the United States would stop funding a United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the White House to end the aid, according to a Sunday Axios report.
In the past, the Israeli position was reportedly that any cut in American funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) should be gradual, to prevent worsening the humanitarian crisis in Palestine, especially in Gaza.
Netanyahu apparently changed this position under his own volition, without any input from the Israeli security council or intelligence agencies, and secretly conveyed his new stance to the Trump administration and members of the Senate Appropriations Committee via Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.
Netanyahu acting like a despot. Very trumpian of him.
Not good. Not good at all. This is bad news for journalists, especially those working in Myanmar:
A Myanmar court sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison Monday for illegal possession of official documents, a ruling met with international condemnation that will add to outrage over the military’s human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been reporting on the brutal crackdown on the Rohingya when they were arrested and charged with violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. They had pleaded not guilty, contending that they were framed by police.
“Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere,” Stephen J. Adler, Reuters editor-in-chief, said in a statement. He said the charges were “designed to silence their reporting and intimidate the press.” […]
“This is unfair,” Wa Lone told the crowd. “I want to say they are obviously threatening our democracy and destroying freedom of the press in our country.” […]
“Today’s verdict cannot conceal the truth of what happened in Rakhine State,” Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s director of crisis response, said in a statement Monday. “It’s thanks to the bravery of journalists like Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, that the military’s atrocities have been exposed. Instead of targeting these two journalists, the Myanmar authorities should have been going after those responsible for killings, rape, torture and the torching of hundreds of Rohingya villages.”
From the United Nations:
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Knut Ostby said the UN was “disappointed by today’s court decision.”
“The United Nations has consistently called for the release of the Reuters journalists and urged the authorities to respect their right to pursue freedom of expression and information,” he said. “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo should be allowed to return to their families and continue their work as journalists.”
Today is Labor Day. Of course, Trump attacked a union leader.
President Donald Trump started his Labor Day with an attack on a top union leader, lashing out after criticism from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
Trump tweeted Monday that Trumka “represented his union poorly on television this weekend.” He added: “it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!”
The president’s attack came after Trumka appeared on “Fox News Sunday” over the weekend where he said efforts to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement should include Canada. Trumka, whose organization is an umbrella group for most unions, said the economies of the United States, Canada and Mexico are “integrated” and “it’s pretty hard to see how that would work without having Canada in the deal.” […]
Trumka also said of Trump: “the things that he’s done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers,” arguing that Trump has not come through with an infrastructure program and has overturned regulations that “will hurt us on the job.”
Asked about the low unemployment rate and economic growth, Trumka said “those are good, but wages have been down since the first of the year. Gas prices have been up since the first of the year. So, overall, workers aren’t doing as well.”
On Monday, Trump touted the economy, saying “Our country is doing better than ever before with unemployment setting record lows.” He added, “The Worker in America is doing better than ever before. Celebrate Labor Day!”
The unemployment rate of 3.9 percent is not at the best point ever — it is near the lowest in 18 years.
Happy Labor Day. There’s no better time to talk about why workers’ rights would suffer if Brett Kavanaugh, whose hearings for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court start tomorrow, is confirmed.
The Roberts Court has dealt some big blows to workers and unions in the last few years. With Kavanaugh on the Court, a 5-4 hard-right majority would be even more aggressive in siding with corporations over people.
The Court’s ruling in Janus v. AFSCME earlier this summer overturned a 40-year-old precedent to hold that public-sector workers with union contracts don’t have to pay fees for collective bargaining expenses if they’re not members.
That ruling won’t just hurt seven million public-sector union workers with contracts. It’ll hurt all workers, because union deals on wages and working conditions affect what businesses without unions do, too.
The Court has also recently granted corporations the right to deny workers reproductive health care and made it harder for workers to sue businesses by allowing companies to force employees to sign mandatory arbitration clauses with their contracts.
In other words, the Court has already been widening the disparity in power between corporations and workers. Kavanaugh’s record from his time as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia shows he’d help further that trend for a generation.
In 2007, Kavanaugh wrote an opinion that severely limited union rights and allowed major damage to federal workers’ ability to bargain collectively.
In 2014, he dissented in a case where the Occupational Safety and Health Administration held SeaWorld accountable for the death of a trainer.
In 2016, Kavanaugh held that corporations have the right to punish workers for displaying pro-union signs in their cars.
Unions and labor movements are why we have workplace safety precautions, collective bargaining, weekends, minimum wages, and, yes, Labor Day.
We can’t afford more damage to workers’ rights. Make sure your senators hear from you: Let’s #StopKavanaugh.
For Labor Day, more details regarding wages and lower-to-middle-class workers:
Candidate Donald Trump ran on a populist platform […] but President Donald Trump has routinely enriched himself and his wealthy ilk, delivering massive tax cuts to corporations and leaving middle class workers in the lurch. […]
While unemployment may be low, workers are experiencing historically low wage growth, forcing 40-hour-a-week workers to live paycheck to paycheck. And corporations, who were granted a significant tax cut in the GOP tax bill, are routing their profits mostly to top executives and large corporate shareholders in the form of stock buybacks. […]
Unions are essential for maintaining income equality by giving workers bargaining power to fight for better wages and working conditions. As multiple studies have shown, the hollowing out of workers’ wages is tied to the decline of collectively bargained union contracts. […]
Union membership, however, has been in a downturn for decades — so much so, that the decline of the American middle class almost exactly mirrors the fall in union membership. In the 1950s, more than one-third of all private-sector workers belonged unions, compared to roughly 10 percent now. But the decline isn’t due to a lack of enthusiasm among workers; In fact, new research suggests that nearly half of non-union workers — roughly 58 million Americans — would join a union if given the opportunity. That’s quadruple the number of American workers currently in a union.
[…] Since taking the office, Trump has rolled back a series of pro-union Obama-era regulations. […]
Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative appointed to the Supreme Court by Trump, was the deciding vote in the recent anti-worker Court decision, Janus v. AFSCME. The holding of Janus is that workers in a unionized shop who choose not to pay union dues can still receive the benefits and protections a union offers because the agency fees workers are required to pay are form of speech protected by the First Amendment. The decision creates a “free-rider” problem that could severely depress union membership. After all, why pay dues if you can get something for nothing? […]
The salaries CEOs receive compared to the pay for rank-and-file workers is starkly disproportionate and upsetting. At industrial giant Honeywell, the largest company to disclose the ratio in February, the ratio was 333 to 1. At Amazon, a company plagued by strikes against long hours and harsh working conditions, billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos makes the median salary of an Amazon employee every 9 seconds. In 2017 he made 1.2 million times the median Amazon salary.
On average, CEOs are paid 333 times the wages of an average employee at their company.
This gap is only expected to grow as changes put into motion by the GOP tax bill take effect. Rather than delivering an “economic turnaround of historic proportions,” as Trump recently boasted, the bill will likely end up costing well over $1.4 trillion dollars, as it continues to provide handouts to the wealthiest Americans. […]
Coal … pollution … Native Americans … Trump’s ignorance, all of these come together when we look at the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona:
[…] The facility — the biggest coal-burning power plant in the West and one that spews tons of the most hazardous air pollutants — was on its way to shutting down in 2019. Environmental and public health advocates were breathing a sigh of relief.
But then in 2017 the Trump administration stepped in and made saving the coal plant, located on tribal land in Arizona, a top priority of the president’s coal-first energy policy. The Trump administration wanted to ensure the 2,250-megawatt Navajo Generating Station — the seventh biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the country — had a post-2019 future.
[…] Marc Lasry, a top Democratic Party donor, expressed interest in buying the plant.
Lasry is the billionaire chairman and chief executive officer of Avenue Capital Group, a private equity firm that owns Middle River Power, a company that has more than 2,200 megawatts of power generation assets in operation or development.
After several months of researching the economics of purchasing a majority ownership stake in the old and inefficient Navajo Generating Station, Avenue Capital Group and Middle River Power decided the acquisition made financial sense.
Many members of the Navajo Nation have grown frustrated with their land and air serving as a toxic dumping ground so that Phoenix and other population centers to the south can have reliable electricity in their homes. They’ve written to Lasry, urging him not to purchase the plant. […]
Lasry has also had close business dealings with President Donald Trump. He took Trump’s casino business, Trump Entertainment Resorts, into and out of bankruptcy in 2009 […]
Lasry’s team at his private equity firm began to show interest in the Navajo Generating Station after the Trump administration launched efforts to ensure the power plant stayed open beyond its scheduled 2019 retirement date. […]
Russell Begaye, president of the Navajo Nation on whose land the plant sits, said a lease agreement with Avenue Capital Group and Middle River Power could be discussed by tribal lawmakers at a meeting in October. […]
The owners of the Navajo Generating Station and the Kayenta coal mine, along with other groups that support the plant, want people to think they provide jobs to a vast majority of the Navajo Nation, Nicole Horseherder, an organizer with Tó Nizhóni Ání, an environmental group in the Black Mesa Plateau in northeastern Arizona, told ThinkProgress.
“That is completely false. They’re misleading the public by making it seem like the entire Navajo Nation is dependent on this workforce. We are not,” Horseherder said.
When the plant’s owners announced plans to close the plant, the Navajo Nation was offered an opportunity to prepare for a transition away from coal, she said. Leaders could have emphasized the development of renewable energy as a way to make sure no resident was without power. Renewable energy projects also would provide secure jobs.
Solar and wind resource potential on Navajo lands hold promise for longer-lasting benefits as opposed to the plans to prop up coal plants temporarily.
Of equal, if not greater, importance, shutting down the coal plant and mine would allow the Navajo Nation to address the health impacts families have suffered as a result of the region’s dependence on coal for the past four decades. […]
Is another government shutdown looming for the USA?
Congress is facing a September scramble as it returns to Washington ahead of an end-of-the-month deadline to avoid a government shutdown.
Lawmakers get back to the Capitol on Tuesday, giving them just a matter of weeks to clear spending legislation while also juggling other high-profile fights like the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. […]
lawmakers still need to get a deal on the three spending packages they have not cleared so far, a challenge that will require them to defuse partisan policy riders included in the House bills. […]
In the Senate, an agreement between Shelby and appropriations Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to keep partisan “poison pills” and authorizing language out of the appropriations process held strong, allowing the upper chamber to push legislation ahead.
House Republicans, on the other hand, used their bills to take aim at ObamaCare and abortion with measures that are non-starters in the Senate, where Democratic support is needed to fund the government. […]
The upper chamber also rejected an amendment from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that would have stripped Planned Parenthood of federal funding in legislation funding the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The House included such a provision in its committee-passed HHS bill.
GOP leaders in the two chambers are on the same page though when it comes to one issue. Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have indicated they want to punt on funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until after the midterm elections to avoid a potentially explosive fight over funding for Trump’s border wall.
But the contentious issue looms over the broader funding bill. Trump has threatened to veto spending legislation that doesn’t fund his signature policy. [The border wall] […]
“Right now, technically we have $1.6 billion in our bill. … [Trump’s] now asking for $5 billion this year,” Capito told a West Virginia radio station this week. “We’re trying to find the money, that’s not easy.” […]
From The Washington Post: “The truth about the slander Trump will throw at Elizabeth Warren.” The article is by Paul Waldman.
[…] For each enemy, Trump homes in with a schoolyard bully’s intuition for weakness and settles on a single word, usually (but not always) twinned to the target’s first name: Crooked Hillary, Little Marco, Lyin’ Ted, Crazy Bernie. But for Elizabeth Warren, whom he could well face in the 2020 presidential election, Trump long ago settled on “Pocahontas,” a reference to Warren’s family having told her they had Native American ancestors.
[…] At a rally earlier this year, the president said that if he found himself on a debate stage with Warren he’d say to her, “I will give you a million dollars to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you’re an Indian.” For the record, there is no “Are You An Indian?” test; DNA testing on someone such as Warren, who may be 1/32 Cherokee, would probably be inconclusive.
But why is it an issue at all? Why should anyone care what Warren’s grammy told her about her family heritage? The reason is that Republicans, as they have since she first ran for office, will try to claim that Warren exploited her possible Native American heritage to advance her career. […]
This is an accusation that goes far deeper than “she’s dishonest” or “she got something she didn’t deserve.” It is, like so much of our politics, about race. Which is why Trump is attracted to it like a moth to a flame.
The idea Warren got some special advantage from her ancestry has always been ridiculous on its face […] Warren was an academic star who could have gotten a job at pretty much any law school she wanted. […] the Boston Globe has set out to answer the question definitively[…]
In the most exhaustive review undertaken of Elizabeth Warren’s professional history, the Globe found clear evidence, in documents and interviews, that her claim to Native American ethnicity was never considered by the Harvard Law faculty, which voted resoundingly to hire her, or by those who hired her to four prior positions at other law schools. At every step of her remarkable rise in the legal profession, the people responsible for hiring her saw her as a white woman.
To summarize: Warren was told by her older relatives that their family had some Native American heritage, which she’s always been proud of. But she never brought it up when getting a job, and it never gave her any advantage.
[…] Trump is a racist who says racist things, and his use of “Pocahontas” as an insult is certainly racist in and of itself. […]
The idea is to remind conservative white voters of affirmative-action policies they’ve been told for years take opportunities away from deserving white people and deliver them to undeserving minorities. The fact that that isn’t what affirmative action does, and the fact that Warren never got a job because of affirmative action, even if it did, are utterly irrelevant. As we know well by now, Trump will not stop saying something he wants to say no matter how many times people point out it isn’t true. […]
I wish I could say getting the facts out now and understanding the race-baiting purpose behind the attack will better prepare us to grant this controversy no more time and attention than it deserves. But given our recent history, there is no reason to think so.
China is taking full advantage of the sort of vacuum that the Trump administration has created when it comes to helping African nations:
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced $60 billion in aid and loans for Africa on Monday while hosting more than 40 of the continent’s leaders in Beijing, saying that the money came with no expectation of anything in return.
Beijing pushed back on criticism that it was shackling poorer countries with heavy debt burdens they will struggle to pay back, portraying the Chinese government as a magnanimous one motivated only to share its experience of rapid industrialization. […]
The package outlined by Xi also includes medical aid, environmental protection, agricultural training and assistance, and government scholarships and vocational training for more than 100,000 young Africans.
At the last forum, held in Johannesburg three years ago, Xi had also pledged $60 billion in investment. He said Monday that this money had already been granted or earmarked, so the latest announcement represented a second round of $60 billion.
The program is part of Xi’s broader Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious $120-billion-plus project that aims to link 65 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa — together accounting for almost two-thirds of the world’s population — through infrastructure projects and trade.
At a time when President Trump is picking trade fights with the United States’ neighbors and allies, the Chinese leader has appeared to relish the opportunity to appear as a popular international statesman and champion of the liberal economic order. […]
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that the administration may claim executive privilege to block Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein from releasing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report when the investigation is finished, according to a New Yorker report.
Giuliani claims that President Donald Trump’s original legal team—which has undergone many mutations since—cut a deal with Mueller that that the White House can object to public dissemination of information from the probe on the grounds of executive privilege.
When asked if the White House is likely to invoke this clause, Giuliani was frank: “I’m sure we will.”
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon will headline the annual New Yorker festival this year, according to a Monday New York Times report.
Editor David Remnick defended his decision to the Times.
“I have every intention of asking him difficult questions and engaging in a serious and even combative conversation,” he said. “The audience itself, by its presence, puts a certain pressure on a conversation that an interview alone doesn’t do. You can’t jump on and off the record.”
Some observers aren’t buying it, and argue that Bannon’s lack of role in the White House and demonstrated comfort espousing racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic perspectives through his old website, Breitbart, make him an unacceptable guest who is being given an extremely large platform.
Trump is slamming Attorney General Jeff Sessions … again.
Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff……
….The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin’ James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting – UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!
Trump is referring to Representatives Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter. Collins is charged with securities fraud and lying to the FBI. Collins was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump in 2016.
Hunter and his wife are charged with misusing $250,000 in campaign funds, and with falsifying records in order to hide the crime.
Hunter is following Trump’s lead, claiming that the charges against him represent a “political agenda” by the Department of Justice.
Of course, Trump’s complaints against Sessions are ridiculous. The AG is not there to protect Trump or his followers from prosecution. He is there to enforce the law for the American people, and to adhere to the Constitution.
Trump and trumpism are causing deepening rifts between the USA and Germany, according to a German diplomat:
A former German ambassador to the United States is warning that President Trump’s policies could push Germany away from the U.S. and closer toward Russia and China.
“The longer Trump remains in office, the harder it will be to stand up to those in this country and elsewhere in Europe who have been arguing since the Vietnam war that we need to cut the cord with America the bully,” Wolfgang Ischinger told Reuters in an interview published Monday.
“It would become much harder for the German government to stay the course and defend this relationship,” he added. “And the forces calling for a closer relationship with countries like Russia or China might be emboldened.” […]
Trump is bullying Pakistan by cutting $300 million in aid to that country. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Pakistan on the 5th, right after the cuts in aid. What could go wrong?
[…] Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Kone Faulkner told Reuters last week that the U.S. was cutting the aid because of “a lack of Pakistani decisive actions.”
“Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy the remaining $300 [million] was reprogrammed,” Faulkner said.
Qureshi said Sunday night that the U.S. wasn’t justified to cut the funding because it was supposed to serve as a reimbursement, not as aid.
“It is not aid. It is not assistance, which was suspended. This the money, which we have spent. This is our money. We have spent it,” Qureshi said. “We did it for our betterment, which they had to reimburse.”
Relations between Washington and Islamabad have deteriorated throughout 2018, which began with President Trump tweeting on Jan. 1 that the U.S. “has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years.”
Qureshi should not expect Trump to honor previous agreements; nor can he expect Trump to understand the nuances of the deal, of the aid money … of anything.
I’d said I wasn’t going to say anything about my source for the quotes Trump made off the record to Bloomberg.
However, I don’t want to be party to the president’s smearing of excellent, ethical journalists. So I can say this: none of the Bloomberg interviewers was my source.
Trump is calling Jennifer Jacobs, Margaret Talev and their editor liars. They aren’t, and they didn’t violate their “off the record” promise to him. I don’t want to be a party to his attempt to make fellow reporters look deceitful.
So: I’m not going to engage in an “OK if it isn’t them than who was it” game, but the president is incorrect when he claims he was wronged by his interviewers.
What Trump claimed, via Twitter, without proof:
Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!
Still can’t believe that Bloomberg violated a firm OFF THE RECORD statement. Will they put out an apology?
Manfort’s daughter is changing her last name. Understandable.
The daughter of […] Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has filed the paperwork to legally change her last name. Jessica Anne Manafort filed all the paperwork to make the name change legal in the Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday. The move came a few weeks after Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight fraud charges.
“I would like my new name to be Jessica Anne Bond, in place of my present name,” the 36-year-old said in the legal filing. Bond is her mother’s maiden name […] the independent filmmaker said she wants the name change “to separate myself and my work from a public perception that has nothing to do with the person that I am.”
[…] “I am a passionate liberal and a registered Democrat and this has been difficult for me. Although I am ‘the daughter of,’ I am very much my own person and hopefully people can realize that,” she said.
[…] A new series launched Sunday evening on state television, focusing on the Russian leader’s weekly activities. The one-hour show, called “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin,” comes as Putin suffers one of his largest dips in popularity for years.
While Putin appears almost daily on state television, a show of this type is uncharted territory for the leader.
In the program, Putin is shown speaking to gifted teenagers about the inner workings of diplomacy and also attending the funeral of beloved crooner Iosif Kobzon, the Russian “Frank Sinatra,” who died last week at age 80.
Viewers are also treated to never-seen-before footage of Putin’s vacation last month to Siberia. The 65-year-old leader is shown puffing up a mountain with a hiking staff, collecting wild berries in his chest pocket and watching wildlife as he mutters under his breath, “They’re not afraid of us.” […]
That was fast: “David Remnick just informed staff that Steve Bannon will not be appearing at the New Yorker Festival.”
Statement(s) from Remnick at the link. I’m very concerned that so many in the media don’t seem to understand the problem with giving people like Bannon a platform, or that what they see as valuable and significant information coming out of their interviews is something many of us already knew, or that they don’t have to dedicate an entire interview or profile to these racist hatemongers, but could just include responses from interviews with them in articles about, say, racist hatemongering.
And this makes me wonder about decision-making at the New Yorker. Is there any democratic, collaborative process at all, or is it just Remnick deciding things alone?
The Senate was just given an additional 42,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents the NIGHT BEFORE his confirmation hearing. This underscores just how absurd this process is. Not a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow.
Republicans know this has been the least transparent SCOTUS process in history and the hearings should be delayed until we can fully review Judge Kavanaugh’s records.
Sally Yates: “Repeatedly trying to pervert DOJ into a weapon to go after his adversaries, and now shamelessly complaining that DOJ should protect his political allies to maintain his majority in the midterms, is nothing short of an all out assault on the rule of law.”
quotetheunquotesays
@sc #194:
Those are good (esp. when one gets down to the comments about “driving their F-150s of a cliff”), but I’m lost at the first re-tweet, unfortunately – what’s Nike done?
The trending hashtags on the Hamilton 68 dashboard (which tracks “Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations”) concern a Nike boycott (now trending on Twitter), Idlib, and Jeremy Corbyn.
quotetheunquotesays
Thanks SC – perhaps this news just hadn’t gotten past the “northern border wall” yet.
southpaw: “The Dems persist in asking for votes on motions to adjourn or postpone, which Grassley persists in ruling out of order and just now “denied” unilaterally. Grassley has a majority on this committee and (presumably) could win these motions, but won’t agree to a test of strength.”
Others have pointed out that they lack a majority right now because Graham and Crapo are missing.
Grassley’s wry facial expression is not cutting it in responding to the barrage of questions and challenges from Democrats to this travesty of a process.
. @SenatorLeahy: “This is unprecedented… I’m just sorry to see the Senate Judiciary Committee descend this way.” Says for Justice Elena Kagan’s hearing, 99% of documents were made available to the committee 12 days before the hearing. For Kavanaugh: 7%.”
They need to consider and vote on Blumenthal’s motion to adjourn.
Brian Schatz: “I’ve seen enough. I will vote no. As long as the republicans refuse to release 96 percent of the Kavanaugh records, this process is illegitimate. Every other SCOTUS nominee has turned over nearly everything, and I am now convinced they are hiding something.”
The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his lawyers about whether the president would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller’s office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump’s January practice session.
Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: “I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?’ ”
“John, I understand,” Mueller replied, according to Woodward.
Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”
But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise.
“I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.
“You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.”
This is not the conduct of a president committed to defending and upholding the constitution, but rather a president looking to use the Department of Justice to settle political scores.
From Ben Sasse:
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has criticized Trump’s statements and moves in the past, responded to the president’s tweets with a statement titled: “The United States Is Not Some Banana Republic.”
“The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice — one for the majority party and one for the minority party,” Sasse said. “These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the president was when the investigations began. Instead of commenting on ongoing investigations and prosecutions, the job of the President of the United States is to defend the Constitution and protect the impartial administration of justice.”
From Steve Benen:
[…] Flake and Sasse could, today, announce that they’ll withhold their support for all judicial nominees until lawmakers take meaningful steps to curtail Trump’s abuses. Given the current makeup of the chamber, GOP leaders would have no choice but to give Flake and Sasse anything they wanted.
The question isn’t whether they have power; it’s what they intend to do with that power.
And if the answer is, they’ll release strongly worded criticisms, that will be unsatisfying.
I’d ask Flake and Sasse, among others, to consider the circumstances we find ourselves in. A president of dubious legitimacy, facing an ongoing criminal investigation, is hiding documents about his Supreme Court nominee. The same president is simultaneously trying to use federal prosecutions as a political weapon, while asking the Senate to give a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court to a jurist whom a plurality of Americans oppose, and who’s argued that presidents shouldn’t ever have to face judicial scrutiny.
Are GOP senators who recognize the severity of the circumstances prepared to do anything other than issue rhetorical admonishments?
Over the weekend, after services for McCain, the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser ran into Flake, who said, in apparent reference to his party’s direction, “The fever will break eventually. It has to.”
But treating fevers isn’t always easy. Some are inclined to wait, let the body fight its infection, and hope that the fever will eventually subside. Others believe in proactive steps – such as taking medicine – to lower the temperature.
Will the GOP’s fever “break eventually”? Maybe, maybe not. What I want to know is what Republicans like Jeff Flake and Ben Sasse are prepared to do to treat their party’s ailment.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was murdered in the Parkland shooting: “Just walked up to Judge Kavanaugh as morning session ended. Put out my hand to introduce myself as Jaime Guttenberg’s dad. He pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence.”
There have always been irritants in relations between India and the United States. But few have been as perplexing to New Delhi, or left as bitter a taste, as President Trump’s tendency to mock Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s accent in English.
A video of Mr. Trump imitating Mr. Modi has gone viral in New Delhi. So have reports that Mr. Trump often mimics his Indian counterpart in internal discussions.
From NBC News about three years ago:
[…] GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump used broken English and a bad accent to illustrate his past experience with Asian business partners.
“Negotiating with Japan, negotiating with China, when these people walk into the room, they don’t say, ‘Oh, hello, how’s the weather, so beautiful outside, isn’t it lovely? How are the Yankees doing? Oh they are doing wonderful. Great,’” said Trump, Tuesday night at a rally in Dubuque, Iowa. “They say, ‘We want deal!’”
Recently, Trump made fun of Jeff Sessions’ southern accent.
[…] personally signed federal tax returns — under penalty of perjury — swearing that his foundation wasn’t used for political and/or business purposes, and we now know there’s quite a bit of evidence that suggests it was used for both.
As Rachel recently noted on the show, the New York Times reported two weeks ago that the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance “has opened an investigation into whether the Donald J. Trump Foundation violated state tax laws, a move that could lead to a criminal referral for possible prosecution.”
Late last week, we saw the first formal response from Trump lawyers about the allegations.
Lawyers for President Trump’s charitable foundation pushed back aggressively against the New York State attorney general’s office in court papers on Thursday, calling a lawsuit against the charity a political attack motivated by the former attorney general’s “record of antipathy” against Mr. Trump.
This … isn’t smart.
In the court filing, Trump’s lawyers went on and on, condemning former state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D), attacking his motives, and even questioning why Schneiderman didn’t target Hillary Clinton’s charitable foundation.
The trouble is, Schneiderman, who resigned in early May, isn’t responsible for the allegations against the Trump Foundation. His successor, acting New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed the case in mid-June.
Trump’s lawyers also shrugged off the aforementioned substantive allegations, which are more serious than the attorneys seem prepared to admit.
The New Yorker’s Adam Davidson recently reported on a court proceeding in which “the judge in the case, Saliann Scarpulla, made a series of comments and rulings from the bench that hinted – well, all but screamed – that she believes the Trump family has done some very bad things.”
The judge has urged the Trumps to settle. The president has said he won’t.
I realize there are more than a few scandals surrounding Team Trump right now, but it’d be a mistake to overlook this one.
President Donald Trump called Attorney General Jeff Sessions “mentally retarded” and a “dumb Southerner” who “couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama,” according to a Washington Post report on an advance copy of Bob Woodward’s White House memoir “Fear.”
President Donald Trump called Attorney General Jeff Sessions “mentally retarded” and a “dumb Southerner” who “couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama,” according to a Washington Post report on an advance copy of Bob Woodward’s White House memoir “Fear.”
[…] Trump constantly mocks and puts down his own staff
– Trump called former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus a “little rat” who “scurries around”
– Trump said former Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster dresses like a “beer salesman”
– Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was “past his prime” and that he didn’t trust him to make deals
– Trump said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is “mentally retarded” and a “dumb Southerner”
White House staffers often mock the President behind his back and fight internally
– Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that Trump has the understanding of “a fifth or sixth grader”
– Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an “idiot” and said that being his chief of staff was “the worst job” he ever had […]
Trump told Mattis to “fucking kill” Assad
– Trump told Mattis to “fucking kill” Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad after he attacked his own people, and Mattis ignored the order and deescalated the situation after the President left. Trump also reportedly asked for plans of a preemptive military strike on North Korea only one month into his presidency. […]
Here’s the lightly annotated transcript of Trump’s long talk with Woodward in which he repeatedly lies about whether Woodward’s request for an interview had been communicated to him. Love these segments:
BW: Kellyanne?
Conway: Bob, how are you? Hi.
BW: Hi. Remember two and a half months ago you came over and I laid out, I wanted to talk to the president? And you said you would get back to me?
…
BW: Yeah, well, about six or seven people. I tried. And I couldn’t have — you and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne. And I said, I want to cover the substantive issues in foreign policy and domestic policy. And you said you would get back to me. Nothing.
Conway: Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions, but . ..
BW: Who are the people?
Conway: But anyway, I’ll give you back to the president. And I’m glad to hear that you tried through seven or eight different people. That’s good. You should tell him all the names. [Laughs] Thank you.
Trump: But you never called for me. It would’ve been nice, Bob, if you called for me, in my office. I mean, I have a secretary. I have two, three secretaries. If you would’ve called directly — a lot of people are afraid . . . Raj, I hardly have . . . I don’t speak to Raj.
Conway, determined it won’t be her, seems to be working here to figure out who’s going to be scapegoated for this.
[…] Trump constantly mocks and puts down his own staff
Trump called former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus a “little rat” who “scurries around”
Trump said former Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster dresses like a “beer salesman”
Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was “past his prime” and that he didn’t trust him to make deals
Trump said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is “mentally retarded” and a “dumb Southerner”
White House staffers often mock the President behind his back and fight internally
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that Trump has the understanding of “a fifth or sixth grader”
Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an “idiot” and said that being his chief of staff was “the worst job” he ever had […]
Trump told Mattis to “fucking kill” Assad
Trump told Mattis to “fucking kill” Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad after he attacked his own people, and Mattis ignored the order and deescalated the situation after the President left. Trump also reportedly asked for plans of a preemptive military strike on North Korea only one month into his presidency. […]
I deleted the excerpt I had prepared for this comment because it won’t post. Apparently, there is text that breaks the rules, but I’ll be damned if I can find it.
Lynna: “I deleted the excerpt I had prepared for this comment because it won’t post. Apparently, there is text that breaks the rules, but I’ll be damned if I can find it.”
Could be the same I just tried to link to – about Trump’s comments about Sessions. Didn’t go through twice, I suspected because of the phrase that can be abbreviated m.r. and was in both the text and the link.
Grassley’s responses to Blumenthal are outrageous. Blumenthal read the rule, Rule 4, which requires the chair to entertain the motion. Grassley claimed the rule only applied when they were in an executive business meeting. Blumenthal asked him to read the language in the rule that limits this to executive committee meetings, and Grassley snapped back, “I want you to show me the language to the contrary.” Blumenthal just read the language to the contrary. It’s the language of the fucking rule.
The White House has an official response to Woodward’s book:
This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.
That’s from Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Sarah H.S. did not dispute any specific anecdotes from the book. She did go on to say:
Sometimes it is unconventional, but he [Trump] always gets results. Democrats and their allies in the media understand the President’s policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020 – not even close.
If they [White House staffers] said it, they should be questioning why they are there. Why don’t they go get another job? That’s the kind of disloyalty that leads to you leaving, not staying and undermining the president.
[…] America’s strong relationship with South Korea boils down to two main components: defense and trade.
The greatest example of that second component is the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, under which both countries trade around $145 billion in goods and services a year mostly tariff-free. That deal helps the US keep its ally’s economy thriving, and maintains a key friend in the region — all while stimulating the US economy back home.
Yet it appears Trump was very close to removing the US from that agreement. According to Woodward, Trump had a letter on his desk that — had he signed it — would’ve withdrawn the US from the free-trade deal. Trump has previously expressed a desire to leave that accord.
Gary Cohn, then Trump’s top economic adviser, was so fearful Trump might sign it that he removed the letter from the president desk.
“I stole it off his desk,” Cohn told someone close to him. “I wouldn’t let him see it. He’s never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.”
Stealing documents, Woodward notes, is something Trump staffers repeatedly do to keep the president from harming US national security. Woodward described the tactic as “no less than an administrative coup d’état.”
There may have been serious repercussions had Trump signed the letter.
For one, the US would’ve lost a staunch ally and an important partner in talks with North Korea. Second, Seoul may have kicked out America’s roughly 28,500 troops from the country. And third, it likely may have hurt a secret US program to detect a North Korean missile launch within seven seconds.
Trump could still decide to withdraw from the deal in the future. If that’s the case, his staffers will surely have to give him a letter to sign.
4) Egypt’s president brought up the Russia investigation during a negotiation
It seems at least one world leader is paying close attention to the Robert Mueller probe.
The Trump administration worked with Egypt to release Aya Hijazi, an Egyptian-American aid worker, from captivity in April 2017. During a call with Trump to discuss her release, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made a startling comment.
“Donald, I’m worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?” al-Sisi asked, according to Woodward. Trump told his then-top personal lawyer that his chat with Sisi was “like a kick in the nuts.”
Ultimately, Trump secured Hijazi’s release. But this episode brings up an important question: How many other leaders worry that Trump may not last in his position because of the probe? It’s possible US relations with other countries are somewhat on pause as leaders wait to find out the president’s fate.
If that’s the case, it’s a troubling position for the world’s most powerful person to be in. […]
From Wonkette’s coverage of the Brett Kavanaugh hearing:
Everybody drink! Ted Cruz just said “Hillary Clinton” and “five unelected lawyers” and “liberal agenda” all in the same shitfaced rant, which means you get to drink THREE SHOTS.
Ted Cruz says the Gorsuch nomination and the Kavanaugh nomination have a “super-legitimacy” because the American people voted SO OVERWHELMINGLY in 2016 for Trump to be able to put fascists on the Supreme Court. In Ted Cruz’s reading, losing the popular vote by three million and squeaking into office thanks to Russia, James Comey, and a handful of idiots in the Rust Belt is the definition of OVERWHELMINGLY.
One story of Trump being corrected by Mattis, (this is from a discussion in the Washington Post of Woodward’s book):
At a dinner with Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, Trump lashed out at a vocal critic, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He falsely suggested that the former Navy pilot had been a coward for taking early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his father’s military rank and leaving others behind.
Mattis swiftly corrected his boss: “No, Mr. President, I think you’ve got it reversed.” The defense secretary explained that McCain, who died Aug. 25, had in fact turned down early release and was brutally tortured during his five years at the Hanoi Hilton.
“Oh, okay,” Trump replied, according to Woodward’s account.
Russia claims there are no LGBTI people in Chechnya.
It’s been well over a year and a half since the first report that Chechnya was rounding up men suspected of homosexuality and detaining them in concentration camps, torturing them, and in some cases killing them. Now, 15 countries are using an international cooperative agreement to demand answers from Russia about the ongoing persecution and its apparent hands-off approach.
[…] Russia’s investigation boldly concluded that there were no LGBTQ people in Chechnya whatsoever. “There weren’t even representatives of LGBTI in Chechnya,” Alexander Konovalov, Russia’s minister of Justice, told the United Nations Human Rights Council. “We weren’t able to find anyone.”
A spokesperson for Chechnya’s president Ramzan Kadyrov similarly claimed last year, “You cannot arrest or repress people who just don’t exist in the republic.” He counted on families to exile any queer people who might turn up. “If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them since their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return,” he said.
The 15 OSCE countries were not persuaded by this explanation.
“This claim stands in stark contrast to the detailed accounts of multiple survivors contained in NGO and media reporting, including Maxim Lapunov who bravely came forward to publicly share his account of torture and ill-treatment by Chechen security officials,” their statement explained. “Instead of providing answers, Minister Konovalov’s statement only raises more questions about the seriousness of Russia’s investigation into these events.” […]
The Vienna Mechanism gives Russia 10 days to respond.
The 15 countries that signed the letter include Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. […]
Human Rights Watch called this invocation of the Vienna Mechanism a “significant” and “rare” step. If Russia does not respond in a timely and credible way, these countries could then invoke the “Moscow Mechanism,” which would mandate an independent investigation to report on the abuses. That has only ever been done twice, in Turkmenistan in 2003 and Belarus in 2011.
Other efforts to keep Trump from screwing thing up:
Congressional GOP leaders will meet with […] Trump Wednesday afternoon, the latest in an ongoing lobbying effort to convince the president not to shutter the government before Election Day, according to multiple sources. […]
The federal government’s fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, just a few weeks before the critical midterm elections. But Trump has threatened to veto any spending measures that don’t include $5 billion for his border wall with Mexico.
With Senate Democrats loath to give in without their own immigration concessions, GOP leaders have set in motion a plan to delay the funding fight over border security until after the election. But Trump has sent mixed signals about whether or not he will go along.
GOP leaders, fighting to save their majorities in Congress, have been impressing upon the president their belief that the House could be lost if Republicans shut the government down so close to Election Day. There are some factions in the White House, however, that believe the House is already lost and that the president should fight on for his own priorities while he still can.
NBC FAKE NEWS, which is under intense scrutiny over their killing the Harvey Weinstein story, is now fumbling around making excuses for their probably highly unethical conduct. I have long criticized NBC and their journalistic standards-worse than even CNN. Look at their license?
It’s just another bad book. He’s had a lot of credibility problems.
I probably would have preferred to speak to him, but maybe not. I think it probably wouldn’t have made a difference in the book. He wanted to write the book a certain way.
It’s just nasty stuff. I never spoke to him. Maybe I wasn’t given messages that he called. I probably would have spoken to him if he’d called, if he’d gotten through. For some reason I didn’t get messages on it.
[…] there was nobody taking anything from me. [A reference to the stories about people removing papers from his desk so that they would not be signed.] It could be just made up by the author.
Trump characterized the Democratic Senator’s approach during the Kavanaugh hearing today as “mean, angry, and despicable.”
The Brett Kavanaugh hearings for the future Justice of the Supreme Court are truly a display of how mean, angry, and despicable the other side is.
They will say anything, and are only…looking to inflict pain and embarrassment to one of the most highly renowned jurists to ever appear before Congress. So sad to see!
Dianne Feinstein: “I invited @Fred_Guttenberg to sit in the audience at today’s hearing because the Supreme Court affects the lives of real people. He knows firsthand how Brett Kavanaugh’s extreme views on guns could lead to more massacres. Thank you Fred, for honoring your daughter.”
In recent conversations with confidants, President Donald Trump has added FBI Director Christopher Wray to his list of key members of his administration whom he complains about, three people familiar with the discussions tell NBC News.
Trump has criticized Wray as another figure in the Justice Department who is not protecting his interests — and is possibly out to undermine his presidency, these people said.
Trump is “in the worst mood of his presidency and calling friends and allies to vent about his selection of (Attorney General Jeff) Sessions and Wray,” said one person familiar with the president’s thinking. This person said the president was particularly focused on both men over the Labor Day weekend.
Trump has frequently tweeted about the Russia probe and more than once has criticized the Justice Department, the FBI and Sessions by name. But until now, the president has been cautious about publicly criticizing the person he appointed after firing former FBI Director James Comey….
Natasha Bertrand: “Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter died in the Parkland shooting, tells @cnn that Kavanaugh not only wouldn’t shake his hand—he asked security to remove Guttenberg from the hearing, and identified him by the bracelets he wears to commemorate his daughter.”
Two Russian nationals have been named and charged over the novichok poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, Wiltshire. British police and prosecutors made the announcement on Wednesday.
Police said the two men were travelling on authentic Russian passports under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov and arrived in the UK on an Aeroflot flight days before the attack. The Crown Prosecution Service said there was enough evidence to charge them. British investigators said the two men were believed to have worked for Russia’s GRU secret service.
The CPS said it had charged the two men with conspiracy to murder the Skripals and DS Nick Bailey, who fell ill after going to the Skripal home after the Russian pair were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury.
The two Russian suspects are also charged with the use and possession of novichok, contrary to the Chemical Weapons Act. They are also charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Yulia Skripal and DS Bailey.
They have not been charged with the later poisoning that killed Dawn Sturgess and left Charlie Rowley seriously ill, after they became unwell on 30 June at an address in Amesbury, Wiltshire.
The investigation has recovered CCTV of the two suspects after they flew into Gatwick airport and stayed in the City Stay hotel in east London. After arriving on Friday 2 March on an Aeroflot flight, they went to Salisbury on the Saturday in what police said they were satisfied was a reconnaissance trip.
They returned to London that day and went back to Salisbury on Sunday, when police say CCTV showed them in the vicinity of the Skripal house. Police believe that after contaminating the front door of the property, they immediately went to Heathrow via train and London underground and flew back on Sunday night at 10.30pm. Health experts said no one they travelled with on the flights or trains is believed to be in danger and no one else is reported to have fallen ill.
…
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “The names published by the media, like the photographs, don’t mean anything to us.” Zakharova said she “again urged Britain to refrain from public accusations” and work with Russian law enforcement authorities to investigate the attack in Salisbury….
May says the government was right to say in March the Russian state was responsible.
Now she can go further, she says.
She can tell MPs that, based on a body of intelligence, the two Russians are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU.
She says the operation would “almost certainly” have been approved not just within the GRU, but by senior figures in the Russian state. It was not a “rogue operation”, she says.
Mr Speaker, our allies acted in good faith – and the painstaking work of our police and intelligence agencies over the last six months further reinforces that they were right to do so.
Together, we will continue to show that those who attempt to undermine the international rules based system cannot act with impunity.
We will continue to press for all of the measures agreed so far to be fully implemented, including the creation of a new EU Chemical Weapons sanctions regime.
But we will not stop there.
We will also push for new EU sanctions regimes against those responsible for cyber-attacks and gross human rights violations – and for new listings under the existing regime against Russia.
And we will work with our partners to empower the OPCW to attribute chemical weapons attacks to other states beyond Syria.
Most significantly, Mr Speaker, what we have learnt from today’s announcement is the specific nature of the threat from the Russian GRU.
We know that the GRU has played a key part in malign Russian activity in recent years.
And today we have exposed their role behind the despicable chemical weapons attack on the streets of Salisbury.
The actions of the GRU are a threat to all our allies and to all our citizens.
And on the basis of what we have learnt in the Salisbury investigation – and what we know about this organisation more broadly – we must now step up our collective efforts, specifically against the GRU.We are increasing our understanding of what the GRU is doing in our countries, shining a light on their activities, exposing their methods and sharing them with our allies, just as we have done with Salisbury.
And, Mr Speaker, while the House will appreciate that I cannot go into details, together with our allies we will deploy the full range of tools from across our National Security apparatus in order to counter the threat posed by the GRU.
Ayanna Pressley is all but assured of becoming the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts, the latest example of the Democratic Party’s embrace of diversity and progressive politics as the recipe for success in the Trump era.
The 44-year-old’s upset victory against longtime Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano in Tuesday’s primary sets the stage for Pressley to represent an area once served by Tip O’Neill and John F. Kennedy. Her win comes at the tail end of a primary season in which black politicians have made a series of advances.
In nearby Connecticut, Jahana Hayes is on track to become that state’s first black woman to win a congressional seat if she prevails in November. And black politicians in three states — Florida, Georgia and Maryland — have won the Democratic nomination for governor, a historic turn for a country that has elected just two black governors in U.S. history….
“Theresa May spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening to update him on the latest development in the Salisbury investigation, the PM’s official spokesman said.”
You’ll be unsurprised to learn that Trump, though actively tweeting a variety of nonsense, hasn’t made a statement about it.
Among other oddities, the use of a TSP loan for anything other than a medical emergency or some other necessity is extremely unusual, especially for a mid career judge. To use one for baseball tickets? I assure you he’d be the only one to ever do that if it’s indeed true.
Also worth noting, his financial disclosure forms indicate that he did the exact same thing — three maxed credit cards and a TSP loan — a decade earlier as well.”
There’s so much that’s sketchy about this nominee and nomination.
[I]n the man and his presidency [former Trump lawyer John] Dowd had seen the tragic flaw. In the political back-and-forth, the evasions, the denials, the tweeting, the obscuring, crying ‘Fake News,’ the indignation, Trump had one overriding problem that Dowd knew but could not bring himself to say to the president: ‘You’re a f@#$ing liar’.
As Brett Kavanaugh enters his second day of contentious confirmation hearings for his nomination to the Supreme Court, he could face questions about his finances on subjects ranging from baseball tickets to the down payment for his home.
In a little-noticed letter dated Aug. 30, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut raised a series of questions about Kavanaugh’s financial disclosure, including several years of large credit card balances maintained during his time as a judge on the D.C. Circuit.
In July, the White House told the Washington Post that these balances were a consequence of Kavanaugh incurring large debts — tens of thousands of dollars — to purchase Nationals season tickets for a group of friends, who later paid him back, as well as home improvements. Blumenthal’s letter asks Kavanaugh for details about both types of expenditures, including identifying the group of friends he bought tickets for.
In his recent financial disclosure reports, Kavanaugh reported that the credit card debt and a separate loan against his retirement account, known as a Thrift Savings Program, have been repaid in full. However, the source of the funds used to repay these debts is unknown. Kavanaugh says, via the White House, he finally received reimbursement for the season tickets from his friends, but it’s unclear how he managed to pay back the loan and the debt arising from home improvements.
The inquiries into Kavanaugh’s personal finances, however, extend well beyond those previously reported issues…
.@SenFeinstein: are you worried about AR-15s being used in so many school shootings?
#Kavanaugh: Yea, it’s sad. But we need to ‘harden’ our schools. Lots of people use AR-15s for self defense. (Shorter: School shootings are the price we pay for “freedom”)”
The NRA, whose sources of funds and links to the Kremlin are under federal investigation, has spent millions to back Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“With Kavanaugh, Trump chose SCOTUS nominee with most aggressive views on expanding Presidential power and he just refused to answer whether a President must respond to subpoena, called it ‘hypothetical’.”
“An angle to this that may not be obvious: D aides tell me that Grassley’s staff sought advance lists from them of ‘committee confidential’ documents they wanted to use in questioning. Ds objected to this because they’d essentially have to tip their hand on what q’s would look at.”
This is insane, especially given the content of Leahy’s questioning, which concerned Kavanaugh’s knowledge of documents stolen from Democrats about their possible questioning of judicial candidates.
Leahy was talking about stolen confidential Democratic documents provided to Kavanaugh by this character. So the committee actually has possession of these documents and hasn’t made them public (yet). As someone asked on Twitter, if this is something they provided to the full committee, can you imagine what they’re hiding? Also, this Republican corruption and lawlessness surrounding judicial nominations (and evrything else – see Kash Patel and company) is so deep and longstanding it’s breathtaking.
I mean, every bit of their sleazy history from the Nixon administration on that’s uncovered or revisited makes Republican collusion with the Kremlin expected and perfectly in character. In their case, there’s just no separating what they were prepared to do domestically to get and hold power from the probability that foreign actors would successfully cooperate in those efforts.
From Steve Benen, more details that show that Trump often ignores the advice of those around him, and that, in turn, they ignore his orders:
Bob Woodward’s new book on Donald Trump’s presidency is filled with notable revelations, but one of the anecdotes from yesterday’s Washington Post report stood out for me.
After Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called [Defense Secretary James] Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s f***ing kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the f***ing lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward.
Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured.” The national security team developed options for the more conventional airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.
Like nearly everyone in the president’s orbit, Mattis issued a statement pushing back against this and other anecdotes from Woodward’s book. The longtime journalist, not surprisingly, stands by his work.
[…] Trump announced in June that he had “instructed” U.S. officials “not to endorse” an official G-7 communique negotiated by diplomats from member nations. Officials didn’t much care about the tweet and they proceeded to ignore Trump’s online instructions. […]
In April, the president announced via Twitter that Russia should “get ready” because he was poised to launch a military offensive in Syria. White House officials found Trump’s declaration “distracting,” and proceeded “as if nothing had happened.”
A couple of months earlier, Trump asked Defense Secretary James Mattis to provide him with military options for Iran. The Pentagon chief reportedly “refused.”
Making matters slightly worse, last summer, the president published missives barring transgender Americans from military service. Soon after, the Joint Chiefs effectively ignored it, leaving the status quo in place.
We’re not even sure if relevant officials revoked former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance, as Trump directed. […]
Trump’s willingness to ignore his team has been well documented, but to fully appreciate the level of dysfunction within the Trump administration, it’s important to appreciate his team’s willingness to ignore him, too.
Bob Woodward’s book paints a portrait of a president constitutionally incapable of telling the truth, without the knowledge to keep our country safe and unwilling to learn. In sum, a man utterly unfit for office.
America cannot afford a Congress that acts as a rubber stamp.
President Donald Trump and his White House stepped up efforts to discredit veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s explosive new book on Wednesday after excerpts revealed stunning details of turmoil inside the administration.
Trump spent Tuesday night tweeting criticism of the book, titled “Fear” and scheduled to be published on Sept. 11, and then followed that up on Wednesday by tweeting it was “a shame” that “someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact and get away with it without retribution or cost.”
“Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws?” he added.
Later, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters he wasn’t interested in changing the laws.
“Do I favor changing libel laws? No — no is that something that has been suggested?” Ryan asked. “I was busy working this morning I have not been looking at my phone.”…
A) History won’t be kind to Paul Ryan.
B) Trump is literally defending a libel case in CA right now.
What Trump said to Bloomberg News when asked about judicial confirmations in the last year of Obama’s presidency: “I think they forgot. I really do, I believe they forgot.” He meant that Obama and his team “forgot” to nominate people to the judiciary.
What Senator Lindsey Graham said yesterday:
You had a chance and you lost. If you want to pick judges from your way of thinking, then you better win an election…. We have turned the history of the Senate upside down.
Effing liars. Hypocrites. Obama won two elections. He tried to fill vacancies, including a Supreme Court vacancy. Republicans, including Graham, refused to give Merrick Garland a hearing. And they likewise put up roadblocks to confirming other justices.
In 2016, Republicans said that if Hillary Clinton won, they would block her judicial nominees. They would block nominees until a Republican was president, no matter how long that took.
As far as ““You had a chance and you lost” goes, Graham is overlooking the popular vote, which Clinton won, and he is overlooking intervention from Russian. Not a clean “win” for Trump.
Kavanaugh is tap dancing at a pretty frenetic pace when it comes to questions about abortion:
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh walked a careful line as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) questioned him about his views on Supreme Court decisions establishing abortion rights.
“As a judge, it is an important precedent of the Supreme Court,” he said, while discussing both Roe v. Wade, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed the constitutional right to an abortion.
Feinstein had asked him whether he viewed Roe as “settled law.”
He called it “settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court entitled to respect under stare decisis.”
Kavanaugh started going over the details of the Casey decision, until Feinstein attempted to return to his own views and how they might have changed since he worked in the George W. Bush administration.
“I understand how passionate and how deeply people feel about this issue,” Kavanaugh says on abortion rights. “I don’t live in a bubble.”
The real plan is to discredit Mueller and to prevent the public from ever seeing any report he generates:
[…] When Rudy Giuliani says that Donald Trump intends to block Mueller’s report from reaching the House, much less the public, there is little doubt this is Trump’s strategy. Before one congressman gets a peek at the report, it will be in the hands of the White House, and the White House will decide if a single word of what Mueller has uncovered goes on … or goes in the shredder. Giuliani is saying now, in advance of any release, that Trump intends to block at least part of the report. That’s the new baseline.
[…] He admits flat out that his intention is to smear Robert Mueller because “If Mueller remains the white knight, it becomes more likely that Congress might at some point turn on Trump.” So Giuliani has “set out to destroy Mueller’s reputation.” […]
The plan assembled by Trump and Giuliani isn’t hidden. Because they believe that putting it out there in the open defuses the shock.
Trump will hold any report issued by Mueller, excising huge swaths of information related to the campaign, the transition, or the White House.
Trump’s legal team will prepare—and in fact, has already prepared—a counter-report that focuses on attacking Mueller’s reputation, claiming that all the charges are political, and asserting that most areas of investigation are out of bounds.
Should Mueller’s report not arrive before November, it will have to get past a new attorney general, as Republicans have already agreed to let Jefferson Sessions go after the election. Even if Democrats take one or both chambers of Congress, the new AG will very likely end the investigation and ensure that any information uncovered gets re-covered, leaving Democrats in the spot of having to fight for it, item by item, against a hostile DOJ.
Giuliani and Trump will do everything they can to demean Mueller, insult his investigators, and damage the reputation of the FBI and DOJ, because they realize that this is not a legal fight, it’s a political fight. Mueller may appear with a stack of indictments a mile high—in fact, it seems extraordinarily likely that the special counsel will produce charges related to money-laundering, tax evasion, and bank fraud in addition to obstruction and conspiracy—but none of it will matter if the report never becomes visible. […]
Good explanation of the style of tap dancing in which Kavanaugh is engaging:
[…] Scott Lemieux recently had a good piece on this for NBC News, explaining, “The opponents of legal abortion who supported Trump and Kavanaugh know exactly what they’re doing and what they’re getting in Kavanaugh.”
…Roberts’s claim, now echoed by Kavanaugh, that Roe was settled precedent is technically true, but not very meaningful. Roberts also correctly observed that the Court is not always bound by its own precedents, and the criteria he outlined for deciding when overruling a precedent is appropriate did not rule out the overruling of Roe. […]
To say that Roe is an important precedent, or even a “settled” precedent, is merely stating a truism that does not in itself tell us anything about how a Supreme Court justice will rule on that precedent.
It’s not that Kavanaugh is lying, so much as he’s playing a little rhetorical game. Sure, he sees Roe as “settled,” insofar as previous justices issued a landmark ruling. But the Supreme Court has overruled settled precedents hundreds of times. All it takes is five justices to agree a previous decision was wrong.
And given what we know of Kavanaugh’s record, he wants to be one of those five.
Trump threw his eldest son, Don Junior, under the bus … again.
[…] Trump blamed his eldest son for billionaire conservative gubernatorial candidate Foster Friess’ primary loss in Wyoming last month.
“So you have been batting almost 1000 on primary endorsements. You have to be pretty proud of that,” an interviewer from The Daily Caller said.
“And the one I didn’t get was Friess, I was asked to do that, by my son Don, and I did it but I did it — I was asked the morning of — and by the time I did it I guess 70 percent, almost 70 percent of the vote was already cast,” Trump said. “So, I don’t consider that to be, maybe I’ll take a quarter of a loss on that one. But I think it’s 48 and a quarter, it’s 48-1 which is pretty good, right? Pretty good.”
Kavanaugh even demurred when he was asked about presidents pardoning themselves.
“The question of self-pardons is something I’ve never analyzed. It is a question that I’ve not written about,” Kavanaugh said. “It is a question therefore that is a hypothetical question that I can’t begin to answer in this context as a sitting judge and as a nominee to the Supreme Court.”
Leahy followed up with a question whether a president can pardon someone in exchange for a promise they won’t testify against him.
“Senator, I’m not going to answer hypothetical questions of that sort,” Kavanaugh said.
Update on children separated from their parents at the border:
During a late July meeting, Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) that migrant children kidnapped from the arms of parents at the U.S./Mexico border would be reunited with their families by Judge Dana Sabraw’s reunification deadline within hours, but that was a lie.
In blatant violation of Sabraw’s July 26 order, nearly 500 separated kids continue to remain under U.S. custody. In a letter […], leading House Democrats panned the administration’s lack of action and disregard for the basic humanity of these children and parents, calling for daily updates until all separated families are reunited.
“It is unacceptable,” Congress members Steny Hoyer, Michelle Lujan Grisham, and nearly two dozen CHC members said, “given the trauma inflicted on these children and their families, that the administration failed completely to plan for the readily foreseeable consequences of its zero-tolerance policy … and now, as a result of these omissions and errors, has failed to complete reunification for these separated families.”
Reunifications are happening at a frustrating trickle. According to numbers provided last week, the Trump administration has 497 children under custody, including 22 kids age 5 and under. The week before, the administration had 528 children under custody, including 23 kids age 5 and under. 322 children remain in custody because their parents have already been deported […]
“It is reprehensible,” the letter continued, “that in many cases parents facing deportation were, apparently, deceived into thinking their children would join them on the trip back to their country of origin when, in fact, the administration planned to keep their children in custody.” Advocates and leading legislators have said that “it’s past time” the administration return these parents to the U.S. under humanitarian parole, a call echoed by Hoyer and CHC members.
“Will these cases be reopened?” they ask. “Will these parents be given the opportunity to return to the United States on humanitarian parole in order to be reunified and seek protection here? What is the process by which parents are advised of their right to reunify with their children and when are parents advised of this right?” […]
“We urge you to redouble the administration’s efforts to close this cruel chapter in the Trump administration’s history and reunite these families immediately.”
SC @266, it sounds like Sessions, and other Republicans, are seriously trying to protect the ability of Russians to use social media to sow discord, to spread propaganda, and to interfere in elections.
Trump’s response to seeing protestors at the Kavanaugh hearing:
I’m amazed that people allow the interruptions to continue. There [are] some people that just keep screaming. In the old days, we used to throw them out. Today, I guess they just keep screaming.
I don’t know why they don’t take care of a situation like that. I think it’s embarrassing for the country to allow protesters. You don’t even know what side the protesters are on.
No, it is not embarrassing for the country to allow protestors. Besides, 70 people were arrested.
In 2011, Brett Kavanaugh wrote a dissent in a case in which he argued that the District of Columbia’s ban on assault weapons was unconstitutional. “A ban on a class of arms is not an ‘incidental’ regulation,” he wrote. “It is equivalent to a ban on a category of speech.” No other court has agreed with Kavanaugh on this front, and other appeals courts have upheld reasonable limits on gun ownership. […]
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) grilled the nominee about his view that assault weapons couldn’t be regulated, asking what evidence he used to justify his position that assault weapons were “in common use” and thus their ownership was protected by the Second Amendment.
Kavanaugh dodged the question, saying, “Machine guns can be prohibited.” Feinstein responded, “I think we’re on totally different wavelengths.” She noted that machine guns had long been prohibited and went on to press him on assault weapons, highlighting their use in multiple school shootings in recent years. Feinstein wanted to know what evidence or research he’d drawn on to support his assertion that assault weapons were “common.” Kavanaugh insisted that “millions and millions” of assault weapons were owned in the United States, to which Feinstein replied, “You’re saying numbers define common use?” She expressed skepticism that an assault weapon was something lots of ordinary Americans toted around on a daily basis.
[…] “This is all about precedent for me,” Kavanaugh told Feinstein, citing the Supreme Court’s 2008 majority opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller, authored by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, which overturned the District’s ban on handguns and firmly established an individual right to own guns. […]
Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist and political commentator with connections to the former Trump adviser Roger J. Stone Jr., has been subpoenaed to testify on Friday before the grand jury in the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference and whether Trump associates conspired with the effort, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
The lawyer, David Gray, said that he anticipates that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, plan to ask Mr. Corsi about his discussions with Mr. Stone, who appeared to publicly predict in 2016 that WikiLeaks planned to publish material damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
”He fully intends to comply with the subpoena,” Mr. Gray said, adding that the subpoena was not specific about the topic but that he and his client anticipated “it has to do with his communications with Roger Stone.”
Mr. Mueller’s team appears to be zeroing in on Mr. Stone as a possible nexus between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which was used by Russian intelligence officers to spread information stolen from Democrats, according to an indictment by Mr. Mueller’s team. Another former associate of Mr. Stone, the New York political gadfly Randy Credico, is also expected to testify before the grand jury on Friday….
Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist with connections to Roger Stone, has been subpoenaed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation […]
Corsi will testify Friday in front of the grand jury in the investigation, according to the Times. His lawyer, David Gray, told the newspaper that he anticipates federal investigators will ask about his client’s connections to Stone, who has long been subject to public scrutiny because of his connections to WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the hacking persona that Mueller’s team says was a front for Russian intelligence officers.
[Mueller’s] Comey’s best friend. And I could give you 100 pictures of him and Comey hugging and kissing each other. You know, he’s Comey’s best friend.
Trump said that during a Daily Caller interview that was released today.
Rep. Duncan Hunter once called Washington whispers that he had engaged in multiple extramarital affairs “tabloid trash.”
But the California Republican — who, along with his wife, Margaret, was indicted last month on 60 counts related to spending more than $250,000 in campaign cash for personal expenses that included vacations to Italy and Hawaii, dental work, and flying his family’s pet rabbit across the country — may face more scrutiny in the coming months for the “personal relationships” he had with at least five people on whom prosecutors have alleged he spent campaign donation money.
…
In January 2010, just one year into his first term in office after succeeding his father representing San Diego County, Hunter dropped more than $1,000 in campaign money on a “personal” three-day ski trip at a resort in Lake Tahoe with Individual 14.
He spent $121.34 on food and beer two months later at a concert with Individual 14 and “Congressman A” and his date, the indictment states.
Hunter’s spending on Individual 14 lasted through June 2011, when he allegedly spent $254 of campaign money on beer, golf, and clothes.
For two years, from 2013 to 2015, Hunter charged his campaign for expenses on Individual 15. He ordered Uber rides to Individual 15’s home and paid for bar tabs and food, per the indictment.
In June 2015, overlapping by a month with his spending on outings with Individual 15, Hunter allegedly began using his campaign cash on Individual 16.
Hunter, who worked with Individual 16, according to the indictment, spent $203 at Washington’s H Street Country Club with the individual, as well as “Congressman C” and his date.
Hunter had brief relationships with two other people in Washington, Individuals 17 and 18, in October 2015 and September 2016, respectively.
Hunter charged his campaign $42 for Uber rides to and from Individual 17’s home on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of October 2015.
One early morning in September 2016, he paid $32 for an Uber from Individual 18’s home to his office.
Hunter also “spent $865.63 in campaign funds for a room at the Liaison Capitol Hill while Individual 7,” a California friend of Hunter and his wife, “visited from San Diego” while Margaret Hunter was still in California, the indictment reads….
Kavanaugh, who was centrally involved in judicial nominations and confirmations and certainly knows the role of the Federalist Society in Trump’s nominations, is trying to pull off an innocent act in which all he knows is from his personal meetings with Trump and McGahn. He’s not very good at it.
President Donald Trump, showing his outrage over Bob Woodward’s explosive new book, is ordering a real witch hunt in the West Wing and throughout his administration, asking loyal aides to help determine who cooperated with the book.
As the President publicly fumes on Twitter, he’s privately on a mission to determine who did — and didn’t — talk to Woodward, CNN has learned. Two officials who have spoken directly to the President say he is pleased with the denials offered by chief of staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis.
In Trump’s eyes, what makes or breaks aides who are reported to have made disparaging comments about him is how strongly they push back on the accusations.
But he is also taking note of the silence from several other former administration officials….
The funnies part of the recording @ #212 is that when Kellyanne Conway gets on the phone Woodward is like “Kellyanne, remember we talked about this when you came over a couple months ago? We spent a whole lunch talking about it?” But I’m sure that was the sole interaction the two had.
Bonus word salad from Trump, alongside bonus factchecking status update from Ben Mathis-Lilley:
[Trump said] NBC is very dishonest in its reporting of me. Very dishonest in its reporting of me. So, if they’re dishonest of me, now I think they’re more dishonest of me than they would be of most people because most people they don’t care about, but they are very dishonest.
Factchecking update:
As of press time our factcheckers have been unable to confirm whether NBC is, in fact, more dishonest of Trump than they would be of most people because most people they don’t care about, but we’ll update this post if more information becomes available.
…The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
I would know. I am one of them.
To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.
But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.
That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.
The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.
…
Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.
Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.
We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.
There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.
If the anonymous oped is accurate and its author is in a position of influence, then writing an oped is not nearly enough. The country is at risk and these self-appointed but secret saviors are arrogating onto themselves a responsibility and powers they don’t and shouldn’t have.
If the president is unfit & amoral then they should be going public en masse & bringing an end to this, demanding action from the Congress, exposing the facts behind the risks, even providing evidence of those risks. Quietly saying “we’ve got this” is not enough nor is it right.
They swore an oath to the Constitution and to the US, anonymous complaints and assuming responsibilities to undermine the president does not honor either of those promises. It is confessing to a kind of “patriotic coup.” This is not how our government of laws should serve us.
Update to #282 – Leahy has tweeted with images of the emails. Concludes: “…These are the only documents that Chairman Grassley allowed to make public to date. There are more that are being hidden and that shed light on #Kavanaugh’s role in this scandal. They must be made public so you, and the Senate, can judge for ourselves. #WhatAreTheyHiding”
From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.
Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back. […]
From Steve Benen:
[…] It’s a bit of a challenge to understand the motivation behind the piece. The author seems determined, for example, to reassure the public that there’s a structure in place to contain Trump’s madness and prevent him from doing catastrophic harm.
But there’s nothing heartening about these circumstances. If the author is correct, the nation is being led by a man who is clearly unwell.
He/she acknowledges some behind-the-scenes chatter about a 25th Amendment solution, which was dismissed to avoid a “constitutional crisis.” But the fact of the matter is that if the head of a global superpower’s executive branch is unstable, and White House decisions are being made by an unelected and unaccountable team of aides who are circumventing and undermining a mad president, that is a constitutional crisis.
I realize a parlor game will soon take root, and the search for the op-ed’s author will be intense. But at least for now, the genuinely scary message seems more important than the messenger.
Trump responded to the op-ed shortly after it was published, calling it “gutless.” He said that the official who wrote the piece is likely “failing” and that “all these phony media outlets will be out of business” after his presidency.
From the op-ed:
Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful,” the op-ed reads. “It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.
@291, No, the op-ed is not “treason.” It may be cause for someone to be fired, but it is not treason. Trump is ignorantly blustering yet again.
More response from Hair Furor:
Nobody has ever done in less than a two-year period what we’ve done. So when you tell me about some anonymous source within the administration, probably who’s failing, and who’s probably here for all the wrong reasons. No. And the New York Times is failing. If I weren’t here I believe the New York Times probably wouldn’t even exist. Someday, when I’m not president, which hopefully will be in about six and a half years, the New York Times, CNN and all of these phony media outlets will be out of business, folks, they’ll be out of business, because there’ll be nothing to write and there’ll be nothing of interest.
So if the failing New York Times has an anonymous editorial, can you believe it, anonymous, meaning gutless, a gutless editorial. We’re doing a great job. The poll numbers are through the roof, our poll numbers are great, and guess what? Nobody’s going to come even close to beating me in 2020, because of what we’ve done. We’ve done more than anybody ever thought possible, in it’s not even two years.
Official response from the White House:
The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States. He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign.
No one has refuted the actual content of the op-ed.
…What seems more pointed to me is that the columnist says his troupe sought to avert a constitutional crisis. Think about that: White House officials were so concerned about Trump’s lack of fitness that they considered dire measures, which they then dismissed to avoid a crisis. So these same unelected and unknown officials, all appointed by a president they see as unfit, are now running the country without oversight and accountability? If that’s not a crisis, what is?
The U.S. government is not supposed to function this way. A vibrant democracy rides on the back of voting, transparency and the rule of law. When unelected officials act unilaterally and in secrecy because they work for an inept executive who doesn’t respect the law, then you have yourself a crisis.
…
As Woodward’s reporting makes clear, some White House officials, like Defense Secretary James Mattis, have occasionally been able to ward off some of Trump’s most perilous instincts. But Mattis, and the Times’s anonymous columnist, haven’t warded off a crisis. They’re living in one.
Regarding SC’s comment 293, I think the idea that all of these self-appointed saviors in the White House are running things as best they can is deeply weird and wrong. However, I see that part of their predicament is that the Republican leaders in the House and Senate simply will not act to employ the remedies they have at their disposal.
Regarding SC’s comment 293, I think the idea that all of these self-appointed saviors in the White House are running things as best they can is deeply weird and wrong. However, I see that part of their predicament is that the Republican leaders in the House and Senate simply will not act to employ the remedies they have at their disposal.
Very true. On the other hand, they haven’t been pushed to act by officials openly raising these cries from the WH and the public reaction that would spur. And if it didn’t lead them to act, it could further the cause of energizing people to vote them out.
A lie told by Republicans in the Kavanaugh hearing:
It’s objectively unprecedented for the Senate to be provided such a small fraction of the documents related to a Supreme Court nominee’s past work, as in the case of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. During Wednesday’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) caught Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in an apparent lie about why that is.
Durbin began his questioning of Kavanaugh by highlighting how conspicuous it is that the Senate has been deprived of so many documents from Kavanaugh’s time working for the Bush administration and that so many more have been unilaterally classified. […] Bill Burck, a private attorney and longtime friend of Kavanaugh, has personally controlled what documents can be shared, instead of the National Archives and Records Administration as is the standard process.
Durbin told Kavanaugh that Burck has “some magic power to decide what the American people will see about your role in the White House.” He implored Kavanaugh to himself call for the proceedings to be suspended so there wouldn’t be “a cloud over this nomination.”
Grassley interrupted a moment later, however, to insist that the committee had been handling the documents in proper accordance with the Presidential Records Act.
As Durbin pointed out, that is not true.
Durbin noted that the Act requires coordination with the National Archives to arrange for the documents. The committee had not done this — instead procuring the documents directly from the Bush library.
Grassley declared that he was prepared for this accusation and read a prepared statement:
They have accused us of cutting of cutting the National Archives out of the process, so this is where I want to set the record straight. President Bush acted consistently with federal law when he expedited the process and gave us unprecedented access in record time to Judge Kavanaugh’s record, but we have worked hand in glove with the Archives throughout this process and the documents this committee received are the same as if the archives had done the initial review. […] The National Archives was not cut out of the process.
Again, this was flagrantly untrue, and Durbin immediately called Grassley out. Indeed, the National Archives put out a statement last month clarifying that neither President Bush’s actions nor the Judiciary Committee’s decision to publish some of those documents represented the National Archives. It also said that because the volume of documents related to Kavanaugh’s tenure was so high, its review would not be fulfilled until late October.
[…] The way Grassley rushed to get the documents outside the normal procedure and then tried to cover it up shows how desperate Senate Republicans are to rush this confirmation process. They want Kavanaugh on the Court in time for the next session, so the entire reason the documents aren’t available is because they simply didn’t want to have to wait for the Archives to process them. […]
SC @297, good points. It may be more likely that Republicans in the House of Congress, no matter what true tales they were told from inside the White House, would react more like Trump just did.
Does the so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!
A guest on The Rachel Maddow Show likened that demand from Trump to demands Stalin made.
Some good news: a Latino activist group is launching a multi-million dollar voter registration drive.
[…] The voter registration drive, which is being launched by a coalition group called Voto Latino, was prompted by President Trump’s previous policy of separating children from parents when families crossed the border illegally, NBC News reported. […]
“A lot of this campaign is going to be about educating our young people and sharpening their tools so they understand how to represent their family,” said Wilmer Valderrama, an actor and Voto Latino board member, according to NBC. […]
Ratified in 1967, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution allows the vice president and a majority of sitting Cabinet secretaries to remove the president if they decide he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Crafted in the wake of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, it’s been cited recently in response to President Donald Trump and mounting evidence that he’s not equipped to handle the office of the presidency. Excerpts from a new book on the Trump administration don’t just bolster that view; they suggest a White House where officials have all but invoked an informal version of that provision, stymieing presidential decision making and cutting Trump out of the policymaking and other affairs of state. The White House may be divided by competing loyalties and self-interest, but it is united in its belief that the president cannot be allowed to act unencumbered, lest he plunge the federal government—and the United States—into chaos. […]
Questions of credibility surround both Wolff’s and Manigault Newman’s accounts. But more traditional reporting, including that from Woodward, seems to bolster their claims that the White House is consumed by turmoil, all of it induced by Donald Trump, his compulsions, impulses, and appetites. Together, all of these accounts paint a clear picture: Unable to execute his duties for reasons of temperament, ignorance, and mental decline, President Trump has been sidelined by his aides, who work to mitigate his behavior and keep him from steering the country into catastrophe. […]
Washington may understand and acknowledge the fundamental dysfunction of the Trump White House, but the relevant power brokers—congressional Republicans and their allies—have shown no desire to act upon this slow-motion collapse of the executive branch. Their reasons are narrowly self-interested: Trump may be incapable of effectively carrying out the duties of the presidency, but there is enough of a working policymaking apparatus to accomplish key goals like crippling the regulatory state and building a durable conservative majority on the federal judiciary.
Jeff Flake (and fellow Trump critic Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska) may see the president as a danger to the very stability of American constitutional government, but their commitment to conservative ideology means they will likely confirm the president’s second nominee for the Supreme Court, even if that nominee rejects legal accountability for presidential lawbreaking, thus jeopardizing their own efforts to defend the Constitution.
More than the public nature of President Trump’s deterioration, it’s the inaction and complicity of the majority party that truly differentiates the present situation from those of Woodrow Wilson and Richard Nixon. Like them, Trump has a cadre of aides and advisers essentially acting in his stead as president, working around him and circumventing his worst impulses. But unlike those presidents, Trump is also insulated by a political movement that ranks pursuit of its ideological goals above all else, including the integrity of the presidency. […]
Donald Trump cannot do his job, and as long as the Republican Party holds power in Washington, there’s nothing to be done about it.
[…] Trump reacted to the column with “volcanic” anger and was “absolutely livid” over what he considered a treasonous act of disloyalty and told confidants he suspects the official works on national security issues or in the Justice Department, according to two people familiar with his private discussions. […]
Trump questioned on Twitter whether the official was a “phony source,” and wrote that if “the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!” […]
The column, which published midafternoon Wednesday, sent tremors through the West Wing and launched a frantic guessing game. Startled aides canceled meetings and huddled behind closed doors to strategize a response. Aides were analyzing language patterns to try to discern the author’s identity or at a minimum the part of the administration where the author works.
“The problem for the president is it could be so many people,” said one administration official, who like many others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. “You can’t rule it down to one person. Everyone is trying, but it’s impossible.”
The phrase “The sleeper cells have awoken” circulated on text messages among aides and outside allies.
“It’s like the horror movies when everyone realizes the call is coming from inside the house,” said one former White House official in close contact with former co-workers. […]
The president went on to brag about his popularity, although nearly all public polls show that more Americans disapprove of his job performance than approve of it. “Our poll numbers are great, and guess what? Nobody’s going to come even close to beating me in 2020,” Trump said, as the sheriffs assembled behind him burst into applause. […]
This invocation [to John McCain in the op-ed] angered Trump, who in his private talks with advisers and friends expressed particular dismay because he has long viewed McCain as a personal enemy, according to people familiar with the president’s thinking. The column reignited Trump’s frustration with last week’s remembrances of McCain and the widespread adulation of his life.
The president was already feeling especially vulnerable — and a deep “sense of paranoia,” in the words of one confidant — after his devastating portrayal in Woodward’s book. He was upset that so many in his orbit seemed to have spoken with the veteran Washington Post investigative journalist, and he had begun peppering staffers with questions about who Woodward’s sources were.
Trump already felt that he had a dwindling circle of people whom he could trust, a senior administration official said. According to one Trump friend, he fretted after Wednesday’s op-ed that he could trust only his children. […]
The truth is, Trump can’t trust himself.
robrosays
The Anon OpEd smacks of self-serving CYA. They’re thwarting his impulses, but they agree with the policies. They think that things are actually better. They take potshots at Trump for criticizing the media, then they take cheap shots at the “liberal” media…while exploiting their connections to mainstream media…I mean New York Times! The problem is Trumps “immorality”…not his venality, nor their venality. Or their policies or overarching point of view…White Men Rule.
Plus, he’s erratic, not them. They’re just trying to protect the Republic. Perhaps a set up for invoking the 25th, but clearly if things fall apart they are protecting their position.
Seems some think there’s a clue in the words that Pence wrote this. That would be rich.
Anyway, breaking kayfabe is always more kayfabe. There are no unsung heroes in this mess…only vipers.
8-minute video of Kamala Harris asking Kavanaugh whether he’s talked to anyone at Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres abut the Mueller investigation.
He appears to be trying to figure out (as he did with Leahy) what she has. And he starts some sentences then realizes they’ll hurt him and changes his words midstream. Even if she doesn’t have something to back this up, it looks like a witness melting under a tough interrogation.
A government photographer edited official pictures of Donald Trump’s inauguration to make the crowd appear bigger following a personal intervention from the president, according to newly released documents.
The photographer cropped out empty space “where the crowd ended” for a new set of pictures requested by Trump on the first morning of his presidency, after he was angered by images showing his audience was smaller than Barack Obama’s in 2009.
The detail was revealed in investigative reports released to the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act by the inspector general of the US interior department. They shed new light on the first self-inflicted crisis of Trump’s presidency, when his White House falsely claimed he had attracted the biggest ever inauguration audience.
The records detail a scramble within the National Park Service (NPS) on 21 January 2017 after an early-morning phone call between Trump and the acting NPS director, Michael Reynolds. They also state that Sean Spicer, then White House press secretary, called NPS officials repeatedly that day in pursuit of the more flattering photographs.
It was not clear from the records which photographs were edited and whether they were released publicly.
The newly disclosed details were not included in the inspector general’s office’s final report on its inquiry into the saga, which was published in June last year and gave a different account of the NPS photographer’s actions.
…
The newly released files said Spicer was closely involved in the effort to obtain more favourable photographs. He called Reynolds immediately after the acting director spoke with Trump and then again at 3pm shortly before the new set of photographs was sent to the White House, investigators heard. Another official reported being called by Spicer….
…Anticipating the imminent publication of Kenneth Starr’s memoir of the Clinton impeachment, I looked into Judge Kavanaugh’s files in the Office of Independent Counsel records, housed in the National Archives. What I discovered sheds light on how Mr. Kavanaugh made his way in his early career, and how he flagrantly breached his role as a neutral public servant and followed the imperatives of a political operative.
Mr. Kavanaugh served under Mr. Starr as associate independent counsel between 1994 and 1997, and then again in 1998. Although not yet a judge, he was charged with investigating impartially what Attorney General Janet Reno deemed substantial specific accusations of presidential misconduct arising from a failed real estate investment known as Whitewater.
Judge Starr’s predecessor as independent counsel, Robert Fiske, had looked into unfounded claims that White House Counsel Vincent Foster, who committed suicide in Fort Marcy Park in 1993, had in fact been murdered as part of an alleged White House cover-up related to Whitewater. After a thorough investigation, Mr. Fiske concluded in 1994 that there was nothing to the conspiracy theories and that Mr. Foster, who suffered from depression, had indeed killed himself. Official accounts by the United States Park Service in 1993 and by Republican Congressman William Clinger, the ranking member of the House Government Affairs Committee in 1994, came to an identical conclusion, as did a bipartisan report of the Senate Banking Committee early in 1995.
But shortly after the Senate report was released, Mr. Kavanaugh convinced Mr. Starr to reopen what he called a “full-fledged” investigation of the Foster matter, telling his colleagues, as justification, that “we have received allegations that Mr. Foster’s death related to President and Mrs. Clinton’s involvement” in Whitewater and other alleged scandals.
Who were these unnamed, presumably reliable sources on whose word the case should be reopened? Mr. Kavanaugh’s files in the National Archives make clear that they were some of the most ludicrous hard-right conspiracy-mongers of the time.
…
Mr. Kavanaugh noted in various memos that he personally believed that Mr. Foster had indeed committed suicide — “my thoughts, not the Office’s position,” he clarified at one point. But he did not file away the harebrained theories; instead, he apparently felt obligated to address the conspiracy-mongers’ already disproved fantasies. And for nearly three years at a cost of $2 million he aggressively followed up. He investigated the Swiss bank account connection, down to examining Mr. Foster’s American Express bills for flights to Switzerland. He meticulously examined the White House carpets, old and new. (By now, Mr. Foster had been dead four years.) He sent investigators in search of follicle specimens from Foster’s bereft, blonde, teenage daughter. (“We have Foster’s hair,” one agent working for Mr. Kavanaugh reported in triumph.)
Mr. Kavanaugh apparently took a special interest in Hillary Clinton’s bruited affair with Mr. Foster, a popular rumor in the fever swamps of the right. As he reported, his investigators “asked numerous people about it,” before he decided to ask Mrs. Clinton herself.
Of course, Mr. Kavanaugh proved nothing new, as there was nothing new to prove except in conspiratorial illusion. But there was nothing funny about his Inspector Clouseau performance. For months, his inquiries callously harassed a grieving family and Mr. Foster’s friends. His office spread malicious sexual innuendo about Hillary Clinton, whom he seems to have regarded as prey. By reopening a closed investigation, he irresponsibly gave the Foster conspiracy freaks credibility to continue smearing the Clintons and poison public debate for another three years, all at the taxpayers’ expense.
Perhaps Brett Kavanaugh has changed his ways, just as he has changed his position on subjecting presidents to investigation. But he owes the Senate and the American public an explanation of what happened when he worked under Ken Starr’s cover and how and whether he has become a different man than he was 20 years ago.
Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims “unwavering faith in President Trump.” Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!
The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy – & they don’t know what to do. The Economy is booming like never before, Jobs are at Historic Highs, soon TWO Supreme Court Justices & maybe Declassification to find Additional Corruption. Wow!
Cosumer confidence highest in 18 years, Atlanta Fed forecasts 4.7 GDP, manufacturing jobs highest in many years. “It’s the story of the Trump Administration, the Economic Success, that’s unnerving his detractors.” @MariaBartiromo
I thought his comment yesterday about Kavanaugh having been born for the job was among the grossest things he’s ever said. “I mean, look how pasty and male and elite and Christian he is – he’s right out of central casting!”
India’s Supreme Court has ruled to decriminalise gay sex, in an historic and unanimous verdict handed down by a five-judge panel that will have a profound impact both here in India and across the world.
The courtroom in Delhi was overflowing with LGBT+ activists who have battled for 20 years for this moment, and a cheer erupted as word came from inside that consensual sex between adults of any gender was no longer deemed a crime.
Until now, gay sex had been punishable by up to 10 years in prison under Section 377 of the Indian constitution, a relic of the Victorian-era laws imposed by the British Empire. It outlawed sexual activities “against the order of nature” and was interpreted by police and courts as referring to homosexuality.
Celebrating under a sweltering sun on the lawns outside the courtroom, LGBT+ activists said they were finally free from a law that, though rarely enforced, was the foundation for systemic discrimination and harassment of gay Indians.
Reading out his judgement on the case, the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said interpreting Section 377 to criminalise gay sex was “irrational, arbitrary and indefensible”.
“Any consensual sexual relationship between two consenting adults – homosexuals, heterosexuals or lesbians – cannot be said to be unconstitutional,” Mr Misra said.
Scenes of celebration were broadcast on TV and social media from Mumbai, Chennai and other cities across India, as Mr Misra observed that members of the LGBT+ community “must have the same rights as any other citizen”.
Anjali Gopalan, the founder of the Naz Foundation charity that has been instrumental to the fight against Section 377, told The Independent outside court it was “wonderful news”.
“They have opened the door to discussing rights. They have apologised to the gay community, and they have said copies of the judgment will be handed to every police station. It is the best judgement we could have hoped for,” she said….
Saadsays
Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims “unwavering faith in President Trump.” Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!
Cory Booker announced he’s releasing some of the documents declared “committee confidential.” Dick Durbin, in a righteous rant, just said he stands with Booker and wants any consequences for Booker to be applied to him as well. Mazie Hirono said she too will release documents relevant to her questioning. Klobuchar also supporting Booker – “We simply cannot hide these documents from the American public – it’s the highest court of the land.” Some documents have been leaked to the NYT.
This is incredible. Now Booker is calling on Cornyn to bring charges against him and the others who are standing with him on the committee (Hirono, Klobuchar, Coons, Feinstein, Blumenthal, Durbin, possibly others I’ve missed) for the claims that they’ve violated Senate rules.
“it’s hard to overstate how much the addition of Booker and Harris to the Judiciary Committee in January has changed the public-facing image and posture of the panel, and of Senate Democrats more broadly.”
The Trump administration announced a new rule Thursday that would allow immigrant children with their parents to be held in detention indefinitely, upending a ban on indefinite detention that has been in place for 20 years.
The rule, proposed by the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, goes into effect in 60 days and will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep children with their mothers in detention facilities while their cases for asylum play out in court.
A DHS official speaking on the condition of anonymity said the purpose of the rulemaking is to terminate the 1997 Flores settlement agreement that said children could not be held in detention longer than 20 days. The result may mean the issue is taken to appellate courts or even the Supreme Court.
…
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement that the rulemaking is necessary to enforce immigration laws.
“Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the Department’s ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country,” said Nielsen. “This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress.”
“Madness on #Russia’s state TV, as they struggle to come up with new conspiracy theories. Kremlin-connected political analyst Sergei Markov attempts to place blame for the poisoning on Christopher Steele, described as ‘#Skripal’s former boss & the author of the Trump dossier’.”
Email includes: “They just had a meeting with the Dem staff of the Judiciary Committee and my friend is reporting that neither the democratic judiciary staff nor the groups have done any research [sic] the likely presumed nominee.
Therefore, it is important to note that IF we have a nominee, we need to ZIP THAT PERSON RIGHT THROUGH THE PROCESS…..WE CANNOT BEAT 20 MILLION DOLLARS.”
The “groups” in question are Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and other pro-choice organizations.
The US, France, Germany and Canada have agreed with the UK that the Russian government “almost certainly” approved the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury.
They have urged Russia to provide full disclosure of its Novichok programme.
The joint statement comes as the United Nations Security Council meets to discuss the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March and its fallout.
…
The statement from Mrs May, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau said: “We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, reiterate our outrage at the use of a chemical nerve agent, known as Novichok, in Salisbury on March 4.”
…
Referring to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from their countries in response to the 4 March attack, the leaders said they had already “taken action together to disrupt the activities of the GRU”.
The leaders said the link to the Russian service – revealed on Wednesday – would strengthen their intention to work together against foreign spy networks, the use of chemical weapons, and to “defend ourselves from all forms of malign state activity directed against us and our societies”….
Trump’s gonna be mad if he finds out he signed this.
The Trump administration has consistently sought to exaggerate the potential security threat posed by refugees and dismissed an intelligence assessment last year that showed refugees did not present a significant threat to the U.S., three former senior officials told NBC News.
Hard-liners in the administration then issued their own report this year that several former officials and rights groups say misstates the evidence and inflates the threat posed by people born outside the U.S.
At a meeting in September 2017 with senior officials discussing refugee admissions, a representative from the National Counterterrorism Center came ready to present a report that analyzed the possible risks presented by refugees entering the country.
But before he could discuss the report, Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand dismissed the report, saying her boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, would not be guided by its findings.
“We read that. The attorney general doesn’t agree with the conclusions of that report,” she said, according to two officials familiar with the meeting, including one who was in the room at the time.
Brand’s blunt veto of the intelligence assessment shocked career civil servants at the interagency meeting, which seemed to expose a bid to supplant facts and expertise with an ideological agenda. Her response also amounted to a rejection of her own department’s view, as the FBI, part of the Justice Department, had contributed to the assessment.
…
The intelligence assessment was “inappropriately discredited as a result of that exchange,” said the ex-official. The episode made clear that “you weren’t able to have an honest conversation about the risk.”
…
Political appointees in the Trump administration then wrote a new report a few months later that seemed to contradict the view of the country’s spy agencies.
The January 2018 report by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security stated that “three out of every four, or 402, individuals convicted of international terrorism-related charges in U.S. federal courts between September 11, 2001, and December 31, 2016 were foreign-born.”
In a press release at the time, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the report showed the need for tougher screening of travelers entering the country and served as “a clear reminder of why we cannot continue to rely on immigration policy based on pre-9/11 thinking that leaves us woefully vulnerable to foreign-born terrorists.”
But the report is being challenged in court…
Mary McCord, former assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, which prosecutes terrorism charges, said the January 2018 report is “unfortunately both over-inclusive and under-inclusive.”
BREAKING: Brett Kavanaugh was asked in 2004 about whether he was involved in the nomination of Bill Pryor. He said “I was not involved in handling his nomination”
Newly released emails show that’s not true. Asked about how Pryor’s interview went, he replied “CALL ME.”
From Steve Benen, more details regarding possible lies told by Brett Kananaugh:
[…]
Other documents provided to The Times included a document showing that in September 2001, after the terrorist attacks, Judge Kavanaugh engaged with a Justice Department lawyer about questions of warrantless surveillance at the time that lawyer wrote a memo an inspector general report later portrayed as the precursor to the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.
On Wednesday, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, seemed to allude to the existence of such an email, grilling Judge Kavanaugh about whether his testimony at his May 2006 appeals court hearing that he had not seen or heard anything about the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program before its existence leaked the previous December was accurate.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but if Kavanaugh discussed warrantless surveillance with the Justice Department in 2001, but later said under oath that he didn’t know anything about warrantless surveillance, then it’s entirely possible he misled the Senate during a confirmation hearing.
And it may not have been an isolated incident.
There have long been questions about whether Kavanaugh lied in 2006 when he told Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), “Senator, I was not involved and am not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants, and so I do not have any involvement with that.”
We later learned that his denial wasn’t exactly true. After Kavanaugh’s confirmation, it became clear that he had been directly involved in internal White House discussions on the issue.
Making matters worse, as Rachel noted on the show last night, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) turned his attention yesterday to an incident from 2002 and 2003, in which a Republican Senate staffer stole thousands of documents from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kavanaugh, who worked closely with the staffer at the time, said in his 2006 confirmation hearings that he didn’t know anything about the theft and leaks of the Democratic materials.
Leahy said yesterday, however, that he’s seen unreleased emails that call those claims into question.
At this point, the Vermont Democrat is urging Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to release the documents to the public, and we don’t yet know whether that will happen.
But taken together, it appears Kavanaugh is facing questions about three separate instances in which his claims, made under oath, may not have been entirely true – and lying to the Senate is, under normal circumstances, the sort of thing that may adversely affect a Supreme Court nominee’s chances of confirmation. […]
Apropos of nothing political per se (except, perhaps, the failures of the State’s long-defunct Metric Board), tonight I decided to use a prepared pasta sauce on my fresh tagliatelle. One set of instructions were in English, and began “[…] Are you ready for a mouth-water [indecipherable] to knock you socks off?” Not exactly usual instructions, but yes I am. However, at one point it called for a “cup” of water. Which seemed about right, but at other points it called for “500g” of tomatoes. Which is an unusual mix of units (even in the UK, as I recall), so I got a bit suspicious…
Weirdly, there were no instructions in French. Only in Italian and German (besides English). Both other languages made clear they meant a non-specific amount of water, around one drinking glass worth — quite vague, but I don’t follow recipes / instructions much anyways, so I’m Ok…
It’s currently cooking right now, and smelling quite wonderful. Our apologies for this brief interruption to the less-important matters… (The mildly deranged penguin points out no cheese is involved, so it is much less important.)
Steve Benen on how Trump has recently proven his critics to be right:
[…] At a White House meeting with a group of sheriffs, fielded a question from a reporter who asked about the New York Times piece. He delivered a long, rambling, repetitious rant in which Trump struggled to maintain a consistent train of thought.
As part of the tirade, Trump described the American media as “disgrace,” characterized his presidency as the most successful in history, exaggerated his economic record, lied about border wall construction, said news organizations will go out of business when he leaves office, lied about an imaginary New York Times “apology,” and started referring to himself in third person, all before lying about his poll numbers. […]
Soon after, the president argued that the New York Times “must” turn over the op-ed’s author to the government “at once” — for “national security purposes.”
[…] the important part of Trump’s breakdown was the fact that it happened. The president could’ve responded to questions about his mental stability by appearing measured and mature, reassuring the public that he’s capable of steady leadership.
…It is simply not ‘normal’ to get real-time insider intelligence from a Democratic “mole” and marked “spying.” Red flags abound. And with 102,000 documents withheld by the Trump WH, mostly about judicial noms, we can bet there’s more.
Bottom line: You don’t get inside intel about what Democratic senators are thinking, what confidential letters they’re receiving, & what their staff is advising, MARKED “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL” without knowing something was DEEPLY WRONG.
Judge Kavanaugh answered under oath more than 100 questions on this hacking in 2004 and 2006. His repeated denials that he didn’t receive any stolen info and didn’t suspect anything “untoward” is SIMPLY NOT CREDIBLE.
The email from (Flynn friend and currently Grassley staffer in the committee’s judicial nominations unit) Barbara Ledeen, with the subject “Spying,” refers to her use of a “mole” to get information from “the Left” to give Bush and the Republicans an unfair advantage in the Supreme Court nomination/confirmation process. (This is in addition to the hacked emails stolen by Manny Miranda and passed on to Kavanaugh.) Based on the information gathered by the spy/mole, she recommends to Kavanaugh that their nominee be “ZIPPED THROUGH” the confirmation process to avoid a full fight. Their opponents in this fight were pro-choice organizations which would oppose their anti-choice nominees. Matt Schlapp is cced. Kavanaugh lied about it in the hearing.
Leahy: “And with 102,000 documents withheld by the Trump WH, mostly about judicial noms, we can bet there’s more.”
There’s more: “While careful not to directly make the case for any would-be justice, Mr. McConnell made clear in multiple phone calls with Mr. Trump and the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, that the lengthy paper trail of another top contender, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, would pose difficulties for his confirmation.”
One 16-year-old from Guatemala said he wanted to “quitarme la vida,” or “take my life away,” as he waited to be released from a Chicago shelter for immigrant children. He was kept there for at least 584 days.
A 17-year-old from Guinea went on a hunger strike, telling staff members he refused to eat until he saw evidence they were trying to find him a home. He was released nearly nine months after he entered a shelter.
And a 10-month-old boy, forcibly separated from his father at the U.S.-Mexico border in March, was bitten repeatedly by an older child and later hospitalized after falling from a highchair. He was detained for five months.
ProPublica Illinois has obtained thousands of confidential records about the nine federally funded shelters in the Chicago area for immigrant youth operated by the nonprofit Heartland Human Care Services […]
The documents provide a sweeping overview of the inner workings and life inside one of the country’s largest shelter networks for unaccompanied minors, including children separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy.
While the records focus on Illinois shelters, they provide a rare glimpse of a secretive detention system that holds children at more than 100 sites across the country. They include descriptions of serious incident reports filed with the federal government, caseworkers’ notes on family reunifications, employee schedules, daily rosters, internal emails and more. […]
The Trump administration is planning to withdraw from a decades-old settlement agreement that prevents it from keeping children in family detention for more than about 20 days. The proposed rule announced on Thursday would allow the Department of Homeland Security to detain thousands of families indefinitely while their immigration cases proceed, although it is almost certain to be challenged in court. […]
The Trump administration wants to circumvent Flores’ state-licensing requirement by creating an “alternative” federal licensing scheme. That would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate what the government claims would be Flores-compliant family detention centers where families can be held indefinitely. […]
Melania Trump attacks the writer of the op-ed and defends her husband:
“To the writer of the op-ed — you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions,” she told CNN.
Though the first lady asserted that a free press “is important to our democracy” and called freedom of speech “an important pillar of our nation’s founding principles,” she lamented the frequency of anonymous sourcing in news stories and stressed the seriousness of the op-ed’s accusations.
“People with no names are writing our nation’s history,” she said. “Words are important, and accusations can lead to severe consequences. If a person is bold enough to accuse people of negative actions, they have a responsibility to publicly stand by their words and people have the right to be able to defend themselves.” […]
The media’s wild obsession with the identity of the anonymous coward is recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who proudly serve our country and work for President Trump. Stop.
Sarah is going to send you to bed without your supper.
U.S. prosecutors unsealed charges today against a North Korean national who they say helped orchestrate the 2014 Sony Pictures hack at the behest of Pyongyang officials.
In addition to the indictment for one of the country’s most notorious cybercrimes, the U.S. is also charging Park Jin Hyok in a massive 2016 Bangladesh heist and last year’s WannaCry malware outbreak. Hackers stole $81 million from the Bangladesh Bank in 2016 via the SWIFT financial network, while the WannaCry ransomware infected more than 200,000 computers in 100 countries. […]
Besides the Sony, Bangladesh Bank and WannaCry allegations, the complaint ties North Korea to attempted hacks of Lockheed Martin, AMC Theaters, British company Mammoth Screen and financial institutions in Vietnam, the Philippines, Africa, South America and Southeast Asia.
The complaint says that Park was a programmer who worked for Korea Expo Joint Venture, an apparent front for the North Korean military. He was charged with conspiring to commit unauthorized access to computers with intent to defraud and causing damage, extortion related to computer intrusion, and wire fraud. [….]
Good news that involves some pushback against Trump administration immigration policies, pushback at the state level:
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Thursday signed an executive order declaring that the city jail will no longer accept people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Atlanta has permanently ended its acceptance of ICE detainees and will immediately transfer all those remaining out of our City jail,” Bottoms tweeted with a photo of her signing the order.
“We will not be complicit in an immigration policy that intentionally inflicts misery on vulnerable populations.” […]
Trump is still looking for other ways to fund his border wall. Democrats are fighting back.
Four top House Democrats are urging the Pentagon to reject a request from the Department of Homeland Security to use $450 million to enhance an existing segment of the U.S.–Mexico border wall and to build new border infrastructure at a military range in Arizona. […]
“We have heard about the Department of Defense’s plans to rebuild military readiness, to include investing in additional spare parts and maintenance, increasing training opportunities, growing certain military occupational specialties, and modernizing aging weapons systems,” they continued. “We have also heard the repeated calls from the Department for stable and predictable funding. With that in mind, we fail to see how diverting $450 million away from efforts to rebuild military readiness is in the department or the taxpayers’ best interests.”
The lawmakers argued that it would be inappropriate to use funds on a border wall at a time when 31 percent of Pentagon facilities are in “poor or failing condition,” and the department has a facilities maintenance backlog totaling $116 billion.
“Funding the requested border infrastructure project may divert resources away from authorized and appropriated military construction projects, deferring critical investments to meet new mission requirements or replacing failing infrastructure,” they wrote. […]
There was a mass shooting in downtown Cincinnati on Thursday. Four, including the shooter, were killed, and two others were injured, according to city officials.
The shooting occurred at the Fifth Third Bank building near Fountain Square, which is at the core of downtown. Authorities said the threat has been neutralized, though multiple people were shot and some were killed. […]
From Wonkette’s coverage of Twitter CEO @Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg appearing before Congress:
[…] The Senate hearing with Sandberg and Dorsey went about as you’d expect: A polished Sandberg fell back on years of experience in business and government, and frumpish Dorsey stammered his way through an opening statement that he simultaneously live tweeted on his phone.
With the Senate hearing focusing on Not American election- and mental fuckery, both Sandberg and Dorsey apologized for not noticing what Russia was doing in 2016, and admitted that they’d found other US adversaries attempting copycat-style attacks. Sandberg, as “queen of the polished, noncommittal soundbite,” was able to parry most questions with vague answers about new safeguards, or offering to “follow-up at a later date.” @Jack just kept apologizing like a Canadian in a three-car pile-up. It was all remarkably unremarkable until Sen. Kamala Harris ran over from the Kavanaugh hearings to blindside Sandberg about Facebook’s ad revenue.
Harris, having been blown off by Facebook’s lawyers and Mark Zuckerberg, wanted to know how many rubles Facebook was making from fake Russian accounts. Sandberg began rambling about “inauthentic content” and “inorganic content,” and said that the amount is “immaterial.” Sandberg noted that pictures of Putin majestically riding horses only make up about .004 percent the junk you see on Facebook’s, the rest is just ugly baby pictures, circlejerking, and shitposting from drunk uncles. Harris waved away the smoke Sandberg was trying to blow up her ass and demanded to know what the hell any of that even meant.
HARRIS: Are you saying that the revenue generated was .004% of your annual revenue? Because, of course, that would not be immaterial.
SANDBERG: So – So – Again, the ads are not attached to any piece of content —
HARRIS: So what’s this metric then? If you could just help me with that. What metric are you using to calculate the revenue that was generated associated with those ads, and what is the dollar amount that is associated with that metric.
SANDBERG: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Harris wasn’t done yet though. She pointed out how Facebook has been raking in profits while its platform pushes hate speech, even if it says it doesn’t allow hate speech. Harris brought up a 2017 ProPublica story about Facebook deleting hate speech targeting white men and not black children because little black boys and girls aren’t a “protected class.” Flummoxed, Sandberg said they changed the policy. […]
“BREAKING: Russian newspaper Fontanka traced flight records of the 2 Russian assassins responsible for Skripal poisoning. Between 2016-18 they travelled to Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan, and Paris (several times). One visited London before between 2/28-3/5-2017″
Saw this yesterday. People suggested taking it with a grain of salt because it’s just one paper and so forth, but if it’s true and they’re the same two guys it opens up whole new windows into GRU activities in Europe. Maybe they’ll turn out to be Putin’s Clarence Beeks – used them for the election interference and then for one job too many.
[…] we have a menacing dingbat in the White House, and nobody with the requisite authority seems willing to do anything about it, other than to try to manage the situation on an ad-hoc, day-to-day basis. Perhaps this could be seen as a “Trump containment” strategy, but it falls well short of the systematic containment strategy that Kennan advocated, and, in any case, the Trumpkins, unlike the early Cold War strategists, are not necessarily dealing with a rational actor. Something more is surely needed.
[…] Trump is “closely watching the string of statements” from administration officials denying authorship of a brutal New York Times op-ed about his flailing presidency. The CNN report added that the denial statements “are being printed out and delivered to the president as they come in.”
Trump aides strongly denied the accuracy of the anecdote, and senior White House official gave NBC News a memorable response to conditions in the West Wing:
“This is a functioning White House,” the senior official said. […]
Axios reports, meanwhile, that the president has grown “deeply suspicious” of practically everyone in his own administration, including some of his “senior-most political appointees and even some handpicked aides inside his own White House.” The piece added, “A good number of current White House officials have privately admitted to us they consider Trump unstable, and at times dangerously slow.”
A variety of adjectives come to mind to describe this White House. “Functioning” isn’t one of them.
Twitter has banned the InfoWars network’s account, and the account of the network’s founder Alex Jones, multiple outlets reported Thursday. Previously, the website had merely temporarily suspended Jones.
Jones on Wednesday confronted CNN’s Oliver Darcy, the network said, who has reported extensively on Twitter’s rules, and Jones’ violations of them.
Yesterday, I referred to a “Committee confidential” document where Judge Kavanaugh questioned the validity of programs that benefit Native Hawaiian programs, and by extension, Alaska Natives. If you’re coming after @SenBooker for releasing these documents, count me in.
Hirono’s questioning, and the document release, should provide Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska a reason to vote “no” on Kavanaugh.
tomhsays
@ #359
I would love to see the fallout if they banned Donald Trump. I’m sure among his tens of thousands of tweets there are plenty of violations of the rules. No reason they couldn’t – as a private company they can publish whatever they want. That’s why all the noise about “regulating” them is just BS. Maybe they could just suspend Trump for a week and see how that goes.
The climate-change denier that Trump chose to head the Interior Department has withdrawn:
The coal industry consultant nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the Interior Department’s mining agency has withdrawn his nomination after facing fierce backlash from green groups and environmental advocates, as well as a stalled confirmation process.
J. Steven Gardner announced Thursday that he was withdrawing his nomination to head the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), caving to pressure and citing ongoing resistance from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). […]
In particular, Gardner didn’t like President Obama’s stream-protection rule, and lobbied strenuously against it.
Writers with histories of white supremacy aren’t the only issues plaguing the outlet.
It’s been a rough week for the Daily Caller.
First, The Atlantic identified former Daily Caller editor Scott Greer as the author of numerous posts on Richard Spencer’s white supremacist website. Then, the Columbia Journalism Review revealed that the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website praised Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson, who, according to the neo-Nazis, “is basically ‘Daily Stormer: The Show.’” To top it off, Right Wing Watch reported this week that former Daily Caller contributor Ian Miles Cheong had appeared on a so-called “alt-right” podcast just two months ago.
All of this comes alongside previous reports about the Daily Caller’s penchant for attracting writers with histories of racist screeds — including Chuck Ross, who had previously “written a collection of racist essays” according to the Washington Post, and Jason Kessler, the white supremacist organizer of last year’s deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
It doesn’t appear the Daily Caller’s problems are limited to racists populating its pages, however. Over the past month, Daily Caller reporters and editors have made multiple appearances on Russian propaganda outlets — with one of Sputnik’s hosts describing the Daily Caller as “one of [his] favorite websites.” […]
“Collins dismisses Kavanaugh 2003 Roe email, noting ‘he was merely stating a fact, which is that three judges on the court’ would vote overturn it. ‘If that is the case, and he was not expressing his view, then I’m not sure what the point of it is’.”
OK, and IANAL, but…it seems he was saying that not all jurists would consider it settled law because it could be overturned by the Supreme Court theoretically and practically. But those conditions still hold, even more now than then. So what does his saying he considers it settled law actually mean? When he now says it’s settled law, is he suggesting that it can no longer be overturned by the Supreme Court, or that an insufficient number of Supreme Court justices would vote to overturn it? Or that he disagrees with the argument made by the hypothetical jurists that it wasn’t settled law because those conditions obtained? It’s either one or the other, or his saying he views it as settled law is meaningless. Am I just confused?
“BREAKING: New York (AP) — Trump will not answer federal investigators’ questions, in writing or in person, about whether he tried to block the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Giuliani tells @AP”
Matthew Miller re #365: “If he won’t even answer in writing, it’s not because they’re worried he would lie in the room, the excuse they’ve been giving. It’s because they know truthful answers are incriminating.”
There are now multiple problems with the Kavanaugh nomination. First, we have at least two instances of the judge saying something that is plainly false while under oath.
Second, we still are only in possession of less than 5 percent of the total records of his public service, which is totally ridiculous, unprecedented and insulting.
Third, he seems like he’s about 99 percent likely to overturn Roe.
Fourth, he’s got strange and offensive and retrograde views. For example he called Hawaiian programs “racial spoils” and today seemed to describe the pill as an abortion causing drug.
Fifth, he’s got a dangerous view of presidential power and immunity that seems to line up perfectly with the Presidents’ expectation that his appointees are loyal to him rather than the country or the law.
All of the so-called smart strategists told us that ACA would be repealed and we won with the help of an extraordinary grassroots effort. Let’s give this everything we’ve got. Thank you so much.
Yes, Trump’s allies are lining up behind him, and behind all his CRAZY.
Key congressional allies of President Trump are floating the idea that Congress could take steps to try and find out who wrote the anonymous op-ed in The New York Times disparaging the president.
That action could take the form of an investigation, legislation or hearings.
“We’re looking right now at what’s the appropriate action from a legislative standpoint to review what’s happened,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus who also leads a subcommittee that conducts oversight of federal employees, told USA Today. “It is alarming when you have people … that would suggest resistance to the president that they’re serving, especially in light of discussion that may go into the national security realm.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a one-time presidential rival to Trump, suggested White House officials who hold a security clearance should undergo lie detector tests in an attempt to ferret out staffers speaking ill of the president.
And House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) didn’t rule out the possibility of a congressional probe.
“I’m sure we have a number of members that are looking at it right now,” Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in House leadership, told The Hill.
Trump loyalists are enraged that there are administration officials working against the president, casting such agents as “cowards” and “spies” who should immediately resign. They have also lambasted The New York Times for printing an op-ed written by someone purportedly working as a senior administration official describing the actions of an internal resistance group. […]
Trump spoke at a rally (at a cult event). He repeated his stupid “Treason” claim.
President Trump went after The New York Times on Thursday night for publishing a blistering op-ed by an anonymous senior Trump administration official who blasted the president.
“You look at this horrible thing that took place, is it subversion, is it treason?” Trump said during a campaign-style rally in Billings, Mont., aimed at boosting Republican Senate candidate Matt Rosendale.
“It is really terrible,” Trump continued, blasting the author of the piece as “an anonymous, gutless coward.” [….]
During his rally Thursday night, Trump called on The New York Times to release the name of the author on national security grounds.
“For the sake of our national security, The New York Times should publish his name at once,” he said.
He also argued that the op-ed was proof of a so-called “deep state” of government officials working to undermine his agenda.
“Unelected deep-state operatives…are truly a threat to democracy itself,” Trump said. […]
Various Trump administration officials, including several Cabinet members, raced to denounce the op-ed on Thursday, saying they had not written the article and criticizing whoever had authored the piece. […]
“So #r4today’s top interview slot was a long promotional Tony Blair broadcast against Corbyn, followed by 90 seconds from a Corbyn ally, followed by a lengthy anti-Corbyn interview with David Blunkett. Whatever your politics, this is ridiculous.”
Update to #368 – “New: Jerome Corsi, the conservative author with ties to Roger Stone who was subpoenaed by Mueller’s office to testify before the grand jury today, will not be making an appearance, his lawyer says. No further comment….
Earlier this week, Corsi’s lawyer told us he was trying to set up a separate sit-down with Mueller’s office, which could make a grand jury appearance unnecessary. But his lawyer isn’t commenting now on what happened.”
Sergei V. Skripal, the former Russian spy poisoned in Britain with a powerful nerve agent, appears to have been working in recent years with intelligence officers in Spain, a country locked in a pitched battle with Russian organized crime groups, some with ties to the Russian government.
The account of Mr. Skripal’s activities in Spain, provided by a senior Spanish official and an author who tracks the Spanish security apparatus, adds new details to a case that has inflamed relations between Russia and the West.
Rather than merely living an isolated life in retirement, Mr. Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, continued to provide briefings to spies in the Czech Republic and Estonia, according to European officials. Now, it appears he was also active in Spain.
The revelation adds another striking parallel between Mr. Skripal and another former Russian intelligence operative, Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in 2006 after being poisoned by a radioactive isotope, polonium 210. The Spanish authorities have acknowledged enlisting Mr. Litvinenko in a campaign against Russian organized crime figures in Spain.
…
Mr. Skripal’s continued visits to Spain were confirmed by a current senior official, who would not provide additional details. But former officials said that Mr. Skripal would have been especially useful in crackdowns on Russian organized crime.
“From the beginning we had a big problem,” said a retired Spanish police chief, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential investigations. “We ignored the Russian phenomenon and its organized crime. We didn’t know how they operated.”
“Skripal, Litvinenko,” he said, “they gave a more accurate idea of the reality.”…
It appears Scottie Nell Hughes has a new job—at a news outlet frequently criticized as a propaganda outfit for the Russian government.
Just a couple years ago, Hughes was one of the most nationally visible and hardcore Trumpworld luminaries. The conservative author and onetime Tea Party News Network news director frequently appeared on CNN as a prominent pro-Trump contributor. She was praised and oft-watched by Donald J. Trump himself, enjoyed some face time with him during the 2016 race, and campaigned for him as an early supporter in 2015.
…
Hughes wanted a job in the Trump administration, or to at least remain a player in news media or the commentariat. Then, after the dust settled from Trump’s shock election-night victory, she found herself without a White House gig, and later at the center of a media scandal where she sued Fox for allegedly blacklisting her after she accused Fox Business Network host Charles Payne of rape.
Since last year, Hughes had seemed an exile in the pro-Trump communities in which she once was a star….
Recently, Hughes updated her job description on her personal Facebook page to state that she works for RT America, a propagandistic, Kremlin-friendly news organization, previously known as Russia Today. Last year, RT had to register as a foreign agent following a protracted standoff with the U.S. Department of Justice….
A close friend of Alexander Litvinenko sued two Russian state television channels on Thursday for airing false claims that he was behind the late dissident’s murder.
Alex Goldfarb said he was the victim of “malicious defamation” in broadcasts shown on RT and Channel One earlier this year that blamed him for the fatal 2006 poisoning of Litvinenko in London.
In a complaint filed to federal court in Manhattan, Goldfarb accused both channels of libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He requested unspecified damages.
The legal action was supported by Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, who previously added her name to demands for retractions from the state-controlled television stations for their broadcasts.
…
Goldfarb’s lawsuit cites three broadcasts on Channel One and two on RT in March and April, following the nerve agent attack on another Russian dissident in England, which the British government has since blamed on Russian military intelligence.
…
“I don’t know if I will ever collect any damages,” Goldfarb said in a statement. “But I saw my friend die a most horrible death. I cannot permit them lie about it with impunity. I must show them, myself and everyone else that their spell of evil can somehow, somewhere be checked. Many people support us.”
LOL – “Trump officials use Times op-ed to knife people they hate”: “Trumpworld sources tell Axios that officials rapidly shifted from trying to smoke out the author of the anonymous N.Y. Times op-ed, to using the guessing game to knife people they already hated — whispering the names of rivals and enemies as potential authors….”
Update to #365 – Since Giuliani told the AP that, he and Trump have both told different stories. Their statements are worthless. He’s not voluntarily going to be interviewed. Meanwhile, Mueller rolls on.
Steve Benen discussed that weird claim by Trump about Republicans saving Medicare and Democrats killing it. (Mentioned in the live tweeting of last night’s rally to which SC referred in comment 378.)
[…] “We’re saving Medicare. The Democrats want to destroy Medicare. If you look at what they’re doing, they’re going to destroy Medicare. And we will save it.” [Trump said]
Yesterday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), a U.S. Senate candidate this year, echoed the sentiment, tweeting, “If you want to protect Medicare, vote Republican.”
Given Rick Scott’s past – he ran Columbia/HCA at a time when it was accused of widespread Medicare fraud, and the company was forced to pay $1.7 billion in restitution – this seems like a subject he should probably try to avoid. […]
prominent Republican officials have already said they plan to pursue Medicare cuts in order to help offset the costs of the GOP’s tax breaks for the wealthy.
[…] the latest House Republican budget proposed hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to the Medicare system.
So what in the world are folks like Donald Trump and Rick Scott talking about?
[…] they want the public to believe that progressive “Medicare for All” proposals would necessarily undermine the existing Medicare program – which, in Republicans’ minds, means that conservatives can now lay claim to being the true supporters to the system GOP policymakers have fought so hard to cut.
But reality points in a very different direction. […]
Democrats haven’t been terribly specific about what mix they have in mind [to pay for a “Medicare for All” model], which is both unsurprising and fair grounds for criticism by Republicans or anybody else who wants to know what the real trade-offs for single-payer will be. But one thing Democrats have made clear is that raiding Medicare, to use Trump’s phrase, is not one of the options they plan to consider.
On the contrary, part of their plan is to make Medicare more generous, by eliminating the program’s high out-of-pocket costs that lead many seniors to buy supplemental so-called Medigap plans or to enroll in private alternatives.
[…] Medicare is widely popular and much of the public understands that Democrats not only created the program, but remain its most stalwart supporters. […]
But that doesn’t mean Republicans should cynically try to fool the public.
Trump’s conspiracy theories about Bob Woodward and the book “Fear”:
[…] to fully appreciate Trump’s perspective, it’s worth noting his conspiracy theories about the book. At a White House event on Wednesday, the president said, in reference to Woodward’s book, “Really, if you look at it, it was put out to interfere, in my opinion, at this time, with the Kavanaugh hearings.”
In other words, a legendary Washington Post journalist, and one of the nation’s leading publishers, Simon and Schuster, set out to interfere with Supreme Court confirmation hearings with a book that has nothing to do with the nominee. That’s plainly absurd, and it’s belied by relevant details. As Zack Beauchamp explained, “The date of publication for the Woodward book was announced before the Kavanaugh hearings were scheduled. In order to schedule around Kavanaugh, the book’s publishers would have needed a time machine.”
Undeterred, Trump rolled out a new conspiracy theory last night at a campaign rally in Montana.
“Ronnie Jackson, he’s a doctor, he’s an admiral. He’s actually the doctor that gave me my physical. And he said that I’m in great shape.
“And the Democrats and liberals, and deep state, they were very upset to hear that. So they got tougher and tougher, and they lied more, and they write more books now.” […]
One of the takeaways from the Woodward book is that Trump may not be altogether mentally sound. Does the president think his conspiracy theories will help refute those concerns?
Matthew Miller: “This would be an egregious abuse of power, and I have to think there would be mass resignations at DOJ before they agreed to use law enforcement tools for such a purpose.”
Obama: “It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause.”
“He’s just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years. A fear, an anger that’s rooted in our past,” but is also rooted in upheavals that have taken place in recent years.
He’s taking it to the Republicans now. “What happened to the Republican Party?” “They’re cozying up to the former head of the KGB,” amongst other things.
Update – “DOJ responds to Trump’s calling for an investigation of The NY Times: ‘We do not confirm or deny investigations’, Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores told CNN.”
“Obama: ‘The antidote to a government controlled by a powerful few, a government that divides, is a government by the organized, energized, inclusive many. That’s what this moment is about. That has to be the answer. You cannot sit back and wait for a savior’.”
From Nicole Lafond, writing for Talking Points Memo:
[…] “It’s national security,” he [Trump] told reporters, according to the pool report. “I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it’s national security.” […]
“He goes into a high level meeting concerning China or Russia or North Korea or something, I don’t want him in those meetings,” he said.
When asked whether action should be taken against the New York Times for publishing the anonymous op-ed — which was written by a “senior official” who revealed a group of administration officials are working to “thwart” President Trump’s most “misguided impulses” — Trump said he was “looking at that right now.” The President also dug his heels in on his claim that “libel laws should be toughened up,” a suggestion he also made earlier this week and a puzzling proposal given defamation laws are controlled by individual states.
“Our libel laws are pathetic,” he said. “Our libel laws should be toughened up so that if somebody writes things that are fraudulent and false, they get sued and they lose.”
As he bemoaned the “disgraceful” op-ed and labeled the new Bob Woodward book of palace intrigue a “total fraud,” Trump also bragged about his thick skin, as well as about how “highly educated” he is and his success before and after his foray into politics: “I tried politics and I started off as president, guess what happened? I won.”
“I don’t mind criticism,” he continued. “I handle it. I fight back, I guess you’ve noticed over the years.”
As one high level administration official after the other released scathing statements denying they were the wordsmith culprit, Trump appears to have bought the rebuttals.
“It doesn’t seem to be anybody very high up because everybody very high up has already said it wasn’t me,” he said. “It would be very hard if it was, if they got caught.”
[It should not be Democratic or Republican to criticize a leader who explicitly calls] on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. I’m not making that up. That’s not hypothetical.
We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination, and we’re sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad?
We’re supposed to stand up to bullies. Not follow them.
William Evanina, Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, should be one of the few noncontroversial stories in Washington. Evanina is a long-time CIA counter-intelligence expert and the NCSC’s acting head. Trump nominated him to fill the role in February, and in May he got unanimous approval from the Senate Intelligence Committee. But Evanina hasn’t been approved, and is thinking of stepping down.
Because Chuck Grassley won’t let his nomination come up for a floor vote.
According to Mother Jones, Grassley parked Evanina’s nomination on the excuse that the acting director’s name appears in some texts from former FBI agent Peter Strzok. Evanina wasn’t texting Strzok. He wasn’t texted by Strzok. He wasn’t mentioned in any context that suggested that he was anti-Trump. He was just mentioned along with a number of other officials in comments that seem like day to day business.
Grassley put a hold on Evanina and insisted that the Judiciary Committee needed “to more fully understand the meaning” of Evanina being in texts that seemed entirely business-related. Evanina replied, supplying Grassley with a classified letter in July. And after that … Grassley still refused to budge. And why is that?
Grassley is still holding up the nomination because he wants information on the origins of the FBI’s investigation into contacts between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
They’re not even pretending to be anything other than a Trumpist propaganda outlet anymore.
[…] during a last-minute interview with the president, taped the night before at a rally in Billings, Montana, Fox & Friends weekend host Pete Hegseth appeared ask a series of questions effectively written by the Trump campaign itself.
The interview took place on the floor of the Rimrock Auto Arena and was carried over the speaker system so attendees could listen in.
“Folks here may have seen an anonymous column written in The New York Times, and I think this audience would say that an attack on you is an attack on the people that voted for you,” Hegseth said, referring to an op-ed published earlier in the week by an unnamed Trump administration official, who claimed to be part of an internal “resistance” to the president’s more “misguided” policies.
The audience booed loudly.
“Are you any closer to knowing who did it and what should be done if you find out who did it?” Hegseth asked.
“The Times should have never have done that, because really what they’ve done is, virtually, you know it’s treason, you could call it a lot of things,” Trump responded, to wild jeers from the crowd.
“To think that you have somebody — in all of the Cabinet, so many people as you know, they came forward, they’re writing editorials, they’re all saying, you know, it’s gotta be at a fairly low level,” he continued. “Because so many people today — I was, it was just coming out — and I see all the people that are saying such great things… we have a lot of love in the administration. And the White House is truly, as you would say, a ‘well-oiled machine.’ It is working so well.” […]
Trump administration officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in a quietly released statement on Thursday that 234,000 acres of land near a popular Minnesota wilderness area will officially open to mining.
“Interested companies now may soon be able to lease minerals in the watershed in the Superior National Forest,” […] The watershed sits next to the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the northeastern part of the state.
[…] this decision ignores “science and facts” because the department did not conduct an adequate study into the environmental, social, and economic impacts that may occur as a result of lifting a temporary suspension on mining in the area.
[…] According to a group of environmental organizations that are currently suing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke over the issue, pollution from sulfide-ore copper mining could harm water quality and the region’s ecology. Impacts on tourism, a key economic driver for the area, would also be a risk, they argue. […]
[…] With $50 billion in tariffs now imposed by the U.S. on Chinese imports (and China responding in kind), and another $200 billion in the wings, the U.S. trade deficit grew for the second month in a row, hitting a five-month high, and widening the trade deficit with China by the greatest leap in three years. […]
In June, the deficit — the difference between what Americans buy from other countries versus what they sell to them — grew from $45.7 billion to $50.1 billion in July. That’s an almost 10 percent increase, bringing the United States to a total trade deficit of $337 billion in July — the highest in a decade. […]
The attorney general’s systematic gutting of immigration courts is the latest example.
[…] while the White House continues to deal with the fallout from tearing kids away from their parents at the border, Sessions has been busy orchestrating another, much quieter attack on the country’s immigration system.
Tensions have been simmering for months between the attorney general and the hundreds of judges overseeing immigration courts, but they reached a new high in July. The flashpoint was the case of Reynaldo Castro-Tum, a Guatemalan man who was scheduled to appear in a Philadelphia immigration court but had repeatedly failed to turn up. The judge, Steven Morley, wanted to determine whether Castro-Tum had received adequate notice, and rescheduled a hearing for late July. But instead of waiting for that appointment, the Justice Department sent a new judge from Virginia to take over the case. Judge Deepali Nadkarni subsequently ordered Castro-Tum deported. […]
The National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), a union representing about 350 immigration judges, filed a formal grievance, and 15 retired immigration judges released a public statement condemning the action. “Such interference with judicial independence is unacceptable,” they wrote.
[…] Since the beginning of the year, the attorney general has severely limited judges’ ability to manage their cases, increased pressure on judges to close cases quickly, and dramatically reshaped how America determines whom it will shelter. […] immigration advocates say he’s using his authority in unprecedented ways and, as a result, severely limiting due process rights for migrants.
Unlike most courts, immigration courts are housed within the executive branch, meaning immigration judges are actually DOJ employees. Sessions is therefore ultimately in charge of hiring judges, evaluating their performance, and even firing them. He can also refer cases to himself and overrule previous judges’ decisions, setting precedents that effectively reshape immigration law. In a little more than six months, Sessions has issued four consequential decisions on immigration cases he referred to himself […]
Yes, the situation is bad. Trump’s tariff and trade actions are not going as planned. So Trump decided to make things even worse:
[Today, Trump] threatened to hit Beijing with tariffs on $267 billion in goods, a move that would expand the growing trade war to cover virtually everything the United States currently imports from China.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said his administration has the latest round of tariffs ready and that he’s prepared to impose them “on short notice.” […]
“The $200 billion we’re talking about could take place very soon, depending on what happens with them,” Trump said, indicating he might be open to some sort of a negotiated solution if Beijing were willing to make concessions. “To a certain extent, it’s going to be up to China.”
Then he added: “I hate to say that, but behind that, there’s another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want. That totally changes the equation.” […]
Imposing tariffs on an additional $267 billion in goods from China — on top of the roughly $253 billion that had already been announced — would mean virtually all current imports from China would be caught in the crossfire, including consumer goods like cellphones and televisions. […]
John Dean — Richard Nixon’s counsel who helped topple his presidency during the Watergate scandal — warned the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s could tilt the high court in President Donald Trump’s favor.
“If Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, I submit we will have the most pro-presidential powers Supreme Court in the modern era,” said Dean, who served as White House counsel for nearly three years.
“With Judge Kavanaugh on the court, we should anticipate a majority that will find it increasingly difficult to discover any presidential actions which they do not approve.” […]
Trump calls his election Clinton’s funeral: ‘It was a wake’
“I call it Hillary Clinton’s funeral, that was the night she lost the election,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It was a funeral, it was a wake.”
One of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ ploys to shame the New York Times backfired.
Journalists for The New York Times shared various praise they received on Friday […]
The pushback from Times’s staffers comes in response to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders urging Americans on Thursday to call the paper’s opinion desk to ask “who the gutless loser” is behind the op-ed that has rocked the Trump administration. […]
“If you want to know who this gutless loser is, call the opinion desk of the failing NYT,” Sanders wrote on Twitter. “They are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act. We stand united together and fully support our President Donald J. Trump.”
Maggie Haberman, Sopan Deb and Dan Berry of the Times took to Twitter to say they received some praise instead of criticism from callers who explicitly said they were calling to counter Sanders’s tweet.
“Got four of these kinds of calls yesterday and one ‘eff you’ which [to be honest] is better than an average day’s ratio,” wrote Haberman, a White House correspondent for the paper. […]
[…] Even though your generation is the most diverse in history with a greater acceptance and celebration of our differences than ever before, those are the kinds of conditions that are ripe for exploitation by politicians who have no compunction and no shame about tapping into America’s dark history of racial and ethnic and religious division. Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren’t for those who don’t look like us or don’t sound like us or don’t pray like we do, that’s an old playbook.
It’s as old as time. And in a healthy democracy, it doesn’t work. Our antibodies kick in, and people of goodwill from across the political spectrum call out the bigots and the fear mongers and work to compromise and get things done and promote the better angels of our nature. But when there’s a vacuum in our democracy, when we don’t vote, when we take our basic rights and freedoms for granted, when we turn away and stop paying attention and stop engaging and stop believing and look for the newest diversion, the electronic versions of bread and circuses, then other voices fill the void.
A politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment takes hold and demagogues promise simple fixes to complex problems. No promise to fight for the little guy, even as they cater to the wealthiest and most powerful. No promise to clean up corruption and then plunder away. They start undermining norms that ensure accountability and try to change the rules to entrench their power further. They appeal to racial nationalism that’s barely veiled, if veiled at all. Sound familiar? […]
Russia and Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will almost certainly lead tens of thousands to die in Idlib.
[…] On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a summit in Tehran to discuss the ongoing conflict in Syria. At the top of their agenda was Idlib, a northwestern Syrian province and the country’s last rebel stronghold. Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has threatened to reconquer the province with a massive, imminent military attack that would put the roughly 3 million people living there directly in harm’s way. […]
Turkey wanted all sides to sign a peace deal to stem the fighting before it starts, but Russia and Iran demurred, instead opting to give Assad a green light to carry out indiscriminate bombings and a block-by-block takeover of Idlib, the rebel-controlled province. And Russia and Iran, as they have for years, will almost certainly support those efforts. […]
“We don’t want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath,” he [Erdoğan] said at the summit. Another reason Turkey is pushing back is that Idlib is on the border with Turkey, and Ankara doesn’t want thousands of refugees flooding into the country.
But Turkey failed in this seemingly last-ditch effort to stop the offensive. Which means that the already horrible reality for millions of Syrians is now about to get much, much worse.
“Increasing hostilities will turn the growing desperation into misery,” Iolanda Jaquemet, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which tracks and helps alleviate humanitarian suffering in Syria, told me earlier this week. […]
Much of Washington has spent the week focusing on whether Judge Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed to the Supreme Court. After the revelations of his confirmation hearings, the better question is whether he should be impeached from the federal judiciary. […]
Newly released emails show that while he was working to move through President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees in the early 2000s, Kavanaugh received confidential memos, letters, and talking points of Democratic staffers stolen by GOP Senate aide Manuel Miranda. That includes research and talking points Miranda stole from the Senate server after I had written them for the Senate Judiciary Committee as the chief counsel for nominations for the minority.
Receiving those memos and letters alone is not an impeachable offense.
No, Kavanaugh should be removed because he was repeatedly asked under oath as part of his 2004 and 2006 confirmation hearings for his position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit about whether he had received such information from Miranda, and each time he falsely denied it.
For example, in 2004, Sen. Orrin Hatch asked him directly if he received “any documents that appeared to you to have been drafted or prepared by Democratic staff members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” Kavanaugh responded, unequivocally, “No.”
In 2006, Sen. Ted Kennedy asked him if he had any regrets about how he treated documents he had received from Miranda that he later learned were stolen. Kavanaugh rejected the premise of the question, restating that he never even saw one of those documents.
Back then the senators did not have the emails that they have now, showing that Miranda sent Kavanaugh numerous documents containing what was plainly research by Democrats. Some of those emails went so far as to warn Kavanaugh not to distribute the Democratic talking points he was being given. If these were documents shared from the Democratic side of the aisle as part of normal business, as Kavanaugh claimed to have believed in his most recent testimony, why would they be labeled “not [for] distribution”? And why would we share our precise strategy to fight controversial Republican nominations with the Republicans we were fighting?
Another email chain included the subject line “spying.” It’s hard to imagine a more definitive clue than that. Another said “Senator Leahy’s staff has distributed a confidential letter to Dem Counsel” and then described for Kavanaugh that precise confidential information we had gathered about a nominee Kavanaugh was boosting. Again, it is illogical to think that we would have just given Miranda this “confidential” information for him to use against us. But this is precisely what Judge Kavanaugh suggested in his testimony on Wednesday. He is not that naïve. […]
In response to Leahy’s questions this week, Kavanaugh made the outlandish claim that it was typical for him to be told what Democrats planned to ask at these combative hearings over controversial nominees, and that this was in fact the “coin of the realm.” As a Democrat who worked on those questions, I can say definitively that it was not typical at all. Kavanaugh knows this full well. […]
Whoa. Does Sam Patten really think that feuding with former Georgian officials on Facebook is a good idea?Especially now?
Just two days after pleading guilty to failing to register as a foreign agent and acting as a straw purchaser of presidential inauguration tickets for a Ukrainian oligarch, American lobbyist Sam Patten sent a pair of angry Facebook messages to Georgia’s former economy minister on Facebook messenger.
“Call of [sic] your trolls now or I’ll start releasing things about Misha he’d prefer I didn’t,” Patten wrote to George Arveladze, the Georgian former minister and parliamentarian, who had also served as chief of staff to then-Georgian President Mikheil “Misha” Saakashvili.
“Like now,” Patten continued, “and have them go back and erase their comments.”
More than three hours later, having not heard back from Arveladze, Patten wrote to him again.
“Misha knows what I’m talking about but frankly I have bigger problems these days, maybe you two are no longer as tight as you used to be.”
It was a surprising move from the lobbyist, whose undeclared work for a pro-Russian oligarch in Ukraine earned him the scrutiny of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Mueller eventually handed Patten’s case off to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., but as part of his plea deal, Patten pledged his cooperation on Mueller’s probe. Patten and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort share a number of associates — including Konstantin Kilimnik, who, like Manafort, is charged with witness tampering — and Patten could be a valuable witness for the Mueller team.
In a further sign that the special counsel’s office is watching Patten closely, lawyers for Mueller’s team attended Patten’s appearance in court last Friday. A jury questionnaire released Wednesday for Manafort’s upcoming trial in Washington, D.C. asks potential jurors if they have any connection to Patten, Kilimnik or the company they founded together, Begemot Ventures International — part of a long list of individuals and organizations “whose names may come up in connection with this case.” […]
“Manafort was a certifiable moron to reach out to potential witnesses while on house arrest — and most certainly under surveillance by the FBI,” Turley wrote. “If the allegations are true, Patten would rival the level of recklessness in the alleged text to the chief of state of Saakashvili.”
…Brett Kavanaugh is a partisan who was nominated, and will likely be confirmed, in order to help achieve the Republican Party’s goals: destroying protections for people with pre-existing health conditions, eradicating what’s left of workers’ rights and, yes, overturning Roe v. Wade. Everyone knows it — including Sen. Susan Collins. When she emerged from her meeting with Kavanaugh, she said he told her he considers Roe v. Wade “settled law.” If she somehow believed it then — even after Trump had promised to make overturning Roe a litmus test for his nominees — she can’t possibly believe it now, given new emails showing that Kavanaugh himself has questioned whether Roe is indeed settled.
It’s maddening to watch her and the rest of the Republicans continue to pretend that they still have any respect for the high-minded ideals that are supposed to preserve the impartiality and independence of the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh is proof that there is no precedent they won’t trample, no revelation they won’t shrug off, no principle they won’t contradict, if it means getting the outcomes they want.
Democrats should stop letting them get away with it. The decision by Judiciary Committee Democrats to ignore Grassley’s hiding of documents and release them directly was a good start. But it’s time for all of us on the left to recognize that Republicans have already destroyed the independence of our judicial system and turned it into yet another partisan battlefield — and then figure out how we’re going to start fighting back.
Lynna @ #412, as I said above, I thought Leahy’s questioning was devastating. Kavanaugh’s acceptance and use of obviously stolen documents (for the purpose of Republican cheating in judicial confirmations!) and his lying about it then and now should be disqualifying. (And we don’t even know what’s in the thousands of documents that are still being hidden.) For some reason, I’ve heard close to nothing about it in the news. It’s perplexing, to say the least.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether anyone in the Trump Organization violated campaign-finance laws, in a follow-up to their conviction last month of Michael Cohen, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The inquiry, not previously reported, shows that the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office doesn’t intend to stand down following the guilty plea from Trump’s longtime personal lawyer. Manhattan prosecutors are working on a parallel track to U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is tasked with examining Russian interference in the presidential election and who is referring other matters as they arise to appropriate sections of the Justice Department.
Representatives of the prosecutors in New York declined to comment, while officials for the Trump Organization didn’t immediately respond to several requests for comment….
Paul Manafort’s lawyers have talked to U.S. prosecutors about a possible guilty plea to avert a second criminal trial set to begin in Washington this month, according to a person familiar with the matter.
…
The negotiations over a potential plea deal have centered on which charges Manafort might admit and the length of the sentence to be recommended by prosecutors working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the person familiar with the matter said. Manafort, 69, already faces as long as 10 years in prison under advisory sentencing guidelines in the Virginia case.
By pleading guilty, Manafort could avoid the risk of a longer prison term if he’s convicted at a second trial, as well as the threat of forfeiting several properties and financial accounts. He could also save the cost of paying lawyers to defend him at trial. Such white-collar criminal cases can cost defendants millions of dollars.
The talks may break down without a deal, but if they succeed, they could prompt Mueller to request a reduced sentence in both the Washington and Virginia cases. It’s not clear whether Manafort might cooperate in Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to the person….
A major Republican fundraiser allegedly demanded that his Playboy playmate mistress have an abortion. That’s according to accusations leveled by the mistress, Shera Bechard, and revealed in a document unsealed in court on Friday.
Bechard sued Elliott Broidy, the former deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, for allegedly breaching their hush-money agreement that saw the former Playboy playmate receive $1.6 million for her silence about their extramarital affair. Broidy’s attorneys filed a motion in July to redact parts of Bechard’s complaint that contain explosive allegations against him. A judge agreed and redacted portions of Bechard’s complaint this summer.
Broidy’s motion, however, contains the redacted allegations.
They include Bechard’s claim that Broidy compelled to her to have an abortion; that he refused to wear a condom; and that he had sex with Bechard “without telling her he had genital herpes.” In addition, Broidy allegedly told Bechard he had prostate cancer and that he was unwilling to have his prostate removed “because it would stop him from having sex, which he told her was more important to him than life itself.”
Bechard also claims that she was scared of Broidy because he carried a gun in his car and “had told her that he knew people who could make other people disappear.” She alleges that Keith Davidson—her former attorney who negotiated the hush-money agreement—told her that Broidy would sue her for child support if she kept the baby and that Bechard should “be very very careful.”…
NEWS: In sentencing hearing, lawyer for PAPADOPOULOS says @realDonaldTrump “hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could” by launching a “fake news campaign” and calling FBI Russia probe a “witch hunt.”
PAPADOPOULOS’ attorney said Trump’s efforts dwarfed his client’s actions. “The president of the United States, the commander in Chief, told the world that this was fake news.” He called Mueller’s team “professional” and well-prepared.” Said George was “naive” and “a fool.”
Papadopoulos attorney Thomas Breen said he was struck as they were waiting for an interview at FBI’s Chicago office by the photos on the wall of President Trump and Attorney General Sessions: “We were going in there to potentially … cooperate against those individuals.”
Papadopoulos’ lawyer BREEN eviscerates the conspriacy theory that his wife has been pitching in TV interviews, saying there’s been no scintilla of evidence the FBI or western intel agents entrapped George.
He also said there’s no scrap of evidence that the FBI has a FISA on George. Everything, Breen said, has been “on the square.”
More Breen: “Our firm would in a second stand up if we saw prosecutorial or governmental misconduct. We have seen no such thing. We have seen no entrapment. We have seen no set up by U.S. intelligence people…No reason to believe whatsoever there was a FISA warrant involving GP”
Breen emphasized that his personal belief is Mifsud is an agent of Russia.
Fox viewers will probably never see the debunking of the lies they’ve been told for weeks now.
Interesting: “The Obvious Suspect: The quest to unmask the New York Times op-ed writer has been filled with speculation. But the article’s prose points to one person in particular.”
Returning to his bellicose trade rhetoric, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Friday that he would cause the “ruination” of Canada if he imposed tariffs on Canadian-made cars.
Trump issued the threat during another day of North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations that did not produce a deal between the U.S. and Canada….
Trump has repeatedly threatened to hit Canada with the auto tariffs if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to make NAFTA concessions. He had never before spoken about ruining Canada, but it was not clear if the rhetorical escalation was a deliberate, meaningful shift or merely impromptu loose talk.
…
“I don’t want to do anything bad to Canada. I can — all I have to do is tax their cars, it would be devastating. If I tax cars coming in from Canada, it would be devastating,” he continued, according to a pool reporter travelling with him.
Detectives investigating the murder of a Russian exile in London believe he was previously the target of a poisoning attempt carried out by two mysterious men from Moscow who visited him in a Bristol hotel room, the Guardian has learned.
Nikolai Glushkov, a friend of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky and a prominent Kremlin critic, was found dead in March at his home in New Malden, south-west London. He had been strangled.
Glushkov is now thought to have survived a previous attempt to kill him by poisoning in 2013, the Guardian can reveal. Detectives are reinvestigating the incident as part of their inquiry into Glushkov’s murder, which took place a week after the novichok poisoning in Salisbury of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
…
In contrast to the Skripal investigation, which successfully tracked the two Russians on CCTV, detectives working on the Glushkov investigation have struggled to find leads and are yet to identify any compellingsuspects, it is understood.
Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command has released CCTV footage of a black van spotted around the time of Glushkov’s murder on 11 March. Officers are working on the theory that Glushkov may, like the Skripals, have been a victim of a professional assassin or assassins sent by Russia’s spy agencies.
As part of their inquiries police are re-examining a suspected attempt on Glushkov’s life in early November 2013, six months after Glushkov publicly accused the Kremlin of murdering Berezovsky. Berezovsky had been found dead at his ex-wife’s house near Ascot….
The U.S. State Department’s Office of the Inspector General has widened an investigation into alleged political retaliation by Trump administration officials against America’s diplomatic corps. It is probing claims that a political appointee in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs has taken action against career officials deemed insufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump, according to at least 10 current and former State Department officials.
The Office of Special Counsel, an independent watchdog that oversees the federal government, is also investigating whether Trump’s political appointees—including Mari Stull, the aforementioned senior advisor in the international organization bureau—are carrying out political reprisals against career officials, according to two State Department officials familiar with the matter. The inspector general is also investigating allegations that Stull hurled homophobic slurs at a State Department staffer.
The disclosure comes several weeks after House and Senate Democrats opened their own inquiries, requesting emails and documents detailing the activities of Stull, who has allegedly vetted career diplomats and U.S. citizens employed by international organizations to determine their commitment to the president’s political agenda. The State Department has not complied with the document request.
…
The inspector general’s inquiry was triggered between May and June by complaints from State Department employees, who informed the Office of the Inspector General, as well as other senior State Department officials, that Stull had used her position to retaliate against officials suspected of having supported Obama-era policies. Stull’s alleged retaliation, according to several current and former U.S. officials, received the support of Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Kevin Moley, a Trump appointee.
Stull, a former food lobbyist who wrote a wine blog under the pseudonym “Vino Vixen,” is part of an informal network of political appointees who five State Department officials say constitute a parallel power structure in the State Department to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which seeks to inject the president’s domestic policy agenda into foreign affairs.
Many in the network are linked to Stephen Miller, an influential senior advisor to the president who oversees the Domestic Policy Council at the White House….
Like Stull, they are senior advisors who do not require confirmation by Congress but who often wield extraordinary power over their bureaus. In the past year, they have quietly set the agenda on refugee policy, health care, and reproductive and human rights.
“They are perpetuating a pervasive atmosphere of fear and intimidation,” said one official, noting that the policy goals are shrouded in mystery, making it difficult for officials to determine when they might be making a misstep….
SC @417, Rachel Maddow did a good job of covering the issue of Kavanaugh lying under oath. I’ll post a link later. Kavanaugh lied in 2004, in 2006 and in 2018.
I think that, perhaps, Democrats will have to fight the battle to hold him accountable for perjury. Even if Kavanaugh is confirmed by the Senate, the Dems can continue to work on charging him with perjury. If successful, Kavanaugh could be impeached and lose his seat as a judge.
Fox viewers will probably never see the debunking of the lies they’ve been told for weeks now.
Quite true. It makes one feel a bit helpless. The death of truth, ignoring facts, and so forth.
SC @420, Elliot Broidy is so sleazy and slimy.
The model claims that Broidy began hurting her during their sexual relationship and pushed her to excessive drinking so she “would be more compliant toward his physical abuse,” according to Bloomberg. […]
She reportedly claims that he told her she couldn’t date or be seen with other men […]
Bechard also alleges that Broidy told her he admired President Trump because of his “uncanny ability to sexually abuse women and get away with it,” according to the complaint. […]
SC @417, Rachel Maddow did a good job of covering the issue of Kavanaugh lying under oath. I’ll post a link later. Kavanaugh lied in 2004, in 2006 and in 2018.
It was very good, especially that she showed the video from the earlier hearings. I can’t seem to find the link (might just be too early in the morning). Hope you can. Chris Hayes also had a second great segment about Kavanaugh, and I can’t find the links to either of those.
Brian Fallon: “This week, we learned Brett Kavanaugh seems to have committed perjury multiple times during his past appearances before the Senate. Democrats should make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.”
(It’s weird how much Kavanaugh’s voice can sound like Alex Jones’. Gravelly, in a bad way. Phlegmy.)
The Trump administration held secret meetings with rebellious military officers from Venezuela over the last year to discuss their plans to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro, according to American officials and a former Venezuelan military commander who participated in the talks.
Establishing a clandestine channel with coup plotters in Venezuela was a big gamble for Washington, given its long history of covert intervention across Latin America. Many in the region still deeply resent the United States for backing previous rebellions, coups and plots in countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, Brazil and Chile, and for turning a blind eye to the abuses military regimes committed during the Cold War….
Of course, being the NYT, while presenting the troubling news they have to continue to act as the mouthpiece of the CIA, State Department, corporate interests, and the US and Latin American Right:
Most Latin American leaders agree that Venezuela’s president, Mr. Maduro, is an increasingly authoritarian ruler who has effectively ruined his country’s economy, leading to extreme shortages of food and medicine. The collapse has set off an exodus of desperate Venezuelans who are spilling over borders, overwhelming their neighbors.
Even so, Mr. Maduro has long justified his grip on Venezuela by claiming that Washington imperialists are actively trying to depose him, and the secret talks could provide him with ammunition to chip away at the region’s nearly united stance against him.
…and so on and so forth. I feel for them: from their perspective, Trump’s clumsy and plainly authoritarian rightwing coup-mongering in Latin America is giving all US rightwing coup-mongering in Latin America a bad name. But that won’t stop them from presenting anti-democratic oligarchs as democratic heroes, violent coup-plotters as political prisoners, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as champions of democratic values and human freedom, and US policy as being traditionally hands-off. They don’t oppose economic sabotage or military coups to depose elected leaders in principle, mind you, but the actions of Trump’s people are a little too heavy-handed for their taste.
Good thread from southpaw on the Kavanaugh accusations, responding to a Vox piece, pointing out that Democratic Senators haven’t been making the perjury charge as some have claimed:
…While it makes for ok copy, this isn’t a particularly interesting point. There’s a good reason federal prosecutions are not based on a few leaked documents and a transcript. With a few exceptions, you need the compulsory tools of a federal investigation to prove a case in court.
Moreover, the question all Senators have to answer is not whether Kavanaugh committed the crime of perjury with his evasive testimony. It’s whether he still deserves a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
Finally, I’m disappointed that none of the law professors in the Vox piece appear to have considered Kavanaugh’s full testimony or all the relevant emails, and that none of them made the point that this evidence would only be the starting point for a real investigation.
“DNC Lawyers Raise Prospect That Papadopoulos’s U.K. Contact May Be Dead”: “…The Democratic National Committee, which is suing Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks for interfering in the 2016 election, said in a court filing Friday that it believes all the defendants in the case have been served with the complaint, ‘with the exception of Mifsud (who is missing and may be deceased)’. The lawyers didn’t elaborate.”
In a more virtuous world, Judge Brett Kavanaugh would be deeply embarrassed by the manner in which he has arrived at the doorstep of a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
He was nominated by a president who undermines daily the nation’s democratic order and mocks the constitutional values that Judge Kavanaugh purports to hold dear.
Now he’s being rammed through his confirmation process with an unprecedented degree of secrecy and partisan maneuvering by Republican senators who, despite their overflowing praise for his legal acumen and sterling credentials, appear terrified for the American people to find out much of anything about him beyond his penchant for coaching girls’ basketball.
Perhaps most concerning, Judge Kavanaugh seems to have trouble remembering certain important facts about his years of service to Republican administrations. More than once this week, he testified in a way that appeared to directly contradict evidence in the record.
…
Judge Kavanaugh was quick to provide lawyerly explanations for all of these discrepancies, but they paint a pattern that’s hard to ignore: He misstates facts under oath, and Republicans cover for him by making it hard, if not impossible, to get the documents proving it. With the help of the White House and a personal lawyer for Mr. Bush, Senator Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has subverted a long-established, nonpartisan process and hidden more than 90 percent of the material pertaining to Judge Kavanaugh’s time in government.
It’s only thanks to Senate Democrats and others that we’ve been able to see important pieces of the judge’s lengthy paper trail. There is far more that was never even requested. Far from being embarrassed by all this, Judge Kavanaugh is acting like someone who knows there is virtually nothing he can do to imperil his nomination.
Instead, he’s followed his own cynical advice to a 2002 judicial nominee: “She should not talk about her views on specific policy or legal issues,” he wrote in an email then. “She should say that she has a commitment to follow Supreme Court precedent, that she understands and appreciates the role of a circuit judge, that she will adhere to statutory text, that she has no ideological agenda.”
That is more or less how Judge Kavanaugh got through his hearings. But his ideological agenda is well known, which is precisely why he’s been on Republican Supreme Court shortlists for the last decade. That agenda includes, for starters, a well-established hostility to women’s reproductive rights and a stunningly expansive view of presidential power and impunity.
…
The Constitution calls this process advice and consent. Until the last few years, Republicans claimed to take that responsibility seriously. Now they are making a mockery of what is meant to be a careful and deliberative process by playing three-card monte with the American people. They did the same with last year’s tax bill, rushing it through in the dead of night with virtually no debate or review.
The Republicans engage in this sort of subterfuge for an obvious reason: While they hold unified power in Washington, most of their agenda is hugely unpopular. So they hide as much of it as possible out of a fear that if more of it came to light, they will pay at the polls. Come November, voters can make that fear come true.
Re Tucker Carlson’s anti-diversity rant last night: “He cites the military, a cohesive unit that was only strengthened by desegregation. What a white nationalist piece of shit @TuckerCarlson is.”
Not only was the military strengthened by desegregation, but it’s wrong to imagine the World War II US military, which still excluded or segregated people based on race and gender, as remotely homogeneous simply because its ranks were largely made up up men (largely) considered white. Almost any memoir or account of a WW II soldier notes the diversity they encountered upon reporting for training. They were diverse in ethnicity (many in the US because of the huge waves of immigration in the early 20th century), rural vs. urban background, education, class, religion, politics, etc. Many had never met people even close to that different from themselves. And their varied knowledge and experience helped them cohere into a powerful and effective force. Not to mention that obviously knowledge of other languages and cultures and the ability to engage with people who were different were essential to fighting a war abroad. Carlson is a racist fool.
SC @442, good. I was hoping that a perjury complaint would be filed right away.
SC @441, the Civilian Conservation Corps was often cited as having the same effect. “Many had never met people even close to that different from themselves. And their varied knowledge and experience helped them cohere into a powerful and effective force. Not to mention that obviously knowledge of other languages and cultures and the ability to engage with people who were different […]”
Trump and the economy: making false and/or inflated claims:
[…] Trump has gotten in the habit of taking credit for “the greatest economy in the history of our country.”
Trump’s claim is false — this is not the greatest economy in American history. To cite just one metric, […] thanks in part to Trump’s trade war, wage growth didn’t keep up with inflation over a one-year period ending in August. […]
Trump’s talking point also represents an attempt to take credit for the fruits of an economic recovery that began shortly after President Obama took office in 2009, amid the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Obama himself made this point during his speech on Friday in Illinois.
“When I came into office in 2009 we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Millions of people were losing their homes. Many were worried we were entering into a second Great Depression,” Obama said. “So we worked hard to end that crisis, but also to break some of these longer-term trends. And the actions we took during that crisis returned the economy to healthy growth, and initiated the longest streak of job creation on record.”
“By the time I left office, household income was near its all-time high, and the uninsured rate had hit an all-time low, and wages were rising, and poverty rates were falling,” Obama added. “I mention all this just so when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started.”
What Obama said is true — America’s economic turnaround began during his first term in office, and Trump in large part is reaping the benefits of economic conditions his administration helped create.
Nonetheless, shortly after Obama wrapped up, President Trump gave a speech of his own in which he criticized Obama for allegedly “trying to take some credit, some credit for this incredible thing that’s happening to our country.” […]
On Twitter, one of Trump’s staunchest allies in the Senate — Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — falsely claimed Obama’s years were “dominated” by “slower growth.” […]
In fact, as ThinkProgress has detailed, at various times throughout Obama’s presidency, the economy grew at a rate faster than what Trump has so far achieved.
On Saturday morning, Donald Trump Jr. — who is ostensibly supposed to be managing the Trump family business without meddling in politics — took the lies up a notch in their brazenness, tweeting that Obama’s comments “may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” because his “general hatred of business killed growth for his entire 8 years.” […]
Don Jr. is in the the habit of telling brazen lies about the economy to try and make his dad look good. When news broke in late July that the economy grew by 4.1 percent in the second quarter of this year, Don Jr. tweeted, “Just because Obama never broke 2% doesn’t mean that someone with great policies can’t. Let’s keep this going.”
In fact, under Obama, quarterly GDP growth exceeded 2 percent 16 times, hit three percent or higher eight times, hit four percent or higher four times, and even exceeded five percent once.
[…] Throughout his Presidency, Obama tended to speak of contemporary problems in the context of history, but this time he sounded a little like an engineer who is shocked that he has to explain why it’s a bad idea to knock down a load-bearing wall.
Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale, has just published “How Fascism Works,” in which he advances the argument that Fascist politics need not accompany a Fascist state or the rise of a Fascist party; they can exist in the context of democratic forms of government. Fascist politics bear particular and notably contradictory hallmarks: ideas of equality are used to cloak discrimination; demands for “law and order” camouflage growing corruption and official lawlessness. Those descriptions are increasingly applicable to the current state of affairs in the United States, and, more extraordinarily, they mirror Obama’s comments at Urbana-Champaign. “Demagogues promise simple fixes to complex problems,” he said. “They promise to fight for the little guy even as they cater to the wealthiest and the most powerful. They promise to clean up corruption, then plunder away. They start undermining the norms that insure accountability, try to change the rules to entrench their power further. And they appeal to racial nationalism that’s barely veiled, if veiled at all.” Obama did not say the words “Fascism” or “authoritarianism,” but his indictment of Trump and Trumpism was no less severe for it. […]
Donald Trump whipped up another rowdy ovation from a friendly crowd this week with an attack on the media, accusing journalists of being “very, very dishonest” and refusing to give him credit for his purported achievements.
But rather than the usual sports stadium packed with partisans in red baseball caps, this tirade against the press was applauded by dozens of senior law enforcement officials in the splendour of the East Room of the White House.
The episode unfolded on Wednesday afternoon, after the New York Times published an article by an unidentified senior Trump administration official who claimed to be one of many working to thwart Trump’s “worst inclinations” and frustrate his agenda.
…
A review of coverage produced by regional media outlets over recent years found that many of the sheriffs who cheered the president have come under sharp scrutiny from the press for their own actions – or for those of the officers in their departments.
They have been held accountable by local journalists for incidents including the leaving of a service pistol in a casino bathroom, alleged mistreatment in jails, the wearing of blackface by an officer, and various other actions.
Here, the Guardian has compiled some of the notable reporting on the sheriffs who appeared with Trump:
1. Sheriff Ana Franklin, Morgan county, Alabama
Franklin is under investigation by the FBI and state authorities after a local news blogger, Glenda Lockhart, disclosed last year that the sheriff used $150,000 in public money to invest in a now-bankrupt used car dealership that was part-owned by a convicted fraudster. The money was taken from a fund meant for feeding inmates in the county jail.
The sheriff’s office recruited Lockhart’s grandson as an informant as they attempted to find a source leaking information to the blogger. The grandson said he was paid to install spyware on Lockhart’s computer. Franklin’s deputies raided Lockhart’s home and seized her computer. Franklin was found by a judge to have broken the law.
Lockhart’s findings have been built upon by several local reporters, including WAAY-31 television’s investigations team and the Decatur Daily. In a statement posted to Facebook in April, Franklin incorrectly described the stories about her as “misinformation, false reports and slander”….
Around the time he became northeast chairman of Reagan’s 1980 campaign, [Stone] had another awakening when he started working with the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, former McCarthy henchman and also a Reagan supporter. “I’m still kind of a neophyte,” Stone admits, “still kind of thinking everything’s on the level. ‘Cause the truth is, nothing’s on the level.” At a 1979 meeting at Cohn’s Manhattan townhouse, he was introduced to major mobster and Cohn client Fat Tony Salerno. “Roy says to Tony, ‘You know, Tony, everything’s fixed. Everything can be handled.’ Tony says, ‘Roy, the Supreme Court’ Roy says, ‘Cost a few more dollars.’ ”…
Thousands of Argentinians – most of them women – have started formal proceedings to abandon the Catholic church, in protest of the church’s campaign against efforts to legalise abortion in the country.
In the month since the country’s senate voted to maintain a ban on almost all abortions, more than 3,700 people have submitted apostasy applications to the Argentinian synod, according to César Rosenstein, a lawyer and founding member of the Argentinian Coalition for a Lay State.
The figure is a tiny percentage of Argentina’s population of 44 million, but apostasy activists say that the movement’s growing profile indicates a cultural shift in what has always been an overwhelmingly Catholic nation.
…
A constitutional reform in 1994 removed the requirement for Argentina’s presidents to be Catholic, but close ties remain between church and state. The Catholic church is financed to a large extent by the government. Bishops’ wages are paid by the state and Catholic schools receive state support, in accordance with a concordat signed in 1979 between the Vatican and Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship.
But a growing number of apostasy supporters express frustration with the church over its opposition to divorce and same-sex marriage (both of which nonetheless became legal in 1987 and 2010, respectively) as well as legal abortion.
The church’s ambivalent role during the 1976-83 military dictatorship is also a source of rancour.
“I’m offended by the church,” said Nora Cortiñas, a member of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, the campaigning group founded by women whose children vanished after being seized by the military, often being thrown alive into the south Atlantic from military planes.
“The priests blessed the death flights,” Cortiñas told the press recently, when she announced her plans to apostatise. “The church’s pressure against legal abortion was the drop that overflowed my cup.”…
“Putin’s trust rating in public opinion polls dropped after the proposal to raise the retirement age was put forward. Many Russians fear they won’t live long enough to retire. Rallies opposing the proposal are taking place across #Russia.”
SC @454, so, Republicans, (the Trump administration and lackeys), are not going to file a perjury complaint against Kavanaugh … so that’s that? It can’t be done?
SC @453, a lot of money was spent on ads touting Kavanaugh. A lot of money was spent by the Federalist Society too. Money has been spent backing Trump. They paid the money. They “fixed” the Supreme Court.
In other news, Bob Woodward was interviewed this morning by CBS’s David Martin: “People Better Wake Up To What’s Going On’ In Trump WH” Link. video is available at the link. The video is 12:30 minutes long.
From the comments:
He [Woodward] means that we need to hope white men don’t have to confront a crisis. All the people in Puerto Rico already had a crisis. Women have been having a crisis since election day. The crisis for young black men is known as “Tuesday.” The kids at Parkland endured a crisis last February.
But yeah, a crisis like a pandemic or a terror strike aimed at Wall Street or our electrical grid that would merely include white men and not be aimed specifically at them? That’s just unthinkable! We better hope that never happens, because of course Trump will be incapable of responding coherently.
A mass exodus of workers is depleting the ranks of the Environmental Protection Agency, shrinking the federal office tasked with safeguarding America’s natural resources to its smallest size in decades, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
Since President Trump has taken office, 1,600 EPA employees have departed the EPA. The Post notes that this has shrunk its workforce “to levels not seen since the Reagan administration.”
Staff departures, coupled with a slowness to replace them, accomplishes a stated goal of the Trump administration: shrinking the federal government. In addition to the EPA, the Post notes that nearly all federal agencies are seeing dramatic reductions in workforce under Trump. This is increasingly making carrying out their missions much more difficult. And with the possibility of budget cuts still on the table, further staff attrition could be in the future.
The now former EPA staffers noted their frustration with Trump’s radically anti-environment agenda, saying it was the catalyst for their decision. Scientist Ann Williamson told the Post, “I did not want to any longer be any part of this administration’s nonsense.” […]
Trump’s offshore drilling plans being stymied by states:
The war between coastal governors and the Trump administration over offshore drilling escalated this weekend, as California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a pair of bills that would effectively prevent new drilling projects off the state’s coasts.
The bills would accomplish its goal by “prohibiting new leases for new construction of oil and gas-related infrastructure, such as pipelines, within state waters if the federal government authorizes any new offshore oil leases.”
Governor Brown did not mince as he signed the bill on Saturday, taking aim directly at the president. “Not here, not now,” said Governor Brown. “We will not let the federal government pillage public lands and destroy our treasured coast.”
This move shouldn’t come as a surprise to followers of California lawmakers, who have made ambitious environmental policies a cornerstone in recent years. The state has bucked Trump’s embrace of dirty energy by investing in renewable energy projects. And an ambitious bill that would see the state attempt to fill all of its electricity needs from clean sources has moved its way from the state legislature to the governor’s desk. […]
Donald Trump hasn’t been able to silence Stormy Daniels, and now he’s given up on trying.
On Saturday, Trump’s legal team said he would not seek to enforce a 2016 nondisclosure agreement between Daniels and Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen that would have prevented Daniels from disclosing intimate details about an alleged affair she had with the president. Trump’s lawyers announced their decision in a court filing that was reported by CNN.
The agreement was made between Daniels and Cohen on behalf of his shell company called Essential Consultants during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. The agreement paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about the alleged affair. Daniels later argued that it was invalid because Trump himself never signed it. On Saturday, Trump’s legal team agreed not to contest that assertion and sought to dismiss a lawsuit from Daniels against Trump over the agreement. […]
I have been practicing law for nearly 20 yrs. Never before have I seen a defendant so frightened to be deposed as Donald Trump, especially for a guy that talks so tough. He is desperate and doing all he can to avoid having to answer my questions. He is all hat and no cattle.
[…] The match ended in a stunning fashion Saturday, with both Williams and the game’s winner, Naomi Osaka, in tears. A dispute between Williams and the game’s umpire, Carlos Ramos, over what was initially a minor infraction quickly spun out of control. After the match, the 23-time Grand Slam champion in a press conference took the opportunity to reflect on sexism in tennis and defend the right of women to show emotion in sports — a right that is generally afforded much more liberally to men.
“I’m going to continue to fight for women and to fight for us to have equal [rights],” Williams said.
She later added, “I just feel like the fact that I have to go through this is just an example for the next person that has emotions and that want to express themselves, and they want to be a strong woman, and they’re going to be allowed to do that because of today.” […]
At U.S. Open, power of Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka is overshadowed by an umpire’s power play. Washington Post link
Chair umpire Carlos Ramos managed to rob not one but two players in the women’s U.S. Open final. Nobody has ever seen anything like it: An umpire so wrecked a big occasion that both players, Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams alike, wound up distraught with tears streaming down their faces during the trophy presentation and an incensed crowd screamed boos at the court. Ramos took what began as a minor infraction and turned it into one of the nastiest and most emotional controversies in the history of tennis, all because he couldn’t take a woman speaking sharply to him.
Williams abused her racket, but Ramos did something far uglier: He abused his authority. Champions get heated — it’s their nature to burn. All good umpires in every sport understand that the heart of their job is to help temper the moment, to turn the dial down, not up, and to be quiet stewards of the event rather than to let their own temper play a role in determining the outcome. Instead, Ramos made himself the chief player in the women’s final. He marred Osaka’s first Grand Slam title and one of Williams’s last bids for all-time greatness. Over what? A tone of voice. Male players have sworn and cursed at the top of their lungs, hurled and blasted their equipment into shards, and never been penalized as Williams was in the second set of the U.S. Open final. […]
No one will date them, and some restaurants won’t serve them.
The primary safe space for thirsty young Trumpers has been the hotel bar at the Trump Organization’s hotel inside the Old Post Office building at 1110 Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from the White House.
Residents of the District of Columbia filed a complaint challenging President Donald Trump’s liquor license based on his “bad character,” reports Huffington Post.
…
Washington’s ABC Board—made up of seven residents of the city, where Trump won just 4percent of the vote—will hold a hearing on the challenge this coming Wednesday, and HuffPo says a decision is expected the following day….
Fresh off a sit-down with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Virginia state Sen. Richard H. Black turned up on an Arab TV channel last week making an extraordinary claim about one of the United States’ closest allies.
Black said Britain’s MI6 intelligence service was planning a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people, which it would then blame on Assad.
“Around four weeks ago, we knew that British intelligence was working toward a chemical attack in order to blame the Syrian government, to hold Syria responsible,” Black said on Al Mayadeen, an Arab news channel based in Beirut.
Black (R-Loudoun) said later that he meant the British were planning not to carry out an attack themselves, but to either direct rebels to do so or stage a phony attack, with actors posing as victims.
Black also said some chemical attacks previously reported to have occurred in Syria were British fakes, pulled off with help from volunteer first responders known as White Helmets.
…
Critics said Black was being used, perhaps unwittingly, as a tool for Syrian propaganda as government forces massed for an assault on Idlib province, the country’s last rebel-held stronghold. It is home to almost 3 million people, including hardened fighters who refused to surrender elsewhere. A least half of the population are civilians.
Black’s comments about Britain promised to draw more controversy to the 74-year-old legislator, who was interviewed Friday by the Russian state-owned RT TV network. Five Democrats are competing to take him on next year in elections that will determine whether Republicans hold on to their two-seat majority in the Senate.
…
Black said he and Assad spent three hours in the president’s office, in a mostly upbeat discussion about how the country has fared since the senator’s last visit.
“There was sort of a spring in his step and a sense of joy and optimism, and looking out to the future and bringing the nation together,” Black said.
My Brothers @kstills and @ithinkisee12 continue to show their unwavering strength by fighting for the oppressed! They have not backed down, even when attacked and intimidated. Their courage will move the world forward!
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry will visit Moscow from Sept. 11 to 13, Russian media reported on Sunday, citing a diplomatic source.
Perry would be the most senior U.S. official to visit Russia since U.S. President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July to try to improve ties, which have dipped to a post-Cold War low.
Moscow and Washington are at odds over U.S. accusations of Russian meddling in U.S. politics, Syria, Ukraine and the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.
Trump has said he wants to improve ties, but his administration is considering imposing new sanctions on Moscow, as is the U.S. Congress.
Perry will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak on Sept. 13, the Russian state news agency TASS said….
…The latest reason to be suspicious is Trump’s attacks on a formerly obscure Justice Department official named Bruce Ohr. Trump has repeatedly criticized Ohr and called for him to be fired. Ohr’s sin is that he appears to have been marginally involved in inquiries into Trump’s Russian links. But Ohr fits a larger pattern. In his highly respected three-decade career in law enforcement, he has specialized in going after Russian organized crime.
It just so happens that most of the once-obscure bureaucrats whom Trump has tried to discredit also are experts in some combination of Russia, organized crime and money laundering….
President Trump is expected to declassify, as early as this week, documents covering the U.S. government’s surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the investigative activities of senior Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr, according to allies of the president.
The big picture: Republicans on the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees believe the declassification will permanently taint the Trump-Russia investigation by showing the investigation was illegitimate to begin with. Trump has been hammering the same theme for months….
But sure, Republicans, keep helping him grab more power, including a compliant Supreme Court majority. I’m sure he’d never turn it against you.
…Fear is a book full of stories about Trump being contained; his instincts being thwarted; his worst qualities being slightly minimized by people who claim to be afraid of what would happen if they weren’t there. “It’s not what we did for the country,” former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn says early on. “It’s what we saved him from doing.” Quotes like this aim to settle the ethical debate—which has been going on from the start of the Trump presidency—over whether anyone should be working for a bigoted and corrupt president with no respect for democracy, even if they are planning to, in that most tiresome phrase, contain his worst impulses. But that conversation has obscured the more pressing question of what those supposedly well-intentioned individuals can actually accomplish from the inside. Even allowing for the self-serving nature of the accounts that Woodward offers here, the answer appears to be: not much.
Indeed, the near-misses Woodward writes about feel particularly insubstantial, in part because very few of these aides and appointees seem to really grasp the nature of the man they are serving (no matter how much they talk about his stupidity and recklessness), and in part because Trump himself is so clueless and aimless that he rarely seems to follow through on his worst ideas anyway. (The terrible things he has followed through on, such as various immigration policies, are not really discussed at length, and on these matters a good chunk of his staff appear to agree with him.) Moreover, many of these aides are tasked with—or see their roles as—not preventing policy decisions, but instead as putting the nicest, non-Trumpy face on Trumpism; the ethics of this deserves its own debate.
…
What remains astonishing about the meeting is not that Trump is an idiot. It’s that Mattis and Cohn seemed to have hopes for their plan, believing they could use the sit-down to really turn a corner. The book is so full of scenes like this because the people around Trump seem to have less feel for the president than a politically astute person who spends 20 minutes a day reading the newspaper….
…
…It’s certainly possible that Mattis or Tillerson or McMaster stopped Trump from doing something truly terrible or illegal over the past nearly 20 months, but if so we are not told what it was. Despite all the self-aggrandizing quotes from the so-called moderating influences in the White House, the upshot of Woodward’s own reporting is that if we end up riding out this term free of a foreign policy catastrophe, it is more likely to be the result of Trump’s incuriosity and short attention span than a bold act of bravery by one of the grown-ups.
…
Nevertheless, there is a strong argument to be made that someone like Mattis should stay in his job, and the person who wants to see him resign in protest is braver than I am. But the case to keep working in the Trump administration is much weaker if your job isn’t a matter of life and death, and some of the examples in the book meant to highlight the good deeds of the people around Trump are extremely thin….
…
Woodward himself seems to suffer one of the same maladies as his sources: namely, the condition of thinking that a better version of Trump might exist out there….
…
…If Trump won in part because of the bankruptcy of the Republican establishment and the withering of our institutions, it’s no surprise that the figures surrounding him are unequipped—intellectually, practically, and morally—for the current emergency.
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), a gubernatorial nominee who recently was accused of using racially tinged language, spoke four times at conferences organized by a conservative activist who has said that African Americans owe their freedom to white people and that the country’s “only serious race war” is against whites.
DeSantis, elected to represent north-central Florida in 2012, appeared at the David Horowitz Freedom Center conferences in Palm Beach, Fla., and Charleston, S.C., in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, said Michael Finch, president of the organization. At the group’s annual Restoration Weekend conferences, hundreds of people gather to hear right-wing provocateurs such as Stephen K. Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos and Sebastian Gorka sound off on multiculturalism, radical Islam, free speech on college campuses and other issues.
“I just want to say what an honor it’s been to be here to speak,” DeSantis said in a 27-minute speech at the 2015 event in Charleston, a video shows. “David has done such great work and I’ve been an admirer. I’ve been to these conferences in the past but I’ve been a big admirer of an organization that shoots straight, tells the American people the truth and is standing up for the right thing.”
…
Fellow speakers included a former Google engineer who was fired after arguing that “biological causes” in part explain why there are relatively few women working in tech and leadership; a critic of multiculturalism who has written that “Europe is committing suicide” by welcoming large numbers of refugees and immigrants; and a British media personality who urged the audience to keep the United States from becoming like the United Kingdom, where “discrimination against whites is institutionalized and systemic.”
…
Founded in 1988, the Freedom Center described its mission on a fundraising appeal: “We combat the efforts of the radical left and its Islamist allies to destroy American values and disarm this country as it attempts to defend itself in a time of terror.”
Guest speakers at its conferences over the past five years have included Republican members of Congress, former governors Rick Perry of Texas and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, young conservative activists James O’Keefe and Ben Shapiro, and right-wing European politicians Nigel Farage and Geert Wilders.
…
Members of Congress are required to file disclosures when outside groups pay for their travel. DeSantis filed one for only the 2017 trip, reporting that the Freedom Center paid $468 in meals for him and his wife and $750 for lodging at The Breakers in Palm Beach.
A spokesman for DeSantis said the congressman or his campaign paid his expenses in 2015 and 2016, so no disclosure filing was required. His campaign produced receipts for only the 2015 trip. In 2013, DeSantis spoke at the conference, but did not stay, so there were no expenses, the spokesman said.
Beyond the annual conferences, Horowitz has a record of inflammatory comments on social media….
The United States will threaten Monday to punish individuals that cooperate with the International Criminal Court in a potential investigation of U.S. wartime actions in Afghanistan, according to people familiar with the decision.
The Trump administration is also expected to announce that it is shutting down a Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington because Palestinians have sought to use the international court to prosecute U.S. ally Israel, those people said.
White House national security adviser John Bolton is expected to outline threats of sanctions and a ban on travel to the United States for people involved in the attempted prosecution of Americans before the international court in an address Monday.
Bolton is a longtime opponent of the court on grounds that it violates national sovereignty.
The speech, titled “Protecting American Constitutionalism and Sovereignty from International Threats,” is Bolton’s first formal address since joining the administration in April. It is sponsored by the Federalist Society, a conservative and libertarian policy group.
Bolton is expected to outline a new campaign to challenge the court’s legitimacy as it considers cases that could put the United States and close allies in jeopardy for the first time, according to individuals familiar with the planned remarks who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to do so on the record.
Bolton is likely to lay out American opposition to the court and propose measures including new agreements to shield U.S. personnel from international prosecution and the threat of sanctions or travel restrictions for people involved in prosecuting Americans.
…
The new broadside against the ICC follows steps by the administration challenging international cooperation in other areas. This year, the administration has withdrawn from the United Nations human rights body, halted financial support for a U.N. aid program for Palestinian refugees and threatened to pull out of the World Trade Organization.
Bolton’s speech comes two weeks before President Trump will attend the United Nations General Assembly, where he will address other world leaders….
…
Three successive U.S. administrations of both political parties have rejected the full jurisdiction of the international court over American citizens, although U.S. cooperation with the court expanded significantly under the Obama administration.
The United States has never signed the 2002 international treaty, called the Rome Treaty, that established the court, which is based in The Hague.
…
Bolton was part of an effort during the George W. Bush administration to formalize U.S. resistance to the court, including through legislation prohibiting U.S. support and efforts to pressure other countries into agreements not to surrender U.S. citizens to the body.
Bolton’s opposition has intensified as ICC judges evaluate a request from prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who last fall asked for permission to formally investigate alleged crimes committed during the Afghan war. That could potentially include actions by U.S. military or intelligence personnel in the detention of terrorism suspects.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal last November, Bolton said the investigation added urgency to the need to keep the United States and its citizens out of the court’s reach….
I highly recommend reading the book discussed in the links in my comment @ #433 above, Alan MacLeod’s Bad News from Venezuela, alongside this oped: “Trump, Venezuela and the prospect of a coup.”
I’m annoyed with this strange emphasis on the latest Butina (pronounced “BOOT-in-a,” evidently) documents showing the prosecutors admitted they (probably?) were wrong when they said she had offered someone sex in exchange for access. It appears they misread some texts. It wasn’t part of the charges; they had made the suggestion in the context of arguing in her bond hearing that her relationship with Erickson wasn’t as strong as her lawyers were claiming given that she had offered someone else sex in exchange for access. In any case, the argument – which she herself has made – that she’s cooperating or willing to cooperate with a fraud investigation of Erickson shows much more clearly that her relationship with him isn’t as solid as she claims (and the whole idea that he represents roots for her in the US is silly on its face).
“Can now confirm that the Speaker’s office has received Rep. Ron DeSantis’s letter resigning from Congress to focus on his campaign for Florida governor.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin got a taste of public anger at his plans to increase the pension age as voters turned on the ruling party in regional elections and hundreds were arrested at protests against the reform.
United Russia’s candidates for governor in four regions, mostly in the country’s east, were forced into runoffs after failing to win majorities in elections Sunday. They trailed Communist and nationalist opponents in two of the races, gaining as little as 32 percent support in elections that are usually tightly controlled by the Kremlin to deliver rubber-stamp endorsements of its candidates.
“These elections are a defeat for the authorities,” said Valery Solovei, a political analyst at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. “This is how the fall in Putin’s ratings manifests itself.”
More than 1,000 people were arrested in nearly 40 cities at opposition protests over the changes to pensions that coincided with the vote, according to OVD-Info, a rights-monitoring organization. They including 452 in St. Petersburg where riot police were filmed beating demonstrators with batons.
United Russia also suffered defeats to the Communists in party-list votes for three regional parliaments. It’s the first time since 2007 that it failed to win party elections, Vedomosti reported….
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Putin’s approval rating has slumped to its lowest in more than seven years over the plan to raise the pension age by five years for men and women, to 65 and 60 respectively. He sought to defuse discontent last month by softening some elements of the proposals in a televised address. Even so, demonstrations took place in more than 80 towns and cities Sunday after opposition leader Alexey Navalny had urged Russians to protest the measures….
The Trump administration is also expected to announce that it is shutting down a Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington because Palestinians have sought to use the international court to prosecute U.S. ally Israel, those people said.
Other U.S. actions against the Palestinians include the withdrawal of funds to support a network of hospitals in Palestine. NBC News link
The decision to withdraw $25 million previously committed to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network follows on the heels of a U.S. decision to cut $200 million in aid that funded the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees.
The collapse of hospital services and of aid to refugees will probably result in more chaos. Certainly, the cuts will result in more cruel conditions for Palestinians.
[…] the Palestinian Authority denounced the administration’s move as “an act of political blackmail.” […]
Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee member Dr Hanan Ashrawi said that by cutting funds to hospitals in East Jerusalem the United States was threatening to cause “serious instability and grave harm to thousands of Palestinian patients and their families.”
“Such an act of political blackmail goes against the norms of human decency and morality. Politics should not trump humanity or harm a vulnerable people in need of support and protection,” he said in a statement. […]
Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel in the Obama administration, said Saturday that the Trump administration’s apparent rationale behind the latest cuts was flawed.
“I gather the “logic” of the US cutting off aid to E Jerusalem hospitals is that it’ll add pressure on the Palestinians to come to talks. “See, if you don’t negotiate, the price only goes up.” That will fail. And cutting off hospitals with no new $ lined up is indefensibly cruel,” he said […]
Aaron David Millar, vice president and director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a former adviser to six secretaries of state, said […] “In 40 years following U.S. policy in and outside government never seen any Administration simultaneously support Israel so uncritically and go after Palestinians so harshly both without logic, purpose or national security rationale,” he said.
In other words, business as usual for Trump and the trumpians.
The GDP Rate (4.2%) is higher than the Unemployment Rate (3.9%) for the first time in over 100 years!
Why Trump is wrong to say it like that:
This is wrong for a wide variety of reasons. First, it’s a mistake to compare a percentage shift to a more static level. Second, it’s a mistake to equate quarterly growth with annual growth. Third, even if we pretend quarterly growth is annual growth, Trump’s boast is false. And finally, if we treat quarterly growth as quarterly growth, Trump’s boast is even further from the truth.
What Trump said about the past election and the economy:
If the Democrats had won the Election in 2016, GDP, which was about 1% and going down, would have been minus 4% instead of up 4.2%. I opened up our beautiful economic engine with Regulation and Tax Cuts. Our system was choking and would have been made worse. Still plenty to do!
What’s wrong with Trump’s statement above:
Trump appears to be simply making up numbers that pop into his head, which makes it tough to fact-check, but what he said about the GDP growth he inherited is plainly and demonstrably wrong.
From the Washington Post:
[…] Trump came into office when unemployment was at a then-10-year low […]
He’s either lying or delusional. There are no other possibilities.
It might get a little tiresome to point out over and over and over again that Trump’s favorite falsehoods are, well, false, but that’s what makes it important. Just because it gets repetitive doesn’t mean we should let untruths go unchallenged.
Which brings us to the point at hand: In the past 45 years, only one president has inherited a better economy than Trump did. That was George W. Bush, who took office at the tail end of the tech bubble, when unemployment was a mere 4.2 percent. Trump has been luckier, though, in that his term didn’t begin just as an economic expansion was ending. On the contrary, the slow and steady recovery that President Barack Obama kick-started with the stimulus has continued under Trump — just a little slower and a little steadier than before. […] the economy added almost 3.5 million jobs in Obama’s last 16 months in office, compared with just under 3 million jobs in Trump’s first 16 months. […]
More of what Trump said about the economy:
The Economy is soooo good, perhaps the best in our country’s history (remember, it’s the economy stupid!), that the Democrats are flailing & lying like CRAZY! Phony books, articles and T.V. ‘hits’ like no other pol has had to endure-and they are losing big. Very dishonest people!
Commentary on Trump’s statement above:
Most of this is just meaningless palaver, but the idea that the economy has never been as strong as it is now isn’t even close to being true.
From the Washington Post:
[…] in 40 different venues over three months, according to our database of false and misleading claims, […] Trump has declared that the economy is the greatest, the best or the strongest in U.S. history. […]
is there a point at which the statement becomes its own form of truth through consistent repetition? The president has said it so often that by the end of the three-month period, he even quoted himself: “It’s said now that our economy is the strongest it’s ever been in the history of our country.” […]
“The Trump economy remains red-hot, stocks hitting new highs today. Consumer confidence soaring to levels not seen in nearly two decades,” [Lou Hobbs of Fox News] announced Aug. 28. A day earlier, Dobbs echoed another favorite talking point of the president. “He campaigned, remember, for minority votes, asking what have you got to lose? Everyone now is winning with this president. … He’s done more for the minorities in this country than any president in frankly decades.”
[…] neither Hannity nor Dobbs would go so far as to echo the president’s line about this being the greatest economy in U.S. history. […]
Unemployment rate. The unemployment rate in August was 3.9 percent, and it dipped as low as 3.8 percent in May. But the unemployment rate was as low as 2.5 percent in 1953. In fact, it was below 3.9 percent for much of 1951, 1952 and 1953. The unemployment rate was as low as 3.4 percent in 1968 and 1969 and was 3.8 percent in 2000. […]
labor force participation rate has not greatly improved under Trump. The retirement of the baby-boom generation is a major factor. Moreover, the labor force participation rate for men of prime working age (25 to 54) has remained stuck at about 88.9 percent, compared with 97 percent in the 1950s and 1960s.
Gross Domestic Product. […] The GDP is the broadest measure of the economy. and during the campaign he promised to achieve an annual growth rate of 4 percent. In the second quarter, the rate was 4.2 percent, but that’s still below the 5.1 percent and 4.9 percent achieved in two quarters in 2014, or the 4.7 percent increase in a quarter in 2011. […]
Economic historians pointed to these data points to say the president’s claim is off base.
“He is completely wrong. Growth was much higher in the early 1960s at close to 5 percent per year and unemployment was below 3 percent,” said Michael D. Bordo, director of the Center for Monetary and Financial History at Rutgers University […]
What Trump said about his magic wand:
“ President Trump would need a magic wand to get to 4% GDP,” stated President Obama. I guess I have a magic wand, 4.2%, and we will do MUCH better than this! We have just begun.
Analysis of the lies in Trump’s statement above:
[…] he’s still confusing quarterly growth rates with annual growth rates, which are not the same thing (just like a quarter of a football game isn’t the same thing as a whole game). Second, Trump is badly misquoting Obama, who was, among other things, talking about annual growth, and pointing to growth the president promised to create, but won’t. […]
I don’t blame Trump for talking about the economy; I blame him for not knowing what he’s talking about.
Progressives have had their fair share of massive rallies on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and turnabout is fair play, right? Over the weekend, conservatives held a pro-Trump rally called the “Mother of All Rallies” (seriously, that’s what they called it) featuring headliners like Roger Stone and Joe Arpaio. But, based on these videos, it seems they forgot to put out the nationwide call for Trump supporters to attend. A coupon for free french fries at an average Chick-fil-A franchise draws a bigger crowd.
Even Russian propaganda outlet RT put together a video mocking attendance with a headline that reads, “Dozens of Trump supporters attend “Mother of All Rallies.” […]
Republicans don’t control the Supreme Court yet, but three Republican judges are getting a head start.
A panel of three Republican judges openly defied the Supreme Court on Monday, permitting a law that is nearly identical to the abortion restriction the justices struck down in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt to take effect.
Just like Hellerstedt, Comprehensive Health v. Hawley concerns two restrictions on abortion. The first requires abortion clinics to comply with expensive architectural requirements, the second requires that “all doctors who perform abortions at ASCs must be ‘privileged to perform surgical procedures in at least one licensed hospital in the community.’” Again, the Supreme Court struck down a nearly identical Texas law in Hellerstedt.
[…] the two laws are not entirely identical. Most notably, Missouri’s law permits individual abortion clinics to seek waivers from the “physical plant regulations,” and at least one such waiver has been granted for a clinic that made a “minor request.” […]
The law struck down in Hellerstedt merely required abortion doctors to “have active admitting privileges at a hospital” within 30 miles of the clinic. The Missouri law requires abortion providers to be able to perform surgeries in a nearby hospital, and it requires that hospital to be no more than “15 minutes away.”
And yet, the panel of three Republican judges all conclude that this provision may stand, at least for now. […]
the practical impact of Hawley is that abortion clinics must prove anew that requiring abortion doctors to maintain difficult-to-obtain credentials is an undue burden on the right to an abortion. And that they must do so despite the fact that, in Hellerstedt, the lawyer representing Texas was not able to identify “a single instance in which the new requirement would have helped even one woman obtain better treatment.” […]
And so it goes as Republicans continue to chip away at women’s reproductive rights.
Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina on Monday lost her latest effort to get out of jail while the criminal charges against her go forward.
A federal judge in Washington rejected Butina’s request to reconsider her current pretrial detention, agreeing with findings over the summer by another judge that there were no release conditions that would assure the court that Butina wouldn’t try to flee the country.
Adding to the bad news for Butina and her lawyers, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday entered a gag order on the parties after finding that repeat media appearances by Butina’s lead attorney Robert Driscoll had “crossed a line.” Her lawyers argued that a gag order would render them unable to defend Butina’s reputation amid massive press interest and to push back on efforts by the prosecution to portray Butina “as some type of Red Sparrow or spy-novel honeypot character, trading sex for access and power.”
The judge also dinged Butina’s lawyers for trying to make a last-minute submission of videos hours before Monday’s hearing — one was a video recorded last year of Butina and her then-boyfriend Paul Erickson, a Republican operative, lip-synching to the theme song of the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast, according to the judge. Driscoll argued the videos countered the government’s attempts to undermine the legitimacy of Butina and Erickson’s relationship and, more broadly, her ties to the United States. Chutkan said the videos were not relevant to whether Butina should stay behind bars.
Chutkan did chastise prosecutors for making the “rather salacious” claim early in the case that Butina had offered sex for a job, only to walk it back later after Butina’s lawyers published the contents of the messages at issue and argued that they showed that Butina and a friend were joking. The judge said she was “dismayed” that the government concluded the texts were evidence of a serious offer to trade sex, noting it took her five minutes to read the messages and conclude they were joking.
“It really makes it difficult to have a fair trial when those statements are made,” Chutkan said.
The judge didn’t penalize the government for what prosecutors said in court filings last week was an “error.” The judge commended them for coming clean….
If the Senate ultimately rejects Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, the reason—or the reason given—will be that he misled Congress, both last week, and during 2004 and 2006 confirmation hearings for his nomination to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
Republicans have concealed the vast majority of Kavanaugh’s public documents stemming from his service in the George W. Bush White House, but based just on this limited release we know he was not forthright with senators about a number of issues. The most egregious of Kavanaugh’s known deceptions concern his level of awareness or participation in high-profile Bush-era legal and political scandals.
…
…His overriding goal in all of these hearings has been to leave senators with the impression that they’d find none of his fingerprints on anything partisan, anything unethical, anything lawless, but even a partial sweep of the official record places him at the scene of numerous scandals.
…
Whether Kavanaugh perjured himself in a prosecutable sense or just in a spirit-of-the-law sense is, in a way, less important than the indisputable fact that he was not candid—at all—with senators trying to fulfill their advice and consent obligations. It would be karmically just for his nomination to fail as a result, but it would also be a much needed blow against the scourge of bad faith that has come to dominate conservative politics.
Judicial nominees famously conceal their views about legal controversies and precedent when they testify before the Senate, but what Kavanaugh has done all along is try to conceal what kind of person he is.
To me, the most intelligence-insulting thing Kavanaugh has testified to had nothing to do with judicial nominations or the law. It was in 2004, when he told Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) “my background has not been in partisan politics.”
It’s hard to imagine more disingenuous horse shit, and all of his current troubles stem from his unwillingness to let go of that absurd conceit.
…
The point is not that the judiciary should be foreclosed to partisan lawyers for life, but that Kavanaugh specifically discredited himself by refusing to cop to his own professional choices….
He has never apologized for trafficking in stolen documents, and continues to pretend he was simply too naive to recognize unethical, illegal conduct when it was staring him in the face.
Instead of acknowledging that he believed his job was to help his boss identify and confirm ideologically simpatico judges, he offered up a deceptive account of his professional record to distance himself from those judges.
We expect but bemoan this kind of mythmaking from politicians facing voters. We rightly expect more of judges, who only answer to senators, and generally only one time, before they are empowered over the public for a lifetime. Because Republicans seek to transform the judiciary into a beachhead of conservative power, they are unlikely to be moved by the argument that an unrepentant conservative operative should be denied a seat on the Supreme Court. But Collins and other Republicans who remain undecided about Kavanaugh’s nomination should ask themselves whether they can close the Pandora’s box of Kavanaugh’s deceptions simply by voting him on to the Supreme Court and moving on.
…As of today, Republicans have requested none of Kavanaugh’s staff secretary papers. Can they be sure that Kavanaugh told the truth about Plame? Or that the truth will never come out? Are they certain Kavanaugh won’t get caught in other deceptions or even outright lies if and when Democrats control Congress, and undertake a full vetting? Nobody in the Senate can honestly say they’re certain Kavanaugh doesn’t have more embarrassments in his undisclosed public record, and that alone, as both a matter of principle and political self-interest, should be enough to sink him.
President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen 6 points in the last month and stands at a new low among political independents, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS.
Overall, just 36% approve of the way the President is handling his job, down from 42% in August. Among independents, the drop has been sharper, from 47% approval last month to 31% now. That’s 4 points below his previous 2018 low of 35% approval among political independents in CNN polling, and 1 point below his previous all-time low among independents in CNN polling, reached in November 2017….
This is important data I didn’t know about: “Spent some quality time with polling data and turns out people of color and millennials are the core constituency supporting environmental protection….”
Trump tweeted this morning (September 11): “New Strzok-Page texts reveal ‘Media Leak Strategy’. @FoxNews So terrible, and NOTHING is being done at DOJ or FBI – but the world is watching, and they get it completely.”
Strzok’s attorney had to set the record straight, pointing out that obviously they were talking about a strategy to “detect and stop” leaks and that this is another example of Trump’s and Fox’s dishonesty.
“Lindsey Graham is on @foxandfriends, where he says that if any other American did what Clinton did with her emails ‘they’d be in jail’ and that Russia did interfere in the election…using the Steele dossier. Topic then moved on to John McCain.”
“We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage.”
“Sen. Graham on Trump’s response to McCain’s death: ‘It is all over now. The flag is down. When the president mentioned John he got applause … Clearly they had a tentious (sic) relationship but he’s not the only one to have a tense relationship with John McCain’.”
“Devin Nunes’s Curious Trip to London”:
“Tom Watson demands answers about alleged Russian Brexit plot”:
“#Russia’s state TV:
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov admits that Russia is punching above its weight & is unable to respond to the U.S. sanctions symmetrically. He says Russia’s response will include blacklisting more Americans & utilizing its ‘powerful info-component’.”
“Evangelicals to Trump: ‘History Will Record the Greatness That You Have Brought’”:
More re #495 on the previous iteration – “Federal court trolls Clarence Thomas in opinion striking Republican gerrymander”:
More, including quotes, at the link.
“Breaking: Hurricane Maria caused 2975 deaths, according to study commissioned by Puerto Rico. The current official toll is 64.”
WaPo: Paul Manafort’s trial in D.C. federal court delayed until Sept. 24
“Lead Prosecutor in Trump Inauguration Protest Trial Sanctioned for Due Process Violations Has Been Made Head of Her Department”:
“#BREAKING: One of Paul Manafort’s primary bankers had his Manhattan penthouse burglarized overnight, law enforcement sources tell @Jonathan4NY; A briefcase, iPad and sneakers were stolen.”
Tweet o’ the day.
Fundagelicals: “At a White House dinner Monday night, a Florida pastor who has gained a following preaching on television and advising the president gave Donald Trump a Bible signed by more than 100 leading evangelical Christians with an inscription that said “History will record the greatness that you have brought for generations.”
Damn! I threw up in my mouth a little bit!
“Trump’s Student Debt Policies Are Mind-bogglingly Corrupt”:
Much, much more at the link.
Reuters: Manafort seeks to move second trial out of Washington
The judge will entertain the motion, but that’s not going to happen.
JURY SELECTION SET FOR SEPT. 17
An observation for how to advance high-energy particle physics.
Required materials:
1) A single very large room with a clear path from one diagonally opposite corner to another, and the rest of the room filled with sensitive particle detectors
2) Lanny Davis in one corner.
3) Rudy Giuliani in the opposite corner
4) A microphone in the middle of the room, equidistant between them.
The energy released in the resulting collision would create millions of Higgs Bosons…or possibly end the Universe. On the other hand, since we would have seen Lanny and Rudy in the same room at the same time, an end to the Universe might be the most compassionate outcome.
More thoughts on the decision to renovate instead of relocate FBI headquarters, (SC provided discussion of the issue in the previous chapter of this thread):
Link
Link
This made me laugh out loud. Of course most of the results are “BAD,” because Trump is a bad president. He can’t even handle ceremonial duties, like properly acknowledging the death of a Senator. Also, Trump thinks that anything less than fulsome, extravagant praise is “bad.”
Follow-up to comment 19.
Google’s response:
Trump could change the tenor of the Google search results by becoming a good president. [LOL]
We finally know why a former GOP presidential nominee joined the most crooked bank in Central Asia
Russia wouldn’t even touch the bank, but the former GOP nominee [Bob Dole] had no problem joining.
Three-year-old separated migrant boy doesn’t appear to recognize parents: ‘My son is traumatized’
Link
Video is available at the link.
“NEWS: DNC staffer tells me entire DNC/DCCC was evacuated from their building about half an hour ago. Told to go home and work from there for the rest of the day. No details on why, but several staffers speculating a bomb threat.
Staffer says COO Laura Chambers walked around telling people, ‘There’s no cause for alarm, but we have made the decision that people should work from home. Don’t panic but everyone should move expeditiously out of the building’.”
Follow-up, of sorts, to comment 22.
Hillary Clinton commented on family separations:
Follow-up, of sorts, to SC in comment 23.
Trump is stoking violence while pretending to warn against it:
Link
Trump falsely claims he got rid of law banning churches from endorsing candidates
Fox News host Shepard Smith told the truth. He does that fairly regularly. Smith was reporting on Trump’s threats against Google.
Here’s the full report on #12 above: “One-Time Paul Manafort Banker Robbed of iPad, Briefcase in Mysterious Overnight Break-in at His NYC Penthouse: Sources.”
Wonkette comments on Glenn Greenwald wanting to be a “kinder, gentler, Russian stooge, white nationalist, fucking moron”:
He’s talking about the network he’s on!
“Right-Wing Mob Wreaks Havoc on German City”:
The counter-demonstrators were far outnumbered, but I think that’s due primarily to how quickly things developed. A lot summed up in this exchange:
Trump tweeted:
From the comments:
=
New York Times link
Wow.
I don’t think it can.
Meanwhile, he’s also trying to pick a fight with Shinzo Abe.
After progress on trade, Trump reignites tensions by declaring border wall will be ‘paid for by Mexico’
I can’t think of any other good explanation for Graham’s behavior.
“C.I.A. Officer-Turned-Candidate Says PAC Obtained Her Security Application”:
Sen. Whitehouse:
What a story. I didn’t know anything about this.
“Ungodly espionage: Russian hackers targeted Orthodox clergy”:
More at the link.
Fantastic interview on Chris Hayes’ podcast – “Trump, Brexit, and Racial Grievance with Mehdi Hasan”:
I haven’t listened to the Chris Hayes podcast, but as I think I’ve already noted here, in the last few weeks there’s been a definite rise in discussion both of the links between the Leave campaigns and Russia, and of a possible new referendum on the terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary (i.e. Labour’s main spokesperson on the issue) has said such a referendum should be on the table, and his remarks strongly suggest Labour (except for the small group of hard Brexiteers in the parliamentary party) will vote against whatever deal May gets (if any). Starmer is strongly tipped as a possible future party leader.
Meanwhile the campaign to push Corbyn out continues unabated. Every time the issue leaves the news, another supposed example of his antisemitism, cosying up to terrorists, etc., is brought out. There is just enough substance in some of them to give the mainstream media excuse to keep the issue going* (no mainstream outlet is pro-Corbyn, or even neutral), but the terms in which his enemies discuss them are absurdly hyperbolic. Their real concerns are that Corbyn is undoubtedly pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist – and for many both outwith and within the party, that he’s a democratic socialist. There are rumours that some of his prominent enemies within the party will leave it, but others are begging them to stay, at least until after the Brexit issue is settled (this refers to those who are both anti-Corbyn and strongly anti-Brexit).
*The latest point seized upon is some remarks he made about British Zionists in 2013.
KG @ #41:
I’ve seen a number of comments from Leavers recently arguing that a second referendum would be undemocratic (attempting to overturn the will of the public) and unfair (because it would likely split the Leave vote between “hard” and “soft” – annoying language – Brexiteers, so Remainers would win).
To me, these arguments just underscore how undemocratic and unfair the 2016 referendum was. Even setting aside foreign interference, illegal behavior by the Leave leadership, and the low level of public debate during the campaign, the whole design of the referendum was fundamentally unfair to Remain. A referendum should have two or more substantive, defined choices. In this case, there was one substantive and known choice and one vague, undefined notion. If you voted Remain, you knew what you were voting for; if you voted Leave, you didn’t, and couldn’t. So the Leave campaigns not only could – and did – lie extensively about their option but didn’t have to present the public with any concrete option at all. Leave voters could imagine for themselves what the substantive policy brought about by their vote would turn out to be, despite the fact that people imagined it in various contradictory ways or not at all. That’s an absurdly unfair advantage that was built into the structure of the referendum.
That isn’t a fair or democratic design for a policy referendum. Really, the only fair and democratic process for this decision would be one in which the public is presented with two concrete policy options: to remain or to put in action a specific Brexit plan whose likely consequences are understood.
“Trump lawyer Giuliani got paid to lobby Romanian president”:
“Rudy Giuliani attacks Romania for ‘excessive’ crackdown on corruption”:
Uh…
The White House previously posted a transcript of Trump’s remarks to evangelical leaders at a dinner in the White House. CNN today reports on other quotations which it says were taken from a recording of the President’s “closed-door remarks” in the State Dining Room. Apparently these preceded or followed the remarks posted by the White House. Here are the quotes as reported by CNN:
Trump tweeted: “White House Counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. I have worked with Don for a long time and truly appreciate his service!”
This is despicable and can’t be allowed to continue.
“WASHINGTON (AP) — US commission finds no harm to paper mills from imported newsprint; ruling kills tariffs on Canadian imports.”
DeSantis campaign going…as expected.
Update to #49.
From the WaPo article on McGahn announcement:
They’re all such assholes.
So Trump tweeted a bogus claim that had apparently gone from the ravings of Louie Gohmert to the Daily Caller to Fox to his tiny peabrain, which has now compelled the FBI to refute it: “‘The FBI has not found any evidence the (Clinton) servers were compromised’, an FBI official tells @KenDilanianNBC.”
(They have, however, found substantial evidence that Trump was compromised.)
That’s an excellent point. There’s an interesting contrast with the Scottish Independence referendum of 2014. The SNP (which was not the whole of the pro-independence camp, but was running the Scottish government, and would have been negotiating the terms with the UK government if “Yes” had won) laid out its proposed negotiating strategy, and plans for an independent Scotland in a 670-page White Paper. There were, inevitably, weaknesses in it, notably the intention to keep the pound Sterling, which the UK government said it would not agree to – the SNP had to resort to saying: “They’re just saying that to put you off.” Maybe “Yes” would have won if they’d been as brazenly dishonest as the Leavers? (Actually, I doubt it – there was a considerable swing to “Yes” during the campaign, up from around 28% when the vote was announced to 45% on the day, despite most of the media backing “No”. If the “Yes” campaign had been as vacuous as that of “Leave”, it would quite reasonably have been excoriated for it.)
Trump getting his excuses for a bad result out early.
Follow-up to SC’s comment 52.
More details:
NBC News link
Yes, Trump lied about the recent Arizona Senate race. He claimed that Senator Jeff Flake tried to endorse Representative Martha McSally, but that McSally “turned it down.” Nothing of the kind happened.
Trump’s tweet:
Flake’s reply:
Flake endorsed Doug Jones in that Alabama Senate race. He wrote, “Country over party,” in the memo line on his $100.00 donation check.
Trump is projecting … again.
Six years ago he said, “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud.”
Yesterday, Trump said: “When you see ‘anonymous source,’ stop reading the story, it is fiction! The fact is that many anonymous sources don’t even exist. They are fiction made up by the Fake News reporters.”
A few more examples of Trump projecting, (text is from Steve Benen):
An interesting item from Scottish politics. Alex Salmond, the ex-leader of the SNP, has resigned from the party while it was investigating him for alleged sexual harrassment (or worse, the details have not been made public) when he was leader. Complaints have been made by two Scottish Government staff. Last week, he sued the party, claiming its complaints procedure was unfair. He now says he wants to avoid division in the party (I don’t know if he’s dropped his case), and will apply to rejoin when he has had an opportunity to clear his name. Whether the party will continue to investigate the claims, or what “opportunity” he’s referring to, I don’t know, but clearly it has no legal power to compel him to attend any tribunal. It looks to me as though Salmond (who has admitted he’s “no angel” – what could that possibly mean in the circumstances?) knows damn well he’s guilty and that the party investigation would likely find him so.
Salmond lost his seat as an MP in the 2017 general election, and has since hosted a talk show on RT, for which he’s been widely criticised, including from within the SNP.
p.s. to #58.
Tomorrow I’m attending a “Left Against Brexit” meeting in Glasgow, at which a senior leftist member of the SNP, Tommy Sheppard MP, will be speaking. He’ll probably avoid the topic of Salmond, but may get asked about it.
Ha! Good for some laughs. Texas GOP tries to shame Beto O’Rourke by reminding everyone he was in a cool band
and here is the Twitter link: https://twitter.com/TexasGOP/status/1034580157707759621
From the comments:
Mueller’s prosecution team is also asking for more time:
Politico link
What new fuckery is this?
Washington Post link
More at the link.
Winter is coming
More at the link. The article is by By Philip Rucker, Carol D. Leonnig, Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker, writing for The Washington Post.
A correction to my #58: it’s the Scottish Government, not the SNP, which runs the complaints procedure, and which Salmond is suing.
“Mueller wants to review emails between Manafort, former lawyer”:
“Pension outcry in Russia shows Putin’s popularity isn’t bulletproof”:
This, as Putin and his cronies loot the country of billions. Darkly comical: “A proposed five-year increase in retirement age for men, to 65, remains intact. The average Russian male life expectancy is 66, according to the World Health Organization.”
Update to #s 43 and 44 – “Giuliani says firm defending corrupt Romanian-American is paying him”:
Interesting detail.
WaPo reports that Giuliani has been contacted by the State Department about the letter.
“Trump administration seeks to ease tensions with Moscow as new sanctions loom”:
This and other sentences in the article read like stenography for both Trump and Putin.
Update to #37 above – letter from Reps. Connolly and Cummings to the USPS IG requesting an investigation:
Hmmm…
“Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sought to cap 9/11 payouts to victims’ families at $500G”:
Related: “It’s a Different Process for Judge Kavanaugh: I have never seen a more secretive, corrupt and troubling process than I have with Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination.”
This was my first thought as well. Made me smile.
Daniel Dale righteously runs down Trump’s lies of the past week.
SC @74, that was a great thread. Daniel Dale is a treasure. Fox News should just read his threads over the air in order to counter all the propaganda they pump out.
More debunking of one of Trump’s recent lies:
Link
Trump may be planning to blame Jeff Sessions for the zero-tolerance immigration policy:
CBS News link
Sounds like a desperate search for a reason to fire Sessions.
Trump And Cohen Planned To Buy Decades Worth Of National Enquirer Dirt
Is the beginning of a wholesale departure of lawyers from the sinking Trump ship?
Link
One of Trump’s tweets from this morning:
The “smooth running machine” phrase is good for a laugh.
More detail regarding the seemingly impending ouster of Sessions by Hair Furor:
Link
Betsy Devos is at a again. The Education Secretary wants to change policy so that colleges do not have to take sexual harassment seriously. Her new policy would not only let colleges off the hook, it would make it harder for assault survivors to report to college authorities, and it would make it easier for assaulters to get off scot free.
New York Times link
From Laura Clawson:
I saw the following on Daniel Dale’s list:
“Trump stood beside West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and said, “He’s all man: 6-foot-11.”
Justice is 6-foot-7.”
I thought, “Well, that seems fairly innocuous.” Then I realized it is probably part of a pattern. I would imagine that Trump exaggerates all lengths by 4 inches.
Yep, racist.
Link
Trump’s characterization of the media as the “enemy of people” is having some disturbing effects:
Link
Threats of actual violence. It was just a matter of time.
Follow-up to comment 85.
Here are some of Trump’s media-bashing statements, (statements he made today):
Link
Some good news:
Politico
Follow-up to comment 63.
From Wonkette’s coverage of Trump’s new birther crusade:
Donald Trump’s supporters will never abandon him.
The article opens with some generalities, but soon changes to present concrete examples. Excerpt:
The whole article is worth reading.
Hmmmm.
Washington Post link.
Failed predictions from Team Trump:
Link
WASHINGTON (Reuters): Trump seeks to backtrack on 2017 comments on Comey firing
From Josh Marshall, some thoughts on the seriousness of the “Constitutional crisis” we are facing:
I mean…
(The responses to the original tweet are fun.)
“Appeals court denies the request by Concord Management — the Russian firm fighting Mueller’s social media meddling charges — to intervene in the subpoena fight brought by Andrew Miller (Roger Stone’s ex-aide). Court says Concord can file an amicus brief instead.”
Good news: “BREAKING: Colin Kaepernick’s collusion grievance to go to trial after arbitrator denies NFL’s request for summary judgment.”
@ 96
Not exactly a trial, it means there will be a hearing in front of the same arbitrator. It doesn’t mean Kaepernick is more likely to win, though he now has a shot, but it does open the possibility that the NFL will settle, rather than having owners, general managers, coaches, or commissioner Roger Goodell’s wife testify in an arbitration hearing.
Clint Watts re the reports @ #s 86 and 92: “Here it comes, Trump suggesting to his followers anything negative toward him ‘may have been altered’. Fake audio, fake video will soon be a cover for getting away with anything.”
Somewhat OT…
A personal pet peeve. I’ve probably mentioned this somewhere once or twice, but watching the latest movie version of Murder on the Orient Express brought it up again.
Agatha Christie is the best-selling fiction author in the world. Her work is ridiculously popular. But while you can find endless academic articles and syllabi about even obscure male writers, you’ll search in vain for the same level of critical intellectual attention to Christie. She fucking revolutionized her genre. Her work deals with class, race and imperialism, gender, sexuality, psychology, criminology, policing, law, justice, war, politics, art, grief, the family, friendship, travel, medicine, espionage, morality, childhood, science, epistemology, writing,… How is it possible that there aren’t thousands of articles analyzing it from every angle? It really burns my biscuits.
“Donald Trump Is Setting Up A Lame-Duck Crisis”:
“BREAKING: 497 of the 2,654 migrant kids the Trump administration separated from their parents are still in custody, according to a just-filed government update.
Parents of 322 of those kids have already been deported.
22 of the still-separated kids are under 5 years old.”
Josh Marshall: “Trump’s message seems to be i’m declaring myself a dictator right after the election. so don’t let it affect your vote.”
Oh, fuck you.
Fuck you, too.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT.
Daniel Dale livetweets Trump’s Indiana rally. Thank you, Canada, for Daniel Dale.
Further to #73 above – Maggie Haberman: “Woodward book is on the mind of top Trump advisers; discussions already going on about how to handle events in relation to it, per people briefed.”
(Oh, and happy Grand Jury Friday.)
“Trump: ‘They want to raid Medicare to pay for socialism’.”
Crowd: “Boooooooo!”
One of the most ardent Brexiters in the Labour Party, Frank Field, has resigned the Labour whip, while remaining in the party, calling himself an “independent Labour MP”. Field is a “social conservative”, who holds an odd mixture of views and was a personal friend and admirer of Margaret Thatcher. There are rumours he jumped before being pushed, but I doubt it: Corbyn would find it very difficult to withdraw the whip from any Labour MP, given his own long record of defying the party line before he became leader. This could be the start of a raft of defections, but again, I doubt it: Field has never been a team player. However, if he resigns his seat and stands in a by-election, a win on his part against the official Labour candidate – the Birkenhead seat is one of the safest Labour seats in the country – could trigger a revolt against Corbyn.
Last night I attended a meeting of “The Left Against Brexit”, a cross-party campaign holding its first meeting in Scotland. Only about 50 people attended – meetings in England have reportedly been larger, but the speakers were quite hopeful of getting a new referendum. The way it was suggested this could come about was:
* Theresa May comes back from negotiations with the EU in October/November with a proposed deal.
* The Tory “hard Brexit” group reject it, almost all non-Tory MPs apart from the “Democratic” Unionists who are propping up the government join with them to vote it down.
* There is no majority in the Commons for any alternative (a “No Deal” Brexit, sending May or a replacement PM back to ask for more, abandonment of Brexit).
*In desperation, May or her successor proposes a new referendum, which the Commons votes for.
Oddly, one of the speakers, Tommy Sheppard, a leftist SNP MP, didn’t know the terms of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. He thought a new general election (another possible outcome of a failure to agree any course of action) could only happen with a 2/3 majority vote in the Commons (this is how the 2017 election came about). But it could also be triggered if the government loses a confidence vote, and then neither it nor any other potential government wins such a vote within 14 days.
“Poll: 60 percent disapprove of Trump, while clear majorities back Mueller and Sessions”:
David Carroll – “The US Should Pay Attention to Foreign Cambridge Analytica Probes”:
More at the link.
Natasha Bertrand – “Trump’s Top Targets in the Russia Probe Are Experts in Organized Crime”:
“Trump seeks to freeze pay in 2019 for federal workers”:
Julia Davis – “The Real Reason Russia Is Rooting for Republicans in the Midterms”:
More at the link.
MSNBC is reporting that a USian named Samuel Patten is being charged with violating FARA. He’s going to plead evidently in about half an hour. It’s indirectly related to the Manafort prosecution; Patten worked with Kilimnik.
Manafort’s lawyers have submitted a set of objections to the prosecution’s evidence for the DC trial. Almost all of the challenges are for relevance or hearsay; there are several for evidence seized in the “Gates warrant” that question authenticity.
Dale – “NAFTA BOMBSHELL: The Star has obtained inflammatory secret comments about Canada that Trump made ‘off the record’ yesterday, and they have upended the talks this morning:…”
What a thread.
This is extremely serious:
(It’s strange that Trump’s invoking emergency powers again wasn’t the central focus of the WaPo piece I linked to @ #112. I don’t think it was even noted.)
LOL.
“AP sources: Lawyer was told Russia had ‘Trump over a barrel’”:
The word “barrel” has featured in a surprising number of political stories the past few years.
Also, the Left has been talking about this with regard to Wal-mart and other corporations for years.
LOL, southpaw followed up as I was posting my comment.
Zoe Tillman – “A DC Lobbyist Linked To Players In The Russia Probe Has Been Charged With Failing To Report His Work For Ukraine: Sam Patten was reportedly in business with Konstantin Kilimnik — the Ukrainian Russian who was also a longtime associate of Paul Manafort — and did work for Cambridge Analytica.”
“Patten was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, according to a source familiar with the investigation, but his case isn’t being handled by Mueller’s office. According to court records, the US attorney’s office in Washington, DC, and the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting Patten.” But TPM notes that Omer Meisel and Andrew Weissmann from Mueller’s team were at Patten’s hearing this morning.
“Dems accuse Republicans of misusing ‘sensitive’ documents during Ohr hearing”:
Update – Patten is cooperating: “A former associate of Paul Manafort agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors after pleading guilty to failing to register in the U.S. as a foreign agent for his work lobbying on behalf of a Ukrainian political party.”
SC @99, I agree. Also, with your permission, I will steal the phrase “burns my biscuits.”
SC @124, they have no shame. I hope Our has good legal counsel.
Excerpts from the thread to which SC linked in comment 116, (the Toronto Star obtained comments made by Trump that were quite insulting to Canada):
Trump is a bullying dotard.
Joyce White Vance: “Interestingly, the same judge presiding over the Manafort case is taking Patten’s plea, which is taking place on a timeline that would make him available to testify against Manafort during his September trial in DC.”
Occasionally, we hear from a Republican who is so fed up with Trump that the only option left is to leave the Republican Party:
Link
I wish there were a lot more like Michael London.
“Pro-Russian rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko killed in blast”:
Follow-up to SC’s comment 128.
Thanks for posting the information related to Sam Patten. Patten’s association with Paul Manafort, Konstantin Kilimnik, and Cambridge Analytica are points of interest.
Link
For more on Cambridge Analytica, see SC’s comment 110.
Hee. (I don’t know why I get such a kick out of these exchanges, but I do.)
Wonkette’s coverage of a black woman being sent to prison for voting while she was on probation.
“!!!!
Prosecutors say Samuel Patten sought tickets to Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on behalf of a prominent Ukrainian oligarch. Patten acted as a ‘straw purchaser’, funneling the Ukrainian’s money secretly to the inauguration committee through a Cypriot bank account.
Reminder from a previous story:
Mueller’s team asking whether wealthy Russians illegally funneled cash donations directly or indirectly into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and inauguration.”
It’s actually worse – he didn’t act as a straw purchaser, but recruited someone else to. Who was it?
Wonkette celebrates Molly Ivins’ birthday:
More at the link.
Good thread: “THREAD: As the summer winds down, we’ve seen some potentially significant and interesting developments in the Mueller investigation this week. There are some big open questions still remain and fresh evidence about Mueller is specifically pursuing….”
(And this doesn’t even include side questions like: who was the congressional candidate who contacted Guccifer 2.0? where is Mifsud? etc.)
Tweet o’ the day.
Patten documents.
Foreigner A is Kilimnik. Laura Rozen thinks Foreigner B might be Serhiy Lyovochkin (who was business partners with Firtash).
Sorry – fixed the link:
Patten documents.
Foreigner A is Kilimnik. Laura Rozen thinks Foreigner B might be Serhiy Lyovochkin (who was business partners with Firtash).
Lynna @ #131, Christopher Wylie tweeted: “BREAKING: Ex-Cambridge Analytica contractor Sam Patten just charged by FBI after Mueller referral. This guy was responsible for CA operations in the US that involved covertly testing US voter attitudes on Putin’s leadership… I know there’s more to come…”
Others have pointed out that, in addition to Weissmann and Meisel being present for the hearing, Patten’s plea includes his promise to cooperate with Mueller.
We’re so sorry, Ireland.
Maxine Waters.
This is very sweet.
Papadopoulos’ sentencing memo is fascinating. I’m more suspicious of him now than I was before I read it. Some highlights:
The biography at the beginning largely undercuts their strategy of portraying him as just a young man out of his depth. His undergrad work focused on national security, he got an MS in Security Studies from Kings College, and then he worked on “energy security projects” at the Hudson Institute.
He first tried to get a job with the Trump campaign during the summer of 2015, allegedly because he “supported candidate Trump’s policy positions” and thought he had the best chance of beating Clinton. What policy positions (other than blatant racism) had Trump even announced in the summer of 2015? This seems highly implausible.
Failing to obtain a job with the Trump campaign, he applied to and was hired by the Ben Carson campaign. After that folded in January 2016, he “doubled down on his efforts” to get a job with the Trump campaign, since he was “still a stalwart supporter of Trump’s bid for the presidency.” So stalwart he’d gone to work on a competing campaign.
He interviewed for a Trump campaign job in early March 2016. “In a meeting with a senior Trump campaign official [Manafort? Clovis? Kushner? Jr.?], George learned that the campaign’s foreign policy focus would be improving relations with Russia.”
He first met Mifsud on March 14, 2016, “while traveling in Italy.” At no point in any of this does he appear to be wanting for money.
At the “national security” meeting on March 31, 2016, at Trump’s unfinished hotel, he told them about his Putin contacts who wanted to set up a Trump campaign-Kremlin meeting. “While some in the room rebuffed George’s offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it.”
In these days, “young George” was “eager,” “giddy,” and “had a sense of unbridled loyalty to the candidate and his campaign.” “To say George was out of his depth would be a gross understatement.” Despite his being a “young energy policy guru” (I don’t think “guru” was the word they were looking for there), he had no experience with Russia. (Never mind his undergrad and graduate degrees in national security or his paid work in energy security.)
It’s mentioned once again that he wanted to help the Trump campaign “promote its foreign policy objective: improve U.S. and Russian relations.” To reiterate: in March 2016, top Trump campaign officials described this as the foreign policy objective of the campaign.
On April 26, 2016, he had breakfast with Mifsud, who told him about the “dirt” Putin had on Clinton – the “thousands of emails.” “Not knowing what to make of this comment, George continued his efforts to make the Trump-Russia meeting a reality.” Hilarious sentence, especially since we know he got drunk and bragged about it to the Australian diplomat (a meeting not mentioned in the memo), and see below. It says later that he “doesn’t recall” telling anyone on the campaign about the “dirt.” I believe that’s the only use of the legalistic “doesn’t recall,” and the claim is dubious.
In a fairly unconvincing string of paragraphs, it argues that when FBI agents came to interview him on January 27, 2017, they misled him into believing that their questions pertained solely to his relationship with Sergei Millian. Which is funny, because I had forgotten all about Millian’s role and connection to Papadopoulos. “George knew Mr. Millian only as a businessman pitching an opportunity to George in his personal capacity.” Um, what? What business opportunity?
At the time of the interview, during which he was lying to the agents about material facts, he was angling for a job in the White House (his personal ambition always the overriding concern), and was allegedly loyal to the Trump people. Nevertheless, “The agents asked George if he would be willing to actively cooperate and contact various people they had discussed. While George did not think he would be able to get information from those individuals, he stated his willingness to try.” The context of this sentence implies that the “various people” included people from the campaign. It’s worth noting that the government’s memo states that: “On January 27, 2017, in the hours after being interviewed by the FBI, the defendant submitted his biography and a description of work he did on the campaign in an effort to obtain a position as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Energy Department.”
The memo doesn’t say anything about Simona Mangiante’s numerous TV interviews, during which she first claimed that he would be the John Dean of the investigation and then later openly attacked the Mueller investigation and said he would try to pull out of his plea agreement.
This paragraph is significant:
So he wasn’t aware, or “didn’t recall” being aware, of any collusion, and didn’t think other members of the campaign would have relevant information about Russia, but information about his interactions and meetings with them was somehow “critical” to the investigation. And he didn’t know “what to make of” the information about the Clinton “dirt” and didn’t mention it to anyone on the campaign, but while meeting with Greek officials as a representative of the campaign in advance of a Putin visit he told the Greek foreign minister about it. (I think maybe they mean the SVR-linked defense minister, Kammenos.) That would seem to have the makings of an international incident. Also, the government’s memo (p. 8) describes how he wasn’t at all forthcoming with information.
(I see Josh Marshall also has a write-up, but I’m not – yet – a subscriber so I can’t read it.)
Someone on Twitter linked to this WaPo article from December, which is refreshing my memory:
“For Trump adviser at center of Russia probe, a rapid rise and dramatic fall in his ancestral land”:
As Marcy Wheeler (still conflicted about linking to her) suggests here, much of what’s included in the sentencing memo really has no business there and appears to be a message to the Trump camp that he didn’t spill the beans on them.
So Papadopoulos’ conflict is plain in the memo. Since he wants no prison time, he has to try to argue that he cooperated fully and substantially; but since he wants the Trump gang to think he hasn’t dropped a dime on them, he has to keep suggesting he didn’t tell Mueller anything significant. So he didn’t think others on the campaign were involved with collusion, but the information he provided about his interactions and meetings with them was “critical” to the investigation. He was boundlessly loyal to them and didn’t think they would say anything incriminating, but he agreed to wear a wire. He withheld the Millian-campaign connection, but told investigators about his interactions with Millian. He told the FBI he doesn’t recall telling anyone on the campaign about the “dirt” Mifsud informed him about, but he told the FBI that he had told the Greek Foreign Minister about it during his meetings with Greek officials on behalf of the campaign (could well be a means of signalling to the Trump people – too late, I’m sure – what Mueller already knows about the Greek connection).
“As his predecessors spoke at McCain’s memorial service, the president threatened Congress and Canada while in a car on the way to his golf course:…”
SC, here are some excerpts from Josh Marshall’s writeup that you mention in comment 144.
Anti-Trump sentiments from John McCain’s memorial service:
Link
Betsy DeVos and team Trump in general show their lack of judgement when it comes to guns in schools:
Link
Racist robocalls mar Florida’s race for governor:
Politico link
Nazis coming out of the woodwork.
Another moment from former President George W. Bush’s eulogy for John McCain:
I wish more Republicans saw Trump as a “bigot” and as a “swaggering despot.”
Just part of Trump’s morning session of hate-tweeting today:
Commentary:
Link
Trump’s tweets about FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) were based on a Fox News interview with Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.
Trump confirming that he is a despot: “Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely.”
Another despotic, anti-democracy move from Trump:
Washington Post link
From Jennifer Rubin, writing for the Washington Post:
Excerpt from an article in The New Yorker by Robin Wright:
Much more at the link.
“A Complex Web: The F.B.I., Russian Oligarchs, Bruce Ohr and the Trump Campaign”:
The NYT is not good for my blood pressure. First, Deripaska and the people tied to him might be telling the truth about refusing to cooperate (the sanctions on Deripaska would seem to support that), he’s obviously lying about (his knowledge of) the Kremlin’s and Manafort’s actions. (I am wondering if any of the other oligarchs they approached were more cooperative, and the official sources in this report are trying to cover that up to protect their sources.) Second, the way they frame the piece is disjointed; but what does come through are the same idiotic tropes that marred their reporting about Clinton’s fucking emails during the campaign (emphasis added):
Is there some sort of “fodder” quota at the NYT? And why do they think they can repeatedly put this out there without ever fucking explaining how exactly this new information in reality, and not just in Trump’s and his defenders’ fevered imagination, supports their absurd claims? “Fuels,” “offers fodder for,” and the like are lazy tropes for which they’ve been criticized for many months, and yet they continue to do this, apparently oblivious to or heedless of the danger.
Here’s the NYT report on #130 above: “Ukrainian Separatist Leader Is Killed in Restaurant Bombing.”
Imagine if three passages were along the lines of: “The assassination has provided fodder for Putin’s claims that…”
Lynna @ #147, thanks! My only potential disagreement would be with his characterization of the news that Papadopoulos had tried to get a job with the Trump campaign in the summer of 2015: “Interesting. Not terribly important.” It’s a strange fact I can’t quite make sense of, and possibly important.
Tweet o’ the day.
So sad.
SC @158, I agree. Something was going on in 2015 … and we don’t have the full story.
In other news, even though it will be Labor Day on Monday, Rachel Maddow will be on the air at her usual time. Her special program will take a closer look at Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. That should be a good show, informative.
In other, other news, here is an update on Mariia Butina:
Link
Potential money laundering?
Analysis from Josh Marshall regarding the Butina/CPAC/NRA oil deal in comment 161:
Link
Trump’s tweet:
Michael Avenatti’s response:
Trump likes to brag about the number of followers he has on Twitter. Alyssa Milano conducted an experiment of sorts with this tweet:
Yes, Milano’s tweet garnered over 59K retweets and 88K likes in short order. Trump’s tweets do not usually exceed 20K retweets, and about 70K likes. Are the retweeters and likers of Trump tweets also bots? The only conclusion that makes sense is that many of Trump’s 54 million followers are mindless bots.
More reaction to the speeches given at John McCain’s funeral service, this time from Fox News:
Link
More details regarding people laughing at, and preparing to resist Trump for announcing a rally to support the man he had slandered before:
Link
More sour grapes and pettiness from Trump followers who are complaining about John McCain’s funeral services:
The UK Parliament is back this week, with Theresa May’s “Chequers plan” for Brexit under attack from all sides (Michel Barnier, Boris Johnson, Tory Remainers and ex-Remainers, the press). According to Tory Remainer Justine Greening (who is now supporting a “Peoples’ Vote”), MPs are coming back having found only a small minority of their constituents supporting the plan. While she didn’t say May had to go, Greening certainly didn’t express support.
May’s best hope of survival seems to be that both the largest opposition parties, Labour and the SNP, have their own internal splits – Labour on the “antisemitism” brouhaha as well as on Brexit and Corbyn’s leadership generally, the SNP on the accusations of sexual assault against ex-leader Alex Salmond. Even many of Corbyn’s supporters are frustrated that he and the leadership have not been able to attack the government on Brexit, austerity etc., over the summer – not only because of the attacks on Corbyn, but because Labour has no coherent position on Brexit, and is itself badly split on the issue. Labour’s ruling body, the NEC, is apparently likely to vote to adopt the IHRA guidelines and examples in full (which would in my view be a surrender to Zionism, since the very point of some of the examples is to label any anti-Zionist position, or more than the most anodyne criticism of Israel, as antisemitic). The Salmond accusations have apparently been passed to the police, and Salmond is bringing a court case against the Scottish Government, claiming its complaints procedure is unfair and unlawful. He has, extraordinarily, launched a crowfunding appeal to meet his costs, and has received vocal support from a number of senior SNP figures. But ultimately, almost all Labour and all SNP MPs are likely to oppose whatever deal May comes up with, so unless she can unify the Tories behind her, it will be rejected – and it’s hard to see how she could then continue in office.
North Carolina Republican state legislators are so upset by the fact that they have a Democrat as a Governor, (Roy Cooper), that they are continuing to come up with various schemes to strip him of power.
Link
Netanyahu was behind this!? Figures.
Axios: Netanyahu Behind Trump Admin Decision To End Aid To Palestinian Refugees
Netanyahu acting like a despot. Very trumpian of him.
Not good. Not good at all. This is bad news for journalists, especially those working in Myanmar:
Link
From Amnesty International:
From the United Nations:
From the Trump administration: crickets.
Today is Labor Day. Of course, Trump attacked a union leader.
Link
Hillary Clinton on Brett Kavanaugh:
For Labor Day, more details regarding wages and lower-to-middle-class workers:
Think Progress link
Coal … pollution … Native Americans … Trump’s ignorance, all of these come together when we look at the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona:
Link
Much more at the link.
Is another government shutdown looming for the USA?
Link
From The Washington Post: “The truth about the slander Trump will throw at Elizabeth Warren.” The article is by Paul Waldman.
China is taking full advantage of the sort of vacuum that the Trump administration has created when it comes to helping African nations:
Washington Post link
Giuliani: Team Trump Will Likely Try To Block Mueller Report’s Release
WTF?
Steve Bannon To Headline New Yorker Festival
Campaigns Are at Serious Risk of Being Hacked, and Congress Is Doing Nothing to Help Them
There hasn’t been a single hearing to address cyber threats to political campaigns and parties.
Trump is slamming Attorney General Jeff Sessions … again.
Trump is referring to Representatives Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter. Collins is charged with securities fraud and lying to the FBI. Collins was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump in 2016.
Hunter and his wife are charged with misusing $250,000 in campaign funds, and with falsifying records in order to hide the crime.
Hunter is following Trump’s lead, claiming that the charges against him represent a “political agenda” by the Department of Justice.
Of course, Trump’s complaints against Sessions are ridiculous. The AG is not there to protect Trump or his followers from prosecution. He is there to enforce the law for the American people, and to adhere to the Constitution.
For more info, see The Hill.
Trump and trumpism are causing deepening rifts between the USA and Germany, according to a German diplomat:
Link
Trump is bullying Pakistan by cutting $300 million in aid to that country. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Pakistan on the 5th, right after the cuts in aid. What could go wrong?
Link
Qureshi should not expect Trump to honor previous agreements; nor can he expect Trump to understand the nuances of the deal, of the aid money … of anything.
From Daniel Dale:
What Trump claimed, via Twitter, without proof:
Manfort’s daughter is changing her last name. Understandable.
Link
Vladimir Putin now has his own reality TV show.
Washington Post link
This was my read as well.
Tweets o’ the day.
(See Lynna’s #180 above.)
That was fast: “David Remnick just informed staff that Steve Bannon will not be appearing at the New Yorker Festival.”
Statement(s) from Remnick at the link. I’m very concerned that so many in the media don’t seem to understand the problem with giving people like Bannon a platform, or that what they see as valuable and significant information coming out of their interviews is something many of us already knew, or that they don’t have to dedicate an entire interview or profile to these racist hatemongers, but could just include responses from interviews with them in articles about, say, racist hatemongering.
Remnick’s full statement. It’s remarkably clueless.
And this makes me wonder about decision-making at the New Yorker. Is there any democratic, collaborative process at all, or is it just Remnick deciding things alone?
:).
Chuck Schumer:
This is a historic disgrace.
OMGLOL. I had to stop reading the comments because I’m laughing too hard.
A bad take.
Sally Yates: “Repeatedly trying to pervert DOJ into a weapon to go after his adversaries, and now shamelessly complaining that DOJ should protect his political allies to maintain his majority in the midterms, is nothing short of an all out assault on the rule of law.”
@sc #194:
Those are good (esp. when one gets down to the comments about “driving their F-150s of a cliff”), but I’m lost at the first re-tweet, unfortunately – what’s Nike done?
quotetheunquote @ #197,
“Nike makes Colin Kaepernick the face of ‘Just Do It’ 30th anniversary campaign.”
Wow.
The trending hashtags on the Hamilton 68 dashboard (which tracks “Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations”) concern a Nike boycott (now trending on Twitter), Idlib, and Jeremy Corbyn.
Thanks SC – perhaps this news just hadn’t gotten past the “northern border wall” yet.
southpaw: “The Dems persist in asking for votes on motions to adjourn or postpone, which Grassley persists in ruling out of order and just now “denied” unilaterally. Grassley has a majority on this committee and (presumably) could win these motions, but won’t agree to a test of strength.”
Others have pointed out that they lack a majority right now because Graham and Crapo are missing.
Zoe Tillman is livetweeting the Kavanaugh hearing.
Grassley’s wry facial expression is not cutting it in responding to the barrage of questions and challenges from Democrats to this travesty of a process.
“Female Senator is heard muttering, ‘This is outrageous’. (I’m not sure who.)
. @SenatorLeahy: “This is unprecedented… I’m just sorry to see the Senate Judiciary Committee descend this way.” Says for Justice Elena Kagan’s hearing, 99% of documents were made available to the committee 12 days before the hearing. For Kavanaugh: 7%.”
They need to consider and vote on Blumenthal’s motion to adjourn.
Brian Schatz: “I’ve seen enough. I will vote no. As long as the republicans refuse to release 96 percent of the Kavanaugh records, this process is illegitimate. Every other SCOTUS nominee has turned over nearly everything, and I am now convinced they are hiding something.”
Some of the details in the Woodward book are coming out. You really have to read the entire article, but this is from the end:
SC @196, Sally Yates put that so well!
Jeff Flake’s take:
From Ben Sasse:
From Steve Benen:
Link
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was murdered in the Parkland shooting: “Just walked up to Judge Kavanaugh as morning session ended. Put out my hand to introduce myself as Jaime Guttenberg’s dad. He pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence.”
From The New York Times:
From NBC News about three years ago:
Recently, Trump made fun of Jeff Sessions’ southern accent.
Tweet o’ the day.
Trump Foundation is in big legal trouble.
Link
And now even worse quotes surface:
And now even worse quotes surface:
More discussion of Bob Woodward’s book, “Fear.”
Link
Very much “fear” and aiyiyiyi reaction to the “Trump told Mattis to ‘fucking kill’ Assad” bit.
Here’s the lightly annotated transcript of Trump’s long talk with Woodward in which he repeatedly lies about whether Woodward’s request for an interview had been communicated to him. Love these segments:
Conway, determined it won’t be her, seems to be working here to figure out who’s going to be scapegoated for this.
More discussion of Bob Woodward’s book:
Link
More discussion of Bob Woodward’s book:
Link
I deleted the excerpt I had prepared for this comment because it won’t post. Apparently, there is text that breaks the rules, but I’ll be damned if I can find it.
Powerful photo of #208 above.
Lynna: “I deleted the excerpt I had prepared for this comment because it won’t post. Apparently, there is text that breaks the rules, but I’ll be damned if I can find it.”
Could be the same I just tried to link to – about Trump’s comments about Sessions. Didn’t go through twice, I suspected because of the phrase that can be abbreviated m.r. and was in both the text and the link.
Video of #208 above.
Grassley’s responses to Blumenthal are outrageous. Blumenthal read the rule, Rule 4, which requires the chair to entertain the motion. Grassley claimed the rule only applied when they were in an executive business meeting. Blumenthal asked him to read the language in the rule that limits this to executive committee meetings, and Grassley snapped back, “I want you to show me the language to the contrary.” Blumenthal just read the language to the contrary. It’s the language of the fucking rule.
Utterly disgraceful.
Lies and more lies.
Every Republican member of this committee is a white man. In 2018.
The White House has an official response to Woodward’s book:
That’s from Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Sarah H.S. did not dispute any specific anecdotes from the book. She did go on to say:
Giuliani’s response to Woodward’s book:
Ah, the issue of loyalty to the mob boss … again.
More details from Woodward’s book:
Vox link
From Wonkette’s coverage of the Brett Kavanaugh hearing:
Link
One story of Trump being corrected by Mattis, (this is from a discussion in the Washington Post of Woodward’s book):
15 countries demand answers from Russia on anti-gay persecution in Chechnya
Russia claims there are no LGBTI people in Chechnya.
More at the link.
Follow-up to comment 176.
Other efforts to keep Trump from screwing thing up:
Link
Trump is threatening broadcasters … again:
Trump’s response to Woodward’s book:
Trump characterized the Democratic Senator’s approach during the Kavanaugh hearing today as “mean, angry, and despicable.”
“Nikki Haley says ‘corruption’ will be a key theme of America’s month-long presidency of the Security Council.”
Didn’t need Haley to tell us that.
Dianne Feinstein: “I invited @Fred_Guttenberg to sit in the audience at today’s hearing because the Supreme Court affects the lives of real people. He knows firsthand how Brett Kavanaugh’s extreme views on guns could lead to more massacres. Thank you Fred, for honoring your daughter.”
“FBI Director Christopher Wray becomes the latest target of Trump’s ire”:
Natasha Bertrand: “Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter died in the Parkland shooting, tells @cnn that Kavanaugh not only wouldn’t shake his hand—he asked security to remove Guttenberg from the hearing, and identified him by the bracelets he wears to commemorate his daughter.”
Once again, great work by Bell.
“Salisbury novichok poisonings: police name two Russian suspects”:
The Guardian has a liveblog of the developments in the Salisbury poisoning.
Creepy images from the movements of Petrov and Bushirov.
Trump lying about what he aid about Sessions.
From May’s comments quoted in the G liveblog:
“Pressley Defeats Capuano in Mass Primary Stunner”:
“Theresa May spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening to update him on the latest development in the Salisbury investigation, the PM’s official spokesman said.”
You’ll be unsurprised to learn that Trump, though actively tweeting a variety of nonsense, hasn’t made a statement about it.
“I sometimes think that @nycsouthpaw and I are alone on an island with regard to the Kavanaugh debt story, but I maintain that something is fishy — not only about the payback, as @GrahamDavidA lays out here, but with the debt itself.
Among other oddities, the use of a TSP loan for anything other than a medical emergency or some other necessity is extremely unusual, especially for a mid career judge. To use one for baseball tickets? I assure you he’d be the only one to ever do that if it’s indeed true.
Also worth noting, his financial disclosure forms indicate that he did the exact same thing — three maxed credit cards and a TSP loan — a decade earlier as well.”
There’s so much that’s sketchy about this nominee and nomination.
From Axios – last paragraph of the Woodward book:
“Democrats may question Kavanaugh’s personal finances”:
Sketchy.
I’ve found nothing from Trump (either Twitter account), the White House, or the State Department on the charging of the two suspected GRU assassins.
“This is stunning.
.@SenFeinstein: are you worried about AR-15s being used in so many school shootings?
#Kavanaugh: Yea, it’s sad. But we need to ‘harden’ our schools. Lots of people use AR-15s for self defense. (Shorter: School shootings are the price we pay for “freedom”)”
The NRA, whose sources of funds and links to the Kremlin are under federal investigation, has spent millions to back Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“With Kavanaugh, Trump chose SCOTUS nominee with most aggressive views on expanding Presidential power and he just refused to answer whether a President must respond to subpoena, called it ‘hypothetical’.”
The line of questioning from Sen. Leahy to Kavanaugh right now is something.
This is absurd. Leahy obviously has the email he’s asking Kavanaugh about, but can’t show it because it’s “committee confidential.”
Kavanaugh was dodgy as hell. We have a right to see these fucking documents.
“An angle to this that may not be obvious: D aides tell me that Grassley’s staff sought advance lists from them of ‘committee confidential’ documents they wanted to use in questioning. Ds objected to this because they’d essentially have to tip their hand on what q’s would look at.”
This is insane, especially given the content of Leahy’s questioning, which concerned Kavanaugh’s knowledge of documents stolen from Democrats about their possible questioning of judicial candidates.
Leahy was talking about stolen confidential Democratic documents provided to Kavanaugh by this character. So the committee actually has possession of these documents and hasn’t made them public (yet). As someone asked on Twitter, if this is something they provided to the full committee, can you imagine what they’re hiding? Also, this Republican corruption and lawlessness surrounding judicial nominations (and evrything else – see Kash Patel and company) is so deep and longstanding it’s breathtaking.
I mean, every bit of their sleazy history from the Nixon administration on that’s uncovered or revisited makes Republican collusion with the Kremlin expected and perfectly in character. In their case, there’s just no separating what they were prepared to do domestically to get and hold power from the probability that foreign actors would successfully cooperate in those efforts.
From Steve Benen, more details that show that Trump often ignores the advice of those around him, and that, in turn, they ignore his orders:
This is just the strangest situation.
Adam Schiff:
“Trump attacks Woodward book, wonders why Congress doesn’t change libel laws”:
A) History won’t be kind to Paul Ryan.
B) Trump is literally defending a libel case in CA right now.
What Trump said to Bloomberg News when asked about judicial confirmations in the last year of Obama’s presidency: “I think they forgot. I really do, I believe they forgot.” He meant that Obama and his team “forgot” to nominate people to the judiciary.
What Senator Lindsey Graham said yesterday:
Effing liars. Hypocrites. Obama won two elections. He tried to fill vacancies, including a Supreme Court vacancy. Republicans, including Graham, refused to give Merrick Garland a hearing. And they likewise put up roadblocks to confirming other justices.
In 2016, Republicans said that if Hillary Clinton won, they would block her judicial nominees. They would block nominees until a Republican was president, no matter how long that took.
As far as ““You had a chance and you lost” goes, Graham is overlooking the popular vote, which Clinton won, and he is overlooking intervention from Russian. Not a clean “win” for Trump.
From Steve Benen: “If your chief of staff has to issue a press statement to deny that he called you an idiot, you’re losing.”
Thread about the Leahy questioning. Hopefully someone will write it up as an article.
Kavanaugh is tap dancing at a pretty frenetic pace when it comes to questions about abortion:
Link
The real plan is to discredit Mueller and to prevent the public from ever seeing any report he generates:
Link
Laura Rozen: “Thought Kavanaugh came off as incredibly evasive today and not terribly honest.”
He did. And it continues.
Part of the Leahy-Kavanaugh exchange.
Good explanation of the style of tap dancing in which Kavanaugh is engaging:
Link
Oh, no. Federal judges have said that 2018 midterm elections in North Carolina will be conducted using the state’s current gerrymandered district map.
Court won’t force North Carolina redistricting this year
Trump threw his eldest son, Don Junior, under the bus … again.
Link
JFC.
Kavanaugh even demurred when he was asked about presidents pardoning themselves.
Kavanaugh saying he’s just a judge and has no agenda is blatant bullshit.
Update on children separated from their parents at the border:
Link
SC @266, it sounds like Sessions, and other Republicans, are seriously trying to protect the ability of Russians to use social media to sow discord, to spread propaganda, and to interfere in elections.
Update to #258 – here’s an article: “Leahy Trips Kavanaugh Up With Questions About Allegedly Stolen Emails.”
Trump’s response to seeing protestors at the Kavanaugh hearing:
No, it is not embarrassing for the country to allow protestors. Besides, 70 people were arrested.
Kavanaugh Defends Opinion That Assault Weapons Are “Common” and Can’t Be Banned
“Jerome Corsi, Conspiracy Theorist, Is Subpoenaed in Mueller Investigation”:
I wonder what “other appointment” pulled Grassley out of the hearings he’s supposed to be chairing.
A new subpoena from Mueller:
Link
This is a developing story. Expect more reporting later.
Oh, FFS! Really?
Trump said:
Trump said that during a Daily Caller interview that was released today.
“Duncan Hunter’s ‘Personal Relationships’ Get New Attention in Indictment”:
Earlier, he blamed his wife for the spending.
Kavanaugh, who was centrally involved in judicial nominations and confirmations and certainly knows the role of the Federalist Society in Trump’s nominations, is trying to pull off an innocent act in which all he knows is from his personal meetings with Trump and McGahn. He’s not very good at it.
I wasn’t sure where Whitehouse was going with this, but he pulled it together.
“Woodward book prompts West Wing witch hunt, sources say”:
The funnies part of the recording @ #212 is that when Kellyanne Conway gets on the phone Woodward is like “Kellyanne, remember we talked about this when you came over a couple months ago? We spent a whole lunch talking about it?” But I’m sure that was the sole interaction the two had.
Wow: “Comment Of Senator Leahy On His Questioning Of Judge Kavanaugh On Hacked Democratic Files.”
Bonus word salad from Trump, alongside bonus factchecking status update from Ben Mathis-Lilley:
Factchecking update:
NYT publishes anonymous op-ed by a “senior official in the Trump administration” (they know who it is) – “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration”:
Tweet o’ the day.
David Rothkopf:
Update to #282 – Leahy has tweeted with images of the emails. Concludes: “…These are the only documents that Chairman Grassley allowed to make public to date. There are more that are being hidden and that shed light on #Kavanaugh’s role in this scandal. They must be made public so you, and the Senate, can judge for ourselves. #WhatAreTheyHiding”
Follow-up to SC’s comment 284.
Another excerpt from that op-ed:
From Steve Benen:
Link
This op-ed echoes the anecdotes in Woodward’s book, in Omarosa’s book, and in “Fire and Fury.”
According to Trump, it’s all fake news.
From the op-ed:
Deep weirdness.
Hee.
Trump just tweeted: “TREASON?”
@291, No, the op-ed is not “treason.” It may be cause for someone to be fired, but it is not treason. Trump is ignorantly blustering yet again.
More response from Hair Furor:
Official response from the White House:
No one has refuted the actual content of the op-ed.
Tim O’Brien – “Trump Staff’s Resistance Can’t Avert a Crisis. It Is One.”:
Lynna:
And projecting.
Regarding SC’s comment 293, I think the idea that all of these self-appointed saviors in the White House are running things as best they can is deeply weird and wrong. However, I see that part of their predicament is that the Republican leaders in the House and Senate simply will not act to employ the remedies they have at their disposal.
Hollow shell of a man – “Lindsey Graham says people who think there’s something wrong w/Donald Trump ‘don’t know what they’re talking about’.”
Very true. On the other hand, they haven’t been pushed to act by officials openly raising these cries from the WH and the public reaction that would spur. And if it didn’t lead them to act, it could further the cause of energizing people to vote them out.
A lie told by Republicans in the Kavanaugh hearing:
Link
This.
SC @297, good points. It may be more likely that Republicans in the House of Congress, no matter what true tales they were told from inside the White House, would react more like Trump just did.
A guest on The Rachel Maddow Show likened that demand from Trump to demands Stalin made.
Some good news: a Latino activist group is launching a multi-million dollar voter registration drive.
From Jamelle Bouie, writing for Slate:
Much more at the link.
White House reactions, and the current atmosphere in Crazytown, as described by Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey:
The truth is, Trump can’t trust himself.
The Anon OpEd smacks of self-serving CYA. They’re thwarting his impulses, but they agree with the policies. They think that things are actually better. They take potshots at Trump for criticizing the media, then they take cheap shots at the “liberal” media…while exploiting their connections to mainstream media…I mean New York Times! The problem is Trumps “immorality”…not his venality, nor their venality. Or their policies or overarching point of view…White Men Rule.
Plus, he’s erratic, not them. They’re just trying to protect the Republic. Perhaps a set up for invoking the 25th, but clearly if things fall apart they are protecting their position.
Seems some think there’s a clue in the words that Pence wrote this. That would be rich.
Anyway, breaking kayfabe is always more kayfabe. There are no unsung heroes in this mess…only vipers.
This tweet makes me appreciate that they expanded the character limit.
Tweet o’ the week.
8-minute video of Kamala Harris asking Kavanaugh whether he’s talked to anyone at Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres abut the Mueller investigation.
He appears to be trying to figure out (as he did with Leahy) what she has. And he starts some sentences then realizes they’ll hurt him and changes his words midstream. Even if she doesn’t have something to back this up, it looks like a witness melting under a tough interrogation.
BuzzFeed’s article about it.
“Trump inauguration crowd photos were edited after he intervened”:
Sean Wilentz – “Why Was Kavanaugh Obsessed With Vince Foster?”:
The responses to this are funny.
So far this morning Trump has tweeted:
I thought his comment yesterday about Kavanaugh having been born for the job was among the grossest things he’s ever said. “I mean, look how pasty and male and elite and Christian he is – he’s right out of central casting!”
“India’s Supreme Court rules gay sex is no longer a crime in historic Section 377 judgement”:
Jesus fucking Christ.
Cory Booker announced he’s releasing some of the documents declared “committee confidential.” Dick Durbin, in a righteous rant, just said he stands with Booker and wants any consequences for Booker to be applied to him as well. Mazie Hirono said she too will release documents relevant to her questioning. Klobuchar also supporting Booker – “We simply cannot hide these documents from the American public – it’s the highest court of the land.” Some documents have been leaked to the NYT.
Tweet o’ the day.
Sen. Collins is now without excuse.
This is incredible. Now Booker is calling on Cornyn to bring charges against him and the others who are standing with him on the committee (Hirono, Klobuchar, Coons, Feinstein, Blumenthal, Durbin, possibly others I’ve missed) for the claims that they’ve violated Senate rules.
“it’s hard to overstate how much the addition of Booker and Harris to the Judiciary Committee in January has changed the public-facing image and posture of the panel, and of Senate Democrats more broadly.”
A wise decision by Schumer.
“‘Bring it’, Booker challenges Cornyn, who’s reading him a rule that he suggests makes him subject to expulsion from the Senate.”
Quite an image.
Chris Hayes: “Kavanaugh is taking on more water than I expected.”
“Trump admin wants ability to hold migrant kids indefinitely, upending decades-old ban”:
Is anyone going to ask Kavanaugh about his and his wife’s finances?
Here are the documents released by Booker.
“Madness on #Russia’s state TV, as they struggle to come up with new conspiracy theories. Kremlin-connected political analyst Sergei Markov attempts to place blame for the poisoning on Christopher Steele, described as ‘#Skripal’s former boss & the author of the Trump dossier’.”
Leahy’s resumed his questioning from yesterday, and Kavanaugh is plainly lying.
“On [date], you received an email with the subject line ‘spying’,” and it concerned a mole. “None of this raised red flags for you?”
Kavanaugh: “No,…”
“Kav is trying to avoid admitting he got and acted on stolen documents.
Not sure that’s the best approach…”
Here’s the email with the subject line “Spying.” From Barbara Ledeen.
Email includes: “They just had a meeting with the Dem staff of the Judiciary Committee and my friend is reporting that neither the democratic judiciary staff nor the groups have done any research [sic] the likely presumed nominee.
Therefore, it is important to note that IF we have a nominee, we need to ZIP THAT PERSON RIGHT THROUGH THE PROCESS…..WE CANNOT BEAT 20 MILLION DOLLARS.”
The “groups” in question are Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and other pro-choice organizations.
Document’s released by Hirono.
OMG kill that apostrophe. I was going to type “Hirono’s released documents” or something and it stayed in there.
In my opinion, Leahy’s questioning – particularly in the current context – was devastating.
Kavanaugh lied in the past about his actions in the Bush White House, and he’s lying again.
“World leaders back UK Novichok allegations”:
Trump’s gonna be mad if he finds out he signed this.
“Trump admin rejected report showing refugees did not pose major security threat”:
Sen Feinstein re the documents @ #336:
From Steve Benen, more details regarding possible lies told by Brett Kananaugh:
Link
Apropos of nothing political per se (except, perhaps, the failures of the State’s long-defunct Metric Board), tonight I decided to use a prepared pasta sauce on my fresh tagliatelle. One set of instructions were in English, and began “[…] Are you ready for a mouth-water [indecipherable] to knock you socks off?” Not exactly usual instructions, but yes I am. However, at one point it called for a “cup” of water. Which seemed about right, but at other points it called for “500g” of tomatoes. Which is an unusual mix of units (even in the UK, as I recall), so I got a bit suspicious…
Weirdly, there were no instructions in French. Only in Italian and German (besides English). Both other languages made clear they meant a non-specific amount of water, around one drinking glass worth — quite vague, but I don’t follow recipes / instructions much anyways, so I’m Ok…
It’s currently cooking right now, and smelling quite wonderful. Our apologies for this brief interruption to the less-important matters… (The mildly deranged penguin points out no cheese is involved, so it is much less important.)
Steve Benen on how Trump has recently proven his critics to be right:
Link
Leahy’s thread about the Kavanaugh documents.
The email from (Flynn friend and currently Grassley staffer in the committee’s judicial nominations unit) Barbara Ledeen, with the subject “Spying,” refers to her use of a “mole” to get information from “the Left” to give Bush and the Republicans an unfair advantage in the Supreme Court nomination/confirmation process. (This is in addition to the hacked emails stolen by Manny Miranda and passed on to Kavanaugh.) Based on the information gathered by the spy/mole, she recommends to Kavanaugh that their nominee be “ZIPPED THROUGH” the confirmation process to avoid a full fight. Their opponents in this fight were pro-choice organizations which would oppose their anti-choice nominees. Matt Schlapp is cced. Kavanaugh lied about it in the hearing.
Leahy: “And with 102,000 documents withheld by the Trump WH, mostly about judicial noms, we can bet there’s more.”
There’s more: “While careful not to directly make the case for any would-be justice, Mr. McConnell made clear in multiple phone calls with Mr. Trump and the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, that the lengthy paper trail of another top contender, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, would pose difficulties for his confirmation.”
As Months Pass in Chicago Shelters, Immigrant Children Contemplate Escape and Even Suicide
More at the link.
Related news: Trump Administration Plans to Scrap Agreement That Prevents Indefinite Detention of Children
Melania Trump attacks the writer of the op-ed and defends her husband:
Link
More nonsense from Sarah Huckabee Sanders:
Sarah is going to send you to bed without your supper.
Indictments against a North Korean national:
Link
Good news that involves some pushback against Trump administration immigration policies, pushback at the state level:
Link
Trump is still looking for other ways to fund his border wall. Democrats are fighting back.
Link
Link
Three people and the shooter are reported as killed. The story is developing. Facts are expected to be updated.
From Wonkette’s coverage of Twitter CEO @Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg appearing before Congress:
More at the link, including video excerpts.
When will this nightmare end?
Trevor Noah Is Neither Impressed Nor Comforted by That Anonymous “Resistance”. The video is a 6:34 minutes. It’s good.
Kavanaugh appears completely lacking in empathy for anyone outside his social and professional circles.
“BREAKING: Russian newspaper Fontanka traced flight records of the 2 Russian assassins responsible for Skripal poisoning. Between 2016-18 they travelled to Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan, and Paris (several times). One visited London before between 2/28-3/5-2017″
Saw this yesterday. People suggested taking it with a grain of salt because it’s just one paper and so forth, but if it’s true and they’re the same two guys it opens up whole new windows into GRU activities in Europe. Maybe they’ll turn out to be Putin’s Clarence Beeks – used them for the election interference and then for one job too many.
From John Cassidy, writing for The New Yorker:
From Steve Benen:
Link
Twitter finally banned Alex Jones.
Link
From Senator Mazie Hirono:
Hirono’s questioning, and the document release, should provide Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska a reason to vote “no” on Kavanaugh.
@ #359
I would love to see the fallout if they banned Donald Trump. I’m sure among his tens of thousands of tweets there are plenty of violations of the rules. No reason they couldn’t – as a private company they can publish whatever they want. That’s why all the noise about “regulating” them is just BS. Maybe they could just suspend Trump for a week and see how that goes.
The climate-change denier that Trump chose to head the Interior Department has withdrawn:
In particular, Gardner didn’t like President Obama’s stream-protection rule, and lobbied strenuously against it.
Why do all these Daily Caller reporters keep appearing on Russian propaganda channels?
Writers with histories of white supremacy aren’t the only issues plaguing the outlet.
“Collins dismisses Kavanaugh 2003 Roe email, noting ‘he was merely stating a fact, which is that three judges on the court’ would vote overturn it. ‘If that is the case, and he was not expressing his view, then I’m not sure what the point of it is’.”
OK, and IANAL, but…it seems he was saying that not all jurists would consider it settled law because it could be overturned by the Supreme Court theoretically and practically. But those conditions still hold, even more now than then. So what does his saying he considers it settled law actually mean? When he now says it’s settled law, is he suggesting that it can no longer be overturned by the Supreme Court, or that an insufficient number of Supreme Court justices would vote to overturn it? Or that he disagrees with the argument made by the hypothetical jurists that it wasn’t settled law because those conditions obtained? It’s either one or the other, or his saying he views it as settled law is meaningless. Am I just confused?
“BREAKING: New York (AP) — Trump will not answer federal investigators’ questions, in writing or in person, about whether he tried to block the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Giuliani tells @AP”
Matthew Miller re #365: “If he won’t even answer in writing, it’s not because they’re worried he would lie in the room, the excuse they’ve been giving. It’s because they know truthful answers are incriminating.”
“At one point, Farage mentioned Hillary and the crowd broke out info ‘lock her up’. That was pretty unexpected, given we were in Sydney.”
Tomorrow is Grand Jury Friday. Roger Stone associates Randy Credico (and Bianca) and Jerome Corsi are scheduled to testify.
Papadopoulos will also be sentenced tomorrow. He did an interview with Jake Tapper which will air reportedly at 11 PM ET on CNN tomorrow.
Brian Schatz:
This makes me dislike Kavanaugh as much as anything today. I can’t imagine my father using me or kids he coached as props to help himself like this – can’t conceive of it.
Endorse.
“The very fact that Kavanaugh feigned ignorance at the name ‘Kasowitz’ should tell you everything you need to know.”
His close friend is a partner at the firm.
Just saw Sen. Kamala Harris interrogate Kavanaugh. Definitely somebody I could vote for.
Follow-up to comment 304.
Yes, Trump’s allies are lining up behind him, and behind all his CRAZY.
Link
Trump spoke at a rally (at a cult event). He repeated his stupid “Treason” claim.
Link
Senator Cory Booker continues to tease “committee confidential” emails and memos associated with the Kavanaugh hearing.
https://twitter.com/CoryBooker
Yesterday’s videos.
(The second is potentially more disturbing than amusing.)
If you’re in the mood for more psychological disturbance, corruption, and lies, Daniel Dale livetweeted Trump’s rally last night:
part 1
part 2
(a historical correction from George Conway)
“So #r4today’s top interview slot was a long promotional Tony Blair broadcast against Corbyn, followed by 90 seconds from a Corbyn ally, followed by a lengthy anti-Corbyn interview with David Blunkett. Whatever your politics, this is ridiculous.”
Here’s a brief clip of Owen Jones. I don’t understand why no one seems interested in asking Blair about his participation in these suspect meetings.)
LOL.
Has Trump gotten word that there are reporters investigating Ronny Jackson or disciplinary proceedings under way, such that he fears his fake physical exam will be exposed? Did Woodward learn something?
Trump rally attendees being swapped out mid-event.
Update to #368 – “New: Jerome Corsi, the conservative author with ties to Roger Stone who was subpoenaed by Mueller’s office to testify before the grand jury today, will not be making an appearance, his lawyer says. No further comment….
Earlier this week, Corsi’s lawyer told us he was trying to set up a separate sit-down with Mueller’s office, which could make a grand jury appearance unnecessary. But his lawyer isn’t commenting now on what happened.”
“Poisoned Russian Ex-Spy Is Said to Have Worked With Spanish Intelligence”:
OMG.
In today’s Kremlin propaganda news…
“Ex-CNN Trumpkin Star Scottie Nell Hughes Now Working for RT, the Kremlin’s News Outlet”:
The Kremlin was apparently taken by surprise by the Petrov/Boshirov charges, and is scrambling to concoct an alternative theory of the crime. So far, they’ve pointed fingers at “overzealous Russian patriots,” mafia mercenaries, and Obama (possibly working with Christopher Steele).
In related news,
“Friend of Alexander Litvinenko sues Russian TV channels for libel”:
LOL – “Trump officials use Times op-ed to knife people they hate”: “Trumpworld sources tell Axios that officials rapidly shifted from trying to smoke out the author of the anonymous N.Y. Times op-ed, to using the guessing game to knife people they already hated — whispering the names of rivals and enemies as potential authors….”
Update to #365 – Since Giuliani told the AP that, he and Trump have both told different stories. Their statements are worthless. He’s not voluntarily going to be interviewed. Meanwhile, Mueller rolls on.
Steve Benen discussed that weird claim by Trump about Republicans saving Medicare and Democrats killing it. (Mentioned in the live tweeting of last night’s rally to which SC referred in comment 378.)
Trump’s conspiracy theories about Bob Woodward and the book “Fear”:
Link
Obama is speaking at I think the University of Illinois. He called Trump “the symptom, not the cause.”
“.@realDonaldTrump tells reporters he wants Attorney General Sessions to investigate who wrote @nytimes op-ed.”
Matthew Miller: “This would be an egregious abuse of power, and I have to think there would be mass resignations at DOJ before they agreed to use law enforcement tools for such a purpose.”
Here’s more of the quote from #391:
He’s taking it to the Republicans now. “What happened to the Republican Party?” “They’re cozying up to the former head of the KGB,” amongst other things.
“How hard can that be – saying that Nazis are bad?”
Update – “DOJ responds to Trump’s calling for an investigation of The NY Times: ‘We do not confirm or deny investigations’, Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores told CNN.”
“And if you thought [in 2016] elections don’t matter, I hope these past two years have corrected that impression.”
“Obama: ‘The antidote to a government controlled by a powerful few, a government that divides, is a government by the organized, energized, inclusive many. That’s what this moment is about. That has to be the answer. You cannot sit back and wait for a savior’.”
From Nicole Lafond, writing for Talking Points Memo:
More from Obama’s speech:
More hypocrisy from Chuck Grassley:
Link
Fox News hits new low with their latest Trump interview
They’re not even pretending to be anything other than a Trumpist propaganda outlet anymore.
Trump opens up popular Minnesota wilderness area to mining
Trump’s trade war with China is definitely not going as planned
Jeff Sessions Is Executing Trump’s Immigration Plans With a Quiet, Efficient Brutality
The attorney general’s systematic gutting of immigration courts is the latest example.
Follow-up to comment 403.
Yes, the situation is bad. Trump’s tariff and trade actions are not going as planned. So Trump decided to make things even worse:
Link
From John Dean’s testimony before Congress today:
Link
Video providing historical background is available at the link.
Trump calls his election Clinton’s funeral: ‘It was a wake’
One of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ ploys to shame the New York Times backfired.
Link
From Obama’s speech:
Turkey’s last-ditch effort to stop mass slaughter in Syria just failed
Russia and Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will almost certainly lead tens of thousands to die in Idlib.
Full transcript of Obama’s speech
I Wrote Some of the Stolen Memos That Brett Kavanaugh Lied to the Senate About
He should be impeached, not elevated.
Whoa. Does Sam Patten really think that feuding with former Georgian officials on Facebook is a good idea?Especially now?
Link
Much more at the link.
Al Franken – “Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings showcase Republican partisanship, hypocrisy”:
Papadopoulos sentenced to two weeks in jail and one year probation.
Tweet o’ the day.
Lynna @ #412, as I said above, I thought Leahy’s questioning was devastating. Kavanaugh’s acceptance and use of obviously stolen documents (for the purpose of Republican cheating in judicial confirmations!) and his lying about it then and now should be disqualifying. (And we don’t even know what’s in the thousands of documents that are still being hidden.) For some reason, I’ve heard close to nothing about it in the news. It’s perplexing, to say the least.
“Trump Executives Face U.S. Campaign-Finance Probe, Source Says”:
“Manafort Weighing Plea Deal to Avoid New Criminal Trial, Source Says”:
“Elliott Broidy’s Mistress Shera Bechard Says He Demanded She Get Abortion”:
Reporting from the Papadopoulos sentencing:
Fox viewers will probably never see the debunking of the lies they’ve been told for weeks now.
Interesting: “The Obvious Suspect: The quest to unmask the New York Times op-ed writer has been filled with speculation. But the article’s prose points to one person in particular.”
Hee.
“Trump warns he could cause the ‘ruination’ of Canada”:
Kate Bolduan on CNN is a good interviewer.
“Murdered Russian exile survived earlier poisoning attempt, police believe”:
More at the link.
“Trump says it’s ‘crazy’ that the U.S. has to provide financial help to “developing” nations: ‘They call ’em developing nations. Well, we’re a developing nation too. OK? We are. As far as I’m concerned, we’re a developing nation’.”
“State Widens Probe Into Trump Administration’s Alleged Retaliation Against Career Officials”:
More at the link.
SC @417, Rachel Maddow did a good job of covering the issue of Kavanaugh lying under oath. I’ll post a link later. Kavanaugh lied in 2004, in 2006 and in 2018.
I think that, perhaps, Democrats will have to fight the battle to hold him accountable for perjury. Even if Kavanaugh is confirmed by the Senate, the Dems can continue to work on charging him with perjury. If successful, Kavanaugh could be impeached and lose his seat as a judge.
SC @421, re Papadopoulos:
Quite true. It makes one feel a bit helpless. The death of truth, ignoring facts, and so forth.
SC @420, Elliot Broidy is so sleazy and slimy.
Link
Lynna:
It was very good, especially that she showed the video from the earlier hearings. I can’t seem to find the link (might just be too early in the morning). Hope you can. Chris Hayes also had a second great segment about Kavanaugh, and I can’t find the links to either of those.
Brian Fallon: “This week, we learned Brett Kavanaugh seems to have committed perjury multiple times during his past appearances before the Senate. Democrats should make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.”
(It’s weird how much Kavanaugh’s voice can sound like Alex Jones’. Gravelly, in a bad way. Phlegmy.)
The Jake Tapper special “The Mysterious Case of George Papadopoulos” is pretty wild. I think they’re going to show it again tomorrow.
“Trump Administration Discussed Coup Plans With Rebel Venezuelan Officers”:
Of course, being the NYT, while presenting the troubling news they have to continue to act as the mouthpiece of the CIA, State Department, corporate interests, and the US and Latin American Right:
…and so on and so forth. I feel for them: from their perspective, Trump’s clumsy and plainly authoritarian rightwing coup-mongering in Latin America is giving all US rightwing coup-mongering in Latin America a bad name. But that won’t stop them from presenting anti-democratic oligarchs as democratic heroes, violent coup-plotters as political prisoners, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as champions of democratic values and human freedom, and US policy as being traditionally hands-off. They don’t oppose economic sabotage or military coups to depose elected leaders in principle, mind you, but the actions of Trump’s people are a little too heavy-handed for their taste.
Good thread from southpaw on the Kavanaugh accusations, responding to a Vox piece, pointing out that Democratic Senators haven’t been making the perjury charge as some have claimed:
“DNC Lawyers Raise Prospect That Papadopoulos’s U.K. Contact May Be Dead”: “…The Democratic National Committee, which is suing Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks for interfering in the 2016 election, said in a court filing Friday that it believes all the defendants in the case have been served with the complaint, ‘with the exception of Mifsud (who is missing and may be deceased)’. The lawyers didn’t elaborate.”
Update to #31 above – analyses of what happened in Chemnitz (with broader implications):
“The Real Story Behind The Anti-Immigrant Riots Rocking Germany.”
“As Germans Seek News, YouTube Delivers Far-Right Tirades.”
Excellent NYT editorial – “Confirmed: Brett Kavanaugh Can’t Be Trusted”:
Tweet o’ the day.
Seriously, what the hell?
Worthwhile Never Trumper thread.
Re Tucker Carlson’s anti-diversity rant last night: “He cites the military, a cohesive unit that was only strengthened by desegregation. What a white nationalist piece of shit @TuckerCarlson is.”
Not only was the military strengthened by desegregation, but it’s wrong to imagine the World War II US military, which still excluded or segregated people based on race and gender, as remotely homogeneous simply because its ranks were largely made up up men (largely) considered white. Almost any memoir or account of a WW II soldier notes the diversity they encountered upon reporting for training. They were diverse in ethnicity (many in the US because of the huge waves of immigration in the early 20th century), rural vs. urban background, education, class, religion, politics, etc. Many had never met people even close to that different from themselves. And their varied knowledge and experience helped them cohere into a powerful and effective force. Not to mention that obviously knowledge of other languages and cultures and the ability to engage with people who were different were essential to fighting a war abroad. Carlson is a racist fool.
The Democratic Coalition (a resistance organization) has filed a criminal complaint for perjury against Brett Kavanaugh with the DoJ.
“Staggering number of people sentenced today in #Egypt’s Rabaa square trial. 75 given death sentences, 47 life in prison, and hundreds more, inc American Moustafa Kassem, to 15 years. Five people died in prison awaiting trial for the 2013 protest against Egypt’s military coup.”
SC @442, good. I was hoping that a perjury complaint would be filed right away.
SC @441, the Civilian Conservation Corps was often cited as having the same effect. “Many had never met people even close to that different from themselves. And their varied knowledge and experience helped them cohere into a powerful and effective force. Not to mention that obviously knowledge of other languages and cultures and the ability to engage with people who were different […]”
Here is Rachel Maddow’s presentation about the case for perjury against Kavanaugh.
Related: Kavanaugh’s anti-abortion extremism.
Related: Kavanaugh as a political operator in the GOP machine
Some Chris Hayes links relevant to subjects discussed above:
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-plaidshirt-guy-and-trump-1315555907678?v=raila&
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/senator-cory-booker-blasts-scotus-hearing-1314642499664?v=raila&
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-admin-wants-to-hold-migrant-kids-indefinitely-1314635843746?v=raila&
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/dangers-threaten-the-trump-presidency-from-within-and-without-1315558467819?v=raila&
Trump and the economy: making false and/or inflated claims:
Link
From Jelani Cobb, writing for The New Yorker:
So happy for Kathy Griffin.
I can’t believe this isn’t a parody.
Whoa.
“Sheriffs who cheered Trump’s attack on press have their own media run-ins”:
This keeps coming to mind:
Lynna @ #444, on the other hand…
“Argentinians formally leave Catholic church over stance on abortion”:
“Putin’s trust rating in public opinion polls dropped after the proposal to raise the retirement age was put forward. Many Russians fear they won’t live long enough to retire. Rallies opposing the proposal are taking place across #Russia.”
Police arresting a nine-year-old.
“In #StPetersburg, #Russia, the police surrounded a group of #protesters who started to sing a national anthem in defiance to the excessive force used by the policemen:…”
Video clip at the link.
SC @454, so, Republicans, (the Trump administration and lackeys), are not going to file a perjury complaint against Kavanaugh … so that’s that? It can’t be done?
SC @453, a lot of money was spent on ads touting Kavanaugh. A lot of money was spent by the Federalist Society too. Money has been spent backing Trump. They paid the money. They “fixed” the Supreme Court.
In other news, Bob Woodward was interviewed this morning by CBS’s David Martin: “People Better Wake Up To What’s Going On’ In Trump WH”
Link. video is available at the link. The video is 12:30 minutes long.
From the comments:
Link to lots of awesome photos of Obama with children, and a few photos of Trump making kids cry.
The excuse for presenting lots of photos of Obama with children is: “Study: Infants can distinguish between Leaders and Bullies. We Knew That!”
There are also a few videos.
When Trump visits a classroom, there is a “pledge to the bible.” Aiyiyiyi.
Nike online sales have skyrocketed 31% after the ad featuring Colin Kaepernick.
Trump claimed: “Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts.” Not true. The opposite of truth.
EPA staffers are leaving:
Think Progress link.
Trump’s offshore drilling plans being stymied by states:
Think Progress link
Stormy Daniels update:
Mother Jones link
From Michael Avenatti, yesterday:
Serena Williams calls out sexism in tennis after US Open loss
Video available at the link.
At U.S. Open, power of Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka is overshadowed by an umpire’s power play. Washington Post link
“Trump hotel bar where White House staffers drink may lose its liquor license because of the owner’s ‘bad character’”:
“Va. state senator who met with Assad says British are planning fake chemical attack”:
Tweet o’ the day.
SC 2466, OMG, this sounds like Assad is using Senator Black to preemptively counter criticism of a chemical attack on civilians in Idlib province.
Black has been duped … and it sounds like he was a willing dupe.
All the best people.
https://twitter.com/Kaepernick7/status/1038856001758347264
“U.S. energy secretary to visit Moscow September 11-13: Russian media”:
:).
“The Urgent Question of Trump and Money Laundering”:
“Trump expected to declassify Carter Page and Bruce Ohr documents”:
But sure, Republicans, keep helping him grab more power, including a compliant Supreme Court majority. I’m sure he’d never turn it against you.
“Patronize @realDonaldTrump’s Sterling, VA golf course.
Have your photo taken with him by the official White House photographer….”
More corruption at the link.
Great review – “Nobody’s Heroes”:
Much more at the link.
“GOP candidate for Fla. governor spoke at racially charged events”:
“White House expected to warn of sanctions, other penalties if international court moves against Americans”:
I highly recommend reading the book discussed in the links in my comment @ #433 above, Alan MacLeod’s Bad News from Venezuela, alongside this oped: “Trump, Venezuela and the prospect of a coup.”
“Some protesters made it to Tverskaya, blocked for the city day celebrations. ‘Putin is a thief’ they chant on Moscow’s main avenue. Regular folk look amazed as though some other universe just opened up to them.”
“No WH briefing on the schedule today-it has been 19 days since @PressSec last briefed reporters on camera.
Per @alex_mallin-this the longest period since Trump took office without a single WH official being made available to take questions on camera”
And here’s Trump’s grueling schedule for today.
I’m annoyed with this strange emphasis on the latest Butina (pronounced “BOOT-in-a,” evidently) documents showing the prosecutors admitted they (probably?) were wrong when they said she had offered someone sex in exchange for access. It appears they misread some texts. It wasn’t part of the charges; they had made the suggestion in the context of arguing in her bond hearing that her relationship with Erickson wasn’t as strong as her lawyers were claiming given that she had offered someone else sex in exchange for access. In any case, the argument – which she herself has made – that she’s cooperating or willing to cooperate with a fraud investigation of Erickson shows much more clearly that her relationship with him isn’t as solid as she claims (and the whole idea that he represents roots for her in the US is silly on its face).
“Can now confirm that the Speaker’s office has received Rep. Ron DeSantis’s letter resigning from Congress to focus on his campaign for Florida governor.”
SC @479, Trump has to save his energy for all those political rallies he has planned. (Purportedly, 3-4 rallies per week until the midterms.)
I would find lunch with V.P. Pence stressful, but maybe Trump needs somebody to watch him eat.
“Putin Allies Suffer Election Setbacks Amid Pensions Protests”:
“Bolton draft speech (per Reuters):
US will go after International Court’s JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS if they investigate torture by Americans in Afghanistan
—personal financial sanctions
—prosecute them in US courts
—travel bans”
In text quoted by SC @476:
Other U.S. actions against the Palestinians include the withdrawal of funds to support a network of hospitals in Palestine. NBC News link
The decision to withdraw $25 million previously committed to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network follows on the heels of a U.S. decision to cut $200 million in aid that funded the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees.
The collapse of hospital services and of aid to refugees will probably result in more chaos. Certainly, the cuts will result in more cruel conditions for Palestinians.
In other words, business as usual for Trump and the trumpians.
What Trump said about the economy today:
Why Trump is wrong to say it like that:
What Trump said about the past election and the economy:
What’s wrong with Trump’s statement above:
From the Washington Post:
More of what Trump said about the economy:
Commentary on Trump’s statement above:
From the Washington Post:
What Trump said about his magic wand:
Analysis of the lies in Trump’s statement above:
Obama had a bigger magic wand.
Failure to rally at the “Mother of All Rallies”:
Link
Video available at the link
Follow-up to the last Trump quote in comment 486.
Think Progress link. Much more at the link.
A federal appeals court just gave both middle fingers to Roe v. Wade
Republicans don’t control the Supreme Court yet, but three Republican judges are getting a head start.
And so it goes as Republicans continue to chip away at women’s reproductive rights.
“Alleged Russian Agent Maria Butina Will Stay In Jail And Her Lawyer Can’t Talk To The Press Anymore”:
More at the link.
“Brett Kavanaugh’s Disqualifying Bad Faith”:
“CNN Poll: Trump approval down 6 points in a month, hits low among independents”:
More at the link.
Tweet o’ the day.
This is important data I didn’t know about: “Spent some quality time with polling data and turns out people of color and millennials are the core constituency supporting environmental protection….”
I’m trying not to overreact, but Florence looks like a powerful storm.
Bob Woodward will be on Rachael Maddow’s show tomorrow night. Should be interesting.
Marshall is right. Something is very much off about George and Simona.
Patrick Blanchfield speed-reads and reviews the Woodward book on Twitter.
This is the most bizarre story: “U.S. officials suspect Russia in mystery ‘attacks’ on diplomats in Cuba, China: The strong suspicion that Russia was behind the alleged attacks is backed by signals intelligence, meaning intercepted communications, say U.S. officials.”
Trump tweeted this morning (September 11): “New Strzok-Page texts reveal ‘Media Leak Strategy’. @FoxNews So terrible, and NOTHING is being done at DOJ or FBI – but the world is watching, and they get it completely.”
Strzok’s attorney had to set the record straight, pointing out that obviously they were talking about a strategy to “detect and stop” leaks and that this is another example of Trump’s and Fox’s dishonesty.