“Cohen says he is guilty of contributing to Trump’s damage to the country, just as these Republicans are doing now. Like they’re doing now, he says, ‘I protected Mr. Trump for 10 years’.”
Hj Hornbecksays
CNN’s liveblog has something interesting. Emphasis mine:
[Rep. Lacy] Clay: To your knowledge, did the President or his company ever inflate assets or revenues?
Cohen: Yes.
Clay: Was that done with the President’s knowledge or direction?
Cohen: Everything was done with the knowledge and at the direction of Mr. Trump.
Clay: Tell us why he would do that and what purpose did it serve.
Cohen: It depends upon the situation. […]
Trump seems to like micromanaging the bits that could get him in trouble. That ups the odds of finding an incriminating paper trail.
Emily Nussbaum: “A recurring theme in your testimony is concern for your family’s safety.” Asks C to be specific. Cohen talks abt how big DT’s Twitter feed is—talks abt the “I could shoot someone on 5th Ave quote.” “When he starts bringing in my in-laws, my wife, what does he think will happen?”
That is a GOOD line. #Cohen says “I’m responsible for your silliness.” [points at Republicans] “Because I did the same thing you’re doing now. I protected Donald Trump for TEN YEARS.” These
Republicans have debased themselves, and Cohen knows ALL about that.
Daniel Dale: Asked if he’s seen Trump threatening physical violence to people, Cohen says, “No. He would use others.” Asked to clarify that Trump would hire people, Cohen says, “He didn’t have to hire them. They were already working there.”
Cohen’s requested a break, so things should slow down for a bit.
Hj Hornbecksays
Well, this is interesting. From CNN’s liveblog:
Russian state TV “Rossiya 24”, which rarely covers Trump-related investigations in much detail, broadcasted some of Michael Cohen’s testimony live today, including questions about potential collusion and the Trump Tower Moscow deal.
“Among all accusations, the most important one, that started it all, the suspicion of collusion with Russia — well, Cohen does not have evidence of that which he started directly,” reporter Alexander Khristenko said during Rossiya 24’s coverage.
The network also focused on the Republican attack-line against Trump, that is not a credible witness due to his previous lies to Congress. For any viewers in Moscow, the Cohen hearing is unfolding in primetime, on Wednesday night.
Even if there is no explicit collusion, it’s obvious Trump and the Kremlin are fellow travelers.
Daniel Dale: Republican Jim Jordan asks why Cohen’s lawyer didn’t deny the BuzzFeed story the special counsel’s office disputed about Trump supposedly directing Cohen to lie. Cohen says it’s not their job, they are not “the fact-checkers for BuzzFeed.”
Hj Hornbecksays
Reinforcing my earlier observations about the Republican strategy:
Galen Druke 12:27 PM:
The Republicans’ goal is to make Cohen look unbelievable, and they are relying on Cohen’s past lies to do that. The thing is that we all know Cohen has lied — he even readily admits it. So the Republican questioning ends up going something like this:
GOP lawmaker: Look at this example of you lying!
Cohen: Yes, I lied. (And then he goes on to paint an unflattering — maybe even criminal — picture of Trump.)
I wonder if there is a better or different strategy for Republicans. Cohen seems to have his strategy for the current line of questioning down pretty well at this point.
Galen Druke 12:32 PM:
Following up on my comment about Republican questioning below — one option for Republicans would be to refute Cohen’s testimony and offer alternatives to his story. They are not really doing that. They are not giving Trump’s line on payments to Stormy Daniels or coordination with Roger Stone. They have attempted to refute Cohen’s assertion that Trump is racist.
Sarah Frostenson 12:33 PM:
Yup, “Not one question so far has been asked about President Trump?” says Cohen. It is interesting that Republicans haven’t tried to refute the campaign finance violations that Trump may be guilty of.
We’re in a weird Twilight Zone episode where everyone agrees Trump is guilty of committing crimes, but we differ on what should be done about it.
a_ray_in_dilbert_spacesays
When your enemy insists on defending an absolutely indefensible position, encourage him all you can, and then beat the living crap out of them until you see the fear dawn in their eyes, indicating that they’ve begun to realize the untenability of their predicament.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) submitted a criminal referral for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, alleging possible foreign lobbying violations.
“I ask unanimous consent that my letter referring Mr. Cohen for violating FARA for illegal lobbying activity be entered into the record,” Meadows said at a House Oversight Committee hearing where Cohen was testifying.
Another interesting moment from Cohen’s testimony:
[…] The “Access Hollywood” tape — in which Trump bragged to Billy Bush “When you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab them by the [P-word]. You can do anything” — was published by The Washington Post on Oct. 7, 2016.
Cohen told the committee Wednesday that he was in London when the tape was made public, “and I received a phone call during the dinner from Hope Hicks, stating that she had just spoken to Mr. Trump and we need you to start making phone calls to the various different news outlets that you have relationships with.”
Hicks continued, per Cohen: “And we need to spin this, and what we want to do is just to claim that this was men locker room talk.” […]
Daniel Dale: Cohen: Trump was “supposed to pay” the Karen McDougal money but never did. “For whatever the reason may be, he elected not to pay it. David Pecker was very angry, because there were also other monies” Pecker had “expended on his behalf,” never got reimbursed.
“Big: Cohen says changes were made to his testimony about the Trump Tower Moscow deal by Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow (and maybe others on Trump’s legal team, but he was cut off.) The changes included his statements about how long the negotiations went on, Cohen says.”
For the love of god, will some Democrat please follow up on this?
Trump is in Vietnam, he is meeting with North Korea’s Chairman Kim. What’s on Trump’s mind? Michael Cohen. Trump tweeted this just before meeting with the North Korean leader:
Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time. Using Crooked’s lawyer!
The White House restricted access to subsequent meetings for some reporters who had asked questions earlier about Trump’s reaction to Michael Cohen’s testimony. Restricting the access of reporters traveling with the president is a first. According to Andrea Mitchell, that’s not done.
And, in a way, it was Trump that brought up the subject by tweeting about Cohen.
Hj Hornbecksays
Ah, this is hilarious. Via Josh Marshall, Cohen is schooling a Republican rep on what it takes to get your sentence reduced post-conviction. Meanwhile, he’s also repeating that Trump is under multiple investigations which Cohen in unable to talk about in public.
“Asked by a Dem, Cohen says yes, he is aware of criminal behaviour by Trump that hasn’t been discussed today. He says it’s part of the SDNY investigation.”
Cohen is asked by Dem Rep. Harley Rouda about Trump saying under oath in 2013 that he wouldn’t recognize Felix Sater in a private room. Cohen says “yes,” it’s true Trump knew Sater at the time; Sater had an office on the same floor of Trump Tower as Trump.
Rouda: Given Trump’s familiarity with Sater, isn’t it true that Trump misled at best and lied at worst, under oath? Cohen: “Yes.”
SC @15, yeah. That’s important! We will hope for more questions about that issue.
Earlier, Cohen compared Trump to a mob boss who used other methods to shape Cohen’s testimony:
Michael Cohen on Wednesday compared […] Trump to a mobster, claiming he was seeking to intimidate him before he testified before Congress. […]
“By coming today, I have caused my family to be the target of personal, scurrilous attacks by the president and his lawyer, trying to intimidate me from appearing before this panel,” Cohen said towards the end of his opening remarks.
“Mr. Trump called me a ‘rat’ for choosing to tell the truth, much like a mobster would do when one of his men decides to cooperate with the government,” he continued.
Cohen then cited two tweets from the president that he says aimed to intimidate him. […]
Cohen argued in his opening remarks that these tweets clearly show Trump was trying to encourage “someone to do harm to me and my family.” […]
Walter Shaub: “Rep. Meadows accuses Cohen of lying on his Truth in Testimony form, claiming the form asks about foreign contracts, because Cohen had contracts with foreign companies. That is false. The form asks about contracts with foreign governments, not foreign companies. See for yourself:…”
This is exactly what Cohen said.
Hj Hornbecksays
Remember that earlier comment about Mark Meadows referring Cohen for criminal prosecution? It may have be mistaken.
Here’s an example of the truth in testimony disclosure form that Meadows is referring to. It asks about contracts with foreign *governments,* as Cohen stated, not non-government organizations
A whole bunch of people reviewed and edited Cohen’s SSCI prepared testimony. He had a joint defense agreement with Trump and also at least Jared and Ivanka (represented by Abbe Lowell).
Today Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and RNC Finance Chairman Steve Wynn announced additional members of the RNC’s Finance leadership team:
“I am delighted to announce the addition of these longtime friends of the Party and supporters of this administration to our Finance leadership team,” said Chairwoman McDaniel. “Elliott Broidy, Michael Cohen, and Louis DeJoy will serve as National Deputy Finance Chairmen, and Brian Ballard, Bob Grand, Gordon Sondland, Geoff Verhoff, and Ron Weiser will serve as Regional Vice-Chairmen. Together this team will employ their extraordinary talent and understanding of Americans across the country to maintain and build upon our unprecedented fundraising success.”
Daniel Dale: Asked exactly what Roger Stone said to Trump, Cohen says: “Mr. Trump, I just want to let you know I just got off the phone with Julian Assange, and in a couple days there’s going to be a massive dump of emails that is going to severely hurt the Clinton campaign.”
Thank you, Republicans, for eliciting more information. The reason Cohen recorded Trump talking about David Pecker and the MacDougal payment was that he knew Trump wasn’t going to pay the money and Pecker had yelled at him about it on several occasions.
Did Cohen just say that the other recording he made of a client is also the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation? It was a little confusing.
Hj Hornbecksays
Cohen is throwing cold water on a few fringe theories, FWIW. He again denied going to Prague, contradicting Steele’s dossier on that point; he doesn’t think the story about Trump’s secret love child is real; he has no reason to believe the “pee tape” exists; and he doesn’t think Trump would hit Melania, which was a possible explaination for her three-week disappearing act.
Cohen is asked about hiring someone to rig unscientific online polls for Trump, including a CNBC poll asking people to name important business leaders. He confirms the story. He says Trump directed him to do the rigging.
David Corn: “I could tweet this every minute: Why are Republicans not in the least bit concerned about a president who secretly negotiated a deal with Russia (and asked Putin for help) and who was part of a scheme to make illegal hush-money payments—and who lied about both of these episodes?”
Hj Hornbecksays
I don’t know why I find this so amusing, but I do:
Cohen says he was a Democrat until he was going to be named deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and RNC finance chairman Steve Wynn made him switch parties.
Hj Hornbecksays
The head of the committee called for an hour-long break. Time to stretch!
Hj Hornbecksays
Catching up on other news, Matt Gaetz may be disbarred for witness tampering and Mitch McConnell hasn’t “reached a total conclusion” on whether or not Trump’s emergency declaration is illegal.
Melania is not going to like this part. Trump forced Cohen to lie to Melania.
Michael Cohen on Wednesday recalled lying to Melania Trump about the hush money payment he made to Stormy Daniels.
“Not only did I lie to the American people, I lied to the first lady when the President called me, and I was sitting in a car with a friend of mine, and he had me speak to her, and explain to the first lady,” Cohen said during testimony before the House Oversight Committee. […]
Don’t all honest people have their mob lawyers convince their wives that they’re not having one-night stands with porn stars?
——————
“I had to tell the First Lady that Stormy did not spank him with a rolled up copy of Forbes Magazine.”
Matt Gaetz deleted the tweet in which he threatened Michael Cohen.
[…] It didn’t take long before Nancy Pelosi tweeted a warning to all members of Congress about their social media conduct. Between likely talking to a lawyer and Pelosi’s public warning, the arrogant Florida congressman publicly apologized and did a walk back for the ages. […]
From Pelosi:
I encourage all Members to be mindful that comments made on social media or in the press can adversely affect the ability of House Committees to obtain the truthful and complete information necessary to fulfill their duties. https://goo.gl/jVGQD6
From Gaetz:
Speaker, I want to get the truth too. While it is important 2 create context around the testimony of liars like Michael Cohen, it was NOT my intent to threaten, as some believe I did. I’m deleting the tweet & I should have chosen words that better showed my intent. I’m sorry.
Gaetz may still find himself the subject of an official Ethics Committee investigation. He may, at least, be censured.
The Florida Bar Association may also censure him and/or take away his license to practice law.
He should not go unpunished. He obviously threatened a witness.
Good news. It’s not a done deal, but at least the House passed a firearms background check bill. That’s the first gun control bill that’s been passed in more than two decades.
The bill requires background checks on all commercial sales of guns, closing the loophole that used to allow guns sold at gun shows, or guns sold online, to be exempt from background checks.
We don’t yet know what will happen when the bill goes to the Senate.
Asked if he knows if Trump’s tax returns were actually under audit in 2016, Cohen says he doesn’t know for sure; he says he asked for a copy of the audit letter to use in his dealings with the press, “and I was never able to obtain one.”
Dem Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asks Cohen about an AMI “treasure trove” of documents related to Trump’s catch-and-kill arrangements. Cohen says he doesn’t know if it still exists, Pecker and some others would know.
Cohen says Alan Weisselberg and some others would know more about Trump inflating assets to get insurance benefits. He agrees with Ocasio-Cortez that Trump’s tax returns would help shed light on this.
Ocasio-Cortez asks Cohen about Trump allegedly deflating the value of a Florida golf course to try to reduce his tax bill. Cohen says, “It’s identical to what he did at Trump National Golf Club and at Briarcliff Manor.”
In his closing statement, Cohen says that based on his knowledge of Trump, “I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”
Hj Hornbecksays
As for the final remarks of the heads of the committee, compare and contrast.
Cummings, in his closing statement, refers to the WaPo’s count of Trump’s false and misleading statements, nearly 9,000. (I count 4,445 false ones.) He says “it’s stunning.”
Jim Jordan is accusing Cohen of lying that he didn’t set up that Twitter account that called him sexy and such, saying he asked the tech person to do it, and lying that he didn’t want a job in the administration.
“Cummings said his office worked ‘very closely’ with federal prosecutors in New York and the special counsel, and he thinks ‘there is another shoe to drop’.”
A different crisis: Pakistan show two planes from India today. The planes were brought down in the disputed region of Kashmir. Both Pakistan and India are nuclear-armed countries.
In other news, here is an update on the Democratic-Party-led investigation into the separation of migrant families on the southern border: three subpoenas were issued late today. The subpoenas go to three Trump cabinet officials.
Some of the important moments from Michael Cohen’s testimony:
Cohen continues to assist the Southern District in New York with ongoing investigations that involve Trump.
Trump’s attorney, Jay Sekulow, edited the previous testimony Cohen gave to Congress. That testimony included the false statements about the Trump Tower Moscow project. Abbe Lowell, a lawyer representing Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, may have also been involved in editing Cohen’s testimony.
Trump knew ahead of time about the email dumps of stolen emails.
Further to #60, I’m so tired of pundits talking about how numb, desensitized, and so on we all supposedly are when it comes to Trump’s and the Republicans’ actions. I’m not numb. I continue to be outraged. The evidence (including the energy around and results of the midterms) doesn’t support these claims about general desensitization. It’s just a lazy assertion. The country was fucking riveted by this hearing, and we’ve been waiting for this to begin for two years.
Saadsays
Ayanna Pressley:
“For the balance of my time, would you agree that someone could deny rental units to African Americans, lead the birther movement, refer to the diaspora as ‘shithole countries’ and refer to white supremacists as ‘fine people’, have a black friend and still be racist?”
“Overnight in Hanoi, President Trump:
– Ended summit early without agmt
– Appeared to walk back demand for full denuclearization
– Questioned US intel assessment NK still expanding nuclear program
– Accepted Kim’s denial of involvement in Otto Warmbier death”
I have arrived at CPAC. Today’s first session features Rep. Jim Jordan, Rep. Mark Meadows and Matt Schlapp. They are saying that there is no collusion. The session is called Marketing Marxism: There’s Nothing New About the Green New Deal….
Update to #42: “#BREAKING: Israeli Supreme Court rejects Netanyahu’s last-minute attempt to prevent AG’s announcement of his indictment. Netanyahu hopes delay of even a few hours will let him get his version out even before the AG does. He’s announced he’ll be addressing nation at 8pm.” (That’s 1 PM ET in the US.)
I’ve personally apologized to @MichaelCohen212 4 referencing his private family in the public square. Regardless of disagreements, family members should be off-limits from attacks from representatives, senators & presidents, including myself. Let’s leave the Cohen family alone.
President Trump called @mattgaetz last night from Hanoi to talk the Cohen testimony and the threats (since rescinded) Gaetz made about Cohen. “I was happy to do it for you. You just keep killing it,” Gaetz was heard telling him.
(Gaetz told me he doesn’t discuss calls w/POTUS)
It’s like they’re trying to provide illustrations for Cohen’s warnings yesterday. (I’m constantly reminded of the way ex-Sc—–ologists describe and show the tactics they used to deal with threats.)
Update (at long last): “BREAKING: The Israeli attorney general announced today his decision to indict Prime minister Netanyahu in one case of bribe and two cases of fraud and breach of trust. All indictments are subject to a hearing.”
Saadsays
Hj Hornbeck, #52
How does Mark Meadows defend his deployment of the “I have a black friend trope?”
Mark Meadows says he has nieces and nephews of colour and it’s racist to suggest that he brought in Lynne Patton as a prop.
“BREAKING: North Koreans in press conference disputed Trump’s account that North Korean asked for removal of ALL sanctions. Said they asked for partial removal of sanctions.”
“BREAKING: In rare press conference, North Korean official says ‘Chairman Kim got the feeling that he didn’t understand the way Americans calculate’ says Kim may have ‘lost the will’ for further negotiations.”
Saadsays
The problem with the “niece and nephew” defense is that even if the “one of my best friends is black” defense was valid, Meadows had nothing to do with that. Like well done, your brother or sister had children with a non-white person.
“NEW: @Jim_Jordan & @RepMarkMeadows have sent a letter to DOJ referring Michael Cohen ‘for perjury and knowingly making false statements before the Committee at yesterday’s hearing’.”
Letter at the link.
tomhsays
For SCOTUS watchers, the transcript of the oral arguments in the Supreme Court in the Bladensburg Cross case is now available. This is the case in Maryland of a massive 40 ft concrete cross on public land, erected in 1923 as a memorial to WWI war veterans, that the 4th Circuit ruled unconstitutional last year. The pro-cross argument, of course, is that it’s a secular monument. Their position is summarized by the opposition lawyer:
But the Commission is here arguing today, as well as the other Petitioners, that it is telling Jews, telling Muslims, telling humanists that the cross honors them, when they emphatically say it does not. And it’s telling Christians that their most preeminent and sacred symbol of Jesus Christ actually, in fact, also symbolizes atheism.
Judge Howell writes that mystery company’s records are relevant to Mueller’s probe of “foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election” and “potential collusion in those efforts by American citizens.”
(Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re relevant to the collusion aspect, but it’s there.)
Threading doesn’t seem to be her strong suit, so here’s the whole thing:
Bibi’s ON
He starts by talking about Iran. Putin and Iran. Second, Thanks Trump for support for himself & for Israel. This sort of obsequiousness has become reflexive.
1. Touts his diplmatic bona fides. 2. Charges indictments are part of left-wing conspiracy to oust him and replace him with left-wing government. “Unprecdented.
A scandal intended to overthrow the right-wing government and replace it with left-wing government. “That’s their aim.
Netanyahu displays chuckling contempt of judicial authorities. Claims he’s poor victim of media and left-wing union. “I can’t remember when the left was so happy!”
Says he’s being given no chance to exculpate himself. Of course, he’s had 2 1/2 hears to do that.
The witch hunt isn’t just against me. They are spilling the blood of my wife, persecuting my son, have forced my family to live through the seven circles of hell for 3 years. The witch hunt is a house of cards that will end in nothing, in dust.
“Which father would not defend his son??” Now quoting Dershowitz, that the charges against him “are unprecedented in world legal history” and “imperil democracy.”
Benjamin Netanyahu has a very well-developed sense of his own victimhood. Embroidered like medieval tapestries, with gold thread. Now in 3rd person: “Benjamin Netanyahu, the most maligned man in the history of Israeli media.”
New slogan for investigations: “Fake 1000” “Fake 2000,” “Fake 4000.”
“If its not Netanyahu, its not criminal.”
Now he’s naming names: State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan & Justice Ministry’s Liat Ben Ari. Amazing & Trumpian.
He’s pushing the 3rd person thing hard: “There is one law for everyone, and another law for Netanyahu.”
And now, deep state: “Its all a pile of dust invented by judicial functionaries.”
Furious, on fire & full of self-pity, Netanyahu exists stage left.
No questions.
This is not a polite way to talk about your former finance chair.
“Michael Cohen is a convicted felon who has consistently engaged in deceptive and misleading criminal behavior including tax evasion, lying to financial institutions, and lying to Congress.”
No, no, he was a *deputy* finance chair.
The finance chair was Steve Wynn, and as we all know, that guy has a squeaky clean record. [/sarcasm]
Well at least Elliot Broidy was there to uphold standards….oh wait.
[…] “Sometimes you have to walk and I think that was one of these times,” Trump said at a press conference that was moved forward by almost two hours after the talks collapsed.
I think “collapsed” is both accurate and important. Often, during difficult diplomatic negotiations, the parties will agree to additional discussions, if nothing else. The point is to maintain a dialog, working incrementally toward a goal. We’ll often see leaders shake hands, feign optimism about future talks, and sign a vague communique with symbolic gestures for the cameras. If nothing else, it helps the diplomats save face.
That’s not what happened in Hanoi, where talks ended abruptly and prematurely. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters the administration would continue to work toward a possible agreement “in the weeks ahead,” but that doesn’t change the fact that Trump and his team are returning to the White House empty handed. […]
Kim Jong-un received the international spotlight, gushing praise from the leader of the free world, and the validation that comes with being treated as a legitimate power by the United States. […]
Trying to lower expectations, Trump told the nation’s governors this week he’d be satisfied if North Korea simply continued with its current pause on weapons testing. Except there’s not even an agreement on that issue – and in theory, Kim could begin a new round of tests in the hopes of pushing the White House back to the table.
As Vox’s Matt Yglesias joked this morning, “It turns out that sending a distracted president with a weak command of the underlying issues into a hastily arranged summit without proper preparation wasn’t a diplomatic masterstroke after all.”
[…] Ranking Member Jim Jordan and Rep. Mark Meadows referred the hearing to Attorney General William Barr over what they said was “significant evidence” that Cohen had lied to Congress.
[…] Cohen, they alleged, lied to Congress by claiming in verbal testimony “that he was a good lawyer who understood the need to present his client with sound legal advice,” despite admitting in written testimony that he made a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels “without bothering to consider whether that was improper.”
In all, Jordan and Meadows listed five more examples of Cohen’s alleged lies in addition to the allegation that his verbal and written testimony clashed: His claim that “I never defrauded any bank,” despite pleading guilty to making false statements to a bank; his claim that he never wanted to be White House chief of staff, despite attorneys in the Southern District of New York asserting that Cohen “expected” an administration role; his claim that he didn’t “actually set that up,” referring to the @WomenForCohen Twitter account he commissioned; his claim on congressional paperwork that he didn’t have any contracts with foreign governments; and his claim that “blind loyalty,” not “personal greed and ambition” was to blame for the crimes he committed. […]
Some of Jordan and Meadows’ claims appeared fairly thin: Cohen claimed upon his sentencing that “blind loyalty” was to blame for his crimes, and he simply repeated the phrase on Wednesday. Cohen also testified Wednesday that his lawyers had advised him that his contracts with foreign companies did not originate with foreign governments, and therefore did not have to be declared.
In other words, Jordan and Meadows got some things wrong, not Cohen.
Meadows and Jordan are working with very thin gruel. I think their main objective is just to make a show of protecting Trump by going after his enemies.
More details from the collapsed talks in Hanoi, this time from the North Korean point of view:
[…] Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho commented during an abruptly scheduled middle-of-the-night news conference. […]
[Snipped description of North Korean offer to shut the Yongbyon nuclear facility down, which seems to be the one big concession offered.]
Ri said the North was also ready to offer in writing a permanent halt of the country’s nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and that Washington wasted an opportunity that “may not come again.” […]
Mere hours after both nations had seemed hopeful of a deal, the two leaders’ motorcades roared away from the downtown Hanoi summit site within minutes of each other, their lunch canceled and a signing ceremony scuttled. […]
The country of Vietnam expended lots of money to host the talks.
Trump over-simplified and more or less lied when he held a press conference after the talks collapsed:
Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that.
North Korean claimed that they requested not the lifting of all sanctions, but the easing of some sanctions.
One has to wonder if Trump was just tired, failed to understand what the North Korean leader was saying, and walked away in a huff like an irritated toddler.
South Korean leaders were not happy.
There was disappointment and alarm in South Korea, whose liberal leader has been a leading orchestrator of the nuclear diplomacy and who needs a breakthrough to restart lucrative engagement projects with the impoverished North. Yonhap news agency said that the clock on the Korean Peninsula’s security situation has “turned back to zero” and diplomacy is now “at a crossroads.”
From the readers comments:
Diplomacy is hard work and requires patience and understanding nuance. Trump does not like work, has no patience and is dumb as a box or rocks. He saw, perhaps for the first time, that Kim is a master of slow-rolling, and that the Nobel Prize was never going to happen in Trump’s lifetime, at least not with Kim.
Realizing this was a no-win situation and that Trumpworld is rapidly unraveling at home, he said “Kick the tires, light the fires and lets roll – cause I want outta here !”
———————-
I heard someone once told Trump that a long tie has a “slimming effect”
So Donny thinks when he wears it, he’s losing weight.
That’s what Chris Christie claims in his book, apparently. He says Trump gave him that little bit of fashion advice.
Yesterday, the Trump administration compared transgender people to people who have a disease.
Wednesday, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel held its own hearing on […]Trump’s transgender military ban. After stirring testimony from a panel of five out trans service members, two representatives from the administration then attempted to defend the ban — and ended up doing so by comparing being transgender to having a disease.
James N. Stewart, who is currently performing the duties of Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness […] insisted that the policy is not a “ban,” nor does it target “transgender” people. Instead, he claimed that it only impacts people who present with the condition of gender dysphoria, and was thus not discriminatory. Vice Admiral Raquel Bono, Director of the Defense Health Agency, was also on hand to testify that there were medical justifications for not allowing people with gender dysphoria to serve.
With the exception of Rep. Trent Kelly (R-MS), who appeared sympathetic to allowing transgender people to serve, only Democratic members of the committee asked questions, and they all attempted to chip away at Stewart and Bono’s claims. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), who chairs the subcommittee, said she was “astonished” by their arguments, and Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) noted that it costs three times as much to train a single pilot as it does to provide a year’s worth of transition-related medical services across the entire military.
Many of the members pointed out that every major medical organization has rejected the ban, leaving Bono to claim that the military has its own data to justify it. But she could not in any way explain how they determined, for example, that starting hormone replacement therapy would result in 12 months of non-deployability, insisting the science was still shifting. […]
CPAC has always reflected what the conservative base wants. This year is no different.
Some of the conservative movement’s biggest names are gathering this week in National Harbor, Maryland, for the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC. President Trump, fresh off his trip to Vietnam to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, will speak. So will Sebastian Gorka, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, and the star of the History Channel show Pawn Stars. […]
A panel discussion with California Rep. Devin Nunes, architect of the very brief “Release the Memo” news cycle
“AOC’s Green New Deal: Debunking the Climate Alarmism Behind Bringing Full Socialism to the United States,” sponsored by the Heartland Institute
Keynote speeches from Vice President Mike Pence, White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, the UK’s Nigel Farage, conservative activist Michelle Malkin, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Fox News pundit Jeanine Pirro […]
I think that really it’s a very dangerous thing for people to be voting against border security. I really think that Republicans that vote against border security and the wall, I think you know, I’ve been okay at predicting things, I think they put themselves at great jeopardy.
(It occurs to me that #92 could possibly be misconstrued. To be totally clear, I meant getting-arrested-or-detained/searched-at-the-airport risky, not violence risky.)
So Scott Pruitt was forced to resign thanks to a cornucopia of corruption scandals. Is the Environmental Protection Agency now in better hands? No. The EPA will now be led by Andrew Wheeler. His credentials? He use to be a lobbyist for the coal industry, including a gig as lobbyist for Murray Energy (breaker of environmental laws, killer of miners via lax adherence to safety rules, etc.). Wheeler also use to work for Senator James Inhofe, a climate denier. So, yeah, all the best people have been chosen by Trump to run this important agency.
[…] The New Republic’s Emily Atkin explained a while back, “Wheeler is not just the figurative embodiment of the swamp, but the literal embodiment of it. The coal industry is responsible for 72 percent of toxic water contamination in the United States, making it the nation’s largest water polluter. That’s according to the agency where Wheeler is about to be second in command — the agency that is charged with protecting clean water.” […]
The Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler as EPA’s fifteenth administrator Thursday, cementing the authority of one of President Donald Trump’s most effective and prolific de-regulators.
He was confirmed by a vote of 52-47. Sen. Susan Collins was the only Republican to vote against him; no Democrats voted for him. […]
Wheeler is said to be less sloppy and less hasty than Pruitt. Therefore, Wheeler’s efforts to roll back regulations that ensure clean air, protect clean water and provide guidelines for the extraction of resources, those regulations will more likely be rolled back in ways that withstand legal scrutiny.
Hypocrisy and irony mixed: Republicans who held exhaustive, years long hearings on Benghazi, (and came up with nothing), those Republicans are saying that having Cohen testify before Congress was a waste of time.
Trump’s failure (take note of who the piece blames) will increase Beijing’s influence in both the United States and North Korea. The government’s official statement is a diplomatic “there, there” to President Trump, saying an agreement can’t be reached with a couple of summits.
More from China:
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had “always hoped that everyone can realise that the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula has been going on for many years, and that solving this problem is definitely not something that can be achieved overnight.”
He wasn’t on the official schedule, but Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, made a three-minute cameo at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington on Thursday to tout the campaign’s progress. He told a small group of conference attendees that he expected some new states to come into play for Trump because of the new, progressive agenda of the Democratic Party that he said “promises to devastate the economy.” Among those states he thinks Trump might flip are Minnesota and New Mexico.
The latter might seem like a longshot. Trump lost New Mexico to Hillary Clinton by more than eight points in his winning 2016 race. And in November, Democrats won a New Mexico House seat long held by Republicans in a district Trump carried by 10 points in 2016. […]
Trump’s campaign manager also ticked off a list of impressive numbers about the ground operation Trump is amassing, claiming it would be the one of the “largest presidential campaigns ever.” In 2016, he said, the campaign had 765,000 volunteers and 5,000 team leaders on the ground across the country. In 2020, it will have 1.7 million volunteers and 90,000 team leaders. “That’s one volunteer for every 13 people I need to touch to win the presidency,” he said, before dashing off to his next event.
Senate Republicans are offering a choice to President Donald Trump: Withdraw your national emergency declaration at the border or face a potential rebellion from the GOP.
The message was delivered clearly on Thursday by Sen. Lamar Alexander, part of an effort by senior Republicans to avoid a direct confrontation with Trump on the Senate floor.
In a much-anticipated floor speech, the retiring senator declined to state whether he will become the deciding vote to block the president’s maneuver. But he signaled broad opposition to the emergency declaration and sought to convince Trump that he has other ways to collect $5.7 billion for the border wall — the precise amount of money he demanded during the government shutdown fight.
“He’s got sufficient funding without a national emergency, he can build a wall and avoid a dangerous precedent,” Alexander told reporters afterward, referring to billions from a drug forfeiture fund and anti-drug smuggling money at the Defense Department. “That would change the voting situation if he we were to agree to do that.”
Three Republicans have already said they would join Democrats in voting for a resolution to block Trump, and only one more is needed for the Senate to successfully reject Trump’s declaration. […]
“The president can get way more money than he’s even asking for without setting the Constitution on its head,” said this undecided senator, who requested anonymity to speak frankly. “I am very, very skeptical about the precedent this makes.” […]
No surprise really, but it is good that the NY Times apparently rounded up some proof that Trump demanded that Jared Kushner be given a security clearance.
[…] Trump reportedly ordered his former White House chief of staff John Kelly last year to grant a security clearance to his son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.
The New York Times reports that Trump ordered Kelly last year to override the security concerns of top U.S. officials and grant a top-secret clearance to Kushner, whose clearance had been downgraded from that level earlier in the year.
The report of Trump’s order, which the Times said was documented at the time by Kelly in a memo, contradict statements the president made to the newspaper just last month in which he claimed he had no role in the reinstatement of his son-in-law’s security clearance. […]
President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer, four people briefed on the matter said.
Mr. Trump’s decision in May so troubled senior administration officials that at least one, the White House chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been “ordered” to give Mr. Kushner the top-secret clearance.
The White House counsel at the time, Donald F. McGahn II, also wrote an internal memo outlining the concerns that had been raised about Mr. Kushner — including by the C.I.A. — and how Mr. McGahn had recommended that he not be given a top-secret clearance.
The disclosure of the memos contradicts statements made by the president, who told The New York Times in January in an Oval Office interview that he had no role in his son-in-law receiving his clearance.
Mr. Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell, also said at the time the clearance was granted last year that his client went through a standard process. Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and Mr. Kushner’s wife, said the same thing three weeks ago.
Asked on Thursday about the memos contradicting the president’s account, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said, “We don’t comment on security clearances.”
…
House Democrats are in the early stages of an investigation into how several Trump administration officials obtained clearances, including Mr. Kushner.
Mr. Trump’s precise language to Mr. Kelly about Mr. Kushner’s clearance in their direct conversation remains unclear. Two of the people familiar with Mr. Trump’s discussions with Mr. Kelly said that there might be different interpretations of what the president said. But Mr. Kelly’s believed it was an order, according to two people familiar with his thinking.
And Mr. Trump was definitive in his statements to The Times in a January interview.
“I was never involved with the security” clearances for his son-in-law, Mr. Trump said. “I know that there was issues back and forth about security for numerous people, actually. But I don’t want to get involved in that stuff.”
A recent report by NBC revealed that Mr. Kline had overruled two career security specialists who had rejected Mr. Kushner’s application based on the F.B.I.’s concerns. A senior administration official confirmed the details laid out in the NBC report.
Mr. Kline was acting on the directive sent down by the president, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
The day that Mr. Lowell described Mr. Kushner’s process as having gone through normal routes, aides to Mr. Kushner had asked White House officials to deliver a statement from Mr. Kelly supporting what Mr. Lowell had said. But Mr. Kelly refused to do so, according to a person with knowledge of the events.
Cohen’s House Intel testimony has concluded for today. He’s returning for another round (als closed) on March 6, and there will be an open hearing with Felix Sater about the Trump Tower Moscow project on March 14.
Now that he’s pretty much shredded American history and conclusively proven that Democrats are still the party of the KKK (since nothing ever changes), conservative thought leaderer Dinesh D’Souza has turned his sights on poetry, with the purpose of enlisting Robert Frost in support of Donald Trump’s WALL.
In a dumb talk at Dartmouth, D’Souza manages to expose a very deep truth! Sometimes poems don’t mean what you think they mean at first glance, but if you look closely at them, they really mean what you really want them to mean. Especially if you say it loud enough and ignore other evidence in the text. […]
Analyzing poetry should come pretty handily to D’Souza, who has no real academic training as a historian, but does at least sport a 1983 BA in English from Dartmouth […]
Here, watch him come really close to almost getting Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” right — but not, quite — before crashing at speed into a rocky New England wall. The only carnage, we’re glad to say, is verbal. [video available at the link]
D’Souza’s reading of “The Road Not Taken” […] manages to bollix it. While D’Souza is right enough to reject the simple assertion that the poem’s narrator is to be admired for boldly choosing the less conventional road, we’re not sure D’Souza’s take […] is any better. […] we bet Robert Frost would have regretted seeing what D’Souza does with the 1914 poem “Mending Wall.”
You see, it turns out, according to D’Souza, this is a VERY pro-WALL poem, and only a naive sillyperson would trust the narrator instead of the neighbor he gently mocks throughout the poem. Says D’Souza, that wily Robert Frost is simply fooling the naive reader yet again:
The poem on the face of it is about why walls are terrible. This is the point of view of the narrator of the poem. “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” What’s the something?
Oh, we know! It’s Nancy Pelosi […] Frost isn’t that specific. But wait! If you read all the way to the end, says D’Souza, you see the real meaning, as voiced by the neighbor, who it turns out is completely RIGHT:
And yet the poem ends on the opposite note: “Good fences make good neighbours.” […] And throughout the poem, the narrator is railing on the other guy. He’s a brute! He’s a savage! And all the time that he’s railing, the other guy is putting up parts of the wall in between their two properties. And the other guy doesn’t say a lot. And the narrator continues to bloviate: Walls are bad! You’re a savage!
Clearly, there are multiple ironies here, since even the narrator is forced to confess this is a stone wall, not a rail fence, Ha-Ha! Oh, also, D’Souza is just plain wrong about the other guy doing all the work like a busy bee while the effete liberal anti-wall narrator stews in his wrongness about the utility of walls. Each man picks up and restores the rocks to the wall, “To each the boulders that have fallen to each.” Both of them work until “We wear our fingers rough with handling them.” This makes a bit of a difference, we think. Frost’s narrator is complicit in the fiction, but only the neighbor buys it. […]
D’Souza quickly tires of the poem itself and soon insists on talking about the Poem Not Written, since after all, all paths are the same if they get your fans to click on them. And that makes all the difference.
But you notice something that he never does. He never actually tries to stop the wall from being built! He does nothing to actually knock the wall down!
Yes, dipshit. We did say this mattered, didn’t we? Of course he doesn’t try to stop the wall because he is actually sharing the work, even as he thinks it’s kind of silly. But do go on:
And there’s something else he doesn’t do: He never claims that he has any rights on the other side of the wall. At no point does the narrator ever say, “You know what? I have the right to come and take the fruit off of your trees! I have the right to come and eat out of your refrigerator! I wouldn’t mind climbing into bed with your wife!”
The “Messicans gonna rape your wife” joke gets a couple of guffaws, but come on, Dinesh, don’t be silly. Of course the narrator doesn’t talk about even consensual sex with the neighbor’s wife. That’s the sort of behavior that could get him fired from his million dollar a year job as president of a third-rate “Christian” college, after all. […]
Sorry, Dinesh, this may not be an an anti-WALL Democrat, but neither is it a guy who’s overly hot on walls:
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
That is a pun or play on words, you see. And yeah, the refrain “Good fences make good neighbours” does get the last line — but only because it’s preceded by the narrator’s observation that his neighbor is kind of an unimaginative dick:
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
You know, the sort of unimaginative dick who would assume this poem is really about the beauty of walls. […]
Susan Hennessey: “If Kushner hasn’t resigned by the time we wake up tomorrow, it is a sign that the basic checks of government have ceased to function. Congress should be unanimously calling for his resignation and absolutely refuse to move on until we get it.”
Reid J. Epstein: In Omaha, Joe Biden calls Mike Pence “a decent guy, our vice president.”
Cynthia Nixon: .@JoeBiden you’ve just called America’s most anti-LGBT elected leader “a decent guy.”
Please consider how this falls on the ears of our community.
Joe Biden: You’re right, Cynthia. I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn’t be given a silent reaction on the world stage.
But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President.
This response makes little sense, and Pence is not “a decent guy.”
The foreign-linked mystery company fighting to avoid handing over records demanded by special counsel Robert Mueller appears to have incurred a fine of $2.25 million as it presses its legal fight, according to court records released on Thursday.
The $50,000-a-day penalty a federal judge imposed on the foreign-government-owned firm continues to grow and might be boosted to accrue at a higher rate in the future, one court order made public indicates.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell determined that the daily penalty began being assessed on Jan. 15. In an order that she issued that day, she also noted that the government was “reserving the right to request escalation of the contempt fines.”
…
For the time being, there appears to have been no movement by Mueller’s office to collect the fine. While the courts have upheld the U.S. grand jury’s authority to subpoena the company, the court orders released on Thursday show that Howell turned down the firm’s request for a ruling that it’s immune from having funds seized to cover the penalty. She ruled that issue premature until Mueller actually takes action to get the money.
…
The still-unidentified company, meantime, continues to urge the Supreme Court to take up the issue by formally granting review of the case. In a brief on Wednesday, the firm’s attorneys complain that the subpoena is an assault on the “sovereign dignity” of the country involved. They also again warned the justices that the U.S. would face “a foreign-policy nightmare” if the company were forced to comply with the subpoena, because foreign governments will make similar demands on U.S. entities overseas.
A decision from the Supreme Court on whether to formally accept the case is likely in the next month.
A U.S. House panel investigating President Donald Trump wants to depose Trump’s long-time tax lawyer Sheri Dillon, as well as Stefan Passantino, former deputy White House Counsel in charge of compliance and ethics, according to letters sent to both of them on Wednesday and seen by Reuters.
House of Representatives Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, said in the letters that the panel wants to ask about Trump’s legally mandated financial ethics disclosures.
The panel, the letters said, also seeks information about payments made before the 2016 presidential election by former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen to buy the silence of women who claimed they had affairs with the married Trump….
Statement from Otto Warmbier’s parents: “We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that. Thank you”
Let me be perfectly clear, in the way that everyone who might be President next should be: If I’m elected President of the United States, there will be no pardons for anyone implicated in these investigations.
Everyone who might succeed Donald Trump as president should adopt the same policy.
On his way home from Hanoi, Trump’s plane stopped in Anchorage, Alaska, where Trump addressed U.S. troops. Trump lied to the troops.
We just took over – you know, you kept hearing it was 90 percent, 92 percent – the caliphate in Syria. Now it’s 100 percent. We just took over. A hundred percent caliphate. That means the area of the land. We just have 100 percent, so that’s good.
From Vox:
Earlier this month, Gen. Joseph Votel, who leads US troops in the Middle East, told CNN that ISIS will still have the ability to terrorize. The group “still has leaders, still has fighters, it still has facilitators, it still has resources,” he said. “So our continued military pressure is necessary to continue to go after that network.”
Trump’s State Department has made similar statements. “Despite the liberation of ISIS-held territory in Iraq and Syria, ISIS remains a significant terrorist threat,” deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino said in a press release on February 4.
According to reports by both the Pentagon and the US intelligence community, ISIS still has thousands of fighters spread across Syria and Iraq. One estimate from last August found that ISIS had as many as 17,100 fighters in Syria, and about 30,000 total between the two countries.
From the New York Times:
Over the past month, American forces have been working with Syrian fighters to seize the last square mile of Islamic State territory — the riverside village of Baghuz on the border with Iraq. Taking and holding terrain in any military operation can be a difficult task, especially against extremists who are willing to face death instead of surrender.
The battle was continuing on Thursday when officials with the Syrian Democratic Forces, an American-backed militia of Kurdish and Arab fighters, were told of Mr. Trump’s announcement.
“It’s 100 percent not true,” one senior official with the group said on Thursday afternoon. “The fighting continues.”
Separately, a second official said, “The battle is still going, and there is no truth in that statement.”
Did the troops know he was lying to them? It seems likely.
Lynne Patton wanted to be on a reality show about black Republicans.
[…] After the HUD official bobbed up behind Rep. Mark Meadows at Michael Cohen’s hearing Wednesday to prove the President’s racial tolerance, she gleefully booked herself solid on Fox News all the better to impress upon her audience of one [Donald Trump] her unwavering loyalty and willingness to be used as a symbol.
It’s not the first time she’s sought the limelight. According to a Friday Washington Post report, Patton asked permission to take a temporary leave of absence from her role at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to film a docu-series about black Republicans produced by the minds behind “Real Housewives of the Potomac.”
“Black Republicans are not an anomaly. Not only do we suffer the same societal hurdles that face any black man or black woman every single day, we also have the additional albatross of being conservative,” Patton told the Post. “Nothing proves this point more than the partisan reaction to my committee appearance this week. God forbid, a black Republican is in the room based upon her own merit and can think for herself. But it’s a scarlet letter I wear with pride.”
HUD officials denied her request, citing ethical improprieties. Yet Patton says the decision to turn down the show was hers alone.
A decision she certainly made unilaterally, to the chagrin of HUD officials, was to skip the last day of meetings for regional leaders so she could be on time for her Cohen cameo. Say cheese.
Prosecutors told a federal judge this morning they’ll need between five and eight days to present their case and question witnesses in the trial of Roger Stone for obstruction, lying to Congress and witness intimidation.”
“Chairman Elijah Cummings demands documents on security clearances: ‘Over the past five weeks, the White House has stalled, equivocated, and failed to produce a single document or witness to the committee…I am now writing a final time to request your voluntary cooperation’.”
Florida state Representative Jose Oliva is the speaker of the House in that state. He is a Republican that has some odd ideas about pregnant women:
[…] describes himself as the kind of small-government conservative who thinks “people should be able to make the decisions that they would like to make for themselves” without government interference. Well, usually. […]
According to Oliva, when it comes to abortion, “It’s a complex issue because one has to think, well there’s a host body and that host body has to have a certain amount of rights because at the end of the day it is that body that that carries this entire other body to term. But there is an additional life there.”
Host body. Oliva used that term five times in a single interview.
Host. Body. […]
He probably thinks he’s being magnanimous conceding that pregnant women—pardon me, host bodies—have any “certain amount of rights” at all. “And the question that we have to ask ourselves is,” Oliva went on to say, “What is the limit to which we are going to give one person complete power over the life of another?” Apparently his answer is that “we” should give the government the power to force women—pardon me, host bodies—to carry pregnancies to term and go through labor and delivery. That too is power over the life of another, and power which this self-described small-government conservative gleefully embraces.
And let’s not miss the fact that while a woman is a host body, nowhere does he describe a fetus as a parasite, which would seem to follow from his preferred terminology for women. Except that, again, it’s clear who he thinks matters here, and it sure as hell isn’t the host bodies or the minds or hearts or souls that animate them.
Lynna@122
Hmm, that has me wondering how he’d rationalize allowing 10th graders to be gunned down in school shootings.
“It’s a complex issue because you have a host body politic that is responsible for educating these young people. And the host body politic has unalienable rights to own firearms of unlimited destructive capability, so I guess the young people can go suck it?” Yeah, that’s about how it would go.
There is a part of me that is really glad I am incapable of understanding how Republicans consider a zygote to have greater rights than a 10th grader.
a_ray @123, I agree. The Republican reasons behind anti-abortion legislation, (and state regulations), never make sense. Oliva has three children. I don’t know if any of his children are female. He certainly has a male-centric view of human life.
In other news, Wonkette posted an analysis of Cohen’s testimony that included the off-the-wall questions from Republican congressman Clay Higgins. (SC mentioned him as well, in comment 25).
Hands down, our favorite part of the marathon Michael Cohen hearing Wednesday, aside from the times Cohen showed everybody evidence of Donald Trump’s many criminal acts, was when GOP Rep. Clay Higgins of the great state of LOO-ZANER [Louisiana] asked his questions.[…]
Higgins — a huge bigot and former cop, and maybe a very dirty one at that! — was pretty sure he was gonna GITCHA Michael Cohen, because Cohen brought evidence against Trump that he found in some boxes. [Video available at the link.]
HIGGINS: WHAR BOXES, GOOD SIR? WHAR BOXES? ARE BOXES IN YOUR GAAAAAAA-RAGE?
COHEN: Um, they’re in storage?
HIGGINS: WHAR BOXES? WHY YEW NOT GIVE BOXES TO THE PO-LICE? WHY YEW HIDE BOXES? WHAR BOXES?
COHEN: They gave them back …
HIGGINS: WHAR BOXES? GIVE MISTER HIGGINS DA BOXES! WHAR BOXES? BOXES IS BURIED TREAS-UH! WHAR YEW BURY BOXES OF TREAS-UH AND HIDE DEM FROM POOR MISTER HIGGINS?
COHEN: Chairman, this congressman is too stupid, may I have a different one?
And then, given another opportunity later in the hearing, Higgins did it again. WHAR BOXES? Higgins hereby demanded the feds go get the boxes they had seized and then returned.
He also presented a theory of what this Michael Cohen character was doin’ up there in Congress that day.
HIGGINS: YOU ARE JUST TRYIN’ TO BE FAMOUS, MISTER COHEN!
COHEN: I mean, I’ve been going on TV for Trump since …
HIGGINS: I NEVER HEARD UH YA IN MY LIFE! WHAR BOXES?
[…] Clay Higgins mighta shoulda spent some more time during his cop days learning actual cop things, because he is very confused about what happens to evidence such as that collected in the Michael Cohen raid when the feds are done with it. If they took a bunch of random shit and they don’t need it anymore, they tend to give it back! So the basic answer to Higgins’s very smart questions is that, just like Michael Cohen tried to say one hundred times, they brought that shit back.
But Emily Jane Fox, the Vanity Fair reporter who specializes in All Things Cohen, decided to get to the bottom of the question of WHAR BOXES, and she came back with a pretty good story! […]
they were in storage down in the basement of the building where he lives, which is owned by Donald Trump, and where IVANKA AND JARED also have an apartment.
WHAR BOXES? Downstairs from Javanka in the Trump building!
[…] the third box he found was JUST RIGHT, because it was just full of Trump crimes. Did the feds make any copies of all those documents when they had them? […]
From the Washington Post, a discussion of all the talk about “civil war” that is cropping up:
[…] two political commentators from opposite sides of the divide concurred last week on one point, nearly unthinkable until recently: The country is on the verge of “civil war.”
First came former U.S. attorney Joseph diGenova, a Fox News regular and ally of President Trump. “We are in a civil war,” he said. “The suggestion that there’s ever going to be civil discourse in this country for the foreseeable future is over. . . . It’s going to be total war.”
The next day, Nicolle Wallace, a former Republican operative turned MSNBC commentator and Trump critic, played a clip of diGenova’s commentary on her show and agreed with him — although she placed the blame squarely on the president.
Trump, she said, “greenlit a war in this country around race. And if you think about the most dangerous thing he’s done, that might be it.” […]
At what point does all the alarmist talk of civil war actually increase the prospect of violence, riots or domestic terrorism?
Speaking to conservative pundit Laura Ingraham, diGenova summed up his best advice to friends: “I vote, and I buy guns. And that’s what you should do.” […]
“Given my experience working for Mr. Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power,” Michael Cohen […] told a congressional committee Wednesday. […]
Robert Reich, a former secretary of labor […] imagined his own new American civil war, in which demands for Trump’s impeachment lead to calls from Fox News commentators for “every honest patriot to take to the streets.”
“The way Mr. Trump and his defenders are behaving, it’s not absurd to imagine serious social unrest,” Reich wrote in the Baltimore Sun. “That’s how low he’s taken us.” […]
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, a measure widely cited by political scientists, demoted the United States from “full democracy” to “flawed democracy” […]
Violence is most likely to occur, Hameiri [Boaz Hameiri, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania] added, when political leaders use “dehumanizing language” to describe their opponents.
Most experts worried that the talk of conflict here, armed or otherwise, was serving to raise the prospects of unrest and diminish trust in America’s already beleaguered institutions.
The latest warnings of civil war from diGenova drew an exasperated response from VoteVets, a liberal veterans advocacy group whose members have fought in actual civil wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Amazing we have to say this but: 1. We are NOT in civil war. 2. Do NOT buy guns (or any weapons) to use against your fellow Americans,” Jon Soltz, the group’s chairman, tweeted in response to diGenova. “Trust us, we have seen war.”
The move is part of the Trump administration’s effort to ease tensions with North Korea, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. military is preparing to announce that annual large-scale joint exercises conducted with South Korea every spring will no longer be held […]
The exercises — known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle — will be replaced with smaller, mission-specific training, according to the officials.
Since taking office, […] Trump has repeatedly complained about the large-scale exercises, saying they’re too costly and the U.S. bears too much of the financial burden.
The military has carried out the major exercises as much for deterring the North Korean regime as maintaining troop readiness, according to senior defense officials.
A U.S. official said military leadership is now working out how a series of smaller exercises […]
But some experts on North Korea questioned whether the major exercises can be suspended without significantly affecting the troops’ ability to combat threats.
“That would run counter to what the military has been saying for decades,” said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA officer who tracked North Korea and is now a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “Militaries need to train.” […]
Word of the planned announcement comes less than 48 hours after a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came to an abrupt end with no agreement. Trump said afterward that the annual military drills with South Korea were “very, very expensive” and the government in Seoul should pay more for them.
U.S. officials said the decision is not related to the summit in Hanoi but has been under consideration for some time. […]
While the U.S. has pulled back on its exercises, North Korea has pressed ahead with its own drills. Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of U.S. forces in Korea, recently testified that North Korea was preparing to carry out its annual winter cycle of training with 1 million troops.
[…] At the first Trump-Kim summit, the president blindsided his secretary of defense at the time, Jim Mattis, U.S. commanders and South Korea and Japan when he announced that joint exercises would be called off.
The U.S. and South Korea have since canceled a total of nine military exercises and scaled back others, according to Klingner.
“That’s not good alliance management,” Klingner said. “We didn’t get anything in return. North Korea did not codify their missile test moratorium, nor do they agree to any constraints on their own military operations.”
How President Donald Trump may have inflated and deflated his personal wealth is more than mere curiosity: It could be of keen interest to any authorities trying to figure out if he misrepresented himself to insurance companies and lenders.
Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen attested to Trump’s shifting wealth valuations to lawmakers on Wednesday, bearing what he said were annual net-worth summaries prepared for Trump earlier this decade. Trump handed the summary with high valuations to lenders and journalists, Cohen testified. When it came to tax authorities, he lowballed.
If falsehoods went to financial institutions, that would provide fertile ground for prosecutors in New York….
[…] Trump’s mansion in Bedford, New York, which he purchased in 1995. He paid $7.5 million for it, and the purchase proved to be a good investment: by 2013, the home was assessed at $18.9 million. Four years later, its value was pegged at $19.6 million. As part of his presidential financial disclosure forms, Trump recently valued the home inside the range of $25 million and $50 million.
So far, this seems pretty normal. Fancy mansions in Westchester County grow in value, so the trajectory here seems wholly unremarkable.
[…] Trump inflated his wealth to Deutsche Bank when seeking a loan. According to Cohen, he also exaggerated his assets to mislead insurance companies.
And in the case of his mansion in Westchester County, according to documents produced by Cohen, Trump briefly valued the property at $291 million in 2012.
That’s not a typo. In 1995, he bought the home for $7.5 million, and in 2013, it assessed at $18.9 million, but in between, Trump said it was worth $291 million. He soon after changed his mind and put its value at a less ridiculous figure.
So what explains that radical, one-year exaggeration? Trump, according to Cohen’s materials and testimony, used inflated figures like these to deceive financial institutions for his benefit.
[…] that could be a felony – for which the statute of limitations has not expired. […]
We’re talking about felony financial fraud, which routinely sends people to jail. We’re also, evidently, talking about a fraud that the sitting president of the United States may have also perpetrated – according to his own former personal attorney. […]
Speakers at the American Conservative Union Conference (CPAC) are doing their best to scare the pants off all of the attendees.
[…] Former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka declared that “socialism is here in America,” noting a recent study which found that 40 percent of Americans described themselves as socialist, to loud boos from the crowd. Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, asked attendees to “put socialism on trial,” and said that Democrats were “proposing to overturn America’s success,” which would lead to “high taxes, health care takeover and impoverished poverty traps.” Rick Harrison, of the show “Pawn Stars,” said that socialism was “literally like heroin.”
Though not explicitly mentioned by name, it is abundantly clear that the policies advanced by freshman Democratic lawmakers like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — including the Green New Deal, universal healthcare, and a federal jobs guarantee — have severely triggered CPAC attendees.
NRA President Oliver North came close to calling Rep. Ocasio-Cortez out by name. […] For reasons unknown, they chose a clip of Ocaiso-Cortez smiling and dancing, drastically undermining the menacing “Stalinist in waiting” vibe they were going for.
The theme continued in full force on Friday, with yet another video compilation featuring Venezuela, Bernie Sanders, and Fox News anchors asking how we will pay for socialist programs — all over dramatic music. Glenn Beck then followed, where he compared socialism to the movie “Friday 13th” because it “seems to stalk college co-eds.” […]
Beck continued by espousing the virtues of free-market capitalism […]
Beck did not elaborate on how the free market has managed to overlook sizable pockets of poverty here in the U.S., like Lowndes County in Alabama, where hookworm — a disease more commonly seen in countries with extreme poverty — is thriving. He did not elaborate on why the free market has led to an America where 57 percent of adults can’t cover a $500 emergency, […]
[…] the fear-mongering about socialism had filtered down into the audience. Plenty wore badges declaring “Socialism Sucks” — fashioned in the style of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign stickers. At a Turning Points USA afterparty, a cardboard cut-out of Ocasio-Cortez was featured next to a “Socialism Bread Line”. As The Intercept noted, the cut-out was promptly defaced during the party.
[…] in the breaks between attacks on the left, none of the speakers offered anything new in terms of conservative ideas. Instead, it was just a re-hash of conservatism’s greatest hits — how tax cuts and de-regulation were driving the economy, how amazing it was the U.S. embassy had been moved to Jerusalem, and how great that the U.S. military was now fully revamped. […]
More discussion of how serious an issue it is that Trump ignored career officials to give his son-in-law a security clearance:
[…] Trump ordered a top-secret security clearance for […] Jared Kushner, over the objections of career officials, his former chief of staff, and the White House counsel […]
Former national security officials, lawyers who represent clients in security clearance cases, and others told ThinkProgress that giving Kushner access to top-secret information could jeopardize intelligence and security operations.
“It’s basically a disgrace,” said Steven Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. “It’s a manipulation of a rule-based security system for personal advantage to the detriment of security.”
[…] Kushner “has no experience handling such information and probably does not understand the need to protect sources and methods. I suspect that he has already compromised [Top Secret] info in some of his interactions with the UAE and KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia].”
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, has reportedly said that Kushner told him the names of Saudis who may be disloyal ahead of a crackdown on dissent, according to The Intercept. […]
The fact that Kelly put his concerns about Kushner’s clearance in writing signals that the retired general knew that Kushner isn’t “smart enough to know what he’s doing or care what he’s doing.”
[…] Kushner, who he says has an “all-encompassing sense of entitlement,” has access to sensitive information and seems unlikely to follow rules set up to protect such information. […]
Top Secret information, the kind Kushner is able to see with his clearance, said former Central Intelligence Agency analyst John Nixon, “usually refers to signals intel [intercepted signals or communications] or clandestine reports from CIA. It usually reflects a higher sensitivity in terms of sourcing.”
Nixon was apoplectic when speaking about someone of Kushner’s “caliber” — who operates in a transactional nature — seeing Top Secret information. Intelligence professionals, he said, are “sensitized about protecting sources and methods. You could get into a lot of trouble if you were careless.” […]
Trump tried to claim that his comments about Otto Warmbier were “misinterpreted.” Trump is not going to get away with that lie.
[…] “There’s no misinterpretation here. It’s very clear,” [Jake] Tapper said of Trump’s remarks. “The Warmbiers say that Kim is responsible, along with North Korea, and President Trump says he takes Kim at his word that he wasn’t.”
Tapper’s comments came shortly after Trump wrote in a pair of tweets Friday afternoon that he believed his remarks at a Thursday news conference were “misinterpreted.”
“I never like being misinterpreted, but especially when it comes to Otto Warmbier and his great family. Remember, I got Otto out along with three others,” he tweeted Friday. “The previous Administration did nothing, and he was taken on their watch. Of course I hold North Korea responsible for Otto’s mistreatment and death.”
Others were quick to pan Trump over his claim.
“There was no misinterpretation,” New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted. […]
“You weren’t misinterpreted. We all saw the remarks for ourselves. What you should’ve said originally is what you said here,” conservative radio host Steve Deace wrote on Twitter. “Please stop emasculating yourself before North Korea. […]”
Yesterday Trump said clearly and repeatedly that he did not hold North Korea’s totalitarian leader responsible for Otto Warmbier’s treatment because he took Kim Jong Un at his word.
From Yamiche Alcindor:
No misinterpretation.
Trump said of Kim Jong-un: “He tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.”
Trump added that Kim “felt very badly. But he knew the case very well, but he knew it later.”
From Chuck Schumer:
[Trump] is once again simply deciding to take a cruel and brutal dictator at his word. He owes Otto Warmbier’s parents an apology. Now.
From Warmbier’s parents:
Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.
Sometime in early 2018, Mr. Cohen was offered a substantial advance for a proposal regarding a book on understanding Donald Trump. Mr. Cohen ultimately elected not to proceed. In other words, POTUS has yet lied again…but what’s the difference between 9000 or 9001 lies?
From Trump:
Congress must demand the transcript of Michael Cohen’s new book, given to publishers a short time ago. Your heads will spin when you see the lies, misrepresentations and contradictions against his Thursday testimony. Like a different person! He is totally discredited!
Idaho’s statehouse Republicans killed a bill that would have created a minimum marriage age in the state, essentially cementing the state’s continued reign as America’s number-one hot spot for newlyweds too young to vote and/or drive. The Idaho Statesman reports that HR 98, which would have eliminated marriage licenses for those 15 and under, and have strengthened the consent requirements for those 16 and 17, failed by a vote of 28-39, with 3 abstaining.
House Republicans outnumber House Democrats 56-14 in the Gem State, where the youngest Idahoans to say “I do” in the 2000s were just 13 years old. Yet Idaho is just one leader in a disturbingly crowded field.
According to highly-cited data from anti-arranged marriage advocacy group Unchained at last, an estimated 248,000 children were married in the United State between 2000 and 2010. […]
Of that nearly quarter-million, over 85% were girls—roughly 77% of whom were “married to adult men, often with significant age differences.” Kentucky, Washington state, Florida, and Texas join Idaho in the “13-year-olds got married here” club, while Louisiana and South Carolina reported marriages where at least one party was just 12.
The U.S. is also approving additional thousands of applications for children to receive and/or sponsor spousal visas. […]
From Trump, (posted with a photo of a golf course in Scotland):
Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!
A few facts:
Donald Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf resort must pay the Scottish government’s legal costs following a court battle over a major North Sea wind power development.
Mr Trump battled unsuccessfully in the courts to halt the project before he became US president.
A total of 11 turbines make up the development off Aberdeen.
Judges have now ruled Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd should pay the legal bills incurred.
Oh, FFS! Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today. The audience chanted “lock her up” when Trump mentioned Hillary Clinton.
Trump also goaded the audience into booing “the fake news.”
Trump hugged an American flag. The smarmy look he gets on his face when he embraces the flag irritates me. Photo at the link.
He also said this:
[We are] reclaiming our nation’s priceless heritage, reversing decades of blunders and betrayals by the failed ruling class. America is respected again, and the world knows it.
[…] Speaker after speaker twisted the Green New Deal fact sheet […] to falsely accuse Democrats of wanting to ban cows altogether. The conference began on Thursday with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) cracking a joke about it.
“You know, with this Green New Deal, they’re trying to get rid of all the cows,” he said. “But I’ve got good news: Chick-fil-A stock will go way up because we are gonna be eating more chicken!”
A short time later, Sebastian Gorka, a former official in President Donald Trump’s White House, falsely accused Democrats of wanting “to take away your hamburgers,” and said burger-banning “is what Stalin dreamt about but never achieved.”
On Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) quipped that he hopes “to see PETA supporting the Republican Party, now that the Democrats want to kill all the cows.”
And during a panel discussion with Donald Trump Jr. later Friday, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. went as far as to threaten AOC if she came for his cows.
“I’ve got 100 cows — you just let Alexandria Cortez [sic] show up at my cows and try to take my cows away,” he said, prompting Trump Jr. to reply: “I love cows, Jerry — they’re delicious.” […]
When they haven’t been accusing Dems of wanting to ban cows, CPAC speakers have been twisting what Northam said during a radio interview in January and using it to accuse Democrats of supporting infanticide.
[…] Despite Northam’s clarification, a parade of CPAC speakers misrepresented what he said to smear Democrats as aspiring baby murderers.
Early on Thursday, former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said, “by the way, it’s not live-birth abortion. It’s not infanticide. It is murder if you take the baby home and kill the baby at home, it’s murder” — his suggestion being Democrats believe something else. But they don’t.
On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence accused Democrats of “standing for late-term abortion and infanticide.” His comments were rebuked by Planned Parenthood, which tweeted that it’s “not surprising to see [Pence] take a turn at promoting lies about abortion when his entire political career has been dedicated to undermining our health care and the right to make decisions about our bodies.” […]
Olav Njolstad, the secretary of the five-member committee [of the Norwegian Nobel Committee], said it appeared that a forged nomination of Mr. Trump for the prize was also submitted last year — and was also referred to the police. (The earlier forgery was not disclosed to the public at the time.)
Inspector Rune Skjold, the head of the economic crimes section of the Oslo police, said that investigators had been in touch with the F.B.I. since last fall, which suggests that the forged nominations originated in the United States. He said the police believed that the same perpetrator was behind both forgeries.
“There it is. The president is using an official statement as an ad for his business and making sure everyone knows he ties his business to US relationships with foreign countries,” tweeted Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is currently suing the president over these issues.
CREW Senior Adviser Walter Shaub, who formerly led the Office of Government Ethics, went even further. “This is Trump’s most explicit commingling of personal interests and public office to date,” he wrote. “This is shameless, corrupt and repugnant presidential profiteering. This is an invitation to graft.”
“The Framers adopted the Foreign Emoluments Clause because they were deeply concerned that the nation’s leaders might put their financial self-interest above the national interest,” Brianne Gorod, chief counsel for the Constitutional Accountability Center, tweeted in response to Trump’s early morning message. […]
[…] Trump spent a considerable chunk of his lengthy [two freaking hours!], chum-filled address to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday addressing, yet again, the crowd size at his inaugural address.
[…] he spent just a few sentences on his recent unsuccessful meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and only mentioned in passing some Republican senators’ hesitations about the emergency he declared in order to secure more money to build a border wall.
But Trump was determined to make sure the conservative gathering knew the truth about that fateful day in January 2017.
“I saw pictures that– There were no people!” Trump said, more than two years after the fact. “Those pictures were taken hours before.”
Trump said he’s “constantly” told White House press aides to “show them the pictures” of his inaugural crowd size.
“And remember this also,” the President continued. “We had fencing all the way down to the Washington Monument, and it was raining, and it was wet, and the grass was wet.”
Attendees, Trump reminded his audience, “had to walk all the way down — with high heels in many cases — to the Washington Monument, and then back!” […]
From Daniel Dale:
Oh man. I was just watching dozens of people walk out of the room as they sensed Trump was a minute or two from concluding…then Trump said that he’s been watching the doors and not one person has left.
From Asawin Suebsaeng:
Trump just started bragging that nobody had left early during his two hour speech at #CPAC2019 literally as a fairly long procession of people and students in the audience had been filing out very clearly. Attendees behind press area started laughing because they all could see.
More details from the speech:
[…] Perhaps the largest cheer of the speech came in response to Trump’s announcement that he would “very soon” sign an executive order “requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research dollars.”
But the bulk of Trump’s speech referred not to his policies or executive orders, but to him personally […]
Trump falsely claims for the 58th time that he got Veterans Choice passed. It was passed under Barack Obama in 2014. “NOW THEY CAN GO SEE A DOCTOR!”
Trump is telling a lengthy Sir Alert story about how he went and sat with the pilots who were flying him into Iraq, because he respects people who know what they’re doing. He is talking at length about how they had the plane go dark for the landing.
“Seven trillion dollars and we have to fly in with no lights!” Trump concludes. As always, there is no basis for the “$7 trillion in the Middle East” claim he makes regularly.
Trump says that nobody in Hollywood could play US generals, “These guys are like perfect people.” He says he met a general named “Raisin Kane.” He said he was incredulous but that yes, the guy said, his name is Raisin “like the fruit.”
Trump says the generals are right out of central casting, and you could put them in a movie, and he liked all of them, not just Raisin Cain. He says one time a general was put in a movie but didn’t get an Academy Award “because Hollywood discriminates against our people.”
Trump: “I’m in the White House and I was looonely. I said, ‘let’s go to Iraq.'”
Trump says Raisin Cain gave him advice on how quickly they can beat ISIS, and he said, “I’m gonna get back to you soon, Raisin, I think you’re great. I like you, Raisin Cain.”
Trump says he didn’t think Stacey Abrams’s State of the Union speech was very good. He falsely claims for the fifth time that MIchelle Obama campaigned for her in Georgia. She did not at all.
Trump: “The DemoCRATTT party.” He says it sounds prettier to say Democratic, so he won’t do it. A woman shouts, “Thank youuu!”
Trump says that the midterms were not a humiliating defeat for him, indignantly noting that he didn’t run. In the lead-up to the vote, he kept telling his rallies that he was effectively on the ballot.
Trump is criticizing the “fake news” for writing about the Democratic landslide in the House. He says, “The Senate: far more important.” [It’s the House committees that are investigating his activities now.]
Trump is adding more lies to his usual lie about the visa lottery, falsely suggesting that the U.S. has to accept a man who has murdered four people (no; lottery winners are background-checked and rejected) and that foreign govts deliberately put bad apples in the lottery.
Trump falsely claims that the US is forced to release criminals caught immigrating illegally, falsely claims other countries don’t allow people a court process for asylum claims, falsely claims “3%” of people return for trial. 72% in 2017, per DOJ, and 89% for asylum seekers.
Trump makes his usual false claim about caravans, saying Latin American govts put people in: “You think they’re giving us their best and their finest? Oh, let’s send our best people up to America!…So we can send America our greatest people! No, no, no, no…murderers, killers.”
Trump says it is “false propaganda” to say illegal immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than American citizens. A bunch of studies have come to this conclusion.
Trump offers a vivid embellishment of a cartel shootout in Mexico, 56 miles from where he was in McAllen, Texas, saying it happened right there on the Rio Grande and “they were buried right there where I was standing.”
Trump: “We reject oppressive speech codes, censorship, political correctness, and every other attempt by the hard left to stop people from challenging ridiculous and dangerous ideas.” He calls for free speech, “online and on campus.”
Trump shouts out Candace Owens, applauds her personally and says “you’ve been incredible, thank you.” She is known for such things as saying Hitler was fine when he was merely trying to make Germany great.
Trump mocks senators with white hair. He says, “I don’t have white hair. I don’t have white hair.”
There’s no collusion, so now they go and morph into “let’s inspect every deal he’s ever done. We’re going to go into his finances, we’re going to check his deals,” these people are sick, they’re sick.
Unfortunately you put the wrong people in a couple of positions, and they leave people for a long time that shouldn’t be there, and all of the sudden they’re trying to take you out with bullshit.
Trump also mentioned Adam Schiff [House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff]:
I saw little shifty Schiff … he went into a meeting and he said, “we’re going to look into his finances.” I said, “where did that come from, he always talked about collusion! Collusion with Russia, collusion delusion.”
[…] It is, of course, pretty hard to do anything to embarrass oneself at CPAC. There’s so much competition! I mean, hell, they had a guy who made a pillow up there, as an authority of some kind, talking about how God made Trump president. Then there was that one Fox News lady going all D.A.R.E program about how all the kids today are having “Skittles Parties” in which they just dump a bunch of pharmaceuticals from their parents’ medicine cabinets into a bowl and take a random pill — a ridiculous urban legend that has been debunked repeated times, for decades. […]
As he shuffled onto the stage, he took a moment to aggressively hug the American flag. He didn’t ask, he just just went for it. […]
And he mocked Jeff Sessions’ accent, which clearly delighted the probably large portion of the audience with a similar accent. […]
At some point he claimed that Democrats are promoting “trains to Hawaii” because we want to get rid of all the planes. […]
“Mothers who love their daughters give them massive amounts of birth control pills, because they know their daughters are going to be raped on the way up to our southern border. Think of that. True story told to me by the Border Patrol. Think of how evil that is.”
That is not how birth control works. IT IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO HOW BIRTH CONTROL WORKS. Why do Republicans always think this? I mean, how does anyone go their entire adult lives without having any idea about this? How is that even possible? He’s been married three times, he has two daughters, and he’s never seen anyone take a birth control pill? […]
Trump on green energy: “When the wind stops blowing, that’s the end of your electric,” Trump said, before launching into an impression. “‘Darling, is the wind blowing today? I’d like to watch television, darling.’”
[…] Cohen’s revelations, like Trump’s failed diplomacy [with North Korea], exposed the limits of the President’s power to muscle reality into submission
Days before the summit, Thae predicted that, above all, Kim would indulge Trump’s fantasy of a friendship, because doing so advances North Korea’s aim to eventually “drive U.S. forces from South Korea.” Indeed, after the collapse of the talks, Kim’s aides gently disputed Trump’s account of them, saying that they had sought only partial sanctions relief, but, for the moment, they played down their differences. Others could not.
In a statement released after Trump landed in Washington, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, Otto’s parents, said, “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.” And no political theatre can mask it forever.
From House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler:
It’s very clear that the President obstructed justice. We will be releasing the list tomorrow of over 60 entities [to whom the committee will be issuing document requests]. [The committee] will present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power.
Now that Democrats are the majority in the House, the committee chairs are working hard to overcome the lack of action by Republicans over the previous two years.
Asked during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether he takes Kim [North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un] at his word, Bolton replied, “My opinion doesn’t matter … I am not the national security decision-maker. That’s [Trump’s] view.”
Hillary Clinton appeared at an event in Selma, Alabama, commemorating the 54th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”
Excerpts from her speech:
This is a time, my friends, when fundamental rights, civic virtue, freedom of the press, the rule of law, truth, facts and reason are under assault. And make no mistake, we are living through a full-fledged crisis in our democracy.
To anyone who has ever wondered what you would have done during those defining moments that we read about in history books — whether you would have risked arrest to demand votes for women or bled on the Edmund Pettus bridge to demand voting rights for all — the answer is what you are doing now could be as important as anything that anyone has done before.
PZ posted about Jane Mayer’s piece in the New Yorker, in which Trump’s symbiotic relationship with Fox News is discussed. There’s another aspect to the story, and that’s Trump’s attempts to prevent the corporate merger of AT&T and Time Warner. The official White House line is that the merger was stopped because of anti-trust laws. However, as Mayer points out, Trump probably was against the merger because he hates, (obsessively hates), CNN, which is owned by Time Warner.
[…] In the late summer of 2017, a few months before the Justice Department filed suit, Trump ordered Gary Cohn, then the director of the National Economic Council, to pressure the Justice Department to intervene. According to a well-informed source, Trump called Cohn into the Oval Office along with John Kelly, who had just become the chief of staff, and said in exasperation to Kelly, “I’ve been telling Cohn to get this lawsuit filed and nothing’s happened! I’ve mentioned it fifty times. And nothing’s happened. I want to make sure it’s filed. I want that deal blocked!”
Cohn, a former president of Goldman Sachs, evidently understood that it would be highly improper for a President to use the Justice Department to undermine two of the most powerful companies in the country as punishment for unfavorable news coverage, and as a reward for a competing news organization that boosted him. According to the source, as Cohn walked out of the meeting he told Kelly, “Don’t you f***ing dare call the Justice Department. We are not going to do business that way.” […]
Trump was blatantly abusing the power of his office.
When then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions was asked if Trump had intervened in the merger, Sessions did not answer.
Rudi Giuliani later spilled the beans by saying that Trump “denied the merger.” Giuliani then walked that back.
From an older Talking Points Memo report:
A group of former Justice Department officials is raising concerns that President Trump may have influenced the department’s decision to block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner to punish Time-Warner-owned CNN for its news coverage.
Such politically-motivated interference would be unconstitutional, the former officials said in an amicus brief filed Thursday night in the lawsuit filed by DOJ to block the merger. It would also be part of a pattern of Trump appearing to use the DOJ to try to advance his political agenda.
“President Trump has urged a criminal investigation of his political rivals; he has suggested that he can instruct the Department to halt investigations into his associates; and he has claimed an ‘absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,’” the filing reads.
“The president neither has the absolute right to do what he wants with the Justice Department nor the constitutional authority to punish a news organization for its critical coverage,” it adds.
In January, during the longest government shutdown in America’s history, President Donald Trump rode in a motorcade through Hidalgo County, Texas, eventually stopping on a grassy bluff overlooking the Rio Grande. The White House wanted to dramatize what Trump was portraying as a national emergency: the need to build a wall along the Mexican border. The presence of armored vehicles, bales of confiscated marijuana, and federal agents in flak jackets underscored the message.
But the photo op dramatized something else about the Administration. After members of the press pool got out of vans and headed over to where the President was about to speak, they noticed that Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, was already on location. Unlike them, he hadn’t been confined by the Secret Service, and was mingling with Administration officials, at one point hugging Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security. The pool report noted that Hannity was seen “huddling” with the White House communications director, Bill Shine. After the photo op, Hannity had an exclusive on-air interview with Trump. Politico later reported that it was Hannity’s seventh interview with the President, and Fox’s forty-second. Since then, Trump has given Fox two more. He has granted only ten to the three other main television networks combined, and none to CNN, which he denounces as “fake news.” […]
People don’t write checks if they think they’re involved in a crime.
You know, “here’s my part in the crime.”
Graham was referring to the check signed by Trump that Michael Cohen provided to Congress.
From George Conway:
People commit crimes using checks all the time. They can use the checks to pretend payments were for one thing, when they really for another. Here Trump and his lawyers do not dispute today that these payments were made, and were made to reimburse for the Stormy payment. But the reimbursements were fraudulently made to appear to be payments for legal services. That’s precisely the kind of thing criminals do when they seek to conceal their criminal acts. It’s evidence of consciousness of guilt.
From a 1972 article written by Woodward and Bernstein for the Washington Post:
A $25,000 cashier’s check, apparently earmarked for President Nixon’s re-election campaign, was deposited in April in a bank account of one of the five men arrested in the break-in at Democratic National Headquarters here June 17.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you think the president obstructed justice?
NADLER: Yes, I do…. It’s very clear that the president obstructed justice. It’s very clear: 1,100 times he referred to the Mueller investigation as a witch hunt, he tried to protect Flynn from being investigated by the FBI. He fired Comey in order to stop the Russian thing, as he told NBC News. He dangled pardons. He’s intimidated witnesses — in public.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler says that it is “very clear” that Trump obstructed justice.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has acknowledged that the resolution blocking Trump’s declaration of a national emergency in order to fund the border wall will pass the Senate.
I think what is clear in the Senate is that there will be enough votes to pass the resolution of disapproval, which will then be vetoed by the President and then in all likelihood, the veto will be upheld in the House.
More fallout from Jane Mayer’s article in The New Yorker:
A Fox News reporter had doggedly reported on […] Trump’s hush money payment to Stormy Daniels only to see it killed because Fox News co-chairman Rupert Murdoch wanted Trump to win […]
The reporter, Diana Falzone, had the bulk of the story together and confirmed by October 2016, per the New Yorker. She had confirmation from Daniels, emails between Michael Cohen and Daniels’ attorney and even the contract Daniels signed. Fox editors punted it around the newsroom until the head of FoxNews.com, Ken LaCorte, allegedly told Falzon they wouldn’t publish the story.
“Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go,” LaCorte reportedly said.
LaCorte denies this reporting, but one of Falzone’s colleagues confirmed to the New Yorker hearing that description of the conversation at the time. […]
Ultimately, the American public did not learn of the Daniels-Trump hush money payments and alleged affair until the Wall Street Journal broke the story — a full year after the Trump presidency had begun.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler on Monday announced a sweeping investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign, businesses, transition and administration, a probe that would lay the groundwork for Democrats if they choose to pursue impeachment proceedings against the President.
The Judiciary Committee on Monday sent letters to 81 people and entities — including the White House, the Justice Department, senior campaign officials, Trump Organization officials and the President’s sons — marking the start of a broad investigation that will tackle questions including possible corruption, obstruction of justice, hush-money payments to women, collusion with Russia and allegations of the President abusing his office and using it for personal gain.
They are demanding responses within two weeks.
The committee’s investigation comes amid the anticipated conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion and obstruction of justice, signaling the committee is likely to retread ground that federal prosecutors have already pursued. Many of the same witnesses that the Judiciary Committee is now requesting information from have already spoken to Mueller’s prosecutors and the grand jury.
The sprawling net cast by the committee also signals that the Democratic-led investigations are likely to stretch on for months, with multiple committees seeking information from senior officials in the White House, the Trump campaign and the Trump Organization.
…
A Judiciary Committee counsel said that the letters are intended to begin collecting a large trove of evidence that the committee would comb through and then decide who they should bring in to testify.
The counsel said that the committee had spoken about its request with Mueller’s team and the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which has probed the Trump Organization and the Trump Inaugural Committee. Both signed off on the committee’s document request, according to the committee’s counsel….
Mar. 4 (today): Roger Stone must explain book (and presumably “Who Framed Roger Stone?” Instagram posts) to judge ABJ
Mar. 4 (today): deadline for WH to voluntarily provide documents to and begin scheduling interviews with the House Oversight Committee related to security clearances
Mar. 6: Cohen House Intel testimony, part 2 (closed)
Mar. 7: Manafort EDVA sentencing hearing
Mar. 13: Manafort DC sentencing hearing
Mar. 14: Felix Sater House Intel testimony (semi-open)
Mar. 29: Brexit deadline
Mar. 31 Ukrainian presidential election
Maxine Waters was on with Chris Hayes on Friday (video) and said that Deutsche Bank is now cooperating with the House Financial Services Committee and that staffers were meeting with their lawyers in New York about document requests.
Clarence Thomas’s former clerk and a megachurch pastor leading Bible study groups in Washington decided to join the World Congress of Families.
The World Congress of Families (WCF), a notorious anti-LGBTQ group that’s reportedly received funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, is hosting its annual conference in Verona, Italy next month. And a number of Americans have decided to join them.
Among the Americans slated to speak at the WCF conference are John Eastman, former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and now a professor at Chapman University, and megachurch pastor Jim Garlow. According to the WCF’s roster, they will also be joined by Mike Donnelly, a higher-up at the right-wing Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), and Sean O’Hare, the chairman of one of the most prominent anti-abortion groups aimed at American youth. […]
[…] WCF is currently the most prominent group linking the American religious right and sanctioned Russian oligarchs, and just a few months ago, the group hosted a Russian official sanctioned by both the Trump and Obama administrations.
The WCF — which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a hate group — is a joint Russian-American project dating to the mid-1990s. It has reportedly received funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs like Konstantin Malofeev and Vladimir Yakunin, the latter of whom is a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. […]
We’re seeing more reaction, even from Republicans, that does not bode well for Trump’s decision to give Jared Kushner a security clearance.
From Chris Christie:
If The New York Times story is true — and I have no reason to believe it isn’t — then why not tell the truth about it? Why not just say I did it, and why wouldn’t Ivanka do the same? Just say,”‘Listen, my father thinks I’m trustworthy. My husband is trustworthy. He’s made the decision we should have access, he’s said needs us to consult with him on these issues of foreign policy and intelligence.”
For those of us who are out here at times defending the president and what goes on, moments like what happened Thursday night when that New York Times story broke make it very, very difficult, because you can’t defend that. Now, some people try to defend it. I won’t try to defend it. It’s not defensible. You need to tell the American people the truth about what happened here.
Some DOJ News: Matthew Whitaker, former acting attorney general, has left the department. His last day was Saturday. He has not yet solidified plans on his next steps, according to Justice Department officials.
I’m assuming it’ll be a $15,000/month contract with the Trump campaign.
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Matthew Whitaker was too corrupt for even William Barr to tolerate.
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His next steps will be to cooperate with Mueller to avoid going to prison for the crimes he committed for and while working for Trump.
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Left before indicted for lying to Congress.
The family of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer whose unsolved murder in 2016 spawned a wave of conspiracy theories, has notched another legal victory against the proponents of baseless theories about Rich.
On Monday, pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi retracted a nearly year-old column published on the website Infowars, run by another notorious conspiracy peddler, Alex Jones, that promoted the unfounded claim that Rich and his brother participated in the hack of the DNC and leaked documents to WikiLeaks. In addition to the retraction, Corsi apologized to the Rich family. Around midday Monday, Infowars formally retracted the column and published an apology that mirrored Corsi’s.
Corsi’s March 5th, 2018, story was an attempt to defend Roger Stone, the now-indicted former Trump adviser, against allegations that he had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to release thousands of emails stolen from the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election….
…
Corsi’s retraction and apology is the second victory for the Rich family as they’ve pursued legal action against people who have spread conspiracy theories about Seth and Aaron Rich. The Washington Times‘ apology was the first since the Rich family filed lawsuits against various individuals and media companies, including Fox, for spreading unfounded claims about the brothers. Fox has yet to apologize to the Rich family; some of the network’s hosts, such as Sean Hannity, are among the loudest proponents of the Seth Rich conspiracies.
…
As for the Seth Rich case, Aaron Rich’s lawyers say their work is not yet over.
“The apology and retraction issued today by Mr. Corsi and posted by Infowars is another important step toward obtaining justice for the Rich family,” Meryl Governski and Josh Riley of Boies Schiller Flexner, who also represent Aaron Rich, tell Rolling Stone. “We will continue to litigate our defamation claims against conspiracy theorists who refuse to retract and apologize for similar false statements.”
Followup to comments 64, 90, 129, 136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 145, 148, and 156.
Getting to know the many young people who attended CPAC:
[…] inside the convention center, well-funded youth groups battle for the loyalty of more than two thousand student activists. Perhaps the most prominent of these groups is Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that has a close relationship with the Trump family, and that, as Jane Mayer reported last year, may have violated campaign-finance laws in its support for Republican campaigns. It has also embraced some of the most pernicious forms of Trumpian identity politics, hosting events for the former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. […]
The party, called “Americafest,” was held at Cadillac Ranch, a Western-themed bar-and-grill. The walls were adorned with images of American flags and cowboys, guitars and cacti. For the evening, the restaurant also featured cardboard cutouts of figures of both admiration and derision: Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Benjamin Franklin, Tim Tebow, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jeb Bush, Monica Lewinsky, Hillary Clinton. In its own corner of the bar, a cutout of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was set next to a table piled high with loaves of plain white bread—for a “socialism bread line,” a nearby sign explained. By the end of the night, someone had scrawled the word “pendeja” (idiot) on her face. […]
Kirk seems to know what he’s doing. Since founding Turning Point, in 2012, at eighteen, he has become one of the conservative movement’s most prominent pundits […] Donald Trump called out to Kirk, and announced a forthcoming executive order on Turning Point’s signature issue, campus speech. Kirk […] inveighed darkly against liberalism broadly speaking, dropping his student-government-president affect and pinching up seemingly every corner of his face with disgust. […]
The Leadership Institute runs a student news Web site called Campus Reform, which, on a flyer, boasted of graduating journalists into conservative media and also outside of it, to places like Politico and CNN. “Expose Liberal Abuse, Change Your Campus, Start Your Career,” it read. […]
The article is by Osita Nwanevu, a staff writer at The New Yorker.
Update to #165: “OH boy. The government has notified Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Roger Stone’s Instagram story from yesterday, where he shared an image that claimed he was framed.”
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Latest Democratic Presidential candidate Wash. Gov. Jay Inslee on Rachel. Main theme the climate. Videos in the morning.
ICE officers have released 12 of the infants that were being held at a rural Texas detention center, where immigrant advocates claim they dealt with dirty water, limited baby food and a lack of medical care. The release comes just days after immigration advocates called on the Department of Homeland Security to “intervene immediately.”
In an email Monday, ICE said there were 16 infants younger than a year old held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas as of Friday, March 1. The status of the remaining four babies is unclear. ICE also said there was another infant under the age of one detained at the Texas Karnes detention center. Both facilities are about an hour away from San Antonio, the nearest metropolitan center.
All the mothers and their infants were released to friends and family members who were were “ready to buy them a bus or plane ticket and receive them in their home,” said Katy Murdza, the advocacy coordinator at the American Immigration Council’s Dilley Pro Bono Project.
“Every mother I spoke to said that her child was sick in some way,” Murdza said in a telephone interview Friday with CBS News. Murdza has worked with immigrants at Dilley for almost two years and had rarely seen infants at the detention center until last week. “It’s just really hard seeing all of these very small babies in a detention setting.”
The infants were the subject of a complaint filed by immigration advocates to DHS’s Office of Inspector General last week.
Three advocacy groups — the American Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. — also sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, which plans to “hold long overdue hearings on conditions behind the doors of immigration detention centers,” according to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, who represents California’s 19th district….
THREAD: Here’s what happened yesterday in our “classified” Khashoggi briefing that included no information not already on the record.
No high level Treasury or State Dept official was there. No intelligence official was there, making it impossible to have any real conversation about what the Administration knows about MBS involvement in Khashoggi murder.
Trump Administration briefers DID confirm that they have no plans to comply with the Magnitsky Act and verify whether of not they believe MBS was involved, as required by the law.
No meaningful partisan disagreement on what to do next. If White House is committed to violating the law and won’t hold Saudis accountable, then the Senate Foreign Relations Committee needs to respond. Talk beginning on sanctions bill that can get R and D support.
Proud to serve under new Chairman @SenatorRisch, who led a fair, balanced hearing, understands the gravity of this issue, and is committed to working through it in a bipartisan way.
A Reagan-era Feiffer cartoon has a pinched-faced conservative explaining why guns are good and abortions are bad, ending with the declaration “The unborn are innocent and deserve our love. The post-born are guilty and deserve what’s coming to them.”
A more concise statement of the GOP’s fundamental beliefs would likely burn the page it’s on.
Update: “The thin ice under Roger Stone is cracking. The judge issued this angry order demanding more information about the release of his upcoming book that criticizes the Russia investigation.”
We FOIAed GSA for documents pertaining to the abrupt reversal of a previous decision to move the FBI’s office to suburban Maryland–a move that would open its current location to competition with Trump’s DC hotel.
The GSA failed to adequately reply, so we sued, and today we won.
Here’s a statement from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. It is comprised of high dudgeon, sound and fury, no substantial rebuttal to the reasons for the House Judiciary Committee’s requests, and lots of fodder for conspiracy theories:
Today, Chairman Nadler opened up a disgraceful and abusive investigation into tired, false allegations already investigated by the Special Counsel and committees in both Chambers of Congress. Chairman Nadler and his fellow Democrats have embarked on this fishing expedition because they are terrified that their two-year false narrative of ‘Russia collusion’ is crumbling.
Their intimidation and abuse of American citizens is shameful. Democrats are harassing the President to distract from their radical agenda of making America a socialist country, killing babies after they’re born, and pushing a “green new deal “that would destroy jobs and bankrupt America.
The American people deserve a Congress that works with the President to address serious issues like immigration, healthcare, and infrastructure. The Democrats are more interested in pathetic political games and catering to a radical, leftist base than on producing results for our citizens. The Democrats are not after the truth, they are after the President.
From Vox’s Aaron Rupar:
Sanders, notably, isn’t defending Trump by arguing he did nothing wrong. Instead, she’s throwing up a lightning rod issue to distract from the larger point of accountability of the president.
From Steve Benen:
[…] Sanders said the Judiciary Committee’s lines of inquiry are already being examined by Robert Mueller, but that’s not true. She said the investigation into the Russia scandal is “crumbling,” but that’s not true. She said Dems intend to create a “socialist country,” which is both wrong and silly. She said Dems support infanticide, which is needlessly incendiary and factually ridiculous.
And Sanders said Congress should be focused on the substance of governing, which is kind of hilarious given everything we’ve seen from this White House for the last 26 months, and overlooks the fact that meaningful oversight of the executive is substantive governing.
[…] Trump is aware of the fact that many believe he just sits around the White House watching far too much television, which is why it seemed oddly perfect when we recently learned that the president likes to tell his visitors that Barack Obama spent too much time in the White House watching television.
One of the Republican’s go-to moves is projection: Trump identifies his faults, and as a defense mechanism, he projects those faults onto his perceived foes.
This week, however, the current president seems to have taken his fondness for projection to a new level.
* Friday, March 1: Facing allegations that he’s committed a variety of crimes, Trump insisted “real crimes were committed” by Democrats. He echoed the argument two days later.
* Sunday, March 3: After House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) raised the prospect of Trump running afoul of the law, Trump tweeted that Schiff may have run afoul of the law.
* Tuesday, March 5: Accused of obstructing justice, Trump said via Twitter that Democrats “are obstructing justice.”
There’s nothing in reality to suggest Democrats obstructed justice – the allegation is effectively gibberish – but the president has a knee-jerk reaction to most allegations. If he’s accused of something, Trump reflexively concludes his perceived enemies are guilty of that exact offense. […]
Trump’s enthusiastic assurance that Alabama would get top-flight help [from FEMA, following several devastating tornados] contrasts sharply with his barbed rhetoric following horrific wildfires in California and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, when he repeatedly threatened to cut off federal aid and picked fights with local politicians, in one instance calling the mayor of San Juan “totally incompetent.”
The difference between Alabama and Puerto Rico and California, the president’s critics say, is obvious.
From Trump:
FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes. [Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey], one of the best in our Country, has been so informed. She is working closely with FEMA (and me!).
Probably bullshit all the way down. He probably did not call FEMA.
From Steve Benen:
[…] there’s no evidence to suggest FEMA officials will treat victims in Alabama any differently than they would assist other Americans in need of relief.
But Trump’s missive seemed to suggest that, in his mind, it’s sensible to direct FEMA to give some Americans the VIP treatment, but not all […]
Rafael Lemaitre, who was FEMA’s director of public affairs during the Obama administration, added, “The president has politicized recovery efforts in a way we’ve never seen before. FEMA needs to be as much of an apolitical agency as possible. It shouldn’t matter whether you live in a red state or a blue state.”
Six weeks ago, Donald Trump published a very different kind of tweet, which complained about California’s approach to forest management – an issue he only pretends to understand – and wrote that he’d ordered FEMA to send the Golden State “no more money.”
As it turns out, that order never actually happened, and the president’s bluster was hollow. But he also never made any effort to direct FEMA to give California “the A Plus treatment.”
And then, of course, there’s Puerto Rico. Did you catch this report two weeks ago?
Puerto Rico’s governor said President Donald Trump is refusing to meet privately with him to discuss the pace of disaster relief 17 months after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello told reporters at a round table on Friday that the White House declined public and private requests to meet ahead of the governors’ conference taking place in the nation’s capital this weekend. Rossello said Trump bears responsibility for the slow pace of disaster relief.
[…] Helaine Olen concluded yesterday, “A president is supposed to represent all of us, especially when disaster strikes. But that’s not how Trump views politics. Instead, he sees it as a system of rewards and punishments in a way that would not be unfamiliar to an organized crime chief. This is a profound failure of both morals and governance.”
More legal woes will soon be coming Trump’s way. Insurance regulators in New York have issued a subpoena to the insurance broker for the Trump Organization.
[…] the Department of Financial Services conducts civil investigations and does not have the authority to conduct criminal investigations, […] However it can make referrals to local and state prosecutors.
The subpoena did not suggest that the broker Aon or its employees committed any wrongdoing […] However, it requested scores of information about the broker’s business since 2009 with the Trump Org and Donald Trump himself, the report said. The requested information includes communications, contracts, agreements, and information on how Aon employees were compensated for their work with the Trump Org […]
Representative Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has hired a veteran prosecutor with experience fighting Russian organized crime to lead his investigation of the Trump Administration. Last month, according to a committee source, Daniel Goldman, who served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 2007 to 2017, joined the committee’s staff as a senior adviser and the director of investigations.
The hiring of Goldman, who will be joined by two other former federal prosecutors on Schiff’s staff, underlines Schiff’s decision to conduct an aggressive investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during the 2016 Presidential campaign.
In the rough division of labor among the various committees in the House of Representatives, Schiff’s panel is tackling the most provocative and, so far, most elusive subject related to the President: whether so-called collusion occurred between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
In public comments, Schiff has suggested that Trump’s interest as a private citizen in building a tower in Moscow led him to curry favor with Vladimir Putin, the Russian President.
American intelligence agencies long ago concluded that the Russian government made significant efforts, through the hacking of e-mails and use of social media, to help elect Trump over Hillary Clinton.
The question of whether the Trump campaign facilitated, assisted, or knew about these efforts has been at the heart of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller—and will also be central to Schiff’s inquiry. […]
In 2011, days after Donald Trump challenged President Barack Obama to “show his records” to prove that he hadn’t been a “terrible student,” the headmaster at New York Military Academy got an order from his boss: Find Trump’s academic records and help bury them.
The superintendent of the private school “came to me in a panic because he had been accosted by prominent, wealthy alumni of the school who were Mr. Trump’s friends” and who wanted to keep his records secret, recalled Evan Jones, the headmaster at the time. “He said, ‘You need to go grab that record and deliver it to me because I need to deliver it to them.’ ”
The superintendent, Jeffrey Coverdale, confirmed Monday that members of the school’s board of trustees initially wanted him to hand over Trump’s records to them, but Coverdale said he refused.
“I was given directives, part of which I could follow but part of which I could not, and that was handing them over to the trustees,” he said. “I moved them elsewhere on campus where they could not be released. It’s the only time I ever moved an alumnus’s records.”
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Trump has frequently boasted that he was a stellar student, but he declined throughout the 2016 campaign to release any of his academic records, telling The Washington Post then, “I’m not letting you look at anything.”
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Those who were aware of the 2011 effort to conceal Trump’s records said the request set off a frenzy at the military academy.
“I know for a fact that in 2011, the decision was made by the superintendent to remove those records and secure them so no one on the staff could get to them,” said Richard Pezzullo, a graduate who worked closely with school officials in a drive to save the school, which was then in financial distress. “People had been making inquiries, and there was a paramount interest in securing those records.”
The boarding school had no formal archive at the time. Jones said he combed through the basement of Scarborough Hall on the academy’s sprawling campus, 60 miles north of New York City, and found the real estate mogul’s transcript in file cabinets containing student records.
“I don’t know if we should be doing this,” Jones recalled telling his boss. “He told me that several wealthy alumni, including a close friend of Mr. Trump, were putting a lot of pressure on the administration to put the record in their custody for safekeeping.”
Jones said he did not know whether the original request to remove Trump’s records from the files came from Cohen.
…
Coverdale, who was the school’s superintendent from 2010 to 2013 and is now a public school administrator in Florida, said he does not know what happened to Trump’s file after he left the academy in 2013….
The cable news networks have decided their line this week is going to be that the Democrats are in great peril of overreach and their investigations, which just began, greatly risk backfiring. They’re arguing this with no evidentiary support and in the face of public polling that suggests the opposite. They keep quoting Trump and the WH and giving Republicans a platform to offer unwelcome and self-interested advice. Chuck Todd’s chyron right now actually reads “Dems face growing dilemma on impeachment.” Seriously. That’s the frame they’re going with. The exposure of Trump’s rampant corruption and criminality is a problem…for the Democrats.
When they tried pulling this in November and December over the alleged groundswell of opposition to Pelosi’s speakership, she called them out on it on the air – paraphrasing: “I know this is your line that you’re all supposed to repeat, but it’s not accurate.” More people need to do that.
“NEW: Mueller just filed a memo ahead of Manafort’s Thursday sentencing noting it “opposes any credit or mitigation for the alleged cooperation” after a judge found the former Trump campaign chairman lied to them after pleading guilty.”
Link to the filing at the link. Their filings are very easy to read.
I recently read The Master and Margarita and am in the midst of Arrested Voices: Resurrecting the Disappeared Writers of the Soviet Regime, and I’m responding viscerally to this video.
[…] The cable news networks have decided their line this week is going to be that the Democrats are in great peril of overreach […]
Yeah, I couldn’t help but notice that. Meanwhile, in the real world, Nadler made the point that documents requested so far have, for the most part, already been provided for other purposes. So … not much new in terms of requests for documentation. One MSNBC contributor called Nadler’s requests the most milquetoast possible for an investigation of this kind. And Comey noted that more information, more facts, more documentation is needed.
The Democrats have to make ups for two years of Republicans having refused to exercise proper oversight of the executive branch. The Democrats have to start somewhere.
Trump and other Republicans would scream “overreach” no matter what Democratic committee chairpersons did. We don’t need Chuck Todd doing the same thing. I don’t usually watch his show. He falls into both-side-ism all the time, he makes too much use of facile slogans, and he seldom adds anything to our knowledge of the facts.
I’m really disgusted to see the “Are Democrats overreaching?” question used to frame the issue of investigating Trump. That bumper-sticker question is all over MSNBC as well as every other media outlet.
In comment 205, I meant to say, “facile talking points,” not “facile slogans.”
In other news, a total of four people have been arrested in connection with the election-fraud scheme cooked up by Republicans in North Carolina’s 9th district. Link. The more this kind of news keeps rolling in, the more likely it becomes that a Democrat will be elected when a new election is held on september 10th.
Other news: Trump has boasted many times that he would cut the USA trade deficit in half. Nope. Not happening.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that — despite more than two years of President Trump’s “America First” policies — the United States last year posted a $891.2 billion merchandise trade deficit, the largest in the nation’s 243-year history.
The trade gap with China also hit a record $419 billion, underscoring the stakes for the president’s bid to reach a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping as soon as this month.
Trump’s lie was recently renewed when he spoke in Hanoi:
You saw trade deficits went down last month and everyone’s trying to figure out why. Well, we’re taking a lot of tariff money. And it has reduced the trade deficit.
Bull pucky.
From Glenn Kessler:
The president keeps seizing on scraps of data — a month here or a quarter there — to falsely claim the trade deficit is being reduced. But over the course of the year, it kept growing. Attributing a small one-month shift to tariffs is especially silly.
The trade deficit is more important to Trump than it should be, perhaps. That’s no excuse to lie about it. Trump is a disinformation platform.
Trump’s excuse for not complying with requests for documents about granting security clearances to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner:
President Obama, from what they tell me, was under a similar kind of a thing — didn’t give one letter. They didn’t do anything. They didn’t give one letter of the request. Many requests were made; they didn’t give a letter.
Trump is lying.
From Steve Benen:
[…] The New York Times fact-checked the president’s latest claim, and found that the Obama White House provided Congress with nearly 2 million documents in response to lawmakers’ inquiries about assorted controversies.
In other words, Trump’s excuse for refusing to comply with a congressional request is the opposite of reality.
Putting these relevant details aside, I continue to think the story about the White House’s security clearances leads to four lines of inquiry: (1) why did Trump intervene; (2) why did Trump lie about intervening; (3) why did U.S. security agencies and officials balk at clearances for those in the president’s inner circle; and (4) why are we hearing about all of this now.
The argument from Trump World has been that the president enjoys the “absolute authority” to extend security clearances to whomever he pleases. That’s not a bad argument, but it doesn’t explain the need for such deception, and it doesn’t resolve why some in Trump’s orbit couldn’t earn clearances on the merits.
Senate Republicans voted Monday night to advance the nomination of Allison Jones Rushing, yet another of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees who is troubling for a number of reasons.
Rushing worked for Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian organization that has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. She has argued that there were “moral and practical” reasons for banning same-sex marriage.
But it’s her age that may be most notable: She is 37.
I don’t think her age is the “most notable” thing about this nominee. She’s a bigot. She should not be a judge.
Her age is an issue, though. Because she is so young, she is a lawyer that has only tried four cases to verdict. She was not lead counsel on any of those cases.
Also, such a young woman may sit as an appellate judge for half a century. We will be cursed with bigoted Trump judges for decades. Mitch McConnell is happy.
Note that the “Alliance Defending Freedom” is an authoritarian organization that is the opposite of its name.
[…] Trump committed crimes before he became president, American voters say 64 – 24 percent in a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today. […]
But U.S. voters are divided 45 – 43 percent on whether Trump committed any crimes while he has been president.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen tied herself in knots to avoid saying Trump was wrong. She testified today in front of the House Homeland Security committee.
[…] At issue was the President’s recent claim that there have “never [been] so many apprehensions ever in our history” of undocumented people attempting to cross the southern border. That is inaccurate — the number of crossings has hovered around a decades-long low for several years — but, under questioning from Rep. James Langevin (D-RI) Nielsen tied herself in knots in an apparent attempt to avoid contradicting Trump.
“So, Secretary Nielsen, what the President said was not accurate, was it?” Langevin asked.
“I apologize, I don’t know the full context of that,” Nielsen said, before pivoting to talk about the number of families apprehended at the border, a subset of total apprehensions.
“I just want to know, what the President said, is it accurate or not?” Langevin tried again.
Nieslen refused to answer — “I just don’t know the context of his statement,” she said — despite acknowledging a minute earlier that border apprehensions had decreased by several hundred thousand since 2000.
The volley continued for the rest of Langevin’s time, with Nielsen parsing “the type of migrant” the President might have been counting, refusing to admit Trump incorrectly asserted that the total number of migrants had broken records. […]
More incompetent judges will be confirmed soon. McConnell plans to speed up the process.
The breakneck speed with which Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has shepherded Trump-friendly judges through the confirmation process is apparently not enough — according to Politico, McConnell is clearing the way to smash the glass on the new nuclear option.
McConnell wants to change the rules so that lower-court nominees can be confirmed by a simple majority vote, an easy way to circumvent Democratic obstinance.
Per Politico, Republicans think they have the 50 votes for the nuclear option but would prefer party unity. Sen. James Lankford was reportedly on the Senate floor trying to woo moderate Sen. Susan Collins on Tuesday.
From the readers comments:
We can be certain Collins will express her concern before bowing to McConnell’s wishes.
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Can we please stop calling Susan Collins a moderate?
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Perhaps they should change the rules to say that only Republican members are allowed to vote.
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He thinks Trump is gonna lose in 2020 and there is a rush to confirmation. He must be getting close to retiring too and this is his parting shot.
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He’s trying to load up the courts as best he can before it all falls apart. That’s why this issue will be one I will be following during primary season to see who picks it up and runs with it. I want someone who will be willing to start packing the courts to undo this mess. It simply cannot continue that a Republican president has only once won the popular vote since 1988 and yet they have an iron grip on the judiciary.
As part of his racist “birther” nonsense, Donald Trump liked to insist that Barack Obama had “hidden” his academic records, because how on earth could a Kenyan Muslim ever have qualified for good colleges, huh? So of course it’s no surprise to learn that in 2011, just after Trump had once again called on Obama to release all his school transcripts ever, the military academy […] came under pressure to hide away all of the Great Man’s high school records, because of course it did, according to a story yesterday broken by the Washington Post. Evan Jones, the former headmaster of New York Military Academy, said the pressure came directly from his boss, superintendent Jeffrey Coverdale, who told him the records needed to git gone:
[Coverdale] “came to me in a panic because he had been accosted by prominent, wealthy alumni of the school who were Mr. Trump’s friends” and who wanted to keep his records secret, recalled Evan Jones […] “He said, ‘You need to go grab that record and deliver it to me because I need to deliver it to them.'” […]
“I was given directives, part of which I could follow but part of which I could not, and that was handing them over to the trustees,” he said. “I moved them elsewhere on campus where they could not be released. It’s the only time I ever moved an alumnus’s records.”
[…] former Trump fixer Michael Cohen testified last week that he followed Trump’s orders to write letters which “threatened his high school, colleges, and the College Board not to release his grades or SAT scores.” Because of course that is how a sane person acts when he’s trying to insinuate a black president was unqualified for Harvard Law, where he graduated magna cum laude […]
[…] the vague threat of Bad Consequences sparked the school into furious cover-up (or ass-covering) mode, particularly since it was in crappy financial shape at the time. […]
“I know for a fact that in 2011, the decision was made by the superintendent to remove those records and secure them so no one on the staff could get to them,” said Richard Pezzullo, a graduate who worked closely with school officials in a drive to save the school, which was then in financial distress. “People had been making inquiries, and there was a paramount interest in securing those records.” […]
“I don’t know if we should be doing this,” Jones recalled telling his boss. “He told me that several wealthy alumni, including a close friend of Mr. Trump, were putting a lot of pressure on the administration to put the record in their custody for safekeeping.” […]
“I don’t want to get into anything with these guys,” he [Coverdale] said. “You have to understand, these were millionaires and multimillionaires on the board, and the school was going through some troubles. But to hear, ‘You will deliver them to us?’ That doesn’t happen. This was highly unusual.” […]
A Fordham spokesperson confirmed the school had received a letter and a phone call from the campaign, and added that, duh, of course it would never release student records without consent because federal law prohibits that for any student records, not just those of the most paranoid asshole to stink up the White House. We’re paraphrasing, mind you.
And yes, of COURSE Trump likes to brag about what a brilliant student he was throughout his educational career, which is easy if he never has to prove it. WaPo tartly notes that Trump claimed last year that he “heard I was first in my class” at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business program, where he finished his undergraduate degree, but Trump’s name does not appear on the school’s dean’s list or on the list of students who received academic honors in his class of 1968. […]
The academy closed in 2015 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but it quickly reopened after a nonprofit entity led by a Chinese investor, Vincent Mo, bought it at a bankruptcy auction and said it would pay off the school’s $16 million debt.
It would surely be ridiculous and conspiracy-theory-ish to suggest anything odd about a nonprofit directed by a Chinese real estate man buying Donald Trump’s former high school and coincidentally maybe coming into possession of the Great Man’s academic records. […].
As we all know, the Trump tax cuts do not pay for themselves.
From the Washington Post:
The federal budget deficit ballooned rapidly in the first four months of the fiscal year amid falling tax revenue and higher spending, the Treasury Department said Tuesday, posing a new challenge for the White House and Congress as they prepare for a number of budget battles.
The deficit grew 77 percent in the first four months of fiscal 2019 compared with the same period one year before, Treasury said.
The total deficit for the four-month period was $310 billion, Treasury said, up from $176 billion for the same period one year earlier. […]
the Treasury Department noted a major reduction in corporate tax payments over the first four months of the fiscal year.
“In short, the inclusion of the citizenship question on the 2020 Census threatens the very foundation of our democratic system—and does so based on a self-defeating rationale.” U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg
Notably, unlike Judge Furman’s ruling in New York, Judge Seeborg found the citizenship question unconstitutional in defiance of the Enumeration Clause.
It’s a far more sweeping victory for the challengers.
After two years of Congress abdicating its constitutional oversight responsibility for overtly partisan reasons, we’ve had two months of oversight of the most corrupt POTUS in history and some pundits who breathlessly covered Benghazi ask if it’s too much. The answer is no. Next.
Fewer than 100 Russian billionaires now have a combined wealth that is greater than the entire population’s savings, according to figures published by Forbes.
Russia is regularly named in international ratings as one of the most unequal of the world’s major economies, with an estimated 89 percent of the country’s wealth owned by its richest 10 percent, according to Credit Suisse….
Michael Cohen has submitted documents showing that a Trump lawyer edited his earlier testimony to Congress.
[…] Cohen provided documents to House Intelligence Committee investigators showing that edits were made to his prepared testimony in 2017. In the testimony, Cohen lied about the length of his involvement in the Trump Tower Moscow project. […]
During his marathon testimony last week before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen said that Trump attorney Jay Sekulow altered his 2017 testimony, and that the changes were reviewed by Javanka litigator Abbe Lowell.
“There were several changes that were made including how we were going to handle that message, which was – the message of course being – the length of time that the Trump Tower Moscow project stayed and remained alive,” Cohen said last week.
Sekulow denied the accusation in a statement after Cohen’s appearance, calling it “completely false.” […]
This is significant regardless of the actual substance of the edits. Editing and returning a document communicates some approval that the edited document be submitted. If Trump knew the content was false, and it appears he did, then that is suborning perjury.
The only way to read this as not implicating Trump is to believe 1) lawyers provided edits without ever consulting Trump on content or 2) Trump didn’t know statement was false or 3) lawyers knowingly edited & returned an untrue statement but didn’t intend for Cohen to submit it.
(There’s an incredible moment in that Abby Huntsman interview with Ivanka Trump. Huntsman is asking about the Trump Tower Moscow deal and Trump is blowing it off, and Huntsman says like “But you were involved with it, right?” It’s not meant as a gotcha question, but Trump clearly didn’t think she’d bring it up. For just a second, Trump’s mask drops and her eyes flash at Huntsman. Then you can see her swallow the rage and fear over being confronted with it and immediately soften her voice to answer Huntsman’s question about the nature of her involvement: “Literally, almost nothing.” It’s so revealing. I’ll try to find a clip.)
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen also made the absurd claim that migrant children are not really being kept it cages. Her explanation? There is room “to sit, to stand, to lay down.”
[Also from Nielsen:] Sir, they’re not cages!
[From House Homeland security committee Chair Bennie Thompson:] We’re not going to go through the semantics. I saw the cyclone fences that were made as cages, and you did too. All you have to do is admit it. If it’s a bad policy, then change it. But don’t mislead the committee. Do not mislead the committee.
Senator Chuck Grassley is once again blocking the confirmation of a nominee for a top counterintelligence job in an effort to win access to sensitive material on the origin of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.
The Iowa Republican imposed a hold last May on the nomination of Bill Evanina as director of the National Intelligence and Security Center, […] Grassley, who at the time chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, said last year that he would object to a vote on Evanina’s confirmation until the Justice Department gave his committee information on its probe into contacts between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Grassley renewed the hold on Tuesday after Evanina was renominated and approved unanimously by the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. The senator did so even though he no longer chairs the Judiciary Committee, […]
Critics say the hold is also an indication of how far some congressional Republicans will go to question the basis the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “Bill Evanina is an extraordinarily qualified public servant and it’s frankly ridiculous that his Senate confirmation continues to be delayed over unrelated political requests from a member of the president’s own party,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Wednesday. […]
[…] Grassley has continued blocking the nomination because he says the Justice Department refused to give him information on origins the Trump-Russia probe, including the identity of confidential FBI informants. […]
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could overcome Grassley’s roadblock by holding a roll call vote to confirm Evanina, rather than the simpler unanimous consent process the Senate often uses to confirm noncontroversial nominees. But McConnell has so far been unwilling to devote Senate floor time to the nomination.
Trump has canceled a reporting requirement related to drone strikes. He thinks we don’t need to know about civilian deaths.
[…] Trump has canceled the requirement for intelligence officials to publish an annual report on civilian deaths from drone strikes.
The executive order cancels a three-year-old requirement for the director of national intelligence to release an unclassified report on May 1 every year detailing strikes against terrorist targets outside of war zones and assessments of deaths for combatants and civilians.
The White House ignored the reporting requirement last year, The Washington Post reported at the time, but is taking matters a step further by canceling the order. […]
that Abby Huntsman interview with Ivanka Trump. Huntsman is asking about the Trump Tower Moscow deal
[…]
Trump clearly didn’t think she’d bring it up. For just a second, Trump’s mask drops and her eyes flash at Huntsman. Then you can see her swallow the rage and fear over being confronted with it and immediately soften her voice to answer Huntsman’s question about the nature of her involvement: “Literally, almost nothing.”
Thanks! Her eyes when Huntsman challenges her say so much. Her role in the family grift is very gendered: she can’t try to shout down or angrily bulldoze over people and has to tightly control her emotions and sweet talk them, but in that split second you can almost see daggers shoot from her eyes.
White nationalists and other extremists have long praised Iowa Rep. Steve King (R) as their champion and public-facing megaphone ― he’s a white supremacist himself and openly promotes them, so it’s no surprise the congressman is celebrated in those circles.
But newly leaked chat logs linked to a prominent hate group reveal that white nationalists have actively worked to keep King and his racist ideology in office — by donating to his campaign, calling members of Congress to show their support when King stumbles or by attempting to reach the congressman directly.
On Wednesday, an independent media organization called Unicorn Riot released a searchable database containing what the company says are “more than 770,000 messages from chat servers associated with Identity Evropa,” a white nationalist collective designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center that prides itself on its college campus recruiting campaigns.
Part of Unicorn Riot’s goal in the leak was to cast light on Identity Evropa members’ involvement in the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the group’s attempts to sanitize its own image to stay legitimate. (Unicorn Riot’s previous leaks have been instrumental in cases surrounding “Unite the Right,” too).
But a search for King’s name in the database reveals that Identity Evropa also concerns itself with sanitizing the congressman’s image for the stated purpose of keeping white supremacy in government….
Trump is in desperation mode regarding his emergency declaration meant to fund the border wall:
Senate Republicans are not voting on constitutionality or precedent, they are voting on desperately needed Border Security & the Wall. Our Country is being invaded with Drugs, Human Traffickers, & Criminals of all shapes and sizes. That’s what this vote is all about. STAY UNITED!
Thanks, Hair Furor, for reminding us that Senators are voting on constitutionality and precedent.
Meanwhile, Mike Pence is trying to back up Trump’s play:
Vice President Mike Pence and other Trump administration officials are calling on senators to back President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration to build his southern border wall, citing an increase in illegal border crossings in recent months.
Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday criticized lawmakers from both parties who plan to support a resolution to block the president’s emergency declaration.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is playing the blame angle:
My message to that group is to do your job. If you had done what you were elected to do on the front end, the president wouldn’t have to fix this problem on his own through a national emergency.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross acted in “bad faith,” broke several laws and violated the constitutional underpinning of representative democracy when he added a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. […]
Unable to find any expert in the Census Bureau who approved of his plan to add the citizenship question, Seeborg wrote, Ross engaged in a “cynical search to find some reason, any reason” to justify the decision.
[…] Trump’s boast [“the strongest economy in the history of our nation”] can pretty much be proven wrong.
Measured by 14 gauges of economic activity and financial performance, the U.S. economy is not doing as well under Trump as it did under all but one of the four Republicans and three Democrats who have occupied the White House since 1976. […]
For more detail, including the 14 yardsticks, see the link.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is trying to prevent Trump from pardoning people for his own benefit.
The President has a broad power to confer pardons, but not when they are designed to insulate himself, his family and his associates from criminal investigation. Such an abuse of the pardon power would amount to obstruction of justice and is not countenanced by the constitution.
Schiff introduced legislation that would block Trump from abusing the power of the pardon.
Schiff said that his legislation would address instances when the president initiates a pardon for an individual linked to an investigation in which the president or a family member is a subject, target or witness. In those instances, the attorney general would be required to submit all evidence against the pardoned individual to Congress.
From the readers comments:
Presidential harassment! I mean, if you can’t pardon your co-conspirators and family members, why even run for office?
—————
I appreciate this action from Rep. Schiff, but unfortunately, i think it’s only for show. No way this is voted on in the Senate. Not a single member of the GOP wants to go on record denying the Dotard his only remaining ability to obstruct the inevitable. If he goes down, they all go down.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham offered some advice to asylum seekers. As usual, she revealed her ignorance.
“If you want to apply for asylum, that’s fine,” Ingraham said. “But you should do so in the safety of your home country or, as is beginning to happen now, once you’re in the United States and you declare [asylum], you should be sent to Mexico until your case comes up for hearing. We have a backlog right now of 800,000 immigration cases.” […]
“If someone crosses the border illegally, they should be turned back immediately. Family units or people posing as family units would not make this dangerous trek once word spread in their home country.”
Her argument, however, is deeply flawed and based on the false premise that asylees feel safe enough in their countries to remain there for months while their cases play out in U.S. immigration court. If that were true, they wouldn’t leave their homes and make the expensive, dangerous journey in the first place.
The kind of policy Ingraham is proposing is also against the law.
U.S. asylum law states that any person “physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum.”
The “North Triangle” nations of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador — where most asylum seekers are coming from — are some of the most dangerous in the world. Women and their families are frequently driven out of their homes either by violent gangs or domestic violence. […]
the Trump administration is expanding a policy that would force asylum seekers to remain in Mexico […] Migrants applying for asylum at select ports of entry will now have to wait in deteriorating shelters in Juarez or Tijuana — cities that are unsafe for anyone, but especially migrants from Central America. […]
The “Remain in Mexico” policy, as it is known colloquially, harms the lives of LGBTQ asylum seekers in particular, with two-thirds of LGBTQ refugees from Central America suffering from sexual and gender-based violence in Mexico. […]
The Trump administration, and in particular Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, lied about families being separated at the southern border:
More than 470 migrant parents were deported from the United States without their children, according to a recent court filing in the ongoing class action family separation lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the Trump administration.
The court filing states that the Trump administration did not give some of the 471 parents the opportunity to choose to be reunited with their children. It also states that of the 2,816 children who were separated from their parents, 2,741 have been reunited as of this week — an increase of six since the last status report in February. […]
Trump signed an executive order in June 2018 ending his administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy […]
Despite this, the Trump administration has continued its child separation policy. An investigation from the Associated Press in December 2018 found that the government separated more than 80 children from their parents since June 20, 2018. […]
federal immigration officials continue family separations by exploiting a legal loophole. […]
[During Kirstjen Nielsen’s testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee,] she claimed that “no parent” has been deported “without multiple opportunities to take their children with them.”
During a heated exchange between Nielsen and Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-CA), the California congresswoman accused Nielsen of “lying to the committee” about asylum-seekers being turned away at U.S. ports of entry.
“You testified that asylum-seekers are not being turned away at the ports of entry. Was that your testimony here today?”
“They are not turned away. They are brought in,” Nielsen said. “They are allowed to make their claim.”
“Okay. Let me tell you, Madam Secretary,” Barragan replied. “Either you’re lying to this committee or you don’t know what’s happening at the border. I have been there firsthand, and I have seen it twice.”
Nielsen also did not address the fact that many migrant parents were not provided with documents in their own language when asked to sign away their right to “take their children with them.” Many migrant parents have said they were given very little time to understand the process being proposed to them, or they were given only two options when really three options exist in U.S. law, or that there were no translators available for conversations with U.S. authorities, or that they were pressured to sign papers with threats of even more dire consequences.
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not running for president.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder is not running.
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley is not running.
Hillary Clinton is still not running for president.
Here is the list of people officially running: Former Gov. John Hickenlooper, Gov. Jay Inslee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Kamala Harris, ex-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Rep. John Delaney, author Marianne Williamson and former tech executive Andrew Yang.
People who have formed exploratory committees: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Status unknown: Beto O’Rourke.
a_ray_in_dilbert_spacesays
Laura “Still experiencing PTSD after having dated Dinesh D’Souza” Ingraham: “If you want to apply for asylum, that’s fine,” Ingraham said. “But you should do so in the safety of your home country…”
Blink…Blink
Uh, Laura, if there were any safety in their home countries, they would be applying for asylum. There is no way you can be that obtuse and obey the laws of Euclidean geometry.
Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates show the U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports.
At the end of 2018, roughly 5,000 immigrants from Central America made their way north through Mexico to the United States southern border. The story made international headlines.
As the migrant caravan reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego County, so did journalists, attorneys, and advocates who were there to work and witness the events unfolding.
But in the months that followed, journalists who covered the caravan, as well as those who offered assistance to caravan members, said they felt they had become targets of intense inspections and scrutiny by border officials.
One photojournalist said she was pulled into secondary inspections three times and asked questions about who she saw and photographed in Tijuana shelters. Another photojournalist said she spent 13 hours detained by Mexican authorities when she tried to cross the border into Mexico City. Eventually, she was denied entry into Mexico and sent back to the U.S.
These American photojournalists and attorneys said they suspected the U.S. government was monitoring them closely but until now, they couldn’t prove it.
Now, documents leaked to NBC 7 Investigates show their fears weren’t baseless. In fact, their own government had listed their names in a secret database of targets, where agents collected information on them. Some had alerts placed on their passports, keeping at least three photojournalists and an attorney from entering Mexico to work.
The documents were provided to NBC 7 by a Homeland Security source on the condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of what they were divulging.
The source said the documents or screenshots show a SharePoint application that was used by agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations and some agents from the San Diego sector of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
The intelligence gathering efforts were done under the umbrella of “Operation Secure Line,” the operation designated to monitor the migrant caravan, according to the source.
The documents list people who officials think should be targeted for screening at the border.
The individuals listed include ten journalists, seven of whom are U.S. citizens, a U.S. attorney, and 47 people from the U.S. and other countries, labeled as organizers, instigators or their roles “unknown.” The target list includes advocates from organizations like Border Angels and Pueblo Sin Fronteras….
So, Michael Cohen is suing the Trump Organization. Hmmm.
[…] Michael Cohen on Thursday sued the Trump Organization in a Manhattan court, accusing the company of breaching a contract that ensured Cohen’s legal expenses related to the ongoing special counsel investigation would be paid.
Bloomberg News reports that court documents filed by Cohen state that the Trump Organization ceased payments to Cohen’s legal defense effort in 2018, which he calls a breach of his contract. Cohen is reportedly seeking $1.9 million in disputed legal fees.
“The Trump Organization agreed to indemnify Mr. Cohen and to pay attorneys’ fees and costs incurred by Mr. Cohen in connection with various matters arising from Mr. Cohen’s work with and on behalf of the Organization,” the court filings reportedly read. “These matters included multiple congressional hearings, Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, and others.”
The lawsuit comes just days after the former attorney trashed the president in a public hearing in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, during which Cohen accused Trump of being a “racist” and a “con man” and accused him of financial misconduct including improperly overestimating the value of properties to insurance companies. […]
In the weeks following the federal raids on former Michael Cohen’s law office and residences last April, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and confidant was contacted by two New York attorneys who claimed to be in close contact with Rudy Giuliani, the current personal attorney to Trump, according to sources with direct knowledge of the discussions.
The outreach came just as Cohen, who spent more than a decade advocating for Trump, was wrangling with the most consequential decision of his life; whether to remain in a joint defense agreement with the president and others, or to flip on the man to whom he had pledged immutable loyalty. The sources described the lawyers’ contact with Cohen as an effort to keep him in the tent.
…
The sources familiar with the contacts said the two lawyers first reached out to Cohen late in April of last year and that the discussions continued for about two months. The attorneys, who have no known formal ties to the White House, urged Cohen not to leave the joint defense agreement, the sources told ABC News, and also offered a Plan B. In the event Cohen opted to exit the agreement, they could join his legal team and act as a conduit between Cohen and the president’s lawyers.
At one point in the discussions, one of the attorneys sent Cohen a phone screenshot to prove they were in touch with Giuliani, the sources said.
During the time of the conversations, Cohen and attorneys for the president and the Trump Organization were engaged in a cooperative, court-supervised effort to examine millions of files seized from the Cohen raids looking for items potentially covered by attorney-client privilege.
With that process ongoing, the New York attorneys talked up to Cohen the value of working with them because of their good relationship with Giuliani.
…
Investigators have been looking into whether these communications were intended to influence Cohen, a potential witness against the president, or to implicitly dangle a potential pardon in front of Cohen, the sources said. It’s unclear if prosecutors regard the contacts as illegal or improper.
…
As it became clear that Cohen would commit to Petrillo, the attorneys asked Cohen to consider bringing them on board as well, because their purported relationship with Giuliani could serve to keep lines of communication open with President Trump’s legal team. Petrillo apparently opposed the idea of working in tandem, and Cohen ultimately rejected it, the sources said. The two attorneys never formally joined Cohen’s legal team but sent Cohen a bill for legal services, which he did not pay, the sources said.
The charges include fees for at least a half a dozen phone calls between the attorneys and Giuliani, according to two sources who have seen the invoice. One of the final entries is for a late June in-person meeting in New York between at least one of the attorneys and Giuliani. ABC News has not independently reviewed the bill.
The Southern District of New York prosecutors are now in possession of the legal bill along with logs of numerous calls and copies of emails between the attorneys and Cohen, the sources said. During a meeting with Cohen earlier this year, federal prosecutors in New York expressed interest in learning who paid the bill. Cohen said he did not know who, if anyone, did.
Late Wednesday, ABC News spoke with Robert J. Costello, who was identified by the sources as one of the New York attorneys who had reached out to Cohen last year.
Costello said the story is “not accurate,” but declined to be more specific “until I am convinced the attorney-client privilege has been waived. Unless Michael Cohen has waived attorney client privilege, I am prohibited from making any comment about this.”
Costello said that he and Jeffrey Citron, another attorney in the same firm, had an attorney-client relationship with Cohen. Costello said he is unaware of any investigation of these matters….
Mitch McConnell is up to his usual procedural tricks. He wants to embarrass the Democrats in the Senate. Chuck Schumer is not having it.
Chuck Schumer isn’t falling for Mitch McConnell’s banana in the tailpipe. [McConnell] is scheduling a sham vote for the Green New Deal resolution. He knows all 53 Republicans, including himself, will vote against the resolution because of their patriotic devotion to air travel and hamburgers. However, he wants to create a public rift among Democrats who are ambivalent about the resolution and those who have publicly supported it. […]
Schumer’s spine is usually the consistency of a Twinkie filling, but maybe he’s started taking Pilates classes with Nancy Pelosi: He basically told McConnell to go shove it. Not only are Democrats refusing to participate — likely voting “present” as a bloc — but Schumer himself demanded that Republicans “put up or shut up” on the very real threat of climate change.
SCHUMER: I understand my friends on the other side of the aisle don’t like the Green New Deal. OK, that’s fine. What’s your plan? Maybe a lot of members think they can get away without having to answer the question. They won’t. […]
Senate Republicans took the floor Wednesday to shout doom and gloom lies about the Green New Deal. Texas Senator John Cornyn warned of a “socialist power grab of the entire US economy.” He didn’t even bother with new material. It’s all repurposed fear mongering from when Republicans warned us about the tyranny of affordable health care.
MCCONNELL: Cars, lawnmowers, commercial airliners — everything must go. All this and more can be ours for the low, low price of a staggering expansion of centralized government.
See, it’s funny because McConnell is less ethical and trustworthy than an actual used car salesman. Not a single word in the Green New Deal resolution text proposes eliminating “cars, lawnmowers, and commercial airliners.” […]
What the resolution actually does is lay out a road map for a transition to carbon-free energy. This wouldn’t end air travel to Hawaii,[…] but help ensure there’s still a Hawaii to visit. The Green New Deal doesn’t want to deprive Americans of cow flesh but reduce the agricultural sector’s greenhouse gas emissions as much as “technologically feasible.” There’s also no diabolical plan to wreck capitalism and put everyone in communist work clothes. The Green New Deal proposes the creation of millions of new high-wage jobs that won’t give you black lung. […]
Jon McNaughton, the Art Genius who documented true historic events like Jesus handing the Constitution to George Washington and Barack Obama burning the very same Constitution, is back with another masterpiece, this one titled “National Emergency.” […]
McNaughton artsplains:
In my new painting, the Democrat establishment declares victory against President Trump as he announces a national emergency to secure the border. They proudly hold the flags they represent and cherish. […] I’m sick of how they trample our flag and do not seek America’s interests first.
So what un-American flags are the Democrat Bad Guys brandishing? Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have pledged undying loyalty to Mexico, because Jon McNaughton thinks Central American refugees are Mexicans. Bernie Sanders is waving a Chinese flag, because he is a commie, never mind that we’ve never heard him praise China, but surely he’s a secret Maoist.
Barack Obama holds the UN flag, and Elizabeth Warren has the flag of the European Union, because we despise our useless “allies” too.
Rashida Tlaib brandishes a Palestinian flag, and the top half of Ilhan Omar’s face peeks out over Chuck Schumer’s shoulder; we suspect she was added at the last minute, so she gets no flag, because where is she even from?
Hillary Clinton holds the flag of Iran, because remember all the times she said she wishes America could be Iran? Or not nuke it until it glows, same thing. […]
McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast food companies do not seem to be overjoyed that Trump has displayed their products in the State Dining Room of the White House.
[…] “We like American companies, okay?” Trump said, standing before hundreds of Big Macs and chicken sandwiches alongside the North Dakota State football team. “Go eat up. Enjoy yourselves, everybody.”
But the companies haven’t been quick to return the affection or attempt to cash in on the presidential product placement, with McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and Wendy’s all remaining silent about Trump’s endorsements. When Trump held a similar event in January, Burger King was the only company to reference it on social media — by mocking Trump for misspelling the word hamburger in a tweet.
“[D]ue to a large order placed yesterday, we’re all out of hamberders,” Burger King tweeted on Jan. 15, a day after Trump honored the Clemson football team with Whoppers and Big Macs, adding that it was “just serving hamburgers today.”
[…] The companies behind some of the president’s favorite products, including Sharpies, Big Macs and Diet Cokes, have kept him at arm’s length, even as he has lavished them with public praise and highlighted their products in the White House.
“It used to be that brands would love to get an endorsement from the president,” said Tim Calkins, who teaches marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “Now, if anything, I think these companies probably squirm a bit.” […]
Purveyors of food want nothing to do with Trump. Obama, yes. Trump, no.
[…] When President Obama visited restaurants in Washington and abroad, the companies regularly highlighted the visits on social media and some still have menu items named after him. […]
Today, even businesses that once sought out the Trump brand have acted to distance themselves from a president who is opposed by more than half the country in opinion polls. […]
Jessikka Aro, a Finnish investigative journalist, has faced down death threats and harassment over her work exposing Russia’s propaganda machine long before the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. In January, the U.S. State Department took notice, telling Aro she would be honored with the prestigious International Women of Courage Award, to be presented in Washington by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Weeks later, the State Department rescinded the award offer. A State Department spokesperson said it was due to a “regrettable error,” but Aro and U.S. officials familiar with the internal deliberations tell a different story. They say the department revoked her award after U.S. officials went through Aro’s social media posts and found she had also frequently criticized President Donald Trump.
“It created a shitstorm of getting her unceremoniously kicked off the list,” said one U.S. diplomatic source familiar with the internal deliberations. “I think it was absolutely the wrong decision on so many levels,” the source said. The decision “had nothing to do with her work.”
The State Department spokesperson said in an email that Aro was “incorrectly notified” that she had been chosen for the award and that it was a mistake that resulted from “a lack of coordination in communications with candidates and our embassies.”
“We regret this error. We admire Ms. Aro’s achievements as a journalist, which were the basis of U.S. Embassy Helsinki’s nomination,” the spokesperson said.
Aro received a formal invitation to the award ceremony not from the embassy but from the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol on Feb. 12.
There is no indication that the decision to revoke the award came from the secretary of state or the White House. Officials who spoke to FP have suggested the decision came from lower-level State Department officials wary of the optics of Pompeo granting an award to an outspoken critic of the Trump administration. The department spokesperson did not respond to questions on who made the decision or why.
To U.S. officials who spoke to FP, the incident underscores how skittish some officials—career and political alike—have become over government dealings with vocal critics of a notoriously thin-skinned president….
In the minds of some diplomats, this has created an atmosphere where lower-level officials self-censor dealings with critics of the administration abroad, even without senior officials weighing in.
…
Aro is a prolific Twitter user and was originally chosen for the award because of her investigative work exposing Russian troll factories. She often debunks misinformation spread online and comments on major news events related to propaganda and election interference, including Brexit and the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into links between the Russian government and Trump’s campaign. She has regularly tweeted criticism about Trump’s sharp political rhetoric and attacks on the press. Aro also helped organize a demonstration in Helsinki when the Finnish capital hosted a summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in July 2018.
…
In 2014, Aro pursued reporting on a Russian troll factory in St. Petersburg that aimed to alter western public opinions. Long before the U.S. elections in 2016, which propelled Russian disinformation campaigns to the spotlight, she unearthed evidence of a state-sanctioned propaganda machine trying to shape online discourse and spread disinformation. After she published her investigation, Russian nationalist websites and pro-Moscow outlets in Finland coordinated smear campaigns against her, accusing her at times of being a Western intelligence agent and drug dealer, and bombarding her with anonymous abusive messages. She also received death threats.
Aro won the Finnish Grand Prize for Journalism in 2016 for her investigative work, and in 2018, she successfully sued the founder of MV-Lehti, a far-right, pro-Russian website in Finland, for defamation and negligence after it published offensive content about her following her initial investigation.
In late February, Aro submitted a letter drafted by her lawyer to the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki asking for justification about why her award was rescinded at the last minute and who made the decision. The letter also reserved the right to seek damages, due to Aro having to cancel paid speaking events that would have conflicted with Thursday’s award ceremony.
Aro said the embassy has not yet responded to the letter.
“Because I get to decide what we vote on.” That’s what Mitch McConell said when asked why he would not bring a Democratic piece of legislation to the Senate floor for a vote. He was referring to voting-rights revision legislation that is important to ensure equal voting rights for everyone., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell grinned when he explained, “Because I get to decide what we vote on.”
“9th Circuit ruling: Asylum-seekers have a constitutional right to appeal their credible fear denials to a federal judge. @ACLU says: ‘The historical and practical importance of this ruling cannot be overstated’.”
The House is apparently taking some time to tweak the language on the resolution before voting (fingers crossed they’re making it better rather than worse). Meanwhile, Manafort’s VA sentencing hearing is going on right now.
“What an utterly bizarre backfire. This was supposed to be awkward for Democrats because it was an unofficial rebuke of Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Yet in the end Omar voted to condemn anti-Semitism and 26 Republicans (and counting) voted not to.
…Ok so after some last minute vote switching the anti-hate resolution passes with 407 in favor, 23 opposed and one (I believe Steve King) voting present.”
Hj Hornbecksays
To add to SC’s 256, here are some of the people rejecting the anti-hate speech resolution:
Update to #239: “House Homeland Dems have asked CBP for a copy of the list of 59 journalists, lawyers and advocates who were to be stopped for questioning in San Diego. Their deadline: March 14.”
JFC: “JUST IN: Lawyers for Roger Stone tell the court that, among other things, they ‘may file a motion regarding selective or vindictive prosecution’ and may file a motion to dismiss the indictment claiming ‘error in the grand-jury proceeding’.”
Meanwhile…Manafort’s statement expresses plenty of self-pity and no remorse.
Sarah Kendzior: “As Roy Cohn — the ruthless mafia lawyer who mentored Trump and introduced him to Manafort and Stone — once said: ‘I don’t want to know what the law is, I want to know who the judge is’.”
SC @262, so Manafort was up for 19 to 24 years, but he only got about 4 years! Very lenient. Plus, the judge said that, for the most part, Manafort led a blameless life.
Judge TS Ellis before giving Manafort his sentence noted he “lived an otherwise blameless life,” was a good friend and generous person to others. That doesn’t erase his crimes however Ellis said.
The people of Angola, Zaire, the Philippines, and Ukraine would beg to differ.
Laurence Tribe: “Manafort’s 47-month sentence in ED Va is outrageously lenient. Judge Ellis has inexcusably perverted justice and the guidelines. His pretrial comments were a dead giveaway. The DC sentence next week had better be consecutive.”
Franklin Foer on the “blameless” comment: “This is outrageous. Manafort spent a career lobbying for arms for clients who burned children alive; he represented gangsters who broke democracies and whose thievery destroyed health systems. He literally created corruption as we know it in Washington.”
My colleague’s client today was forced to plead out to the mandatory minimum of 3.5 years (5 months shy of Manafort) for simple possession of a firearm. No allegation of use. Prosecution wouldn’t drop top count after a hearing. Best they had been willing to do was 2 years.”
What the heck!? Trump now plans to tap military pensions to find money for his vanity wall?
The Pentagon is planning to tap $1 billion in leftover funds from military pay and pension accounts to help […] Trump pay for his long-sought border wall, a top Senate Democrat said Thursday.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told The Associated Press, “It’s coming out of military pay and pensions. $1 billion. That’s the plan.”
Durbin said the funds are available because Army recruitment is down and a voluntary early military retirement program is being underutilized.
The development comes as Pentagon officials are seeking to minimize the amount of wall money that would come from military construction projects that are so cherished by lawmakers.
Durbin said, “Imagine the Democrats making that proposal — that for whatever our project is, we’re going to cut military pay and pensions.”
Durbin, the top Democrat on the Appropriations panel for the Pentagon, was among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who met with Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday morning.
The Pentagon is planning to transfer money from various accounts into a fund dedicated to drug interdiction, with the money then slated to be redirected for border barriers and other purposes. […]
Congress also appropriated money to give members of the military incentive to take early retirement, but enrollment in the program is coming in well under expectations.
“This is pay that would have gone to Army recruits that we can’t recruit,” Durbin said. “So there’s a ‘savings’ because we can’t recruit. The other part was they offered a voluntary change in military pensions, and they overestimated how many people would sign up for it.” […]
From the readers comments:
Doesn’t matter where it comes from.
Congress didn’t appropriate it.
It is unconstitutional to use it.
————–
It’s money that could be used to offer better incentives to induce people to volunteer.
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Just remember -if we can confiscate military funds to pay for the wall, we should be able to do the same to shore up Medicare and Social Security. You know -real emergencies.
—————–
And you [military families] have to live in shitty housing because it’s all been outsourced to for-profit companies.
SC @256, and Hj @257, FFS, those Republicans couldn’t sign even the anodyne, carefully worded statement against bigotry?
There’s no hope for them.
I’m going to step away for the moment from the Manafort travesty (and the thought of all of the judges Trump and McConnell are ramming through) to think about this. (It’s far from over. I haven’t felt this anger since before the midterms.)
I’m very pleased with how this resolution worked out. I thought it originally was – and it was, in large part – a stupid caving to rightwing pressure; and that’s how it could have gone in the past. But the pushback from the new members led to what’s actually a positive statement. It showed Democratic unity. Many people weren’t perfectly happy, but that’s what happens in a diverse coalition. And when people look back at it from the future, it will speak well of those who drafted it. The pressure from the Right was meant to divide, but the Dems stood together against hate and ultimately rejected the efforts to isolate, marginalize, and misrepresent a few of their members.
There was no brilliant plan – it came together through disagreement and shared values. But as it turned out it showed up the Republicans, who couldn’t even sign onto a resolution against hate.
“FYI in 2018, #JudgeEllis sentenced Frederick Turner, 37, to a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison for dealing methamphetamine: ‘I chafe a bit at that, but I follow the law. If I thought it was blatantly immoral, I’d have to resign. It’s wrong, but not immoral’.”
[…] we were really hoping to stay up late so we could all revel in the misery of Paul Manafort, criminal and Russian agent and campaign manager of the barely elected, compromised criminal president of the United States. We wanted to say THAT’S RIGHT, MOTHERFUCKER, YOU GO TO PRISON!
And we can absolutely tell him to go to prison!
For … 47 months?
[…] After lying his ass off constantly and blowing his plea deal and generally being a fucking criminal his whole life, he got sentenced to an endless tickle party and those cakes we like. It’s hard out there for a rich white foreign agent who used to run something called the “torturers’ lobby.”
Judge T.S. Ellis noted during the hearing, […] that Manafort was not being sentenced today for NO COLLUSION, so don’t you go thinking this is about NO COLLUSION, because NO COLLUSION. […]
Manafort got ZERO CREDIT from Ellis for any sort of acceptance of responsibility for his crimes, perhaps because it’s obvious even to a total idiot that he hasn’t. […]
Before he was sentenced, Paul Manafort addressed Ellis to beg for mercy and shit, and whined about feeling “humiliated” and “ashamed,” but reportedly he didn’t quite get around to saying he was sorry. It was just a bunch of Poor Me horseshit, […] During sentencing, Ellis said, “I was surprised he did not express regret,” but we guess he didn’t really care if Manafort regretted anything or not. […]
After DC District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Manafort had very intentionally lied and blown up his cooperating agreement, special counsel Robert Mueller submitted his sentencing recommendations for Manafort in his EDVA case, wherein he agreed with sentencing guidelines that Manafort should receive between 235 and 293 months in prison (19 and a half to almost 24 and a half years), […] Further, Mueller wrote that there were no mitigating factors that the court should take into account, because this guy here, Paul Manafort, is a piece of shit asshole career criminal […]
Manafort’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued that NO COLLUSION, NO JAIL, and that Judge Ellis should take into account that Manafort has spent his life promoting democracy (factcheck no) and also that he contributes to his community […]
Before he handed down his sentence, Judge Ellis seemed to agree with neither party completely, but did say he thought the sentencing guidelines were really far too high (but not as high as a HUNG PICKPOCKET!), and that aside from Manafort’s LITERAL LIFE OF CRIME, he seems like he’s led a pretty “blameless” life. […]
For a rebuttal to that bullshit, here’s MSNBC contributor Barb McQuade:
Judge Ellis calls #Manafort‘s guidelines range “quite high.“ The guidelines are based on data from other cases, and are high here only because the conduct was so egregious. Why are the guidelines considered too high only when the defendant is wealthy and powerful?
And David Corn:
He worked for dictators and warlords around the world. Mind-blowing that this judge doesn’t know this.
[…] But whatever, let bygones be bygones, and by “bygones,” we mean any hilarious notion we had that justice would be done in the Eastern District of Virginia in Judge T.S. Ellis’s courtroom.
Manafort will be sentenced in DC on Tuesday, by Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Maybe she’ll right this wrong. […]
KGsays
Lynna, OM@237
You didn’t tell us about the one name we (and, surely, all Americans) are waiting to hear about: is PZ Myers running for President???
The cable news coverage of the House resolution is horrendous. Joe Scarborough is off his fucking rocker. They’re furious that it didn’t turn into a hatefest against Omar, and are actively misrepresenting what she said, whether she apologized, what the resolution says, and what’s happening in the Democratic Party. Someone on CNN actually claimed that making the resolution broader was equivalent to All Lives Matter. They have almost nothing to say about the fact that it was unanimously approved by Democrats and that almost two dozen Republicans voted against it. It’s really something to see how venomous they become when their attempts to isolate and bully leftwing women are thwarted.
From a White House source, the House Oversight Committee has obtained documents related to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s security clearances that the Trump administration refused to provide, according to a senior Democratic aide involved in handling the documents.
Why it matters: The Trump administration’s problems with leaks will now benefit Congress, making it harder for the White House to withhold information from Democratic investigators.
…
The documents leaked to the Oversight Committee provide detailed information on the timeline for how Kushner’s and Trump’s security clearances were approved and who the people were involved in processing and the final decision….
“…He had devoted his career to normalizing corruption in Washington. By the time he was caught, his extraordinary avarice had become so commonplace that not even a federal judge could blame him for it.”
“MONDAY: Award-winning journalist Jane Mayer reports that Fox News gave Trump debate questions in advance and then protected him by refusing to run the Stormy Daniels story.
WEDNESDAY: DC reporters criticize Democrats for not letting Fox host one of their primary debates.”
Mr. Gowdy. Did you and Chris Steele ever discuss Donald Trump?
Mr. Ohr. In the July 30th conversation, one of the items of information that Chris Steele gave to me was that he had information that a former head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, had stated to someone — I didn’t know who — that they had Donald Trump over a barrel.
Gowdy is trying to condescendingly lecture Ohr about cross-examination and courtrooms, while Ohr patiently explains source information and how investigations work. You can almost see Gowdy mugging for the nonexistent camera.
“NEWS: Felix Sater’s March 14 appearance before House Intel is postponed.
Committee spox:
‘Due to scheduling issues, the Committee has moved Mr. Sater’s open interview to March 27. He continues to cooperate with the committee’.”
“NEW: The Democrat-led House just approved legislation that aims to expand voting access and curb the influence of money in politics. The 234-193 vote was along party lines.”
Mr. Meadows. So why was Christopher Steele so interested in the 2016 Presidential election? From what I read he’s from England. Why would he be so concerned and so against Donald Trump, the candidate, that he would want you to talk to Glenn Simpson?
Mr. Ohr. Chris Steele has, for a long time, been very concerned about Russian crime and corruption and what he sees as Russian malign acts around the world, in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere. And if he had information that he believed showed that the Russian Government was acting in a hostile way to the United States, he wanted to get that information to me.
“Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson confirms she’s leaving. ‘It has been a privilege to serve alongside our Airmen over the past two years’, she says in a statement. Wilson is headed to University of Texas El Paso, pending a final vote by the University of Texas Regents.”
Mr. Meadows. And so when he’s talking about there’s going to be some reporting, there was a lot of reporting that was going on. Did you find it just normal protocol that the Department of Justice and the FBI would still engage when there was a number of facts or at least allegations that continue to be shared in the press? Did you find that concerning? Where were you having these one-on-one conversations and then reading about it in the press, did you find that concerning?
Mr. Ohr. Well, what I don’t — what I recall at the time is being very concerned, if someone’s life was in danger, that we had to be able to respond to that.
“Bill Shine has already left his office at the White House today. I saw him on the South Lawn at the president’s departure this morning, but his office is dark now.”
Mr. Meadows. Okay. Thank you. Yield back. Let me ask you one other question, because in some of your notes you referred to some inquiries as it related to Christopher Steele with a Cleta Mitchell as it related to the NRA. What did he represent that Ms. Mitchell was involved with?
Mr. Ohr. I may be wrong, but I think my recollection is that Glenn Simpson mentioned Cleta Mitchell, not Chris Steele, but I may be wrong about that.
Mr. Meadows. And it could be. In what context? Because she hadn’t been on the board for the NRA for a number of years, so it would have been very old news at that point.
Mr. Ohr. I didn’t know who Cleta Mitchell was. What I was — I believe what — and I think it was Glenn Simpson mentioned to me was that Cleta Mitchell became aware of money moving through the NRA or something like that from Russia. And I don’t remember the exact circumstances. And that she was upset about it, but the election was over. I seem to remember that from my notes.
KG @278, I’d vote for PZ. [smiles, lots of smiles]
In other news, I’m not surprised to see the sixth White House communications director during Trump’s reign resign. Trump is his own communications director, (with backstage help from Hannity, etc.). And Trump loves that Trump allows him to say whatever he wants to say … no matter how stupid, how crazy, how obnoxious, how bigoted, how dangerous to national security, or how blatantly narcissistic.
Oh, FFS. The judge in Manafort’s sentencing hearing said, “This case is unrelated to Russian collusion.”
Trump took that statement and turned it into:
Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!
Effing incorrigible, ignorant dolt.
“This case is unrelated to Russian collusion” does not equal “This case proves there was no Russian collusion.”
Steve Benen listed a few times that Trump has concocted similar lites in the past:
In March 2018, Trump claimed that the House Intelligence Committee had completely exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That wasn’t true.
In June 2018, Trump said the Justice Department inspector general’s office had “totally” exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That was both wrong and kind of bonkers.
In February 2019, Trump claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee had also exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That also wasn’t true.
Also in February 2019, after Michael Cohen’s public congressional testimony, Trump said his former fixer agreed that there was no collusion. In reality, what Cohen testified was that he didn’t have any direct evidence of cooperation between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign, though Cohen added that he believes Trump is “capable” of having committed the crime.
Now, in March 2019, he’s convinced himself that Judge T.S. Ellis has exonerated him, too. That didn’t happen in reality, and doesn’t even make sense since Ellis never even considered evidence on the matter.
Guess who is also pleased about the extraordinarily lenient sentence the judge gave Paul Manafort. Rudi Giuliani, that’s who.
Sounds like Giuliani, one of Trump’s lawyers, is on message:
“I believe it was justice,” the Trump lawyer told the Hill. “The judge was right on target.”
Giuliani blasted the “overzealous prosecutors” with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team while expressing sympathy toward Manafort, who’s “not dangerous to anybody.”
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis sentenced the former Trump campaign chairman to 47 months in prison, far below the 19-24 years the probation office had recommended. Ellis criticized that sentencing range as “excessive.”
After the sentencing on Thursday, Giuliani bemoaned “the way Manafort has been treated up to this point.”
I remember when Rudy used to prosecute tax cheats, but that was then.
—————-
I believe that one day Rudy will keep his yap open too long and a queen bee will establish her new hive in all the empty space inside.
—————–
Massive so-called White Collar crimes has a more deleterious societal affect than some dude from the hood selling weed.
—————
“I think I spent more days in detention in high school than Judge Ellis thinks that Paul Manafort should spend in jail for what he did to defraud the United States,” Rep. Eric Swalwell
——————
Calling Manafort’s life of criminal collaboration with murderous dictators and of stealing tens of millions of dollars from American taxpayers “otherwise blameless is a sick joke. It’s as though Judge Ellis himself was angling for the pardon Trump dangled in front of Manafort.” [from Laurence Tribe]
From Josh Marshall: “Trump Cans Another Staffer Who Couldn’t Make People Love Him”
Bill Shine is leaving the White House and joining the 2020 Trump reelection campaign, an operation that has as much as anything served as a slush fund to keep fired Trumpers on the organizational payroll and in check. Maybe we’ll find out there’s some comical or horrifying scandal that triggered this move – find out in six months. But there may be a more straightforward explanation.
In Jane Mayer’s New Yorker article about Fox News, one of the themes is President Trump’s growing frustration with Shine. It seems to follow a consistent pattern: Shine was brought in to solve a problem intrinsic to the Trump presidency, horrible press. Now that President Trump is as unpopular as ever, he’s decided Shine has failed. […]
A source close to Trump says that the President has been complaining that Shine hasn’t been aggressive enough. Late last year, Trump told the source, “Shine promised me my press coverage would get better, but it’s gotten worse.” The source says, “Trump thought he was getting Roger Ailes but instead he got Roger Ailes’s gofer.”
Obviously you need to leave some room for backbiting and the Trump White House’s endemic factional feuding. But it seems – as so often happens – Trump brought Shine in for an impossible task and Shine wasn’t up to the job in the first place.
SC @312, I think of Trey Gowdy as an entire swarm of stinging insects that also smell bad.
In other news, Trump lied again (probably):
Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!
Cohen’s response:
Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President…let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford.
In semi-related news, Mar-a-Lago may be a hub for sex trafficking? Link
“A poll by the Kremlin-controlled VCIOM (#Russia’s Public Opinion Research Center) has found that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trust rating has reached a historic low of 32% – the lowest in the last 13 years.”
She’s posted numerous photos with the president and prominent Republicans.
[…] newly uncovered photos suggest that the president—like a string of prominent Republicans—is more familiar with one component of the scandal than previously known: the founder of the spa chain where Kraft was busted, Cindy Yang. The Miami Herald reports that Yang has visited Trump’s White House and is a member of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. She has also donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates. […]
Trump added his autograph to a bunch of bibles when he visited the disaster zone in Alabama.
[…] Trump on Friday signed Bibles for people affected by a string of deadly storms that ripped through Alabama.
The president made the gesture while visiting a Baptist church in Opelika, Ala., that is serving as a disaster relief center.
Local volunteer Ada Ingram told reporters that Trump signed several hats and Bibles, including one for a 12-year-old boy, an action which drew applause from people who came to see Trump.
“I enjoyed him coming,” said Ingram, who said she voted for Trump and would again in 2020. “I think it’s a godsend. I’m sorry. The situation is bad. And there are going to be people who will say ‘why did he come to my town?’ I don’t know why. I don’t why the hurricane happened [either]. But there is a reason.”
The president and first lady Melania Trump spent much of the day touring areas in Lee County, Ala., that were damaged by the tornadoes, which killed 23 people including several children, and meeting with victims. […]
Here’s a useful thread about the Bruce Ohr transcript. It highlights some of the same passages I did above and several other important ones. It’s shocking reading through these transcripts how little the Republicans care about threats to the country or any of the people working to confront them. They don’t even care if they’re putting people’s lives at risk.
Jane Mayer: “New: Fox reporter Diana Falzone’s lawyer Nancy Erica Smith has issued a statement demanding that Fox release her from her NDA so she can talk about getting the Stormy Daniels story before the 2016 election.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Algeria as popular resistance grows to the president’s decision to stand for a fifth term.
Crowds gathered in Algiers throughout the morning despite train services being stopped by authorities, and huge numbers demonstrated in every other major city and most towns. Some chanted slogans calling for a “free and democratic Algeria” and shouted “peaceful, peaceful”.
The protests were the biggest in a series staged almost daily since a huge rally on 22 February. So far all have been without violence. They are the largest demonstration of public discontent in Algeria for many decades, with some observers estimating that millions have taken part….
[…] “Growing up in a religious home, it would’ve been seen as blasphemous as having someone signing your own name,” said Jamie Aten, an evangelical and psychologist at Wheaton College.
Aten, who specializes in the effects of disasters on the religious mind, said it’s common for disaster survivors to use the Bible to help make meaning of what happened. However, he said, he has never seen survivors bring Bibles for someone to sign.
“Maybe you penned your own name so people knew it was yours,” Aten said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” […]
“In Trump’s defense, he wrote as much of the Bible as ‘Art of The Deal,’” [Judd Legum] tweeted, referring to the first of more than a dozen books for which Trump has hired a ghostwriter.
“Donald J. Trump is signing Bibles,” Peter Daou, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, wrote on Twitter. “The man whose vicious and inhumane border policy violates the fundamental teachings of Jesus is signing Bibles.”
An expanded ruling may force ICE, the Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement to finally reunite all the children who were separated from family members at the southern border with their families.
A federal judge who ordered that more than 2,700 children be reunited with their parents on Friday expanded his authority to potentially thousands more children who were separated at the border earlier during the Trump administration.
Dana Sabraw ruled that his authority applies to parents who were separated at the border on or after July 1, 2017. Previously, his orders applied only to parents whose children were in government custody on June 26, 2018, when he issued his initial decision in the case.
Sabraw was responding to a report in January by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s internal watchdog that said thousands more children may have been separated since the summer of 2017, which he noted has not been disputed. […]
The judge will consider the next steps on March 28. The first move may be to identify the separated families, no easy task because the government didn’t have an adequate tracking system at the time.
The administration argued that it would be difficult to identify families, the children were no longer in its custody, and the children would likely be emotionally harmed if they were removed from their current homes.
Justice Department attorney Scott Stewart told the judge last month it would be a “significant burden” to add families and “blow the case into some other galaxy” after the administration had “done all things to correct the wrong.”
Sabraw disagreed in his 14-page order.
“The hallmark of a civilized society is measured by how it treats its people and those within its borders,” he wrote. “That defendants may have to change course and undertake additional effort to address these issues does not render modification of the class definition unfair; it only serves to underscore the unquestionable importance of the effort and why it is necessary (and worthwhile).” […]
[…] making a significant request for border wall funds and seeking money to stand up Space Force as a new branch of the military in the White House budget being released next week […]
The official said Friday that the president’s plan promises to balance the budget in 15 years.
Trump’s promises are worthless, and are based on ignorance.
Trump will seek $750 billion for defense, a boost for the military, while cutting non-defense discretionary spending by 5 percent below the cap […]
[…] Reductions are proposed, for example, for the Environmental Protection Agency. […]
The cuts being requested by the White House would hit discretionary spending as well as some mandatory safety net programs, […]
Budgets often rely on various accounting measures to achieve desired results. This one, for example, counts $546 billion in defense money as a base, but another $174 billion in another account to keep within caps.
And while the budget will suggest it balances in future years, it is also expected to rely on projections for continued economic growth from the tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017. But there’s no guarantee that would cover the lost tax revenues. […]
[…] most domestic spending is still saddled with caps that force departments and programs to move forward year by year under awkward constraints set in the 2011 Budget Control Act, no matter what the needs. As ABC News reports, defense spending is also supposed to be reigned in by the same act, but Trump’s proposal would address that by taking the small Overseas Contingency Operation fund and inflating it to a $174 billion slush fund operating outside of budget constraints — and under Trump’s ability to spend as he likes.
While setting aside enough money to build a gold-plated wall on every border, the Washington Post reports that Trump’s budget has a major target for cuts—poor people. Programs to fight poverty would see huge cuts under claims that they “discourage people from returning to work.” What would encourage them? Cuts to food assistance. Cuts to public housing. Cuts to Medicaid. Because nothing gets people up and working like being starving, sick, and homeless. […]
Overall, Trump’s budget would do the same thing he’s already done—steal from the poor, give to the wealthy, inflate the military, and provide even more money that he could use as he wills, […]
At least Trump wouldn’t have to fret another infrastructure week, because his budget also makes draconian cuts to transportation budgets. Forget high speed rail. Or rail. Along with any effort to address America’s crumbling bridges and roads.
Even with a slush fund larger than the budget of most nations, Trump’s budget still includes many billions more for his wall. And it bursts the budget on the military—including billions to start up the Space Force—even though Trump last week announced plans to begin charging allies billions for the “privilege” of hosting American troops, a move that seems likely to greatly reduce the number of forces deployed in Europe and Asia. […]
More details regarding Trump’s budget proposal: focusing on the proposed massive cuts (70%!) to the Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.
[…] This attempt comes despite similar requests being roundly rebuked by Congress in the past two years, and the fact that clean energy remains extremely popular among Republican lawmakers and voters. […]
Earlier this week, in the first Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing dedicated to climate change in years, Murkowski [Senator Lisa Murkowski] singled out research, innovation, and efficiency as areas in which her committee can contribute to the ongoing debate over congressional action on climate change.
The White House doesn’t appear to be listening. Trump’s proposal will slash the budget for DOE’s Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EERE) from $2.3 billion to $700 million […]
So, yes, we are finding out about even more swamp creatures in Trump’s orbit.
[…] Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. […] Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have “gained a reputation for offering sexual services.” […]
Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. […]
Yang, who goes by Cindy, and her husband, Zubin Gong, started GY US Investments LLC in 2017. […] On a page displaying a photo of Mar-a-Lago, Yang’s company says its “activities for clients” have included providing them “the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce and other political figures.” The company boasts it has “arranged taking photos with the President” and suggests it can set up a “White House and Capitol Hill Dinner.” (The same day the Herald story about Yang broke, the website stopped functioning.)
[…] Yang is a registered Republican, and since 2017 she and her relatives have donated more than $42,000 to a Trump political action committee and more than $16,000 to Trump’s campaign. Her Facebook page, which was taken offline on Friday, was loaded with photos of her posing with GOP notables: Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Matt Gaetz or Florida, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, among others.
The GY US Investments website lists upcoming events at Mar-a-Lago at which Yang’s clients presumably can mingle with Trump or members of his family. […]
The overall message conveyed by the GY US Investments website seems clear: hire Yang’s company and she can get you close to Trump and his government—at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington. If the posted photos are authentic, she has been able to get Chinese clients at least into the Trump circle for a quick pic. They are a sign that this Chinese immigrant and Trump donor has used her contacts to go from massaging clients to massaging influence. […]
A new lawsuit from a Detroit man subjected to 911 calls for “gardening while black” could offer a way forward for other victims of recent racial profiling incidents.
[…] On March 1, a police officer in Boulder, Colorado, confronted an unidentified black man, a student at a local university, as he picked up trash in the yard of his student housing. Boulder police later said in a statement that the officer had approached the man “to determine if he was allowed to be on the property.”
In a video of the incident that went viral, the man explained that he lived and worked in the building, and showed the officer a student ID. But the officer still detained the man, saying that police needed to investigate further. When the man angrily objected to how he was being treated, the officer called for backup, saying that the man was “uncooperative and unwilling to put down a blunt object,” according to the Denver Post.
“You’re on my property with a gun in your hand, threatening to shoot me because I’m picking up trash,” the man in the video yells at an officer. […]
Marc Peeples, a black man living in Detroit, has filed a $300,000 lawsuit against three white women who he says repeatedly made up incidents and called the police on him for more than a year, starting in 2017.
In his lawsuit, Peeples notes that the women frequently called the police while he worked on a garden in the neighborhood, with the women eventually going so far as to accuse the man of committing a drive-by shooting, stalking them, and being a “convicted pedophile.” In 2018, the allegations led to Peeples being arrested and charged with stalking, but a judge threw out the case in October, saying that the women’s claims were “ridiculous” and “a waste of the court’s time and resources.” […]
Using a phone in a hotel lobby, trying to cash a check at a bank, babysitting white children, mowing lawns, selling water, eating at Subway, sleeping in a college common room, entering their own apartment buildings — this past year has brought us countless stories of black men, women, and children who were trying to go about their daily lives only to be interrupted by a stranger challenging their presence, challenges that often culminated in interactions with the police. […]
Peeples says the case was devastating, telling the Guardian this week that he lost his garden and work contracts, and had to spend money on defense attorneys who could help him get out of jail. As his lawsuit moves forward, Peeples says he believes there should be more accountability for the people making unnecessary 911 calls. […]
In private discussions with his aides, President Trump has devised an eye-popping formula to address one of his long-standing complaints: that allies hosting U.S. forces don’t pay Washington enough money.
Under the formula, countries would pay the full cost of stationing American troops on their territory, plus 50 percent more, said U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the idea, which could have allies contributing five times what they provide.
Trump calls the formula “cost plus 50,” and it has struck fear in the hearts of U.S. allies who view it as extortionate.
Rumors that the formula could become a global standard have especially rattled Germany, Japan and South Korea, which host thousands of forces, and U.S. officials have mentioned the demand to at least one country in a formal negotiation setting, said people familiar with the matter. […]
[…] a foreign national selling direct access to the President of the United States to other foreign nationals and one who happens to also be involved in the sex trade. The potential not only for venal corruption but blackmail, extortion and even espionage are all pretty obvious.
[…] Business people usually have business reasons for wanting to sidle up to the politically powerful. But MoJo found something much more direct. On its website Yang’s firm offered clients access to Trump and his family via Mar-a-Lago and other channels. The site offered “the opportunity to interact with the president”, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and other political figures. […]
It’s be understood since the President took office that he was in essence selling access to the Presidency by making his private club the locus of so much presidential activity. On a number of occasions he’s hosted dinners with foreign heads of state in the same dining room where members eat their own meals. […]
If you’re wondering why Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump had a hard time getting top level security clearances there are likely a number of reasons. But this kind of regime of checkbook access to the Trump inner circle must figure high in the equation and likely applies to many others in the Trump orbit.
[…] Yang’s business looks like a pretty standard pay for access operation. […] Yang pays Trump for her and family members Mar-a-Lago membership. Trump get his cut and she can start running her own influence peddling racket. But remember, Yang also appears to be in the prostitution business. At least one of his local area pals, Kraft, got busted using those services. Another mega GOP and Trump donor, John W. Childs got busted as part of the same sting, though it’s not clear it was the identical location as Kraft. […]
[…] There’s less than zero chance she’s the only one. And it’s just as unlikely that Mar-a-Lago is the only channel of Trump’s presidential corruption.
Whether or not Yang’s is just garden variety influence peddling, it has all the potential markers of something much more serious. […]
Can’t imagine why anyone thought it was necessary for the anti-hate resolution to include anti-Muslim bigotry, or how we ever could have imagined the Right’s attacks on Omar didn’t arise from a sincere opposition to religious hatred.
Russian internet trolls appear to be shifting strategy in their efforts to disrupt the 2020 U.S. elections, promoting politically divisive messages through phony social media accounts instead of creating propaganda themselves, cybersecurity experts say.
The Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency may be among those trying to circumvent protections put in place by companies including Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. to find and remove fake content that hackers created to sow division among the American electorate in the 2016 presidential campaign.
“Instead of creating content themselves, we see them amplifying content,” said John Hultquist, the director of intelligence analysis at FireEye Inc. “Then it’s not necessarily inauthentic, and that creates an opportunity for them to hide behind somebody else.”
…
While covert efforts to amplify divisive content originated by others isn’t a new technique, hackers and trolls seem to be embracing it heavily in advance of the next U.S. presidential election.
Wueest said he observed a decrease in the creation of new content by fake accounts from 2017 to 2018 and a shift toward building massive followings that could be used as platforms for divisive messages in 2020….
Update to #319: “.@RepAdamSchiff responds to Erik Prince’s recent comments about Trump Tower 2016 meeting on al Jazeera: ‘He’s certainly not telling the truth in that interview’. #MTP”
SC @335, there’s enough divisive, misleading content on U.S. based social media that Russian trolls and bots no longer have to take the trouble to create their own content. That’s disconcerting.
Thanks, in part, to Trump and to Trump’s cult followers, there’s lots of material for Russian trolls to amplify. Thanks to rightwing media outlets like Hannity on Fox News, Breitbart, etc. there’s a flood of disinformation.
I don’t think people are paying enough attention to how effective amplified disinformation can be. It’s one thing if your crazy uncle posts disinformation on his Facebook and Twitter feed, it’s another thing entirely if Russians pick it up and amplify it a thousand-fold.
“I’ve said all along that I don’t think Bob Mueller should rely on written answers,” Schiff told NBC News’ Chuck Todd. “When you get written answers from a witness, it’s really the lawyers’ answers as much as the client’s answer. And here, you need to be able to ask follow-up questions in real time.”
But, Schiff said, “I think the constraint that Bob Mueller is operating under is he had an acting attorney general who was appointed because he would be hostile to a subpoena on the president.”
The same can be said for newly-confirmed Attorney General William Barr, Schiff said.
The Intelligence Committee chairman said he also thought Mueller “feels some time pressure to conclude his work,” and “knowing that the White House would drag out a fight over the subpoena, that may be an issue, as well.”
Trump, he said, has “made plain” that he feels comfortable lying when he’s not under oath.
“After all, he has said, ‘It’s not like I’m talking before a magistrate.’ Well, maybe he should talk before magistrate.”
Five minutes late, Darrell Todd Maurina sweeps into a meeting room and plugs in his laptop computer. He places a Wi-Fi hotspot on the table and turns on a digital recorder. The earplug in his left ear is attached to a police scanner in his pants pocket.
Maurina, who posts his work to Facebook, represents the press — in its entirety.
He is the only person who has come to the Pulaski County courthouse to tell residents what their commissioners are up to, the only one who will report on their deliberations about how to satisfy the Federal Emergency Management Agency so it will pay to repair a road inundated during a 2013 flood.
Last September, this community in central Missouri’s Ozark hills became a statistic. With the shutdown of its newspaper, the Daily Guide, it joined more than 1,400 other cities and towns across the U.S. to lose a newspaper over the past 15 years, […]
As recently as 2010, the Daily Guide had four full-time news people, along with a page designer and three ad salespeople.
[…] the Daily Guide, like many smaller newspapers across the country, was hurt by a dwindling advertising market among national retailers. […]
“Losing a newspaper,” said Keith Pritchard, 63, chairman of the board at the Security Bank of Pulaski County and a lifelong resident, “is like losing the heartbeat of a town.” […]
Beyond the emotions are practical concerns about the loss of an information source.
Like many communities, Waynesville is struggling with a drug problem. The four murders last year were the most in memory, and all were drug-related.
Without a newspaper’s reporting, Waynesville Police Chief Dan Cordova said many in the community are unaware of the extent of the problem. Social media is a resource, but Cordova is concerned about not reaching everyone. […]
As “small newspapers wither and die, that’s going to cause major problems in communities,” he [Maurina] said. “Somebody needs to pick up the slack and, at least in this community, I’m able to do that.”
If Sarah Huckabee Sanders won’t host press briefings, why is she still getting paid?
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has hosted just one press briefing in the past 81 days, obliterating all records […] This accelerated strategy to choke off press briefings is part of a historic, incremental effort by the Trump administration to lock out the press—and, by extension, the public—from the government’s official duties and business.
And it’s working. The press briefings have been effectively buried, which raises an interesting question: If Sanders won’t do her job of briefing the press, why is she still pulling down a six-figure salary paid for by taxpayers?
[…] She now earns $179,000 a year, which ranks among the highest salaries that White House advisers are allowed to make.
Sanders’ no-show routine at the press briefings has become so absurd that White House reporters now dash out onto the grounds when they find out she’s giving a live interview to Fox News on the White House lawn. That’s one of the few ways they are able to ask Sanders questions on-camera: When she’s done with her Fox News interviews, reporters pepper her with questions on her way back into the White House. […]
Trump fancies himself as a top-rate media communicator and obviously thinks he should handle the duties of addressing the media.
He’s also specifically signaled that he doesn’t want his press secretary answering questions from the press. “The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the ‘podium’ much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press,” he tweeted in January. “I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!”
[…] Note that when Sanders held a briefing back on Dec. 18, 2018, she signaled to reporters that the White House would accept a bipartisan continuing resolution to keep the government open as the administration sought other ways to pay for a border wall. Yet the very next day, Trump announced he wouldn’t accept the funding deal, which made Sanders look like she was completely out of the West Wing information loop. […]
I think it’s an incredibly lenient sentence in light not just of the offenses he [Paul Manafort] was convicted for, but for the additional offenses that he, has pled guilty to in D.C. and the offenses he’s acknowledged essentially, in the sentencing process in Virginia, that he is responsible for. So, like most people, I was shocked by how lenient the sentence was.
There’s no question he’s going to get additional time from D.C. I don’t think it’s the job of the D.C. courts to rectify a mistake or something that was done in another jurisdiction. I’m sure that Judge [Amy Berman] Jackson will approach her sentence with just keeping an eye on the facts of that case but there’s no doubt he’ll get additional time from that process.
Trump is planning to demand $8.6 billion in new wall funding, setting up fresh battle with Congress.
[…] In Trump’s annual budget request to Congress, he will request $5 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to continue building sections of a wall along the Mexico border, three people briefed on the request said. He will request another $3.6 billion for the Defense Department’s military construction budget to erect more sections of a wall. […]
Asked if Trump’s new border funding request signals that a new budget fight is coming, Larry Kudlow, the White House’s top economic adviser, responded, “I suppose there will be. I would just say that the whole issue of the wall, of border security, is of paramount importance. We have a crisis down there. I think the president has made that case very effectively.”
The request will come as part of a broader proposal that would call for cutting $2.7 trillion in spending over 10 years for a range of programs, including welfare assistance, environmental protection and foreign aid. At the same time, Trump will seek to dramatically boost the military’s budget from $716 billion to $750 billion next year. […]
One senior administration official said the $8.6 billion in additional funding, combined with the money Trump is attempting to redirect with his national emergency declaration, would allow the White House to complete at least 722 miles of barriers — a figure that has long been a White House goal. […]
In a rare rebuke of a high-profile host, Fox News on Sunday night came out strongly against the comments made a day earlier by host Jeanine Pirro about Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
“We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar,” the network said in a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter. “They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.”
Pirro, who hosts a Saturday night show that is a favorite of President Donald Trump, had drawn backlash for saying that Rep. Omar is “Sharia-compliant” and has practiced “Sharia-adherence behavior” by wearing a hijab. “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution?” she asked….
…Vice President Mike Pence wrote that “the tyrant in Caracas danced” as his henchmen “burned food & medicine.” The State Department released a video saying Mr. Maduro had ordered the trucks burned. And Venezuela’s opposition held up the images of the burning aid, reproduced on dozens of news sites and television screens throughout Latin America, as evidence of Mr. Maduro’s cruelty.
But there is a problem: The opposition itself, not Mr. Maduro’s men, appears to have set the cargo alight accidentally.
Unpublished footage obtained by The New York Times and previously released tapes — including footage released by the Colombian government, which has blamed Mr. Maduro for the fire — allowed for a reconstruction of the incident. It suggests that a Molotov cocktail thrown by an antigovernment protester was the most likely trigger for the blaze….
Everything other than acknowledging the lie in this NYT story is bullshit (I’ll once again point people to Alan MacLeod’s Bad News from Venezuela for context). Also, I know nothing about what caused the power outages in the country, but the notion that it couldn’t possibly be sabotage isn’t tenable. Absolutely everything in the history of the Venezuelan Right, successive US administrations’ treatment of Venezuela (and Latin America more generally), and the nature of the Trump would-be regime and those who people it suggests that it’s entirely plausible that this is in their toolbox. It certainly isn’t much more radical than several of the well-documented actions we know have already been taken by these forces.
I didn’t know this was happening today – George Papadopoulos is testifying before the Senate Intel Committee. Evidently last fall he was asking for immunity before he testified, but I can’t find any reports on whether that was granted. Would be great if someone asked him about his 2016 meetings with Greek officials.
President Donald Trump on Friday reportedly complained about American Jews who don’t support his agenda, telling a room of donors that he didn’t understand how any Jew could vote for a Democrat.
According to Axios, which spoke to attendees of Trump’s speech to Republican donors at his Mar-a-Lago club on Friday, Trump reportedly remarked at one point during his remarks: “The Democrats hate Jewish people.”
Per Axios: “Trump said he didn’t understand how any Jew could vote for a Democrat these days. Trump talked about how much he’d done for Israel, noting his historic decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.”
The outlet added that Trump bragged about hypothetically polling at 98 percent were he to run for prime minister of Israel.
It’s true, according to scattered polling, that Israelis, and especially Jewish Israelis, generally support Trump. But the opposite is true for Trump’s actual Jewish constituency: Jews who are eligible to vote for him….
More at the link. Also true that there are twenty-something Jewish representatives, of whom only two are Republican, and I think nine Jewish Senators, of whom zero are Republican.
…And here’s the final irony: If Brexit was the creation, in part, of this new world of offshore money and political influence campaigns, Brexit may well ensure that it continues unrestricted. The E.U. is probably the only power in Europe — maybe even the only one in the world — with the regulatory strength to change the culture of tax avoidance. And since 2016, it has been slowly enacting rules designed to do exactly that. Britain, once it leaves the E.U., may well be exempt.
British industry might suffer after Brexit, and British power will be reduced. But the gray zone — where politics meets money, where foreign money can become domestic, where assets can be hidden and connections concealed — will survive. Perhaps that was the point all along.
Buckle up: The next five days could reveal how the Mueller probe will play out.
Paul Manafort will know how long he’ll be serving in prison, closing the book on special counsel Robert Mueller’s most visible legal fight. Roger Stone will know his trial date, putting a timeline on when the public will get more details about his alleged contacts with WikiLeaks. And status reports are due for two of Mueller’s biggest cooperators — Michael Flynn and Rick Gates — that will signal whether the special counsel has tapped them for all the information investigators need.
This week could even include the ultimate exclamation point: Attorney General William Barr announcing that Mueller has completed his assignment and that a summary version of his findings is imminent.
“It’s one of those moments when a number of the threads are finally starting to merge together, which is to be expected because we do appear to be near the end,” said Matthew Miller, a former Obama Justice Department spokesman….
“Just FYI Pete Buttigieg’s name is Maltese and Maltese is basically a dialect of Arabic, and his name is Pete Abu Djej, or Pete, Father [or Owner, according to the thread – SC] of Chickens.”
Update to #347: Tucker Carlson is unapologetic, Media Matters says it will be releasing more audio of his radio remarks (this bunch concerning “race and ethnicity”), and #FireTuckerCarlson is trending on Twitter.
I heard someone on TV (Gabe Sherman?) say the other day that Fox makes almost all of its advertising money from the daytime news shows – most advertisers don’t want to go near the nighttime hosts. I suggest they drop the evening opinion shows and replace them with news.
This budget captures, in dollars and cents, the broken populist promises of Trump’s 2016 campaign. On the heels of a massive, deficit-busting tax giveaway for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, the president has proposed slashing programs that support working- and middle-class Americans—health care, education and job training, infrastructure, housing, and nutrition assistance included. Oil and energy companies scored a win with deep cuts to resources that keep our air and water clean.
President Trump’s proposed cuts to domestic programs are immoral and irresponsible. The budget sequester was designed to be so unworkable that it would never go into effect. But the Trump budget is seeking to cut domestic programs to sequester levels, effectively cutting them by about 9 percent next year and, ultimately, by 35 percent. That would be devastating for families, children, and communities across America, as well as for our future economy. By releasing only a partial budget today, Trump and his cronies are concealing the true nature of the cuts they are demanding—even as wealthy corporations are reaping tens of billions of dollars each year from the Trump tax cuts.
On top of his preposterous emergency declaration, the president has requested an absurd sum of funds from the departments of Homeland Security and Defense for his immoral wall with Mexico—just months after Congress, on a bipartisan basis, rejected his last request to fund the wall. He has proposed stripping money for foreign assistance and diplomacy—a proposal that will, make no mistake, make our country less safe.
It’s time for Trump to turn off the Fox News fantasies and work with the new Congress on priorities that put the American people, rather than corporate CEOs and Washington lobbyists, first.
Bouteflika NOT running again
PM OUT, Prez meets head of mil.
Technocrat Gov to come in
Dialogue, constitutional council, reform plan starts
Elections 18 April
Celebrations In streets!! Bouteflika prez since 99″
SC @360, thanks for posting that. It’s a good analysis of the Trump budget.
This sentence requires rewriting in order to make it easier to read: “President Trump’s proposed cuts to domestic programs are immoral and irresponsible.” It should read: “President Trump proposed immoral and irresponsible cuts to domestic programs.”
SC @353, Well, that analysis was right on the nose! Very clearly explains Brexit. [insert a string of swear words.]
SC @351, it was so frustrating to watch Sarah Huckabee Sanders answer questions about that this morning. At one of her exceedingly rare press conferences. She used the “ask the Democrats” ploy, or she blamed the Democrats for just about every difficult question.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders contorted herself to avoid NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson’s question about President Donald Trump saying that Democrats hate Jewish people, eventually snapping at the reporter as she continued to push.
“I’m not going to comment on potentially leaked [information],” Sanders said, referring to the Axios report of leaks from a donor event at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.
“I think they’ve had a lot of opportunities over the past few weeks…” she continued, as Jackson cut in to try to force a yes or no answer.
“I’m trying to answer,” Sanders snapped. “If you stop talking, I’ll finish my statement.”
Sanders concluded — very confusingly — by saying that Jackson should ask Democrats why Trump said they hate Jewish people.
When we haven’t seen her for awhile, and then Sarah Huckabee Sanders crawls out from under her rock to speak to the press we are reminded just how awful she is at her job.
From the readers comments:
Do we need to point out that a report from someone who was at a fundraiser is not a leak?
——————–
When confronted with Trump’s failure to condemn white supremacy, Sarah Sanders inexplicably pivoted to inflammatory and dangerous anti-abortion rhetoric, telling reporters that Democrats rip babies from their mothers and kill them. [from Caroline Orr]
——————-
Ms. Sarah doesn’t have a press conference for 42 days BUT she can go spew her sht on F&F daily and now she not only ‘snaps’ at a reporter but thinks the DEMOCRATS have a clue why Donnie tweets the crap he does? You CANNOT make this stuff up.
——————–
As Otter from Animal House would say, “Hey, it’s gotta work better than the truth.”
More white supremacist views, and other forms of blatant bigotry, from the Republican camp:
Bennett Bressman has “more compassion for small dogs than illegals” and claims his “whole political ideology revolves around harming journalists.” He uses the n-word freely and cracks jokes about the Holocaust.
Bressman also happens to have served as statewide field director for Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts’ successful 2018 reelection campaign.
A shocking trove of leaked private messages Bressman sent over Discord, an online gaming platform popular with white nationalists, were surfaced Sunday by Anti-Fascist Action Nebraska. Under the handle “bress222,” Bressman made over 3,000 comments on the page for white nationalist YouTuber Nicholas Fuentes[…] The chats were made public by Unicorn Riot, a volunteer nonprofit media outlet known for exposing the internal communications of white nationalists.
[…] Bressman acknowledged that the profile belonged to him and claimed he no longer held these “really bad” views.
“It makes me sick to my stomach to go back and read,” Bressman said. “There’s a big disconnect between those words and who I am. I am disgusted by them and a lot of what I said is sick and twisted.”
“I am shocked and horrified to learn that this former staffer made these statements and I had no idea he harbored these feelings. He never expressed these views to me. I condemn these statements and this hateful worldview, which do not reflect my beliefs or the beliefs of Nebraskans,” Ricketts said in a statement.
The Nebraska Republican Party, where Bressman worked as an unpaid intern, did not immediately return TPM’s requests for comment. […]
A plaque on Donald Trump’s locker at his company’s Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida lists him as the champion of a tournament in which he did not compete, Golf.com reported Monday.
What’s more, the website reported, Trump wasn’t the original “winner” of the tournament, and he’s not even the only winner currently.
Elsewhere at the club, according to the report, 58-year-old investment firm CEO Ted Virtue is named champion.
According to Golf.com’s unnamed sources “who recounted the story,” Trump ran into Virtue after Virtue won the club’s 2018 championship and remarked something along the lines of: “The only reason you won is because I couldn’t play.”
Trump proposed a nine-hole game, to which Virtue agreed. Trump, reportedly, won. He then said: “This isn’t fair — we’ll be co-champions.”
The incident recalls other suspiciously frivolous claims from the Trump Organization: Numerous Trump properties sport “Star Diamond” plaques, though that distinction is awarded by Trump associated Joey “No Socks” Cinque’s group, the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences, which has prodigiously cross-pollinated over the years with Trump’s family and employees. […]
Regarding Trump’s budget … and several of his lies:
[…] Trump for the first time calls for cutting $845 billion from Medicare, the popular health care program for the elderly that in the past he had largely said he would protect.
Not “largely said,” but “definitely said” Over and over again he said that he would not cut Medicare and that he would protect Medicare. He also falsely claimed that Democrats would cut Medicare.
His budget would also propose a major overhaul of Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans run jointly with states, by turning more power over to states. This would save $241 billion over 10 years. […]
“I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid. Every other Republican’s going to cut, and even if they wouldn’t, they don’t know what to do because they don’t know where the money is. I do. I do.”
Trump said that in 2015.
Trump said this in November 2018:
Democrats want to raid Medicare to find socialism. It won’t last long. Republicans will protect Medicare for our great seniors who have earned it.
Now, Trump is betraying everyone he ever spoke to, everyone who heard his speeches on Fox News, etc. Trump has proposed a budget that cuts Medicare.
[…] Trump hosted a meeting last week of his American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, which includes a variety of prominent private-sector leaders. In fact, the president sat next to the CEO one of the world’s largest companies: Apple’s Tim Cook.
Turning to Cook, Trump said, “I mean, you’ve really put a big investment in our country. We appreciate it very much, Tim Apple.”
As verbal slip-ups go, this seemed unimportant. The president obviously meant Tim Cook, not Tim Apple. The Apple CEO had a little fun with the error — he changed his last name on Twitter to his company’s iconic logo — but it wasn’t long before everyone moved on and forgot about it.
Well, perhaps not everyone.
Republican donors in attendance called it one of Trump’s weirdest lies ever. On Friday night, under a tent erected over the pool at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, President Trump claimed the media were spreading “fake news” when they said he called the CEO of Apple “Tim Apple.”
Trump told the donors that he actually said “Tim Cook Apple” really fast, and the “Cook” part of the sentence was soft. But all you heard from the “fake news,” he said, was “Tim Apple.”
Two donors who were there told me they couldn’t understand why the president would make such a claim given the whole thing is captured on video.
[…] Last week’s minor error — he very clearly said “Tim Apple” — was unimportant, but Trump apparently didn’t appreciate being the target of harmless jokes, even for a day. And so he lied, again, even when the truth would’ve been easier.
[…] I know why he continues to lie about border-wall construction and the health of the economy: the truth would likely make it tougher for him to win re-election.
[…] emblematic of a more unsettling dynamic: Trump sometimes lies when he doesn’t have to.
Postscript: The official White House transcript, apparently eager to make the president feel better, used some creative punctuation. In reality, Trump said, “We appreciate it very much, Tim Apple.” The official transcript, however, reports that the president said, “We appreciate it very much, Tim – Apple.”
Update: At the exact minute I published this post, Trump tweeted, At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!”
First, why the president wants to focus attention on this is a mystery. Second, does Trump really expect anyone to believe saying “Tim Apple” instead of “Tim Cook” saved time?
Trump didn’t need to talk about this at all. It was a meaningless sip of the tongue, which was quickly forgotten. But he just can’t seem to help himself.
Not “largely said,” but “definitely said” Over and over again he said that he would not cut Medicare and that he would protect Medicare. He also falsely claimed that Democrats would cut Medicare.
When he told these lies in 2016, the pundits couldn’t stop claiming how he, like Sanders, had tapped into genuine concerns and discontent (which he had – the problem was that it was patently obvious even then that he was lying through his teeth and that the Republican Party would never go along with that in any case, but they failed to mention that). What’s amazing is how there’s silence from the same people when he and the party not only used all of their legislative juice to try to take away health care from tens of millions of people and cutting taxes on plutocrats and corporations but have now dropped even the slightest pretense of advancing a program that would make people’s lives better in any way. They are proposing absolutely nothing to advance USians’ well-being or freedom. No program at all. They have nothing other than attacks on Democrats’ positive agenda and policies – in healthcare, education, the environment, labor rights, voting rights, women’s rights, the opioid epidemic, gun control, anti-corruption, criminal justice reform, reducing corporate power,… The Republican Party is completely bankrupt and at this point has only its negative appeals to fear and hate, its lies, and its destructiveness. It’s just a total collapse. This needs to be highlighted.
Personally, I speculate the Sanders and his campaign just don’t want the public to know how much wealth he actually has because it will be at odds with his working class advocate persona.
Which is also part of why the campaign is pivoting away from issues to background “story.”
“Much of the mainstream media blew it on this [Unicorn Riot] leak. It’s an absolute TROVE w/o much MSM coverage. So far, journos have revealed:
– A plot in support of Steve King
– A plot to take over TPUSA
– A plot to infiltrate GOP
– A ton of white nationalists in positions of power
The leaks reiterate a point that a lot of folks still don’t seem to get: White nationalists and other extremists don’t work in a vacuum that we can step into and out of by turning the TV on and off. They are among us already and are quite literally seeking to reach our children.”
They must’ve blown it – I had seen some of these reports and had no idea they all came from the same leak.
On March 26, the justices will tackle two of the highest-profile cases of the term, involving partisan gerrymandering – the idea that state officials went too far in considering politics when redistricting, by drawing maps that favor one political party at another’s expense. But first, on March 18, the justices will once again tackle another thorny issue: accusations of racial gerrymandering, the idea that legislators relied too much on race during redistricting.
The events giving rise to Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill began back in February 2011, when Virginia’s General Assembly received new data from the 2010 census and started to draw a new map for the state’s House of Delegates. The final map included 12 districts in which 55 percent of the voters were African-American.
The state legislature adopted the map, and Virginia’s governor approved it. At the time, because Virginia had a history of voting problems, it was also required by federal voting laws to obtain federal approval before changing its maps – a process known as “preclearance” – which it did.
But residents of those districts went to court, arguing that the districts were the product of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. In particular, the challengers alleged, African-American voters had been illegally packed into the districts, diluting their voting strength in nearby districts and making those districts more hospitable to Republicans.
The House of Delegates stepped in to defend the law, and a federal district court ruled against the challengers, who appealed to the Supreme Court. (Redistricting cases are among the small set of cases with an automatic right of appeal to the Supreme Court.) In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the district court had applied the wrong legal standard to the challengers’ claims. The Supreme Court agreed that one of the 12 districts did not violate the Constitution, but it ordered the lower court to take another look, this time using the correct standard, at the other 11 districts.
When the district court reconsidered the case, the court found that race had been the main consideration used to draw each of the 11 remaining districts. Because the legislature had not shown that it needed to aim to have the same percentage of African-American adults in each of the “vastly dissimilar” 11 districts to comply with federal voting-rights laws, the district court concluded, the districts violate the Constitution. This time, the House of Delegates appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case last fall.
Details on the key questions at the link.
KGsays
May has come back from Strasbourg claiming an “improved” Brexit deal. It appears to be a triple-decker nothingburger, the real question is whether the “D”UP and enough Tory Ultras are looking for an excuse to climb down (for fear of not getting Brexit at all) and can pretend with sufficient conviction that it gives them what they want. My hunch is that they won’t, but if the “D”UP back it, enough of the Ultras plus Labour Brexiteers will get it through.
Retired General Benny Gantz, who is heading the “Blue and White” party in the Israeli election and who is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political opponent, confirmed today that he will speak at the AIPAC annual conference in Washington on March 25th.
Why it matters: Netanyahu is also scheduled to speak at the conference on March 26th. The fact the two main contenders will speak there is going to turn the AIPAC conference into the main battleground of the Israeli elections for at least three days – two weeks before election day….
KGsays
The UK’s Attorney General (who has an anomalous position as a politically appointed member of the Cabinet but also its legal advisor, supposed not to bend their legal advice for political convenience although notoriously, Blair’s AG did in rubber-stamping the invasion of Iraq) has advised that the legal risk the UK could be indefinitely “stuck in the backstop” remains after May’s negotiated “improvements” to her deal. This means that if the “D”UP and Tory Ultras vote for the deal, they will be conceding what they have sworn not to concede. I can’t see them doing so.
Pompeo (I’m not linking to him): “The U.S. will withdraw all remaining personnel from [the US embassy in Venezuela] this week. This decision reflects the deteriorating situation in #Venezuela as well as the conclusion that the presence of U.S. diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on U.S. policy.”
Nigel Farage urged Donald Trump to back a no-deal Brexit when they met in Washington earlier this month.
Former Ukip leader Mr Farage told the US leader to support the idea that Britain should walk away if a bad agreement was on offer….
KGsays
A correction to my #382: the Attorney General is not a member of the Cabinet, although they do attend Cabinet meetings.
All the signs are that the “D”UP and Tory Ultras will oppose the “improved” deal, and it will go down to a heavy defeat – unless May pulls the vote, which is always a possibility but would cause outrage. Assuming it goes ahead and the deal is defeated, the next step is supposedly a vote tomorrow on a no deal Brexit. It’s as certain as anything can be that this will be rejected, and there is then supposed to be a vote (on Thursday, but could be brought forward) on asking the EU for an extension. But various EU figures have said this will not be granted just to allow a few more weeks of faffing about. The two possibilities are a short extension – to no later than 23rd May, to allow May extra time to get her deal through, or a long extension, meaning the UK would have to take part in the European Parliament elections, which run from 23-26 May. May (Theresa, that is!) will be desperate to avoid the latter, which would hold out the prospect of a new referendum; but unless the vote tonight is pretty close, I can’t see the EU agreeing to the former, unless just to give themselves more time to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.
Trump and his followers are trying to convince everyone that Jewish people are falling out with the Democratic Party. In fact,
“The Democratic percentage among Jewish voters has gone steadily up since Trump’s political rise! Hillary Clinton did better in 2016 than Obama’s showing from 2012, and then the 2018 midterms went still higher.”
Two former police officers have been arrested over the murder of the Rio de Janeiro councillor Marielle Franco, two days before the first anniversary of her death, which prompted international outrage.
Franco, a groundbreaking politician who was born in one of Rio’s largest favelas and became a voice for disadvantaged people in the city, was killed in a drive-by shooting along with her driver, Anderson Gomes.
She had criticised police killings in the favelas where she grew up and took part in a 2008 state legislature inquiry into the paramilitary gangs that dominate large areas of Rio state. Known as militias, these groups often include police officers.
The suspects were identified as Ronnie Lessa, a retired military police officer, and Élcio Vieira de Queiroz, a former police officer.
…
Prosecutors from a special organised crime unit said in a statement that the shooting was meticulously planned over the course of three months. “It is incontestable that Marielle Franco was summarily executed for her political activity in the defence of the causes she defended,” they added.
…
One of the detained officers lives in the same gated community in which the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has a home and lived before being elected last year.
…
Franco’s fiancee, Mônica Benício, told the Guardian: “This is an important step in the investigations, no doubt. But one year is too much time for a murder like this.
“More important than the arrests … is an answer to the most urgent question: who ordered Marielle killed? I hope I don’t have to wait another year to know who ordered all this.”
…
As a result of her murder, Franco has become a symbolic figure for Brazilian women. Last week, people used the city’s annual carnival to demand answers in the case.
Rio’s most famous samba school, Mangueira, paid tribute to the murdered politician with a sequinned show of song, dance and dissent. Partygoers streamed down Rio’s Sambadrome waving green and pink flags emblazoned with Franco’s image and placards reading “Justice for Marielle”.
Iraqis: “semiliterate primitive monkeys” who “don’t use toilet paper or forks.”
Afghans: “the people aren’t civilized”
White men: “creat[ed] civilization”
Barack Obama: “How is he Black?”
KGsays
Two Tory commenters on Radio 4’s midday news programme (Matthew Parris and Tom Newton-Dunn) agree that the deal is going to be defeated (Parris says by 100+) tonight, and that this will result in a national vote – Parris says a general election, Newton-Dunn a referendum – because the government will have “run out of road”. Either would require a long externsion to Article 50: a referendum would take months to organise, a general election can be held within a few weeks, but it would be absurd not to allow for the possibility of the new Parliament going for a softer Brexit, a referendum, outright cancellation, or calling on Macron, Trump or Putin to send in peace-keeping forces (joke, but only just). On the whole, I think they’re wrong, and May will try to kick the can down the road with a short extension to force her deal through once no-deal Brexit is voted down. In any case this means, hilariously, that the whole Brexit process will have put any of 27 foreign governments in a position to determine the UK’s political future by saying “No”!
Elizabeth Pipko is a 23-year-old model/former Trump campaign staffer.
“Jexodus” is not a real thing. It was launched at CPAC, by Republicans.
This is a manufactured narrative that exists solely on Fox & Friends/right-wing media, now pushed by POTUS
It’s the *exact same* strategy as the [] ‘#WalkAway’ movement, another fabricated Democrat ‘movement’ that went viral last year
…
This “movement” is quite literally a Donald Trump 2020 re-election campaign strategy, but you know, go off!
The other thing it has in common with the previous idiotic fake campaigns is that it looks like it’s being boosted by foreign bots and trolls.
KGsays
SC@387,
I think it orginated as a euphemistic form of “fucking about”, but it does give a much better sense of pointless flapping of arms and wittering!
@389 The ERG (European Research Group, the Tory Ultras) have said they can’t recommend voting for the deal (note – they didn’t actually recommend voting against, but many of their members will). Nothing official from the “D”UP, but it would be astonishing if they back it.
Guardian liveblog: “The president of the European parliament has responded to Geoffrey Cox’s advice that the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop remains by saying the EU can now make no further concessions. The legal issues identified by the attorney general are ‘an internal problem of the UK’, Antonio Tajani told reporters. There could be no further reconsideration of the deal by the EU27. ‘We are very clear’, he said. ‘It is impossible to change our position’.”
SC@396 – we cross-posted. I’m actually finding it difficult to focus on anything more constructive than following the BBC and Grauniad running updates today! Last night I booked my travel to London for the big anti-Brexit demo on 23rd. Timed for just before B-Day, but that now looks all but certain to be delayed. Possibly even cancelled: if any of the 27 say “no” to an extension, Parliament will have the choice of a no-deal Brexit or revoking Article 50 (this would have to be done by passing a law – only legislation can override legislation). I think (and hope) they’d go for the latter*, although I’d much rather have a fresh referendum.
*As I’ve noted before, this wouldn’t necessarily be the end of the matter. The ECJ ruling that the UK could do this unilaterally (a result of a case brought by Scottish politicians against strenuous UK government attempts to halt it), came with the caveat that it couldn’t be done simply to extend the process of leaving. So we might well have the bizarre and amusing spectacle of fanatical Brexiteers applying to the ECJ to overrule the UK Parliament!
KGsays
The Speaker has apparently decided thjat no amendments to the Government ‘s motion will be debated tonight, so there will be a single vote at 7pm UCT. This is probably sensible – May’s deal needs to be mercifully euthanased before anything else can usefully be done.
Re-Smog is now saying the ERG have not decided how to vote, although their legal team has said they shouldn’t back the deal. But I can’t in any case see many of them being able to swallow voting for it.
‘What matters is our actions. Our personal views, regardless of what they are, are irrelevant. What matters is what we do’.”
I seem to recall the Republicans, after her interview, hinting that she had given them (the Republicans specifically) useful information. Nothing ever came from it. I’m going to go ahead and assume they were lying and there’s nothing to support their insinuations in the transcript.
I’m getting a kick out of the Lisa Page transcript. At one point (p. 22), she’s saying she can’t remember details without seeing the specific statute and someone must hand her the text and she’s like “Rock on. Nice work. Thank you.”
So bias had nothing to do at all with respect to prioritization. If by what you mean is in October, so the Weiner laptop versus — I mean, as I tried to describe with the majority interview, ma’am, there is simply no greater threat than what the Russians pose to the United States.
They are — they have as an objective, as you well know, the sort of dismantling of the Western alliance and dilution of democratic ideals.
And so the notion that a Russian was offering assistance to a Presidential campaign was incredibly grave to all of us. And with all due respect to the Clinton investigation, the possible mishandling of classified evidence 3 years prior, for which we had yet to see any evidence, and for which we didn’t necessarily expect that, even with the sort of revelation of the Weiner laptop, there were certain things that ultimately made us interested.
But if you were weighing resources with respect to which poses a graver threat to national security, which is more, frankly, important, there is no doubt — at least in mine or anybody else’s mind that I know — that the Russia investigation posed an incredible threat to national security, and whether we got into the Weiner laptop simply did not.
Ma\y defeated by 391:242 – a majority of 149. May has announced that the vote on a no-deal Brexit tomorrow will be a free vote on the Tory side! This is an extraordinary abdication of responsibility on the Government’s part.
KGsays
Corbyn blethering about Labour’s supposed alternative Brexit and calling for a general election – again.
The two FBI executives Page describes as openly expressing hostility toward Clinton and even pressing their subordinates to “get her” are Charles H. (“Sandy”) Kable and Randy Coleman.
SC, (regarding many comments above that mention Lisa Page): Lisa Page sounds reasonable, intelligent, and very capable of doing her job.
In other news, thanks to KG and SC for keeping us up to date on the Brexit vote.
To refer back to SC’s comment 353, this is from text quoted in that comment:
[…] The E.U. is probably the only power in Europe — maybe even the only one in the world — with the regulatory strength to change the culture of tax avoidance. And since 2016, it has been slowly enacting rules designed to do exactly that. Britain, once it leaves the E.U., may well be exempt.
British industry might suffer after Brexit, and British power will be reduced. But the gray zone — where politics meets money, where foreign money can become domestic, where assets can be hidden and connections concealed — will survive. Perhaps that was the point all along.
Which brings me to SC’s later comment:
Nigel Farage urged Donald Trump to back a no-deal Brexit when they met in Washington earlier this month.
Of course he did. Nigel and Donald want to protect the gray zone where assets can be hidden and money can be laundered. And neither one of those reactionary dolts cares about the damage that will be done to ordinary citizens.
Trump likes to talk about airplanes, though he knows fuck-all about them:
Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better.
Split second decisions are needed, and the complexity creates danger. All of this for great cost yet very little gain. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!
From the Atlantic’s James Fallows:
Air Force One is probably the most complex passenger aircraft in existence.
Earlier bullshit comments from Trump:
In November, we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets.
The F-52 plane only exists in Call of Duty video games.
From Steve Benen:
[…] in November 2017, the president seemed to suggest he believes the F-35 fighter jet is literally invisible. “Even if [the enemy] is right next to it, it can’t see it,” Trump said.
Before that, the president was caught lying about Japan buying U.S. fighter jets and lying about Finland doing the same thing.
Trump has also been caught falsely bragging about lowering the price of a new Air Force One, which was followed by a series of claims about saving taxpayers millions on F-35 fighter jets, which were also demonstrably wrong.
In September 2017, Trump interrupted a meeting with members of Congress to complain that the emir of Kuwait’s plane was bigger than his. Two months later, Trump made up a bizarre story about Barack Obama, while aboard Air Force One, trying and failing to land in the Philippines last year.
And have I mentioned the failure of Trump’s defunct airline?
Last summer, Trump tried to defend his decision to cancel joint military exercises with our South Korean allies, pointing to the logistical difficulties of flying bombers from Guam. “I know a lot about airplanes,” […]
Trump’s tweet about climate change, from this morning:
Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace: “The whole climate crisis is not only Fake News, it’s Fake Science. There is no climate crisis, there’s weather and climate all around the world, and in fact carbon dioxide is the main building block of all life.” @foxandfriends Wow!
Oh, FFS.
Steve Benen debunked the nonsense:
[…] As is too often the case, Trump has no idea what he’s talking about. As Greenpeace USA explained soon after, “Patrick Moore was not a co-founder of Greenpeace. He does not represent Greenpeace. He is a paid lobbyist, not an independent source.”
The environmental organization added on its website that Moore has been a “paid spokesman for a variety of polluting industries for more than 30 years.”
Moore also happens to be an adviser to the Heartland Institute, a conservative advocacy organization that rejects the mainstream scientific consensus on the climate crisis.
Oddly enough, Trump neglected to mention any of this in his misguided tweet. […]
Look, I think that the real shame in all of this is that Democrats are perfectly capable of coming together and agreeing on the fact that they’re comfortable ripping babies straight from a mother’s womb or killing a baby after birth.
I’m sure Collins has some nefarious purpose in releasing these transcripts,…
Giving it some thought, it could be that he’s giving Trump notice of what the witnesses said and also providing material for the rightwing machine to dissect and distort.
Putting bits and pieces together from different reports and transcripts, it seems like the FBI had solid information in the summer of 2016 that the Russian regime had offered aid to someone in the Trump campaign and that offer had been accepted.
Re #425 (which seems to have caught someone else’s eye as well) – I don’t believe this is correct. The way I read these statements from Page and others suggests to me that they’re talking about intercepted communications between Russians referring to some member of the Trump campaign receiving and accepting an offer of help from the Russians, but they don’t know who the person on the campaign is.
On p. 82 of the second day’s testimony Page returns to the subject: “We get this predication that suggests [redacted] and we take these very discrete steps to figure out if this is true and, if so, who could be in a position to have received this information.”
Amazon is removing from its online marketplace “autism cure” books that unscientifically claim children can be cured of autism with pseudoscientific methods such as ingesting and bathing in a potentially toxic form of bleach and taking medication meant to treat arsenic and lead poisoning.
Amazon confirmed Tuesday that the books “Healing the Symptoms Known as Autism” and “Fight Autism and Win” are no longer available, but declined to answer specific questions about why it had removed them or whether they were part of a larger cleanup effort, citing a policy of not commenting on individual accounts.
The move by Amazon comes on the heels of a report in Wired published Monday that criticized the retail giant for offering medically dubious books and dangerous methods for reversing autism spectrum disorder. For years, news organizations have pointed out Amazon’s practice of hosting books that promote vaccine and other health-related misinformation, but the pressure has intensified in recent weeks.
Online platforms have been reacting to increased scrutiny from lawmakers and public health advocates over the health misinformation hosted on their websites. Last week, Facebook announced it would “downrank” vaccine misinformation shared on its platform and reject advertising that spread “vaccine hoaxes.” Pinterest has opted to block all vaccine-related search results, and YouTube disabled advertising on anti-vaccination videos last month. In February, Amazon pulled anti-vaccination documentaries from its Prime Video service….
Gov. Gavin Newsom is suspending the death penalty in California, calling it discriminatory and immoral, and is granting reprieves to the 737 condemned inmates on the nation’s largest Death Row.
“I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people,” Newsom said in a statement accompanying an executive order, to be issued Wednesday, declaring a moratorium on capital punishment in the state. “The death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Californian.”
He plans to order an immediate shutdown of the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison, where the last execution was carried out in 2006. Newsom is also withdrawing California’s recently revised procedures for executions by lethal injection, ending — at least for now — the struggle by prison officials for more than a decade to devise procedures that would pass muster in federal court by minimizing the risk of a botched and painful execution.
His actions, disclosed to The Chronicle by an administration source late Tuesday, come in the wake of a pair of close but unsuccessful efforts by death penalty opponents to repeal the state law at the ballot box….
Last week @arron_banks & @andywigmore went to Veneto, the heartland of Italy’s Lega Nord. Today, the plan is revealed. The fascists have agreed to help Britain exit without a deal. Salvini will block an extension of article 50….
In 2019 Russia will likely try to influence the European Parliament elections, continue intelligence and influence operations against the West, and keep preparing for armed conflict with NATO, according to the latest annual threat assessment by the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service.
NBC News obtained an exclusive preview of the 70-page report, which provides a window into the activity and goals of the Russian intelligence services from next door in Estonia.
Russia will target the European parliamentary elections in May, the report says, with a likely focus on the larger member states — Germany, France and Italy — where it can hope to have the most influence on the composition of the E.U. Parliament, whose members are elected for five-year terms.
…
The report says Russian intelligence services will continue the extensive cyberespionage campaign against the West that they have pursued for years, with the military intelligence service, called the GRU, and Russia’s spy agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB) directing most operations.
…
The report also tracks Russia’s military activities. Last year, says the report, the Russian military expanded its military build-up along the western border, placing seven new maneuver regiments less than 50 km (31 miles) from the border.
Most units are based near Ukraine and Belarus, but one division, the Pskov Air Assault Division, near the Estonian border “became the first division of Russian Airborne Troops to be reinforced with a third regiment.”
“Russian armed forces are preparing for a possible war along a wide front,” the report says.
Analyzing Russia’s most recent exercises, the report finds that “Russian armed forces are consistently practicing for an extensive military conflict with NATO.”…
…
Vladimir Putin continues to focus attention on Belarus and moving both the leadership and population closer to Russia and away from any western influences, according to the report. “If anything unexpected should happen to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka personally or to his regime, there will be a great risk of swift military action by Russia to prevent Belarus from becoming a pro-Western democracy,” the report finds.
A new trend identified by the report is the Russian state enlisting civilian ships and vessels to carry out activities on behalf of the government….
Re #432 – I think Cadwalladr is being extreme in her predictions (Salvini can’t block the extension; non-fascist governments may wish to vote against it for their own reasons). The point as I see it is what Farage, Banks, and Wigmore are doing and in whose interests they’re working.
Angela Merkel has said that securing EU leaders’ agreement on a Brexit delay up until the end of June will be “easy”, according to senior diplomatic sources.
Attitudes in some of the EU’s capitals towards a possible extension of article 50 have recently hardened, with diplomats complaining that London had been “lazy” and taken a positive decision for granted.
But the German chancellor let it be known at the recent EU-Arab summit in Sharm el-Sheikh that Berlin will not stand in the way, sources have disclosed to the Guardian.
…
The EU’s heads of state and government will discuss their terms and conditions for an extension at an upcoming summit should the Commons call on the prime minister to make a request.
…
Despite the confidence in Berlin at winning over the 27 heads of state and government, who would need to offer their unanimous support once a request is made, officials in Brussels fear Downing Street’s proposal for a delay could still tee up a potential disaster next week with a high risk that the leaders could react in unexpected ways.
The heads of state and government have repeatedly taken a tougher line than expected towards the British government.
…
A greater concern in Brussels is that the EU’s leaders might rule out any extension unless there is a clear reason beyond simply delaying an inevitable no-deal Brexit.
EU sources said that pressure from business is still likely to push leaders towards granting an extension of a few months, but there was a particular concern in the EU’s capitals that by simply waiving it through Brussels could end up being blamed for a no-deal Brexit in the summer.
Senior EU officials have warned member states that a very short extension would be “useless” and “resolve nothing”, and be a burden on businesses rather than a help….
Jude Kirton-Darling, Labour MEP, re #432: “There’s been lots of talk of treason, lots of vitriol but this is collusion with fascists to destroy British jobs & livelihoods. Nothing patriotic about these disaster capitalists.”
And Patrick Wintour reports: “Number of Tory MPs went to see members of Polish governing party last week in Warsaw – broadly on same errand, namely to block Article 50 extension.”
A court filing in the criminal case against Michael Flynn’s former business partner, Bijan Rafiekian, suggests Flynn was questioned about several federal investigations that could be coming to a head in the coming weeks.
The Justice Department attorneys cited these ongoing probes as they asked a federal judge to delay an upcoming deadline to give Flynn’s lawyers the FBI reports, known as 302s, that detail their client’s interviews with investigators.
“The 302s of General Flynn’s interviews relating entirely to matters other than the pending charges against the defendant contain information concerning a number of sensitive matters, including ongoing investigations,” prosecutors wrote in a Tuesday filing to the Alexandria, Va., federal court.
They added that they were trying to “coordinate” a solution with DOJ “that could moot much of the defendant’s request. However, this coordination requires time because of the various interests involved.”…
Russia plans to send delinquent youngsters to military-patriotic re-education camps and to install special software blocking banned websites in schools, the head of Russia’s Security Council has said.
President Vladimir Putin created a patriotic directorate inside the Russian army last summer, evoking memories of a Soviet practice that once taught soldiers the tenets of Marxism. Observers noted that Putin’s move could signal the start of a wider renaissance in ideological education that would spread to schools and colleges.
“Juveniles prone to committing offenses will be sent to military-patriotic camps in 2019,” Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency on Tuesday.
…
The security chief has in the past advocated for the creation of volunteer “internet brigades” of popular Russian bloggers to instill patriotism and spiritual values among Russian youth. Last year, Patrushev warned about the bad influence of satanists, opposition politicians and non-traditional religious organizations on the country’s youth….
We looked at all of the roughly 67,000 defendants sentenced in federal court in 2017. How many fraud defendants got the kind of way-below-guidelines Manafort received last week without DOJ’s support?
SC @436, thanks for posting that. I like the comment from Jude Kirton-Darling. Some people can still see through all the fraud and disinformation to tell the truth.
Team Trump is still trying to rescue Trump’s emergency declaration:
The White House is privately negotiating with Senate Republicans who want to rein in the emergency powers of President Trump and his successors — which could lead to the surprise defeat of a Democratic resolution rejecting Trump’s emergency declaration at the border.
That would mark a dramatic change in fortunes for Trump, who had been on track for an embarrassing defeat later this week in the GOP-controlled Senate in a confrontation with Congress over Trump’s border wall.
Key to quelling the GOP revolt is legislation drafted by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) that tries to claw back some emergency powers to Congress and whether the White House endorses some version of it. That would give Republicans who are uneasy about the constitutionality of the Feb. 15 declaration — yet nervous about publicly rebuking Trump — some political cover to side with the president.
Although four Republican senators have already announced they will vote to nullify the president’s emergency declaration, one of them — Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) — publicly indicated Tuesday after a private meeting with Vice President Pence that he could change his position if the administration and senators strike a deal on revising the National Emergencies Act. That would be enough to kill the resolution in the Senate, provided no other GOP senators oppose Trump’s declaration or alter their position. […]
That proffer of some kind of political cover does not sound like it would give the American people a good deal. It would save face for Trump, and that’s about it.
Here is an excerpt from analysis by Steve Benen:
[…] we have no idea if Trump would agree to limit his own power. There have been other instances in which Pence has tried to negotiate on behalf of the White House, only to have the president reject the terms his own vice president offered lawmakers.
For another, even if Republicans agreed to change the National Emergencies Act, it wouldn’t be retroactive. In other words, Trump’s recent gambit would be unaffected by the proposed “fix,” leaving GOP senators opposed to his policy with nothing but tepid assurances about the future.
Complicating matters, if Senate Republicans and the White House struck a deal to amend the National Emergencies Act, those changes would still have to be approved by the Democratic-led House – and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is not a party to this week’s negotiations, announced this morning that her chamber will not approve the Republicans’ solution.
“The House will not take up this legislation to give President Trump a pass,” Pelosi said in a written statement. […]
Postscript: In case this isn’t obvious, even if the bill were to pass, the president would veto it, and there aren’t nearly enough votes in place to override that veto. So why is the White House going to all of this effort to derail a proposal that will inevitably fail in the end?
In part because of the scope of the embarrassment Trump will feel if he’s forced to use his veto pen for the first time, and in part because congressional disapproval of the president’s emergency declaration is likely to matter in the courts, where the policy is facing a series of credible lawsuits.
Republicans have crafted a “paid family leave” deal called the “Cradle Act.” On the surface it sounds good. Then you look at the details and see that Republicans want to set up a system where you can make a loan to you.
[…] In nearly every advanced democracy on the planet, new parents receive paid family leave as a benefit of citizenship, like health care, police protection, and public libraries. Funding mechanisms vary, but the programs tend to be financed through tax dollars, government mandates on private industry, or some combination […]
Under the Republican vision in the United States, families should have similar benefits, just so long as they pay for it themselves by sacrificing future Social Security benefits.
In this model, the “pay” portion of paid family leave is money you’re supposed to receive when you retire. In other words, Ernst and Lee want to allow you to borrow against yourself. If enacted, the proposal empowers Younger You to spend time with your family’s new addition by getting money from Older You.
Business as usual for the Trump administration: failure to appoint qualified people to critical posts, reliance on subjective input from industry bigwigs, and a failure to carefully examine the facts.
The Trump administration resisted bipartisan calls to temporarily suspend use of the Boeing 737 Max 8, even as […] Trump consulted by phone with the besieged company’s CEO.
With the European Union and others following China’s move to bar flights by some of the American aviation giant’s most important airplanes, former transportation safety officials said the Federal Aviation Administration risked losing its status as the world’s aviation safety leader. [Text from the Washington Post]
From Steve Benen:
[…] This coincided with reports of complaints from American pilots, flying American commercial flights, some of whom have said they, too, have experienced difficulties with this specific plane.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration is resisting pressure. The president spoke directly with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg — an executive who’s cultivated ties with [Trump] — who insisted that the plane is safe, and at least for now, Trump isn’t taking the steps we’re seeing other countries take.
At this point, one might assume the president would initiate a series of conversations with his FAA chief. That, however, apparently won’t happen — because Trump hasn’t nominated anyone to lead the FAA. […]
Bottom line, Manafort got 43 more months in prison.
[…] The judge has sentenced Manafort to 60 months for count 1, the conspiracy charge, but 30 months will be concurrent — meaning at the same time — as the sentence imposed in Virginia. Judge Berman Jackson sentenced Manafort to 13 months for the witness tampering count. That sentence will be consecutive, meaning on top of the other sentences. That means, essentially, Manafort faces a sentence of 43 months prison in addition to the 47 months he received in the Virginia case. […]
Another charge against Manafort, this time from a state court, not federal:
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted by a New York state grand jury on mortgage fraud charges Wednesday, immediately after being sentenced to more than 7 years in prison in D.C. federal court.
The case is being brought by Manhattan District Attorney, Cy Vance, Jr.
Manafort is charged with 16 separate counts in New York state, including mortgage fraud, conspiracy, and falsifying business records.
In a statement, Vance said that a grand jury investigation begun in March 2017 had “yielded serious criminal charges for which the defendant has not been held accountable.”
Speculation has mounted that Trump could pardon his former campaign chairman on the federal charges, and Vance had been looking at state charges as a way to thwart Trump’s pardon.
Manafort is expected to object to the state charges on double jeopardy grounds.
Since Manafort has been convicted of felonies on 2 separate cases, this actually bumps his NY crimes up to the sentencing guidelines for “persistent felons” meaning instead of 1-3 years for each of those felony Bs he’s facing 15 years. Maybe that’s why they waited to charge him until this sentence was handed down.
——————
Imagine how it feels to have one sentenced doubled in the morning and then get hit with a sheaf of new indictments before lunch is over. Not your day, Paulie!
Manafort’s lawyer tried to say “no collusion” (again! even after Judge Jackson lambasted them for that non sequitur!) outside the courtroom today, but hecklers shouted him down:
Kevin Downing, lawyer for Paul Manafort, was quickly drowned out by hecklers as he tried to say that his client’s sentencing proved that there was “no collusion.”
“What I’m about to say is not a surprise. Judge Jackson conceded that there was absolutely no evidence of any Russian collusion in this case. So that makes…two courts…two courts have ruled no evidence of any collusion,” Downing said before cries of “that’s not what she said!” and “you’re a liar!” drowned him out.
“You guys are liars! You’re not lawyers, you’re liars!” a man yelled as Downing pushed through the crowd to leave.[…]
Defense lawyers are not subject to the higher ethical standard imposed on prosecutors, but Kevin Downing still has a duty to the public and the judicial process not to openly distort settled facts or lie. Just minutes before the Judge Bergman had said the case had nothing to do with collusion, yet he was out there milking the narrow window of pardon time as hard as he could.
A report from the Trump administration actually tells the truth. And, surprise, surprise, the truth does not match what Trump himself has been saying.
Coal production will drop nearly 8 percent in 2019, and then another 4.5 percent in 2020, according to a new Trump administration analysis.
But over the same two years, total renewable power generation will rise 30 percent, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected on Tuesday.
So despite campaigning on a pledge to save the dirtiest of fossil fuels, […] Trump is overseeing a collapse in both domestic coal production and coal generation. […]
In fact, the EIA’s March “Short-Term Energy Outlook” projects that coal’s share of the U.S. power mix will drop from 27.4 percent in 2018 to 24.7 percent this year — its lowest level on record — and then to 23.4 percent in 2020.
Meanwhile, the EIA projects that wind, solar, and other non-hydropower renewables will rise from 10 percent of U.S. electricity generation in 2018 to 11 percent in 2019 and 13 percent in 2020.
Significantly, the EIA “expects wind’s annual share of electricity generation will exceed hydropower’s share for the first time” in 2019. […]
So what went wrong for Trump? After all, he had said he would end President Barack Obama’s supposed “war on coal.” But in reality he presided over a faster rate of coal plant retirements in his first two years than Obama saw in his entire first term.
The reality is no such war ever existed.
The inescapable problem for coal was — and still is — economics, not politics. As one leading industry analyst explained last year, under Trump “the economics of coal have gotten worse.” […]
At least four companies say they’re pulling advertisements from Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News show, Justice with Judge Jeanine, after she questioned whether Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) religious beliefs were “antithetical to the United States Constitution.”
Fox News has since condemned Pirro’s remarks, saying they had “addressed the matter with her directly.”
NerdWallet told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday that it would stop airing spots on Pirro’s show moving forward. “We’re no longer advertising on this show and don’t have plans to in the future,” the personal finance company said.
Allergan similarly told ThinkProgress on Monday that it would “not be advertising on [Justice with Judge Jeanine] moving forward.” The company’s ad for Botox Cosmetic aired during Saturday’s program. […]
[…] Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said he made his decision to ground the planes “as a result of new data that we received this morning” showing “possible” similarities between the Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 that crashed Sunday and a Lion Air flight using the same model of plane that crashed in October in Indonesia. […]
Now, finally, the U.S. is also grounding the Boeing 737 MAX planes.
[…] Trump on Wednesday announced the U.S. is grounding Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 planes after two fatal crashes involving the aircraft.
“Planes that are in the air will be grounded if they are the 737 Max. Will be grounded upon landing at their destination,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Coverage of the college admissions scam from Wonkette:
[…] C’mon, rich people, your kids were already born on third base. Don’t cheat their way across home plate.
Reading the court documents related to the case only raises our blood pressure to Vesuvian levels. Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy (we all know his ass was involved seeing as how he was on the phone calls) claimed their $15,000 bribe was for “disadvantaged youth.” This also made it tax deductible. We’re sure the IRS is already finding it interesting. […]
They also grossly abused the SAT accommodations for disabled students so their daughter could take the test alone with a bought-off proctor. This is the bit that wouldn’t make it into a movie because the parents would rightly look repulsive and you don’t want audiences throwing literal rotten tomatoes at the screen.
Huffman specifically showed no remorse or even a glimmer of conflict over her actions. If you want to see emotional struggle from her, check out Season 6 of “Desperate Housewives,” but you’re not getting it here. […]
Huffman didn’t pull the trigger on fixing the scores of her younger daughter, but this wasn’t because she saw the error of her ways in a third act emotional epiphany. She was just concerned her daughter’s SAT tutor might catch on.
“I just didn’t know if it’d be odd for [the tutor] if we go, ‘Oh, she did this in — in March 9th, but she did so much better in May.’ I don’t know if that’d be like — if [the tutor] would be like ‘Wow,'” Huffman told CW-1, per the court docs.
Gordon Caplan is (well, probably not for long) a New York attorney who paid $75,000 to the fake-ass charity Key Worldwide Foundation. He agreed with a scuzzy plan to “test” his daughter for a learning difference she might or might not actually have. […]
[…] one of Singer’s co-conspirators, referred to in the filing as “Cooperating Witness-1,” that her son had become sick and could not fly to Houston to take the admissions test, as had been the plan. The mother then asked if CW-1, who lived in Florida, could take the test on her child’s behalf in Houston while she had her son take a copy of the test at home so he believed he had actually taken it. […]
“What I’m about to say is not a surprise. Judge Jackson conceded that there was absolutely no evidence of any Russian collusion in this case. So that makes…two courts…two courts have ruled no evidence of any collusion,” Downing said before cries of “that’s not what she said!” and “you’re a liar!” drowned him out.
I’m very glad there were people there to shout that down, because that is outrageous. Totally shameful.
Parliament narrowly voted down No Deal. The MSNBC correspondent said an MP told him something like: “The good news is No Deal is off the table; the bad news is there’s no table.”
Marcy Wheeler: “For those asking: Downing is the Manafort lawyer working for Trump, effectively, both sharing details about prosecutors questions and spinning all the filings to most help Trump, in hopes of a pardon.”
Something I wonder about: did Trump andor Putin know about Eric Schneiderman’s secrets, and is that why he talked a big game but slow-walked the investigations?
The story is fairly complicated, and has now involved two Government defeats, the second by 43 votes, and involving a significant group of Tory Remainers defying the whip. The Government itself put down a motion saying the UK should not leave without a deal on 29th March. This was expected to get a big majority, but was an attempt by May to contain anti-no-deal sentiment. But they over-egged the pudding by adding that no-deal on 29th was the default (which, legally, it is, but it seems this was interpreted as May deliberately “keeping no deal on the table”. In any case, an amendment was put down, sponsored by backbench MPs from both Tories and Labour, removing all the dross so the motion would just say the House rejects leaving without a deal – i.e., at any time. The Tory sponsor, Caroline Spelman, came under heavy pressure not to press the amendment, and caved in, asking the Labour sponsors not to move it either. But one of them, Yvette Cooper, did. It was this amendment that passed by 4 votes. Another, nonsensical amendment putting forward the so-called “Malthouse compromise”, a confection whipped up by a mixture of Tory Ultras and ex-Remainiers but already rejected by the EU was voted down, the motion as amended was then passed by 43 (321-278) – which means a significant number of Tories must have voted for it.
May has now said if a deal (i.e. her deal) is not passed by next Wednesday, she will have to ask for a long Article 50 extension, and the UK will have to hold European elections in May (to my surprise, but I’m sure there’s some sneaky intent behind it – possibly she’s hoping the EU will reject this and therefore intends to put forward no clear reason for it). But the big news, I think, is that at least some Tories have finally felt obliged to defy the government whips. Spelman and other Tory Remainers or ex-Remainers are said to be furious with Cooper, but I think it’s a very good thing some of them have been forced out of their passivity.
Jerry Nadler is saying that in their meeting just now with (former acting AG) Matt Whitaker, in contrast to the open hearing last month, Whitaker didn’t deny having conversations with Trump about the Mueller and SDNY-Cohen investigations, the possible firing of US Attorneys, and the scope of the recusal of the SDNY dude (I’m blanking on his name).
The story is fairly complicated, and has now involved two Government defeats, the second by 43 votes, and involving a significant group of Tory Remainers defying the whip. The Government itself put down a motion saying the UK should not leave without a deal on 29th March. This was expected to get a big majority, but was an attempt by May to contain anti-no-deal sentiment. But they over-egged the pudding by adding that no-deal on 29th was the default (which, legally, it is, but it seems this was interpreted as May deliberately “keeping no deal on the table”. In any case, an amendment was put down, sponsored by backbench MPs from both Tories and Labour, removing all the dross so the motion would just say the House rejects leaving without a deal – i.e., at any time. The Tory sponsor, Caroline Spelman, came under heavy pressure not to press the amendment, and caved in, asking the Labour sponsors not to move it either. But one of them, Yvette Cooper, did. It was this amendment that passed by 4 votes. Another, nonsensical amendment putting forward the so-called “Malthouse compromise”, a confection whipped up by a mixture of Tory Ultras and ex-Remainiers but already rejected by the EU was voted down, the motion as amended was then passed by 43 (321-278) – which means a significant number of Tories must have voted for it.
I’m going to have to read this a few more times. And take an Excedrin. :)
OK, I’ve read it twice more and…I get it now! Thanks.
KGsays
Details of voted which way in the Commons tonight here. On the Cooper/Spelman amendment, 9 Tories defied the whip to support it, 6 Labour defied their whip to vote against. In the vote on the motion as amended, 17 Tories defied the whip to vote for it (2 Labourites defied the whip to vote against), 11 ministers abstained – but are not being sacked. When ministers defy the whip and get away with it, government credibility is approaching zero.
KGsays
I should reiterate that the motion makes no legal difference – only legislation can override the legislation that fixes 29yth March as the leaving date. But politically, it is highly significant.
#BREAKING: Rep. Jerry Nadler says during today’s closed-door meeting, former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker “did not deny that the president called him to discuss the Michael Cohen case and personnel decisions in the Southern District” — something he denied last month.
Per Rep. Jerry Nadler: While he was acting AG, Matthew Whitaker was also “directly involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more US attorneys” AND whether SDNY “went too far in pursuing the campaign finance case” involving Trump.
Saudi Arabian women’s rights activists stood trial on Wednesday for the first time since their arrest over nine months ago, a case that has intensified scrutiny of Riyadh’s human rights record after the murder of a prominent journalist.
Loujain al-Hathloul, Aziza al-Yousef, Eman al-Nafjan and Hatoon Al-Fassi are among 10 women to appear before the Criminal Court in the capital Riyadh, where charges were presented against them, court president Ibrahim al-Sayari said.
He was speaking to reporters and more than a dozen diplomats from the United States and Europe, who were barred from entering the court after receiving no response to earlier requests. Sayari cited privacy concerns for not making the trial public.
The women are among more than a dozen prominent activists, including several men, arrested in the weeks before a ban on women driving cars in the conservative kingdom was lifted last June. A few were previously released without trial.
…
ALQST, a London-based Saudi rights group, said the women were charged under the kingdom’s cybercrime law, which stipulates prison sentences ranging from one to 10 years. The accusations are related to human rights work and communications with “hostile entities”, ALQST said on Twitter.
The status of legal representation was unclear. Rights groups have previously said the activists had no access to lawyers during more than nine months of detention and interrogation.
Relatives said they were told at the last minute that the trial had been moved from the Specialized Criminal Court, which was set up to try terrorism cases but is often used for political offences.
It was unclear what was behind the decision, but diplomats said they were hopeful it signaled a more lenient handling of the cases after months of lobbying by Western governments.
Three dozen countries, including all 28 EU members, called on Riyadh last week to free the activists. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his British counterpart have said they raised the issue with Saudi authorities during recent visits….
“As a PPS, I had to resign when I voted against the first meaningful vote. Understood that, due to collective responsibility. Even though a relatively minor position, I was bound by that code. It is inconceivable that any Minister defying a three line whip can stay in position.”
Thought these links might be helpful to others like me:
“Cabinet source says ministers were told it was ok to abstain despite the three line whip – in what was described as ‘pandemonium’, they say the Chief whip couldnt answer question on whipping and PM didnt know what was going on.”
Video: Full Frontal – 2019-03-06
A Brief History of Brexit for Americans (7:06)
Prime Minister [Cameron] didn’t want Brexit, but he wanted their support in parliament, so he agreed to put their idea to a national vote, figuring they’d just lose, and then he’d have MORE POWER. So, he reduced this incredibly complex question down to an 11-word survey that looks more like an RSVP for a wedding.
The Leave campaign told lies on the side of a bus, and blamed immigrants on the side of a truck, and of course red hats. And the Remain campaign figured they were fine and basically took a very long nap. And you guessed it: Brexit won. But small issue: no one actually knows what Brexit means because no one actually expected it to win.
Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world’s largest technology companies, intensifying scrutiny of the social media giant’s business practices as it seeks to rebound from a year of scandal and setbacks.
A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices, according to two people who were familiar with the requests and who insisted on anonymity to discuss confidential legal matters. Both companies had entered into partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of its users.
The companies were among more than 150 firms, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Sony, that had cut sharing deals with the world’s dominant social media platform. The agreements, previously reported in The New York Times, let the companies see users’ friends, contact information and other data, sometimes without consent. Facebook has phased out most of the partnerships over the past two years.
…
It is not clear when the grand jury inquiry, overseen by prosecutors with the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, began or exactly what it is focusing on. Facebook was already facing scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. And the Justice Department’s securities fraud unit began investigating it after reports that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, had improperly obtained the Facebook data of 87 million people and used it to build tools that helped President Trump’s election campaign.
…
The Cambridge investigation, still active, is being run by prosecutors from the Northern District of California. One former Cambridge employee said investigators questioned him as recently as late February. He and three other witnesses in the case, speaking on the condition of anonymity so they would not anger prosecutors, said a significant line of inquiry involved Facebook’s claims that it was misled by Cambridge….
Mar. 14: Flynn hearings (gag order hearing; status conference)
Mar. 14: Senate votes on emergency resolution
Mar. 15: Gates joint status report due
Mar. 18/26: Supreme Court considers VA racial gerrymandering case
Mar. 19: Preet Bharara book release (Doing Justice)
Mar. 22: Supreme Court considers Mystery Appellant case
Mar. 25: Gantz speaks at AIPAC
Mar. 26: Netanyahu speaks at AIPAC
Mar. 27: Felix Sater House Intel testimony (semi-open)
Mar. 29: Brexit deadline
Apr. 3: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addresses joint session of Congress
Apr. 9: Israeli elections
British lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected leaving the European Union without a deal, paving the way for a vote to delay Brexit to seek a way out of Britain’s worst political crisis in generations.
In other news, here’s another big red flag, sirens sounding, holy crap! moment from the Trump administration.
The Trump administration is preparing to shutter all international offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a move that could slow the processing of family visa applications, foreign adoptions and citizenship petitions from members of the military stationed abroad. […]
[…] immigration advocates worry it is another Trump administration effort to discourage foreigners from attempting to come to the United States, and experts say closing the offices will shrink the nation’s engagement with the rest of the world.
“It is a pullback from the international presence of USCIS,” said León Rodríguez, a USCIS director during the Obama administration who has hosted naturalization ceremonies for military families in Frankfurt, Germany, and Rome. “It’s in keeping with this isolationist bent that this administration has had more broadly.” […]
Senators rebuked Trump over the Trump administration’s support for the Saudi Arabia-backed war in Yemen.
[…] The resolution passed by 54-46 with bipartisan support, the culmination of a years-long effort led by Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) to claw back Congress’s constitutional war powers and end American support for a humanitarian disaster in Yemen.
“Today, we in the Senate have the opportunity to take a major step forward in ending the horrific war in Yemen, and alleviating the terrible suffering of the people in one of the poorest countries on earth,” Sanders said in a Senate floor speech shortly before the vote. “Equally important, we can finally begin the process of reasserting the Congress’ responsibility over war making.”
Lee decried the “unconstitutional war effort” in “an undeclared war” in his own speech.
All Democrats voted for the resolution, and were joined by seven Republicans.
American involvement in supporting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as they lead a brutal effort to defeat Iranian-backed Houthi rebels has drawn increasing scrutiny, with both Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans questioning why the U.S. is supporting an effort that has caused such massive civilian casualties. An estimated 85,000 children have starved to death as a result of the war, according to the charitable group Save the Children, and the United Nations has declared the civil war the worst humanitarian disaster on the planet. […]
CORRECTION THREAD: I think we have a NY double jeopardy problem re: Manafort.
Let me first note that I have just spent 2 hours on a train comparing today’s new @manhattanda indictment to the old Mueller indictment.
Problem 1: Today’s indictment is badly written and confusing…
[…explanatory thread follows…]
I’m honestly stunned how incompetent this is. Cy Vance had a year to get this right. If there is something I’m missing, why didn’t Cy Vance write this indictment to clarify or address this problem?
You might be wondering about NY changing this double jeopardy law soon to fix the “pardon loophole.”
No way this applies retroactively to Manafort.
Ex post facto law.
See Supreme Court case Stogner v. California.
Cy Vance has some explaining to do….
Walter Dellinger: “In more than half a century in law, I have never before seen a lawyer rebuked in court for a false statement then go outside before cameras and repeat the same lie. What is he thinking?”
Peter Grant, MP, re #432: “The people who bankrolled Brexit to ‘take back sovereignty’ are asking the successors of Mussolini to help them impose a completely different kind of Brexit from the one they promised.”
Democracy is good for your heart, health and longevity, a major study of 170 countries has concluded, in a boost to a form of government that has faced significant setbacks around the world in recent years.
Life expectancy improved more quickly in countries that switched to democracy over the past 50 years, the researchers discovered, and there were fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease, diseases such as cancer and cirrhosis, and even road traffic accidents.
The study, published in the Lancet, said it was not just that democracies tended to be richer: the “democracy effect” was far stronger than any GDP effect.
“Free and fair elections appear important for improving adult health … most likely by increasing government accountability and responsiveness,” the study said. “Democracies are more likely than autocracies to lead to health gains.”
The report comes at a time when democracy is being challenged perhaps as never before….
…
“We estimate that, between 1994 and 2014, the increases in democratic experience resulted in 16 million fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease globally,” said [lead author Thomas] Bollyky.
He added that if China had experienced the same democratic transition that a country such as Poland achieved over that period, it would have saved 10 million lives of people who died from that one illness….
In case KG is busy, here’s a link to today’s Guardian Brexit liveblog. Evidently Trump just tweeted, griftily, “My Administration looks forward to negotiating a large scale Trade Deal with the United Kingdom. The potential is unlimited!”
KGsays
Yet another Brexit update.
Despite two stakes being hammered through its heart, May’s Brexit deal is rumoured to be stirring in its crypt yet again! Because of last night’s Commons votes against a no-deal Brexit, the “D”UP and many of the ERG Tory Ultras are reportedly seeking an excuse to back the deal in a third vote on it. The straw they are clutching at is Article 62 of the Vienna Convention, which defines when a party to an international treaty can (under international law) terminate or withdraw from a treaty due to a “fundamental change of circumstances”. The Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, has already said he does not see how this could be invoked by the UK to end the backstop, nor AFAIK has any relevant expert suggested it could, but Cox is clearly under pressure to change his view. Supposing he does, there are still a number of obstacles to the deal being agreed:
1) The Speaker would have to allow it to be brought back for another vote. There is a rule of procedure that the Commons cannot be asked to vote again on something it has rejected within the same Parliamentary session. The second vote on the deal was presumably allowed because of the figleaf agreed by the EU negotiators in an attempt to allow May to pretend she’d got changes. What the justification would be for a third bite of the cherry is not clear.
2) If it was a change in Cox’s legal advice (a) I’m not sure that would be enough for the Speaker and (b) if that change were in Cox’s legal advice on Article 62, it’s doubtful if the European Parliament would accept that a Commons vote “for the deal” was actually any such thing, as they would effectively be saying: “We accept this treaty, but if we later don’t like it, we’ll tear it up”.
3) In any case, the same votes that have frightened the “D”UP and many Tory Ultras, combined with the breakdown of Tory Party discipline, may have emboldened Tory Remainers to vote against the deal.
4) Also, at least some of the ERG are likely to go on opposing the deal come what may, because they want a no-deal Brexit and still think they are likely to get it if they keep their nerve.
Meanwhile, the Leader of the House, Andrea GrueLeadsome, has laid out the proposed Government business for next week, which does not include any debate on Brexit! See below.
Meanwhile also, today there is to be a vote on a Government motion to ask for an Article 50 extension. I can’t find the text of the motion, but 8 amendments have been submitted, more may come today, not all will be chosen by the Speaker for debate. Several of those already submitted concern a new referendum. One of these tries to rule such a referendum out. If Corbyn does not impose a three-line whip on Labour to oppose it, he’ll have given up the faintest pretence of obeying the Labour Conference resolutioon, which specified that it was to be “kept on the table”. One of those planned to be put down today sets aside next Wednesday for “indicative votes” on what the Commons wants. If passed (I think it will be, it has support from Labour, Tory and SNP MPs) it will represent the commons taking the initiative from the Government – long overdue!
Matthew Miller: “Like all of the various pardon conversations, it’s not clear what exactly Trump said when he talked to Whitaker, but what is clear is that it’s something they’re trying very hard to hide.”
The Labour MP Chris Bryant has tabled a manuscript amendment to today’s motion that would stop Theresa May putting her deal to a vote again, the Mirror’s Dan Bloom reports.
Screenshot at the liveblog. (I used to have to stop to remember that “table” meant the opposite there that it does here, but now I’ve been reading British political news for so long I would be confused by the US use.)
KGsays
I hadn’t seen SC’s link @493, which suggest’s Italy will block an extension to Article 50. I’ve no idea whether this is accurate (for one thing, Salvini is not the Italian PM), but if it is – and assuming May’s deal does not go through (I still think it won’t), the Commons would be left to choose between no deal and revoking Article 50. I’m inclined to think there are more MPs who would favour revocation in those circumstances, but no deal would have the big advantage of being the default. Either choice would lead to a political crisis on a scale not seen in the UK since 1940 at least.
KGsays
Arrgh! Apologies for the spurious apostrophe in #499. I will now retire to the drawing room with a glass of whisky and a revolver.
“Cohen says he is guilty of contributing to Trump’s damage to the country, just as these Republicans are doing now. Like they’re doing now, he says, ‘I protected Mr. Trump for 10 years’.”
CNN’s liveblog has something interesting. Emphasis mine:
Trump seems to like micromanaging the bits that could get him in trouble. That ups the odds of finding an incriminating paper trail.
More Republican tomfoolery:
Elie Mystal:
WOW.
Which reminds me, Daniel Dale is live-Tweeting the hearing too.
Cohen’s requested a break, so things should slow down for a bit.
Well, this is interesting. From CNN’s liveblog:
Even if there is no explicit collusion, it’s obvious Trump and the Kremlin are fellow travelers.
Shoot, that was a quick break. About the BuzzFeed story:
Reinforcing my earlier observations about the Republican strategy:
We’re in a weird Twilight Zone episode where everyone agrees Trump is guilty of committing crimes, but we differ on what should be done about it.
When your enemy insists on defending an absolutely indefensible position, encourage him all you can, and then beat the living crap out of them until you see the fear dawn in their eyes, indicating that they’ve begun to realize the untenability of their predicament.
Then, beat the crap out of them some more.
Cohen debunked Trump’s story about bone spurs keeping him out of the military. Cohen then notes that it is ironic that Trump is in Vietnam today.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
Please, please, PLEASE continue to paint Michael Cohen as a criminal, Republicans.
Another interesting moment from Cohen’s testimony:
Link
Yet another:
“Big: Cohen says changes were made to his testimony about the Trump Tower Moscow deal by Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow (and maybe others on Trump’s legal team, but he was cut off.) The changes included his statements about how long the negotiations went on, Cohen says.”
For the love of god, will some Democrat please follow up on this?
Trump is in Vietnam, he is meeting with North Korea’s Chairman Kim. What’s on Trump’s mind? Michael Cohen. Trump tweeted this just before meeting with the North Korean leader:
The White House restricted access to subsequent meetings for some reporters who had asked questions earlier about Trump’s reaction to Michael Cohen’s testimony. Restricting the access of reporters traveling with the president is a first. According to Andrea Mitchell, that’s not done.
And, in a way, it was Trump that brought up the subject by tweeting about Cohen.
Ah, this is hilarious. Via Josh Marshall, Cohen is schooling a Republican rep on what it takes to get your sentence reduced post-conviction. Meanwhile, he’s also repeating that Trump is under multiple investigations which Cohen in unable to talk about in public.
These people are horrible at asking questions.
“Asked by a Dem, Cohen says yes, he is aware of criminal behaviour by Trump that hasn’t been discussed today. He says it’s part of the SDNY investigation.”
Via Daniel Dale:
SC @15, yeah. That’s important! We will hope for more questions about that issue.
Earlier, Cohen compared Trump to a mob boss who used other methods to shape Cohen’s testimony:
Link
Walter Shaub: “Rep. Meadows accuses Cohen of lying on his Truth in Testimony form, claiming the form asks about foreign contracts, because Cohen had contracts with foreign companies. That is false. The form asks about contracts with foreign governments, not foreign companies. See for yourself:…”
This is exactly what Cohen said.
Remember that earlier comment about Mark Meadows referring Cohen for criminal prosecution? It may have be mistaken.
Tweet o’ the day.
A whole bunch of people reviewed and edited Cohen’s SSCI prepared testimony. He had a joint defense agreement with Trump and also at least Jared and Ivanka (represented by Abbe Lowell).
This Higgins is a complete dolt.
Indeed.
Need I remind everyone:
Wild!
Thank you, Republicans, for eliciting more information. The reason Cohen recorded Trump talking about David Pecker and the MacDougal payment was that he knew Trump wasn’t going to pay the money and Pecker had yelled at him about it on several occasions.
Did Cohen just say that the other recording he made of a client is also the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation? It was a little confusing.
Cohen is throwing cold water on a few fringe theories, FWIW. He again denied going to Prague, contradicting Steele’s dossier on that point; he doesn’t think the story about Trump’s secret love child is real; he has no reason to believe the “pee tape” exists; and he doesn’t think Trump would hit Melania, which was a possible explaination for her three-week disappearing act.
A minor detail to add to the pile:
Daniel Dale is all of us.
David Corn: “I could tweet this every minute: Why are Republicans not in the least bit concerned about a president who secretly negotiated a deal with Russia (and asked Putin for help) and who was part of a scheme to make illegal hush-money payments—and who lied about both of these episodes?”
I don’t know why I find this so amusing, but I do:
The head of the committee called for an hour-long break. Time to stretch!
Catching up on other news, Matt Gaetz may be disbarred for witness tampering and Mitch McConnell hasn’t “reached a total conclusion” on whether or not Trump’s emergency declaration is illegal.
“will someone ask Cohen about how he got Jerry Falwell Jr to endorse Trump?”
Endorse.
More re #25.
Melania is not going to like this part. Trump forced Cohen to lie to Melania.
Followup to comment 39.
From the readers comments:
Followup to Hj’s comment 36.
Matt Gaetz deleted the tweet in which he threatened Michael Cohen.
From Pelosi:
From Gaetz:
Gaetz may still find himself the subject of an official Ethics Committee investigation. He may, at least, be censured.
The Florida Bar Association may also censure him and/or take away his license to practice law.
He should not go unpunished. He obviously threatened a witness.
“Israeli media is reporting that the attorney general will begin bringing corruption charges against Netanyahu tomorrow.
The election is April 9 and Bibi is running behind a centrist coalition in the polls.”
Charges in all three cases, according to the report tweeted.
Good news. It’s not a done deal, but at least the House passed a firearms background check bill. That’s the first gun control bill that’s been passed in more than two decades.
The bill requires background checks on all commercial sales of guns, closing the loophole that used to allow guns sold at gun shows, or guns sold online, to be exempt from background checks.
We don’t yet know what will happen when the bill goes to the Senate.
This is the straw purchaser of the Trump painting at the 2013 auction, by the way, because of course it is.
From Michael Kruse:
Re my #29 above – he did say it!
The hearing has resumed! On the tax audit question:
Ocasio-Cortez is up, asking about taxes.
Trump Foundation and Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk.
Good job by new members AOC and Pressley.
Brad Heath: “Expect the result of this hearing to be subpoenas for documents and additional witnesses.”
I would expect so.
How does Mark Meadows defend his deployment of the “I have a black friend trope?”
Genius!
In his closing statement, Cohen says that based on his knowledge of Trump, “I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”
As for the final remarks of the heads of the committee, compare and contrast.
Elijah Cummings’ closing statement was quite something.
“Cummings said his office worked ‘very closely’ with federal prosecutors in New York and the special counsel, and he thinks ‘there is another shoe to drop’.”
This is a great shot.
A different crisis: Pakistan show two planes from India today. The planes were brought down in the disputed region of Kashmir. Both Pakistan and India are nuclear-armed countries.
In other news, here is an update on the Democratic-Party-led investigation into the separation of migrant families on the southern border: three subpoenas were issued late today. The subpoenas go to three Trump cabinet officials.
Some of the important moments from Michael Cohen’s testimony:
Cohen continues to assist the Southern District in New York with ongoing investigations that involve Trump.
Trump’s attorney, Jay Sekulow, edited the previous testimony Cohen gave to Congress. That testimony included the false statements about the Trump Tower Moscow project. Abbe Lowell, a lawyer representing Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, may have also been involved in editing Cohen’s testimony.
Trump knew ahead of time about the email dumps of stolen emails.
Philippe Reines: “Thank you again to the millions who worked their asses off in 2018 to take back the House.”
This is what I was thinking the entire day.
Further to #60, I’m so tired of pundits talking about how numb, desensitized, and so on we all supposedly are when it comes to Trump’s and the Republicans’ actions. I’m not numb. I continue to be outraged. The evidence (including the energy around and results of the midterms) doesn’t support these claims about general desensitization. It’s just a lazy assertion. The country was fucking riveted by this hearing, and we’ve been waiting for this to begin for two years.
Ayanna Pressley:
“For the balance of my time, would you agree that someone could deny rental units to African Americans, lead the birther movement, refer to the diaspora as ‘shithole countries’ and refer to white supremacists as ‘fine people’, have a black friend and still be racist?”
“Overnight in Hanoi, President Trump:
– Ended summit early without agmt
– Appeared to walk back demand for full denuclearization
– Questioned US intel assessment NK still expanding nuclear program
– Accepted Kim’s denial of involvement in Otto Warmbier death”
Daniel Dale nonlive-tweeted Trump’s Hanoi press conference.
He’s now reporting from CPAC:
Cohen has arrived to testify before the House Intel Committee. Closed session.
Update to #42: “#BREAKING: Israeli Supreme Court rejects Netanyahu’s last-minute attempt to prevent AG’s announcement of his indictment. Netanyahu hopes delay of even a few hours will let him get his version out even before the AG does. He’s announced he’ll be addressing nation at 8pm.” (That’s 1 PM ET in the US.)
Shimon Prokupecz: “I know you’re wondering…Mueller and his team back in the office this morning.”
Gaetz tweeted last night:
…Subsequently we learned:
It’s like they’re trying to provide illustrations for Cohen’s warnings yesterday. (I’m constantly reminded of the way ex-Sc—–ologists describe and show the tactics they used to deal with threats.)
Update (at long last): “BREAKING: The Israeli attorney general announced today his decision to indict Prime minister Netanyahu in one case of bribe and two cases of fraud and breach of trust. All indictments are subject to a hearing.”
Hj Hornbeck, #52
Yes, but are they Kenyan?
The latest episode of the Gaslit Nation podcast – “Brexit and Trump are the Same Crime: The Carole Cadwalladr Interview.”
In other podcast recommendations, The Dropout (about Theranos) is very good.
“Israeli news reporters now browsing through the mountains of evidence supplied by the Attorney General’s office. The material is amazing! Amazing quotes from wiretapping. Amazing levels of corruption.”
“BREAKING: North Korean Officials About to Hold Rare News Conference on Trump-Kim Summit.”
LOL.
“BREAKING: North Koreans in press conference disputed Trump’s account that North Korean asked for removal of ALL sanctions. Said they asked for partial removal of sanctions.”
Tweet o’ the day.
“BREAKING: In rare press conference, North Korean official says ‘Chairman Kim got the feeling that he didn’t understand the way Americans calculate’ says Kim may have ‘lost the will’ for further negotiations.”
The problem with the “niece and nephew” defense is that even if the “one of my best friends is black” defense was valid, Meadows had nothing to do with that. Like well done, your brother or sister had children with a non-white person.
“NEW: @Jim_Jordan & @RepMarkMeadows have sent a letter to DOJ referring Michael Cohen ‘for perjury and knowingly making false statements before the Committee at yesterday’s hearing’.”
Letter at the link.
For SCOTUS watchers, the transcript of the oral arguments in the Supreme Court in the Bladensburg Cross case is now available. This is the case in Maryland of a massive 40 ft concrete cross on public land, erected in 1923 as a memorial to WWI war veterans, that the 4th Circuit ruled unconstitutional last year. The pro-cross argument, of course, is that it’s a secular monument. Their position is summarized by the opposition lawyer:
Full oral argument American Legion v. American Humanist Association
This seems potentially significant:
(Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re relevant to the collusion aspect, but it’s there.)
Livetweeting of Netanyahu’s appearance.
Threading doesn’t seem to be her strong suit, so here’s the whole thing:
From SC’s link in comment 74:
From Steve Benen:
Followup to SC’s comment 79.
TPM link
In other words, Jordan and Meadows got some things wrong, not Cohen.
Meadows and Jordan are working with very thin gruel. I think their main objective is just to make a show of protecting Trump by going after his enemies.
More details from the collapsed talks in Hanoi, this time from the North Korean point of view:
The country of Vietnam expended lots of money to host the talks.
Trump over-simplified and more or less lied when he held a press conference after the talks collapsed:
North Korean claimed that they requested not the lifting of all sanctions, but the easing of some sanctions.
One has to wonder if Trump was just tired, failed to understand what the North Korean leader was saying, and walked away in a huff like an irritated toddler.
South Korean leaders were not happy.
From the readers comments:
Yesterday, the Trump administration compared transgender people to people who have a disease.
Link
Here’s the article following up on the tweets @ #83 above, with more information: “Netanyahu, Facing Indictments, Rains Scorn on His Political Enemies.”
CPAC 2019 reveals a base in thrall to Trump
CPAC has always reflected what the conservative base wants. This year is no different.
Trump threatens Republicans:
Seems a bit risky for him. I encourage it.
(It occurs to me that #92 could possibly be misconstrued. To be totally clear, I meant getting-arrested-or-detained/searched-at-the-airport risky, not violence risky.)
This is making me laugh really hard.
So Scott Pruitt was forced to resign thanks to a cornucopia of corruption scandals. Is the Environmental Protection Agency now in better hands? No. The EPA will now be led by Andrew Wheeler. His credentials? He use to be a lobbyist for the coal industry, including a gig as lobbyist for Murray Energy (breaker of environmental laws, killer of miners via lax adherence to safety rules, etc.). Wheeler also use to work for Senator James Inhofe, a climate denier. So, yeah, all the best people have been chosen by Trump to run this important agency.
Link
Wheeler is said to be less sloppy and less hasty than Pruitt. Therefore, Wheeler’s efforts to roll back regulations that ensure clean air, protect clean water and provide guidelines for the extraction of resources, those regulations will more likely be rolled back in ways that withstand legal scrutiny.
Hypocrisy and irony mixed: Republicans who held exhaustive, years long hearings on Benghazi, (and came up with nothing), those Republicans are saying that having Cohen testify before Congress was a waste of time.
Trump’s abrupt departure from the talks with North Korea have earned him worldwide mockery.
From Russian state TV:
From Iran:
The Evening Standard published a cartoon showing Trump’s book The Art of the Deal thrown in the trash.
https://twitter.com/George_Osborne/status/1101086809814126595
From The Telegraph:
From Julian Borger:
https://twitter.com/julianborger/status/1101143188918554626
From the South China Morning Post:
More from China:
Headline from South Korean media:
Oh, FFS.
Link
Hmmm. This is interesting.
Link
Yeah, but Lamar Alexander is retiring. I think the rest of those doofuses will fall in line, just like they usually do.
No surprise really, but it is good that the NY Times apparently rounded up some proof that Trump demanded that Jared Kushner be given a security clearance.
The Hill link
“Trump Ordered Officials to Give Jared Kushner a Security Clearance”:
#101 is the NYT report. I have to get back in the habit of noting that.
Cohen’s House Intel testimony has concluded for today. He’s returning for another round (als closed) on March 6, and there will be an open hearing with Felix Sater about the Trump Tower Moscow project on March 14.
OMG. Leave poetry alone, Dinesh D’Souza!
Wonkette link
More:
Susan Hennessey: “If Kushner hasn’t resigned by the time we wake up tomorrow, it is a sign that the basic checks of government have ceased to function. Congress should be unanimously calling for his resignation and absolutely refuse to move on until we get it.”
An exchange:
This response makes little sense, and Pence is not “a decent guy.”
Sorry – here’s the link for #106.
Ivanka Trump is a professional grifter.
Politico – “Mystery firm racks up $2.25 million fine in Mueller probe”:
“House Intel Committee will be getting in on the security clearance probe too, per @RepAdamSchiff: ‘The House Intelligence Committee will be working closely with the Oversight and Reform Committee to support their investigation into the White House’s security clearance process’.”
Reuters (from Wednesday) – “Exclusive: House panel seeks to depose Trump tax, ethics attorneys”:
Hee.
Statement from Otto Warmbier’s parents: “We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that. Thank you”
“It’s March 1, 2019 and Robert Mueller continues to report to work.”
From Elizabeth Warren:
On his way home from Hanoi, Trump’s plane stopped in Anchorage, Alaska, where Trump addressed U.S. troops. Trump lied to the troops.
From Vox:
From the New York Times:
Did the troops know he was lying to them? It seems likely.
Followup to Saad’s comment #70.
Lynne Patton wanted to be on a reality show about black Republicans.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inside-lynne-patton-reality-show-ambitions
“Well this sounds like a very simple case:
Prosecutors told a federal judge this morning they’ll need between five and eight days to present their case and question witnesses in the trial of Roger Stone for obstruction, lying to Congress and witness intimidation.”
“Chairman Elijah Cummings demands documents on security clearances: ‘Over the past five weeks, the White House has stalled, equivocated, and failed to produce a single document or witness to the committee…I am now writing a final time to request your voluntary cooperation’.”
Irish Times – “Protests continue against Algeria’s phantom president.”
You really have to read the whole thing to get the flavor.
FBI Records Vault is at it again.
Florida state Representative Jose Oliva is the speaker of the House in that state. He is a Republican that has some odd ideas about pregnant women:
Link
Lynna@122
Hmm, that has me wondering how he’d rationalize allowing 10th graders to be gunned down in school shootings.
“It’s a complex issue because you have a host body politic that is responsible for educating these young people. And the host body politic has unalienable rights to own firearms of unlimited destructive capability, so I guess the young people can go suck it?” Yeah, that’s about how it would go.
There is a part of me that is really glad I am incapable of understanding how Republicans consider a zygote to have greater rights than a 10th grader.
a_ray @123, I agree. The Republican reasons behind anti-abortion legislation, (and state regulations), never make sense. Oliva has three children. I don’t know if any of his children are female. He certainly has a male-centric view of human life.
In other news, Wonkette posted an analysis of Cohen’s testimony that included the off-the-wall questions from Republican congressman Clay Higgins. (SC mentioned him as well, in comment 25).
From the Washington Post, a discussion of all the talk about “civil war” that is cropping up:
Trump walked away from talks with North Korea, but he is offering up a major concession anyway.
U.S. to end large-scale military drills with South Korea
The move is part of the Trump administration’s effort to ease tensions with North Korea, U.S. officials said.
Also from the link in comment 126:
More at the link.
From Bloomberg News:
From Steve Benen:
Speakers at the American Conservative Union Conference (CPAC) are doing their best to scare the pants off all of the attendees.
Think Progress link
More discussion of how serious an issue it is that Trump ignored career officials to give his son-in-law a security clearance:
Link
Trump tried to claim that his comments about Otto Warmbier were “misinterpreted.” Trump is not going to get away with that lie.
Link
From Philip Rucker:
From Yamiche Alcindor:
From Chuck Schumer:
From Warmbier’s parents:
From Lanny Davis, attorney for Michael Cohen:
From Trump:
Republicans in the Kentucky House passed a bill that allows people to carry concealed firearms without a permit, and without training.
The National Rifle Association endorsed the bill.
The Louisville Metro Police Department and the Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police opposed the bill.
At this time, it is not known if Governor Bevin plans to sign the bill into law or not.
South Dakota legislators passed a similar law in January.
From Ilhan Omar:
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1101614278585536512
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1101896170274783233
From Josh Marshall:
OMG, save me from CPAC “art.”
https://twitter.com/maxwelltani/status/1101141023638646790
More horrible “art” that is displayed at CPAC:
https://twitter.com/McNaughtonArt/status/1024292558845833216
In other news, this is gross:
Link
From Trump, (posted with a photo of a golf course in Scotland):
A few facts:
Oh, FFS! Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today. The audience chanted “lock her up” when Trump mentioned Hillary Clinton.
Trump also goaded the audience into booing “the fake news.”
The whole thing was like a Trump rally from 2016.
The Trump cult was on full display.
Followup to comment 139.
Trump hugged an American flag. The smarmy look he gets on his face when he embraces the flag irritates me. Photo at the link.
He also said this:
Link
A recent Gallup poll found that 89% of Republicans approve of Trump.
CPAC speakers keep saying Democrats want to ban cows and legalize infanticide.
They don’t.
Link
See also: https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1101638944263946240 for a super cut of CPAC speakers saying wild stuff about Democrats wanting to ban cows.
Forged Nobel Peace Prize nominations for Trump:
Quoted text is from the New York Times.
Followup to comment 138.
Washington Post link
Bernie Sanders launched his bid for the presidency today.
Oh, FFS. Crowd size … again.
From Daniel Dale:
From Asawin Suebsaeng:
More details from the speech:
Link
Selected quotes from Daniel Dale’s Twitter feed:
Trump falsely claims for the 58th time that he got Veterans Choice passed. It was passed under Barack Obama in 2014. “NOW THEY CAN GO SEE A DOCTOR!”
Trump is telling a lengthy Sir Alert story about how he went and sat with the pilots who were flying him into Iraq, because he respects people who know what they’re doing. He is talking at length about how they had the plane go dark for the landing.
“Seven trillion dollars and we have to fly in with no lights!” Trump concludes. As always, there is no basis for the “$7 trillion in the Middle East” claim he makes regularly.
Trump says that nobody in Hollywood could play US generals, “These guys are like perfect people.” He says he met a general named “Raisin Kane.” He said he was incredulous but that yes, the guy said, his name is Raisin “like the fruit.”
Trump says the generals are right out of central casting, and you could put them in a movie, and he liked all of them, not just Raisin Cain. He says one time a general was put in a movie but didn’t get an Academy Award “because Hollywood discriminates against our people.”
Trump: “I’m in the White House and I was looonely. I said, ‘let’s go to Iraq.'”
Trump says Raisin Cain gave him advice on how quickly they can beat ISIS, and he said, “I’m gonna get back to you soon, Raisin, I think you’re great. I like you, Raisin Cain.”
Trump says he didn’t think Stacey Abrams’s State of the Union speech was very good. He falsely claims for the fifth time that MIchelle Obama campaigned for her in Georgia. She did not at all.
Trump: “The DemoCRATTT party.” He says it sounds prettier to say Democratic, so he won’t do it. A woman shouts, “Thank youuu!”
Trump says that the midterms were not a humiliating defeat for him, indignantly noting that he didn’t run. In the lead-up to the vote, he kept telling his rallies that he was effectively on the ballot.
Trump is criticizing the “fake news” for writing about the Democratic landslide in the House. He says, “The Senate: far more important.” [It’s the House committees that are investigating his activities now.]
Trump is adding more lies to his usual lie about the visa lottery, falsely suggesting that the U.S. has to accept a man who has murdered four people (no; lottery winners are background-checked and rejected) and that foreign govts deliberately put bad apples in the lottery.
Trump falsely claims that the US is forced to release criminals caught immigrating illegally, falsely claims other countries don’t allow people a court process for asylum claims, falsely claims “3%” of people return for trial. 72% in 2017, per DOJ, and 89% for asylum seekers.
Trump makes his usual false claim about caravans, saying Latin American govts put people in: “You think they’re giving us their best and their finest? Oh, let’s send our best people up to America!…So we can send America our greatest people! No, no, no, no…murderers, killers.”
Trump says it is “false propaganda” to say illegal immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than American citizens. A bunch of studies have come to this conclusion.
Trump offers a vivid embellishment of a cartel shootout in Mexico, 56 miles from where he was in McAllen, Texas, saying it happened right there on the Rio Grande and “they were buried right there where I was standing.”
Trump: “We reject oppressive speech codes, censorship, political correctness, and every other attempt by the hard left to stop people from challenging ridiculous and dangerous ideas.” He calls for free speech, “online and on campus.”
Trump shouts out Candace Owens, applauds her personally and says “you’ve been incredible, thank you.” She is known for such things as saying Hitler was fine when he was merely trying to make Germany great.
Trump mocks senators with white hair. He says, “I don’t have white hair. I don’t have white hair.”
https://twitter.com/ddale8
Trump also said “bullshit” one.
Followup to comment 146.
Here the “bullshit” mention in Trump’s speech:
Trump also mentioned Adam Schiff [House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff]:
From Wonkette’s coverage of Trump’s speech at CPAC:
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: Trump mentioned that he talked to Melania about firing Comey. So now I guess investigators will need to question Melania.
Trump on green energy: “When the wind stops blowing, that’s the end of your electric,” Trump said, before launching into an impression. “‘Darling, is the wind blowing today? I’d like to watch television, darling.’”
From Evan Osnos, writing for The New Yorker:
From House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler:
Now that Democrats are the majority in the House, the committee chairs are working hard to overcome the lack of action by Republicans over the previous two years.
Washington Post link
Hillary Clinton appeared at an event in Selma, Alabama, commemorating the 54th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”
Excerpts from her speech:
Cohen’s congressional testimony”
Bill Hader steals the show as an unhinged Rep. Jim Jordan.
Video available at the link.
In case you missed it, here is Joy Reid’s coverage of Trump’s speech at CPAC:
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/trump-attacks-mueller-report-in-cpac-speech-1451352131685
Banking leak exposes Russian network with link to Prince Charles. Putin appears to be a FoaF of our revered king-in-waiting!
PZ posted about Jane Mayer’s piece in the New Yorker, in which Trump’s symbiotic relationship with Fox News is discussed. There’s another aspect to the story, and that’s Trump’s attempts to prevent the corporate merger of AT&T and Time Warner. The official White House line is that the merger was stopped because of anti-trust laws. However, as Mayer points out, Trump probably was against the merger because he hates, (obsessively hates), CNN, which is owned by Time Warner.
Link
Trump was blatantly abusing the power of his office.
When then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions was asked if Trump had intervened in the merger, Sessions did not answer.
Rudi Giuliani later spilled the beans by saying that Trump “denied the merger.” Giuliani then walked that back.
From an older Talking Points Memo report:
Expect Democrats in the House to investigate.
Followup to comment 158.
Also from Jane Mayer’s piece in the New Yorker:
From Lindsey Graham:
Graham was referring to the check signed by Trump that Michael Cohen provided to Congress.
From George Conway:
From a 1972 article written by Woodward and Bernstein for the Washington Post:
An excerpt from an interview on ABC yesterday:
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler says that it is “very clear” that Trump obstructed justice.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has acknowledged that the resolution blocking Trump’s declaration of a national emergency in order to fund the border wall will pass the Senate.
Followup to comments 158 and 159.
More fallout from Jane Mayer’s article in The New Yorker:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/fox-news-daniels-story-before-election-killed-protect-trump
So Fox News had the Stormy Daniels story before the election, but they did not air the facts because they were protecting Trump.
“House Democrats announce broad probe into allegations of obstruction of justice”:
Here’s the link to the list of people/entities to whom letters have been sent.
Upcoming dates:
Mar. 4 (today): Roger Stone must explain book (and presumably “Who Framed Roger Stone?” Instagram posts) to judge ABJ
Mar. 4 (today): deadline for WH to voluntarily provide documents to and begin scheduling interviews with the House Oversight Committee related to security clearances
Mar. 6: Cohen House Intel testimony, part 2 (closed)
Mar. 7: Manafort EDVA sentencing hearing
Mar. 13: Manafort DC sentencing hearing
Mar. 14: Felix Sater House Intel testimony (semi-open)
Mar. 29: Brexit deadline
Mar. 31 Ukrainian presidential election
Apr. 9: Israeli elections
Maxine Waters was on with Chris Hayes on Friday (video) and said that Deutsche Bank is now cooperating with the House Financial Services Committee and that staffers were meeting with their lawyers in New York about document requests.
Re #164 – TPM has a much more informative list, with links to the letters and document requests!: “Here Are All 81 Of The Trump Associates Who House Dems Want To Hear From.”
That list @ #167 is great work by Allegra Kirkland at TPM.
“Three Democratic committee chairs in the House announce they are expanding their investigation into Trump’s conversations with Putin as president.”
Link to the letter at the link.
I’m giving it tweet o’ the day.
These prominent Americans are speaking at a far-right Russia conference linked to sanctioned oligarchs.
Clarence Thomas’s former clerk and a megachurch pastor leading Bible study groups in Washington decided to join the World Congress of Families.
Followup to comments 100 and 101.
We’re seeing more reaction, even from Republicans, that does not bode well for Trump’s decision to give Jared Kushner a security clearance.
From Chris Christie:
https://twitter.com/DelWilber/status/1102598864094355459
From the readers comments:
“Pro-Trump Conspiracy Peddler Jerome Corsi Apologizes to Seth Rich’s Family”:
Followup to comments 64, 90, 129, 136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 145, 148, and 156.
Getting to know the many young people who attended CPAC:
The article is by Osita Nwanevu, a staff writer at The New Yorker.
Update to #165: “OH boy. The government has notified Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Roger Stone’s Instagram story from yesterday, where he shared an image that claimed he was framed.”
Latest Democratic Presidential candidate Wash. Gov. Jay Inslee on Rachel. Main theme the climate. Videos in the morning.
Rachel’s interview with Gov. Inslee
Link 1
Link 2
“12 detained babies have been released from ICE custody in Dilley, Texas”:
“detained babies”
Chris Murphy:
detained babies
A Reagan-era Feiffer cartoon has a pinched-faced conservative explaining why guns are good and abortions are bad, ending with the declaration “The unborn are innocent and deserve our love. The post-born are guilty and deserve what’s coming to them.”
A more concise statement of the GOP’s fundamental beliefs would likely burn the page it’s on.
From SC’s comment 179: “Every mother I spoke to said that her child was sick in some way,” […]
So ICE put babies in jail … and then they took such inadequate care of those babies that every one of them got sick.
I would say that I am appalled, but “appalled” is just not strong enough.
Michelle Goldberg just did a very good interview with Ali Velshi on MSNBC about Ilhan Omar’s comments. I’ll see if a video clip shows up anywhere…
Lynna and Kip T.W.,
Meanwhile, the WH press secretary – employed by and responsible to the people of the US – put out a statement on the House investigations claiming that the Democrats’ agenda includes “killing babies after they’re born.”
Update: “The thin ice under Roger Stone is cracking. The judge issued this angry order demanding more information about the release of his upcoming book that criticizes the Russia investigation.”
Link to the order at the link.
Update to #119: WH responds obnoxiously to Cummings’ letter. It’s going to be a fight.
Robert Maguire, CREW:
Roger Stone’s lawyer is sharp. If you’re going to lie to a federal judge, it always helps to give the real story to a reporter beforehand.
Popehat: “Also: it would be difficult to exaggerate how bad this order is for Roger Stone.”
SC: I’ve long said that projection is the GOP’s tell.
Here’s a statement from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. It is comprised of high dudgeon, sound and fury, no substantial rebuttal to the reasons for the House Judiciary Committee’s requests, and lots of fodder for conspiracy theories:
From Vox’s Aaron Rupar:
From Steve Benen:
Followup to Kip @190.
Embracing projection, Trump accuses Dems of obstructing justice
From the Washington Post:
From Trump:
Probably bullshit all the way down. He probably did not call FEMA.
From Steve Benen:
More legal woes will soon be coming Trump’s way. Insurance regulators in New York have issued a subpoena to the insurance broker for the Trump Organization.
Link
Adam Schiff is building his team carefully:
New Yorker link
WaPo – “‘Grab that record’: How Trump’s high school transcript was hidden”:
The cable news networks have decided their line this week is going to be that the Democrats are in great peril of overreach and their investigations, which just began, greatly risk backfiring. They’re arguing this with no evidentiary support and in the face of public polling that suggests the opposite. They keep quoting Trump and the WH and giving Republicans a platform to offer unwelcome and self-interested advice. Chuck Todd’s chyron right now actually reads “Dems face growing dilemma on impeachment.” Seriously. That’s the frame they’re going with. The exposure of Trump’s rampant corruption and criminality is a problem…for the Democrats.
When they tried pulling this in November and December over the alleged groundswell of opposition to Pelosi’s speakership, she called them out on it on the air – paraphrasing: “I know this is your line that you’re all supposed to repeat, but it’s not accurate.” More people need to do that.
“NEW: Mueller just filed a memo ahead of Manafort’s Thursday sentencing noting it “opposes any credit or mitigation for the alleged cooperation” after a judge found the former Trump campaign chairman lied to them after pleading guilty.”
Link to the filing at the link. Their filings are very easy to read.
I recently read The Master and Margarita and am in the midst of Arrested Voices: Resurrecting the Disappeared Writers of the Soviet Regime, and I’m responding viscerally to this video.
In other George Pell news Catholic school teachers are being directed to not discuss his conviction with their students. Even if it’s in relation to their legal studies classes.
Siri, what is white/Christian privilege?
I was wondering why things like #ImpeachmentBolsonaro and #goldenshowerpresident were trending on Twitter…
“Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro tweets ‘what is a golden shower’ after posting explicit video of man urinating on someone’s head: Far-right leader’s shares footage in apparent attempt to discredit Carnival following protests.”
Hannity’s obsessive coverage of AOC.
Useful thread about Gayle King’s R. Kelly interview and her “grey rock” technique.
SC @197:
Yeah, I couldn’t help but notice that. Meanwhile, in the real world, Nadler made the point that documents requested so far have, for the most part, already been provided for other purposes. So … not much new in terms of requests for documentation. One MSNBC contributor called Nadler’s requests the most milquetoast possible for an investigation of this kind. And Comey noted that more information, more facts, more documentation is needed.
The Democrats have to make ups for two years of Republicans having refused to exercise proper oversight of the executive branch. The Democrats have to start somewhere.
Trump and other Republicans would scream “overreach” no matter what Democratic committee chairpersons did. We don’t need Chuck Todd doing the same thing. I don’t usually watch his show. He falls into both-side-ism all the time, he makes too much use of facile slogans, and he seldom adds anything to our knowledge of the facts.
I’m really disgusted to see the “Are Democrats overreaching?” question used to frame the issue of investigating Trump. That bumper-sticker question is all over MSNBC as well as every other media outlet.
Lazy. Misleading. Obscures the real issues.
In comment 205, I meant to say, “facile talking points,” not “facile slogans.”
In other news, a total of four people have been arrested in connection with the election-fraud scheme cooked up by Republicans in North Carolina’s 9th district. Link. The more this kind of news keeps rolling in, the more likely it becomes that a Democrat will be elected when a new election is held on september 10th.
Other news: Trump has boasted many times that he would cut the USA trade deficit in half. Nope. Not happening.
Washington Post link
Trump’s lie was recently renewed when he spoke in Hanoi:
Bull pucky.
From Glenn Kessler:
The trade deficit is more important to Trump than it should be, perhaps. That’s no excuse to lie about it. Trump is a disinformation platform.
Trump’s excuse for not complying with requests for documents about granting security clearances to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner:
Trump is lying.
From Steve Benen:
From the Huffington Post:
I don’t think her age is the “most notable” thing about this nominee. She’s a bigot. She should not be a judge.
Her age is an issue, though. Because she is so young, she is a lawyer that has only tried four cases to verdict. She was not lead counsel on any of those cases.
Also, such a young woman may sit as an appellate judge for half a century. We will be cursed with bigoted Trump judges for decades. Mitch McConnell is happy.
Note that the “Alliance Defending Freedom” is an authoritarian organization that is the opposite of its name.
From a new national Quinnipiac poll:
https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2603
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen tied herself in knots to avoid saying Trump was wrong. She testified today in front of the House Homeland Security committee.
Link
These people! Sheesh.
Followup to comment 208.
More incompetent judges will be confirmed soon. McConnell plans to speed up the process.
From the readers comments:
https://www.wonkette.com/donald-trump-school-records
As we all know, the Trump tax cuts do not pay for themselves.
From the Washington Post:
“BREAKING: Federal judge in California grants sweeping 126-page ruling blocking citizenship question from the #2020Census.”
More at the link.
Grr.
Tweet o’ the day.
From SC’s link in comment 214:
From SC’s link in comment 216:
“98 Russian Billionaires Hold More Wealth Than Russians’ Combined Savings”:
Michael Cohen has submitted documents showing that a Trump lawyer edited his earlier testimony to Congress.
Link
This is good news: The Democratic National Committee’s has rejected Fox News’ bid to host a Democratic presidential primary debate.
So Trump TV is shut out of the Democratic Party primary debates. Good.
Susan Hennessey on the report @ Lynna’s #220:
(There’s an incredible moment in that Abby Huntsman interview with Ivanka Trump. Huntsman is asking about the Trump Tower Moscow deal and Trump is blowing it off, and Huntsman says like “But you were involved with it, right?” It’s not meant as a gotcha question, but Trump clearly didn’t think she’d bring it up. For just a second, Trump’s mask drops and her eyes flash at Huntsman. Then you can see her swallow the rage and fear over being confronted with it and immediately soften her voice to answer Huntsman’s question about the nature of her involvement: “Literally, almost nothing.” It’s so revealing. I’ll try to find a clip.)
Followup to comment 210.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen also made the absurd claim that migrant children are not really being kept it cages. Her explanation? There is room “to sit, to stand, to lay down.”
Damn! So unethical! So sneaky!
Link
Trump has canceled a reporting requirement related to drone strikes. He thinks we don’t need to know about civilian deaths.
Link
@SC #222:
Here’s the clip.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @ #226,
Thanks! Her eyes when Huntsman challenges her say so much. Her role in the family grift is very gendered: she can’t try to shout down or angrily bulldoze over people and has to tightly control her emotions and sweet talk them, but in that split second you can almost see daggers shoot from her eyes.
I can’t even read this report. This is just insane.
“Leaked Chats Reveal White Nationalist Plot To Keep Steve King In Office”:
Trump is in desperation mode regarding his emergency declaration meant to fund the border wall:
Thanks, Hair Furor, for reminding us that Senators are voting on constitutionality and precedent.
Meanwhile, Mike Pence is trying to back up Trump’s play:
NBC News link
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is playing the blame angle:
From the Washington Post:
Trump repeatedly brags about the economy of the U.S. under his administration.
Bloomberg News injected a note of reality:
For more detail, including the 14 yardsticks, see the link.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is trying to prevent Trump from pardoning people for his own benefit.
Schiff introduced legislation that would block Trump from abusing the power of the pardon.
From the readers comments:
Fox News host Laura Ingraham offered some advice to asylum seekers. As usual, she revealed her ignorance.
Link
The Trump administration, and in particular Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, lied about families being separated at the southern border:
Link
Nielsen also did not address the fact that many migrant parents were not provided with documents in their own language when asked to sign away their right to “take their children with them.” Many migrant parents have said they were given very little time to understand the process being proposed to them, or they were given only two options when really three options exist in U.S. law, or that there were no translators available for conversations with U.S. authorities, or that they were pressured to sign papers with threats of even more dire consequences.
Barr’s “press conference” seems strange. And who’s missing just to his right?
Sherrod Brown is not running for president.
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not running for president.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder is not running.
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley is not running.
Hillary Clinton is still not running for president.
Here is the list of people officially running: Former Gov. John Hickenlooper, Gov. Jay Inslee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Kamala Harris, ex-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Rep. John Delaney, author Marianne Williamson and former tech executive Andrew Yang.
People who have formed exploratory committees: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Status unknown: Beto O’Rourke.
Laura “Still experiencing PTSD after having dated Dinesh D’Souza” Ingraham: “If you want to apply for asylum, that’s fine,” Ingraham said. “But you should do so in the safety of your home country…”
Blink…Blink
Uh, Laura, if there were any safety in their home countries, they would be applying for asylum. There is no way you can be that obtuse and obey the laws of Euclidean geometry.
“Source: Leaked Documents Show the U.S. Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through a Secret Database”:
More at the link.
(Re #236 – I don’t mean to suggest that the subject of the press statement isn’t worthwhile.)
So, Michael Cohen is suing the Trump Organization. Hmmm.
Link
Not sure what to make of this mess of conflicting reports – “Lawyers claiming ties to Rudy Giuliani approached Michael Cohen after FBI raids; investigators looking at contacts”:
Mitch McConnell is up to his usual procedural tricks. He wants to embarrass the Democrats in the Senate. Chuck Schumer is not having it.
Link
Here’s the House resolution condemning anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry. It’s…not bad?
SC @ 242:
I’m too am waiting for some clarification on this.
If this is accurate, it sound like the “lawyers” were also thugs.
Oh, FFS.
Link
Disturbing image available at the link.
Holy shit – Mehdi Hasan interviews Erik Prince.
McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast food companies do not seem to be overjoyed that Trump has displayed their products in the State Dining Room of the White House.
Washington Post link
Purveyors of food want nothing to do with Trump. Obama, yes. Trump, no.
LOL.
FP – “U.S. Cancels Journalist’s Award Over Her Criticism of Trump”:
“Because I get to decide what we vote on.” That’s what Mitch McConell said when asked why he would not bring a Democratic piece of legislation to the Senate floor for a vote. He was referring to voting-rights revision legislation that is important to ensure equal voting rights for everyone., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell grinned when he explained, “Because I get to decide what we vote on.”
Politico link
McConnell doesn’t want to see any kind of election reform. He called the bill “Democrat Politician Protection Act.”
“9th Circuit ruling: Asylum-seekers have a constitutional right to appeal their credible fear denials to a federal judge. @ACLU says: ‘The historical and practical importance of this ruling cannot be overstated’.”
The House is apparently taking some time to tweak the language on the resolution before voting (fingers crossed they’re making it better rather than worse). Meanwhile, Manafort’s VA sentencing hearing is going on right now.
Two USian Mormons have been detained in Russia.
Perfect response.
“What an utterly bizarre backfire. This was supposed to be awkward for Democrats because it was an unofficial rebuke of Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Yet in the end Omar voted to condemn anti-Semitism and 26 Republicans (and counting) voted not to.
…Ok so after some last minute vote switching the anti-hate resolution passes with 407 in favor, 23 opposed and one (I believe Steve King) voting present.”
To add to SC’s 256, here are some of the people rejecting the anti-hate speech resolution:
All those people were more radical than Steve “Neo-Nazis support me” King…
“Mueller prosecutor Greg Andres: ‘Manafort did not provide valuable information to the special counsel that wasn’t already known’.”
Update to #239: “House Homeland Dems have asked CBP for a copy of the list of 59 journalists, lawyers and advocates who were to be stopped for questioning in San Diego. Their deadline: March 14.”
Manafort is speaking at his sentencing.
JFC: “JUST IN: Lawyers for Roger Stone tell the court that, among other things, they ‘may file a motion regarding selective or vindictive prosecution’ and may file a motion to dismiss the indictment claiming ‘error in the grand-jury proceeding’.”
Meanwhile…Manafort’s statement expresses plenty of self-pity and no remorse.
Tweet o’ the day.
Manafort gets 47 months in DC.
Fuck this judge.
Sarah Kendzior: “As Roy Cohn — the ruthless mafia lawyer who mentored Trump and introduced him to Manafort and Stone — once said: ‘I don’t want to know what the law is, I want to know who the judge is’.”
SC @262, so Manafort was up for 19 to 24 years, but he only got about 4 years! Very lenient. Plus, the judge said that, for the most part, Manafort led a blameless life.
I think the judge is a Trumpian doofus.
This was my first thought.
From SC’s link in comment 262.
Manafort got the rich white man’s version of “justice.”
Laurence Tribe: “Manafort’s 47-month sentence in ED Va is outrageously lenient. Judge Ellis has inexcusably perverted justice and the guidelines. His pretrial comments were a dead giveaway. The DC sentence next week had better be consecutive.”
Franklin Foer on the “blameless” comment: “This is outrageous. Manafort spent a career lobbying for arms for clients who burned children alive; he represented gangsters who broke democracies and whose thievery destroyed health systems. He literally created corruption as we know it in Washington.”
SC @256, and Hj @257, FFS, those Republicans couldn’t sign even the anodyne, carefully worded statement against bigotry?
There’s no hope for them.
“For context on Manafort’s 47 months in prison, my client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room.
My colleague’s client today was forced to plead out to the mandatory minimum of 3.5 years (5 months shy of Manafort) for simple possession of a firearm. No allegation of use. Prosecution wouldn’t drop top count after a hearing. Best they had been willing to do was 2 years.”
What the heck!? Trump now plans to tap military pensions to find money for his vanity wall?
From the readers comments:
I’m going to step away for the moment from the Manafort travesty (and the thought of all of the judges Trump and McConnell are ramming through) to think about this. (It’s far from over. I haven’t felt this anger since before the midterms.)
I’m very pleased with how this resolution worked out. I thought it originally was – and it was, in large part – a stupid caving to rightwing pressure; and that’s how it could have gone in the past. But the pushback from the new members led to what’s actually a positive statement. It showed Democratic unity. Many people weren’t perfectly happy, but that’s what happens in a diverse coalition. And when people look back at it from the future, it will speak well of those who drafted it. The pressure from the Right was meant to divide, but the Dems stood together against hate and ultimately rejected the efforts to isolate, marginalize, and misrepresent a few of their members.
There was no brilliant plan – it came together through disagreement and shared values. But as it turned out it showed up the Republicans, who couldn’t even sign onto a resolution against hate.
It bodes well.
“FYI in 2018, #JudgeEllis sentenced Frederick Turner, 37, to a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison for dealing methamphetamine: ‘I chafe a bit at that, but I follow the law. If I thought it was blatantly immoral, I’d have to resign. It’s wrong, but not immoral’.”
https://www.wonkette.com/goodbye-paul-manafort
Lynna, OM@237
You didn’t tell us about the one name we (and, surely, all Americans) are waiting to hear about: is PZ Myers running for President???
The cable news coverage of the House resolution is horrendous. Joe Scarborough is off his fucking rocker. They’re furious that it didn’t turn into a hatefest against Omar, and are actively misrepresenting what she said, whether she apologized, what the resolution says, and what’s happening in the Democratic Party. Someone on CNN actually claimed that making the resolution broader was equivalent to All Lives Matter. They have almost nothing to say about the fact that it was unanimously approved by Democrats and that almost two dozen Republicans voted against it. It’s really something to see how venomous they become when their attempts to isolate and bully leftwing women are thwarted.
Axios – “Scoop: White House leak to House Dems on Jared and Ivanka’s clearances”:
Franklin Foer in the Atlantic – “The ‘Otherwise Blameless Life’ of Paul Manafort.”
“…He had devoted his career to normalizing corruption in Washington. By the time he was caught, his extraordinary avarice had become so commonplace that not even a federal judge could blame him for it.”
I keep thinking about Kevin Downing’s bizarre comment as he left the courthouse last night. Everything about it was strange, including his affect.
“MONDAY: Award-winning journalist Jane Mayer reports that Fox News gave Trump debate questions in advance and then protected him by refusing to run the Stormy Daniels story.
WEDNESDAY: DC reporters criticize Democrats for not letting Fox host one of their primary debates.”
AOC:
It’s really something to see how venomous they become when their attempts to isolate and bully leftwing women are thwarted.
Oh, by the way…happy International Women’s Day.
“President Trump heard Manafort defense attorney Kevin Downing’s subtle plea for a pardon loud and clear. He’s mentioned Downing’s comments twice in less than a day.“
“Doug Collins just told us re: Bruce Ohr transcript that DOJ asked for redactions but he decided to release it unredacted. He said none of the requested redactions were for classified info.”
What? He can do that?
On page 15, the name of the FBI Special Agent Ohr believes to have been Steele’s handler is there unredacted. Seems unusual.
My god, Trey Gowdy is insufferable and deceitful.
Page 27:
Gowdy is trying to condescendingly lecture Ohr about cross-examination and courtrooms, while Ohr patiently explains source information and how investigations work. You can almost see Gowdy mugging for the nonexistent camera.
FBI agents’ names are just totally unredacted.
“NEWS: Felix Sater’s March 14 appearance before House Intel is postponed.
Committee spox:
‘Due to scheduling issues, the Committee has moved Mr. Sater’s open interview to March 27. He continues to cooperate with the committee’.”
“NEW: The Democrat-led House just approved legislation that aims to expand voting access and curb the influence of money in politics. The 234-193 vote was along party lines.”
Meadows might be even worse than Gowdy.
P. 95:
“BILL SHINE RESIGNS — WH”
“Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson confirms she’s leaving. ‘It has been a privilege to serve alongside our Airmen over the past two years’, she says in a statement. Wilson is headed to University of Texas El Paso, pending a final vote by the University of Texas Regents.”
P. 104:
cont’d:
Meadows doesn’t even respond to that. Immediately launches into a question about the Carter Page FISA application. They’re so awful.
“Bill Shine has already left his office at the White House today. I saw him on the South Lawn at the president’s departure this morning, but his office is dark now.”
This makes my day.
Pp. 127-8:
“Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy Installations and Environment Phyllis Bayer just announced her resignation. Story up soon.”
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. See #s 222, 226, and 227 above.
“For those asking…Mueller and his team are in the office today.
Happy Friday!”
So we finally learn, inadvertently, on p. 207 that Steele’s source evidently wasn’t blown and didn’t require FBI protection.
KG @278: I’d love to vote for PZ, but I fear he’d have an uphill battle with all the chitinous exoskeletons in his closet.
KG @278, I’d vote for PZ. [smiles, lots of smiles]
In other news, I’m not surprised to see the sixth White House communications director during Trump’s reign resign. Trump is his own communications director, (with backstage help from Hannity, etc.). And Trump loves that Trump allows him to say whatever he wants to say … no matter how stupid, how crazy, how obnoxious, how bigoted, how dangerous to national security, or how blatantly narcissistic.
Oh, FFS. The judge in Manafort’s sentencing hearing said, “This case is unrelated to Russian collusion.”
Trump took that statement and turned it into:
Effing incorrigible, ignorant dolt.
“This case is unrelated to Russian collusion” does not equal “This case proves there was no Russian collusion.”
Steve Benen listed a few times that Trump has concocted similar lites in the past:
Guess who is also pleased about the extraordinarily lenient sentence the judge gave Paul Manafort. Rudi Giuliani, that’s who.
Sounds like Giuliani, one of Trump’s lawyers, is on message:
Link
From the readers comments:
On finishing the transcript, I conclude that Bruce Ohr is remarkably even-keeled.
From Josh Marshall: “Trump Cans Another Staffer Who Couldn’t Make People Love Him”
Trump doesn’t realize that he’s the problem.
LOL.
SC @312, I think of Trey Gowdy as an entire swarm of stinging insects that also smell bad.
In other news, Trump lied again (probably):
Cohen’s response:
In semi-related news, Mar-a-Lago may be a hub for sex trafficking? Link
“A poll by the Kremlin-controlled VCIOM (#Russia’s Public Opinion Research Center) has found that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trust rating has reached a historic low of 32% – the lowest in the last 13 years.”
Founder of Spa Chain Where Robert Kraft Was Busted Has Mingled With Trump and Allies
She’s posted numerous photos with the president and prominent Republicans.
Trump added his autograph to a bunch of bibles when he visited the disaster zone in Alabama.
Link
Update to #247:
Here’s another sensational clip from Mehdi Hasan’s interview with Erik Prince.
And here’s a link to the full video (which I haven’t yet watched) on YT.
(Whoever linked to this podcast about Prince several months ago gets my eternal gratitude.)
Here’s a useful thread about the Bruce Ohr transcript. It highlights some of the same passages I did above and several other important ones. It’s shocking reading through these transcripts how little the Republicans care about threats to the country or any of the people working to confront them. They don’t even care if they’re putting people’s lives at risk.
Jane Mayer: “New: Fox reporter Diana Falzone’s lawyer Nancy Erica Smith has issued a statement demanding that Fox release her from her NDA so she can talk about getting the Stormy Daniels story before the 2016 election.”
Here’s Mayer talking with Chris Hayes about the new developments last night.
Also useful: “Perjury Chart: Trump Associates’ Lies, False, or Misleading Statements on Russia to Federal Authorities.”
“Algeria protests grow against fifth term for president”:
Followup to comment 318.
Washington Post link
“In Trump’s defense, he wrote as much of the Bible as ‘Art of The Deal,’” [Judd Legum] tweeted, referring to the first of more than a dozen books for which Trump has hired a ghostwriter.
“Donald J. Trump is signing Bibles,” Peter Daou, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, wrote on Twitter. “The man whose vicious and inhumane border policy violates the fundamental teachings of Jesus is signing Bibles.”
An expanded ruling may force ICE, the Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement to finally reunite all the children who were separated from family members at the southern border with their families.
Link
The statements from Justice Department attorney Scott Stewart are obnoxious.
In 2020 Budget, Trump’s Priorities Are Signature Pet Projects: Space Force, Wall
Trump’s promises are worthless, and are based on ignorance.
Link
Followup to comment 326.
More details regarding Trump’s proposed budget:
Link
Followup to comments 326 and 327.
More details regarding Trump’s budget proposal: focusing on the proposed massive cuts (70%!) to the Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.
Link
More at the link.
Followup to comment 317.
A Florida Massage Parlor Owner Has Been Selling Chinese Execs Access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago
So, yes, we are finding out about even more swamp creatures in Trump’s orbit.
People are still being punished for “Living While Black.”
A new lawsuit from a Detroit man subjected to 911 calls for “gardening while black” could offer a way forward for other victims of recent racial profiling incidents.
Trump invokes new demand for extracting billions of dollars from U.S. allies
Followup to comments 317 and 329.
From Josh Marshall:
Can’t imagine why anyone thought it was necessary for the anti-hate resolution to include anti-Muslim bigotry, or how we ever could have imagined the Right’s attacks on Omar didn’t arise from a sincere opposition to religious hatred.
Marcy Wheeler’s thread about the Ohr transcript, which calls attention to other significant items (I don’t agree with her about everything).
“Side note: again, the GOP thinks this transcript helps their case.
I guess because Mark Meadows is what amounts to a brain trust for them.”
“Russian Trolls Shift Strategy to Disrupt U.S. Election in 2020”:
From a thread about growing opposition to Assad in areas of Syria controlled by the regime:
Short video at the link. Women are notably absent, although I’m not sure what that means in any particular case.
Yesterday’s tweet o’ the day.
Friday’s tweet o’ the day.
Update to #319: “.@RepAdamSchiff responds to Erik Prince’s recent comments about Trump Tower 2016 meeting on al Jazeera: ‘He’s certainly not telling the truth in that interview’. #MTP”
LOL.
SC @335, there’s enough divisive, misleading content on U.S. based social media that Russian trolls and bots no longer have to take the trouble to create their own content. That’s disconcerting.
Thanks, in part, to Trump and to Trump’s cult followers, there’s lots of material for Russian trolls to amplify. Thanks to rightwing media outlets like Hannity on Fox News, Breitbart, etc. there’s a flood of disinformation.
I don’t think people are paying enough attention to how effective amplified disinformation can be. It’s one thing if your crazy uncle posts disinformation on his Facebook and Twitter feed, it’s another thing entirely if Russians pick it up and amplify it a thousand-fold.
From Adam Schiff:
Link
Town By Town, Local Journalism Is Dying In Plain Sight
If Sarah Huckabee Sanders won’t host press briefings, why is she still getting paid?
Link
From former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe:
Trump is planning to demand $8.6 billion in new wall funding, setting up fresh battle with Congress.
Washington Post link
Tweet o’ the day.
Tucker Carlson, ladies and gentlemen.
Update to #333: “Fox News ‘Strongly’ Condemns Host Jeanine Pirro’s Comments About Muslim Congresswoman”:
In this week’s rightwing Venezuela spin,
“Rubio Thought ‘German Dam’ Explosion Happened In Venezuela (German Dam Is A Person).”
“Footage Contradicts U.S. Claim That Nicolás Maduro Burned Aid Convoy”:
Everything other than acknowledging the lie in this NYT story is bullshit (I’ll once again point people to Alan MacLeod’s Bad News from Venezuela for context). Also, I know nothing about what caused the power outages in the country, but the notion that it couldn’t possibly be sabotage isn’t tenable. Absolutely everything in the history of the Venezuelan Right, successive US administrations’ treatment of Venezuela (and Latin America more generally), and the nature of the Trump would-be regime and those who people it suggests that it’s entirely plausible that this is in their toolbox. It certainly isn’t much more radical than several of the well-documented actions we know have already been taken by these forces.
I didn’t know this was happening today – George Papadopoulos is testifying before the Senate Intel Committee. Evidently last fall he was asking for immunity before he testified, but I can’t find any reports on whether that was granted. Would be great if someone asked him about his 2016 meetings with Greek officials.
“Report: Trump Complains To Donors About Jews Voting For Democrats”:
More at the link. Also true that there are twenty-something Jewish representatives, of whom only two are Republican, and I think nine Jewish Senators, of whom zero are Republican.
Heh.
WaPo oped – “The more we learn about Brexit, the more crooked it looks”:
Politico – “The week that could reveal Mueller’s end-game”:
“Just FYI Pete Buttigieg’s name is Maltese and Maltese is basically a dialect of Arabic, and his name is Pete Abu Djej, or Pete, Father [or Owner, according to the thread – SC] of Chickens.”
Update to #s 120 and 323 above : “BREAKING: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika postpones presidential elections – presidency. #Algeria
UPDATE: #Bouteflika will not run for a fifth term in office. #Algeria
UPDATE: Government reshuffle to take place soon. #Algeria”
Re #350 – ah, Simona Papadopoulos was testifying today.
Update to #347: Tucker Carlson is unapologetic, Media Matters says it will be releasing more audio of his radio remarks (this bunch concerning “race and ethnicity”), and #FireTuckerCarlson is trending on Twitter.
I heard someone on TV (Gabe Sherman?) say the other day that Fox makes almost all of its advertising money from the daytime news shows – most advertisers don’t want to go near the nighttime hosts. I suggest they drop the evening opinion shows and replace them with news.
Tweet o’ the day.
Neera Tanden on Trump’s evil joke of a proposed budget:
“SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI is inviting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to address a joint session of Congress in April to mark the 70th anniversary of the alliance.”
“#Algeria Political earthquake in last 30 minutes:
Bouteflika NOT running again
PM OUT, Prez meets head of mil.
Technocrat Gov to come in
Dialogue, constitutional council, reform plan starts
Elections 18 April
Celebrations In streets!! Bouteflika prez since 99″
SC @360, thanks for posting that. It’s a good analysis of the Trump budget.
This sentence requires rewriting in order to make it easier to read: “President Trump’s proposed cuts to domestic programs are immoral and irresponsible.” It should read: “President Trump proposed immoral and irresponsible cuts to domestic programs.”
SC @353, Well, that analysis was right on the nose! Very clearly explains Brexit. [insert a string of swear words.]
SC @351, it was so frustrating to watch Sarah Huckabee Sanders answer questions about that this morning. At one of her exceedingly rare press conferences. She used the “ask the Democrats” ploy, or she blamed the Democrats for just about every difficult question.
TPM link. Video is available at the link.
When we haven’t seen her for awhile, and then Sarah Huckabee Sanders crawls out from under her rock to speak to the press we are reminded just how awful she is at her job.
From the readers comments:
More white supremacist views, and other forms of blatant bigotry, from the Republican camp:
Link
Well, that’s just perfect. How trumpian.
Trump Named Winner Of His Own Club’s Golf Tournament, Though He Didn’t Compete
Matt Fuller:
Regarding Trump’s budget … and several of his lies:
Not “largely said,” but “definitely said” Over and over again he said that he would not cut Medicare and that he would protect Medicare. He also falsely claimed that Democrats would cut Medicare.
Washington Post link
Followup to comment 368
Just one example:
Trump said that in 2015.
Trump said this in November 2018:
Now, Trump is betraying everyone he ever spoke to, everyone who heard his speeches on Fox News, etc. Trump has proposed a budget that cuts Medicare.
“Bernie Sanders two weeks ago to CNN on when he’ll release his tax returns: ‘Soon. We have to just do a few more little things, to check them out. They’re ready’.”
He’s been saying he’ll soon release them for almost three years. Weird (and a bit suspect).
Why would you lie about that?
Link
Lynna:
When he told these lies in 2016, the pundits couldn’t stop claiming how he, like Sanders, had tapped into genuine concerns and discontent (which he had – the problem was that it was patently obvious even then that he was lying through his teeth and that the Republican Party would never go along with that in any case, but they failed to mention that). What’s amazing is how there’s silence from the same people when he and the party not only used all of their legislative juice to try to take away health care from tens of millions of people and cutting taxes on plutocrats and corporations but have now dropped even the slightest pretense of advancing a program that would make people’s lives better in any way. They are proposing absolutely nothing to advance USians’ well-being or freedom. No program at all. They have nothing other than attacks on Democrats’ positive agenda and policies – in healthcare, education, the environment, labor rights, voting rights, women’s rights, the opioid epidemic, gun control, anti-corruption, criminal justice reform, reducing corporate power,… The Republican Party is completely bankrupt and at this point has only its negative appeals to fear and hate, its lies, and its destructiveness. It’s just a total collapse. This needs to be highlighted.
Leah McElrath:
LOL – “Secretary of State @SecPompeo to @APDiploWriter: ‘We are trying to get the oil for the Venezuelan people’.”
SC’s suggestion about Faux News nightly hosted shows: ‘ I suggest they drop the evening opinion shows and replace them with news.’
Wouldn’t it be very expensive to start a news room from scratch?
“Much of the mainstream media blew it on this [Unicorn Riot] leak. It’s an absolute TROVE w/o much MSM coverage. So far, journos have revealed:
– A plot in support of Steve King
– A plot to take over TPUSA
– A plot to infiltrate GOP
– A ton of white nationalists in positions of power
The leaks reiterate a point that a lot of folks still don’t seem to get: White nationalists and other extremists don’t work in a vacuum that we can step into and out of by turning the TV on and off. They are among us already and are quite literally seeking to reach our children.”
They must’ve blown it – I had seen some of these reports and had no idea they all came from the same leak.
JFC.
JFC cont’d. A righteous thread.
From Scotusblog
Argument preview: Virginia racial gerrymandering case returns to Supreme Court
Details on the key questions at the link.
May has come back from Strasbourg claiming an “improved” Brexit deal. It appears to be a triple-decker nothingburger, the real question is whether the “D”UP and enough Tory Ultras are looking for an excuse to climb down (for fear of not getting Brexit at all) and can pretend with sufficient conviction that it gives them what they want. My hunch is that they won’t, but if the “D”UP back it, enough of the Ultras plus Labour Brexiteers will get it through.
“Bibi challenger Benny Gantz is speaking at AIPAC”:
The UK’s Attorney General (who has an anomalous position as a politically appointed member of the Cabinet but also its legal advisor, supposed not to bend their legal advice for political convenience although notoriously, Blair’s AG did in rubber-stamping the invasion of Iraq) has advised that the legal risk the UK could be indefinitely “stuck in the backstop” remains after May’s negotiated “improvements” to her deal. This means that if the “D”UP and Tory Ultras vote for the deal, they will be conceding what they have sworn not to concede. I can’t see them doing so.
Pompeo (I’m not linking to him): “The U.S. will withdraw all remaining personnel from [the US embassy in Venezuela] this week. This decision reflects the deteriorating situation in #Venezuela as well as the conclusion that the presence of U.S. diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on U.S. policy.”
“Nigel Farage met Donald Trump and urged him to back no-deal deal Brexit”:
A correction to my #382: the Attorney General is not a member of the Cabinet, although they do attend Cabinet meetings.
All the signs are that the “D”UP and Tory Ultras will oppose the “improved” deal, and it will go down to a heavy defeat – unless May pulls the vote, which is always a possibility but would cause outrage. Assuming it goes ahead and the deal is defeated, the next step is supposedly a vote tomorrow on a no deal Brexit. It’s as certain as anything can be that this will be rejected, and there is then supposed to be a vote (on Thursday, but could be brought forward) on asking the EU for an extension. But various EU figures have said this will not be granted just to allow a few more weeks of faffing about. The two possibilities are a short extension – to no later than 23rd May, to allow May extra time to get her deal through, or a long extension, meaning the UK would have to take part in the European Parliament elections, which run from 23-26 May. May (Theresa, that is!) will be desperate to avoid the latter, which would hold out the prospect of a new referendum; but unless the vote tonight is pretty close, I can’t see the EU agreeing to the former, unless just to give themselves more time to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.
Trump and his followers are trying to convince everyone that Jewish people are falling out with the Democratic Party. In fact,
“The Democratic percentage among Jewish voters has gone steadily up since Trump’s political rise! Hillary Clinton did better in 2016 than Obama’s showing from 2012, and then the 2018 midterms went still higher.”
“‘Roughly eight-in-ten Jewish voters (79%) cast their ballots for the Democrats’ in the 2018 midterms.”
Plus what I pointed out in #351 above.
OK, I love this expression.
Please retweet this if you can.
From the shows last night:
“Media Matters president on exclusive new audio of Fox News host Tucker Carlson.” (Chris Hayes interviews Angelo Carusone)
“Fmr. Blackwater founder Erik Prince gets called out for apparently lying.” (Chris Hayes interviews Mehdi Hasan)
“Closer look at Manafort lie raises new questions about Trump PAC.” (Rachel Maddow interviews Christina Wilkie, whose new haircut is splendid)
“Two ex-police officers arrested over murder of Brazilian politician”:
KG @ #385:
From a Sky News reporter: “DUP sources: ‘The party cannot support the Prime Minister’s deal in tonight’s vote’.”
Matthew Gertz:
Two Tory commenters on Radio 4’s midday news programme (Matthew Parris and Tom Newton-Dunn) agree that the deal is going to be defeated (Parris says by 100+) tonight, and that this will result in a national vote – Parris says a general election, Newton-Dunn a referendum – because the government will have “run out of road”. Either would require a long externsion to Article 50: a referendum would take months to organise, a general election can be held within a few weeks, but it would be absurd not to allow for the possibility of the new Parliament going for a softer Brexit, a referendum, outright cancellation, or calling on Macron, Trump or Putin to send in peace-keeping forces (joke, but only just). On the whole, I think they’re wrong, and May will try to kick the can down the road with a short extension to force her deal through once no-deal Brexit is voted down. In any case this means, hilariously, that the whole Brexit process will have put any of 27 foreign governments in a position to determine the UK’s political future by saying “No”!
More re #386:
The other thing it has in common with the previous idiotic fake campaigns is that it looks like it’s being boosted by foreign bots and trolls.
SC@387,
I think it orginated as a euphemistic form of “fucking about”, but it does give a much better sense of pointless flapping of arms and wittering!
@389 The ERG (European Research Group, the Tory Ultras) have said they can’t recommend voting for the deal (note – they didn’t actually recommend voting against, but many of their members will). Nothing official from the “D”UP, but it would be astonishing if they back it.
From the Guardian liveblog – they made it official as you were posting that!
Thank you so much for keeping us informed.
Pretty much everyone but the US has now grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 out of caution.
Guardian liveblog: “The president of the European parliament has responded to Geoffrey Cox’s advice that the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop remains by saying the EU can now make no further concessions. The legal issues identified by the attorney general are ‘an internal problem of the UK’, Antonio Tajani told reporters. There could be no further reconsideration of the deal by the EU27. ‘We are very clear’, he said. ‘It is impossible to change our position’.”
The DUP have confiormed they will vote against. This is an ex-deal. A tweeter suggests using the “Bobby Ewing / Shower approach”!
SC@396 – we cross-posted. I’m actually finding it difficult to focus on anything more constructive than following the BBC and Grauniad running updates today! Last night I booked my travel to London for the big anti-Brexit demo on 23rd. Timed for just before B-Day, but that now looks all but certain to be delayed. Possibly even cancelled: if any of the 27 say “no” to an extension, Parliament will have the choice of a no-deal Brexit or revoking Article 50 (this would have to be done by passing a law – only legislation can override legislation). I think (and hope) they’d go for the latter*, although I’d much rather have a fresh referendum.
*As I’ve noted before, this wouldn’t necessarily be the end of the matter. The ECJ ruling that the UK could do this unilaterally (a result of a case brought by Scottish politicians against strenuous UK government attempts to halt it), came with the caveat that it couldn’t be done simply to extend the process of leaving. So we might well have the bizarre and amusing spectacle of fanatical Brexiteers applying to the ECJ to overrule the UK Parliament!
The Speaker has apparently decided thjat no amendments to the Government ‘s motion will be debated tonight, so there will be a single vote at 7pm UCT. This is probably sensible – May’s deal needs to be mercifully euthanased before anything else can usefully be done.
3 PM ET in the US.
Wow, this college admission conspiracy is really gross.
Here’s the unsealed complaint. The DoJ and FBI in Boston are doing a press conference right now.
Re-Smog is now saying the ERG have not decided how to vote, although their legal team has said they shouldn’t back the deal. But I can’t in any case see many of them being able to swallow voting for it.
Collins now releasing Lisa Page interview.
“Lisa Page told Congressional investigators that senior FBI officials disliked HRC and expressed it.” Screenshots with names at the link.
“Lisa Page defends herself.
‘What matters is our actions. Our personal views, regardless of what they are, are irrelevant. What matters is what we do’.”
I seem to recall the Republicans, after her interview, hinting that she had given them (the Republicans specifically) useful information. Nothing ever came from it. I’m going to go ahead and assume they were lying and there’s nothing to support their insinuations in the transcript.
SC @403 & 404
Capitalist Meritocracy in acthion
I’m getting a kick out of the Lisa Page transcript. At one point (p. 22), she’s saying she can’t remember details without seeing the specific statute and someone must hand her the text and she’s like “Rock on. Nice work. Thank you.”
Yes! Page beginning on p. 49:
All indications are of a resounding defeat for May’s vote.
Opposing Donald Trump: Lisa Page
Supporting Donald Trump: Carter Page
Any questions?
Brexit deal goes down 391-242.
Ma\y defeated by 391:242 – a majority of 149. May has announced that the vote on a no-deal Brexit tomorrow will be a free vote on the Tory side! This is an extraordinary abdication of responsibility on the Government’s part.
Corbyn blethering about Labour’s supposed alternative Brexit and calling for a general election – again.
The two FBI executives Page describes as openly expressing hostility toward Clinton and even pressing their subordinates to “get her” are Charles H. (“Sandy”) Kable and Randy Coleman.
SC, (regarding many comments above that mention Lisa Page): Lisa Page sounds reasonable, intelligent, and very capable of doing her job.
In other news, thanks to KG and SC for keeping us up to date on the Brexit vote.
To refer back to SC’s comment 353, this is from text quoted in that comment:
Which brings me to SC’s later comment:
Of course he did. Nigel and Donald want to protect the gray zone where assets can be hidden and money can be laundered. And neither one of those reactionary dolts cares about the damage that will be done to ordinary citizens.
Trump likes to talk about airplanes, though he knows fuck-all about them:
From the Atlantic’s James Fallows:
Earlier bullshit comments from Trump:
The F-52 plane only exists in Call of Duty video games.
From Steve Benen:
Trump’s tweet about climate change, from this morning:
Oh, FFS.
Steve Benen debunked the nonsense:
Followup to SC @377 and 378.
From Sarah Huckabee Sanders:
‘Executing Babies’: Here Are the Facts Behind Trump’s Misleading Abortion Tweet, factchecking from The New York Times.
P. 83 of the Page transcript blows away all of the Republican ridiculousness.
Pp. 84 and 85, too. I’m sure Collins has some nefarious purpose in releasing these transcripts, but so far they’re not good for the Republicans.
I’m sure Collins has some nefarious purpose in releasing these transcripts,…
Giving it some thought, it could be that he’s giving Trump notice of what the witnesses said and also providing material for the rightwing machine to dissect and distort.
Tweet o’ the day.
Putting bits and pieces together from different reports and transcripts, it seems like the FBI had solid information in the summer of 2016 that the Russian regime had offered aid to someone in the Trump campaign and that offer had been accepted.
Re #425 (which seems to have caught someone else’s eye as well) – I don’t believe this is correct. The way I read these statements from Page and others suggests to me that they’re talking about intercepted communications between Russians referring to some member of the Trump campaign receiving and accepting an offer of help from the Russians, but they don’t know who the person on the campaign is.
On p. 82 of the second day’s testimony Page returns to the subject: “We get this predication that suggests [redacted] and we take these very discrete steps to figure out if this is true and, if so, who could be in a position to have received this information.”
Man, Mark Meadows is terrible. And he keeps disrespectfully calling her “Lisa.”
“Amazon removes books promoting autism cures and vaccine misinformation”:
“Gov. Newsom to order halt to California’s death penalty”:
Cohen’s lawyer sent a letter to Elijah Cummings clarifying his testimony about pardons.
Carole Cadwalladr:
This is all so – what’s the word? – sovereign.
“Report: Russia will meddle in European elections, keep prepping for war with NATO”:
Re #432 – I think Cadwalladr is being extreme in her predictions (Salvini can’t block the extension; non-fascist governments may wish to vote against it for their own reasons). The point as I see it is what Farage, Banks, and Wigmore are doing and in whose interests they’re working.
“Angela Merkel ‘said it would be easy to get EU to extend article 50′”:
More at the link.
Jude Kirton-Darling, Labour MEP, re #432: “There’s been lots of talk of treason, lots of vitriol but this is collusion with fascists to destroy British jobs & livelihoods. Nothing patriotic about these disaster capitalists.”
And Patrick Wintour reports: “Number of Tory MPs went to see members of Polish governing party last week in Warsaw – broadly on same errand, namely to block Article 50 extension.”
(Literally almost every response to those tweets is basically, “Then revoke it is.”)
The Manafort sentencing hearing is at 9:30 ET (about a half hour from now).
“So Tucker announces he’s going on vacation seemingly like when mom and dad announce that Fido went over to a farm to live out the rest of his days.”
Video at the link.
“Flynn questioned in ‘ongoing investigations,’ court filing reveals”:
Zoe Tillman at BuzzFeed is livetweeting the Manafort hearing.
“Russia to Re-Educate ‘Brainwashed’ Youth in Patriotic Camps”:
“Speaking of Manafort:
We looked at all of the roughly 67,000 defendants sentenced in federal court in 2017. How many fraud defendants got the kind of way-below-guidelines Manafort received last week without DOJ’s support?
We found one. “
“Re: the argument by Manafort’s lawyers that Manafort has supported family and friends financially, Weissmann says: ‘That in other circumstances would be truly admirable, it is less so when it is done with other people’s money’.”
SC @436, thanks for posting that. I like the comment from Jude Kirton-Darling. Some people can still see through all the fraud and disinformation to tell the truth.
Team Trump is still trying to rescue Trump’s emergency declaration:
Washington Post link
That proffer of some kind of political cover does not sound like it would give the American people a good deal. It would save face for Trump, and that’s about it.
Here is an excerpt from analysis by Steve Benen:
Link
Republicans have crafted a “paid family leave” deal called the “Cradle Act.” On the surface it sounds good. Then you look at the details and see that Republicans want to set up a system where you can make a loan to you.
Link
Business as usual for the Trump administration: failure to appoint qualified people to critical posts, reliance on subjective input from industry bigwigs, and a failure to carefully examine the facts.
From Steve Benen:
Link
SC @445, Weissmann makes a good point.
Bottom line, Manafort got 43 more months in prison.
Link
Another charge against Manafort, this time from a state court, not federal:
Link
From the readers comments:
Manafort’s lawyer tried to say “no collusion” (again! even after Judge Jackson lambasted them for that non sequitur!) outside the courtroom today, but hecklers shouted him down:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/manafort-lawyer-heckled
Followup to comment 452.
From the readers comments:
A report from the Trump administration actually tells the truth. And, surprise, surprise, the truth does not match what Trump himself has been saying.
Link
Advertisers are fleeing one Fox News program:
Link
GreatCall and “letgo” also pulled their ads.
Canada has also grounded the 737 MAX fleet.
Link
Now, finally, the U.S. is also grounding the Boeing 737 MAX planes.
Link
Coverage of the college admissions scam from Wonkette:
Followup to comment 458.
Telling detail:
From Kayleigh Donaldson:
The Twitter post is accompanied by an example of a kid’s “not great writing.”
From Lynna’s #452:
I’m very glad there were people there to shout that down, because that is outrageous. Totally shameful.
“An attorney who said he was speaking with President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani reassured Michael Cohen in an April 2018 email that Cohen could ‘sleep well tonight’ because he had ‘friends in high places’, according to a copy of an email obtained by CNN.”
Parliament narrowly voted down No Deal. The MSNBC correspondent said an MP told him something like: “The good news is No Deal is off the table; the bad news is there’s no table.”
Marcy Wheeler: “For those asking: Downing is the Manafort lawyer working for Trump, effectively, both sharing details about prosecutors questions and spinning all the filings to most help Trump, in hopes of a pardon.”
LOL.
Something I wonder about: did Trump andor Putin know about Eric Schneiderman’s secrets, and is that why he talked a big game but slow-walked the investigations?
Is the unredacted “the” a clue here?
SC@462,
The story is fairly complicated, and has now involved two Government defeats, the second by 43 votes, and involving a significant group of Tory Remainers defying the whip. The Government itself put down a motion saying the UK should not leave without a deal on 29th March. This was expected to get a big majority, but was an attempt by May to contain anti-no-deal sentiment. But they over-egged the pudding by adding that no-deal on 29th was the default (which, legally, it is, but it seems this was interpreted as May deliberately “keeping no deal on the table”. In any case, an amendment was put down, sponsored by backbench MPs from both Tories and Labour, removing all the dross so the motion would just say the House rejects leaving without a deal – i.e., at any time. The Tory sponsor, Caroline Spelman, came under heavy pressure not to press the amendment, and caved in, asking the Labour sponsors not to move it either. But one of them, Yvette Cooper, did. It was this amendment that passed by 4 votes. Another, nonsensical amendment putting forward the so-called “Malthouse compromise”, a confection whipped up by a mixture of Tory Ultras and ex-Remainiers but already rejected by the EU was voted down, the motion as amended was then passed by 43 (321-278) – which means a significant number of Tories must have voted for it.
May has now said if a deal (i.e. her deal) is not passed by next Wednesday, she will have to ask for a long Article 50 extension, and the UK will have to hold European elections in May (to my surprise, but I’m sure there’s some sneaky intent behind it – possibly she’s hoping the EU will reject this and therefore intends to put forward no clear reason for it). But the big news, I think, is that at least some Tories have finally felt obliged to defy the government whips. Spelman and other Tory Remainers or ex-Remainers are said to be furious with Cooper, but I think it’s a very good thing some of them have been forced out of their passivity.
Jerry Nadler is saying that in their meeting just now with (former acting AG) Matt Whitaker, in contrast to the open hearing last month, Whitaker didn’t deny having conversations with Trump about the Mueller and SDNY-Cohen investigations, the possible firing of US Attorneys, and the scope of the recusal of the SDNY dude (I’m blanking on his name).
Geoffrey Berman.
I should have clarified @467 that the Government whipped its MPs against both the Cooper amendment, and their own (amended) motion.
KG:
I’m going to have to read this a few more times. And take an Excedrin. :)
OK, I’ve read it twice more and…I get it now! Thanks.
Details of voted which way in the Commons tonight here. On the Cooper/Spelman amendment, 9 Tories defied the whip to support it, 6 Labour defied their whip to vote against. In the vote on the motion as amended, 17 Tories defied the whip to vote for it (2 Labourites defied the whip to vote against), 11 ministers abstained – but are not being sacked. When ministers defy the whip and get away with it, government credibility is approaching zero.
I should reiterate that the motion makes no legal difference – only legislation can override the legislation that fixes 29yth March as the leaving date. But politically, it is highly significant.
More re #468:
“NEW: U.S. government now has a condo in Trump Tower. (It was Paul Manafort’s.)”
Update to #461: The SDNY is now requesting communications between Cohen and Costello – have provided Costello with a waiver signed by Cohen.
Ugh, Corbyn.
“Saudi women’s rights activists stand trial in criminal court”:
“As a PPS, I had to resign when I voted against the first meaningful vote. Understood that, due to collective responsibility. Even though a relatively minor position, I was bound by that code. It is inconceivable that any Minister defying a three line whip can stay in position.”
Thought these links might be helpful to others like me:
collective responsibility
three-line whip
(Not saying anything about the tweeter or argument at the link, but helpful in understanding KG’s #473.)
“Cabinet source says ministers were told it was ok to abstain despite the three line whip – in what was described as ‘pandemonium’, they say the Chief whip couldnt answer question on whipping and PM didnt know what was going on.”
Some Brexit synopses…
Video: CGPGrey – 2019-03-10
The EU’s ‘SECRET’ Brexit Negotiation EXPOSED [eye-roll emoji] (5:44)
^ UK’s impossible demands for relationships with the EU
Video: CGPGrey – 2019-03-10
[UK flag][fire] Brexit, Briefly Revisited! [fire][EU flag] (3:47)
^ UK’s impossible demands for Northern Ireland
Video: Full Frontal – 2019-03-06
A Brief History of Brexit for Americans (7:06)
NYT – “Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation”:
Some upcoming political events:
Mar. 14: Flynn hearings (gag order hearing; status conference)
Mar. 14: Senate votes on emergency resolution
Mar. 15: Gates joint status report due
Mar. 18/26: Supreme Court considers VA racial gerrymandering case
Mar. 19: Preet Bharara book release (Doing Justice)
Mar. 22: Supreme Court considers Mystery Appellant case
Mar. 25: Gantz speaks at AIPAC
Mar. 26: Netanyahu speaks at AIPAC
Mar. 27: Felix Sater House Intel testimony (semi-open)
Mar. 29: Brexit deadline
Apr. 3: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addresses joint session of Congress
Apr. 9: Israeli elections
May 23-26: EU parliamentary elections
Tweet o’ the day.
SC @460, yes, it was shameful. It was a lie told publicly. I wonder if there is a way for that lawyer to be reprimanded.
Summary from NBC News:
In other news, here’s another big red flag, sirens sounding, holy crap! moment from the Trump administration.
Washington Post link
Senators rebuked Trump over the Trump administration’s support for the Saudi Arabia-backed war in Yemen.
Link
Jed Shugerman:
Here’s the video of truth-defenders outside the courthouse shouting down Kevin Downing’s lies.
It’s a moment for history.
Walter Dellinger: “In more than half a century in law, I have never before seen a lawyer rebuked in court for a false statement then go outside before cameras and repeat the same lie. What is he thinking?”
Opposing view to #489.
Peter Grant, MP, re #432: “The people who bankrolled Brexit to ‘take back sovereignty’ are asking the successors of Mussolini to help them impose a completely different kind of Brexit from the one they promised.”
“Democracy is good for your health and heart, major study finds”:
More at the link.
In case KG is busy, here’s a link to today’s Guardian Brexit liveblog. Evidently Trump just tweeted, griftily, “My Administration looks forward to negotiating a large scale Trade Deal with the United Kingdom. The potential is unlimited!”
Yet another Brexit update.
Despite two stakes being hammered through its heart, May’s Brexit deal is rumoured to be stirring in its crypt yet again! Because of last night’s Commons votes against a no-deal Brexit, the “D”UP and many of the ERG Tory Ultras are reportedly seeking an excuse to back the deal in a third vote on it. The straw they are clutching at is Article 62 of the Vienna Convention, which defines when a party to an international treaty can (under international law) terminate or withdraw from a treaty due to a “fundamental change of circumstances”. The Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, has already said he does not see how this could be invoked by the UK to end the backstop, nor AFAIK has any relevant expert suggested it could, but Cox is clearly under pressure to change his view. Supposing he does, there are still a number of obstacles to the deal being agreed:
1) The Speaker would have to allow it to be brought back for another vote. There is a rule of procedure that the Commons cannot be asked to vote again on something it has rejected within the same Parliamentary session. The second vote on the deal was presumably allowed because of the figleaf agreed by the EU negotiators in an attempt to allow May to pretend she’d got changes. What the justification would be for a third bite of the cherry is not clear.
2) If it was a change in Cox’s legal advice (a) I’m not sure that would be enough for the Speaker and (b) if that change were in Cox’s legal advice on Article 62, it’s doubtful if the European Parliament would accept that a Commons vote “for the deal” was actually any such thing, as they would effectively be saying: “We accept this treaty, but if we later don’t like it, we’ll tear it up”.
3) In any case, the same votes that have frightened the “D”UP and many Tory Ultras, combined with the breakdown of Tory Party discipline, may have emboldened Tory Remainers to vote against the deal.
4) Also, at least some of the ERG are likely to go on opposing the deal come what may, because they want a no-deal Brexit and still think they are likely to get it if they keep their nerve.
Meanwhile, the Leader of the House, Andrea
GrueLeadsome, has laid out the proposed Government business for next week, which does not include any debate on Brexit! See below.Meanwhile also, today there is to be a vote on a Government motion to ask for an Article 50 extension. I can’t find the text of the motion, but 8 amendments have been submitted, more may come today, not all will be chosen by the Speaker for debate. Several of those already submitted concern a new referendum. One of these tries to rule such a referendum out. If Corbyn does not impose a three-line whip on Labour to oppose it, he’ll have given up the faintest pretence of obeying the Labour Conference resolutioon, which specified that it was to be “kept on the table”. One of those planned to be put down today sets aside next Wednesday for “indicative votes” on what the Commons wants. If passed (I think it will be, it has support from Labour, Tory and SNP MPs) it will represent the commons taking the initiative from the Government – long overdue!
Matthew Miller: “Like all of the various pardon conversations, it’s not clear what exactly Trump said when he talked to Whitaker, but what is clear is that it’s something they’re trying very hard to hide.”
Screenshot at the liveblog. (I used to have to stop to remember that “table” meant the opposite there that it does here, but now I’ve been reading British political news for so long I would be confused by the US use.)
I hadn’t seen SC’s link @493, which suggest’s Italy will block an extension to Article 50. I’ve no idea whether this is accurate (for one thing, Salvini is not the Italian PM), but if it is – and assuming May’s deal does not go through (I still think it won’t), the Commons would be left to choose between no deal and revoking Article 50. I’m inclined to think there are more MPs who would favour revocation in those circumstances, but no deal would have the big advantage of being the default. Either choice would lead to a political crisis on a scale not seen in the UK since 1940 at least.
Arrgh! Apologies for the spurious apostrophe in #499. I will now retire to the drawing room with a glass of whisky and a revolver.