“The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN)
is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
Donald Trump, February 17, 2017
A discussion of the most interesting, useful and entertaining recent articles and observations on Trump, the Republicans, and politics generally from the enemies of the American People:
Returning to happier days - President Obama. Given our current state of affairs, it will probably
be a necessary tonic to check in occasionally on former President Barrack Obama. For starters, he and Michelle just look so damn relaxed. Another interesting tidbit is that Obama reportedly has jetted off to Tetiaroa, a South Pacific island once owned by Marlon Brando, for an extended stay there to start writing his White House memoir. And in May he plans to go to Germany and attend a high profile panel discussion with Chancellor Angela Merkel about local and global democracy, as part of the 500–year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
On the substantive front, the one post-presidency plan announced by Obama is intriguing: he and former Attorney General Eric Holder are planing to team up and launch a coordinated counterattack to Republicans’ gerrymandering efforts (and successes):
Thwarted for much of his term by a confrontational Republican Congress, and criticized by his fellow Democrats for not devoting sufficient attention to their down-ballot candidates, Mr. Obama has decided to make the byzantine process of legislative redistricting a central political priority in his first years after the presidency.
Emerging as Mr. Obama’s chief collaborator and proxy is Eric H. Holder Jr., the former attorney general of the United States and a personal friend of the president. He has signed on to lead the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a newly formed political group aimed at untangling the creatively drawn districts that have helped cement the Republican Party in power in Washington and many state capitals.
As noted by Juliet Eilperin:
While former presidents periodically campaign for individual candidates after leaving office, Obama’s decision to back such a broad, organizing political effort after leaving the White House marks a rare, if not unprecedented, step in the modern era. While the initiative will not be the sole focus of the president’s future political activism, it provides a lens into how he will leverage his influence in the years to come.
I have very high hopes for an Obama post-presidency. I suspect that I won’t be disappointed.
* * * * *
Obama’s “Red Line.” Trump’s decision to launch cruise missiles at a single Syrian airport, and the ensuing media adulation, brought back discussion of one of the more discussed aspects of Obama’s presidency — his Syrian “Red Line” statement and his ultimate decision to remove chemical weapons through diplomacy.
Republicans, centrists and the press have long derided this episode as a mistaken, low-point of the Obama presidency. I have always considered it a highlight . . . messy, but a highlight. To me, this showed off Obama as a fully confident President, comfortable in his powers, and judicious in ways that many of his predecessors were not. At bottom, Pres. Obama watched Britain’s Parliament reject any military entanglement, knew that the Republicans never had his back on this for a second, and rightly worried about the U.S. voters’ tolerance for further Middle East military entanglements, particularly so soon after Iraq. Plus, the planned cruise missile strikes — broader than what the Trump administration just did — were not even intended to eliminate Assad’s chemical weapons. To the contrary, the strikes were designed to avoid many suspected chemical weapon sites for fear of dispersal. On balance then, Obama’s threat, combined with diplomatic efforts to remove and destroy all known chemical stockpiles, was an achievement. For this contrarian view, see Obama’s Red Line, Revisited and Obama Was Right to Abandon “Red Line on Syria.” To date, I have not seen convincing counter-arguments . . . just blather about “American credibility.” On that point, Daniel Larison is disgusted with the “Delusions of Interventionists”:
The conceit that Syria was Obama’s biggest foreign policy failure captured everything wrong with the way these people view America’s role in the world. They took for granted that the U.S. had “allowed” the war in Syria to progress, because they assumed that it was within our government’s power to stop it and Obama just lacked the will to do it, and they blamed him not for the things he did to make the war worse but instead faulted him for refusing to do more. These are people that seem to value meddling for its own sake, and they are also bizarrely confident that U.S. interventions make things in a given country better despite multiple examples and decades of experience that say otherwise. Interventionists of various stripes not only believe in inherent benevolence of our government when it “acts” (i.e., kills people and destroys things in other countries), but they credit it with competence for stabilizing other countries and halting foreign wars that it plainly lacks.
* * * * *
And we must note this. Classified docs contradict Nunes surveillance claims, GOP and Dem sources say:
After a review of the same intelligence reports brought to light by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides have so far found no evidence that Obama administration officials did anything unusual or illegal, multiple sources in both parties tell CNN.
Their private assessment contradicts President Donald Trump's allegations that former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice broke the law by requesting the "unmasking" of US individuals' identities. Trump had claimed the matter was a "massive story."
. . . . One congressional intelligence source described the requests made by Rice as "normal and appropriate" for officials who serve in that role to the president. And another source said there's "absolutely" no smoking gun in the reports, urging the White House to declassify them to make clear there was nothing alarming in the documents.
* * * * *
Quotables.
- Obama on Syria: “There’s a playbook in Washington that presidents are supposed to follow. It’s a playbook that comes out of the foreign-policy establishment. And the playbook prescribes responses to different events, and these responses tend to be militarized responses. Where America is directly threatened, the playbook works. But the playbook can also be a trap that can lead to bad decisions. In the midst of an international challenge like Syria, you get judged harshly if you don’t follow the playbook, even if there are good reasons why it does not apply.” — fmr. Pres. Barrack Obama
- We can’t allow this lying to get “old”: “It is totally sui generis. I’ve never seen anything like this. I have never seen anything like this where people just flat-out lie. You know, black is white and white is black, and they mislead you. It's really disconcerting to see the podium in the White House briefing room being used to mislead or misdirect or obfuscate.” — Andrea Mitchell (who began covering presidents with Jimmy Carter)
- Burden of proof: “There’s literally no evidence to suggest the president has any idea what he’s doing.” — Steve Benen
- We’ve been here before: “Th[e] lessons have all been forgotten. The Republican government, under Trump, has retraced the steps it took under Bush — from the obsession with tax cuts for the rich, to the vanishing line between the party’s paid lobbyists and its public servants. The reality is that, contrary to the willful misreading of conservatives elites, the tea-party revolution was not fundamentally a reaction against deficits or crony capitalism: It was a heavily racialized backlash against social change. And that spirit — the true animating spirit of the grassroots right — has lived on in Trump’s presidency.” — Jonathan Chait
- Time to cancel this show? “In just the past few episodes they've given us an EPA administrator who wants additional security to protect him from his own employees*/; a press secretary whose can-you-top-this bloopers now include a defense of Hitler; a fresh-faced son-in-law they don't quite know what to do with; and a president who's ready to go to war because of what he sees on Fox News. I like quirky characters as much as the next guy, but this is getting to be a little much.” — Kevin Drum (*/ see further story below)
* * * * *
*/ Trump’s EPA Director requests 24/7 bodyguard protection. In a stunning and revealing move, Trump’s EPA Director, Scott Pruitt, has requested that the shrinking EPA budget be increased by millions to provide Mr. Pruitt with unprecedented 24/7 bodyguard protection to guard against protesters and, remarkably, against “reported hostility within the agency.” Steve Benen summarizes some of the reasons Mr. Pruitt may not be popular among his own agency:
- Pruitt decided two weeks ago to side with Dow Chemical – against the advice of the EPA’s researchers – on the use of an insecticide. The next day, the EPA’s scientific integrity office said it was reviewing whether Pruitt violated agency policies when he publicly questioned the role of carbon pollution in climate change.
- Five days later, EPA officials proposed eliminating “two programs focused on limiting children’s exposure to lead-based paint.” The day after that, Trump’s EPA issued a press statement praising the Energy Star efficiency program that the Trump administration intends to scrap.
- Pruitt made matters worse, calling for a U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accords, shortly after he halted an Obama-era rule aimed at curbing toxic wastewater from coal plants.
* * * * *
Road-air rage. The disturbing story of the “overbooked” United Airlines passenger who was assaulted and dragged off the airplane reminded me of a light-hearted but classic Seinfeld clip about a somewhat similar problem:
* * * * *
Navel-gazing. Ryan Grim at Huffington Post has declared that “Daily Kos is Back,” arguing that “[t]he liberal site has acquired a new relevance in the era of Democratic resistance to President Donald Trump,” and touching on some lingering wounds:
The internecine squabbles between Moulitsas and elements of the Bernie coalition are likely to continue, but both have a similarly dim view of the party itself. “I don’t care about the party. It’s broken and irrelevant,” he said. “The irony is that we don’t disagree. The Bernie Sanders ideology is basically the Democratic Party ideology. They won. And by they, I mean we, because I agree with them on everything. It’s a question of tactics.”
* * * * *
International Man(afort) of mystery. Paul Manafort (the former Trump campaign manager) remains the fascinating epicenter of the investigation into Trump-Russian connections. Now, the NYT — in an article that Josh Marshal says “doesn’t talk, it screams” — provides the intriguing background to Mr. Manafort’s extensive efforts to become Trump’s campaign manager . . . while under a personal services contract with Mr. Putin. Some of Mr. Manafort’s flattery was embarrassing (he had a Trump Tower apartment!) and some of it was downright uncharacteristic (he was willing to work for free). The only thing we can say for sure is that none of this was usual. And when it was all over, with Mr. Manafort resigning under a cloud of illicit, secret Ukranian payments, even more money changed hands:
[On the day he resigned as Trump campaign manager,] [p]apers were recorded that same day creating a shell company controlled by Mr. Manafort that soon received $13 million in loans from two businesses with ties to Mr. Trump, including one that partners with a Ukrainian-born billionaire and another led by a Trump economic adviser. They were among $20 million in loans secured by properties belonging to Mr. Manafort and his wife.
Manafort is said to be willing to talk to Congressional committees investigating the Trump-Russian ties. I can’t believe that such an offer is not tied to a request for immunity. Oh . . . and Manfort is said to be the next Trump staffer to register as a “foreign agent” after-the-fact.
* * * * *
Ugh. Trump recounts telling the Chinese President about the Iraq Syria missile strikes over “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake”:
* * * * *
Sean Spicer history classroom. Spicer wisely apologized and ran from his latest gaffe episode, but the New York Times takes an interesting historical look at the issue in “Riddle of Why Hitler Didn't Use Sarin Gas Remains Unresolved.”
* * * * *
A House Divided. Making Spicer look circumspect, NC Republican state legislator Larry Pittman compared the “tyrant” Abraham Lincoln to Hitler. While defending his anti-gay marriage stance on his FaceBook page, and being told by one commenter that “the Civil War is over, “ Pittman angrily wrote back:
“And if Hitler had won, should the world just get over it? Lincoln was the same sort if (sic) tyrant, and personally responsible for the deaths of over 800,000 Americans in a war that was unnecessary and unconstitutional.”
As I have pointed out before, the biggest threat to this country in the last 30 years is the fact that the GOP has become a neo-Confederate political party — recommitted to nullification, secession, obstruction and many other historically ignorant ideas of old Dixie. We are in a Cold Civil War:
This, then, remains a country in a Cold Civil War – not far off the geographical contours of the first, but with the inheritors of the Confederacy concentrated in the South and now also with serious pockets of absolutists in the more rural parts of the country as a whole.
. . . . And it's true that if they simply retain total unity and resist any compromise on anything, they can help destroy this country's economy – and the world's. The Constitution gives them that power, even though the founders warned precisely against the kind of purism and factionalism that now threatens the stability of the entire country.
* * * * *
Yeesh. The confluence of leader Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong-un remains seriously scary in its unpredictability:
The United States may launch a preemptive strike using conventional weapons if North Korea moves toward a nuclear weapons test, NBC News reported on Thursday, citing unnamed senior U.S. intelligence officials.
Per the report, those officials said that the United States has two destroyers in the area which are capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles, and U.S. heavy bombers are also positioned in Guam. The strike could also include “could include missiles and bombs, cyber and special operations on the ground,” NBC News reported.
North Korea warned in a statement on Thursday quoted in the report that the United States was “driving the situation to the brink of a nuclear war.”
[* * * *]
NBC News reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials, that North Korea could carry out a nuclear test as early as this weekend.
* * * * *
Rich Congressman doesn't work for the public. Well, this was candid. Wealthy (I guess) GOP Rep. Markwayne Mullin told his constituents exactly where they can shove the notion that he is a “public servant”:
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) faced off with constituents at a town hall this week, telling the members of the audience that they don't pay his salary.
"You say you pay for me to do this? That’s bullcrap," Mullin said at the town hall in Jay, Okla., according to a video of the incident.
"I pay for myself. I paid enough taxes before I got here and continue to through my company to pay my own salary. This is a service. No one here pays me to go,” he added.
. . . . . Mullin is the owner of multiple companies under the umbrella of Mullin Plumbing.
Boy, that was a short trip from the faux populism of Joe-the-(not) Plumber. I don’t think though that this is a one-off gaffe. It is an attitude that defines the central fight facing American politics today.
* * * * *
Ready, aim, (mis)fire. Iowa state legislators have passed “the most comprehensive and broadest piece of legislation on gun rights the state has seen,” and “[w]ith one stroke of a pen, Gov. Terry Branstad is poised to make Iowa one of the friendliest states for gun owners.” The bill — which, among other things, would legalize concealed-carry at public spaces, prohibit the government from confiscating firearms during state emergencies, legalize short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and prohibit prosecutors from stacking an additional firearm charge if the weapon has nothing to do with the crime — has garnered most attention for expanding “Stand Your Ground” exculpation for use of deadly force from the (previously recognized under Iowa law) home or workplace settings to now . . . anywhere. In addition, the bill adds this ironically Republican idea to spur plaintiff litigation:
Another provision that has attracted criticism would essentially prohibit city, county and township officials from creating weapons-free zones by allowing gun-carrying citizens to file lawsuits and claim damages if they think their civil rights have been infringed upon. Critics have raised concerns about how the bill would affect security at places such as city halls and courthouses, many of which are gun-free zones.
Republican Gov. Branstad has called it a “reasonable” piece of legislation and hinted that he will sign it this week. In related news, the Iowa Republican legislature also has passed a Voter ID law that estimates predict will block 260,000 eligible voters from the polls. What’s more amazing is the justification that Republicans rely on for this travesty — their own baseless fear mongering:
Yet Iowa Republicans, who now control state government for the first time in two decades, say the law is necessary to combat the “perception” of fraud—a perception created by Republicans who alleged for a decade without evidence that such fraud was widespread. “It is true that there isn’t widespread voter fraud,” State Representative Ken Rizer told The New York Times. “But there is a perception that the system can be cheated. That’s one of the reasons for doing this.” The fact that Republicans are pointing to the mere “perception” of fraud as a reason to disenfranchise thousands of voters shows why Trump’s baseless assertions that millions are voting illegally is so damaging.
* * * * *
Trump is returning to the healthcare fight? Oh, for pete’s sake. Let me be concise: in any sane environment, Trump’s public threat to gratuitously trash the U.S. insurance market to force Democrats to “come to the table” (about Trump’s proposal to eliminate even more insurance coverage) should be an impeachable offense. Listen to this wanna-be-(trust fund)-gangster:
"Obamacare is dead next month if it doesn't get that money. I haven't made my viewpoint clear yet. I don't want people to get hurt . . . . . What I think should happen and will happen is the Democrats will start calling me and negotiating."
We have a very sick system when any president feels free to make these kind of threats with impunity.
* * * * *
Supreme Court trivia. With Neil Gorsuch joining the Supreme Court, Justice Elena Kagan is no longer the “most junior” justice. As The Denver Post reports, Justice Kagan publicly introduced Mr. Gorsuch to what he can expect as the new “junior Justice” during a joint public appearance in Colorado, with Justice Kagan pulling back some of the curtain on the most secretive branch. The punchline, if you will, is that many Justices find themselves trapped in this junior role for 10 to 15 years:
The junior justice has three unique responsibilities, [J. Kagan] said. But in recounting them, she always starts with the fact that the newest justice is assigned to cafeteria duty and keeps it until the next justice is confirmed.
“I think this is a way to kind of humble people,” she said during the “fireside chat” at the elegant Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “You think you’re kind of hot stuff. You’re an important person. You’ve just been confirmed to the United States Supreme Court.
“And now you are going to monthly cafeteria committee meetings where literally the agenda is what happened to the good recipe for the chocolate chip cookies.”
The justices eat lunch together on the days when they hear oral arguments, Kagan explained.
“Somebody will say, ‘Who’s our representative to the cafeteria committee again?’ Like they don’t know, right? And then they’ll say, ‘This soup is very salty.’ And I’m like supposed to go fix it myself?”
* * * * *
A picture is worth . . . . Mark Joseph Stern at Slate explains:
Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court was made possible in part by the Judicial Crisis Network, which spent $17 million lobbying to keep Merrick Garland off the bench—and to get Gorsuch on it. Where did all that money come from? We don’t know, because it was almost entirely dark money, funneled through a Koch-allied conduit that keeps its donors secret. But the JCN isn’t entirely anonymous: It has a public face in Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel and policy director. Severino essentially served as Gorsuch’s lobbyist, throwing money around to ensure his confirmation.
And guess who got to physically attend Gorsuch’s swearing-in ceremony and tweet a photo from the event? All snark aside . . . this is amazing. Mere years after Citizens United and we have random lackeys from anonymous donor groups appointing Supreme Court justices and tweeting the photo of their accomplishment from the swearing-in ceremony. Breathtaking.
* * * * *
Drift. U.S. Sends Dozens of Troops to Somalia, 1st Time in Decades.
* * * * *
“We’ve never seen anything like this.” Starting next week, Arkansas will attempt something that’s never been done in the U.S.: execute seven death row inmates in a single state over the span of 11 days. The reason? Arkansas’s lethal injection drugs are reaching their expiration date . . .
The scheduled spate of executions comes after Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced in March that one of the state’s execution drugs was set to expire by the end of April. The plan to beat that deadline has set off last-minute court proceedings, protests from anti-death penalty groups, legal challenges from pharmaceutical makers, and letters from religious leaders and former corrections officers urging the governor to reconsider. Family members of the victims, meanwhile, are looking for closure after decades of waiting for the executions to move forward. If they do, they'll represent one of the most active periods for capital punishment in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
“In the modern history of the death penalty, no state has ever attempted to carry out this many executions in this short a timeframe,” says Robert Dunham, president of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the way capital punishment is carried out in the U.S. "It's unprecedented."
Update: A U.S. judge in Little Rock on Saturday temporarily blocked plans by Arkansas to hold this rapid series of executions, after the inmates argued the state’s rush to the death chamber was unconstitutional and reckless. The state government is expected to appeal.
* * * * *
Another in the popular series: “Florida Man [does something crazy]” (Palm Beach edition). Here’s a little tidbit to keep an eye on next week:
Top Trump administration officials plan to meet next week to decide whether the U.S. should end its participation in the Paris climate agreement.
Politico reported Friday that the meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday at the White House.
. . . . They’re hoping to come to a consensus and recommend to President Trump whether he should stick to his campaign promise to pull the United States out of the non-binding global warming accord. A White House spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment Friday on the Politico report.
Swell.
* * * * *
Don’t cry for me Argentina. Andrew Sullivan this week has a brutal take down of the political skills of his long-term bete noir Hillary Clinton. I supported HRC in the primaries and the general election. I wish she were President. I will never forgive or understand the tens of millions who elected Donald Trump. But I have to admit, and I felt this at the time: she ran a historically awful campaign. I know many will disagree, but I felt her dilemma was that she had two overriding goals in later life: (1) to be obscenely rich, and (2) to be President. I hope that she is doing well psychically and emotionally because she achieved the goal that she prioritized the most.
* * * * *
And . . . a recommendation. If (by virtue of being on this site) you are political junkie, take the time to see Will Ferrell’s send up of American political campaigns in the 2012 move The Campaign (with Zach Galifianakis). Or, see it if you are just a Will Ferrell fan. A semi-NSFW (heavily bleeped), unofficial trailer is below:
See you next Saturday. For those who missed it, last Saturday’s Dispatches can be found here.