"For nothing can seem foul to those that win"

July 9, 2019 6:19 PM

While there is no indication that Mueller does not wish to appear before Congress on July 17, Attorney General Barr says the DOJ will support Mueller if he “doesn’t want to subject himself” to congressional testimony, and the DOJ will seek to block any attempt by Congress to subpoena members of the special counsel’s team. In the meantime, the House Judiciary Committee votes this week to authorize a bevy of new subpoenas, including for Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general; Michael T. Flynn, the president’s first national security adviser; John F. Kelly, the former White House chief of staff; Rod J. Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general who appointed Mr. Mueller; Corey R. Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager; David J. Pecker, who as the head of American Media took part in a hush money scheme; and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and adviser.

• Congressional Investigations Round-up:

White House blocks ex-McGahn aide from answering more than 200 questions (Politico) "The White House has blocked a third witness who provided crucial testimony to former special counsel Robert Mueller from describing the chaos she witnessed in the West Wing as President Donald Trump sought to assert control over the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. “The White House has directed that I not respond to this question because of the constitutionally-based executive branch confidentiality interests that are implicated,” former top White House aide Annie Donaldson repeated more than 200 times in written responses to the House Judiciary Committee, according to a transcript released Monday."

Felix Sater slammed by House panel for 'obstruction' in interview (Politico) "in a rare statement following the interview, a committee spokesman accused Sater of being uncooperative and obstructing the panel’s investigation by withholding documents and testimony in defiance of a subpoena. “While we do not typically comment on closed interviews, given Mr. Sater’s public comments that he has fully cooperated with the Committee and answered every question asked of him, we must correct the record,” said the spokesman, Patrick Boland. “Mr. Sater has not fully cooperated with the Committee, and he will remain under subpoena until he does so.”"

DOJ files to halt Trump suit demanding financial documents (AP) "The District of Columbia case is one of three that argues the president is violating the emoluments clause, but this case is notable because the plaintiffs in this suit — members of Congress — are mentioned in the clause itself. The Democrats’ attorneys have argued that Congress not only has a right but is required, as part of their jobs, to weigh in on potential emoluments to Trump such as a $6.5 million condo purchase by the Qatari government or a Chinese-government owned company’s investment in a project that will include a Trump-branded hotel and golf course in Indonesia."

Congressional Democrats subpoena Trump organization (CNN) "The other court cases are separate. Democrat-led House committees have subpoenaed Trump's financial records from multiple entities that keep them. The House Ways and Means Committee sued last week to force the Treasury Department and IRS to turn over Trump's tax returns from 2013 to 2018, citing the committee's responsibility in examining the tax code and audit processes. The agency has refused to hand over the documents, leaning on a Justice Department opinion. The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Trump's accounting firm Mazars USA for eight years of financial papers this spring, saying it needed them for its ethics investigation. And the House Intelligence and Financial Services committees requested Trump financial records from Capital One bank and Deutsche Bank as the committee examines foreign influence in politics and banking policy. The accounting firm and bank subpoenas are held up in court, after Trump sued as a private citizen to stop them. Appeals courts are expected to weigh his arguments later this summer."

Dems to pursue criminal contempt for William Barr, Wilbur Ross over census (Politico) "Being held in contempt by Congress will be an embarrassment for the Trump administration officials but it won’t lead to many tangible consequences. The Justice Department is almost certainly not going to charge the attorney general or another cabinet secretary with a crime. In fact, DOJ has urged officials not to comply with the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s subpoenas, which seek information related to the decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census."

• Migrant Crisis Round-up:

Migrant children held in Texas facility need access to doctors, says attorney (Guardian) "In the past, [Elora Mukherjee, the director of Columbia Law School’s immigrant rights clinic,] said she would raise concerns about conditions with the lead counsel in the case, who would then pursue a remedy. This time, however, the conditions were so shocking the attorneys were compelled to approach the media.

Immigration agency secretly searches millions of Americans' ID photos (Guardian) "“Undocumented folks are coming out of the shadows in these states to get driver’s licenses and come into compliance with the law,” said Harrison Rudolph, an associate at Georgetown’s Center on Privacy and Technology, which shared the records with the Guardian. “They are never told when they go into the DMV [department of motor vehicles] to get a license that they also may be submitting their face to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That is a huge bait and switch and it’s deeply unfair.”"

Immigration Officials Use Secretive Gang Databases to Deny Migrant Asylum Claims (ProPublica) "Clay, the State Department spokesperson, said if a person is falsely accused of membership in a gang as a result of information from the center, it would be up to each country’s law enforcement agency to correct the problem. [...] Efrén Olivares, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project who has worked on hundreds of family separation and asylum cases, said that what the State Department is asking is impossible. “The whole reason people seek asylum is because their own government can’t protect them or is complicit in the violence,” he said. “Returning home is not an option.”"

Why the migrant crisis is happening now (Axios) "They're running from horrors and poverty at home toward a broken immigration system in the U.S. There's no single reason, but droughts, political instability, a booming U.S. economy, technological advancements and asylum backlogs all play a role." • Climate change is devastating Central America, driving migrants to the U.S. border (NBC News) "The reasons are complex, including poverty, unemployment and violence. But the increase in migration also coincides with the drought, which began in 2014, and those living in Central America’s so-called dry corridor, which is adjacent to El Rosario, say lack of food is the primary reason people leave, according to a United Nations report."

• Environmental Crisis Round-up:

Trump makes environment pitch to Florida voters without saying ‘climate change’ (McClatchyDC) • Trump touts environment record, green groups scoff (Reuters) "U.S. President Donald Trump boasted about his administration’s environmental record on Monday, saying America can lead the world in fighting pollution at the same time it is promoting fossil fuels, in a speech green groups derided as “utter fantasy.”"

Trump’s Misleading Claims About His Environmental Record (NYT) • Fact Check: Trump's environmental rhetoric versus his record (Politico) • Donald Trump's five most dangerous attacks on the environment (Guardian)

U.S. Democratic lawmakers declare climate emergency (Reuters) "Democratic lawmakers, including six presidential candidates, on Tuesday unveiled a Congressional resolution declaring a climate change emergency to spur “sweeping reforms” to stem a dangerous rise in global temperatures."

IN OTHER HEADLINES:

• Justice Dept. Watchdog Is Preparing to Deliver Verdict on the Russia Investigation (NYT) "Mr. Horowitz, who is expected to release a much-anticipated report of his findings in the coming weeks, is believed to be weighing whether to recommend that the Justice Department tighten rules for any future counterintelligence investigations of a presidential campaign, which was a novel dilemma in 2016, according to people familiar with aspects of his investigation." • Trump dossier author Steele gets 16-hour DOJ grilling (Politico) "The interview was contentious at first, according to two people familiar with the matter, but investigators ultimately found his testimony credible and even surprising."

• Trump's blocking of Twitter critics unconstitutional: U.S. appeals court (Reuters) "“The First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise-open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees,” wrote Circuit Judge Barrington Parker, citing several Supreme Court decisions."

• Trump's "Social Media Summit" is a Far-Right Troll Convention (Vanity Fair) "The president will likely use the event to wage war against social media companies' supposed “censorship” of conservative voices." • Facebook and Twitter have not been invited to White House social media summit, sources say (CNN)

• U.S. appeals court signals sympathy to bid to strike down Obamacare (Reuters) "Whichever way it rules, the decision could prompt an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, potentially setting up a major legal battle over healthcare for tens of millions of Americans in the midst of the 2020 U.S. presidential election." • The Affordable Care Act Is Back In Court: 5 Facts You Need To Know (NPR)

• Judge rejects Trump administration’s request to swap lawyers in census case (CNBC) "“The DOJ’s motion to withdraw specific attorneys is ‘patently insufficient,‘” Judge Jesse Furman wrote. “Defendants provide no reason, let alone ‘satisfactory reasons’ for the substitution of counsel.”" • Federal Judge Blocks Justice Department’s Effort to Withdraw Lawyers on Census Citizenship Case (NYT) "On its face, Judge Furman’s order only enforces a court rule governing changes of legal counsel. Practically, however, it presents the department with a difficult choice: Either reverse course and leave its old legal team in place, or produce sworn explanations that could prove both embarrassing and damaging to the administration’s case."

Today is the 901st day of the Trump administration. There are 484 days until the 2020 elections.

Need some comic relief? The Hyucking Hyuck Thread is your place for jokes and one-liners

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Elsewhere on MetaFilter: Marie Claire long reads on Women and Migration • A Reckoning Long Overdue (Epstein indictment) • Defining "Concentration Camp" • “Student debt is essentially illegitimate.” • Double-whammy in Miami: The first 2020 Democratic presidential debates • Some Suburb of Hell (US Concentration Camps) • The Last Hideous Man (E. Jean Carroll / Donald Trump) • Diamond Joe: Centrist or Conservative (Joe Biden) • The Frontrunners (Warren and Sanders) • OnceUponATime's Active Measures site

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posted by Little Dawn (1627 comments total)

Migrants held in ICE’s only transgender unit plea for help, investigation in letter

In a handwritten letter signed by 29 detainees, the group said there’s inadequate medical attention and allege that detention guards abuse them verbally and psychologically on a daily basis. “Our feelings, our worries, our indignation, the violation of our rights, our vulnerability before ICE and the officials that work here: it is for all these reasons we are expressing ourselves through this letter not just as trans women but also as human beings,” the letter states in Spanish. [...] “There is no adequate medical attention to treat people with disabilities, HIV-positive people, those with skin infections (some of which were acquired here), and several of our peers lack medications. We fear retaliations, but more so we are afraid of being in this situation,” the letter read. [...]

The letter from the women detained at Cibola was penned several days after ICE gave a media tour of the unit for transgender detainees. Reporters were neither allowed to speak to the women detained there nor bring cameras and recording devices. The next day ICE posted pictures on social media of smiling detainees reading, gardening, playing basketball and volleyball, and gathered around in a room. In the letter, the women said the pictures show staged activities. “In recent days, the employees of this unit staged activities that are solely an opposite image of reality,” they said. “They deceived us, coercing us to sign papers that weren’t explained to us and we didn’t know what their true purpose was.”

posted by Rust Moranis at 6:30 PM on July 9, 2019 [17 favorites]

Politico: Mulvaney Presses Trump To Dump Acosta Amid Mounting Outrage—The acting White House chief of staff has clashed with the Labor secretary, who is under fire for cutting a deal with billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2008.

Mulvaney told Trump on Monday that the continuing drip of damaging information surrounding the 2008 agreement Acosta struck to keep billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein from a heavy jail sentence would hurt the administration, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

Mulvaney also may be seizing on an opportunity to try to depose a frequent antagonist who has frustrated some conservatives in the White House and business leaders on the outside.

Acosta critics, including Mulvaney, have argued that he has not been aggressive enough in stamping out Obama-era workplace regulations and employment discrimination lawsuits, and they are using the Epstein lawsuit to push him out the door.

If Mulvaney manages to convince Trump to fire Acosta, that will mean one fewer Senate-confirmed Cabinet heads in a crowd of acting appointments.

Earlier today, Trump defended Acosta to the WH press corps, Daniel Dale reports:

—Trump says Acosta has been "just an excellent Secretary of Labor." He adds, "What happened 12 or 15 years ago...you know, if you go back and look at everybody else's decisions...I would think you'd probably find...they'd wish they did it a different way."
—Trump says "a lot of people" were involved in the Epstein deal, not just Acosta.
—Trump says he feels "very badly" for Acosta.
—Trump says he had a "falling out" with Epstein 15 years ago: "I wasn't a fan of his, that I can tell you."
17 years ago, Trump called him a "terrific guy" and said, "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

posted by Doktor Zed at 6:41 PM on July 9, 2019 [13 favorites]

While there is no indication that Mueller does not wish to appear before Congress on July 17, Attorney General Barr says the DOJ will support Mueller if he “doesn’t want to subject himself” to congressional testimony

....So, the drive from my Connecticut hometown to New York City, where I was going to college, took four hours. And throughout that entire four hours, my father kept telling me that I "didn't have to" go to college in New York "if I didn't want to." I didn't have to "save face", my parents wouldn't be disappointed if we turned around right then, there would be no shame, I just had to say the word and they'd pull me out and I could stay at home and go to college in Hartford or something, all I had to do was let them know...but I know full well that this was effectively my father begging me to change my mind and I had no intention of doing so.

I suspect that the set in Mueller's jaw matches the set in mine during that car ride.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:44 PM on July 9, 2019 [52 favorites]

"What happened 12 or 15 years ago...you know, if you go back and look at everybody else's decisions...I would think you'd probably find...they'd wish they did it a different way."
—Trump says "a lot of people" were involved in the Epstein deal, not just Acosta.
—Trump says he feels "very badly" for Acosta.
—Trump says he had a "falling out" with Epstein 15 years ago: "I wasn't a fan of his, that I can tell you."
17 years ago, Trump called him a "terrific guy" and said, "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

Translation: Jeff showed Trump the tapes labeled "+Donald"about 15 years ago.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:55 PM on July 9, 2019 [31 favorites]

CNN's legal analyst Renato Mariotti says Flynn's recent legal strategy only makes sense if he expects to receive a pardon.

Background from Politico:
Michael Flynn's relationship with federal prosecutors appears to sour

Government lawyers have dropped plans for Flynn to be the star witness at his former business partner's upcoming trial.

posted by Joe in Australia at 6:59 PM on July 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

Reporters were neither allowed to speak to the women detained there nor bring cameras and recording devices. The next day ICE posted pictures on social media of smiling detainees reading, gardening, playing basketball and volleyball, and gathered around in a room.

stage-managed tours for the press is not an innovation in concentration camps. I don't want to say "Terezin", but, you know...
posted by BungaDunga at 7:11 PM on July 9, 2019 [34 favorites]

While there is no indication that Mueller does not wish to appear before Congress on July 17, Attorney General Barr says the DOJ will support Mueller if he “doesn’t want to subject himself” to congressional testimony, and the DOJ will seek to block any attempt by Congress to subpoena members of the special counsel’s team.

Well don't be shocked next week when Muller decides that he's not really ready to talk to Congress because reasons.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 7:23 PM on July 9, 2019 [9 favorites]

I bet there is a lot of shredding going on all over the place
Jeffrey Epstein Shipped Himself a 53-Pound Shredder and a Carpet and Tile Extractor, Maritime Records Show
posted by robbyrobs at 7:25 PM on July 9, 2019 [16 favorites]

Buzzfeed's Zoe Tillman reported earlier today on the census question case at SDNY:

The judge in the SDNY census citizenship Q case has denied DOJ's request to withdraw lawyers who had been handling it previously — the motion is "patently deficient" under the court's rules, the judge says
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6186320/7-9-19-Order-on-Motion-to-Withdraw-SDNY-Census.pdf

Furman's order is "without prejudice," which means DOJ can try again — the judge says that if they do, the lawyers will have to provide "satisfactory reasons" for withdrawing and confirm they'll still submit to the jurisidiction of the court re: any upcoming motions for sanctions

This doesn't appear to affect the entry of the new team of lawyers in the litigation — those lawyers don't have to ask the judge's permission to join the case, but lawyers have to get a judge's okay to withdraw while litigation is still pending

To recap: The judge in SDNY said DOJ must comply with local court rules in moving to withdraw lawyers from the case, which means providing "satisfactory reasons" for doing so and confirming they'll stay under the court's jurisdiction if needed

Now Trump's attacking yet another Federal judge: "So now the Obama appointed judge on the Census case (Are you a Citizen of the United States?) won’t let the Justice Department use the lawyers that it wants to use. Could this be a first?"

@Popehat: "TIL that the DoJ lawyers coming into the census case are "Trump's lawyers" and the lawyers leaving are not."
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:42 PM on July 9, 2019 [9 favorites]

So now the Obama appointed judge on the Census case (Are you a Citizen of the United States?) won’t let the Justice Department use the lawyers that it wants to use. Could this be a first?"

My emphasis. It's a threat, although I suppose there may be ways to spin it.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:56 PM on July 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

Mod note: For Epstein stuff in general, please aim for this dedicated thread.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:59 PM on July 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

WaPo: Megan Rapinoe: ‘I held up my end of the bargain’ after back-and-forth with Trump

“Obviously, I think [Trump’s] tweets were negative in tone, as he usually does, but I think that we just . . . realized in that moment we’re so much more than what we are on the field. I think this team really understands, and is so prideful, that we do carry with us other people when we step out on the pitch. It’s the game, of course, and we want to win, but knowing the impact that we have already had, and knowing the impact that we were gonna have when we came home, the motivation of just that alone is incredible."
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:10 PM on July 9, 2019 [28 favorites]

So, do congressional subpoenas carry any weight of law? That is, are there any actual consequences in ignoring or refusing a congressional subpoena? Other than the chattering class clutching their pearls and tsk-tsking, of course.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:20 PM on July 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

That is, are there any actual consequences in ignoring or refusing a congressional subpoena?

If they so choose, Congress can hold you in contempt, and issue a warrant for your arrest. Which is to say, there are no consequences to refusing a subpoena in 2019.
posted by explosion at 8:47 PM on July 9, 2019 [44 favorites]

The Senate confirmed Trump's 7th appointment to the Ninth Circuit today, the 42nd circuit court nominee appointed by Trump. That leaves the court with 16 judges appointed by Democrats, 12 by Republicans, and one vancancy, plus two other conservative judges expected to retire this year, increasing the likelihood of majority conservative 3 and 11-judge panels for decisions.

WaPo, Democrats question absence of black or Hispanic nominees among Trump’s 41 circuit court judges: "Not one of the 41 judges is black or Hispanic. Five of the judges are Asian American...Among the lower-level district courts, 2 percent of Trump’s appointees are black, 2 percent are Hispanic, and 4 percent are Asian American."
posted by zachlipton at 8:56 PM on July 9, 2019 [18 favorites]

Congress has three options to enforce subpoenas:

Each of these methods invokes the authority of a separate branch of government. First, the long dormant inherent contempt power permits Congress to rely on its own constitutional authority to detain and imprison a contemnor until the individual complies with congressional demands. Second, the criminal contempt statute permits Congress to certify a contempt citation to the executive branch for the criminal prosecution of the contemnor. Finally, Congress may rely on the judicial branch to enforce a congressional subpoena. Under this procedure, Congress may seek a civil judgment from a federal court declaring that the individual in question is legally obligated to comply with the congressional subpoena.

"Contempt of Congress" is punishable by up to $100,000 fine and a year in prison, but of course, those require the DOJ to enforce.

The only method that looks likely to get any results is "the House authorizes an arrest warrant and sends a sergeant-at-arms to fetch someone, and imprisons them until they cooperate." This hasn't been used in almost a hundred years, and legal experts think it's unlikely.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 9:28 PM on July 9, 2019 [9 favorites]

Attorney General William Barr reportedly made light of his escalating dispute with Congress during an encounter with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Madam Speaker, did you bring your handcuffs?” he cracked as the two crossed paths at an event honoring law enforcement on Wednesday, according to multiple reports, including one in the New York Times.

The Times said Pelosi smiled and Barr chuckled during the encounter.
posted by xammerboy at 9:40 PM on July 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

I smile at people I want to eviscerate too. Doesn't mean I'm pals with them.

I was looking at that information about the powers of the Speaker and the House today as well, assembling information for my next Pelosi stan comment. But since it's been covered, I'll spare us all.
posted by monopas at 10:05 PM on July 9, 2019 [6 favorites]

I smile at people I want to eviscerate too. Doesn't mean I'm pals with them.

Pelosi has the power and the responsibility to be smiling at him as she has him jailed. When you smile at people you hate in your day-to-day, I think they're usually not people you have a constitutional duty to stop in order to prevent or forestall the collapse of the country. When you don't do your duty and smile instead when he more or less says "bust me or you are declaring yourself powerless" then, well.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:14 PM on July 9, 2019 [25 favorites]

Protest sign: Moran
posted by growabrain at 10:53 PM on July 9, 2019 [6 favorites]

No she does not! It is not her job. She can't jail him. She literally can't. SHE IS POWERLESS IN THIS SITUATION AND SHE KNOWS IT. She can't save us or solve all of our problems. She is not to blame for them either. She is not the enemy.

It is the SENATE'S job to convict and dismiss. They can't jail anyone either. That is the job of the Judicial and DOJ.

The House is not going to save us or avenge us. They can't. It isn't that they don't want to, and they are doing their best to protect us even if we can't see it. The House's only real power or leverage is that they are the place that can initiate bills to raise revenue, and traditionally but not constitutionally, also appropriations bills.

Go read the wikipedia pages about the House and the Speaker. They are the weakest half branch of government, and not even a quarter of them will support impeachment of Trump. No one is going to touch Barr. Not a single Republican would, and without any Republican support, impeachment is a partisan witch hunt that screws the Democratic party in the eyes of the public. Without any support from the Senate, or enforcement from the DOJ, they are powerless. They're supposed to make laws for the people, not act as judge or enforcement.

This may not be the government we want, but it is the one we have. The Speaker of the House doesn't have much power, because the point is to distribute it around. What people are asking and demanding of her is unconstitutional. She is powerless, because there is no power for her to wield without support from other parts of the government. Because all she can realistically do is speak, and that very carefully. Anything else could create a Constitutional crisis that could end in that fascist state we're all so looking forward to.

So, would her arrest and imprisonment satisfy that powerless feeling you have? Because that's what could happen if she oversteps. With this administration, anything is possible as long as it is the worst thing.
posted by monopas at 10:56 PM on July 9, 2019 [26 favorites]

This may not be the government we want, but it is the one we have.

It's also not a government that will save our lives. When we went to war in Iraq "with the army we had," at least our generals weren't intending to lose.

Because all she can realistically do is speak, and that very carefully. Anything else could create a Constitutional crisis that could end in that fascist state we're all so looking forward to. So, would her arrest and imprisonment satisfy that powerless feeling you have? Because that's what could happen if she oversteps. With this administration, anything is possible as long as it is the worst thing.

"The opposition must not use its constitutional power and must carefully tailor its speech in terror of imprisonment" is an admission that the constitutional crisis has already come and that we are already in that fascist state.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:09 PM on July 9, 2019 [89 favorites]

> Congressional Subpoena Power and Executive Privilege: The Coming Showdown Between the Branches (Lawfare)

Congress can also file a lawsuit asking a judge to order the witness to provide the information, raising the additional possibility of imprisonment for contempt of court.

posted by Little Dawn at 11:16 PM on July 9, 2019 [8 favorites]

Mother Jones has learned that ICE has started using three new for-profit immigration detention centers in the Deep South in recent weeks. One of them has seen the death of three inmates following poor medical treatment and a violent riot in 2012 that left a guard dead. Interviews with lawyers and prison officials and ICE records reveal that the agency has begun detaining migrants at the Adams County Correctional Center, a Mississippi prison operated by CoreCivic; the Catahoula Correctional Center, a Louisiana jail run by LaSalle Corrections; and the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, run by GEO Group in Basile, Louisiana.

ICE has not previously disclosed its use of the Adams County and Catahoula centers, though GEO Group did announce in April that ICE would soon begin using the Basile facility. On Tuesday, ICE spokesman Bryan Cox confirmed that all three facilities started housing ICE detainees late last month. Together, the three detention centers can hold about 4,000 people, potentially expanding ICE’s presence in Louisiana and Mississippi by 50 percent.

... ICE had the capacity to detain only about 2,000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi at the start of Donald Trump’s presidency. But contracts signed with private prison companies in the past year have pushed ICE’s capacity in those states above 10,000 people. The horrifying conditions uncovered by Mother Jones at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana and by The Nation at Adams County helped push Barack Obama’s Justice Department to move to end its use of private prisons. Since June, ICE has started sending asylum seekers to both of those prisons.

Concentrating asylum seekers in Southern states makes it particularly likely that they will lose their cases because of the region’s harsh judges and shortage of immigration lawyers. There are not enough judges in Louisiana to hear the new cases, and there are no immigration courts in Mississippi. ... Homero López, the executive director of the Louisiana legal aid organization ISLA, says that even some Louisiana detainees who can afford a lawyer aren’t able to get one because of how quickly ICE is expanding in the state.

... An assistant warden told Mother Jones that ICE began sending people there last week, shortly after Congress voted to provide $4.6 billion to address the humanitarian crisis at the southern border without giving ICE the extra detention money it had requested. Asked how detaining immigrants compared to holding criminals, the warden said, “It’s a breeze.”

Well worth clicking to read reporter Noah Lanard's entire article.
posted by Bella Donna at 11:55 PM on July 9, 2019 [22 favorites]

Justice Dept. Tells Mueller Deputies Not to Testify, Scrambling an Agreement

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is seeking to discourage Robert S. Mueller III’s deputies from testifying before Congress, potentially jeopardizing an agreement for two of the former prosecutors to answer lawmakers’ questions in private next week, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.

The department told the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees last week that it was opposed to the testimony and had communicated its view to the two former members of Mr. Mueller’s team, Aaron Zebley and James L. Quarles III, according to a senior congressional official familiar with the discussions. A Justice Department official confirmed that account and said that the department had instructed both men not to appear.

It is unclear what effect the Justice Department’s intervention will have on the men’s eventual appearances, but it raises the prospect that a deal lawmakers thought they had struck last month for testimony from Mr. Mueller, the former special counsel, and the two prosecutors could still unravel.

Both Mr. Zebley and Mr. Quarles have left the Justice Department and are now private citizens, meaning that the department most likely cannot actually block their testimony. But the department’s view — depending on how strongly it is expressed — could have a chilling effect on two longtime employees and give them cover to avoid testifying.

posted by scalefree at 3:43 AM on July 10, 2019 [11 favorites]

BBC: Sir Kim Darroch resigns as UK ambassador to US

WaPo’s Josh Dawsey: ‘I barely know the guy’: To minimize critics, Trump employs selective amnesia

President Trump sat across from British Ambassador Kim Darroch during the annual St. Patrick’s Day lunch on Capitol Hill in March, inquiring about Brexit and bragging of his strong political standing, according to people familiar with their exchange.

It wasn’t the first time they met. Trump interacted with Darroch on a number of occasions in London and Washington, and most of the president’s senior aides have attended parties at the luxurious, chandelier-draped embassy in Northwest Washington and met with the ambassador at the White House.

But after leaked cables showed Darroch criticizing Trump’s administration as “inept” and the president as “insecure,” the president seemed to have a memory lapse.

“I don’t know the Ambassador but have been told he is a pompous fool,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Twitter.[…]

Among those who have gotten the “I barely know the guy” treatment: Former acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker, conservative commentator Ann Coulter, former lawyer Michael Cohen, fired FBI director James B. Comey, former senior White House aide Stephen K. Bannon, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former State Department official Brett McGurk, longtime adviser Roger Stone, former White House aide Cliff Sims, former campaign aide George Papadopoulos and even the rapper Lil Jon, who starred on Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice.”

The people change, but the comments are eerily similar — and are something of a joke among some Trump advisers.

Or instead of using cutesy euphemisms like “selective amnsesia”, just say Trump’s lying.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:06 AM on July 10, 2019 [45 favorites]

The leaks brought a fierce backlash from Trump, who branded Darroch "wacky," "incompetent" and a "very stupid guy." In recent days, the Trump administration made it clear that Darroch was an unwelcome presence in Washington and would effectively be boycotting his participation in meetings. British Prime Minister Theresa May, who is herself standing down on July 23, had suggested that Darroch should stay in the role. UST


this is odd, because in the old thread, when I was looking up articles on this topic, there was no mentions of Trump having even noticed the leaks. This must have happened between the old thread and the new thread.
posted by Mrs Potato at 5:03 AM on July 10, 2019

Remember how Trump was all crowing about how the US is pulling out of Syria because ISIS is dead?

@HetavRojan

US has asked Denmark to deploy special forces to Northeast Syria, media reports. Germany declined a similar request this week.

Britain, France Agree to Send Additional Troops to Syria
The two U.S. allies have agreed to a marginal increase to help backfill the U.S. withdrawal.

In a major victory for U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security team, the United Kingdom and France have agreed to send additional forces to Syria to pick up the slack as U.S. troops withdraw, sources familiar with the discussions told Foreign Policy.

Britain and France, the only other U.S. partners that still have ground forces in Syria, will commit to a marginal 10 to 15 percent troop increase, a U.S. administration official confirmed. Other countries may send small numbers of troops as well, but in exchange the United States would have to pay, the official said.
[...]
Some experts have recently warned that the Islamic State could return stronger than ever, particularly if the U.S. withdraws from Syria without a commitment by allies to fill in the gap.

Without U.S. or allied support to sustain the security and stabilization gains the coalition has made, it’s likely that the Islamic State will “over time be able to prey upon local grievances,” as it did in the lead-up its 2014 takeover of major cities, and eventually “reconstitute and be able to take territory,” said Melissa Dalton, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The U.S. is repeating a critical mistake by deprioritizing this effort at a pivotal moment when our gains are at their most fragile,” warned a new report by the Institute for the Study of War. “The U.S. must take immediate steps to dampen ISIS’s resurgence in Iraq and Syria, including halting and reversing America’s ongoing withdrawal from Syria.”

posted by scalefree at 5:06 AM on July 10, 2019 [11 favorites]

Sir Kim Darroch resigns as UK ambassador to US

More on this breaking news:

The ambassador said […] the leak had made it "impossible" to do his job. In a letter to the Foreign Office, Sir Kim said: "Since the leak of official documents from this Embassy there has been a great deal of speculation surrounding my position and the duration of my remaining term as ambassador. I want to put an end to that speculation."

In response to the letter Sir Simon McDonald, permanent under secretary and head of the diplomatic service, said Sir Kim had served a "long and distinguished career, with dignity, professionalism and class". Describing the leak as "malicious" Sir Simon added: "You are the best of us."

Theresa May said it was a "matter of great regret" that Sir Kim felt the need to resign, saying officials needed to be able to give "full and frank advice".[…]

Europe Minister Sir Alan Duncan has accused [Boris] Johnson of throwing Sir Kim "under a bus".

"I think for someone who wants to lead let alone unite this country, that was contemptible negligence on his part and he's basically thrown this fantastic diplomat under a bus to serve his own personal interests," he told the BBC.

Trump has managed to fire another country's ambassador by tweet.

this is odd, because in the old thread, when I was looking up articles on this topic, there was no mentions of Trump having even noticed the leaks. This must have happened between the old thread and the new thread.

Trump's Twitter attack on Monday was discussed here and here previously. The megathreads come at you fast, but a lot of information gets drowned out when there are circular debates about Pelosi, "Democrat" Party, "Clinton v. Sanders round 5 billion", etc.
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:33 AM on July 10, 2019 [32 favorites]

NBC: McGrath raises a record $2.5 million on first day of Senate campaign

McGrath campaign manager Mark Nickolas said it’s the most ever raised in the first 24 hours of a Senate campaign. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee says the next closest was former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, who raised $1 million in his first day of his campaign in Arizona.

The haul is a sign of just how deep Democratic antipathy toward McConnell, the Senate majority leader, runs in the Trump era.

All of the $2.5 million came in online donations with an average donation of $36.15, her campaign manager said. The $2.5 million total doesn’t include any additional traditional fundraising money that may have been raised in the form of checks or promised campaign contributions.

To put that in perspective, though, Politico reports: Tom Steyer unleashes TV ad blitz

Billionaire activist Tom Steyer’s campaign rolled out a seven-figure television ad campaign promoting his nascent campaign, the largest single television ad buy in the Democratic presidential primary.

The pair of ads are backed up by $1.4 million dollars in spending, according to details of the ad campaign shared first with POLITICO. They will run nationally on CNN and MSNBC and locally in the four early states — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — for two weeks, from July 10 to July 23.[…]

The $1.4 million buy represents a small chunk of what Steyer has committed to spending on his presidential bid. A Steyer spokesperson told The New York Times on Tuesday that the billionaire former hedge fund manager will spend “at least $100 million” on the race.

If these billionaire vanity candidates were truly interested in democratic reform, they'd spend their money on voter registration and get-out-the-vote initiatives.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:20 AM on July 10, 2019 [48 favorites]

Trump has managed to fire another country's ambassador by tweet.


More to the point, he was manipulated into firing another country's ambassador by tweet.

Who by? We don't know. Why? We don't know.

We do know that Boris appears to be complicit in this, being the sole senior Tory not supporting the ambassador; that Farage and pals seemed to be very quick off the mark in supporting 45; and that the channel for the 'leak' was Arron Banks' woman at the Telegraph, Isabel Oakeshott. And that as Carol Cadwalladr has repeatedly and correctly pointed out - Brexit, 45, Boris, Farage, et al, are not separate things, they are different aspects of the same thing.

The UK politics thread is on its summer break at the moment. One had hoped that a restorative lull might be in order. Mistake.
posted by Devonian at 6:29 AM on July 10, 2019 [35 favorites]

Pennsylvania’s governor just stopped the latest Republican voter suppression scheme
The veto by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf came at the cost of $90 million for needed upgrades to the state's voting machines.

Pennsylvania’s Gov. Tom Wolf stopped Republicans from sneaking a long desired voter suppression measure into a bill that would have funded needed upgrades to the state’s vulnerable voting machines.

Wolf vetoed Senate Bill 48, which would have eliminated straight-party ticket voting, which allows people to cast a vote for all Democratic or Republican candidates listed on the ballot at the same time, rather than having to check off each individual candidate. That measure was part of a package that would have also provided $90 million in funds for counties to replace electronic voting machines that are susceptible to hacking with voter-marked paper ballots.

The second term Democratic governor on Friday vetoed the bill that passed along party lines by the Republican-controlled legislature, which is in power thanks in part to political gerrymandering.

Democrats say that rolling back straight-party ticket voting would create longer wait lines and confusion at the polls, affecting under-resourced polling locations in minority populated areas.

posted by scalefree at 6:40 AM on July 10, 2019 [18 favorites]

If these billionaire vanity candidates were truly interested in democratic reform, they'd spend their money on voter registration and get-out-the-vote initiatives.


Heck, with $100 million, you could probably tip control of the US Senate, and a couple of state legislatures, to boot.
posted by darkstar at 6:41 AM on July 10, 2019 [15 favorites]

The House is not going to save us or avenge us. They can't. It isn't that they don't want to, and they are doing their best to protect us even if we can't see it.

Assumes facts not in evidence. Or more succinctly, bullshit.

There are lots of things they could be doing, things they could be doing more aggressively, things they could be doing faster, etc., etc. But are not. The only thing they appear to be doing their best at is delaying and minimizing so as to avoid impeachment.

And if they really had no power, they shouldn’t have spent all of 2018 saying elect us so we can hold these fuckers accountable.

Do your fucking jobs or get out of the way.
posted by chris24 at 6:55 AM on July 10, 2019 [63 favorites]

Guardian: Trump Labor Secretary Who Cut Epstein Deal Plans To Slash Funds For Sex Trafficking Victims—Democrats condemn as ‘amoral’ Alex Acosta’s proposed 80% funding cut for US agency that combats child sex trafficking

Acosta’s plan to slash funding of a critical federal agency in the fight against the sexual exploitation of children is contained in his financial plans for the Department of Labor for fiscal year 2020. In it, he proposes decimating the resources of a section of his own department known as the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB).

The bureau’s budget would fall from $68m last year to just $18.5m. The proposed reduction is so drastic that experts say it would effectively kill off many federal efforts to curb sex trafficking and put the lives of large numbers of children at risk.[…]

Katherine Clark, a congresswoman from Massachusetts, said Acosta’s proposed cut was “reckless” and “amoral”. When seen alongside the sweetheart plea deal he granted Epstein in 2008, when Acosta was the US attorney in Miami, she said, it indicated that the labor secretary did not see protecting vulnerable children as a priority.[…]

Clark grilled Acosta about the proposed cuts in April, when he presented his departmental budget to the House appropriations subcommittee. On that occasion, she said, she found him “rude, dismissive, challenging”.

Hey, remember way back when how Trump's Oklahoma campaign chair to pleaded guilty to child sex trafficking? It's like there's some kind of pattern with Trump and the people around him.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:56 AM on July 10, 2019 [44 favorites]

The ambassador said […] the leak had made it "impossible" to do his job. In a letter to the Foreign Office, Sir Kim said: "Since the leak of official documents from this Embassy there has been a great deal of speculation surrounding my position and the duration of my remaining term as ambassador. I want to put an end to that speculation."


Only one thing left to do: put him in the Order of the Garter.
posted by ocschwar at 7:05 AM on July 10, 2019

Your occasional reminder that 80-year-old Steny Hoyer, who has led efforts to continue funding America's system of for-profit concentration camps, is in an increasingly liberal district and has a progressive challenger (McKayla Wilkes) who's unlikely to attract much seasoned campaign help due to the DCCC's campaign racketeering. She could use every dollar you're inclined to give.
posted by duffell at 7:07 AM on July 10, 2019 [37 favorites]

impeachment is a partisan witch hunt

I'm going to treat any further comments with the same amount of seriousness that I give to the most famous user of that phrase.
posted by diogenes at 7:09 AM on July 10, 2019 [19 favorites]

There are lots of things they could be doing, things they could be doing more aggressively, things they could be doing faster, etc., etc. But are not. The only thing they appear to be doing their best at is delaying and minimizing so as to avoid impeachment.

Did we not see about a half dozen subpoena and similar actions just this week?
posted by M-x shell at 7:10 AM on July 10, 2019 [8 favorites]

The judge in the SDNY census citizenship Q case has denied DOJ's request to withdraw lawyers who had been handling it previously

Reading DOJ lawyers just get REAMED by the judge in the SDNY case gives me the vicious schadenfreude, because it's a wisp of a shadow of a dream of accountability for the Trump administration, and the morally bankrupt lawyers who enable its goals.

Like, the lawyers originally promised the court that they were dropping the case, then the Trump administration cut them off at the knees, so they tried to leave the case politely with some bland, polite fictions and standard recitations, which are sufficient and taken at face value 99.999% of the time, especially when you're representing the government or a big corporation, because they can get plenty of lawyers to step into your place.

But now, the judge is basically looking these lawyers in the eye and saying, "I'm gonna need you to be louder about how you lied to me when you said the government was dropping the question, and now you don't have the stomach to keep lying, or any authority to actually bind your client. No, louder. Louder than that. With more details about your lying and lack of authority that mean, together, I can't rely on anything you or your successors say."

This is the sort of thing career litigators have nightmares about. Like, sit up in bed at night sweaty terrors. It doesn't change children in concentration camps, but the frosty judge RAGE in that denial does distract me from my anger. For a little.
posted by joyceanmachine at 7:19 AM on July 10, 2019 [64 favorites]

Did we not see about a half dozen subpoena and similar actions just this week?

We are 6 months into this term and what we have seen is jack shit, or weak and delayed measures. The couple legal actions filed this week will most likely not be resolved before the 2020 election. Republicans had Comey before Congress in 2 days.

@armandodkos
It’s July 8. The Trump Administration has produced not a single witness or document about the Trump Administration in response to House Dems request and subpoenas.

The House has filed zero cases to enforce subpoenas against the Trump Administration.
posted by chris24 at 7:19 AM on July 10, 2019 [37 favorites]

The House has filed zero cases to enforce subpoenas against the Trump Administration.

Every month I am reminded of the Washington Generals getting dunked on by the Globetrotters. Like Geese is spinning the ball right in front of your face, why would you not steal it? They've got a ladder on the court, why is the ref not calling this?

At some point you start to think maybe the Generals aren't putting up an honest game.
posted by FakeFreyja at 7:27 AM on July 10, 2019 [66 favorites]

The judge in the SDNY census citizenship Q case has denied DOJ's request to withdraw lawyers who had been handling it previously

Meanwhile, in the MD census case, Buzzfeed's Zoe Tillman reports that Barr is claiming maximum discretion in replacing the DoJ legal team:

In the Maryland census case, DOJ defends its handling of withdrawing the previous team of lawyers – they argue the AG has broad power to assign attorneys, and there won't be any prejudice, and say the new lawyers are already working on it
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6186842/7-10-19-US-Reply-MD-Census.pdf

The judge in Maryland hasn't weighed in yet on the legal team swap. Recall that the judge in SDNY rejected the withdrawal, saying DOJ failed to follow the court's rules (but giving them a chance to try again)

Politico's Ted Hasson: "Something to watch: Plaintiffs in the Maryland census cases plan to use discovery to dig into communications between the White House and Commerce and DOJ officials"
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:29 AM on July 10, 2019 [9 favorites]

One of those actions was House Ways and Means finally getting around to filing their lawsuit for Trump's tax returns, after several months of playing a stupid "maybe asking nicely followed up with completely hollow threats will work this time" game.
posted by zombieflanders at 7:29 AM on July 10, 2019 [9 favorites]

a progressive challenger (McKayla Wilkes) who's unlikely to attract much seasoned campaign help due to the DCCC's campaign racketeering.

Racketeering? This kind of talk is not helpful. That's what Trump and the Bernie Bros used to attack Hillary Clinton. It's part of the reason Trump is president today.

Once again, the DCCC is not the DNC. The DCCC is a committee composed of incumbents who raise money to re-elect themselves. They are not spending their efforts to raise money to elect their opponents.

Are Warren and Harris racketeers because they are not using their own election campaign funds to elect Biden?
posted by JackFlash at 7:38 AM on July 10, 2019 [27 favorites]

To consolidate replies to

I suspect that the set in Mueller's jaw matches the set in mine during that car ride.

and

Well don't be shocked next week when Muller decides that he's not really ready to talk to Congress because reasons.

Mueller has already made it clear that he doesn't want to testify. However, he is likely a law abiding citizen that recognizes that what he wants doesn't matter in the face of a subpoena.

...

NBC: McGrath raises a record $2.5 million on first day of Senate campaign

There is a significant chance that this is money thrown down the toilet. KY will only be in play with a very favorable national environment (at which point, who cares about McConnell?). What Democrats should be shooting for is a Dem majority, which would make McConnell dramatically less powerful, rather than trying to unseat him. To get a Dem majority, they should aim their dollars at AZ, NC, ME, CO, IA, and GA (if Roy Moore gets the AL Senate nomination, then put AL before IA).
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:38 AM on July 10, 2019 [16 favorites]

The 4th Circuit just dismissed the emoluments suit filed by state attorneys general, citing a lack of standing. This does not affect the case brought by members of the House.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 7:51 AM on July 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

Buzzfeed's Zoe Tillman: "BREAKING: The 4th Circuit has ordered the dismissal of DC and Maryland's emoluments clause case against Trump, finding they lack standing"

From the ruling:

The District and Maryland’s interest in enforcing the Emoluments Clauses is so attenuated and abstract that their prosecution of this case readily provokes the question of whether this action against the President is an appropriate use of the courts, which were created to resolve real cases and controversies between the parties. In any event, for the reasons given, we grant the President’s petition for a writ of mandamus and, taking jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b), hold that the District and Maryland do not have Article III standing to pursue their claims against the President. Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s orders denying the President’s motion to dismiss filed in his official capacity, and, in light of our related decision in No. 18-2488, we remand with instructions that the court dismiss the District and Maryland’s complaint with prejudice.

LAT's Matt Pearce: "So in other words, under this theory the emoluments clause is effectively an annex to the impeachment article, since it sounds like that’s the only mechanism where it could be enforced."

WaPo's Ann Marimow: "The D.C. Circuit is considering a separate "emoluments' lawsuit from Congressional Democrats, who say the anti-corruption clauses require Trump to seek approval from lawmakers before accepting payments or other benefits."
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:53 AM on July 10, 2019 [16 favorites]

Reminder that Steny Hoyer does the DCCC's dirty work against primary challengers and progressives, and does it with Nancy Pelosi's approval
posted by fluttering hellfire at 7:58 AM on July 10, 2019 [11 favorites]

There is a significant chance that this is money thrown down the toilet.

Dave Wasserman
Reality check: Amy McGrath ran for House in 2018 (a terrific Dem year) and lost by 3% in #KY06, which went for Trump by 15% in 2016.

Now she’s running w/ basically the same message in a state that went for Trump by *30%.* Folks...
posted by chris24 at 7:58 AM on July 10, 2019 [8 favorites]

I just want to repost a couple of links from the last thread...

House Dems set to subpoena Kushner, Sessions and 10 other Mueller witnesses

"House Judiciary Committee will vote on Thursday to authorize subpoenas for 12 of former special counsel Robert Mueller's witnesses — including President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his former deputy Rod Rosenstein, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former chief of staff John Kelly and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski."

“He Said Not to Tell Anyone”: How Trump Kept Tabs on Jeffrey Epstein

Democrats may soon have an opportunity to question Pecker about his relationship with Trump. Later this week, the House Judiciary Committee will vote to authorize a subpoena for Pecker, among people involved in the Mueller report, as they investigate possible obstruction of justice.

Felix Sater to Testify After Missing Previously Scheduled Appearance

Sater failed to appear for a voluntary appearance before the committee last month because he was sick and slept through his alarm, he told POLITICO at the time. Sater previously said his attorney, Robert Wolf, was already in Washington for the planned interview but the committee issued a subpoena anyway.

Democrats to pursue criminal contempt charges against William Barr and Wilbur Ross for defying congressional subpoenas related to the census

First Judicial Subpoenas Served in Foreign #EmolumentsClause Lawsuit Brought by @SenBlumenthal, @RepJerryNadler & 213 Other Members of Congress

Trump is a huge headache for Deutsche, but the bank has plenty more

[Deutschebank] is currently caught [in] a legal battle over a subpoena from House Democrats years of the president's financial records. A Manhattan federal judge has rejected a request by Trump and his family to block Deutsche and Capital One from complying with the congressional subpoenas. The case is currently on hold while Trump appeals the decision and the banks have agreed not to turn over any information until the case is resolved.

Seven Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee have also [asked] the Federal Reserve to probe whistleblower allegations, first reported by the New York Times last month, that Deutsche Bank buried suspicious activity from accounts associated with Trump and his son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner.

House Oversight chairman demands private emails from Trump officials

A top House Democrat demanded Monday that the White House turn over all communications sent by senior officials using private email and messaging services — including encrypted apps — by next week, citing a blanket refusal by the Trump administration to comply with earlier requests.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said his request, with a July 10 deadline, marks the start of a new review of the private email practices of Trump administration officials that appear to violate federal record-keeping laws. The Maryland Democrat noted that he had made narrower requests for information months ago, such as details about Jared Kushner's contacts with foreign officials via text and "apparent violations" by "Ivanka Trump, Steve Bannon and K.T. McFarland." [...]

House Panel Votes to Subpoena Kellyanne Conway Over Hatch Act Violations

The House Oversight Committee voted on Wednesday to subpoena testimony from White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after a federal agency recommended that she should be fired for repeatedly violating a law that limits the political activities of federal employees.

It's just not true that the Democrats in the House are doing nothing. It IS true that the Trump administration is ignoring a lot of congressional subpoenas. The options that the House has for dealing with that noncompliance are limited, when the head of the DOJ is personally enabling much of it. If your take is "That means our democracy is ALREADY badly damaged and the crisis we were worried about is HERE"... I don't disagree.
posted by OnceUponATime at 8:07 AM on July 10, 2019 [51 favorites]

"BREAKING: The 4th Circuit has ordered the dismissal of DC and Maryland's emoluments clause case against Trump, finding they lack standing"

Not to be political, but deciding that 4th circuit ruling:

Argued March 19, 2019 Decided July 10, 2019
Before NIEMEYER [appointed by G H W Bush, 1990] and QUATTLEBAUM [appointed by D J Trump, 2018], Circuit Judges and SHEDD Senior Circuit Judge [appointed by G W Bush, 2002].

posted by pjenks at 8:12 AM on July 10, 2019 [13 favorites]

Steny Hoyer does the DCCC's dirty work against primary challengers and progressives

How is this "dirty work"? There was a decision by the local Democratic party leaders in Colorado to back who they considered to be the strongest candidate to take back a Republican seat. The DCCC decided to respect the decision of the local leaders and back their preferred candidate.
posted by JackFlash at 8:13 AM on July 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

In positive news: California Is 1st State To Offer Health Benefits To Adult Undocumented Immigrants (Bobby Allyn for NPR, July 10, 2019)

California has become the first state in the country to offer government-subsidized health benefits to young adults living in the U.S. illegally.

The measure signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday extends coverage to low-income, undocumented adults age 25 and younger for the state's Medicaid program.

Since 2016, California has allowed (Public Policy Institute of California) children under 18 to receive taxpayer-backed health care despite immigration status. And state officials expect that the plan will cover roughly 90,000 people.

The idea of giving health benefits to undocumented immigrants is supported (Pacific Standard Magazine) by most of the Democratic candidates running for president, and California's move comes as the Trump administration continues to ramp up its hard-line crackdown on illegal immigration. On Tuesday, Newsom said the state law draws a sharp contrast with Trump's immigration policies.

"If you believe in universal health care, you believe in universal health care," Newsom said (Facebook video). "We are the most un-Trump state in America when it comes to health policy."

California: what the rest of the country could do if it had (mildly) progressive Democratic leadership. Thanks for breaking the ice, and moving the dialog forward from "what if" to "starting now."
posted by filthy light thief at 8:29 AM on July 10, 2019 [30 favorites]

So in other words, under this theory the emoluments clause is effectively an annex to the impeachment article, since it sounds like that’s the only mechanism where it could be enforced.

Interesting. Mueller also said that the only remedy for crimes committed by the president was impeachment. I'm noticing a pattern.
posted by diogenes at 8:30 AM on July 10, 2019 [19 favorites]

The closed-door interview will cap a protracted back-and-forth between Sater and the panel, which has rescheduled his appearance several times since he was first slated to appear in March.

Sater failed to appear for a voluntary appearance before the committee last month because he was sick and slept through his alarm

You can really feel the urgency.
posted by diogenes at 8:35 AM on July 10, 2019 [10 favorites]

As a citizen of a democracy, I love when local leaders helpfully keep me from voting for the wrong person

This is bullshit and you know it. How many times have folks here complained that their local party isn't helping to find strong candidates to run against Republicans. That is what local party leaders do. They actively go around and try to find a candidate that they think can win. They talk them into running and then they provide resources to help them win.

That's what people here demanded and that's what they are doing. If you don't like their preferred candidate then there are two things you can do. Get involved in local politics to make you views known and try to influence their selections. Or help your preferred candidate run as an independent, but keep in mind that this might end up putting the Republican in office.

But sitting around whining as a keyboard commando isn't doing anything. Pro-tip: accusing your local party officials of being racketeers is unlikely to earn you much credibility or influence.
posted by JackFlash at 8:39 AM on July 10, 2019 [28 favorites]

It IS true that the Trump administration is ignoring a lot of congressional subpoenas.

All of these investigations could be fast tracked if they were a part of an impeachment inquiry. There would no longer be a question of whether Trump must comply with subpoenas. There would no longer be appeals. There would no be a question of pressing government interest. Courts would no longer slow roll these cases.

The genesis of the Pelosi story is that the House passed the Senate's emergency spending bill for ICE without adding basic progressive amendments that would ensure things like food, clothing, soap, clean water, toothbrushes, and adequate heat for the children staying in the detention centers.

At bottom, the Pelosi story is about whether or not Democratic leadership is interested at all in holding Trump accountable or fighting against his policies. It increasingly looks like the strategy is to sit back, let Trump dig his own grave through his increasingly illegal actions, and hope voters notice.
posted by xammerboy at 8:40 AM on July 10, 2019 [16 favorites]

and hope voters notice

And hope you can win an election against an opponent who is unconstrained by any laws. That's not hyperbole.
posted by diogenes at 8:46 AM on July 10, 2019 [25 favorites]

monopas: What people are asking and demanding of her is unconstitutional. She is powerless, because there is no power for her to wield without support from other parts of the government. Because all she can realistically do is speak, and that very carefully. Anything else could create a Constitutional crisis that could end in that fascist state we're all so looking forward to.

So, would her arrest and imprisonment satisfy that powerless feeling you have?

I think there's a lot of merit to the larger point -- the House does indeed have a terrible hand, and the question is how they play it. What I'm not certain about is how this specific bit jibes with the sargeant-at-arms power. Are you saying that the House personally using its own enforcement mechanism would be truly not constituional, or rather that it's not "practically" constitutional because the White House would retaliate by arresting her?

xammerboy: All of these investigations could be fast tracked if they were a part of an impeachment inquiry. There would no longer be a question of whether Trump must comply with subpoenas. There would no longer be appeals. There would no be a question of pressing government interest. Courts would no longer slow roll these cases.

I think this is absolutely 100% wrong. Simply by entertaining "questions" about the "legitimacy" and "murkiness" of the impeachment, courts would slow-roll it for sure. I truly fail to see why they wouldn't. In the current climate, a court/judge taking the stance that the impeachment is legitimate (rather than splitting the difference oh-so-moderately between that and "witch hunt"), and indeed so legitimate that it's time to fast-track things, is taking a strong partisan stance. The hesitations and reluctance of Mueller is perfect illustration of this: people in general dislike headaches or rocking the boat. We should still impeach because it's better than the alternative, but every option is a long slog, regardless.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:47 AM on July 10, 2019 [5 favorites]

Addendum to not abuse editing: Right now, everyone from Mueller himself to various judges to Trump's own lawyers are saying "The only remedy to XYZ is impeachment." From one angle, that looks a lot like evidence that impeachment is, indeed, a powerful remedy. From another, however, it looks like a thing whose absence makes a perfect excuse, like the procrastinator who says "I just need a smart watch, if I only had a smart watch I would be everywhere on time."
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:51 AM on July 10, 2019 [14 favorites]

All of these investigations could be fast tracked if they were a part of an impeachment inquiry. There would no longer be a question of whether Trump must comply with subpoenas. There would no longer be appeals. There would no be a question of pressing government interest. Courts would no longer slow roll these cases.

This strikes me as optimistic. An "impeachment inquiry" is not actually a thing, Constitutionally speaking, and would not be a magic word to override court procedures. The White House would just shift the goalposts further and dicker over whether the claims are legitimate. The only thing that is impeachment is impeachment -- articles filed in the House and approved by a majority, setting off a trial in the Senate. The run-up to that step is just more uncodified norms.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:52 AM on July 10, 2019 [6 favorites]

The options that the House has for dealing with that noncompliance are limited...
or
What people are asking and demanding of her is unconstitutional. She is powerless, because there is no power for her to wield without support from other parts of the government.

Congress, either branch, has only had one real power - that of the purse. The House should make it known that not only will a budget not be passed, the debt ceiling will be breached and we will default on our debts unless the Executive starts playing ball; we literally only have our chains to lose.
posted by pseudophile at 8:54 AM on July 10, 2019 [5 favorites]

I'm not generally one to defend Steny fucking Hoyer, but the idea that party officials choosing who they spend money on somehow denies you the opportunity to vote for your preferred candidate is absurd.

Ocasio-Cortez understood that you don't destroy the establishment's house with its own tools. She went to war with the DCCC and she fucking won. It may not be easy, but the two-party system isn't going away any time soon, so you either work with the party or you go it alone knowing you're at a disadvantage. Crying about it to the press so they can run the shocking headline "Political Party Does Political Party Things" is pathetic.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:55 AM on July 10, 2019 [14 favorites]

Mod note: Maybe enough on round n of all this? impeachment y/n DCCC feckless dems pelosi; we must/we can't. Let's aim for updates on things actually happening?
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:59 AM on July 10, 2019 [31 favorites]

This is the first time I've read through and engaged in a politics thread in several months, so apologies in advance for the insufferable naïveté that follows -

a tl;dr of this thread and others like it seems to be, "Our system is not equipped to deal with corruption and/or fascism at the top." So how can the answer lie in local political office? Nancy Pelosi is powerless and so is everyone downstream, including local politicians, judges, whoever we work our assess off to elect.

The only moment in the past few months when I have felt a glimmer of hope is when I heard about Jewish activists physically surrounding ICE offices in Boston last week. Their actions stopped these particular ICE officers from working for a few hours. That is more than literally any elected official has accomplished.
posted by MiraK at 9:02 AM on July 10, 2019 [47 favorites]

everyone from Mueller himself to various judges to Trump's own lawyers are saying "The only remedy to XYZ is impeachment." From one angle, that looks a lot like evidence that impeachment is, indeed, a powerful remedy. From another, however, it looks like a thing whose absence makes a perfect excuse

Aren't both of those angles arguments for starting the process?

(This may be the n'th round of comments on this subject, but it's in response to breaking news about a court ruling that happened like 10 minutes ago.)
posted by diogenes at 9:03 AM on July 10, 2019 [4 favorites]

Politico: Mulvaney Presses Trump To Dump Acosta Amid Mounting Outrage—The acting White House chief of staff has clashed with the Labor secretary, who is under fire for cutting a deal with billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2008.

Axios's Jonathan "Trump Whisperer" Swan: "A source close to President Trump tells me there is “zero” chance he fires Labor Secretary Alex Acosta over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. “Zero,” they repeated."

Bloomberg: U.S. Labor Secretary Won’t Resign Over Epstein, Official Says

NBC: Labor Sec. Acosta to hold news conference Wednesday afternoon following renewed scrutiny over his role in cutting a plea deal more than a decade ago for Jeffrey Epstein.

Politico's Ian Kullgren: "“Acosta’s usual strategy with terrible press is to just stay quiet,” a former admin official told me. “This shows just how desperate he is becoming to save his job.”"

Former Obama DoJ official Eric Columbus: "Anyone prepping for Alex Acosta’s presser should read his only detailed statement on the Epstein case, a three-page letter he gave @thedailybeast in 2011. In that letter Acosta goes on and on and on about how great Epstein’s lawyers were. Very odd."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-how-the-hedge-fund-mogul-pedophile-got-off-easy
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:12 AM on July 10, 2019 [10 favorites]

a tl;dr of this thread and others like it seems to be, "Our system is not equipped to deal with corruption and/or fascism at the top." So how can the answer lie in local political office? Nancy Pelosi is powerless and so is everyone downstream, including local politicians, judges, whoever we work our assess off to elect.

Why are the hard right so infuriated by the concept of sanctuary cities? Or local gun ordinances? Or uncooperative lower court rulings, if they own the SCOTUS now?

Because they are symbolic. They _are_ local and county and state officials doing their best to at least impede the fascist agenda. Where they don't succeed outright, they can often buy time and organize resistance around themselves.

When you don't get good people into those local offices, you end up with legions of Kim Davises who have no qualms about taking things the other way, disregarding laws and court rulings in favor of how they feel the world should be.

Why is the Republican Party so brain-damaged as-is? Because of decades of efforts to push and shove it further to the right. Because of efforts to paint compromise as treason and acknowledgement of the opposition as legitimate as the cardinal sin. And because these hard-right people have primaried out moderates, seized control of state legislatures and school boards and local offices and party functionary positions, and blanketed the airwaves with endless mantras yanking the Overton Window rightwards.

It is easier to gain functional control of a burning, skidding trash truck of a party from the bottom up than to assume that replacing two or three people at the top can result in major reform. The right has gained considerable power via that approach, and it is worth repeating.
posted by delfin at 9:18 AM on July 10, 2019 [18 favorites]

Congress, either branch, has only had one real power - that of the purse. The House should make it known that not only will a budget not be passed, the debt ceiling will be breached and we will default on our debts unless the Executive starts playing ball; we literally only have our chains to lose.

This is a really bad idea. The public really, really, really hates government shutdowns. And they particularly hate it when it isn't about the actual budget but some unrelated item like political bickering over subpoenas.

Democrats should play hardball in the negotiations about the budget, but threatening a shutdown should not be a strategy.
posted by JackFlash at 9:26 AM on July 10, 2019 [14 favorites]

"A source close to President Trump tells me there is “zero” chance he fires Labor Secretary Alex Acosta over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. “Zero,” they repeated."

This is Trump's standard tactic when confronted with sexual improprieties -- deny, deny, deny and deny some more, even when the evidence is staring the public in the face.

Trump's stubbornness on defending Acosta suggests he feels some personal vulnerability by admitting any impropriety.
posted by JackFlash at 9:31 AM on July 10, 2019 [5 favorites]

Nicholas Bagley, Silver bullets, blue pencils, and the future of the ACA

So set that aside. Turning to standing, neither Judge Elrod and Judge Engelhardt appeared troubled about whether the red states could bring the lawsuit. And they were downright hostile to the argument that the ACA should be understood to leave people a choice about whether to buy insurance. Doesn’t the law say that people “shall” buy coverage? And doesn’t Congress know how to repeal or amend a law when it wishes to?

The judges listened respectfully when the lawyer for the House of Representatives patiently explained that the Supreme Court has authoritatively interpreted that language to give people a choice about whether to buy insurance or not. And Marty Lederman is right that the argument is embarrassing on its own terms. But they appeared unmoved.
...
It does seem to me, however, that yesterday’s argument went about as badly as it could’ve gone. Instead of scoffing at the frivolousness of the red states’ legal arguments, two judges on the panel appear open to holding that the ACA is wholly or partly invalid. We could be in for a long, bumpy ride.

NYT, Margot Sanger-Katz, So You Want to Overturn Obamacare. Here Are Some Things That Would Be Headaches, on the wide range of things that would happen if the ACA was repealed, starting with 21 million people probably losing their health insurance and 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions losing protection, but also everything from the end of restaurant calorie counts to the employer lactation room mandate.

And yet the administration keeps rolling out new proposals, like today's new announcement on kidney disease, that rely on legal authority created under the ACA, which they want to disappear.

To put it simply, "Republicans have done next to no contingency planning about handling the aftermath of success in the Obamacare lawsuit." And the guy saying that writes for National Review and is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; that's how bad this is.
posted by zachlipton at 9:41 AM on July 10, 2019 [30 favorites]

WaPo: Trump’s July Fourth Event and Weekend Protests Bankrupted D.C. Security Fund, Mayor Says

President Trump’s overhauled July Fourth celebration cost the D.C. government $1.7 million, an amount that — combined with police expenses for demonstrations through the weekend — has bankrupted a special fund used to protect the nation’s capital from terrorist threats and provide security at events such as rallies and state funerals.

In a letter to the president Tuesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) warned that the fund has now been depleted and is estimated to be running a $6 million deficit by Sept. 30. The mayor also noted that the account was never reimbursed for $7.3 million in expenses from Trump’s 2017 inauguration.[…]

White House officials have said that the District agreed to use unspent money in the emergency fund to pay for inaugural costs, an assertion denied by the Bowser administration.

NPR: Pentagon: July 4 Flyovers, Tank Displays And Performances Cost $1.2 Million

Defense Department officials said on Tuesday spending for personnel involvement and demonstrations largely came from their training budgets.

"The Department of Defense supported the 'Salute to America' with demonstrations by aircraft, static displays of equipment and ceremonial unit participation," the Pentagon said in its statement. "Funding for the demonstrations came from the military services' training budgets that facilitate flying hours, which are imperative to military readiness. Additional funding was used for the transportation of static displays and equipment."[…]

Trump said on Monday he planned to repeat the salute to the military next year. The comments came on the same day a trio of Senate Democrats called for a federal watchdog to probe the event.

And why will the American public have to foot the bill for Trump's vanity act again? Trump's 'Salute To America' set a 4th of July ratings record for Fox News (Forbes).
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:44 AM on July 10, 2019 [20 favorites]

How Congress Should Think About Mueller’s Testimony (Quinta Jurecic, Lawfare)

Whether or not Mueller approached his own responsibilities as special counsel appropriately, Congress has its own responsibilities to consider as an independent branch of government. Take it from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: “Members of Congress must honor our oath and our patriotic duty to follow the facts, so we can protect our democracy."

So what does it mean to “follow the facts”? On one level, Congress will be performing a valuable service if it can simply highlight the report’s findings to a public that has not had the opportunity to fully grapple with the contents of a 448-page document—whether by walking Mueller through a careful line of questioning, or by simply asking him to read through sections of the report out loud. The more challenging task for Congress, though, is to use the hearings to begin the process of forming opinions and judgments about what to do with the material Mueller has provided. One way to tackle this would be to use Mueller’s testimony as a means of identifying other issues and witnesses for future hearings—like Trump confidante Corey Lewandowski, who was witness to significant acts of potential obstruction by the president and over whose testimony the White House has no plausible claim of executive privilege.

Congress has spent much of its time since the release of the Mueller report in a reactive position, waiting for others to take the lead. First, House Democrats announced they wanted to wait until the release of the report before evaluating how to shape their oversight efforts against the president and whether to begin an impeachment inquiry. Then, once the Justice Department provided the report, House leadership dithered over what to do with the material Mueller provided, while the president’s allies in both the House and the Senate moved toward calls to investigate the investigators. Many prominent Democrats, most notably Pelosi herself, have argued that the House should not begin impeachment proceedings until polling shows majority support for such an effort—which is just another way of hoping that some other body, in this case the public, will tell Congress what to do next.

Throughout the Trump administration, a common refrain of onlookers has been, in the language of the internet, “lol nothing matters.” Mueller’s testimony might matter—but only if members of Congress are thoughtful about what they want to get out of the hearings and realistic about what they can reasonably accomplish. No one else is going to do the work for them.

posted by Little Dawn at 10:13 AM on July 10, 2019 [10 favorites]

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope is contagious'

In the course of their conversation, Ocasio-Cortez and Thunberg discuss what it is like to be dismissed for their age, how depressed we should be about the future, and what tactics, as an activist, really work. Ocasio-Cortez speaks with her customary snap and brilliance that, held up against the general waffle of political discourse, seems startlingly direct. Thunberg, meanwhile, is phenomenally articulate, well-informed and self-assured, holding her own in conversation with an elected official nearly twice her age and speaking in deliberate, thoughtful English [Thunberg is Swedish].

posted by kirkaracha at 10:21 AM on July 10, 2019 [21 favorites]

I wanted to correct and add to a comment I made in the last thread.

I was pondering the murder of Kim Jong-un's brother, Kim Jong-nam by North Korean agents.

Kim Jong-Nam had been in exile for 14 years. It was recently (June 2019) revealed to the public, that he had been a CIA asset.

Kim Jong-nam was murdered February 10, 2017, three weeks after Trump took office. The 14 years in which Kim was allowed to survive and then his sudden murder after Trump took office suggest to me a leak from the U.S. or from Trump himself. Could Trump have revealed the CIA status either through idiocy or in a desire to confer favor from Kim Jong-un?

Beyond Trump there was the uber-traitor Mattis in place at that time.

I would like to point out that Kim-Jong-nam went to meet with his CIA handler at the time of his murder. So he was a current, supposedly not previously exposed, asset.

Also to say I meant uber-traitor Flynn.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:23 AM on July 10, 2019 [7 favorites]

Methinks Minnesota's junior senator is in the mood for turtle soup come 2020: Tina Smith: McConnell's leadership "a big, fat waste:"

I came to Washington understanding what the Senate is capable of accomplishing and knowing that I'd have myriad opportunities as a senator to get things done. And let's be clear that the problem isn't that senators on both sides of the aisle can't agree on anything. Truth is, there's plenty of work we could be doing -- if only Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would let us.

But McConnell has transformed the Senate into little more than the Trump administration's personnel office, the place where good ideas go to die. As of July 3, the Senate has taken 127 votes since the rules change on April 3, which drastically reduced the amount of time some nominees could be debated on the Senate floor. Just 21 of those 127 votes were related to legislation -- that's 16.5% of floor time devoted to legislative debate -- while the vast majority were devoted to pushing through the Trump administration's nominations.

Preach, Tina. (Those who thought she'd be weaksauce can eat a double helping of humble pie.) But as long as the Democrats remain the minority party in the Senate, this is what is going to keep happening. This is why it is vital to flip the Senate - because even if McConnell drops dead tomorrow, I doubt his replacement will be an improvement.

MiraK is 1000% right that our system is not equipped to deal with the corruption that is now rotting it from within. And the Democrats are still in the minority in the Senate, and only last year regained a House majority. So, their options are more limited than we might like to think. We need a blue wave in 2020, not a reversion to Democratic voters being too lazy, apathetic, and/or entitled to vote. (I'm not talking about the disenfranchised, just the ones that could vote but don't.)
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:24 AM on July 10, 2019 [25 favorites]

I don't think the SC will allow the ACA to be struck down through this suit. Would a lot of them like the ACA to go away? Yes. Do they realize that if the ACA is struck down, the 2020 election is about healthcare and that is likely to go very poorly for the GOP? They probably do.
posted by azpenguin at 10:24 AM on July 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

So yesterday I did volunteer observation at immigration court here in Minnesota, something I'd been unable to do since last January. It was very different from my previous experiences.

The last time I was there, I overheard the judge say something about a heavier caseload coming up. This time, court ran a full hour over scheduled time, which had never happened on any of my previous shifts; in fact, court usually finished a little early.

There were a cluster of people who had applied for asylum in Texas and had been brought here to Minnesota. They didn't have family here; there was no reason to bring them here that I could tell except either moving people for fun or an overwhelmed system.

These people had applied for asylum on or about May 2. They were just now getting their first hearings. These were all people who had passed a credible fear interview, so they were at least able to continue in the asylum process. Only one of them had, however, been given the forms for the next step.

Fear of gang violence is apparently a known weak and hard-to-win argument for asylum - the judge remarked on this.

If you are seeking asylum, you can't get a bond through the immigration court system - you have to get parole from DHS. Any of these people could have had a bond hearing and been bonded out yesterday, but at the very minimum they will sit around for weeks more waiting on parole. (Even if you get bond, you have to pay all of it, not just a percentage as US citizens do.) To get parole from DHS, you have to fill out a form at the detention center and request that your detention officer meet with you. Only then can you start the process, and it does not seem to go fast. (There was one other detainee who'd been able to start.) The judge very directly implied that they did not approve of this state of affairs, as it is evidently recent.

Refugees can get deported for serious crimes after they're released from prison, which seems dumb to me. If someone is a refugee, that seems like a separate matter even if they're not a great person.

Many people don't have lawyers and obviously don't have any understanding of the court system. The judge, who is harried and not always someone who uses a great tone of voice, none the less goes out of their way to try to strongly imply that people should absolutely get a lawyer - they can't tell people this overtly but they very frequently signal it. (The court does provide a list of pro bono lawyers.)

But anyway, things seem to be changing such that more people are ending up here, so very far from the border.

It's very grim because a lot of immigrants in this court clearly have a naive and optimistic view of the immigration process and are not at all familiar with court conventions.

They are all brought out manacled hand and foot, by the way, which is utterly unnecessary. If they're getting on-site translation (the court has a Spanish interpreter who provides simultaneous translation) the guard has to put the headphones on for them because they can't get their hands wide enough apart.

It's not even that the visible court staff are terrible or cruel; it's that they are politely enforcing this godawful system.

Also, this is absolutely a class issue, among other things. These are the poor people who are fleeing, the poorest of them who don't have the knowledge or the money to get a lawyer and/or who can't pay the bail. There is not a shred of justice in our immigration system, even operating normally instead of with camps.
posted by Frowner at 10:36 AM on July 10, 2019 [82 favorites]

Outbreaks of scabies, shingles and chickenpox were spreading among the hundreds of children and adults who were being held in cramped cells, agents said. The stench of the children’s dirty clothing was so strong it spread to the agents’ own clothing — people in town would scrunch their noses when they left work. The children cried constantly. One girl seemed likely enough to try to kill herself that the agents made her sleep on a cot in front of them, so they could watch her as they were processing new arrivals.

“It gets to a point where you start to become a robot,” said a veteran Border Patrol agent who has worked at the Clint station since it was built. He described following orders to take beds away from children to make more space in holding cells, part of a daily routine that he said had become “heartbreaking.”

This is a crime against humanity and allowing it to be funded is complicity in that crime.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:40 AM on July 10, 2019 [66 favorites]

Once again, the DCCC is not the DNC. The DCCC is a committee composed of incumbents who raise money to re-elect themselves. They are not spending their efforts to raise money to elect their opponents.

Are Warren and Harris racketeers because they are not using their own election campaign funds to elect Biden?

Just to correct what seems to be a common misunderstanding: the new issue with the DCCC is not that it supports incumbents only, which it has always done. The issue is that the DCCC recently instituted a new policy where it refuses to direct pro-incumbent funds to any consultant or organization working for that incumbent who, in addition to working for the incumbent in question, also does work for any primary challenger in any other race throughout the country. It's more like if Biden declared that any individual or group working for him who also ever did any work for Warren or Harris would never have a position in his administration. Which, admittedly, is to some degree what happens, just as to some degree the DCCC previously tended to avoid working with groups that did a lot of primary-challenger work. But there's a still a big and new jump here to codifying that vague tendency, and enforcing it with surprising assiduousness.
posted by chortly at 11:00 AM on July 10, 2019 [12 favorites]

Mod note: A few deleted; it's fine to link tweets and criticize them for what you think is implied, but please don't make it sound like the person said something they didn't. It's just a tweet, you can just copy the text verbatim.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:01 AM on July 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

Politico: McConnell Downplays Need For More Election Security Legislation Ahead of Briefing

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell questioned whether further election security legislation is needed ahead of Senate and House briefings on the topic Wednesday.[…]

In a floor speech, McConnell said that while Congress will continue to “assess whether future legislative steps might be needed,” he accused Democrats of making election security a political issue.

“We need to make sure this conversation is clear-eyed and sober and serious,” he said. “It’s interesting that some of our colleagues across the aisle seem to have already made up their minds before we hear from the experts later today. Their brand-new sweeping Washington intervention is just what the doctor ordered.”

McConnell also blamed Obama officials for emboldening Russian President Vladimir Putin to meddle in the 2016 election.[…]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed McConnell for blaming the Obama administration Wednesday and accused the majority leader of simply taking up Trump's talking points.

"The Russians interfered," he said. "They certainly had conversations with the Trump administration. President Trump encouraged them to interfere publicly. And now, Leader McConnell has the temerity to blame President Obama? What a remarkable feat of revisionist history."

The briefings are expected to include Trump administration officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. Schumer said they "should be a springboard for action."

It's a bizarre state of affairs when the leader of the opposition in the Senate constantly talks up bipartisanship while the Senate leader is using every dirty parliamentary trick he can muster to block legislation and reframe debate. The role reversal is like something out of a Disney body-swap movie.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:05 AM on July 10, 2019 [11 favorites]

Fear of gang violence is apparently a known weak and hard-to-win argument for asylum

And yet it's a guaranteed winner for Republicans. Someone explain to me why politicians are allowed to freak out about MS-13, but people who have actually lost family members to gang violence in their native countries don't get the same benefit of the doubt.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:11 AM on July 10, 2019 [47 favorites]

Just to correct what seems to be a common misunderstanding: the new issue with the DCCC is not that it supports incumbents only, which it has always done.

I assume the DSCC has the same mandate, yet it is also backing a candidate in the the Maine senate race where there is no Democratic incumbent. So apparently, if you are are an insider that's close enough to incumbent for them.
posted by M-x shell at 11:12 AM on July 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Hello friends. People who have Pelosi feelings have them strongly, and both pro-Pelosi and con-Pelosi people feel they're not allowed to make their point often enough. Whereas to many people it also seems like, there has been a whole lot of the same points being made, pro- and con- Pelosi, for a long time. This is why we keep asking, after a longish stretch of the same Pelosi back-and-forth, to lay off Pelosi stuff for a while. I deleted a comment that quoted some new Pelosi thing that was already kicking off another stretch of the same points being made. That's where things stand; please lay off it for a while.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:20 AM on July 10, 2019 [51 favorites]

Insider: We hired the author of 'Black Hawk Down' and an illustrator from 'Archer' to adapt the Mueller report so you'll actually read it
posted by monospace at 11:35 AM on July 10, 2019 [64 favorites]

The House Oversight hearing on the treatment of children at the border is starting any minute now, and can be streamed at that link. Tweets from the hearing can be found here.

On another channel, Acosta's press conference is happening now. He's not resigning, and is instead defending his handling of the Epstein case.
posted by zachlipton at 11:38 AM on July 10, 2019 [7 favorites]

Ben Garrison disinvited from White House for being too anti-semitic, thoughts and prayers

Also, look who's got more prions than neurons:

You've worked so hard on the kidney. Very special -- the kidney has a very special place in the heart. It's an incredible thing.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:40 AM on July 10, 2019 [13 favorites]

Mod note: Several comments deleted and two one-day bans given. No "fuck you" on the site -- go cool off. This is not okay.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:53 AM on July 10, 2019 [42 favorites]

You wouldn't know it from the media, but
@BernieSanders
has raised more money from TWICE as many donors as any other candidate in the Democratic primary.

No corporations.
No special interests.
No lobbyists.
No high dollar big-wig events.

Average donation is just $18.

from Shaun King's Twitter @shaunking
8:27 AM · Jul 10, 2019
posted by Ahmad Khani at 11:57 AM on July 10, 2019 [4 favorites]

And yet Sanders felt it appropriate to commemorate the passing of billionaire H. Ross Perot. Given that Perot's last political act was to donate to Trump, and given Sanders' anti-plutocrat position, that seems rather unusual.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:05 PM on July 10, 2019 [15 favorites]

On another channel, Acosta's press conference is happening now. He's not resigning, and is instead defending his handling of the Epstein case.

PSA from historian Kevin Kruse with a guide to Trump administration/campaign officials:

Remember, the Secretary of Labor who's currently under fire for cutting a deal with an alleged pedophile and serial rapist is only the Secretary of Labor because Trump's *original* nominee for Secretary of Labor had to withdraw over allegations that he had abused his ex-wife.

Also, remember that the 2016 RNC Finance Chairman who's been accused of multiple counts of rape is different from the 2016 RNC Deputy Finance Chairman who paid for a Playmate's abortion and different from the *other* 2016 RNC Deputy Finance Chairman who is now in prison.

Also, the state chairman of Trump's 2016 campaign in Kentucky who later pleaded guilty to child sex trafficking* is different from the state chairman of Trump's 2016 campaign in Oklahoma who also later pleaded guilty to child sex trafficking.

* I can't tell if I forgot about this one or if it just blurred together with the other one (I can't find him mentioned in the megathreads). It doesn't help when the headlines are so generic: Ex-Trump campaign official charged with human trafficking (Reuters) His name is Timothy Nolan, and he's a retired district court judge. He's now serving a 20-year sentence in jail and had to pay $110,000 in restitutions. The party of Law 'n' Order, everybody!

And because this is the dumbest, darkest timeline, Mark Foley says he's ready to run for Congress again (Florida Politics).
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:08 PM on July 10, 2019 [29 favorites]

Ahmad Khani: "You wouldn't know it from the media, but
@BernieSanders has raised more money from TWICE as many donors as any other candidate in the Democratic primary. "

I've seen coverage by "the media" of every candidate's quarterly fundraising totals, when announced, including number of donors.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:11 PM on July 10, 2019 [26 favorites]

Insider: We hired the author of 'Black Hawk Down' and an illustrator from 'Archer' to adapt the Mueller report so you'll actually read it

posted by monospace at 11:35 AM on July 10 [12 favorites +] [!]

OMG. From that link

They sat about 4 feet apart. Trump held up a card listing each course for the meal.

"They write these things out one at a time, by hand," he said.

"A calligrapher," Comey said.

Trump seemed unfamiliar with the word.

"They write them by hand," he repeated.

As they ate, Trump began questioning Comey about his future. "What do you want to do?" he said.

Trump might as well have been repeating, "This one goes to 11."
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:15 PM on July 10, 2019 [12 favorites]

I would encourage people to click on the link to Bernie’s tweet about Perot. On the one hand, eccentric independent old guys, etc. On the other hand, Perot had given Bernie a commemorative sword for his support of veterans health after Desert Storm.

So it’s weirder than the easy joke would be.

(The comments, of course, are encouraging Bernie to bring the sword on the campaign trail.)
posted by Huffy Puffy at 12:16 PM on July 10, 2019 [7 favorites]

I'm not particularly a Bernie fan or a Perot fan, but if Ross Perot gave you a sword to commemorate your work bringing people healthcare, bring that sword on the campaign trail.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:23 PM on July 10, 2019 [30 favorites]

What a weird world we live in. Imagine someone in '92 telling you that one day you would have nothing but starry-eyed longing for a Ross Perot presidency.
posted by FakeFreyja at 12:28 PM on July 10, 2019 [10 favorites]

We hired the author of 'Black Hawk Down' ...to adapt the Mueller report so you'll actually read it

Volume 1
...
There is no evidence to suggest Trump committed any crimes of conspiracy or "collusion."

swing and a miss.
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:28 PM on July 10, 2019 [10 favorites]

The issue is that the DCCC recently instituted a new policy where it refuses to direct pro-incumbent funds to any consultant or organization working for that incumbent who, in addition to working for the incumbent in question, also does work for any primary challenger in any other race throughout the country.

Wait, you think it's unfair if candidates refuse to give money to campaign consultants who work for their opponents? That's crazy. This is just whining from a bunch of political consultant hacks that just can't get enough of that sweet campaign money.

It's more like if Biden declared that any individual or group working for him who also ever did any work for Warren or Harris would never have a position in his administration.

I don't follow this analogy at all. If someone is running attack ads against Biden, I wouldn't begrudge him not hiring that person. Politics ain't beanbag.
posted by JackFlash at 12:39 PM on July 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Given that, like any billionaire, Perot is clearly suffering from some sort of pathological dollar hoarding disorder I'd hope no one is having starry-eyed longing for a Perot Presidency.

It's also worth noting that Perot was at least as nuts as Trump, if perhaps in a different way. He was a major force behind the conspiracy theory that thousands of US soldiers were abandoned in Vietnam in order to cover up a US government drug smuggling operation, a lie behind the entire right wing POW/MIA bumper sticker movement that continues to this day to be a way for right wing conspiracy believers to identify themselves in a socially acceptable way.

He had some good points, but as with "Doctor" Ron Paul, they were mixed in with a bunch of right wing conspiracy theories, general wackadoodle weirdness, and of course a billionaire's love of screwing poor people out of every cent he could and cutting every tax that exists. Oh, and he was convinced that the Republicans were sabotaging his daughter's wedding to drive him out of the race.
posted by sotonohito at 12:45 PM on July 10, 2019 [18 favorites]

Socialist Forum: An alliance with Social Democrats is inevitable, so let’s work how best to reach our goals and grow the movement for worker power

Immigrants’ Rights sit in at Biden’s Philly Office

CbO reports broad benefits from a higher minimum wage

Kansas raised taxes ..and got a booming economy

Sanders campaign adds an “Anti-Endorsements” list
posted by The Whelk at 1:03 PM on July 10, 2019 [13 favorites]

JackFlash: I don't follow this analogy at all. If someone is running attack ads against Biden, I wouldn't begrudge him not hiring that person. Politics ain't beanbag.

I think you’re missing the implications on down-ballot races. Obviously it’s a conflict of interest for a consultant to work on both sides of a campaign, but that’s not what this is about. This is about kneecapping challengers to incumbents by threatening to blacklist anyone who works for them from participating in any other unrelated incumbent campaigns. It’s a shitty protectionist move that serves to protect shitty incumbents simply because they’re Democrats. A prime example is Marie Newman’s challenge of incumbent Dan Lipinski in Chicago.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 1:15 PM on July 10, 2019 [10 favorites]

I don't follow this analogy at all. If someone is running attack ads against Biden, I wouldn't begrudge him not hiring that person. Politics ain't beanbag.

It also isn't a game. Hire the best damn people for the job. Go ahead and blacklist assholes, pedophiles, criminals, perverts and traitors but nobody should have to slobber over your ring.

The prize isn't getting elected. That is just a step. The prize is a better society and world. The DCCC loses sight of that. A lot.
posted by srboisvert at 1:20 PM on July 10, 2019 [31 favorites]

Re DCCC: Can we agree that it's a problem when a putatively "democratic" organization acts in ways that would violate antitrust law if done by a private company?

I mean, there's a reason that e.g. Amazon doesn't tell its suppliers, "we'll only buy your stuff if you don't sell anything to Walmart," and it's not out of the goodness of their greedy little hearts.

Also, many of us, especially those of us in "safe blue" areas, have local Democratic leadership who are literal racketeers for whom doing federal time is practically a rite of passage and who keep all forms of local political power under extremely tight control. (As a resident of Lake County, Indiana, I could fill screenfuls of text with local examples from the past decade alone, but that is probably a bit out of scope for the megathread.)

So this kind of talk:

Pro-tip: accusing your local party officials of being racketeers is unlikely to earn you much credibility or influence.

.... is, to put it as kindly as possible, pretty obnoxious.

When Democratic officeholders are behaving like racketeers, the D behind their name is no reason not to call them out. Indeed, it's all the more reason to call them out.
posted by shenderson at 1:27 PM on July 10, 2019 [19 favorites]

I have to weigh in on the DNCC racketeering. If you word it like it actually is in practice, "Campaigns will only contract with vendors under the stipulation that they can do no work for any of the competitors," then it is technically a freeze out, not racketeering. In a freeze out the dominant party uses their market weight to deny entry to competitors in the marketplace through abusive exclusivity contracts. That is what this is. And it is despicable. It targets not just political consultants, but an entire swath of multimedia, advertising, and services. Imagine trying to go through an ad broker to buy TV ads only to find that they won't do business with you. How many such entities do you think are in many small states? Want to buy a billboard through the major vendor in the state? Nope. Need catering for an event? Sorry, you can't have Bobby's famous ribs, the only well known restaurant within 30 miles, they catered a similar event last month. In effect, this limits primary challengers to 2nd and 3rd tier vendors in the district, likely increases their costs, and certainly hampers their ability to compete. Is it legal? Eh, probably. But it isn't the sort of open forum for ideas and commerce that we should be striving for.
posted by Manic Pixie Hollow at 1:27 PM on July 10, 2019 [25 favorites]

>> The issue is that the DCCC recently instituted a new policy where it refuses to direct pro-incumbent funds to any consultant or organization working for that incumbent who, in addition to working for the incumbent in question, also does work for any primary challenger in any other race throughout the country.

> Wait, you think it's unfair if candidates refuse to give money to campaign consultants who work for their opponents? That's crazy. This is just whining from a bunch of political consultant hacks that just can't get enough of that sweet campaign money.

your comment does not meaningfully respond to the thing that you appear to be responding to. the question isn't about candidates refusing to give money to campaign consultants who work for their opponents. the matter under discussion is instead about what consultants the dccc hires. under this rule, the dccc will not direct funds toward any consultant working for democratic party incumbents if that consultant also works for any primary challenger in any race in the country.

let's game this out: this means that any consultant — "political consultant hack," to use your language — who wants to work for democratic party incumbents now knows that all primary challengers to all democrats anywhere in america are now totally radioactive to them unless they can find a way to replace the income they'd get from working with democratic party incumbents. this is a tough proposition, since the nice thing about working for incumbents is that it's steady, reliable work.

this nicely ties up most of the people on the democratic party side who know how to run a campaign. regardless of which candidates they'd prefer to work for, they know that they have to exclusively work for dccc-endorsed candidates or else lose all their other paychecks. political consultants are actually useful, despite your characterization of them as being universally hacks — any campaign for any office is boned if they don't have people with campaign knowhow working for them — and as such this dictate results in the dccc getting to de facto select which candidates stand for office. instead of being a representative organization where the supporters get to select the candidates, the democratic party becomes in practice a bureaucratic organization, with the central party bureaucracy deciding who the candidates are.

most democratic party political consultants who need money to pay for food, shelter, and health insurance will follow the leadership of the dccc and exclusively work to defend incumbents. meanwhile, anyone who either runs a primary campaign against a right-wing democrat, or (and this is important) aligns with people who run primary campaigns against right-wing democrats will find themselves working in and with organizations outside the party (for example, the dsa). this turns the ideological split present within the democratic party into a real material split — people running for office on the left will ignore the dccc and the rest of the democratic party apparatus and instead rely on guidance and support from outside-the-party organizations like the dsa, because the democratic party apparatus has made clear that it wants left campaigns turned into radioactive holes in the ground.

i guess the point i'm trying to make here is that the discussion here isn't about whether or not candidates should pay money to support their opponents — which is a silly question — but is instead something like "should the dccc fracture the party apparatus in the interests of making primary challengers radioactive? does the party need to have its civil war now, or should it be delayed until later?"

for my part i think it is a good thing that groups like means of production are professionally and effectively backing challengers to right-wing democrats, i think it will ultimately be a really good thing if the base of power in the democratic party shifts from the actual party apparatus to the dsa... but boy howdy do i wish the d-trip wasn't trying to make this shift happen faster than it needs to happen.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 1:48 PM on July 10, 2019 [18 favorites]

sidebar: i'm only tangentially connected to federal level politics, but even so as far back as 2013 i started hearing rumors about the clinton campaign threatening to have the democratic party freeze out any consultants who worked for any non-clinton presidential candidate. the practical outcome of this threat was that all potential mainstream candidates refused to enter the race, leaving clinton debating unserious nonentities like lincoln chaffee and martin o'malley... and, oh yeah, also an old cranky socialist weirdo whose name i don't recall at the moment.

if it had been possible in 2014-2015 for mainstream non-clinton candidates to enter the race, only commies and vermontophiles would know the name bernie sanders. he would have been the sixth or seventh most popular candidate on the democratic party side, rather than the second, and he likely would have been out after the first couple of debates.

if you don't like bernie sanders and you don't like the dsa, you should hate the d-trip right now.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 2:04 PM on July 10, 2019 [19 favorites]

Legal Times's MikeScarcella: Now: Maryland judge *denies* US Justice Department effort to withdraw attorneys in census case

Here's the smackdown:

The Court wholeheartedly agrees that it is the Attorney General who has the authority to determine which officers of the Department of Justice shall “attend to the interest of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 517. But Defendants must realize that a change in counsel does not create a clean slate for a party to proceed as if prior representations made to the Court were not in fact made. A new DOJ team will need to be prepared to address these, and other, previous representations made by the withdrawing attorneys at the appropriate juncture.

For the reasons stated above, it is ordered by the United States District Court for the District of Maryland that: Defendants’ amended motion for leave to withdraw the appearance of James Burnham, Garrett Coyle, Stephen Ehrlich, Courtney Enlow, Carol Federighi, Joshua Gardner, John Griffiths, Martin Tomlinson, and Brett Shumate as counsel, ECF No. 192, is DENIED without prejudice.

Also, Buzzfeed's Zoe Tillman reports on the census question case in CA and Barr's new DoJ legal team:

UPDATE: The judge handling census citizenship Q cases in California just had a brief telephonic status conference. Per a lawyer on the call, the judge ordered DOJ to re-do its motions to withdraw the previous legal team, saying DOJ needed to comply with local court rules

There was some discussion of the status of the injunction the judge entered blocking the citizenship Q, and whether it's still in place post-SCOTUS — the lawyer (for the plaintiffs) told us they're working with DOJ on replacement injunction language in the meantime

The lawyer also said they advised the judge that the govt agreed plaintiffs in the CA litigation could join discovery that's going forward in the MD case re: equal protection/civil rights claims — individ. plaintiffs in CA are considering adding an equal protection claim

No deadline set for DOJ to refile its motion in the CA cases to withdraw the previous legal team, and no other deadlines set at the moment. The whole thing lasted ~20 minutes.

posted by Doktor Zed at 2:14 PM on July 10, 2019 [8 favorites]

Impeachment isn't a magic word. Impeachment inquiry doesn't appear in the constitution.

“I think this contempt citation vote is good, [but] many of us have come out for an impeachment inquiry because it gives us significantly more tools to get the information that we’re trying to get,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). “And it prevents the administration from blocking us. I do think we need to utilize more tools in our toolbox.”

“There’s no doubt that congressional oversight and investigative power is at its zenith in the context of an impeachment investigation,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). “The reason for that is impeachment is an enumerated power of Congress. ... It appears four different times in the Constitution.”

posted by xammerboy at 2:15 PM on July 10, 2019 [13 favorites]

@BernieSanders has raised more money from TWICE as many donors as any other candidate in the Democratic primary

I may be missing something (I might not even be parsing the claim accurately), I would urge someone who knows more about this stuff than I do to chime in, but does this claim require that the FEC counts money Bernie raised when he was running in 2016?

Because while the 2020-election-only numbers show Bernie as the #1 Democratic fundraiser, they show him with 55k individual donations, compared to 34k for Kamala Harris--it's a lot more, but it's not double.
posted by box at 2:41 PM on July 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

From the Oversight hearing:

Michael Breen is up first. There is no need for these human rights abuses at the border, he says. But this is the predictable result of the policy of the admin and "gross incompetency," he says. He recalls: an 18 y/o girl who stood up in immigration court. He watched as she begged a judge to get back to her daughter, a product of rape from when she was 13. Instead she was sent to detention for 50 days. Then taken to Juarez and told to fend for herself. Breen recalls how she told him she asked an agent for help for her dying baby and the agent's response was "Are they dead yet?" She was told to come back only if that was the case. Breen has worn the American flag on his own lapel, like many who are working these facilities, he says. But what has happened on the border "is not the America I wanted to serve."

Clara Long of Human Rights Watch now up. She has visited facilities in Calif, Texas, Arizona, Florida.. In El Paso, TX, what she found was "outrageous." No contact with family members in some cases, many were sick, cold, malnourished. She spoke to an 11 y/o boy accompanied by his 3 y/o brother. The younger had a hacking cough, he fell asleep mid-interview. The 11 y/o said "No one here will take care of him. Cells were mucus-mud stained. No reg. access to soap, toothbrushes, showers just once or twice in a period of weeks if at all. "No one was taking care of the kids with the flu. We were not allowed to leave the flu cell ever," a 14 y/o girl told Long. When the children ask how long they'll be there, sometimes they are told it will be for months, Long says. By law they should be released within 72 hours. A 12 y/o girl told Long how she missed her grandmother. She was alone, but for her sisters who are 8 and 4 years old. "Issuing a blank check" to the admin to continue this will only lead to more suffering, Long says.

Don't avert your eyes.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:41 PM on July 10, 2019 [49 favorites]

Insider: We hired the author of 'Black Hawk Down' and an illustrator from 'Archer' to adapt the Mueller report so you'll actually read it

I've only skimmed this, but it looks like a decent "retelling" of Volume II of the Mueller report (obstruction of justice.)

It claims to cover the whole report, but skips over the many, many contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian individuals detailed in Volume 1 (the names Dmitri Simes, Carter Page, Joseph Mifsud, George Papadopoulos, Petr Aven, George Nader, Kirill Dmitriev, Erik Prince and Peter Smith do not appear, among others.)

It also skips over all the details of how Russia hacked the DNC and John Podesta (and discussed that hacking with Roger Stone),hacked into state voter registration databases, and spread propaganda through internet trolls and bots, as well as sending agents to report on the American political scenes, and setting up pro-Trump rallies.

But if you want to know about obstruction, this has got you covered, and it's got some good illustrations.
posted by OnceUponATime at 2:56 PM on July 10, 2019 [15 favorites]

Your periodic reminder that we have important state-level elections this year in several states. Here's an ActBlue fund targeting some key races.

$25 here is going to go much further to achieving our goals than to a presidential campaign.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:06 PM on July 10, 2019 [37 favorites]

WaPo, Fahrenthold, Nonprofit drops out of strip-club-sponsored golf tournament at Trump resort, in which the Miami Allstars Foundation is now all "wait, what is this?" and would like to exclude itself from this narrative (they also need to deal with their registration as a legal charity, but that's another problem). The strip club does not seem to have cancelled the event, however, as it's still being advertised.

----

NYT, ‘It Could Have Been Any of Us’: Disdain for Trump Runs Among Ambassadors

“It could have been any of us,” one ambassador, who is still serving and therefore spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday.
...
With a few exceptions — including the ambassadors from Israel and the United Arab Emirates, who have supported Mr. Trump’s every move — foreign diplomats in Washington these days describe living in something of a black hole.

Decisions that directly affect their nations’ trade relationships or troops are delivered with no notice. Their contacts inside the State Department, the Treasury and Congress freely tell them they have little idea what decisions Mr. Trump may make, or what he may reverse.
...
“For me, as a foreigner, it was fascinating,’’ said Mr. Araud, who now looks back at his tenure as French ambassador as a grand political science experiment. “It’s what happens when a populist leader takes command in a liberal democracy. These people don’t recognize or accept the idea that an ambassador or a bureaucrat could be of any use. They only want to deal with other leaders.”

Mr. Araud recalled a moment in 2017 when France’s foreign minister was planning a trip to Washington. The ambassador gave the State Department two months’ notice to try to get on Mr. Tillerson’s schedule. They never heard back until a day before the event, Mr. Araud recalled, only to be told the meeting would last only 20 minutes. “So the minister didn’t come,’’ he said.

----

Mother Jones has learned that ICE has started using three new for-profit immigration detention centers in the Deep South in recent weeks.

There's another important part to this story, which is that ICE is detaining 54,000 people, when it was 34,000 in 2016 and Congress has only authorized ICE to detain an average of 40,520 people now. ICE continues to have no regard for the limits Congress has set, and there needs to be an effort to hold them accountable for that.
posted by zachlipton at 3:29 PM on July 10, 2019 [28 favorites]

A bit more on how an impeachment inquiry may help fast track investigations from LawFare:

1. The White House argues it will not provide information “into the alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump, his associates, and members of his Administration,” because Congress has no “legitimate legislative purpose” for requesting the materials. This argument would not be relevant in impeachment proceedings, because the power to impeach is in a separate section of the Constitution.

2. Second, the White House argues that even if a legitimate legislative purpose can be articulated, committees have limited authority to explore in detail any particular case of alleged wrongdoing, because Congress does not need such details in order to craft legislative fixes. Again, this would likewise not be relevant in impeachment proceedings.

3. Impeachment proceedings may also give the judiciary committee a stronger case for obtaining certain materials protected from disclosure by statute, like the grand jury materials from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, one “must not disclose a matter occurring before the grand jury.” There are certain exceptions in the statute that would allow a judge to authorize disclosure “preliminarily to or in connection with a judicial proceeding.”

4. It is likely that judges would recognize the primacy of impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States and expedite consideration of such cases. The case of U.S. v. Nixon—in which the Supreme Court ruled that the president had to turn over the infamous Oval Office recordings to the special prosecutor—was decided just over three months after the relevant grand jury subpoena had been issued. That was a criminal investigation, so the analogy is not entirely apt, but we think it reasonable to assume courts would take a similarly expeditious view in the context of a subpoena issued pursuant to impeachment proceedings.
posted by xammerboy at 3:29 PM on July 10, 2019 [14 favorites]

A Dramatic Drop in Migrant Arrivals on the Border: What’s Happening? (NYT)

“We have been startled by the stark decline that happened virtually overnight,” said Kate Clark, senior director of immigration services at the shelter. “U.S. immigration authorities are not bringing families who have been processed to the shelter because they are returning them to Mexico.”

The Mexican city of Tijuana across the border, meanwhile, is still full of migrants — many of them turned back at the border under the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” program. The Instituto Madre Asunta, a family shelter for migrant families just south of the border, has for several weeks been packing in more than three times the number of people it is designed to accommodate. Mothers and children from Central America and Haiti have been sleeping in a classroom converted into a dorm, many atop mattresses laid out on the ground. [...]

More than 18,000 migrants, including asylum seekers, have been returned to Tijuana and other Mexican cities since the policy was implemented, according to Mexico’s National Migration Institute. [...] The policy initially targeted Central Americans, who have formed the largest share of migrants seeking refuge in the United States since 2014. It has grown to include migrants from other countries, such as Cuba and Venezuela. Typically, the migrants have received court dates several months after arriving at the border, stranding them in Mexico for many months. Some of those who have recently arrived are being given court dates in October.

[...] Critics have said that the remain-in-Mexico policy endangers migrants who fled violence in their home countries in search of safe haven, because Mexican border cities are also often unsafe. In addition, the program makes it difficult for migrants to secure an American lawyer to represent them before an immigration judge, undermining their ability to successfully petition for asylum in the United States.

At the shelter in San Diego, arrivals have been down all week — only five migrant families arrived each day on Monday and on Tuesday. “Homeland Security keeps enrolling those seeking asylum in Migration Protection Protocols despite the ability and willingness of nonprofits in the United States to continue to serve the migrants,” said Ms. Clark, the official with Jewish Family Service.

Only nationals from countries such as India, China and Russia, countries whose citizens are not subjected to the policy, continue to trickle in, she said. The only exceptions among Latin Americans are those who have a child or another family member with a serious medical issue.

posted by Little Dawn at 3:42 PM on July 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

Which courts can actually be counted on to treat impeachment with requisite seriousness? What actually stops Trump-appointed judges from dismissing or impeding the case on the grounds that the impeachment is illegitimate or whatever? Or is there still a good avenue of non-Trump judges available?
posted by InTheYear2017 at 3:43 PM on July 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

What actually stops Trump-appointed judges from dismissing or impeding the case on the grounds that the impeachment is illegitimate or whatever? Or is there still a good avenue of non-Trump judges available?

Nothing. We still don't know the limits of what TrumpJudges and the Gorsuch* Court are willing to countenance, actually initiating an impeachment inquiry and having those subpoenas ignored, then appealed to the SCOTUS is the only way to answer that question. Which would take months to play out, clearly another argument in favor of starting an impeachment process yesterday. Every day delayed decreases the probability impeachment is even possible before the 2020 election, even if Democratic leadership would allow it to happen.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:48 PM on July 10, 2019 [6 favorites]

PBS, Members of new Pompeo task force have previously praised human-rights abusers, in which the members of the new "Commission on Unalienable Rights" praise human rights abusers and think that we should defer to other countries to define human rights for themselves, which rather reduces the concept down to meaninglessness.

FT, Trump softened stance on Hong Kong protests to revive trade talks: "Donald Trump told Chinese president Xi Jinping last month that the US would tone down criticism of Beijing’s approach to Hong Kong following massive protests in the territory in order to revive trade talks with China."

WaPo, Intelligence aide, blocked from submitting written testimony on climate change, resigns from State Dept.

E&E News, Officials removed climate references from press releases

An earlier draft of the news release, written by researchers, was sanitized by Trump administration officials, who removed references to the dire effects of climate change after delaying its release for several months, according to three federal officials who saw it. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, showed that California, the world's fifth-largest economy, would face more than $100 billion in damages related to climate change and sea-level rise by the end of the century. It found that three to seven times more people and businesses than previously believed would be exposed to severe flooding.

"We show that for California, USA, the world's 5th largest economy, over $150 billion of property equating to more than 6% of the state's GDP and 600,000 people could be impacted by dynamic flooding by 2100," the researchers wrote in the study.
...
In the Obama administration, press releases related to climate change were typically approved within days, researchers said. Now, they can take more than six months and go through the offices of political appointees, where they are often altered, several researchers told E&E News

posted by zachlipton at 3:54 PM on July 10, 2019 [8 favorites]

Officials removed climate references from press releases

On that note, the WSJ reports today: State Department Analyst Resigns After White House Blocked Climate Change Testimony—Rod Schoonover was prohibited from including evidence and data supporting his assessments in testimony to House committee

A State Department intelligence analyst has resigned in protest after the White House blocked portions of his written testimony to a congressional panel to exclude data and evidence on climate change and its threat to national security, State Department officials said.

White House officials allowed him to speak to the panel in June, but prohibited him from including evidence and data supporting his assessments in written testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last month, according to one of the officials familiar with the matter. That cut his written testimony by half, the official said. Ultimately, he didn’t submit a written statement to the panel, unlike two other government witnesses at the hearing.[…]

According to one of the officials, Mr. Schoonover’s decision to leave came after a series of conflicts with Trump administration political appointees over department scientific reports.[…]

Mr. Schoonover’s department, the Intelligence and Research Bureau, is among the smallest of U.S. intelligence agencies. In the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was nearly alone among spy agencies in questioning whether Iraq had active weapons of mass destruction programs.

The Washington Post and the New York Times* first reported that written testimony that Mr. Schoonover planned to give to the House Intelligence Committee was heavily edited by officials at the National Security Council and White House legal adviser’s office, and ultimately withdrawn.

* NYT, a month ago: White House Tried to Stop Climate Science Testimony
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:17 PM on July 10, 2019 [12 favorites]

What actually stops Trump-appointed judges from dismissing or impeding the case on the grounds that the impeachment is illegitimate or whatever? Or is there still a good avenue of non-Trump judges available?

My understanding is that the White House lawyers are arguing that Congress' job is to make new laws. Therefore, any Congressional committee investigation should be limited to getting the information it needs to create new laws.

However, Congress does have another job besides making new law. The Constitution says it is also Congress' job to impeach the president. No court would deny this. A court denies this and we're no longer living in the United States.

As it is, the White House's current argument is a stretch. After all, Congress needs wide latitude to investigate if and how laws are being subverted to better create new law, but an argument apparently is being made that their investigative powers should be limited.

Arguing that Congress cannot investigate the president or subpoena witnesses for the purposes of impeaching the president? I don't see how that's possible. It doesn't mean that there wouldn't be other arguments to make that could possibly slow roll these cases, but my understanding is they would be exponentially more difficult to make.
posted by xammerboy at 4:29 PM on July 10, 2019 [5 favorites]

WaPo, Fahrenthold, Nonprofit drops out of strip-club-sponsored golf tournament at Trump resort

Update: event cancelled. The Trump organization was good with the strip-club-sponsored golf tournament for charity, but now that the charity has dropped out, they're a no.

Also, the head of the charity says: "You can’t mix kids with sex,” Alamilla told TPM. “It just doesn’t jibe."
posted by zachlipton at 4:33 PM on July 10, 2019 [15 favorites]

WaPo: Trump’s July Fourth Event and Weekend Protests Bankrupted D.C. Security Fund, Mayor Says

NPR: Pentagon: July 4 Flyovers, Tank Displays And Performances Cost $1.2 Million

ABC has the total tally: Trump's Salute to America Cost DC, Feds More Than $5 million

President Donald Trump's Fourth of July celebration last week cost the federal government and Washington, D.C., $5.35 million, according to an Interior Department letter released exclusively to ABC News.

The Interior Department and National Park Service spent $2.45 million on staffing, medical services, barricades, and other logistics for the event, called Salute to America, which does not include the cost of other Fourth of July events like the Capitol Fourth concert.

The city of Washington, D.C., and Department of Defense said the Salute to America event and security cost $1.7 million and $1.2 million respectively, bringing the total cost of the event to $5.35 million.[…]

The total cost of Salute to America does not include the $750,000 value of donated fireworks or the cost of military flyovers, which the Pentagon said came out of the individual military service's training budgets.

Molly Jong-Fast covered the event for the Bulwark: Scenes from America’s Nervous Breakdown
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:51 PM on July 10, 2019 [7 favorites]

Tucker Carlson is an arsehole and should be relieved of his position at Fox.
Omar hits back at 'racist fool' Tucker Carlson after Fox News host's on-air rant.
Fox News host railed against Democratic congresswoman in monologue full of anti-immigrant rhetoric and personal insults.
posted by adamvasco at 5:03 PM on July 10, 2019 [8 favorites]

You say that like Carlson being an asshole and a racist fool is considered a detriment instead of his major job qualifications. Fox knows who their audience is, and it's not anyone who wants diversity or even tolerance in US politics. He'll have a show as long as advertisers fail to cancel their accounts.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 5:26 PM on July 10, 2019 [10 favorites]

Tucker's trying to get her killed, his fans know it, Fox knows it.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:48 PM on July 10, 2019 [31 favorites]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggests dissolving Department of Homeland Security

☝☝☝
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:48 PM on July 10, 2019 [78 favorites]

Report: Russian intel started the Seth Rich rumor to cover for DNC hack

the SVR played a particularly underhanded role in activities leading up to the 2016 US presidential election in order to create a counter-narrative to the exposure of other Russian intelligence agencies' hacking operations at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The SVR wanted to spin a conspiracy theory about the death of DNC staffer Seth Rich—a conspiracy theory that promoted Rich as the source of DNC and Clinton campaign emails published by Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks.

This fabricated narrative had Rich being killed not in a botched robbery, as Washington DC police had found, but by a hit squad hired by Hillary Clinton as retribution for leaking campaign emails to WikiLeaks. This conspiracy theory was planted through various websites and later promoted by InfoWars' Alex Jones and other "alt-right" media outlets. Ultimately, it was even promoted within the Trump administration as investigations by the Justice Department into the DNC and Clinton email hacks went forward.

And yet somehow people still insist Russian interference isn't the primary reason Trump eked out a win. It's almost as if ideological blindness isn't limited to the fascists and their sympathizers.
posted by wierdo at 8:45 PM on July 10, 2019 [22 favorites]

An earlier draft of the news release, written by researchers, was sanitized by Trump administration officials, who removed references to the dire effects of climate change after delaying its release for several months, according to three federal officials who saw it. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, showed that California, the world's fifth-largest economy, would face more than $100 billion in damages related to climate change and sea-level rise by the end of the century. It found that three to seven times more people and businesses than previously believed would be exposed to severe flooding.

"We show that for California, USA, the world's 5th largest economy, over $150 billion of property equating to more than 6% of the state's GDP and 600,000 people could be impacted by dynamic flooding by 2100," the researchers wrote in the study.


Right now there's a detente between scientists and goons in the US government. "Okay, nerds, we can't fire you yet, so here's the deal: you can keep doing what you do, and publishing what you publish, but DO NOT TALK TO NORMAL PEOPLE. "

This means there was literally a case where an engineering report from the DoEnergy said one thing and the executive summary said the exact opposite. And now there's still lots of good work coming out of the DoE, NOAA, et cetera, but if you're a reporter or a politician and it's pertinent to your work, you have to read the actual PDFs coming out and not bother with the press releases.
posted by ocschwar at 8:46 PM on July 10, 2019 [6 favorites]

NYT: Obamacare’s Precarious Fate

After Mr. Trump signed in late 2017 the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — which gutted Obamacare’s individual mandate by eliminating the tax penalty that the health care law imposed on Americans who choose to not buy health insurance — some Republicans devised a legal theory under which an individual mandate without a tax penalty could be rendered unconstitutional, dooming the rest of Obamacare. This includes Obamacare’s marquee (and popular) protections for pre-existing conditions and rules that allow people to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26. After all, the thinking goes, in the Supreme Court’s landmark 2012 ruling upholding the law, the court declared the tax penalty a crucial component holding the statute together.

That’s exactly what the governors and attorneys general challenging the law — all of who hail from red-leaning states — are arguing. For these Obamacare foes, it isn’t enough to just excise the individual mandate from the law. The whole thing must go.

Got that? We removed the penalty people pay if they don't sign up for healthcare, so that makes all of Obamacare unconstitutional. This is really happening.
posted by xammerboy at 8:57 PM on July 10, 2019 [8 favorites]

After Mr. Trump signed in late 2017 the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act...some Republicans devised a legal theory

i believe this reporting has the causality or timeline backward. strategists did not notice the zeroed-out tax penalty and then think of a clever legal strategy; the clever legal strategy was drafting & passing that provision of the tax law -- a direct assault on roberts' rationale for upholding the ACA in the first place -- & thus seriously undermining its constitutionality under the prevailing scotus precedent.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:24 PM on July 10, 2019 [5 favorites]

New Study: Poverty doesn't make people racist.
posted by The Whelk at 9:34 PM on July 10, 2019 [18 favorites]

It's hard to know whether they're competent enough to pull that off. Is there evidence that they engineered the tax bill with this argument in mind?

The whole thing was passed under reconciliation, the mandate wasn't removed entirely because it couldn't be and still fit the "just a tax bill" template that reconciliation has to limbo under. They didn't really have the option to actually remove the mandate and get it past the Senate Parliamentarian. So they just zeroed out the penalty.

The insane thing is that if they'd actually cut out the mandate properly, there'd be no question that it was severable and besides, there'd be no orphan clause to declare unconstitutional. But since they did it under reconciliation, there's still a clause that just says "there will be a mandate" and one that says "the penalty is $0.00". By zeroing out the penalty, the mandate clause is no longer an exercise of the taxing power, so it's struck down, and something something inseverability the whole thing goes.

It's bonkers. It's not only insane applied here but insane going forward. Courts striking down entire laws when they clearly could cure the harm just by severing the offending clause. Laws are beyond huge. Giant laws like the ACA are basically normal. Can many of them survive if courts go for this batshit application of nonseverability?
posted by BungaDunga at 9:38 PM on July 10, 2019 [13 favorites]

Yeah, just like the rest of us, they’re making it up as they go along.
posted by notyou at 9:59 PM on July 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

NYT, U.S. Prepares to Arrest Thousands of Immigrant Family Members

Nationwide raids to arrest thousands of members of undocumented families have been scheduled to begin Sunday, according to two current and one former homeland security officials, moving forward with a rapidly changing operation, the final details of which remain in flux. The operation, backed by President Trump, had been postponed, partly because of resistance among officials at his own immigration agency.

The raids, which will be conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over multiple days, will include “collateral” deportations, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the preliminary stage of the operation. In those deportations, the authorities might detain immigrants who happened to be on the scene, even though they were not targets of the raids.

When possible, family members who are arrested together will be held in family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania. But because of space limitations, some might end up staying in hotel rooms until their travel documents can be prepared. ICE’s goal is to deport the families as quickly as possible.

The officials said ICE agents were targeting at least 2,000 immigrants who have been ordered deported — some as a result of their failure to appear in court — but who remain in the country illegally. The operation is expected to take place in at least 10 major cities. The families being targeted crossed the border recently: The Trump administration expedited their immigration proceedings last fall. In February, many of those immigrants were given notice to report to an ICE office and leave the United States, the homeland security officials said.

posted by zachlipton at 10:01 PM on July 10, 2019 [9 favorites]

i got no pix/citations but think they might could be found.
i suspect that, among "them", are some who may be so competent.

further, i imagine that, just as for conservative causes there is the american legislative exchange council, and think tank upon think tank coming up with new attacks, feints, sapping actions contra roe v wade, there must be equivalent "councils" of persons dedicated to undoing ACA, who have been brainstorming attacks on roberts' ruling since day one and circulating their frothy ideas. i bet it is floated in op-eds in the months following that ruling (but haven't looked). so the tax provision is floating around, more or less ready, a super-sneak-double-backflip-hail-mary, in case some day should come when no one is looking or everyone is too busy looking somewhere else. (i also haven't looked at the legislative history, to see who brought that provision to the floor or just when, though it may by instructive).
posted by 20 year lurk at 10:05 PM on July 10, 2019

The SVR wanted to spin a conspiracy theory about the death of DNC staffer Seth Rich—a conspiracy theory that promoted Rich as the source of DNC and Clinton campaign emails published by Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks. This fabricated narrative had Rich being killed not in a botched robbery, as Washington DC police had found, but by a hit squad hired by Hillary Clinton as retribution for leaking campaign emails to WikiLeaks.

So am I finally losing my marbles to think that it's therefore moderately plausible that SVR also killed him? SVR obviously has no qualms about assassination and continues to engage in it abroad, so there's means and motivation and the usual sensible arguments against conspiracy to assassinate are certainly weaker here than is usually the case. And the timeline Isikoff lays out -- the first bogus story put out by SVR three days after Rich dies, with the DNC emails sent to wikileaks the day after that -- seems odd too; were they waiting for a convenient death to blame before releasing the emails? Anyway, no worries -- I don't actually believe it, in part due to the accounts (also in the Isikoff piece) about similar robberies in the area over the previous weeks. But these certainly are times to try one's sanity.
posted by chortly at 10:46 PM on July 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

So, What Are the Two Roads for Millennial Politics?
posted by The Whelk at 11:06 PM on July 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

Amy McGrath flip-flops on Kavanaugh vote — in 1 day

McGrath, who announced a challenge to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this week, tweeted that she would have opposed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination several hours after she told a local newspaper she probably would have supported him.

"I was asked earlier today about Judge Brett Kavanaugh and I answered based upon his qualifications to be on the Supreme Court. But upon further reflection and further understanding of his record, I would have voted no," McGrath tweeted Wednesday evening. Later she added: “I know I disappointed many today with my initial answer on how I would have voted on Brett Kavanaugh. I will make mistakes and always own up to them. The priority is defeating Mitch McConnell.”

Those tweets came several hours after The Courier-Journal of Louisville published an interview with McGrath in which she said she had concerns about Kavanaugh but likely would have ultimately supported him. She said in the interview she was "very concerned about Judge Kavanaugh, what I felt like were the far-right stances that he had" but that "there was nothing in his record that I think would disqualify him in any way."[...] McGrath said she found Ford's testimony "credible" but that "given the amount of time that lapsed in between and from a judicial standpoint, I don't think it would really disqualify him. [...] You know, I think that with Judge Kavanaugh, yeah, I probably would have voted for him."

Recall that Bredesen's endorsement of Kavanaugh wrecked his volunteer enthusiasm and likely contributed significantly to his larger-than-expected loss in 2018.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:41 PM on July 10, 2019 [13 favorites]

Why do I get the impression that any of literally dozens of megathread contributors could have answered that Kavanaugh question with more situational awareness?

Honestly, it’s like some people decide to run for office with zero familiarity with some of the most critical current events. How could anyone with political aspirations — not living in a cave for the past year — be unaware of the issues around Kavanaugh?
posted by darkstar at 12:06 AM on July 11, 2019 [26 favorites]

Most people don't have the time, energy, or mental space to keep up with the constant parade of shit going on these days, especially if you define "keeping up" as having a full understanding of each separate issue. And even more so if they have kids, a demanding job, or anything else that is taking up a substantial amount of mental bandwidth.

This is why Republicans do everything in their power to increase the precarity of most people's lives in as many ways as they can think of and ensure that there is a constant flood of non-factual bullshit that must be waded through to gain a reasonably complete understanding of current events.
posted by wierdo at 1:07 AM on July 11, 2019 [35 favorites]

The Atlantic: ICE and the Ever-Widening Surveillance Dragnet

Over the weekend, the U.S. took another step in the slow march toward normalizing hidden database searches as a fact of urban life. A new report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials requested access to DMV databases in Utah, Washington State, and Vermont, with the intention of using facial-recognition technology to scan drivers’ photos and match them against criminal and residency databases without their knowledge.

Three years ago, the center revealed that nearly half of all U.S. adults are already in the FBI’s facial-recognition database, which is largely sourced from DMV photos. The documents uncovered this week are the first confirmation that states have granted ICE specifically, not just the FBI, access to those databases.

posted by Joe in Australia at 1:19 AM on July 11, 2019 [10 favorites]

chortly: And the timeline Isikoff lays out -- the first bogus story put out by SVR three days after Rich dies, with the DNC emails sent to wikileaks the day after that -- seems odd too; were they waiting for a convenient death to blame before releasing the emails?

I don't see what's weird about it if Seth Rich is, in fact, not important to them until they notice him in the news and decide to run with it. Having a plan whereby you wait for a suspicious death before releasing something makes little sense; the story these conspiracy theorists hoped to plant is that he does the hacking and release and is then killed in retaliation, not that the DNC somehow catches him beforehand, does him in, and then some unknown accomplice makes the data go through. So in short the ghoulishness looks a lot more like simple opportunism to me than some kind of master plan.

darkstar: Why do I get the impression that any of literally dozens of megathread contributors could have answered that Kavanaugh question with more situational awareness?

It's not about awareness of Kavanaugh -- I don't think she's being honest there. It's about awareness of Kentuckians. She's absolutely right that the foremost priority is beating McConnell and I don't know what the right answer would be to help ensure that. Probably to mumble a non-answer about how she can't address a counterfactual like that, she wants to look to the future and not the past, etc.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 4:21 AM on July 11, 2019 [8 favorites]

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials requested access to DMV databases in Utah, Washington State, and Vermont

I wouldn't have thought searches like these would be constitutional. I can only think that ICE uses these databases to search for brown faces and add them to their lists of suspect illegals to arrest en masse. One result will be creating an increasingly unsafe environment for everyone where immigrants become afraid to get licenses, car insurance, have real addresses, etc. This is also about political and economic systemic disenfranchisement.
posted by xammerboy at 6:41 AM on July 11, 2019 [9 favorites]

...and I didn't speak out strike because I wasn't a...

(Updated for the social media era, in which speaking out is wholly insufficient.)
posted by perspicio at 7:29 AM on July 11, 2019 [5 favorites]

If anyone thinks that a strike will remedy this situation (in a nation of over 300 million people), I’d love to hear the details of how that would work.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 7:51 AM on July 11, 2019 [4 favorites]

If anyone thinks that a strike will remedy this situation (in a nation of over 300 million people), I’d love to hear the details of how that would work.

A Harvard study identified the precise reason protests are an effective way to cause political change (Dan Kopf, Quartz)

Their research shows that protest does not work because big crowds send a signal to policy-makers—rather, it’s because protests get people politically activated.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:00 AM on July 11, 2019 [36 favorites]

Earlier this week, there was an article painting McGrath as running as "Pro-trump" that I urged some caution over, as her cited "pro-trump" views were holding him accountable to empty promises on jobs, healthcare, etc. I was wary, but thought it could just be some good old-fashioned media assassination combined with unconventional strategy. We'll call it cautiously optimistic, with emphasis on cautious.

But now, with the changing statements on Kavanaugh? We are definitely back in the same strategy that has failed KY Democratic candidates time and time again. It's not so much the positions themselves that they hold, it's that they don't seem to be consistent on anything other than trying to run far, far away from any Democratic majority viewpoints, and then changing their views immediately when they are called on it, probably only to change them again. Seriously, there's a huge history here - especially during the Obama era, when KY candidates were openly distancing themselves from him and everything he supported. This accomplishes a few things, mostly convincing all of the voters that they are transparently full of shit, thus depressing voter turnout, and alienating the Democratic base. This is coming awfully close to screaming into the void, but this is literally the same thing that has played out over and over again. If you really think defeating McConnell is the most important thing, then why would you adopt the exact same strategies that have failed in the past, and then double down on them?

There's plenty of historical precedent for how this can go in KY. I normally don't predict elections, but this one isn't difficult at all - She's going to go down hard. Not for the Kavanaugh thing itself, but for being utterly inconsistent. Yes, yes, I know, McConnell isn't exactly consistent either, but he knows he's full of shit, his voters know the same, and he bullshits in a way that engages the Republican base.

I want to see Matt Jones out there ASAP. I'm normally loathe to say "hey, let's get a white male guy in there!" over anyone who is neither of those things, but he has been consistent, his views are much much more Democratic, and he has strong appeal already baked in with several voters with a strong presence and history in the state. Of course, this is where a lot of what we've been talking about with regards to Democratic organizations shunning anyone who works for their non-preferred candidate comes into play - so between that and the way the KY Democratic party operates, it's more like scaling a sheer cliff than an uphill battle.
posted by MysticMCJ at 8:01 AM on July 11, 2019 [15 favorites]

And to be clear - I'm not talking about nuanced views that change over long periods of time that the Republicans love to paint as "flip-flopping." I'm talking about moment-to-moment inconsistency that leaves people with absolutely no idea what the candidate actually supports at any given moment.
posted by MysticMCJ at 8:05 AM on July 11, 2019 [7 favorites]

Trump invokes social media platforms, 2020 Dems and Deutsche Bank in Twitter tear (Politico)

“The White House will be hosting a very big and very important Social Media Summit today. Would I have become President without Social Media? Yes (probably)!” Trump wrote online, announcing a previously unscheduled news conference to come after the meeting of conservative online personalities. The president went on to criticize “the tremendous dishonesty, bias, discrimination and suppression practiced by certain” social media companies and warned that “we will not let them get away with it much longer.”

“The Fake News is not as important, or as powerful, as Social Media. They have lost tremendous credibility since that day in November, 2016, that I came down the escalator with the person who was to become your future First Lady,” Trump continued, appearing to confuse the date of his election 2½ years ago with the June 2015 announcement of his first presidential campaign, at which he famously descended a Trump Tower escalator.

“When I ultimately leave office in six … years, or maybe 10 or 14 (just kidding), they will quickly go out of business for lack of credibility, or approval, from the public,” Trump tweeted. “That’s why they will all be Endorsing me at some point, one way or the other.”

And in an inspiring take on how Trump's tweets and other public statements can be used in court: Court Denies Motion to Dismiss in Travel Ban Case (Lawfare)

On July 10, Judge Victoria A. Roberts of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan denied the government’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ third amended complaint in Arab American Civil Rights League et al. v. Donald Trump et al., in which the petitioners challenge the Trump administration’s travel ban on constitutional grounds. The order is available here and below.

[...] Preceding EO-1, EO-2, and the Proclamation, President Trump, as a presidential candidate, president-elect, and President, repeatedly made public statements exhibiting prejudice against Muslims and describing his desire and intention to prevent Muslims from entering the United States. [...] President Trump has never disguised his true goal or the purpose of the ban [...]

Accepting Plaintiffs’ allegations as true and drawing all inferences in their favor – as is required at this stage – it is reasonable to infer that the “morphed” executive orders and “companion” Proclamation “rest on an irrational prejudice against [Muslims],” Cleburne, 473 U.S. at 450, and are “inexplicable by anything but animus toward [Muslims],” Romer, 517 U.S. at 632, especially considering that President Trump admitted that the “Muslim ban” only morphed into “extreme vetting” because “people were so upset” when he vociferously discriminated against Muslims. Plaintiffs plausibly allege sufficient facts to demonstrate that the Proclamation is not rationally related to national security goals of preventing inadequately vetted individuals and inducing other nations to improve information sharing. See IRAP, 373 F. Supp. 3d at 676. Indeed, Plaintiffs present sufficient evidence that the Proclamation is unable to be explained by anything but animus towards Muslims. Plaintiffs survive dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6).

posted by Little Dawn at 8:09 AM on July 11, 2019 [11 favorites]

If anyone thinks that a strike will remedy this situation (in a nation of over 300 million people), I’d love to hear the details of how that would work.

The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world (David Robson, BBC)

Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change. [...]

There are, of course, many ethical reasons to use nonviolent strategies. But compelling research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, confirms that civil disobedience is not only the moral choice; it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics – by a long way.

Looking at hundreds of campaigns over the last century, Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.

Emphasis mine. Was thinking of this specific story earlier.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:10 AM on July 11, 2019 [48 favorites]

Trump is a huge headache for Deutsche, but the bank has plenty more

Amid @realDonaldTrump's extra-frothy, super-trolly Twitter rant this morning—featuring his Social Media Summit, Fake News, the pledge of Allegiance under siege in Minnesota, black unemployment numbers, "Kids in Cages", how he's "so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius" and "When I ultimately leave office in six years, or maybe 10 or 14 (just kidding)"—there was this telling bit about Deutsche Bank:

The Fake News Media loves the narrative that I didn’t use many banks because the banks didn’t like me. No, I didn’t use many banks because I didn’t (don’t) need their money (old fashioned, isn’t it?). If I did, it would have been very easy for me to get.

....And remember, a bank that I did use years ago, the now badly written about and maligned Deutsche Bank, was then one of the largest and most prestigious banks in the world! They wanted my business, and so did many others!

Evidently Trump is very anxious about Deutsche Bank's prominence in the headlines lately. Here are some recent examples:

Trump’s Favorite Bank Is Melting Down (Vanity Fair)

Jeffrey Epstein Borrowed ‘Tainted Money’ From Deutsche Bank, Says Former Mentor (NY Observer) "In a phone interview with Observer, Steven Hoffenberg alleged Epstein participated in a Ponzi scheme the two ran together in the 1980s, before using the ill-gotten gains to launch his investment company with the help of financial loans from Deutsche Bank."

Jeffrey Epstein’s Fortune May Be More Illusion Than Fact (NYT)

He appears to have been doing business and trading currencies through Deutsche Bank until just a few months ago, according to two people familiar with his business activities. But as the possibility of federal charges loomed, the bank ended its client relationship with Mr. Epstein. It is not clear what the value of those accounts was at the time they were closed.[…]

In recent years, Mr. Epstein was a client of Deutsche Bank’s private-banking division, which caters to ultrawealthy individuals and families. The bank provided Mr. Epstein with loans and wealth-management accounts, as well as trading services through its investment banking arm, according to two people familiar with the relationship. At one point, compliance officers at Deutsche Bank raised concerns about transactions by Mr. Epstein’s company, because he posed reputational risk to the bank, the people said.

Deutsche Bank managers overruled their concerns, the people said. They noted that there was nothing illegal about the transactions and that Mr. Epstein was a lucrative client.

Earlier this year, the bank ended its relationship with Mr. Epstein.

WSJ: U.S. Investigating Deutsche Bank’s Dealings With Malaysian Fund 1MDB—Justice Department looking into whether German bank violated foreign corruption or anti-money-laundering laws "The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the German lender violated foreign corruption or anti-money-laundering laws in its work for the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. fund, which included helping the fund raise $1.2 billion in 2014 as concerns about the fund’s management and financials."—c.f. Donald Trump Might Have Received $100,000 Campaign Donation from 1MDB Fugitive: DOJ (CNN) (1MDB previously)

And last month, Trump was fighting in the courts to block subpoenas of his financial records, including with DB (Bloomberg), while the bank itself was facing criminal investigation for potential money-laundering lapses (NYT).

We'll see how composed Trump is at the Rose Garden press conference following his Social Media Summit this afternoon.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:12 AM on July 11, 2019 [15 favorites]

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to begin the previously postponed raids across the country Sunday to arrest thousands of family members of undocumented immigrants

Trump: I'm going to send in the Gestapo to round up families in 2 weeks unless you fund border security
Democrats: yes sir right away sir [throws money at child concentration camps, punches left]
Trump: LOL the raids begin Sunday

There is no in-power opposition.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:29 AM on July 11, 2019 [41 favorites]

Today's episode of Twitter On The Shitter is spectacularly nonsensical even by his lofty standards.

He's not at all well, is he?
posted by Buck Alec at 8:30 AM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

Good grief, @realDonaldTrump is still tweeting like a loon, and there's nothing on his schedule until quarter to twelve. A lot of it is his usual blather about China, Mexico, the Dow, Iran, etc., but he's returned to attacking Mueller, which he's been doing constantly in the past week:

Now the Democrats have asked to see 12 more people who have already spent hours with Robert Mueller, and spent a fortune on lawyers in so doing. How many bites at the apple do they get before working on Border Loopholes and Asylum. They also want to interview the highly conflicted and compromised Mueller again. He said he was “done” after his last 9 minute speech, and that he had nothing more to say outside of the No Collusion, No Obstruction, Report. Enough already, go back to work! I won, unanimously, the big Emoluments case yesterday!

The Trump or Not Bot calculates a rare 100/99% probability of authentic Trump authorship of those tweets.

It's possible that this tweet was set off by this announcement from Capitol Hill, Politico's Andrew Desiderio reports:

🚨 House Judiciary formally notices Mueller hearing next week, Weds. 7/17. 9:00am EST.

https://judiciary.house.gov/legislation/hearings/oversight-report-investigation-russian-interference-2016-presidential-election

And House Intel at 12:00pm EST.

https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=109808

Also from Politico: Here Are 11 Questions We’d Ask Robert Mueller
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:31 AM on July 11, 2019 [8 favorites]

I assume there's nothing in Il Duce Arancia's passive aggressive notes about the safety of New Orleans, or rescuing children in cages.
posted by Harry Caul at 8:36 AM on July 11, 2019 [4 favorites]

And to be clear - I'm not talking about nuanced views that change over long periods of time that the Republicans love to paint as "flip-flopping." I'm talking about moment-to-moment inconsistency that leaves people with absolutely no idea what the candidate actually supports at any given moment.

I'll go further than that. Running away from anything that smacks faintly of a Democratic position not only signals cowardice, but also validates Republican framing and concedes the point without contesting it.

Example: Absolutely everyone -- Democrats, Republicans, and the media -- presumes that Senate Republicans will vote to acquit Trump in any impeachment scenario, and hey, they probably will. But Democrats are taking the situation as a given and never criticizing Republicans for it; it's a given the so-called "liberal media" won't, at least without Democrats at least raising the issue by saying something like "My Republican colleagues are prepared to give Trump a free pass for his documented crimes. Shame on them."

Some Democrats think, with good reason, that further evidence of Trump's crimes will help sway Republicans, but there's plenty of evidence of Trump's unfitness for office already -- Exhibits A thru YYZ, these politics megathreads -- and they give Republicans cover if they don't put pressure on them for their being willing accessories after the fact. "What do they have to hide?" should be the watchword and the concluding sentence of absolutely every Democratic media appearance. The fact that Trump refuses to honor subpoenas should be treated as evidence of a crime itself; part of the cover-up, because it obviously is.

Obamacare suffered in popularity in part because the Democrats and the so-called "liberal media" alike immediately adopted Republican framing -- never offered in good faith -- and the Democrats ran away from their own bill instead of saying the Republicans were lying and it did good things for the American people. Which American people, by the way, figured out that Obamacare was a good thing pretty much all on their own, to the point that Republicans at least have to pretend they have a replacement for it (Ron Howard Narrator Voice: They don't.)

Maybe McGrath will lose by saying Kavanaugh doesn't deserve to be on the Court, too, to by pointing out that no one but the rich like Trump's tax cuts, but so what? As noted, her Republican-lite strategy is a sure loser as well.
posted by Gelatin at 8:39 AM on July 11, 2019 [24 favorites]

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to begin the previously postponed raids across the country Sunday to arrest thousands of family members of undocumented immigrants

Utterly fucking hideous. What we need that is somewhat possible is for organizations working on this to organize repeated mass civil disobedience at politicians' offices and ICE offices. We need people locked down to whatever is lockable down every day, over and over.

I don't think going to the camps and physically breaking into them is likely to work, for a variety of reasons - mainly based on the Woomera detention camp break-out in 2002. That was a powerful and inspiring thing, but virtually all of the only fifty people who were freed were recaptured and as far as I can tell, this was part of what inspired the Australian government to move more detention to island camps. The Australians are less gun-happy, too, and I think that something similar here would literally result in deaths.

But we can lock down and shut things down and get arrested. If they start shutting people out of, eg, a plaza in front of an office, we can lock down on the road leading to the plaza. If they shut us out of that road, we can lock down the exit leading to that road.

I'm ready to do this. I am ready to commit to staying put for hours or days, I am ready to commit to arrest. I do some activism here on this issue and I am ready to step it up as soon as there's mass arrest actions declared here.

This is actual murderous Nazi shit. There are going to be epidemics at these camps and people are going to die of typhus or respiratory complaints in large numbers. People are already being sent back to die.

~~
There is more of a push to dump people in dangerous border areas of Mexico now, so I think that there may be a move to try to make the problem invisible, but that's in tension with the political purpose of the camps and the power of the prison industry/graft. It's possible that this issue will submerge eventually, but people have to keep paying attention no matter what happens.
posted by Frowner at 8:41 AM on July 11, 2019 [22 favorites]

I don't think going to the camps and physically breaking into them is likely to work, for a variety of reasons - mainly based on the Woomera detention camp break-out in 2002. That was a powerful and inspiring thing, but virtually all of the only fifty people who were freed were recaptured and as far as I can tell, this was part of what inspired the Australian government to move more detention to island camps.

I mean most of the Sobibor escapees were recaptured and killed too but I'd still say the uprising was worth it. Breakout attempts might or might not be productive today but there's a lot of increasingly genocidal tomorrows coming.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:51 AM on July 11, 2019

I mean most of the Sobibor escapees were recaptured and killed too but I'd still say the uprising was worth it. Breakout attempts might or might not be productive today but there's a lot of increasingly genocidal tomorrows coming.

Well, I'm certainly not going to stand in the way or try to argue down people who want to take this step. I could easily be wrong in my feelings about what's likely to work.

In any case, it's clear that nothing is going to change without some significant escalation of anti-camp actions that really gets in the way of operations. It seems worthwhile to try to get bigger protests, etc to create a supportive environment for other actions, I'm not saying that people shouldn't take other steps. But it's obvious that other steps are necessary but not sufficient.
posted by Frowner at 8:57 AM on July 11, 2019 [3 favorites]

the highly conflicted and compromised Mueller... the No Collusion, No Obstruction, Report

You'd think even Trump supporters would recognize the paradox in this single tweet. Why would you call a guy who declared you innocent in every way "conflicted and compromised"?
posted by diogenes at 9:00 AM on July 11, 2019 [10 favorites]

There are, of course, many ethical reasons to use nonviolent strategies. But compelling research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, confirms that civil disobedience is not only the moral choice; it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics – by a long way.

Extreme income inequality started really taking off under Ronald Reagan, but the so-called "liberal media" basically didn't talk about it until Occupy Wall Street. Much of Elizabeth Warren's campaign relies on tropes that Occupy (along with the housing crisis) helped established; she can presume her audience understands that the wealthy get the lion's share of the benefits from the economy we all work to create, without having to establish it over and over again.
posted by Gelatin at 9:02 AM on July 11, 2019 [15 favorites]

if only there were some kind of railroad . . . maybe even underground, in which to ferry escaped asylum seekers to safety.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 9:12 AM on July 11, 2019 [7 favorites]

Kos says cheetoh will defy scotus, issuing an executive order to add the census question.

Ugh. Stupid fascist dictators bring me down.
posted by j_curiouser at 9:15 AM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

Pelosi tells Dems to spread 'know your rights' campaign ahead of ICE raids

The ACLU, working with Brooklyn Defender Services, has created a “Know Your Rights” page for encounters with ICE that includes videos in Spanish, Urdu, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Russian, and Mandarin to help understand your rights: When ICE is Outside our Doors, Inside Our Homes, In Our Communities, In Our Streets, If ICE Arrest Us.

According to the Associated Press on June 22, 2019, activists have stepped up trainings amid Trump deportation threats, with a focus on rights that apply to anyone, regardless of citizenship status: the right to remain silent; refusing officers entry into a home; not signing anything without legal representation; and asking for paperwork from agents.

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center has created a series of Red Cards in multiple languages to help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations, such as when ICE agents go to a home. Information about how to use Red Cards when confronted by immigration agents is available here.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA) offers a variety of educational resources, including a Know Your Rights and Prepare a Family Plan flier in English and Spanish, and a List of Important Documents and Information in English and Spanish. Este video fue producido por CHIRLA con el propósito de ofrecer educación referente a redadas de inmigración o preguntas que haga la policía acerca de nuestro estado migratorio. CHIRLA has also produced an English-language know-your-rights video.

Additional resources, including free and low-cost legal services directories, immigration bond fund directories, and crisis hotlines are listed at http://mefiwiki.com/wiki/Get_a_lawyer#Immigration
posted by Little Dawn at 9:21 AM on July 11, 2019 [9 favorites]

Trump abandons drug pricing proposal that would have ended certain drug rebates (STATnews).

CNN on the policy paralysis:

Trump made controlling health care costs a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, but has yet to succeed in reshaping the American health care system, which is still dominated by the Affordable Care Act. The administration has joined a lawsuit by Republican states aimed at overturning Obamacare, after congressional Republicans stopped short of Trump's promised repeal in 2017. But the President has not yet introduced his own alternative, though he's promised to do later this summer.

Trump did, however, unveil a 44-page blueprint of its vision for lowering pharmaceutical prices in the spring of 2018, though the administration has so far only implemented one rule from it.

That measure — to require drug makers to include their list prices in television ads — was nixed by a district court judge in the District of Columbia on Monday, who said the administration had overstepped its authority.

If you want to read tea leaves, this plan was not universally supported in the White House; its champion was Sec. Azar who is currently in the news for his connection to the Epstein case.
posted by peeedro at 9:21 AM on July 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's important to note that the census is an Article I function, meaning it's explicitly the domain of Congress (Article I sets out Congress' powers, Article II is for the president and executive branch, and Article III is the courts). Any discretion the White House has in the process comes from legislation -- there's no inherent presidential power to add a question, change the timing, or anything else. For Trump to do this through executive fiat is straight-up lawless.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:26 AM on July 11, 2019 [49 favorites]

HOUSE DEMOCRATS ARE PANICKED ABOUT PRIMARIES, AND NEW YORK SHOWS HOW POTENT THEY CAN BE (Intercept)
posted by The Whelk at 9:29 AM on July 11, 2019 [9 favorites]

There is more of a push to dump people in dangerous border areas of Mexico now, so I think that there may be a move to try to make the problem invisible

Well, completely invisible wouldn't do. The visible, double-edged threat is a key part of brandishing this style of power.
posted by perspicio at 9:32 AM on July 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

Me, earlier: "What do they have to hide?" should be the watchword and the concluding sentence of absolutely every Democratic media appearance. The fact that Trump refuses to honor subpoenas should be treated as evidence of a crime itself; part of the cover-up, because it obviously is.

It's absolutely bonkers that the White House's public explanation for stonewalling the Democratic House oversight is "they're just using those subpoenas to look for information that will damage Trump," and our so-called elite political press presents that statement as if it's some kind of justification as opposed to a frank admission of guilt.
posted by Gelatin at 9:41 AM on July 11, 2019 [32 favorites]

MoJo: House Democrats Hold Trump Officials in Contempt for Withholding Census Documents Every Democrat and Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) voted to pass the resolution, 24-15.

The vote will go to the full House next Tuesday, Zoe Tillman reports. (i.e. a day before Mueller's testimony). (House statement screenshot)

Meanwhile, CBS's Paula Reid reports: "Attorney General William Barr will participate in President Trump’s 5pm press conference on executive action to add citizenship question on census."

Trump was supposed to be alone at the podium, so Barr's last-minute addition signals that either he's making a major push on the census citizenship question—the Trump-friendly Hill reported yesterday that conservatives asked Barr to lay out Trump's rationale for it—or, as with the Tuesday's environment presser, Trump needs to be publicly buttressed by administration officials who can answer the press's questions in coherent sentences.

This could be a little of column A, a little of column B, given this morning's Twitter rampage. Vox: Trump’s latest morning of tweets was off the rails, even by his standards e.g. "In the same tweet in which he joked about illegally extending his term in office, Trump, while trying to demean South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for purportedly resembling cartoon character Alfred E. Neuman, mistakenly tagged an account belonging to a retired teacher who, based on his recent retweets, is clearly is not a fan of the president." No doubt, Dan Scavino was trying extra-hard to troll the libs in preparation for the Social Media Summit, but Trumpian incompetence keeps tripping up the comms team.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:44 AM on July 11, 2019 [11 favorites]

Elizabeth Warren has put out an immigration plan. It brought tears to my eyes. And accountability is there for those who are abusing immigrants and refugees in carrying out Trump's agenda.
posted by prefpara at 9:58 AM on July 11, 2019 [55 favorites]

Hey, McConnell, if a President can just defy a SCOTUS ruling with an executive order, what was the point of getting all those judges installed?
posted by pseudophile at 10:04 AM on July 11, 2019 [9 favorites]

Hey, McConnell, if a President can just defy a SCOTUS ruling with an executive order, what was the point of getting all those judges installed?

You forgot the most critical part: A Republican President can just defy a SCOTUS ruling with an executive order. The judges are for when a Democratic President tries to do it.
posted by Etrigan at 10:12 AM on July 11, 2019 [37 favorites]

It's important to note that the census is an Article I function, meaning it's explicitly the domain of Congress

Well, the same is true of tariffs, and look where that's got us.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:23 AM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

The SCOTUS packing isn't to rein in the president; it's to allow states to overturn Roe v Wade and union protections. The Senate will decide whether the president can get away things.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:33 AM on July 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

Not to get too Republicans are like this, Democrats are like this, but Trump's tweet about his "very big and very important" social media meeting really crystallized something in my mind. I'm pretty sure it's s at least one aspect of why he turns off anyone on the left or liberal side, and tends to engage and enthuse those on the right or conservative side.

I'm sure that pretty much everyone here on Metafilter sort of cringed in embarrassment at that phrasing. Pretty much anything a US President does is very big and very important, like Obama said the easy stuff is handled before it gets to the President's desk. So to us, on the left/liberal side we see that sort of braggadocio as a sign of weakness, a sign that Trump is flailing around, unsure of himself, unsure of the power of his office, and making a fool of himself in a pathetic display of neediness.

But to many on the right/conservative side of things it reads as a refreshing display of strength in comparison to the weakness of Democratic Presidents. They don't see the understated air of a President like Obama as being a man confident in his own power and the authority of his office, but rather being the sign of a wimp who isn't macho enough to revel in his power. Trump's "very big and very important" is, to many Republicans a necessary assertion of power. After all, if you don't tell people how big and important you are they won't know, right?

Way back in 2011 a right wing friend of mine was outraged at how Obama handled the death of Osama bin Laden. He was genuinely incensed and fumed to me that Obama had proven to the world that we were weak and wimpy and easy targets for aggression. Why? Because Obama hadn't held a celebratory parade and, this is a direct quote "put his head on a pike outside the White House". I'm fairly sure he wasn't engaging in hyperbole about the head on a pike business and that he really and truly did think that it would have been the appropriate and strong action to take.

The left and the right seem to see strength in radically different ways. To us a calm assurance and understated air is a sign of confidence and power, to them it's a sign of a man [1] too wimpy to rub people's faces in his power. To us a person constantly reminding us that they're great and amazing and powerful is a sign of a person who is deeply insecure and not at all confident in any of those things. To them it's a sign of a strong man who isn't afraid to show his strength.

[1] "Man" because I'm pretty sure that for people who feel this way the idea of a woman with power is an oxymoron and they simply can't envision it except in mockery.
posted by sotonohito at 11:32 AM on July 11, 2019 [59 favorites]

Change Research poll of IA/NH/SC Democrats for Crooked Media:

Support following first debate: 19% Sanders, 19% Warren, 18% Biden, 17% Harris
65% say they want a climate debate
58% support abolishing private insurance
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:39 AM on July 11, 2019 [22 favorites]

And now, our latest entry in "What Even Is Reality Anymore":

ABC News: Trump expected to end his fight to add citizenship question to census, sources say

President Donald Trump is expected to announce later Thursday he is backing down from his effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, and will instead take executive action that instructs the Commerce Department to obtain an estimate of U.S. citizenship through other means, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:42 AM on July 11, 2019 [4 favorites]

Speaking of how things look to the other side, CNN's Oliver Darcy highlights "Trump's takeover of the Republican Party in 4 screen grabs (via @jdawsey1's review of @TimAlberta's new book)"

WaPo: New book details how Republican leaders learned to stop worrying and love Trump

—Few people have more power in President Trump’s White House than Madeleine Westerhout, his executive assistant who controls access to the Oval Office, delivers the president’s marker-scribbled messages, sends orders to top military officials, prints emails and articles to show Trump, and seeks to keep a tight grip on his schedule.

But she was not always a staunch supporter of the president. On election night, Westerhout, then a Republican National Committee aide, broke down crying, “inconsolable” over Trump winning the election.

—“We’re not going to let Donald Trump dismantle the Bill of Rights,” Mulvaney said to Alberta in 2016 when he was still a congressman from South Carolina. “For five and half years, every time we got to the floor and try to push back against an overreaching president, we get accused of being partisan at best and racist at worst. When we do it against a Republican president, maybe people will see it was a principled objection in the first place.”

Now, as the president’s acting chief of staff, Mulvaney says to others that he “lets Trump be Trump.”

—Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who basked in Trump’s glory during a large rally that helped him win a tight Texas race down the stretch of the 2018 midterms, once felt differently about the president.

“[Cruz] told confidantes there was ‘no way in hell’ he was prepared to subjugate himself to Trump in front of tens of millions of viewers,” Alberta writes. “ ‘History isn't kind to the man who holds Mussolini's jacket,’ Cruz told friends in 2016.” Even later, he bemoaned Trump for seeking to end birthright citizenship, saying he was trying to cost the party seats.

—Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Alberta in June 2016 that he wishes the Republican-controlled Congress could have done things differently to “avoid creating this environment that was conducive to someone like Donald Trump becoming the nominee.” Jordan is now on Fox News defending Trump more than almost any other of the president’s allies.

Paul Ryan, now exiled from Capitol Hill's sphere of influence, tepidly offers warnings: “Those of us around him really helped to stop him from making bad decisions. All the time. We helped him make much better decisions, which were contrary to kind of what his knee-jerk reaction was. Now I think he’s making some of these knee-jerk reactions.” Expect that to be the party line from Trump's GOP enablers when Trump's gone (however long that takes).
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:44 AM on July 11, 2019 [10 favorites]

and will instead take executive action that instructs the Commerce Department to obtain an estimate of U.S. citizenship through other means

What does that step even mean? The Census is the official tally of the US population according to the Constitution and the sole authority for apportionment. What are they, going to come up with a lowball estimate of "citizens" so Trump can claim, as he obviously planned to in 2016, that his defeat was a result of a "rigged" election?

Or is it simply a pathetic attempt to save face?
posted by Gelatin at 11:46 AM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

Mulvaney: “For five and half years, every time we got to the floor and try to push back against an overreaching president, we get accused of being partisan at best and racist at worst. When we do it against a Republican president, maybe people will see it was a principled objection in the first place.”

That logic cuts both ways.
posted by Gelatin at 11:48 AM on July 11, 2019 [9 favorites]

Let's check in on the so-called "social media summit."

They've printed out definitions of terms (with Trump-friendly definitions) like "doxing," "demonetization," "shadow banning," and "deplatforming."

Except there are a few problems. They spelled "publicly" wrong, think "demonetization" is a verb, and put the stress on the wrong syllables (shad•oh ban•ing).

And Tim Pool couldn't be bothered to wear a suit.
posted by zachlipton at 11:54 AM on July 11, 2019 [9 favorites]

And Tim Pool couldn't be bothered to wear a suit.

Did he at least take off his fucking beanie?
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:56 AM on July 11, 2019

Twitter is currently down across much of the world, in case you didn't notice the slight lessening of the ambient stench of death
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:15 PM on July 11, 2019 [43 favorites]

If you want to be better informed than Trump, you can go to the actual census.gov website. You can go to the American Fact Finder website and make it generate tables for you. You can drill down through the options (People > Origins > Citizenship) and make it generate a table of estimated citizen populations.

Trump personally has no idea what the census bureau does, and he's repeating whatever lines/lies he's being told, is a safe assumption here.

the census bureau is forbidden from using regular data science methods on the decennial census - this is a question that went to SCOTUS in the '90s - for the purposes of apportioning representatives, ONLY a strict count is allowed. So e.g. even if we know, for certain, that only 80% of black families filled out the census, we're not allowed to USE that knowledge to adjust the numbers. That is the whole reason to try to make the census hostile, to change response rates. i think there's also an open question about using citizenship data to inform gerrymandering, and the decennial census might give more valid/accurate/useful information because it's more geographically specific, but that's a secondary goal

(That is also WHY the census bureau does in-between surveys: so they can keep the decennial census short and easy to respond to; to ask questions that aren't appropriate for the decennial census at all; to test questions for the upcoming census; to get data that's less constrained (that they can muck with); to get data that's less politically fraught; etc. In addition to just getting information that's more recent and up to date.)

posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 12:28 PM on July 11, 2019 [24 favorites]

“[Cruz] told confidantes there was ‘no way in hell’ he was prepared to subjugate himself to Trump in front of tens of millions of viewers,” Alberta writes. “ ‘History isn't kind to the man who holds Mussolini's jacket,’ Cruz told friends in 2016.”

This is the Cruziest shit ever. He knows what Trump is and he knows how bad it is and clearly articulates the danger and dishonor of backing an authoritarian and he has a mutual personal enmity with Trump on top of it, but y'know, don't let that get in the way of opportunism and the party line.
posted by jason_steakums at 12:36 PM on July 11, 2019 [25 favorites]

Twitter is currently down across much of the world, in case you didn't notice the slight lessening of the ambient stench of death

It seems to be back up, may god have mercy on us. The coincidence of Twitter going down right in the middle Trump's Social Media Summit will doubtless fuel conspiracy theories among the rabid right for weeks to come.

Meanwhile, Daniel Dale's been catching up with his running fact-check of it:

—Trump begins his speech to his social media event: "If you look, you're at a very famous place. We all work very hard, and I don't know if you call it influence, I don't know if you call it power, but whatever it is, we're in the White House."
—Trump tells a story about a hypothetical spouse who congratulates his or her partner for having a 401K that is "up 77% this year," which is way more than the markets are up.
—Trump applauds people who communicate through social media "without having to go through the fake news filter."
—Trump on the past of his social media chief, Dan Scavino: "Long before we were even doing this, he was at a club, running a club...He was OK at doing it, not the greatest. I wouldn't say the greatest. You know what he was great at? He was always looking at his computer screen."
—Trump says "some" of the people at the social media event are "extraordinary," telling them, "The crap you think of is unbelievable."

posted by Doktor Zed at 1:17 PM on July 11, 2019 [7 favorites]

"The crap you think of is unbelievable."

I hate it when he says something I inadvertently agree with.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:20 PM on July 11, 2019 [35 favorites]

Apparently the President cares deeply about how many twitter followers he has.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:27 PM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

Sorry for the tweet dump but this is setting off all sorts of alarm bells for me, and might be for you too, so I wanted it fully documented and linked.

“I don’t think the Mainstream Media is free speech,” @realDonaldTrump says at social media summit with conservative groups.

and

"I believe in freedom of speech," says @realDonaldTrump, who calls the press "the enemy of the people."

"I don't think the mainstream media is free speech because it's so crooked," he says. "That's very dangerous speech."

"I'm not going to allow...it to happen like this. We're not going to be silenced," he says.

Says White House is responsible for getting people unbanned from platforms.

....

"Today I'm directing my administration to explore all...regulatory...solutions to protect free speech," @realDonaldTrump says.

"We hope to see transparency, more accountability, and more freedom."

"Big tech must not censor the voices of the American people."

It might sputter out, but it seems like that's the best we can hope for,
posted by Brainy at 1:52 PM on July 11, 2019 [12 favorites]

"We will not be intimidated into making stupid decisions" seems like a perfectly normal thing for the nominee to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to say about the president.

Also normal for this administration, the nominee for vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is now facing an accusation of sexual assault.
posted by peeedro at 1:56 PM on July 11, 2019 [12 favorites]

Meanwhile, Daniel Dale's been catching up with his running fact-check of it:

The amount of time the government of one of the largest, most powerful nations on earth spends on WHY AREN'T MORE PEOPLE LIKING MY POSTS is more proof that we’re all just trapped in his dying brain.

Everything is just a Forum war now.
posted by The Whelk at 2:03 PM on July 11, 2019 [31 favorites]

Just watched the Dictator issue a face-saving Executive Order ordering gov't departments to do what they already do.
posted by Harry Caul at 2:51 PM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

Josh Marshall has an apt summary of the sad day:

This is turning out to be a quintessentially Trumpian day. The social media bias summit the White House is hosting today is made up of attendees best known as online pro-Trump hype men, pushing images, memes and videos portraying Trump as a sort of alternative reality he-man constantly stomping, vanquishing and owning his foes. And while all this has been going on the White House has been telling everyone Trump has some secret way to end-run the Supreme Court and get his census citizenship question on the census after all. And now, a couple hours before the announcement, we learn that this epic SCOTUS smackdown is actually a lot of don’t-look-behind-the-curtain razzmatazz to fuzz up what is actually Trump announcing he’s giving up, doing pretty much what his Justice Department announced a week ago but Trump apparently needed a week of hand holding and yessing to accept.

posted by peeedro at 2:59 PM on July 11, 2019 [14 favorites]

Daniel Dale's live-blog of Trump's census question presser paints a picture of a humiliating climb-down:

—Trump begins: "Are you a citizen of the United States of America? Oh gee, I'm sorry, I just can't answer that question. And that's after spending billions and billions of dollars."
—Trump says he is pursuing a "new option" over the citizenship question because litigation would take too long: he's ordering federal departments to "provide the Department of Commerce with all requested records regarding the number of citizens and non-citizens in our country."
—Trump is now touting this option: "The Census Bureau projected that using previously available records, it could determine citizenship for 90% of our population or more." He says his order allows an "even more complete count of citizens than of asking the single question alone."
—Trump did not take questions at the event he'd billed on Twitter as a "News Conference." He sometimes uses "news conference" to mean "event where he speaks to the media."

NBC's Pete Williams (via Kyle Griffin): "Basically, what [Trump's] saying to the federal government is do what you've already done, just do a better job of it and try harder. By the way, this is basically what some of Wilbur Ross's advisers proposed that he do and he rejected that."

Vox's Aaron Rupar (w/video): "Sign of the times -- Attorney General William Barr goes out of his way to reassure people that the Trump administration never planned to defy a Supreme Court ruling" (Of course Barr blames it on "rank speculation"—"some in the media have been suggesting [this] in the hysterical mode of the day".)
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:03 PM on July 11, 2019 [10 favorites]

Michael Harriot, The Root: White People Want Trump:
Yet, he is probably going to win the white vote.

And it’s not because he’s white. Pete Buttigieg is white and trails Trump by seven p0ints with the white vote. According to 23andMe, Elizabeth Warren is 99 percent white (and one percent from the Dolezal tribe) but Trump outpaces her with white voters by 10 points. Bernie Sanders trails Trump by six percentage points in the Quinnipiac poll. The only thing one can logically conclude is that white people’s lone reason for voting for Donald Trump is that he is a racist.

Aside from racism, what else is Donald Trump good at?

That was a rhetorical question because I’m sure there is an answer. Maybe he makes a mean pot pie. Perhaps he is a championship-level Connect Four player. I’ve heard that he can eat a family-size bucket of KFC in record time, which is kind of impressive. But despite his infinite number of faults, his numerous lies, and his plentiful deficiencies, white people will still want Donald J. Trump as their president.

Not all white people, just a statistically significant amount.
posted by TwoStride at 5:05 PM on July 11, 2019 [27 favorites]

New NBC/WSJ Poll: Biden 26% Warren 19% Harris 13% Sanders 13% Buttigieg 7% Yang 2% O'Rourke 2% Klobuchar 1% Castro 1% Booker 1% Inslee 1% Williamson 1% Delaney 1% Hickenlooper 1% Bennet 1%

Everyone else is at 0%. Biden losing some support after the debate is the most important trend, but Beto polling even with Andrew Yang is the most devastating. Julian Castro may have landed a fatal blow, and Beto has utterly cratered since his entrance when he flirted with double digits. He's been exposed badly as having no business with aspirations outside of Texas.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:07 PM on July 11, 2019 [6 favorites]

I'd like Inslee to stay in as long as possible to be a tool to keep the climate crisis persistent on the minds of voters.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 5:58 PM on July 11, 2019 [19 favorites]

From Daniel Dale's blow-by-blow of the blowhard:

Trump on important policy he has announced on Twitter: "I'll go, 'Watch.' Like, I did Golan Heights. I gave Israel the real credit over - and, you know, Golan Heights and Israel, very important. But I gave representation and the strongest form of the Golan Heights, Israel."

Well, this certainly sounds like a sane and well-informed person with a good grasp of foreign policy and not, e.g., someone who would fail to recognise the Golan Heights on a map of the Golan Heights with the words GOLAN HEIGHTS written in caps and circled with a highlighter.

Hey, Trump, you know what your next step should be? The 25th Amendment. Other presidents had 16, 17, maybe 18 Amendments. Lyndon Johnson had 24, but some say he cheated. No president has ever had 25. You should go and demand the implementation of the 25th Amendment. Say "I, Donald Trump, pledged to drain the swamp and I demand that you implement the 25th Amendment, henceforth and forever to be known as the Donald Trump Amendment."
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:59 PM on July 11, 2019 [17 favorites]

This won't apply to the vast majority of immigrants, but the US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston today ordered a stay for a Dominican man's deportation to let him argue in court that he deserves asylum because he and his family were threatened, he was beaten up and his business was trashed because of his political views.

His case dates back to 2012, when he walked across the border into Texas, but the Barr Justice Department argued this year he should be booted because the threats and violence stopped when he stopped publicly stating his political views in the several months before he entered the US, so he no longer faced any problems. A three-judge panel said that was an absurd reason to deport him:

A principal goal of persecuting the expression of political opinion is to silence those who cleave to it in the hope that their political views will not gain traction. ...

So here: the purpose of the PLD's threats and violence was to coerce the petitioner to stop hosting PRD meetings. That the threats and violence sent a convincing enough message to frighten the petitioner into complying is evidence in support of his claim, not evidence against it. The agency's contrary reasoning would lead to the bizarre result that persons who experienced threats that were sufficiently credible to cause them to cease expressing their political opinion would not be eligible for immigration relief.

posted by adamg at 6:00 PM on July 11, 2019 [16 favorites]

I think all dems below Pete Buttigieg should strategically pick a pet issue and exploit it for media attention until you absolutely have to drop out.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 6:01 PM on July 11, 2019 [14 favorites]

The only thing one can logically conclude is that white people’s lone reason for voting for Donald Trump is that he is a racist.


It isn't JUST that he's a racist. It's also this: as president he's overseen an administration that's running mass internment camps and deportation sweeps with the aim of stemming the tide of migration from Latin America that's seen Wilson, Moore and Taylor lose their places in the list of 10 most common American surnames to Garcia, Rodriguez and Martinez. I would posit that probably *most* Trump voters are not overt racists; however, the scale of demographic change in the US in the past 40 years is something that's essentially unprecedented in a modern liberal democracy, and awareness of it is probably bringing out a lot of latent racism. There was a study around 2015 or so (?) that basically consisted of giving a questionnaire to users of public transit in a liberalish bedroom community near a major city regarding their views on immigration generally and their voting intentions, specifically; it was found that after exposure to two people (hired by the researchers) on the same train who were speaking Spanish to each other every morning for a week there was a statistically significant shift in voting intention from D to R. Along with the broader "red state/blue state" divide this is one of the fault lines in American society that makes me most pessimistic about what the next few decades are going to look like.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 6:44 PM on July 11, 2019 [12 favorites]

I've seen a few reports that some members of congress are exercising some oversight on administration's abuse of migrant children, in addition to legislation (which is slower and harder to pass):

Senator Tammy Baldwin calls for a Senate Health Committee hearing on the health and safety of migrant children

Senator Jeff Merkley calls for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate the deaths of migrant children

Senator Bob Casey and 8 others call for an investigation into federal contractors in charge of migrant children (the others: Senators Brian Schatz, Sherrod Brown, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Michael Bennet and Kamala Harris)

Senator Jeff Merkley calls for the DHS Inspector General to investigate whether DHS officials or staff broke the law in mistreatment and neglect of children in their care

Rep. Elijah Cummings announces two more hearings on child separation

A lot of members of Congress are sponsoring legislation, but oversight is part of their job, too.

If you have time to make phone calls, you can try calling your congresspersons (or sending faxes or emails) and asking them to use every tool at their disposal - particularly oversight functions - to stop the abuse and hold those responsible accountable.

(I also posted this in the Concentration Camps, How Best to Help? thread; I hope that's okay.)
posted by kristi at 7:04 PM on July 11, 2019 [21 favorites]

At a roundtable event in Youngstown, OH today, Sen. Gillibrand was asked by a white woman holding a baby (via Amanda Golden, NBC):

QUESTION: I hear you saying there is a lot of divisive language coming from Republicans, coming from Trump and that we are looking for ways to blame each other. But the Democratic Party loves to throw around terms like "white privilege." Now this is an area that across all demographics has been depressed because of the loss of its industry and the opioid crisis. So what do you have to say to people in this area about so-called white privilege?

She responded (NBC video):

GILLIBRAND: So, I understand that families in this community are suffering deeply. ... [details events described at the roundtable] ... So no one in that circumstance is privileged on any level, but that's not what that conversation is about.

QUESTION: What is is about?

GILLIBRAND: I'm going to explain.

What that conversation is about is when a community has been left behind for generations because of the color of their skin. ... The fact that ... if you are a black woman you are four times more likely to die in childbirth because the healthcare provider doesn't believe you when you say "I don't feel right." Because he doesn't value you. Or she doesn't value you.

...

So, if your son is 15 years old and smokes pot. He smokes pot just as much as the black boy in his neighborhoold and the Latino boy in his neighborhood. But that black and brown boy is four times more likely to get arrested. ... Your son will likely not have to deal with that because he is white. So when someone says white privilege, that is all they are talking about. That his whiteness will mean that a police officer might give him a second chance. It might mean that he doesn't get incarcerated because he had just smoked a joint with his girlfriend. It might mean that he won't have to post bail. It means he might be able to show up to work the next day and lose his job and not be in the cycle of poverty that never ends. That's all it is.

applause from the room

But it doesn't mean that you don't deserve my voice, lifting up your challenge. It also doesn't mean that black and brown people are left to fight these challenges on their own. A white woman like me who is a Senator and running for President of the United States has to lift up their voice just as much as I would lift up yours. That's all it means. It doesn't take away from you at all. It just means we have to recognize suffering in all its forms and solve it in each place intentionally and with knowledge about what we are up against.

Partially edited, see full transcript at top link.
posted by pjenks at 7:09 PM on July 11, 2019 [125 favorites]

I think all dems below Pete Buttigieg should strategically pick a pet issue and exploit it for media attention until you absolutely have to drop out.

Can they all pick global warming?
posted by xammerboy at 7:22 PM on July 11, 2019 [23 favorites]

still hope someone in the printing office will look over those galley proofs before running the job. because these fuckers.

and that someone better aware of issues relating to the existing impediments to information sharing among federal agencies, if any, for purposes of determining citizenship gives the new plan, if new, proper attention. (iirc, removing bottlenecks and barriers in the sharing of information among federal agencies is what got us homeland security).

now remains a fine time to impeach secretary ross. for the many falsehoods. to congress. to courts.
posted by 20 year lurk at 7:38 PM on July 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

he's self-impeaching, bro
posted by entropicamericana at 8:11 PM on July 11, 2019 [7 favorites]

Slate: Biden Is the Only Candidate With a Fully Formed Foreign Policy Vision
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:00 PM on July 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the 2020 Presidential Race and Trump’s Crisis at the Border, The New Yorker
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:01 PM on July 11, 2019 [6 favorites]

The scale of demographic change in the US in the past 40 years is something that's essentially unprecedented in a modern liberal democracy.

There's an excellent podcast on this subject by Vox's Ezra Klein named "Behind the Panic in White, Christian America." It starts with the startling statistic that in 2008 when Obama became president the U.S. was 54% white christian, and in 2016 when Trump became president that number dropped to 43%. That's a big drop.

The podcast also talks about Evangelicalism and how many of its beliefs are intertwined with racism. For instance, I did not know that Evangelical Christians believed not that long ago that white people were preordained by God to manage work, while black were preordained to labor. That's pretty racist, but it also suggests that many Evangelical Christians experienced civil rights as a deeply disturbing disruption of divine order.

All of this helped me understand a little better why for so many Christians racism seems to suddenly be the most important thing. It was also pointed out that Trump instinctively played to these notions, telling his supporters that while he wasn't a nice guy, a nice guy wasn't going to do what they needed, and that he was their "last chance".
posted by xammerboy at 9:10 PM on July 11, 2019 [21 favorites]

> Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the 2020 Presidential Race and Trump’s Crisis at the Border, The New Yorker

I was going to post about this interview - I listened to it all the way through on my walk to and from work today, and it is really good. I said early on that I didn't know enough about AOC but judging by her enemies, she must be doing something right. I think this interview made me a fan - just a bunch of thoughtful, considered responses that came across as completely genuine.

It's worth your time, even if it'll probably make you alternately sad and angry.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:10 PM on July 11, 2019 [11 favorites]

the Democratic Party loves to throw around terms like "white privilege."

Gillibrand's answer actually was pretty good, but gave any of the presidential candidates, or even any elected Democrats, actually done this ("throw around" the term "white privilege')?

Not being sarcastic here - of course, I've seen the term used by many journalists, analysts and commentators, but I have not seen or heard many politicians talking about it, at least not at any length. Maybe a couple of the House freshman class?

Point being, I suspect Gillibrand's questioner is internalizing wingnut talking points and based her question on those, and not on anything actually said by any Democratic politicians.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 9:59 PM on July 11, 2019 [36 favorites]

There's an excellent podcast on this subject by Vox's Ezra Klein named "Behind the Panic in White, Christian America." It starts with the startling statistic that in 2008 when Obama became president the U.S. was 54% white christian, and in 2016 when Trump became president that number dropped to 43%. That's a big drop.

In 1980 the US population was 80% "non-Hispanic white"; most recent estimates put that at around 61%, and the non-white birthrate is higher than the white birthrate, which is more salient, probably (and also ties into anti-abortion crusading; fun fact, some of the original anti-abortionists of the 19th century used overt arguments about "immigrants outbreeding the sturdy Anglo-Saxon colonial stock" as reasons to outlaw abortion).

The podcast also talks about Evangelicalism and how many of its beliefs are intertwined with racism. For instance, I did not know that Evangelical Christians believed not that long ago that white people were preordained by God to manage work, while black were preordained to labor. That's pretty racist, but it also suggests that many Evangelical Christians experienced civil rights as a deeply disturbing disruption of divine order.


That was especially a Thing in the Southern Baptist church (which split off from the National Baptists over slavery in the 1850's); they were still teaching the whole thing about "children of Ham, destined to be hewers of wood and drawers of water" until fairly recently (the '50's or '60's at least and probably more like the '80's or '90's in some places).
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 10:21 PM on July 11, 2019 [7 favorites]

I'm kind of surprised I haven't heard the phrase “taxation without representation” yet in the census question discussion... That's one of the things the Trump and McConnell &co. circus is angling at with their sudden need for a “complete and timely count of the non-citizen population”: to find some way for the apportionment of representation in the House to leave out as many immigrant taxpayers as possible, since in the 21st century that's now so exceptionally harmonious with white supremacy.

(It's another great clue btw, in addition to the rules of early naturalization laws, to the Founders' actual positive attitudes towards immigrants: there wasn't any citizenship-related carve-out to “no taxation without representation.”)

Along with Trump continuing to yuk it up about “maybe we'll try President-for-Life here sometime!”—ha ha maybe we'll have a king and aristocracy again ha ha—it's emblematic of how opposed Trumpism is to the very idea of the United States, even the idea of what the country was from hundreds of years ago. I wish it was a stronger theme in the rhetoric of our candidates and elected officials, pointing out and denouncing this fundamental betrayal and maybe a bit of shameless flag-waving at the same time, when it's such low-hanging fruit. I mean, they were all able to whine on and on about the White Working Class.
posted by XMLicious at 11:26 PM on July 11, 2019 [8 favorites]

Esquire (Charles Pierce): Nancy Pelosi's Leadership Now Constitutes a Constant Dereliction of Duty

Right now, at this very moment, the United States government is committing crimes against humanity on its southern border at the command of a certifiable vulgar talking yam. The opposition party controls exactly one center of power in the tripartite government and two seats—occasionally, three—on the Supreme Court. And under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives has chosen to do precisely squat about the situation, choosing instead to pick a fight with its youngest and most charismatic members who, by the way, are pretty much the only members of the House who have gone to see the atrocities first hand...

New Yorker (Sean Wilentz): Nancy Pelosi, Impeachment, and Places in History

Crises make and break historical reputations. In our current constitutional emergency, a few unlikely figures, above all the former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, have upheld the rule of law, possibly redeeming their places in history. Many others, above all the current Attorney General, William Barr, seem determined to irretrievably sink theirs. Now the reputation at risk is that of the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

With regard to the debate over the proper response to Donald Trump’s brazen deeds, Pelosi has not taken impeachment off the table, saying, “I don’t think you should impeach for political reasons, and I don’t think you should not impeach for political reasons.” Yet political reasons seem to be preventing her from pursuing constitutional concerns. Her reasoning is clear: if the House were to launch an impeachment without “overwhelming” evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors and strong bipartisan public support, Trump’s inevitable acquittal in the Republican-controlled Senate would only strengthen him, and he could cruise to reëlection. But, in this instance, Pelosi’s normally acute political judgment is failing her, and the historical precedent she is evidently relying on—the impeachment of President Bill Clinton—is not analogous. In fact, based on the past half century of political history, suppressing an impeachment inquiry seems more likely to help insure Trump’s reëlection. If this happens, Pelosi’s formidable reputation, based on a lifetime of public service and her role as the first female Speaker of the House, will suffer...

@TeamPelosi: As a prosecutor Acosta was supposed to vindicate young trafficking victims; instead he violated their trust and brushed their evidence aside to protect their abuser. Acosta’s Epstein coverup is unconscionable and indefensible. He MUST resign. #AcostaResign https://www.pelosiforcongress.org/landing/w190709tw/

Kevin Kruse:
You're the Speaker of the House of Representatives. If you think a Cabinet officer has disgraced himself and needs to be removed from office, then use the House's powers of impeachment, not a worthless internet petition.

Alexander Chee:
She’s really taking this moment to pass around a petition with an Act Blue fundraiser ask at the end of it.

Leah McElrath:
I cannot get my mind around this. @SpeakerPelosi is refusing to consider impeaching Alex Acosta despite his preferential treatment of serial child rapist and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. But she is using the issue to build her campaign's fundraising email list. Disgusting.

Adam Serwer:
Incredible that Pelosi’s reaction to what is unfolding here was “let’s leave it alone.”

Bradley Whitford:
We mobilized to take back the House to put a check on this dangerous president NOW. Not so we can wait until the next election. Where are the hearings? Where are the tax returns? Our democracy is dying. What are you doing @SpeakerPelosi? Attacking @AOC??? I’m sorry, @SpeakerPelosi, but it feels like you’re focused on consolidating your own power rather than risking the power you have to help us in our direst moment. I’m the most sympathetic audience you have. If you’re losing me, you’re in trouble.
posted by chris24 at 3:09 AM on July 12, 2019 [77 favorites]

Trump says "some" of the people at the social media event are "extraordinary," telling them, "The crap you think of is unbelievable."

Trump's praise for the assembled throng of misfits and charlatans set off would put his seal of approval on this despicable sub-reality TV scene, MSNBC's Nick Ramsey reports:

... in the rose garden of the @whitehouse, @sebgorka just screamed at journalist @briankarem calling him a "punk." then someone remarked that gorka could "kick your punk ass."

again, this happened... in the rose garden.
vid from @katierogers

Karem writes in a new opinion piece for Playboy (SFW):

Trump is a sad, strange little man who is the envy of some, the pity of others and to me is merely another rube selling snake oil. I ask questions of this man, and watch as he consolidates his power in the White House, not because I’m enamored of him or because I do not like him, but because it is my job. That is, ultimately, what every reporter does at the White House. We show up and put up with a lot to ask questions.

The president makes our jobs more excruciating, more difficult and more painful. He does this to every reporter at the White House, whether they are employed by Fox, CNN, NBC or the unlikely blog that has an audience of less than a 100. While newspapers continue to collapse, as in Youngstown, the president continues to hammer his message home. With fewer and fewer independent voices, it becomes easier for anyone, particularly a demagogue like Trump, to drive their points home and convince a great God-fearing nation of the righteousness of his twisted and demented cause.[…]

Trump will always be Trump. At this point, we know what he is. […] He doesn’t care about the free press, an independent judiciary, legislative branch or anything remotely resembling our democratic principles or values. He is a demagogue consolidating his powers and incoherently babbling profusely to confuse us as he does so.

There's a lot of self-congratulatory sententiousness about the press, and more than a touch of journalistic ennui, in Karem's article, but nobody deserves to be threatened by that fascist twerp.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:14 AM on July 12, 2019 [14 favorites]

Unfortunately, to his followers, these are features, not bugs. You'll never convince them these are actually Bad Things.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:35 AM on July 12, 2019 [3 favorites]

ABC has breaking news: ICE raids: Immigration law firm worker says silent raids in SoCal have already begun

Karla Sanchez is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient. The policy temporarily protects her from deportation and provides her a work permit. She works at an immigration law firm and says they've been getting calls about silent raids since Tuesday.

Security cameras captured at least 15 ICE agents Monday going to the home of a local family.

"It's just exhausting. And I think they're trying to do that, they're trying to exhaust us - kind of scare us or tire us into just self-deporting," Sanchez said.

HuffPo: Chicago Mayor Permanently Bans ICE From Accessing Police Databases Ahead of Raids

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday that her city has permanently banned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from accessing the Chicago Police Department’s databases ahead of looming ICE raids to detain undocumented immigrants.

Chicago police “will not team up with ICE to detain any resident,” the mayor said after meeting with business leaders and immigration rights advocates at Lurie Children’s Hospital. “They’re not going to be facilitating or otherwise providing any assistance in any raids ― whether it’s traffic stops [or] additional support. … We have also cut off ICE from any access from any CPD databases and that will remain permanent.”

Los Angeles KTLA: Immigrants in U.S. Illegally Are Hiding Out, Staying Home From Work Amid Looming ICE Raids
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:47 AM on July 12, 2019 [23 favorites]

Not a good enough Nazi rather than 'holy shit he's a Nazi' is all you need to know about Republicans.

Adam Serwer (Atlantic)
The two worst things about Trump, his racism and his authoritarianism, are the things about Trump the Republican establishment likes the most. It’s the incompetence they have a problem with.
posted by chris24 at 5:24 AM on July 12, 2019 [17 favorites]

I get that they lie to us every second of every day but the audacity of starting a huge new round of ICE raids while they're telling us the situation at the border is totally not their fault, just a huge influx of people, they're really doing their best to house them humanely ..... it is exceptional even for 2019.
posted by gerstle at 5:44 AM on July 12, 2019 [8 favorites]

I apologize if this is considered catastrophizing to the point that it shouldn't be mentioned here, but: What, if anything, are the present legal barriers to detaining any newly arrested people in the worst border facilities, aka the concentration camps? Are there clearly marked categories such that those places are officially "just" for recent border-crossers?
posted by InTheYear2017 at 5:55 AM on July 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

8 years ago, Joe Biden donated 1,875 boxes and 415gb of Senate records to the Univ. of Delaware with an agreement they could be made public by early 2019.

Just before Biden began his campaign, the university changed the terms to keep the records secret.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:13 AM on July 12, 2019 [36 favorites]

@SpeakerPelosi is refusing to consider impeaching Alex Acosta despite his preferential treatment of serial child rapist and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. But she is using the issue to build her campaign's fundraising email list.

Just to drive home how egregious this is:

Pelosi speaking in person: "It's up to the president, it's his cabinet."
Pelosi on Twitter with a link to her campaign web site and an email harvesting internet petition: "Acosta’s Epstein coverup is unconscionable and indefensible. He MUST resign."
posted by diogenes at 6:28 AM on July 12, 2019 [27 favorites]

Ryan Devereaux: Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost Was a Member of Secret Facebook Group

When news broke that thousands of current and former Border Patrol agents were members of a secret Facebook group filled with racist, vulgar, and sexist content, Carla Provost, chief of the agency, was quick to respond. “These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see — and expect — from our agents day in and day out,” Provost said in a statement. “Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.”

For Provost, a veteran of the Border Patrol who was named head of the agency in August 2018, the group’s existence and content should have come as no surprise. Three months after her appointment to chief of the patrol, Provost herself had posted in the group, then known as “I’m 10-15,” now archived as “America First X 2.” Provost’s comment was innocuous — a friendly clapback against a group member who questioned her rise to the top of the Border Patrol — but her participation in the group, which she has since left, raises serious questions.
[...]
The names of three current chief patrol agents appeared in The Intercept’s search of the Border Patrol Facebook group, including Matthew Hudak, of the Big Bend sector, whose last post was in August 10, 2016; Rodney S. Scott, of the San Diego sector, whose last post was November 17, 2018 and remains in the group; and Jason D. Owens, former deputy chief patrol agent for the Laredo, Texas sector, who now oversees operations the Border Patrol’s Houlton sector in Maine. The Intercept additionally identified nine current or former group members whose names match current “Patrol Agents In Charge” — or PAICs — of individual Border Patrol stations.

The names of Border Patrol union figures also appear in the group, including Hector Garza, who was among the first active duty members of the agency to establish a relationship to then-candidate Donald Trump in 2015, and Tucson chapter union head Art del Cueto, the host of the Breitbart-sponsored Border Patrol union podcast the Green Line and frequent Fox News guest.

posted by zombieflanders at 6:31 AM on July 12, 2019 [26 favorites]

Politico published a first-serial excerpt from Tim Alberta's American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump: ‘Mother Is Not Going to Like This’: The 48 Hours That Almost Brought Down Trump—The exclusive story of how Trump survived the Access Hollywood tape.

WaPo's Greg Sargent explains how the Access Hollywood scandal reflects on all of the Trump administration's: New Disclosures About Lewd Trump Video Reveal His Mastery of the GOP

In [the] context [of Sec. Acosta's role in the Epstein scandal], it’s fitting that a new account has emerged of Trump’s own biggest brush with political death over his own sexual misconduct: the controversy over the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump boasted of repeatedly committing sexual assault with impunity.

The new account of that affair — which shows that to a greater degree than previously known, leading Republicans privately thought Trump had disqualified himself, only to abruptly fall in line behind him — is deeply revealing as to Trump’s grasp of today’s GOP, and more broadly is depressingly symbolic of today’s culture of elite impunity.[…]

In all kinds of ways, of course, Trump himself demonstrates how deeply the culture of impunity has penetrated the GOP. We’ve seen bottomless self-dealing and a refusal to show minimal transparency on his business holdings; extensive and potentially criminal efforts to derail the Russia investigation; the refusal to hold the Saudis accountable for the dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi; maximal resistance to any and all congressional oversight; the turning loose of Attorney General William P. Barr on his political critics; Acosta’s potential survival; and so much more — much of it with nary a peep from Republicans.

What Trump seems to have developed here is a kind of full-saturation, totally unabashed flaunting of impunity as something to be worn as a badge of honor. In retrospect, that remarkable closing of ranks behind Trump despite the lewd video foreshadowed much of what we’re seeing now.

Slate: How Alex Acosta Got Away With It—The only way the labor secretary could give Jeffrey Epstein that 2008 plea deal is by ignoring victims.

Back in 2008, when now–Labor Secretary Alex Acosta was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, his office secretly cut a sweetheart deal for child rapist and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Now, from his Cabinet perch, Acosta is watching as increasingly damning evidence piles up, revealing that he was responsible for letting Epstein off the hook the first time around, and filters into the public consciousness. So he took a page from Donald Trump’s sexual assault impunity playbook at a press conference on Wednesday and denied any responsibility for any of his actions, refused to apologize to hundreds of victims who were children at the time, and instead blamed everyone from state prosecutors to the victims themselves. Will his tantrum work? Why shouldn’t it?

PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor reports: "NOW: President Trump has walked out to the South Lawn with Labor Secretary Acosta. Trump says he did a great job at his presser this week."
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:39 AM on July 12, 2019 [8 favorites]

THERE IT IS:

CNN's Victor Blackwell: President Trump has announced that Labor Secretary Acosta has resigned.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:42 AM on July 12, 2019 [45 favorites]

Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs has more from Trump's presser with Acosta:

BREAKING: Alex Acosta is stepping down.

“I do not think it is right or fair” to have me as the focus, Labor secretary Alex Acosta says, in wake of controversy over how he handled case of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein over a decade ago when Acosta was a FL prosecutor. “I thought the right thing was to step aside.”

“You can always second guess,” Trump says of Alex Acosta’s actions in Jeffrey Epstein case.

“I said you don’t have to do this,” Trump says of Acosta’s resignation.

Trump Pat Pizzella will be the new acting labor secretary, (as @SalehaMohsin and I reported earlier this week).

The Trump Cabinet now has five, that's right five acting heads.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:49 AM on July 12, 2019 [31 favorites]

Along with Trump continuing to yuk it up about “maybe we'll try President-for-Life here sometime!”—ha ha maybe we'll have a king and aristocracy again ha ha—it's emblematic of how opposed Trumpism is to the very idea of the United States, even the idea of what the country was from hundreds of years ago.

And even this is intertwined with racism. Why are Republicans suddenly interested in autocracy and monarchy? Because white people no longer hold the majority. Also, one of the aspects of slavery that most riled Americans in the lead up to the civil war was how strongly a slave owner resembled a king, making decisions for and money off of other's labor. Lincoln called this eating the bread others have earned.
posted by xammerboy at 7:04 AM on July 12, 2019 [29 favorites]

And even this is intertwined with racism. Why are Republicans suddenly interested in autocracy and monarchy? Because white people no longer hold the majority.

I wonder here if media coverage of changing demographics served to heighten paranoia in the ruling classes.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:18 AM on July 12, 2019 [2 favorites]

Back in March, Mike Pence made a surprise announcement, without any technical or fiscal details, that the timeline to return humans to the moon has been accelerated by four years with an implied threat of "or else". Since then looming technical questions about a lunar lander and funding struggles between NASA, OMB, and congress have remained unresolved.

Wednesday, William Gerstenmaier and Bill Hill, the associate administrator and deputy associate administrator of human exploration have been abruptly reassigned into "special advisor" positions which are typically considered a demotion for those who cannot be terminated outright. Gerstenmaier has been at the agency since 1977 has been in charge of some of NASA's most high-profile programs. Acting administrators have been named; permanent successors have not been identified, as usual with this administration.

According to the WaPo, space industry officials say that Pence and others in the White House have become livid about the agency's lack of progress, as the Trump administration is laser-focused on the 2024 target, which would come during a second term of the Trump presidency, should he be reelected.
posted by peeedro at 7:34 AM on July 12, 2019 [5 favorites]

Speaking from my own area of informal expertise, NASA is not getting anyone to the moon by 2024 with the current budget. The current budget will not change under this Congress, as the House is hostile and the Senate too beholden to industry interests that want to slow walk SLS and milk it for all it's worth. The personnel changes are re-arranging deck chairs.
posted by Quindar Beep at 7:40 AM on July 12, 2019 [16 favorites]

No sitting Cabinet Secretary has ever been impeached. Only one Cabinet member has ever been impeached, and he resigned before the House could impeach him, but they did and tried him in the Senate anyway. He was acquitted, not because anyone believed he wasn’t guilty, but because he wasn’t in office anymore.

Unlike judges and presidents, Cabinet members usually aren’t there for very long, and so they usually resign once scandal breaks. And you can try them later and put them in jail anyway.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:42 AM on July 12, 2019 [3 favorites]

WATCH: Lawmakers Hold Hearing On Migrant Detention Conditions, Pence Visits Border

Apparently AOC has just asked to be sworn in when offering her testimony, and we'll also be hearing from most of the other Reps that visited the facilities, as well as the DHS OIG:

At the Capitol, the House Oversight Committee is hearing from four Democratic lawmakers who have recently traveled to the border — Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas; Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The lawmakers have been outspoken in condemning the conditions they witnessed at a detention facility there.

The panel will also hear testimony from the Department of Homeland Security's acting inspector general, Jennifer Costello, whose office found "serious overcrowding and prolonged detention in Border Patrol facilities requiring immediate attention" during a trip to visit Border Patrol facilities in Texas last month.

posted by zombieflanders at 8:01 AM on July 12, 2019 [11 favorites]

Meanwhile, the fierce urgency of whenever strikes again: Democrats agreed to move the Mueller hearing to two days before August recess because of course they did.
posted by zombieflanders at 8:03 AM on July 12, 2019 [17 favorites]

Why are Republicans suddenly interested in autocracy and monarchy? Because white people no longer hold the majority.

In light of this, Putin's comments about the supposed demise of liberalism in the recent Financial Times interview (famously misunderstood by Trump) are interesting for the synergy.

The whole theme starts around 1hr10m, reaching its zenith about ten minutes later when he says, “Have we forgotten that all of us live in a world based on biblical values?” and subsequently names Peter the Great as the politician he most admires. Though when asked whether he and Steve Bannon have much in common, he demurs a bit and concedes that there's a limited place for liberalism in the world.
posted by XMLicious at 8:03 AM on July 12, 2019

Mueller offers to delay testimony one week to give lawmakers more time for questions

Mueller’s offer to delay comes as House Democrats on the Judiciary panel pressed their leaders for more time to question Mueller. Under the current agreement, Mueller would appear for two hours each before the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. But due to five-minute questioning rules, only the most senior dozen or so Democrats and Republicans on Judiciary would get to ask questions, upsetting more junior members.

Those members pressed the committee this week to try to get Mueller to commit to more time.

God forbid testifying about literally the most important thing to happen in the United States in like a decade get in the way of Mueller's weekly cribbage night.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:04 AM on July 12, 2019 [10 favorites]

Paul Ryan, now exiled from Capitol Hill's sphere of influence, tepidly offers warnings: “Those of us around him really helped to stop him from making bad decisions. All the time. We helped him make much better decisions, which were contrary to kind of what his knee-jerk reaction was. Now I think he’s making some of these knee-jerk reactions.” Expect that to be the party line from Trump's GOP enablers when Trump's gone (however long that takes).

In New Book, Paul Ryan Admits He Was a Fraud All Along (Vanity Fair)

Ryan, who tells [Tim Alberta in American Carnage] that he viewed his retirement as an “escape hatch” to get away from Trump, plays up the “adults in the room” myth, suggesting his deference allowed him to steer Trump on a better course. “I told myself I gotta have a relationship with this guy to help him get his mind right,” Ryan recalls. “Because, I’m telling you, he didn’t know anything about government…I wanted to scold him all the time. Those of us around him really helped to stop him from making bad decisions. All the time,” Ryan continues. “We helped him make much better decisions, which were contrary to kind of what his knee-jerk reaction was. Now I think he’s making some of these knee-jerk reactions.”[…]

Ryan makes clear in Alberta’s book that he knew Trump to be an unqualified jackass. In one anecdote, the House Speaker receives an early-morning phone call from then-chief of staff Reince Priebus asking him to read a tweet the president had just fired off.

“Terrible!” Trump wrote. “Just found out that [Barack Obama] had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

The tweet, offered without proof or basis in reality, sent Ryan into “maniacal, punch-drunk laughter,” according to Alberta. This behind-the-scenes Ryan hardly squares with the public Ryan, who repeatedly came to the president’s defense and downplayed his maddening Twitter addiction. “I actually don't pay that much attention to it,” Ryan once said of the president’s incessant shitposting.

Predictably, Trump launched an extended, multi-tweet attack on Ryan late last night:

Paul Ryan, the failed V.P. candidate & former Speaker of the House, whose record of achievement was atrocious (except during my first two years as President), ultimately became a long running lame duck failure, leaving his Party in the lurch both as a fundraiser & leader

When Mitt chose Paul I told people that’s the end of that Presidential run. He quit Congress because he didn’t know how to Win. They gave me standing O’s in the Great State of Wisconsin, & booed him off the stage. He promised me the Wall, & failed (happening anyway!)

He had the Majority & blew it away with his poor leadership and bad timing. Never knew how to go after the Dems like they go after us. Couldn’t get him out of Congress fast enough!

Then this morning, Trump added some fresh abuse during his lengthy, rambling, and very sweaty South Lawn presser (via The Hill): "For Paul Ryan to be complaining is pretty amazing. I remember a day in Wisconsin, a state that I won, where I stood up and made a speech and then I introduced, and then they booed him off the stage, 10,000 people."

MMA's Matthew Gertz has a running Twitter comment on examples of this (including several of Ryan), "If you try to work with Trump, he will humiliate you." Ryan's toadying to Trump wins him first place in those ranks, ahead of even Mitch "Gravedigger of Democracy" McConnell.

Also, in the Trump-criticizes-Trump department, @realDonaldTrump wrote in April of last year about Ryan's retirement: "Speaker Paul Ryan is a truly good man, and while he will not be seeking re-election, he will leave a legacy of achievement that nobody can question. We are with you Paul!" It's a tough call whose hypocrisy is worse.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:10 AM on July 12, 2019 [11 favorites]

But due to five-minute questioning rules, only the most senior dozen or so Democrats and Republicans on Judiciary would get to ask questions, upsetting more junior members.

Those members pressed the committee this week to try to get Mueller to commit to more time.

If Democrats cared about actually investigating a stolen election, they could subpoena Mueller's Republican ass and cede questioning to actual lawyers. But they don't. Because then they might have to do something about it. Can't have that when white guys in Ohio might get sad.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:17 AM on July 12, 2019 [28 favorites]

This thread is once again filling up with attacks on Democrats. I am biting my tongue (well, my nails? On my typing fingers?) to keep from litigating each of the accusations here, because I think the moderators have been clear that we do not need to go round 1000 fighting about Pelosi, impeachment, etc. But it can't be just one side of the debate following those moderator guidelines. Please, stop.
posted by OnceUponATime at 8:27 AM on July 12, 2019 [26 favorites]

Trump: Ocasio-Cortez being 'very disrespectful' to Pelosi

"I deal with Nancy Pelosi a lot and we go back and forth and it’s fine, but I think that a group of people is being very disrespectful to her," he continued. "And you know what, I don’t think that Nancy can let that go on." Ocasio-Cortez “should treat Nancy Pelosi with respect,” he added.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:28 AM on July 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yes, Trump loves it when Democrats fight each other, and he and his buddies (including the Russian ones) will do everything in their power to egg us on.
posted by OnceUponATime at 8:29 AM on July 12, 2019 [14 favorites]

Yes, Trump loves it when Democrats fight each other

When did Trump go to bat for AOC?
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:32 AM on July 12, 2019 [3 favorites]

When did Trump go to bat for AOC?
When she beat Joe Crowley.
posted by neroli at 8:36 AM on July 12, 2019 [8 favorites]

This is kinda Trump going to bat for AOC. In any case it's part of the pattern of Trump encouraging infighting among his opponents. Like when he said the DNC was unfair to Sanders. It's what he does. He loves chaos.
posted by OnceUponATime at 8:38 AM on July 12, 2019 [9 favorites]

It's what he does. He loves chaos.
I think what he loves is attention, adoration. He has a default of using chaos to diffuse any attention to things other than him. Being distracted by concerns about how he might react is just playing in his world, not the real world.
posted by Harry Caul at 8:45 AM on July 12, 2019 [3 favorites]

This is now the 10th cabinet secretary to resign, or be fired/forced out.

Pruitt, Acosta, Zinke, Sessions, Tillerson, Price, Shulkin, Shanahan, Nielsen, Mattis.

Plus a couple NSAs, a couple Chiefs of Staff, a few....
posted by chris24 at 8:48 AM on July 12, 2019 [17 favorites]

You can;t frame anything he does without the underlying assumption

His brain is melting

He's a reality TV figure and all the malignant narcissism that implies.

Everything works according to TV rules, there is nothing else to it, no plan or design or cunning plot. It's all just TV except when he has to deliver a speech some ghoul wrote for him where his heart isn't in it. That's why he only goes alive during rallies.
posted by The Whelk at 8:49 AM on July 12, 2019 [25 favorites]

Trump's South Lawn presser this morning was almost as nuts as his Rose Garden one yesterday, Daniel Dale reports. His sweaty meltdown is so chock full of nuttiness that I have to break it down by category.

First former Sec. Acosta:

—"He's done a fantastic job. He's a friend of everybody in the administration," Trump began their appearance. He said Acosta "did a fantastic job yesterday" in the press conference, which happened two days ago.
—Trump on Acosta: "He's a tremendous talent. He's a Hispanic man. He went to Harvard."
—Trump on Acosta: "He was a great student at Harvard. He's Hispanic. Which I so admire. Because maybe it was a little tougher for him. And maybe not."
—Trump said there was "no need" for the resignation, emphasizing that Acosta did a fantastic job yesterday, meaning Wednesday. "I said, you don't have to do this. He doesn't have to do this."
—Trump, discussing a possible Acosta distraction to the administration, says, "I'm willing to live through anything...I've lived through things that you wouldn't believe."

Paul Ryan:

—Trump bashed Paul Ryan, noting the time Ryan was booed at a Trump rally in Wisconsin and saying Ryan only succeeded when Trump was there. Of Ryan's comments to @TimAlberta, Trump said, "Maybe he gets paid for that, who knows. Maybe he gets paid for that." (He didn't get paid.)
—Trump says Paul Ryan was a "terrible speaker," explaining: "Frankly, he was a baby."

Pelosi vs. AOC:

—Trump twice refers to Ocasio-Cortez as "Cortez." He calls her "very disrespectful to somebody that's been there a long time" in Pelosi. "I don't think that Nancy can let that go on."
Trump: "I'll tell you something about Nancy Pelosi that you know better than I do: she is not a racist. She is not a racist. For them to call her a racist is a disgrace."
—Trump twice refers to Ocasio-Cortez as "Cortez." He calls her "very disrespectful to somebody that's been there a long time" in Pelosi. "I don't think that Nancy can let that go on."
—Trump has called Ocasio-Cortez "Cortez" three times and "Ocasio" once, never both together.

The census citizenship question:

—After arguing for the necessity of a citizenship question on the Census, and going to the Supreme Court to fight for it, Trump now says "only the fake news" would say getting the info from non-Census data isn't superior.
—Trump says getting citizenship information through government data will be "actually more accurate than a Census." Asked if he backed down, he said not only did he not back down, "I backed UP."
—After arguing for the necessity of a citizenship question on the Census, and going to the Supreme Court to fight for it, Trump now says "only the fake news" would say getting the info from non-Census data isn't superior.

There's so much more, too: A Tears Alert, "enemy of the people", praise for Kim Jong Un, an attack on Biden, and more lying about tariffs, the Veterans Choice health bill, and being tougher on Russia than "any president in the last 50 years." He was off the rails, even by his own standards.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:51 AM on July 12, 2019 [9 favorites]

Often Trump says nice things about people who are nice to him and do what he wants.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:51 AM on July 12, 2019 [9 favorites]

Exactly. When Trump is defending you, it's time to re-evaluate your actions.
posted by chris24 at 8:55 AM on July 12, 2019 [5 favorites]

chris24: Border Patrol chief Carla Provost was a member of secret Facebook group

Oh sure, now they'll smear a whole Border Patrol over just another bad apple who happened to be in charge of all the other bad apples.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 9:05 AM on July 12, 2019 [18 favorites]

This thread on the twitter by darth shows a wonderful progression in twitter-time of ousted and/or resigned WH staff and associates waiting for an Uber outside the White House.
posted by Cookiebastard at 9:18 AM on July 12, 2019 [6 favorites]

The Trump Cabinet now has five, that's right five acting heads.

NPR: Trump's 'Acting' Cabinet Grows With Acosta Departure

Whoops, I forgot Jonathan Cohen, the Acting US Ambassador to the UN, so that totals six acting Cabinet heads. And then there are nine acting heads of notable agencies: the CBP, the CPSC, the EEOC, the FAA, the FDA, FEMA, ICE, OSHA, and USCIS (three of whom have been on the job since 2017).

Nah, he's been bugfuck since the 2015 primaries and we've been saying that same "crazy even by trump's standards" every time he talks to the press for more than a few seconds.

Excerpting quotes doesn't do justice to his panicked demeanor today. Dale's overview is far from the complete record of every bugfuck thing he said. Video clips of his remarks convey a fuller effect as he noticeably deteriorated during the stream of questions (the presser lasted only a half hour). He aggressively defended his authoritarian streak: "It's a thing called Article 2. Nobody ever mentions Article 2. It gives me all of these rights at a level that nobody has ever seen before." He angrily claimed he was losing "billions of dollars" by being president. His closing threat to Iran—"Iran better be careful. They are treading on very dangerous territory. Iran, if you're listening, you better be careful."—was cracked. It's like we're seeing the Nixon tapes in front of live cameras.

While this presser was about as batshit in terms of content as his first official one in official in January 2017 (those were the days), his psychological state has clearly deteriorated since then, and today he looked like he was trying, not quite successfully, to conceal real fear and alarm. His handlers have been reining in his public appearances in the past few weeks (the UK visit, the G20, the 4th of July), but now the shit is hitting the fan, they can't control him. He can feel the walls closing in.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:23 AM on July 12, 2019 [17 favorites]

[A] group of people is being very disrespectful to [a leader of the Democratic Party]

Opines the leader of the Republican Party widely noted as being the exemplar of respect, probity, and fairness to the Democratic Party.

As he defends and advocates for a political opponent who's "been there a long time" while supposedly draining the swamp.

As this is who they fall in line behind, there is nothing that comes out of a Republican's mouth that can be taken seriously. Sad, and true.
posted by riverlife at 9:30 AM on July 12, 2019 [4 favorites]

The Trump Cabinet now has five, that's right five acting heads.

And Congress has never specifically addressed whether Acting Secretaries are in the presidential line of succession, especially non-Senate-confirmed ones. There is a massive hole in the succession right now.
posted by Etrigan at 9:33 AM on July 12, 2019 [8 favorites]

Oh sure, now they'll smear a whole Border Patrol over just another bad apple who happened to be in charge of all the other bad apples.

I can't tell you how many times in the recent past the rest of that phrase has been standing out to me - that the bad apple ruins the bunch. There's tons of bad apples out there, and people so often use that phrase to exclude the bunch. All I am saying (and not directed at your comment good ITY2017) is that there are a lot of bad bunches.
posted by Golem XIV at 9:36 AM on July 12, 2019 [28 favorites]

This is now the 10th cabinet secretary to resign, or be fired/forced out.

Acosta is the 12th cabinet member to resign or be forced out/fired:
-Tom Price
-Reince Priebus
-John Kelly
-Rex Tillerson
-David Shulkin
-Scott Pruitt
-Nikki Haley
-Jeff Sessions
-Ryan Zinke
-Jim Mattis
-Patrick Shanahan
-Kirstjen Nielsen

13th, if we're counting Linda McMahon's departure from the Small Business Administration, and what the heck, let's.

And that could soon be fourteen, Axios Trump Whisperer Jonathan Swan reports: Trump Tells Confidants He's Eager to Remove Dan Coats

President Trump has told confidants he's eager to remove Dan Coats as director of national intelligence, according to five sources who have discussed the matter directly with the president.[…]

Trump hasn't told our sources when he plans to make a move, but they say his discussions on the topic have been occurring for months — often unprompted — and the president has mentioned potential replacements since at least February. A source who spoke to Trump about Coats a week ago said the president gave them the impression that the move would happen "sooner rather than later."[…]

A source with direct knowledge told me that Trump has privately said he thinks the Office of the Director of National Intelligence represents an unnecessary bureaucratic layer and that he would like to get rid of it. He has been told that eliminating the ODNI is not politically possible, but still would like to "downsize" the office, the source said.

A government source who has discussed the matter with Trump characterized the president's thinking this way: "It's time for a change. Dan's a great guy but the president doesn’t listen to him anymore."[…]

One potential replacement Trump has mentioned to multiple sources is Fred Fleitz, who formerly served as chief of staff to national security adviser John Bolton.

I wouldn't have thought Bolton (who, I suspect, is behind some of these leaks) had enough political capital left with Trump to position an ally to head ODNI. It's possible Fleitz is in the running only because nobody else wants the job.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:41 AM on July 12, 2019 [8 favorites]

On the moon issue. If the government gave NASA a blank check it's possible, though unlikely, they could safely get a one shot Apollo style worthless photo op of a man on the moon by 2024. They'd have to cut fairly serious safety corners and the result would be another Apollo style mission with no real purpose beyond simply getting there by an arbitrary date and would, like Apollo, leave us with nothing at all in terms of infrastructure or ability to move forward.

If anyone in Washington gave half a fuck about space exploration they'd fund the development of a serious Shuttle replacement, or put a lot of money into a space plane, either way. Maybe even start work on a surface to orbit magnetic catapult for stuff that doesn't mind high acceleration.

Talk of putting a person on the moon by 2024 is just more 1960's style space race nonsense without even the BS justification of beating the Commies to the moon.

There's no point in just sending someone up to drive around in a little golf cart, pick up a few rocks, and head back to Earth in a tiny little capsule. The only reason to go to the moon would be to build a settlement there. There's practical reasons, as well as philosophic/paranoid, reasons why having a lunar colony is a good idea. Mostly because it's so expensive to ship stuff into orbit from Earth, so if you can get water, oxygen, aluminum, and maybe even iron, from the moon instead then it'll be cheaper in the long run.

But that presupposes that you're attempting to put a major human presence into cislunar space and maybe even building out from there to Mars, Venus, and the Belt.

If that's not the objective, then putting people on the moon is a waste of money and time that could be better spent on uncrewed science missions.
posted by sotonohito at 9:49 AM on July 12, 2019 [17 favorites]

Tropical Storm Barry means New Orleans won't be part of planned weekend ICE raids

When your climate apocalypse gets in the way of your fascist dystopia
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:59 AM on July 12, 2019 [104 favorites]

Arizona city fights to spread compassion for migrants amid border crisis (Guardian)

Tucson’s rich history of immigration activism far predates the current administration – notably as an outgrowth of its many social-justice oriented religious institutions. In 1982, for example, the leaders of Southside Presbyterian Church, in one of the city’s oldest Latinx and Native American barrios, announced in a news conference that they would provide sanctuary to Central American migrants in open violation of US immigration law.

At the time Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua were ravaged by civil wars and violent revolutions that the US military and American corporations played clandestine roles in, yet most refugees – including political dissidents – were being denied asylum. [...]

Its legacy remains today: thousands of migrants have died crossing into Arizona through dangerously hot, arid terrain, to avoid border patrol checkpoints on highways; deaths which religious groups mourn once a month at a collective vigil with guitar playing, flowers and candles.

Some of the groups that formed out of this original movement are still active. At the bustling office of the Florence Project, dozens of lawyers and legal assistants work to provide free legal services to people in immigration custody in Arizona. [...] Newer organizations are also cropping up, maintaining many of the same traditions. In one high-profile case that has been a source of significant local political action, federal prosecutors charged Scott Warren, a volunteer with the faith-based humanitarian organization No More Deaths, which stashes water, food and other supplies in parts of the Sonoran desert, with “harboring illegal aliens”. Warren allowed two undocumented men to recuperate in the small house the organization uses as a staging area. By allowing the men to rest, prosecutors argue, Warren shielded them from the border patrol. A trial last month that could have seen Warren sentenced to 20 years in prison ended in a mistrial. He is scheduled to be retried in November. [...]

By providing food, free legal aid or policy proposals, activists in the borderland city are responding to the administration’s hostility toward immigrants by emphasizing a sense of community and shared humanity. “The message we want to send is exactly the opposite of the message that SB 1070 sent to all of us who were undocumented and migrants,” said Livier. “It’s that we’re here for you, we care for you, we value you, and we want you to be safe, and to belong, and to live your life like everyone else lives their lives in Tucson.”

posted by Little Dawn at 10:08 AM on July 12, 2019 [16 favorites]

When your climate apocalypse gets in the way of your fascist dystopia

Or, more worrisome, that they believe the storm will do a better job than they do. See also: Puerto Rico.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:10 AM on July 12, 2019 [8 favorites]

Border Patrol Agents Are Passing Around A Commemorative Coin Mocking Care for Migrant Kids
posted by The Whelk at 10:19 AM on July 12, 2019 [15 favorites]

See also: Katrina. If you thought the W administration was hostile to recovery there, you ain't seen nothing yet.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:20 AM on July 12, 2019 [5 favorites]

Trump’s ‘WinRed’ Donation Platform Could Funnel Millions To Ex-White House Staffer (HuffPo)

President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee have chosen a fundraising system that profits a former White House staffer and a company invested in by Jared Kushner’s brother ― passing over a cheaper platform that already has contracts with thousands of GOP candidates and committees.

Prediction: WinRed will be the subject of a data security scandal.
posted by box at 10:25 AM on July 12, 2019 [21 favorites]

Adam Weinstein in New Republic: Most Veterans Say America’s Wars Are a Waste. No One’s Listening to Them.

"The only meaningful variation pollsters found among vets was by party identification: Republican-identifying veterans were likelier to approve of the wars. But even a majority of those GOP vets now say the wars were not worth waging."
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:28 AM on July 12, 2019 [18 favorites]

It’s been 00 days since a high-profile departure from the Trump administration
posted by kirkaracha at 10:44 AM on July 12, 2019 [7 favorites]

When Trump is defending you, it's time to re-evaluate your actions.

That’s a terrible knee-jerk reaction. Trump sometimes lands on the right side of an issue, but inevitably for all the wrong reasons. That doesn’t mean we have to change course. But, at the same time, the enemy of our enemy is not our friend.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 10:51 AM on July 12, 2019 [7 favorites]

I think the idea is that we should think carefully about any friendship we have with the friend of our enemy.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 10:54 AM on July 12, 2019 [2 favorites]

Politico's Natasha Bertrand: ‘This Wasn’t Just A Briefing’: Pompeo Grilled Cia Analysts On Russia Findings—The DOJ is now reviewing those same findings after Mike Pompeo found no wrongdoing in how the agency concluded Russia wanted to help Trump in 2016.

Attorney General Bill Barr has ordered an investigation into whether the CIA was correct to determine that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Donald Trump during the 2016 election.

But that question has already been asked and answered at the CIA’s highest levels — by Mike Pompeo, a Trump loyalist, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Just after Pompeo took over as CIA director in 2017, he conducted a personal review of the CIA’s findings, grilling analysts on their conclusions in a challenging and at times combative interview, these people said. He ultimately found no evidence of any wrongdoing, or that the analysts had been under political pressure to produce their findings.

“This wasn’t just a briefing,” said one person familiar with the episode. “This was a challenging back and forth, in which Pompeo asked the officers tough questions about their work and how they determined Putin’s specific objectives.” Pompeo also asked about CIA’s work with the FBI on the Russia probe in 2016. Two U.S. officials further confirmed to POLITICO that the interview occurred and was robust.[…]

[T]he wide latitude [Barr's] given Durham to also examine analytic conclusions drawn by CIA officers has alarmed some in the national security community who worry about its effect on the apolitical nature of intelligence gathering. And given Pompeo’s prior review — not to mention that of Mueller and Congress — the move has sparked cries of hypocrisy from those who say Trump is seeking his own “do-over,” something the president frequently accuses Democrats of attempting with their ongoing congressional hearings on the subject and mounting subpoenas of Mueller’s witnesses.

One potential replacement Trump has mentioned to multiple sources is Fred Fleitz, who formerly served as chief of staff to national security adviser John Bolton.

Bertrand: "Fleitz team tells me this is accurate, says there've been talks with the White House about it. Fleitz was Bolton's chief of staff on the NSC." But: "PENCE still has confidence in Coats, though, I'm told by a person close to the VP."
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:21 AM on July 12, 2019 [10 favorites]

If Trump is defending you to stir up shit between Ds, maybe you shouldn't be attacking other Ds to Maureen Dowd to give him the opportunity? Maybe Trump should be the focus of your ire not AOC.
posted by chris24 at 11:21 AM on July 12, 2019 [15 favorites]

'Tinderbox of violence': Ocasio-Cortez tears into Stephen Miller over family separation Politico
posted by Harry Caul at 11:27 AM on July 12, 2019 [22 favorites]

Heading for another shutdown showdown?

Reuters: U.S. House passes $733 billion defense policy bill after Trump threatens veto

The threatened veto is because of two particular amendments that were added. One prohibits use of funds to build the border wall, and the other prohibits the President from waging war specifically on Iran without a new AUMF (authorization for use of military force) from Congress.

Republicans in the Senate don’t like these provisions either, and time is short for the House and Senate to agree upon and pass a bill that Trump would sign. Sec. Mnuchin has informed Pelosi that the debt ceiling likely will be hit in September. The House is scheduled to recess in two weeks. So this looks to be setting up another debt ceiling shutdown.
posted by darkstar at 11:39 AM on July 12, 2019 [11 favorites]

If that's not the objective, then putting people on the moon is a waste of money and time that could be better spent on uncrewed science missions.

As much as it pains me to say, given that it could be construed as praise for something Trump's administration is doing, there is actually a plan for a permanent human presence on/around the Moon. Bridenstine, as shitty as he has been in his past jobs, has been a pretty decent NASA administrator in some respects, of which the lunar plan is one.

The 2024 thing is literally Bridenstine's best effort to keep Trump happy so that the plan can be made to work. As many have pointed out, Congress remains an obstacle to any of the plans reaching fruition, but there is a plan, it's reasonably realistic, and isn't unlikely to succeed given funding.

That said, i have yet to digest the news about the recent.. personnel changes, so my thoughts may change as I get fully up to date on the topic.
posted by wierdo at 11:54 AM on July 12, 2019 [4 favorites]

The smoking guns for why Team Trump wants Fred Fleitz for DNI are showing up.

Daily Beast: John Bolton’s New Top Aide Is a Russia Truther—The national security adviser’s new chief of staff said intelligence was ‘rigged’ by Obama and that Trump should ‘pardon everyone’ under investigation.

Last February, in response to a now-deleted tweet from Sean Hannity ("No collusion"), he tweeted, "No collusion. Russia didnt affect election outcome. Real scandal is Democratic collusion with Russia and wraponizing [sic] intelligence and law enforcement to win a presidential election."

During the Trump transition, Fleitz argued in the National Review against the ODNI: "Eliminating the ODNI and rolling its duplicative organizations into the CIA would save at least $1 billion and could make U.S. intelligence more efficient and nimble. Such a move should include eliminating the huge number of redundant ODNI managers and officials such as those mentioned above."

The Moscow Project's Max Bergmann: "Fred Fleitz, who @jonathanvswan says maybe nominated to oversee US intelligence, has a picture of him with conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi as his BANNER photo on twitter. This is panic stations."

MMA's Matthew Gertz: "Per @axios, President Trump is reportedly considering firing Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and replacing him with Fred Fleitz, who has criticized Coats for being disloyal and called for his firing on Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight."

Fleitz appears regularly on Fox News and Newsmax as a commentator, which is the equivalent of sitting for an interview with Trump.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:56 AM on July 12, 2019 [16 favorites]

Migrant detention center inspector says children are unwashed, sobbing and critically ill

Elora Mukherjee, the director of Columbia Law School's Immigrants' Rights Clinic, recently interviewed 70 detained migrant children in Clint, Texas. They were so dirty they had a stench, she says, and was unable to be near them without feeling ill.

"Never before have we learned of 700 children being detained in a facility built for 104 or 106 adults," Mukherjee said in her testimony. "Never before have we met with children detained in [Customs and Border Patrol] custody for a week, much less weeks and nearly a month. Never before have we had to directly intervene to get critically ill babies admitted to the hospital." She said there were several occasions where her team had to intervene to get children fed because they were too scared to ask guards for food. Many children feared that their parents were dead or never returning. Some children, she said, were too traumatized to even speak. One six-year-old girl couldn't even recite her name, she only repeated "I'm scared" over and over again. Another young boy sobbed for an hour straight. [...]

"The extraordinary trauma inflicted on separated children is not an incidental byproduct of the administration's family separation policy — it is the very point," she said in her testimony. "The federal government seeks to inflict so much distress on children seeking asylum that other families would be deterred from trying to seek refuge in this country."

posted by Rust Moranis at 12:43 PM on July 12, 2019 [36 favorites]

Because nepotism is a obviously a thing with our new authoritarian rulers, Brazil's far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro wants one of his sons to become the country's new ambassador to the United States.

"He is friends with Trump's children, he speaks English, Spanish and has great world experience."
posted by Slothrup at 1:17 PM on July 12, 2019 [5 favorites]

CNN is now receiving duelling leaks about Fleitz: Trump Again Considering Replacing Intelligence Chief Dan Coats

President Donald Trump has discussed with advisers over the past few days the possibility of replacing Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, sources familiar with the discussion said. A senior White House official confirmed there is some discussion about Coats leaving his position, as he has been on the job for more than two years and is eyeing retirement again. However, it remains unclear when or if Trump will make a move. Trump has expressed frustration in the past with Coats and has periodically considered replacing him, as CNN has reported. His conversations about possibly removing Coats appears to have been revived in recent days, but Trump has long disapproved of some of Coats' conduct.

Another senior White House official said Trump has never really warmed up to his intelligence director, and this official noted discussions between the President and his aides about removing Coats happened well after he contradicted Trump during a hearing on Capitol Hill earlier this year -- an episode that drew the President's ire.[…]

Fred Fleitz, former chief of staff to national security adviser John Bolton, is one name being floated for the post. He has had discussions with the White House about possibly replacing Coats, two sources told CNN. But there could be several others, as Trump is no stranger to creating a vacancy with no clear permanent replacement waiting in the wings. A source familiar with Bolton's thinking told CNN that he is pushing for Fleitz to get the job, but Trump's relationship with Bolton has been tested due to the national security adviser's push for more aggressive moves on Iran and it is unclear if Bolton has the clout to get one of his top allies into such a prestigious post.

Incidentally, it's infuriating that CNN is being so vague about how Trump has "expressed frustration" about Coats when the chief source of Trump's ire is Coats's support of intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election—and his warnings about future interference.

And in case it isn't clear that Fleitz is a Bolton clone, Washington editor Curt Mills of the right-wing Spectator writes: Fred Fleitz Is the Most Confrontational Person I’ve Met In Journalism—A reported candidate for director of national intelligence is already roiling Washington
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:57 PM on July 12, 2019 [6 favorites]

David McLaughlin and Daniel Stoller for Bloomberg: Facebook $5 Billion U.S. Privacy Settlement Approved by FTC:

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved a record privacy settlement against Facebook Inc. requiring the social-media company to pay about $5 billion to resolve an investigation stemming from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

The FTC’s settlement was approved by a vote of 3-2, according to two people familiar with the matter. It caps a probe that opened in March 2018 after news that Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm hired by President Donald Trump’s campaign, obtained user data from a researcher who created a personality quiz app on the social network.

The two Democratic commissioners voted against the settlement, likely because it wasn't tough enough.
posted by jedicus at 2:09 PM on July 12, 2019 [9 favorites]

The two Democratic commissioners voted against the settlement, likely because it wasn't tough enough.

I imagine that's the case. As noted by the Ars Technica coverage, With Facebook having reported $15 billion in revenue last quarter, the $5 billion fine would amount to one month's worth of revenue.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:36 PM on July 12, 2019 [6 favorites]

What happens to the $5b? They just go in the Treasury’s coffers, or is there something in the order that specifies how it can be spent?
posted by AwkwardPause at 4:16 PM on July 12, 2019

Globo, Brazils largest circulation and often garbage newspaper says that in exchange for Eduardo Bolsonazi becoming Brazilian ambassador to USA that Eric Trump will be nomenated as US ambassador to Brazil.
So the US get a Brazilian militia representative and Brazil gets a New York gangster representative. Sounds about right.
posted by adamvasco at 4:23 PM on July 12, 2019 [5 favorites]

Roll Call: House approves NDAA with No Republican Votes—Progressive amendments helped Dems earn votes from the party’s more dovish members in the face of Republican opposition

The House on Friday approved its defense authorization bill after adopting a slew of progressive amendments that helped Democrats earn votes from the party’s more dovish members in the face of Republican opposition. The final vote on the fiscal 2020 bill was 220-197. No Republicans supported the typically bipartisan measure that traditionally has earned more than 300 of the 435 available House votes. Just before passing the bill, the House defeated, 204-212, a Republican motion to recommit that would have increased the military pay raise and poured additional funds into military maintenance accounts.[…]

The House on Friday adopted a handful of progressive-sponsored amendments. One, from Armed Services Committee member and vice chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Ro Khanna of California, would block President Donald Trump from launching an unauthorized war with Iran. That amendment passed 251-170 shortly after Trump warned Iran over breaching uranium enrichment levels outlined in a pact with world powers.[…]

“Iran better be careful,” Trump said on the White House’s South Lawn. “They're treading on very dangerous territory. Iran if you’re listening, you better be careful.”

posted by Doktor Zed at 4:36 PM on July 12, 2019 [6 favorites]

That amendment passed 251-170 shortly after Trump warned Iran over breaching uranium enrichment levels outlined in a pact with world powers.

Other MeFites have pointed this out before but apparently it bears repeating: there is no such pact any more. There was a pact, but Trump decided that the US would withdraw from it unilaterally. When one party abrogates that kind of agreement it's kind of ridiculous for the press to keep describing the other party as though they are violating an agreement that still exists.
posted by Nerd of the North at 4:48 PM on July 12, 2019 [29 favorites]

(Roll Call did get into how the US withdrew from the Iran deal, but I cut that for space.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:12 PM on July 12, 2019 [3 favorites]

The two Democratic commissioners voted against the settlement, likely because it wasn't tough enough.

Facebook's stock price rose on the news, so yeah.
posted by rhizome at 5:42 PM on July 12, 2019 [4 favorites]

I saw it pointed out that while the fine was $5bn there was no mention of data privacy or its monetization
posted by Mrs Potato at 5:47 PM on July 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

The official House Democrats account is using @AOC’s words about Pelosi and targeting her chief of staff? I’ve never seen anything like this.

Tell me again how Democratic leadership respects all members of their caucus.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:35 PM on July 12, 2019 [18 favorites]

CNN: Prosecutors unlikely to charge Trump Org executives, sources say

A federal investigation into whether Trump Organization executives violated campaign-finance laws appears to be wrapping up without charges being filed, according to people familiar with the matter.

For months, federal prosecutors in New York have examined whether company officials broke the law, including in their effort to reimburse Michael Cohen for hush-money payments he made to women alleging affairs with his former boss, President Donald Trump.

In recent weeks, however, their investigation has quieted, the people familiar with the inquiry said, and prosecutors now don't appear poised to charge any Trump Organization executives in the probe that stemmed from the case against Cohen.[…]

In January, one month after Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, prosecutors requested interviews with executives at the company, CNN reported. But prosecutors never followed up on their initial request, people familiar with the matter said, and the interviews never took place.

Meanwhile, there has been no contact between the Manhattan US Attorney's office and officials at the Trump Organization in more than five months, one person familiar with the matter said.

The best case for this apparent negligence is that it’s in limbo pending ongoing investigations associated with still-redacted portions of the Cohen search warrant (possibly the inauguration case). As always, the questions of who’s leaking this and why hang over the story.
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:57 PM on July 12, 2019 [8 favorites]

Speaker Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff has retweeted this tweet.

Pelosi, 48 hours ago: “So, again, you got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it, but do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK.” The vice president took a victory lap around a concentration camp today and Democratic leadership would rather play "own the libs" on twitter.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:19 PM on July 12, 2019 [16 favorites]

The official House Democrats account is using @AOC’s words about Pelosi and targeting her chief of staff? I’ve never seen anything like this.

Paul Blest (Splinter):
The Democratic leadership is 1000% more focused on getting Chakrabarti fired—just so they can say they broke Ocasio-Cortez—than they were about investigating Alex Acosta or E. Jean Carroll’s rape allegation against Trump. This shit is incredibly fucking embarrassing.

Jeet Heer (The Nation):
This is 100% true. For Pelosi, AOC & her staff are the true enemies, Trump merely a foil they can use to raise money.

---

Literally two months ago I was Pelosi's biggest defender. Now she has become a threat to democracy in this country. She must go.
posted by chris24 at 9:52 PM on July 12, 2019 [42 favorites]

ＤＩＳＡＲＲＡＹ: Congressional Black Caucus v. Justice Dems.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 10:14 PM on July 12, 2019 [2 favorites]

While McGrath didn't think through the Kavanaugh thing, I spent my evening sleuthing and dug up an astroturfing campaign for Steven Cox that presents McGrath as a corporate establishment pro-Trump Republican-Lite Democrat and Cox as a Progressive Hero. I have a folder of screenshots where Cox describes himself as a pro-life Christian who believes in a "reasonable" separation of church and state, a fiscal conservative, and only running as a Democrat because running as an independent isn't economically feasible. He says he didn't vote for Trump, but then brings up Benghazi. And my personal favorite, from the start of his campaign in June 2017, "I'm always rooting for the president regardless of who they are, but I can't root for McConnell anymore, and he has blatantly worked against Trump in the last two weeks anyway. Trump does not like how McConnell has been handling his business in the Senate."

This guy is a wolf in sheep's clothing and I am going to fight the good fight to make sure progressives know who he is. What McGrath said on MSNBC was reported in a way that made it look like she was pro-Trump instead of speaking to the fact that Kentucky is a red state. But she does have real progressive values. She supports 2A, which makes sense as a retired Marine and a Kentuckian, but she very pointedly resigned her membership in the NRA. That is a powerful message and moral stand.
posted by Ruki at 10:17 PM on July 12, 2019 [18 favorites]

Trump Seeking to Effectively Outsource Asylum Seekers to Guatemala
by Marcia Brown & David Dayen (The American Prospect)

The Trump administration is on the verge of signing a “safe third country” agreement with Guatemala, sources have confirmed to the Prospect. Asylum seekers attempting to enter the United States would be forced to file in Guatemala instead, on the grounds that it would be the first “safe” country they arrived in. Because most asylum seekers are coming from the south, this would allow the U.S. to send thousands of asylum seekers at the southern border back to Guatemala, and render them ineligible to apply for refugee status in the U.S.

Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales is scheduled to be in Washington on Monday, and an announcement of the agreement could be made then. Spokespeople for Morales have denied that the agreement is the purpose of the visit, but said that there is hope that there can be a signing ceremony.

---
The article also discusses the quid pro quo involved (TLDR (Trump overlooks corruption and the corrupt person in turn supports Trump)), the voices of opposition and how the agreement would violate many laws. It also describes DHS agents working in Guatemala which stuck me as ... some sort of overreach that might need some oversight.
---

The agreement signals the U.S. government’s increasing hands-on involvement in policing borders in Latin America. The Northern Triangle countries have an agreement where their citizens can freely cross borders between the countries. Now there are Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents at their borders. In Guatemala, they are engaged in extensive anti-smuggling operations.

“Previously, these efforts went through the State Department. Here you see DHS inserting itself into foreign policy,” says Burgi-Palomino. “It’s an effort to directly place DHS and enforcement agents at another border. We’re very concerned about what agents might mean for migrants in Guatemala and those who are crossing through Guatemala.”

While nothing is signed yet, there is similar reporting that this is a deal Trump wants;

Is Trump Planning to Use Guatemala as a Wall?
Trump will meet with Guatemala's president next week, and a "safe third country" agreement is reportedly on the table.
by Jack Herrera (Pacific Standard)

On Monday, President Donald Trump will host Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales in the White House. The meeting between Trump and Morales, a former blackface television comedian, comes after months of United States officials trying to negotiate a "safe third country" agreement with Guatemala.

A safe third country agreement with Guatemala would make any asylum seeker who first passed through that country ineligible for asylum in the U.S.—instead, they would be returned to Guatemala and advised to seek asylum there. The plan would, in a way, turn Guatemala into a wall between the U.S. and Honduras and El Salvador, where violence, impunity, entrenched poverty, and political corruption have sent thousands fleeing northward. Most of the migrants and refugees leaving Honduras and El Salvador (as well as many people fleeing from Nicaragua or leaving South America) pass over land routes through Guatemala.

And with a bit more detail and a look at the pressure to get Mexico to sign a similar agreement and ... fine tuned machine;

Trump Is Poised to Sign a Radical Agreement to Send Future Asylum Seekers to Guatemala
By Jonathan Blitzer (The New Yorker)

At this point, there are still more questions than answers about what the agreement with Guatemala will mean in practice. A lot will still have to happen before it goes into force, and the terms aren’t final. The draft of the agreement doesn’t provide much clarity on how it will be implemented—another person with knowledge of the agreement said, “this reads like it was drafted by someone’s intern”
posted by phoque at 10:23 PM on July 12, 2019 [6 favorites]

ＤＩＳＡＲＲＡＹ: Congressional Black Caucus v. Justice Dems.

@AsteadWesley (NYT):
I'm old enough to remember when the CBC backed a white incumbent (Capuano) over a black challenger (Pressley).

Kirsten West Savali (Essence):
So, Rep. William Lacy Clay, who *just* accused @AOC of “using the race card,” is publicly accusing @justicedems of targeting Black incumbents (like himself) by...wait for it...running Black challengers like Cori Bush. Make it make sense.
posted by chris24 at 10:24 PM on July 12, 2019 [11 favorites]

@NBCNews
New video shows severe overcrowding of men in cages at Texas detainment facility during VP Pence's visit Friday.
A group of men detained behind chain link fencing shouted to news cameras, "No shower, no shower!"

The (fucking disgusting) video shows Pence touring and studiously looking above the heads of the mass of pleading people in the cages. At least Himmler made eye contact.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:32 PM on July 12, 2019 [32 favorites]

The Hill article referenced above is pretty remarkable and worth excerpting. I apologize for adding gasoline to the intra-Dem fire, but it really is news when things like this appear fully on the record. This goes well beyond the tweet by senior leadership earlier, though the pattern of conflict is similar to the one in that tweet war.

“It just seems strange that the social Democrats seem to be targeting members of the Congressional Black Caucus, individuals who have stood and fought to make sure that African Americans are included and part of this process,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), a senior CBC member, told The Hill....

[Bill Clay] likened Justice Democrats to “Russian trolls of 2016” trying to sow divisions in the Democratic Party.

“It does make you wonder what’s going on,” added another CBC member, Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.). “Some names that have been mentioned all seem to be people of color, and more so CBC members.”...

A senior House Democratic aide called it “ironic and funny” that Ocasio-Cortez is accusing Pelosi of attacking women of color, when Justice Democrats is targeting minority lawmakers.

“She’s only a woman of color when it’s convenient. None of the things she’s fought for aligned with communities of color and her group is funded only by elitist white liberals; she’s a puppet,” the top Democratic aide told The Hill in a phone call.

The aide then texted an image of a Goomba puppet from the Super Mario Bros. video game...

“We will have to, at some point, sit down and see: Is this something that is directed at members of the Congressional Black Caucus?” Meeks asked. “We’re going to sit down with whoever the social Dems are. We have to find out who they are. Who is really running this show. We have to figure that out.”

posted by chortly at 10:39 PM on July 12, 2019 [5 favorites]

Sometimes the Dems really are that stupid, but this kind of Twitter shitstorm smells suspiciously like an IRA troll factory effort.
posted by benzenedream at 10:51 PM on July 12, 2019 [11 favorites]

Fantastic to see establishment Dems more concerned about preserving their power than beating Trump. I guess the SPD and KPD fighting each other instead of the Nazis is easier to understand now.
posted by chris24 at 10:52 PM on July 12, 2019 [11 favorites]

I guess the SPD and KPD fighting each other instead of the Nazis is easier to understand now.

It being the second time, I wish the farce was funnier.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:59 PM on July 12, 2019 [19 favorites]

Sometimes the Dems really are that stupid, but this kind of Twitter shitstorm smells suspiciously like an IRA troll factory effort.

It was tweeted out by the official taxpayer funded account controlled by the #3 elected representative in the House and confirmed authentic by his spokesperson, and retweeted by the verified account of the Speaker's head of communications.


Fantastic to see establishment Dems more concerned about preserving their power than beating Trump. I guess the SPD and KPD fighting each other instead of the Nazis is easier to understand now.

Osita Nwanevu (New Yorker): Again: An entire block of moderate House Dems ran explicitly on replacing Pelosi last year. But Public Enemy #1 is the chief of staff for a progressive that defended and voted for her. Anyway, I agree fully that those who challenge well-regarded incumbent House members should be shut out of Democratic politics. The Democratic Party is less a political party in pursuit of particular policy goals than a professional association organized to defend and advance the careers of its most valued members. Say what you will about the Republican Party, but we all know exactly what they're driving at and what they'd like to see this country become. Just about all of them share that vision and it animates everything they do. The Democratic Party, by contrast, wants majorities not because they deeply want to accomplish anything in particular with them, but because everyone gets to keep their jobs that way. There are structual factors shaping strategy and thinking in both parties that shouldn't be downplayed. The system is genuinely tilted against the Democrats in ways that incentivize timidity. In any case, in the past couple of years we've seen Republicans take on a number of wildly unpopular policy efforts -- the tax cuts, Obamacare repeal, etc -- simply because they believed they should be done. It is very hard to imagine Democrats doing the same. What grates leadership about AOC and the others is that they've had the temerity to suggest that certain issues - climate change, immigration policy under Trump, and so on -- are too important for Democrats to address from a place of defensive complacency. None of this is fundamentally about primary challenges. Justice Democrats didn't invent them. People primary people. Always have, always will. It's not about caucus and party unity. No one's looking to excommunicate Tim Ryan or Seth Moulton or Kathleen Rice. We're witnessing this deeply embarrassing public spectacle from House Dems because a handful of people have come in with the temerity to ask that the Democratic Party be more than what it is. I've said this before, but I think the Conyers & Franken situations are instructive. There was no moral or strategic reason for hesitance on the part of leadership in either case. The foot-dragging only makes sense if we understand the party as a club.

posted by T.D. Strange at 11:14 PM on July 12, 2019 [37 favorites]

Some folks seem to be looking for a change in what the Democratic Party represents...
posted by Windopaene at 11:35 PM on July 12, 2019 [3 favorites]

Fundamentally, this is what it looks like when a political party is going through disruptive innovation.

This had to happen in the 1960s, too, to turn the Dixiecrat party into the party of MLK Jr., Bobby Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. And it was so disruptive that it led to a great upheaval in party affiliation across the country. Racists flocked to the Republican Party and social liberals shifted to the Democrats.

The Democratic Party establishment has become so complacent in the corridors of power, so entrenched in their corporatist associations, that they have become in large part passive enablers of the Republicans. The bullshit about “not looking back” to hold Bush-era war criminals and Wall Street banksters accountable for their crimes, was both enormously damning and incredibly frustrating. Along with the dozens of other issues the Democratic leadership have rolled over on in recent years, these are not trivial issues.

So yes, now we are going through another upheaval. Will it be as massive as the realignment of the 60s? Who knows. But one thing seems pretty clear: the career politicians that make up the old guard of the party — including many that may have considered themselves heirs to the mantle of wokeness — is going to continue to be challenged by the activist wing to do more, to do better, to shake off the complacency.

The next twenty years of progress are going to be pretty awesome to witness...
posted by darkstar at 12:04 AM on July 13, 2019 [34 favorites]

You know, I really dug that moment in the New Yorker interview with AOC and she says that her last time she spoke one-on-one with Pelosi was when Pelosi had asked her to be on the climate committee and AOC had said no. And when Remmick asked why, AOC so fucking clearly explained why without once insulting Pelosi (AOC's requirements had to do with the time period the committee's report was published, independence from fossil fuel interests, and I forget the other thing).

And in merely conveying that she had instituted these what she at least persuaded me were reasonable requests especially given it's sort of the whole store, and Pelosi hadn't been able to deliver on these requests, AOC was able to indict Pelosi at the policy level in a very compelling way. Whatever Pelosi's gifts as a legislator, if she get her party can't on the right side of history when it comes to carbon emissions, she's failing as a leader.
posted by angrycat at 12:31 AM on July 13, 2019 [28 favorites]

Trump says getting citizenship information through government data will be "actually more accurate than a Census." Asked if he backed down, he said not only did he not back down, "I backed UP."

Axios's Jonathan Swan: Trump's Cave On Census Stuns Allies

Top figures in the conservative legal community are stunned and depressed by President Trump's cave in his fight for a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

The state of play: Sources say Leonard Leo and other Federalist Society stalwarts were shocked and floored by how weak the decision was. "What was the dance ... all about if this was going to be the end result?" a conservative leader asked. "A total waste of everyone’s time. ... It’s certainly going to give people pause the next time one has to decide how far to stick one’s neck out."

One GOP strategist called it a "punch in the gut."

Natasha Bertrand: "Bill Barr, 7/11: “Some in the media have been suggesting—in the hysterical mode of the day—that the administration has been planning to add the citizenship question by executive fiat w/o regard for contrary court orders...This has been based on rank speculation and nothing more.”" (w/video)

Aaron Rupar (w/video):

On Fox News, WH spox @hogangidley45 said the quiet part loud about Trump's citizenship question executive order: "The president said, 'listen, I'm not going to be beholden to the courts anymore.'"

(Instead of asking any sort of follow-up Q @BillHemmer immediately changed topic)

posted by Doktor Zed at 2:16 AM on July 13, 2019 [16 favorites]

It's almost like, behind the curtain, there's no secret plan on the part of congressional democratic leadership to win in 2010.
posted by Slackermagee at 7:23 AM on July 13, 2019 [4 favorites]

It was tweeted out by the official taxpayer funded account controlled by the #3 elected representative in the House and confirmed authentic by his spokesperson

Maybe so, but that whole "Who is this guy and why is he explicitly singling out a Native American woman of color?" attempted burn sounds like a non-person-of-color's skeevy, cynical take on playing the so-called race card. I mean Chakrabarti is himself a POC, so if you think that qualification renders people immune to race-based criticism, what are you even doing? Clearly the goal is to cancel him through whatever means necessary, even if it effectively costs Davids, who is supposedly being defended here.

(Besides which, following the (deleted) thread shows that Chakrabarti didn't single her out, "Julian Brave NoiseCat" did, and Chakrabarti was responding to that, in the context of a larger criticism about the Southern Democrats and their anti-progressive voting record.)
posted by xigxag at 8:03 AM on July 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

I hope that members who are sick of the Pelosi discussion realize that those of us who are continuing to talk about her are only doing so because she is in the news, talking with the press, in new and freshly relevant ways.

We will all be asked for years, if not decades to come, by our children or grandchildren or whomever, why Trump was able to get away with what he was doing. This discussion, like the discussion about the decisions that drew us into the Iraq war, may never end.

What the Democratic party does, or does not do, in relation to Trump as well as issues like global warming and healthcare will define them for years and years to come.
posted by xammerboy at 8:23 AM on July 13, 2019 [43 favorites]

CNN: Judges skeptical of Trump argument to block House subpoena for accounting firm docs

President Donald Trump appeared to be heading toward a loss in his courtroom attempt to stave off the release of his personal financial records to congressional investigators as two of three judges on an appeals panel hearing the case Friday resisted arguments that a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee to the President's longtime accounting firm was unlawful.

Over more than two hours of debate in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, Judges David Tatel and Patricia Millett expressed skepticism of claims by a personal lawyer for the President that the subpoena, which seeks a vast amount of communications and documents related to work done by Mazars, the accounting firm, for Trump and his businesses, did not have a proper legislative purpose.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee chairman who issued the subpoena earlier this year, has said that the financial records are necessary to assess Trump's compliance with ethics regulations and to inform lawmakers on proposed legislation, and in the hearing Friday, Tatel referenced a number of relevant bills that Congress has already considered this term.[…]

Neomi Rao, the third judge on the panel, who was appointed by Trump earlier this year, also appeared doubting of that theory, invoking case law that showed "motive" could not be considered when challenging the House's move.

Trump’s lawyers lately have been notably unconvincing in court, to such an extent that even GOP judges can’t swallow their legal pretexts.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:59 AM on July 13, 2019 [13 favorites]

‘Every day, it is a risk’: immigrant communities paralyzed by fear of impending Ice raids (Guardian)

Campaigns across the US have spread through major cities as news of raids spread through immigrant communities, said Adelina Nicholls, the executive director for [the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights].

“We’ve reached more than 4,600 people since we started our campaign after Trump was elected,” Nicholls recounts. In addition to the campaign, they plan to document the raids in real time on Facebook Live.

“We can’t stop them but we can make noise,” she says.

If the aim of the raids is to create widespread fear among immigrant communities, then many activists see them as already working. Charles Kuck, a veteran immigration lawyer, said he has received calls from dozens of clients with work visas and green cards whom he says have nothing to fear.

“The number [Ice] will be getting is very small but the impact will be broad,” said Kuck. “We will see a real impact when people don’t go to work [and] don’t go to church this weekend.”

PSA: http://mefiwiki.com/wiki/Get_a_lawyer#Immigration has been updated to include additional Know Your Rights and legal services resources.
posted by Little Dawn at 9:37 AM on July 13, 2019 [10 favorites]

Maybe so, but that whole "Who is this guy and why is he explicitly singling out a Native American woman of color?" attempted burn sounds like a non-person-of-color's skeevy, cynical take on playing the so-called race card. I mean Chakrabarti is himself a POC, so if you think that qualification renders people immune to race-based criticism, what are you even doing?

The level cynical insincerity required for moderates and the CBC to attack Justice Democrats for endorsing primary challengers...who are also black...as somehow racially motivated is right off page one of the Tucker Carlson playbook. It's breathtakingly dishonest.

And that's before we get to leadership surrogates calling AOC only a "woman of color when it’s convenient". How is this a Democratic leadership staffer and not lifted directly from 4chan?
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:44 AM on July 13, 2019 [16 favorites]

Elias Isquith (Salon): Sort of interesting that D leadership decided that instead of focusing on the one thing that unites a fractious party—opposition to the president—they would try to keep the convo centered on policy, where there is a lot of disagreement (as well as no chance of passage)

Will Stancil
One way you know that herrenvolkish myths about the heartland loom larger in Democratic politics than actual data: the party's leadership believes its potential voters are torn on Trump and united on health care, and not the other way around


Brian Beutler (Crooked)
Seriously, though, the squabbling within the Democratic caucus right now is referred pain from the fact that Trump is president and the party is responding with message bills. Democrats are united in their righteous hatred of Trump but a faction is too scared to act on it by confronting him the way he deserves to be confronted, and it’s tearing the party apart.
posted by chris24 at 10:21 AM on July 13, 2019 [25 favorites]

Trump’s corruption is getting worse. He has a hidden enabler. WaPo Opinion By Greg Sargent
I don't exactly know what he means by "hidden" -- William Barr is right there in front of us plain to see. But I guess things are slowly, too slowly seeping out to a broader public.
posted by mumimor at 10:52 AM on July 13, 2019 [8 favorites]

If the Congressional Black Caucus wields significant power in the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party is currently acting in the ways that it has been acting, then the CBC is part of the problem and individual members enabling that behavior deserve pushback.

If the CBC does not wield significant power in the Democratic Party, it is not exactly a ringing endorsement of the current members of the CBC and their effectiveness in their positions.

Either way, being a member of Congress should be a constant struggle to bring the best ideas and the best actions to the forefront, not a sinecure or a birthright.
posted by delfin at 11:01 AM on July 13, 2019 [5 favorites]

This is Our Emergency

We are operating concentration camps and treating humans (including children) who aren't even accused of any crimes (not that this would make it OK but I am not naive about our current prisons) in conditions which would cause a dog kennel to be shut down and the House leadership is currently mad at people who are pointing out that the Dems gave Trump $4 billion to open more concentration camps without any conditions.

Vote them all out.

posted by tonycpsu at 11:05 AM on July 13, 2019 [46 favorites]

Politico’s Natasha Bertrand has scoop: Senate Intelligence Committee summons mysterious British security consultant

On April 5, just 2 weeks after Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his final report on Russia’s election interference, the Senate Intelligence Committee sent a letter to a British security consultant named Walter Soriano asking for a voluntary, closed-door interview and documents with various Russia probe figures dating back to June 2015.

The letter, obtained by Politico, offers yet another window into the panel’s secretive — but largely bipartisan — two-year-old investigation, and reveals the investigators’ interest in what, if any, role Israel may have played in attempts to manipulate the 2016 election.

The panel’s interest in Soriano is not a mere fishing expedition, according to a source familiar with the investigators’ internal deliberations who requested anonymity to discuss them freely.

“They’re surprised by how connected he seems to several people of interest,” this person said, including the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska — a former business associate of Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who offered Deripaska private briefings about the campaign in 2016. Deripaska is believed to have worked with Soriano on corporate intelligence matters, this person said.[…]

The committee also requested Soriano’s communications with three Israeli private intelligence firms: Psy Group, Wikistrat, and Black Cube, as well as any communications he may have had with Orbis Business Intelligence, a firm co-founded by the former British spy Christopher Steele.

Psy Group’s connections to the Trump campaign is one of those shoes yet to drop since the redacted Mueller report’s release (we don’t know if it appears in the unredacted version or if it’s part of the ongoing counter-intelligence investigation from Mueller’s referrals).
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:28 AM on July 13, 2019 [6 favorites]

How to support immigrants right now:
4. Help immigrants pay bail bonds.

Some immigrants are offered bonds so they can wait for their court dates outside of detention, but the exorbitantly high amounts—they typically range from $1,500 to $10,000+, depending on the judge—are a major hurdle to freedom and family reunification.

“Bail increases [immigrant parents’] chances of winning their case,” Paola Fernandez, an organizer with the Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee, told Colorlines. Since February, the Texas-based group has been fundraising for bail bonds through the Fianza Fund.

Other bail bond funds across the country that you can support (all active links):
Bay Area Immigration Bond Fund
Eastern Iowa Community Bond Project
Immigrant Bail Fund
Immigrant Family Defense Fund
LGBTQ Freedom Fund
New Sanctuary Coalition
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:18 PM on July 13, 2019 [16 favorites]

The level cynical insincerity required for moderates and the CBC to attack Justice Democrats for endorsing primary challengers...who are also black...as somehow racially motivated is right off page one of the Tucker Carlson playbook. It's breathtakingly dishonest.

This is not meant as a counter-argument and is far from a defense of anyone, but as best I can reconstruct it, the main sequence of events leading into yesterday's squabble was:

1. The Senate immigration bill is brought to the House floor instead of the House one after the conservative D faction threatens to vote against the House bill.
2. The left including AOC, "the squad," AOC's chief of staff, etc, attack the vote, and particularly the conservative D faction.
3. Many of those complaints are on twitter, including AOC's CoS, who gets into a side-argument when another progressive (who I believe is Native American) asks whether all the conservative dems are truly acting to "enable a racist system" including a specific rep (who is Native American).
4. A week later, Pelosi holds a "private" meeting where she chides members who attack other members on twitter.
5. AOC responds in various interviews, including in the Post where she partially characterizes Pelosi's various criticisms as "the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color."
6. This seems to be what triggers the next round, where several members of the CBC go on the record in The Hill piece and Jeffries (the highest-ranking member of the CBC, I believe) digs up AOC CoS's tweet from out of the middle of a partially-deleted conversation from two weeks ago. This is framed fairly explicitly as payback. (Incidentally, in line with the Tucker Carlson comment, the Native American guy on twitter has himself pointed out that the only clear record of his squabble with AOC's CoS is this trolling article on Brietbart. I certainly don't know enough about Twitterworld to judge that though.)

So anyway, in my interpretation at least, while the primary challenges may be the substance of the recent criticisms, the precipitating event and the reason the senior CBC has gotten involved was AOC suggesting that the leadership (Pelosi) was singling out women of color. The counter-attack is not something Pelosi herself can make, and she's certainly not putting the CBC up to it -- their criticisms are genuine -- but she does plays a role in saying who should and shouldn't go on the record among the center-left majority who follow her lead.
posted by chortly at 1:21 PM on July 13, 2019 [7 favorites]

The Senate immigration bill is brought to the House floor instead of the House one after the conservative D faction threatens to vote against the House bill.


Which raises the question: why is it once again the House’s responsibility to capitulate and cede power to the center-right faction in the Senate?

Unless the House leadership is actually more interested in getting center-right legislation passed, in which case it makes perfect sense. And it’s this kind of concern that leads to the progressive wing’s frustrations.

There is a technical term — perhaps it’s a legal or philosophical term — that I have forgotten, but it basically means that “the intent of a thing is its function”. That, ultimately, regardless of what the stated intent was of a device or a system or a strategem, its functional intent is whatever it is actually doing.

So, regardless of stated principles, what is the functional intent of the leadership of the two main political parties? It’s not the lofty language they use to tell themselves and others what they stand for...it’s what they are actually doing.

And it’s this that gives progressive Dems serious concerns about their own party’s commitment to social justice, even though they readily acknowledge that the Republicans are much worse and blatantly evil.
posted by darkstar at 2:35 PM on July 13, 2019 [8 favorites]

Seriously, though, the squabbling within the Democratic caucus right now is referred pain from the fact that Trump is president and the party is responding with message bills. Democrats are united in their righteous hatred of Trump but a faction is too scared to act on it by confronting him the way he deserves to be confronted, and it’s tearing the party apart.

I realize that Americans don't like to look abroad for lessons but the current spectacular implosion in British politics of both the labour and conservative parties shows exactly why you shouldn't let this kind of stuff get out of hand.
posted by srboisvert at 2:42 PM on July 13, 2019 [11 favorites]

Warren at Netroots...

Tara Golshan (Vox)
On her first day in office @ewarren pledges to start a commission to investigate "crimes committed by the United States against immigrants"

Astead Herndon (NYT)
“Donald Trump might look the other way but President Elizabeth Warren will not,” she said.
posted by chris24 at 2:46 PM on July 13, 2019 [40 favorites]

Lets look at the issues: The New Plot Against Obamacare/ Krugman

The Affordable Care Act was an imperfect and incomplete reform. The political compromises needed to get it through Congress created a complex system in which too many people fall through the holes. It was also underfunded, which is why deductibles are often uncomfortably high. And the law has faced sabotage both from G.O.P.-controlled state governments and, since 2017, the Trump administration.

Despite all that, however, the act has vastly improved many Americans’ lives — and in many cases, saved lives that would otherwise have been lost due to inadequate care. The progress has been most dramatic in states that have tried to make the law work. Before the A.C.A. went into effect, 24 percent of California adults too young for Medicare were uninsured. Today that number is down to 10 percent. In West Virginia, uninsurance fell from 21 percent to 9. In Kentucky, it fell from 21 to 7.

Over all, around 20 million Americans who wouldn’t have had health insurance without the A.C.A. now do.

At the same time, none of the dire predictions conservatives made about the law have come true. It didn’t bust the budget — in fact, deficits came down steadily even as the A.C.A. went into effect. It didn’t discourage workers from taking jobs: Employment of Americans in their prime working years is back to what it was before the financial crisis. And despite Donald Trump’s best efforts to undermine it, the system isn’t in a “death spiral”: Insurers are making money and premiums have stabilized.

For once, I found it interesting to read the comments, though I haven't been through all of them. As far as I can tell, there has been a true shift in opinion -- reading the debate on healthcare 10 years ago, very few Americans could imagine a better system. Even among liberal NYTimes readers. Now there are so many voices praising ACA, but also wanting to go further from here. It gives me hope.
posted by mumimor at 2:48 PM on July 13, 2019 [15 favorites]

Defense News: Turkey Has the S-400. The Trump Administration Is Silent.

After months of threatening quick, severe action against Turkey should Ankara accept the Russian-made S-400 air defense system, the Trump administration has yet to react to the delivery of the weapon system.

A Turkish Defense Ministry statement early Friday said “the first group of equipment” of the S-400 air defense systems reached the Murted Air Base near Ankara on Thursday evening. The delivery of parts of the system will continue in the coming days and authorities will decide “how it will be used” once the system is made operational, Turkey’s defense industry authority said in a statement.

The Pentagon initially called an 11:15 AM press briefing on Friday to discuss the S-400 retaliation. It was then switched to 1:45, then postponed indefinitely. A defense official told reporters that Acting Secretary of Defense Mark Esper spoke with his Turkish counterpart for half an hour during the afternoon, but said there will be no readout from the call.

As of 1 PM Saturday, there has still been no statement issued from the White House or State Department.

Turkey's S-400 negotiations previously in the megathreads. This is a hell of a time to be without a Secretary of Defense.
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:05 PM on July 13, 2019 [11 favorites]

In re bail bond funds: You can also donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund.
posted by Frowner at 3:23 PM on July 13, 2019 [5 favorites]

In re bail bond funds: The National Bail Fund Network maintains a directory of community bail funds that includes a Directory of Immigration Bond Funds, including national and state funds. via
posted by Little Dawn at 3:29 PM on July 13, 2019 [9 favorites]

British journalist Carole Cadwalldr is now being sued by Arron Banks, mostly over her TED Talk that exposes the links between Brexit, Trumpism, and the Russian troll factories.

I understand that British libel law is rather different from ours in the U.S. I hope she kicks some fascist arse in the courts. Her efforts on behalf of democracy have been nothing short of heroic.
posted by Surely This at 3:33 PM on July 13, 2019 [30 favorites]

Lead story in the Irish Times right now is an undocumented Irishman picked up by ICE.

His wife of 10 years, US citizen Keran Byrne, 34, said he was “picked up off the street without warning” leaving her and their three children — aged 13, six and four — “devastated”.

The optics, in this media landscape, are important.
posted by stonepharisee at 4:29 PM on July 13, 2019 [19 favorites]

9/8/18

@TeamPelosi:
Your Saturday Reminder: Republicans in Washington *will not* hold Donald Trump accountable. He's their guy.

We will.


Jeet Heer (Nation):
Pelosi owes her position to a wave election where the Democrats won 53.4% of the vote, a full 8.6% more than Republicans (44.8%). What fuelled that victory was widespread antipathy towards Donald Trump. Yet Pelosi has retreated from this promise.
posted by chris24 at 5:26 PM on July 13, 2019 [26 favorites]

Happily, I still have about 40 days before I have to do any hat eating. Sadly, and quite understandably, patience is not something many people have at the moment, even among those who really should know better, not just people commenting on various Internet fora.
posted by wierdo at 5:52 PM on July 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

WSJ: Immigration-Enforcement Raids Begin in New York—ICE agents attempt raids in at least two city neighborhoods; President Trump says roundups will focus on criminals

Federal immigration authorities attempted raids in at least two neighborhoods in New York City on Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter, a day prior to when President Trump had said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would begin national roundups of people illegally in the U.S.

In New York City, ICE agents went to residences in the Harlem section of Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, the person said. The agents were rejected by people at the residences because they didn’t have warrants, but plan to return at least to Sunset Park tomorrow, according to the person.[…]

The raids are set to begin in 10 cities—many which have designated themselves as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants—Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco, said officials of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, a Texas-based nonprofit. Protests were held in many of the cities Friday and Saturday.

posted by Doktor Zed at 6:24 PM on July 13, 2019 [4 favorites]

n.b. The Irish immigrant ICE arrested earlier this week was living in the Philadelphia region, so yes, a sanctuary city was targeted.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:53 PM on July 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

So they directly targeted sanctuary cities, didn't they.

The fact that we were basically given a weeks' warning about the raids should be evidence enough that these were never intended to be proper raids - the whole point of a raid is that it is a surprise operation, because you don't want the person you're targeting to know you're coming.

On the contrary - this was always about theater and fear.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:54 PM on July 13, 2019 [41 favorites]

Despite all that, however, the act has vastly improved many Americans’ lives — and in many cases, saved lives that would otherwise have been lost due to inadequate care.

I called a lot of people during the last election to ask them to vote, many of who asked me why they should bother. One of my best tricks was to ask if they knew someone that had been helped by Obamacare. Often, they would say no, pause, and then say actually yes. Then I would ask them to tell me about it. By the end of that conversation they had usually convinced themselves to do the right thing.

This can be an enlightening conversation in many social settings. It's very easy to forget that wait - so and so had that baby that was covered by Obamacare, or wait Aunt so and so was able to go the hospital that time. If you give someone a minute or two, they almost always come back with a story.
posted by xammerboy at 7:01 PM on July 13, 2019 [31 favorites]

This was always about theater and fear.

I just went to the DMV a week ago to renew my license and they suggested I return with more information to get the newer license needed to take flights. I guess later this year, if you want an ID to take airline flights, you need more proof of citizenship than your social security car and passport. I went ahead and got my license anyway. At the end of the process, I was told the new license must be mailed to me. Kind of strange, considering they used to just hand it to you at the end of the process.

It's all just to scare off or make it more difficult for more people to get valid I.D.s
posted by xammerboy at 7:08 PM on July 13, 2019 [11 favorites]

Echoing what pretty much every non-deplorable already suspected:

Daily Mail, via CNN: Leaked cables show British ambassador saying Trump abandoned Iran deal in act of 'diplomatic vandalism' to spite Obama
posted by darkstar at 7:14 PM on July 13, 2019 [33 favorites]

It's all just to scare off or make it more difficult for more people to get valid I.D.s

RealID has been a thing since 2002.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 7:23 PM on July 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

xammerboy, that would be the "Real ID" or the "Enhanced ID" programs. As of October 2020, one of them will be required for domestic flights inside the U.S. (Or you have to bring your passport.) The "enhanced ID" also acts as a passport for land crossings between the U.S. and Mexico and Canada. (Good luck with this part if the border agent is a dick.)

You are absolutely correct however, that the new ID requirements were put in place to make it more difficult for people to get valid IDs, and to travel, both domestically and internationally. They serve no other purpose.
posted by mrgoat at 7:23 PM on July 13, 2019 [12 favorites]

papieren bitte
posted by entropicamericana at 7:58 PM on July 13, 2019 [17 favorites]

Actually, I'm going to add one more thing on the subject of real/enhanced ID: these programs also have the effect of making it markedly harder for women to deal with IDs, in the event that they have been or are dealing with marriage / divorce, and may not have been absolutely meticulous on the paperwork around changing their names.

Worth knowing. And I highly doubt it's by mistake.
posted by mrgoat at 8:17 PM on July 13, 2019 [22 favorites]

Jesus, I should stop. But also trans people. The ID requirements can be a real issue for trans people, for all the obvious reasons. I apologize for not including that before.
posted by mrgoat at 8:23 PM on July 13, 2019 [16 favorites]

"Actually, I'm going to add one more thing on the subject of real/enhanced ID: these programs also have the effect of making it markedly harder for women to deal with IDs, in the event that they have been or are dealing with marriage / divorce, and may not have been absolutely meticulous on the paperwork around changing their names."

I was unable to get a RealID when I last renewed my license earlier this year because I was unable to prove my current address because our bank sends the joint account statements to the first name on the account if both live at the same address (so they all said Mr. Manface McLastname) and the school sends its letters to "Mr. and Mrs. McLastname" (and don't include first names, and my last name is McGee, not McLastname, as I did not change it), our health insurance is through his work so addressed to him, and the utilities are all in his name because he moved first to set up the utilities and get the house ready while I stayed behind with the kids to close up the old house and get all the furniture moved. And the maddening thing is, a lot of the utilities etc. that can serve as proof of address for RealID won't add me to the account unless I have a RealID!

So I'm suddenly an unperson and it's extremely uncomfortable! How do I prove I am a real person who lives here? I was born in this state and have lived here for 34 of my 41 years, I have never changed my name, I have voted in (nearly*) EVERY election since I turned 18, including locals, I have a birth certificate, I have a passport, I speak All The English, I have a law degree, but I cannot prove where I live! My husband, who's lived in this state 13 years total, is automatically a person! But I apparently got erased.

(*one time I missed a municipal primary, I confess, but in my defense I had the stomach flu)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:47 PM on July 13, 2019 [75 favorites]

RealID has been a thing since 2002.

It has been, but my state didn't comply until really recently. In 2017, I got a new license, which was good for ten years. At that point, I didn't have the option of getting a RealID compliant license. But as of October 2020, I won't be able to use my license to get on a plane unless it's Real ID compliant, and I'm not willing to lug my passport around with me for seven years. I found out about this last week, so I decided to go ahead and get the damn thing this week, since I won't remember to do it if I wait. It was actually super easy for me, because I have a valid passport and a W2 with my current address on it. But the guy at the DMV told me that he had dealt with a woman who had been married five times in five different states, and she had to get documentation from each state to show the train of her name changes. He also dealt with a guy who brought in his birth certificate, which had a typo in his name. He had to pay $150 to get his birth certificate fixed before he could get a RealID. This is one of those things that's going to be pretty easy for most people and a total pain in the ass for a significant minority of people who supposedly aren't supposed to be targeted by the change.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:13 PM on July 13, 2019 [19 favorites]

Pennsylvania’s governor just stopped the latest Republican voter suppression scheme
The veto by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf came at the cost of $90 million for needed upgrades to the state's voting machines.

AP Exclusive: New Election Systems Use Vulnerable Software

Pennsylvania’s message was clear: The state was taking a big step to keep its elections from being hacked in 2020. Last April, its top election official told counties they had to update their systems. So far, nearly 60% have taken action, with $14.15 million of mostly federal funds helping counties buy brand-new electoral systems.

But there’s a problem: Many of these new systems still run on old software that will soon be outdated and more vulnerable to hackers.

An Associated Press analysis has found that like many counties in Pennsylvania, the vast majority of 10,000 election jurisdictions nationwide use Windows 7 or an older operating system to create ballots, program voting machines, tally votes and report counts.

That’s significant because Windows 7 reaches its “end of life” on Jan. 14, meaning Microsoft stops providing technical support and producing “patches” to fix software vulnerabilities, which hackers can exploit. In a statement to the AP, Microsoft said Friday it would offer continued Windows 7 security updates for a fee through 2023.

Here’s where the major players in electronic voting systems stand:

The election technology industry is dominated by three titans : Omaha, Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software LLC; Denver, Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems Inc.; and Austin, Texas-based Hart InterCivic Inc. They make up about 92% of election systems used nationwide, according to a 2017 study . All three have worked to win over states newly infused with federal funds and eager for an update.[…]

Of the three companies, only Dominion’s newer systems aren’t touched by upcoming Windows software issues — though it has election systems acquired from no-longer-existing companies that may run on even older operating systems.

Hart’s system runs on a Windows version that reaches its end of life on Oct. 13, 2020, weeks before the election.

ES&S said it expects by the fall to be able to offer customers an election system running on Microsoft’s current operating system, Windows 10. It’s now being tested by a federally accredited lab.

For jurisdictions that have already purchased systems running on Windows 7, ES&S said it will be working with Microsoft to provide support until jurisdictions can update. Windows 10 came out in 2015.

Hart and Dominion didn’t respond to requests for comment.

posted by Doktor Zed at 4:33 AM on July 14, 2019 [6 favorites]

ES&S said it expects by the fall to be able to offer customers an election system running on Microsoft’s current operating system, Windows 10. It’s now being tested by a federally accredited lab.

Ok, full disclosure. I'm an IT geek with deep infosec background, and experience in the financial and audit sectors.

I'm also an Albany County, NY "Inspector of Elections" ( AKA Poll Worker )

The machines we get at our polling sites are ES&S machine, but they boot linux and run a java app.

So, whatever risk this poses, IN OUR JURISDICTION, it's at some level that doesn't affect the actual collection of votes, so, YES, BE CONCERNED, but temper that concern with knowledge.

And knowing is half the battle.
posted by mikelieman at 4:41 AM on July 14, 2019 [8 favorites]

mikelieman: So, whatever risk this poses, IN OUR JURISDICTION, it's at some level that doesn't affect the actual collection of votes, so, YES, BE CONCERNED, but temper that concern with knowledge.

I read your comment several times, and I'm not following how the concerns might be tempered. Pennsylvania is upgrading its systems from Windows 7 to 10, while your New York systems use Linux... ?

Of course, my larger concern is the apparent lack of a paper trail anyway. The operating system should be 100% irrelevant and could be riddled with virusus for all I care so long as the result is a printed, voter-approved, hand-countable ballot. I'm lucky enough to be a Pennsylvanian whose jurisdictions have only voted by paper (bubbled in by pen and inserted to the optical scan machine) every election since 2006.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 5:02 AM on July 14, 2019 [8 favorites]

The machines we get at our polling sites are ES&S machine, but they boot linux and run a java app.

And this is a good reason to not use a commercial software platform with a built-in EOL product cycle for critical systems where security is a paramount concern and the replacement schedule is more like 20-25 years than the typical 10 years or so it takes a Windows version to become obsolete.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 5:03 AM on July 14, 2019 [8 favorites]

Sadly, the security of the machines themselves doesn't mean lot if the tabulation systems or the system hosting the registration database aren't equally secure. TBH, I'm less concerned about an insecure machine, so long as it has reasonable physical security to prevent tampering (some do, some don't), since they aren't typically networked.

If you tamper with the system in such a way as to force certain voters to cast provisional ballots it's much less obvious that you've done anything at all and you are just as surely altering the outcome of the election as if you fiddled with the totals directly since so few people actually cure the issue and get their vote counted. The number of votes thrown away in my county alone in 2016 was comparable to Trump's margin of victory in my state. Hmm...
posted by wierdo at 5:33 AM on July 14, 2019 [6 favorites]

OpenSecrets.org: Acting Labor Secretary Pizzella Lobbied For Russian-Connected Front Group, Worked With Jack Abramoff

[…] Pizzella’s record as a lobbyist is likely to come under scrutiny. In the late 1990s, his clients included a Russian front group, the government of the Marshall Islands and a trade association fighting against the minimum wage in a U.S. commonwealth.

For these and other clients, he worked with Jack Abramoff, who was at the forefront of a corruption scandal in the 2000s that ultimately resulted in 21 convictions and major reforms to lobbying laws. Pizzella was never accused of any wrongdoing.[…]

Prior to [his] appointment [as assistant secretary of labor for administration and management under G. W. Bush], Pizzella was as a lobbyist at Preston, Gates & Ellis, which would later combine with another lobbying firm to form K&L Gates. Abramoff also worked at the firm, whose dozens of clients included several foreign entities. Documents obtained by OpenSecrets show that Pizzella was one of the lobbyists who worked on behalf of a shell corporation connected to the Russian government in the late 1990s. He was listed in a 1997 lobbying disclosure form as the “director of coalitions” for Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., a Bahamas-based organization working closely with the Russian oil company Naftasib, which was itself a close affiliate of the Russian government.

Working alongside Abramoff and others, Pizzella helped Chelsea Commercial advocate for “various commercial business enterprises, including investments in Russian businesses.”

It's remarkable how consistently the Trump administration attracts the worst people and how their corruption always seems to be tied to Russia.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:09 AM on July 14, 2019 [25 favorites]

Trump tells four Democratic congresswomen to go back to where they came from. Three were born in the US.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:10 AM on July 14, 2019 [26 favorites]

I mean, there are a total of seven incumbent female Democratic representatives born in other countries, and he doesn't narrow it down any further than that except by calling them "progressive" and saying they "originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe", both of which are subjective. He could be talking about Susan Wild, born in Germany, which I doubt he would object to calling a "catastrophe" of a government.

But yeah, we all know who he has in mind.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 7:35 AM on July 14, 2019 [5 favorites]

Mod note: Rust Moranis, we have asked people quite a few times to lay off the Pelosi griping in the megathread. If you didn't hear that, I'm saying it to you, specifically, right now. If folks feel like there's enough meat for a separate thread about her, then by all means go for it.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 7:49 AM on July 14, 2019 [10 favorites]

I don't care what the Trump Or Not Bot says, from the look of that tweet Miller's got his hands on the presidential Twittertron again, and you won't convince me otherwise.
posted by Buck Alec at 8:14 AM on July 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

Mark Murray (NBC)
Our new NBC/WSJ poll results are our first hypothetical general-election matchups for the 2020 race:

Biden 51%, Trump 42%
Sanders 50%, Trump 43%
Warren 48%, Trump 43%
Harris 45%, Trump 44%

(July 7-9, MOE: +/- 3.5%)
posted by chris24 at 8:21 AM on July 14, 2019 [14 favorites]

"The entire framework rests on a bedrock assumption, that some people matter, others don't, and it's perfectly fine to say or do anything you want to defeat those that don't matter, for whatever value of "defeat" you can get away with being seen making yourself comfortable with." Twitter thread from A.R. Moxon (Julius Goat), on the malignant power of not caring. Here's the unrolled version.
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:48 AM on July 14, 2019 [16 favorites]

I don't care what the Trump Or Not Bot says, from the look of that tweet Miller's got his hands on the presidential Twittertron again, and you won't convince me otherwise.

The Trump or Not Bot rates those tweets about "“Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen" as having a 56%/96%/34% probability of authentic Trump authorship (the especially nasty middle one talks about "the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came"). They're also threaded, a recent trend that breaks with years and years of Trump's habits.

While I put only so much stock in the Trump or Not Bot's opaque natural-language processor, I prefer to link to that bot as a reminder that @realDonaldTrump is a group effort and only occasionally His Master's Voice, as well as a way of denying Trump's twitter links and clicks. (I also like Real Press Sec. Bot, which has the bonus of archiving any tweets Trump later deletes.)

As for @realDonaldTrump's activity this morning, it's been frenetic. Mostly, it's been busily retweeting a ton of follower accounts, particularly in response to a video by #WalkAway Campaign Founder Brandon Straka (Dan Scavino, simultaneously making good on the promises of Trump's Social Media Summit and sucking up to his narcissistic boss). It did devote a couple of tweets, however, to praising Mike Pence's propaganda photo op visit to the "children's detention centers" (98%/61%), so yes, Stephen Miller is absolutely helping out with that twitter account.

By the way, Media Matters's Matthew Gertz finds, as usual, that Trump's noxious tweets were inspired in part by whatever he's watching on Fox News: "About 20 minutes before this morning's grotesque Trump rant, Fox & Friends ran a segment about "the Squad" and aired comments Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley (both born in the U.S.) made at Netroots Nation."

And CNN's Daniel Dale shreds Trump's perennial lies about his approval ratings from last night: "3 false claims in 18 words! 1) Trump doesn’t have 94% approval among Republicans; it’s consistently high-80s. 2) Reagan’s high was 94%. 3) The record was Bush’s 99% post-9/11. Trump’s high ranks behind Bush/Bush/Reagan/Nixon/Eisenhower, WaPo found in June. For months, Trump used an invented 93% approval among Republicans. He has recently increased it to 94%. There is often a steady inflation in his fictional figures."
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:58 AM on July 14, 2019 [13 favorites]

Yesterday morning also saw a much-increased level of retweets, so maybe that's a thing now (and retweeting someone who on another occasion tweeted something awful is probably bound to follow)--speaking of following, @UnfollowTrump is another good denying-clicks-and-links option.
posted by box at 9:50 AM on July 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Mostly, it's been busily retweeting a ton of follower accounts, particularly in response to a video by #WalkAway Campaign Founder Brandon Straka

Since the propaganda #WalkAway campaign has been a favorite of Russian bots', Trump's, and Fox News's, since at least last year, here's online disinfo specialist Caroline Orr's exposé of them at the time: Pro-Trump & Russian-Linked Twitter Accounts Are Posing As Ex-Democrats In New Astroturfed Movement

Most of the tweets were strikingly similar, and the vast majority pushed a very familiar narrative. Using the hashtag #WalkAway and claiming to be former Democrats, social media users shared their stories of leaving the Democratic party after being turned off by the “hate” and “division” of “the left.” Many of them cited the incidents involving Sanders and Waters as examples of the “intolerance” and “bullying” that supposedly drove them to support Trump after years—in some cases, decades—of voting for Democrats.[…]

The high volume of tweets associated with this campaign is also indicative of an effort to drown out real, reasoned debate between humans and replace it with content that pushes fringe or extreme viewpoints into the mainstream, ultimately hijacking and derailing public discourse. This particular psychological operation also aimed to use issues like race and sexual orientation to widen existing divides and promote infighting within the progressive movement.

Finally, astroturfed social media campaigns like the “WalkAway Movement” aim to create manufactured consensus, or the illusion of popularity, so that an idea or position without much public support appears more popular and mainstream than it actually is.

The “WalkAway Movement” began in May of last year with, naturally, a Facebook page. After being promoted by Sputnik, Russia Today, Fox, and @realDonaldTrump and boosted by bots, trolls, and Russian-linked accounts, it now boasts over 200,000 supporters.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:04 AM on July 14, 2019 [17 favorites]

Eagerly awaiting the #DontLetTheDoorHitYouInTheAssOnTheWayOut counter-movement.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:10 AM on July 14, 2019 [5 favorites]

Trump’s immigration sweeps in major cities expected to begin (AP)

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a pre-emptive lawsuit Thursday that aims to protect asylum seekers.

Crackdown on immigrant families to start Sunday, Trump says (AP)

Since Trump first spoke of the plan, a number of city mayors, nearly all Democrats, have repeated their long-standing policies of not cooperating with ICE officials on deportations and have advertised helplines people can call to understand their rights.

Democratic lawmakers, among others, have also sought to inform immigrants of their rights, telling them not to open their door for ICE unless agents present a court-issued warrant, and not to say or sign anything before speaking with a lawyer. [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups sued this week to stop the arrests going ahead, asking a court to prevent the deportation of asylum-seeking families who missed their court dates until they at least get a hearing.

Mexico’s government said on Friday that it would step up consular assistance for its citizens living in the United States “who may be affected by the possible migratory operations,” but did not give more details.

Impending immigration raids across US spark anxiety and protests (Guardian)

Because Ice detention facilities are operating with limited capacity, immigration officials had publicly floated the idea of using hotels to hold those seized following the raids. That prompted one chain, Marriott, to say it would not allow its buildings to be used as detention centers for the federal government. Ice officials responded that they would be forced to separate families if they lack capacity. [...]

In Chicago on Saturday, around 5,000 protesters marched against Trump’s immigration policies, belting chants critical of the president and Ice. Police said the protest was peaceful and there were no arrests. Chicago is a target city. Demonstrations were held in other cities including Phoenix, which is not expected to be among the cities raided. On Friday night, dozens of protesters blocked a downtown street and disrupted light rail traffic. Police arrested 16. [...] Condemnation has come from a broad slate of progressive organizations, including groups typically focused on issues outside the immigration debate.

Lights for Liberty vigils protesting against the raids were attended by the American Teachers Federation and sponsored by the Women’s March. Youth climate activists with the Sunrise Movement Boston attended a vigil protesting against “inhumane conditions” in detention centers they called “concentration camps”.

With ICE Raids Looming, Immigrants Worry: ‘Every Time Someone Knocks, You Get Scared’ (NYT)

They are helped by the fact that ICE agents cannot forcibly enter the homes of their targets under the law. But if past tactics are any measure, agents are likely to come to the operation armed with ruses to coax people outside. They will likely have new strategies that might help to counteract the preparations that undocumented immigrants have been making with the help of their lawyers.

Anticipating that they will not manage to block all of the arrests through preventive strategies, immigration lawyers and advocates across the country have been working swiftly to distribute contingency plans for those who are captured.

Shannon Camacho, a coordinator of the Los Angeles Raids Rapid Response Network for immigrants, said the organization is urging undocumented parents with children who are United States citizens or legal permanent residents to sign caregiver affidavits, so that if the parents are deported, the children will not be left without legal guardians. [...] Mony Ruiz-Velasco, the director of PASO-West Suburban Action Project, a community group in Melrose Park, Ill., said her staff and volunteers were advising families to memorize at least one phone number so that they can call for help if they are detained. [...]

Meanwhile, immigrants’ rights lawyers were preparing to file court motions to reopen the immigration cases of people who are arrested in the operation before they can be deported. Doing so will require that the lawyers get access to the detention centers where the migrants will be held, and it is unclear whether federal officials will make such access available, lawyers said. [...]

Democratic lawmakers also rallied around immigrants, promising to protect their rights to due process and prevent as many arrests as possible. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said on Friday that the city would increase funding for legal protections for immigrant families, and reiterated that she had banned ICE from accessing Chicago Police Department databases related to federal immigration enforcement activities.

Harry Osterman, a city alderman whose far-north-side district includes many Latinos, emailed constituents on Friday evening with hotline numbers and information on what to do if they see ICE activity. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California posted a video on Facebook informing immigrants of their rights. And Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young of Baltimore released a statement encouraging anyone who was arrested to avail themselves of the city’s public immigration defense fund.

posted by Little Dawn at 11:05 AM on July 14, 2019 [7 favorites]

CNN: House report: At Least 18 Migrant Children Under the Age of 2 Were Separated From Parents For 20 Days to 6 Months

At least 18 migrant infants and toddlers under the age of two were separated from their parents at the border "including nine infants under the age of one," according to a report released Friday by the House Oversight Committee.[…]

The Democratic-led House Oversight Committee report comes ahead of a hearing on child separations that will include testimony from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, who toured border facilities last week, as well as testimony from the inspectors general from the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Homeland Security.

Friday's report, based on data obtained by the committee under subpoena from the Trump administration, provides new information about at least 2,648 children who were separated from their parents.

Small wonder Trump is pushing hard to drown out this story in the media.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:36 AM on July 14, 2019 [9 favorites]

Long-threatened ICE raids set to begin amid questions and protests (Tribune News Service)

Long-threatened Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids were set to begin Sunday amid anxiety in immigrant communities across the country and questions about how extensive the much-hyped action would actually be. [...] In Florida, ICE agents were seen knocking on doors near Miami International Airport on Sunday and in the migrant farming community of Immokalee on Friday, but there had been no reports of arrests, said Melissa Taveras of Miami-based Florida Immigrant Coalition.

[...] “The overall environment is very much like a hurricane: When is it going to come, is it going to hit us, is it going to move north?” she said. “We have people in Homestead, Little Havana, Little Haiti -- where we know there are concentrations of immigrants -- distributing ‘know your rights’ pamphlets. That seems to be effective because we’re already hearing reports of people not opening their doors.” [...]

In Houston, there was no sign of ICE raids early Sunday. [...] On Saturday night, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said his office was “receiving reports of attempted but reportedly unsuccessful ICE enforcement actions in Sunset Park and Harlem.” [...]

“Announcements such as these, including the latest one of upcoming raids, unfortunately makes people scramble to find any sort of assistance,” said Jose Luis Garcia, the managing attorney at the Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, based in Los Angeles.

Advocates worry the raids could leave immigrants here illegally susceptible to scams. Unlicensed immigration consultants, commonly known as notarios in Latin American communities, can cause serious harm to an immigrant’s legal case, experts say. This could be anyone who provides immigration-related services for a fee but who is not authorized to provide any sort of legal aid.

“Fear, need and anxiety are driving people to try to find some legal help,” said Rigo Reyes, the executive director of Los Angeles County’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. Immigrants are pushed to “find someone who’s going to give them the answer they want to hear, even if it’s not real,” he said. Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are especially susceptible to scams as the threat of deportation looms. Immigration consultant offices are widely available and easily accessible, prompting many immigrants to choose unauthorized legal help over proper legal aid.

posted by Little Dawn at 11:52 AM on July 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Axios: Poll: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Defining Democrats Among Crucial 2020 Swing Voters

Top Democrats are circulating a poll showing that one of the House's most progressive members — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — has become a definitional face for the party with a crucial group of swing voters.

Why it matters: These Democrats are sounding the alarm that swing voters know and dislike socialism, warning it could cost them the House and the presidency.[…]

The poll — taken in May, before Speaker Pelosi's latest run-in with AOC and the three other liberal House freshmen known as "The Squad" — included 1,003 likely general-election voters who are white and have two years or less of college education.
• These are the "white, non-college voters" who embraced Donald Trump in 2016 but are needed by Democrats in swing House districts.
• The group that took the poll shared the results with Axios on the condition that it not be named, because the group has to work with all parts of the party.

The findings:
• Ocasio-Cortez was recognized by 74% of voters in the poll; 22% had a favorable view.
• Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — another member of The Squad — was recognized by 53% of the voters; 9% (not a typo) had a favorable view.

Socialism was viewed favorably by 18% of the voters and unfavorably by 69%.
• Capitalism was 56% favorable; 32% unfavorable.
• "Socialism is toxic to these voters," said the top Democrat.

Between the lines: Dems are performing better with these voters than in 2016 (although still not as well as in 2018). So party leaders will continue to try to define themselves around more mainstream members.

The implications of this polling data notwithstanding, it's pretty obvious why "top Democrats" decided to leak this to Axios now. Still, it's advantageous to be reminded what views outside of Metafilter differ. And this brings Trump's attacks on AOC and Omar into sharper focus.
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:05 PM on July 14, 2019 [14 favorites]

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, the governor has proclaimed today to be Nathan Bedford Forrest Day, and issued a statement praising the war criminal and founder of a terrorist organization.

Apparently Tennessee also calls "Memorial Day", "Confederate Decoration Day" and additionally celebrates "Robert E. Lee Day". Because of course they do.

Welcome to America in 2019, when white supremacy is more open than ever before and state governments endorse terrorist leaders and war criminals who massacred surrendered American soldiers.
posted by sotonohito at 1:22 PM on July 14, 2019 [21 favorites]

The poll — taken in May, before Speaker Pelosi's latest run-in with AOC and the three other liberal House freshmen known as "The Squad" — included 1,003 likely general-election voters who are white and have two years or less of college education.

Seems a little predetermined.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:23 PM on July 14, 2019 [18 favorites]

"If all voters hear about is AOC, it could put the [House] majority at risk," said a top Democrat who is involved in 2020 congressional races. "[S]he's getting all the news and defining everyone else’s races."

"Said a top Democrat," innocently baffled by why AOC's been in the news and blithely unaware of whom they were speaking to.
posted by chortly at 1:27 PM on July 14, 2019 [17 favorites]

included 1,003 likely general-election voters who are white and have two years or less of college education.

These are the "white, non-college voters" who embraced Donald Trump in 2016 but are needed by Democrats in swing House districts.

Nobody who voted for Trump in 2016 is needed by Democrats in any House districts. Not one. It's like the enormous number of non-voting, electorally demoralized non-college white people don't exist, much less every non-voting or vote-suppressed/disenfranchised nonwhite person.

The line is and will continue to be "punch the entire base for 80,000 racists in MAGA hats who we will surely win over"
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:29 PM on July 14, 2019 [38 favorites]

Nobody who voted for Trump in 2016 is needed by Democrats in any House districts. Not one.

This is true on a purely theoretical level but it's not true on a practical one. That isn't to say we should cater in any way to the racists but we'd lose a bunch of House districts without at least some of those Trump voters.
posted by Justinian at 1:37 PM on July 14, 2019 [5 favorites]

The group that took the poll shared the results with Axios on the condition that it not be named, because the group has to work with all parts of the party.

Joe Crowley's polling company?

Did anyone poll these voters on Medicare for All instead of "socialism"? Asking voters if they like socialism or capitalism is nonsense -- we've never had a pure form of either.
posted by benzenedream at 1:45 PM on July 14, 2019 [8 favorites]

This is true on a purely theoretical level but it's not true on a practical one.

We're seeing the result of decades of this sort of practicality. It's theoretical electoral victory or certain electoral defeat from now on.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:48 PM on July 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

Am I the only one bothered by "The Squad" nomenclature? It really feels immature and belittling and pulling these women down to the petty rivalry of music videos. I just can't see a similar reference being adopted for men in the same position.
posted by sardonyx at 1:58 PM on July 14, 2019 [17 favorites]

I was sort of gobsmacked by that Omar number until I thought of Fox News. Yeah. I really don't know how to take down Fox News, but it's got to go. People who are exposed to that shit on the reg are going to have these opinions. I don't know how you get around it.

It makes me retroactively furious at Bernie for his doing his Fox town hall.
posted by angrycat at 2:04 PM on July 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Did anyone poll these voters on Medicare for All instead of "socialism"?

Of course not. Americans love socialist policies, e.g. Medicare for All, but they recoil at the political label of socialism. Trump and the GOP are putting pressure on that cognitive dissonance as hard as they can.

That said, this internal Dem poll appears to reflect GOP thinking, the National's Josh Kraushaar reports, "In line w R polling showing three swing-district D freshmen trailing named challengers."

Am I the only one bothered by "The Squad" nomenclature?

Ocasio-Cortez and Omar adopted this term for their group right after the mid-term election. Maybe it's a Millennial thing.
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:05 PM on July 14, 2019 [5 favorites]

They should have gone with Democrats Growing American Freedom.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:13 PM on July 14, 2019 [20 favorites]

Squad is also a military term. It isn't solely reserved for cheerleaders. I'd prefer to think of them as a nice military squad, all on the same team and working together to win.
posted by Bovine Love at 2:26 PM on July 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

the propaganda #WalkAway campaign has been a favorite of Russian bots', Trump's, and Fox News's, since at least last year

I was at an anti-Trump rally a few weeks ago, and the one counter protester was holding a Democrats for Trump sign and yelling "walk away!" at us. I was wondering where that came from. The funny part was that the guy's tattoos kind of gave away that he wasn't actually a former Democrat. And not to paint all Democrats, but I've found it fairly rare that they like to blow whistles in old ladies' faces.
posted by diogenes at 2:26 PM on July 14, 2019 [7 favorites]

@Taniel (Daniel Nichanian):

This is weird. Trump led Biden 56-37 among "white, non-college" voters in today's NBC poll (Biden up 51-42 overall); other Ds did worse. Strange to act like AOC being unpopular in a poll of just "white, non-college" voters is peculiar to her. Yet no one but AOC & Omar mentioned.

2 options here:
(1) some Dem group is oppo-polling no one but AOC/Omar
(2) some Dem group tested many public figures, but only leaked AOC/Omar results, which makes it likely other Dems' #s aren't much better otherwise those wld be included in the leak to make AOC/Omar look worse

If the group that managed to get this partial leak of an internal poll published wants to disprove those two options by showing me the full memo, my DMs are open!

posted by zombieflanders at 2:31 PM on July 14, 2019 [16 favorites]

Oh well, as long as it's their choice I guess I've got no right to complain.

I realize the word has military implications, but it seems to be the Taylor Swift type of zeitgeist that carries the most resonance currently, and that's what wasn't sitting right with me. Not to to belittle the singer or her accomplishments in the least, but it just had that girls against girls, mean girls against good girls vibe that I don't think does female politicians any favours.
posted by sardonyx at 2:31 PM on July 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

These are the "white, non-college voters" who embraced Donald Trump in 2016

Trump voters who are fine with racist tweets and leaders are not going to vote against him in 2020, no matter what policies the Democratic party adopts or who leads them. If kids in cages is not a disqualifier for future support of a politician, there is no reasonable line we could cross to keep them happy, especially not without undercutting the issues that do energize the actual Democratic voters.

But you know who does like AOC? The younger generation, the one that does need to be actively encouraged to get out and vote more.
posted by Candleman at 2:40 PM on July 14, 2019 [17 favorites]

If tacking to the right to win over swing voters were a successful electoral strategy for the Democrats, Donald Trump wouldn't be president right now. It's amazing to me that people still buy into that tactic. Do people really think that what we need right now is a party of John Kerry's?
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 2:44 PM on July 14, 2019 [38 favorites]

Trump tells four Democratic congresswomen to go back to where they came from.

AOC responds:

Mr. President, the country I “come from,” & the country we all swear to, is the United States.

But given how you’ve destroyed our border with inhumane camps, all at a benefit to you & the corps who profit off them, you are absolutely right about the corruption laid at your feet.

You are angry because you don’t believe in an America where I represent New York 14, where the good people of Minnesota elected @IlhanMN, where @RashidaTlaib fights for Michigan families, where @AyannaPressley champions little girls in Boston.

You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder.

You won’t accept a nation that sees healthcare as a right or education as a #1 priority, especially where we’re the ones fighting for it.

Yet here we are.

But you know what’s the rub of it all, Mr. President?

On top of not accepting an America that elected us, you cannot accept that we don’t fear you,either.

You can’t accept that we will call your bluff & offer a positive vision for this country. And that’s what makes you seethe.

Emphasis added.

I was at an anti-Trump rally a few weeks ago, and the one counter protester was holding a Democrats for Trump sign and yelling "walk away!" at us.

I can't help but feel that the echo of Lord Humungous is deliberate.
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:03 PM on July 14, 2019 [51 favorites]

That poll has some other strange tidbits:

• Ocasio-Cortez was recognized by 74% of voters in the poll; 22% had a favorable view.
...
Socialism was viewed favorably by 18% of the voters and unfavorably by 69%.
• Capitalism was 56% favorable; 32% unfavorable.


Taken at face value, 32% of these voters don’t like capitalism, but only 18% like socialism. Which leaves at least 14% that do not like capitalism OR socialism. Are they anarchists? Communists? Or do they just not know what they’re talking about?

Also, 22% liked Ocasio-Cortez but only 18% like socialism. So at least 4% (one-fifth of those who support her) are not connecting her with her DSA background/policies.

I sometimes feel like the most useful take-home conclusion from some of these polls is that a nontrivial percentage of our fellow citizens are just plain ignorant.
posted by darkstar at 3:06 PM on July 14, 2019 [22 favorites]

As abused as the term is, the extent to which we're increasingly unable to rely on language's fundamental advantage of allowing concise reference to complex ideas due to the dictionary-rending propaganda of a relatively select, if not totally arbitrary few, is positively Orwellian. A poll that contrasts capitalism with socialism in direct terms is basically meaningless today. Might as well ask how people feel about Tom Brady at that point.
posted by feloniousmonk at 3:18 PM on July 14, 2019 [9 favorites]

A poll that contrasts capitalism with socialism in direct terms is basically meaningless today.

I feel as though if a polling firm contacted me and asked if I support "socialism" or "capitalism" I'd need at least a 10 minute dialogue with them (which I obviously would not get) to iron out what definitions we were using. In the absence of such an understanding any answer to the question is pretty worthless.

Upon thinking about it, though, I'm pretty concerned to think that it's possible that this is the kind of question Democrats are spending their money to research. As I understand it the name of the polling company and the identity of those commissioning the poll are not revealed so I don't know whose poll it was or who came up with the questions. But if it's one that Democratic leadership commissioned then as far as I'm concerned it's yet more evidence that they're committed to a direction to which I have significant disagreement.
posted by Nerd of the North at 4:02 PM on July 14, 2019 [7 favorites]

Nobody who voted for Trump in 2016 is needed by Democrats in any House districts. Not one. It's like the enormous number of non-voting, electorally demoralized non-college white people don't exist, much less every non-voting or vote-suppressed/disenfranchised nonwhite person.

This is the basic math I keep coming back to:

The problem is the math for Democrats is much tougher. They must rely on moderates more than Republicans, because of the way the districts are drawn, thanks to gerrymandering and natural population sorting. The median House district in the 2016 election favored Trump by more than three points, even though he lost the popular vote by two. The situation is similar in the Senate, where 60 senators represent states Trump won, even though he lost the popular vote. Republicans can win majorities without touching a district or state won by Hillary Clinton; Democrats don’t have anything approaching such a luxury.

Trump won 230 congressional districts to Clinton's 205.

We can talk about all the reasons this is the case, from population sorting to gerrymandering to disenfranchisement to turnout, and the reforms that, if we had the power to enact them, could help counteract that in some cases. But for the moment, this is the system we have: we have to win districts that Trump won. And the only ways to do that are to convince at least some people who voted for Trump to vote for a Democrat, to convince at least some people who voted for Trump to stay home, or to turn out more Democratic voters who didn't vote in 2016, a historically high turnout year.

And I get that's depressing as hell. Trump ran an explicitly racist campaign, so fighting over the voters who said "yeah, sign me up for some of that" is horrible. But I don't think it's quite as gloomy as that. Democratic candidates won Trump districts 2018 without embracing racism, without compromising on acknowledging the humanity and dignity of their fellow Americans. Sherrod Brown won Ohio by 9 points and is happy to call Trump a racist, but even he ran away from his lifelong support of Medicare for All in favor of more incremental improvements. Every Trump voter looked at Trump's racism and hate and signed their name to enact and endorse it, but I don't think every Trump voter was solely animated entirely by racism and not every Trump voter demands racism from their candidate. Some seem to merely accept it without requiring it. We know this because we flipped Trump districts in 2018 without appealing to racists.

It seems that people have taken it as an article of faith that if only we ran Alexandras Ocasio-Cortez in every district (and that poll can go fuck itself, that's not my point here), there'd be an uprising of the newly inspired proletariat who would race to the polls in numbers never seen before, rendering every Trump voter irrelevant under a mountain of new formerly-disaffected voters. So where are the test cases? Who pulled off that strategy in 2018?
posted by zachlipton at 4:07 PM on July 14, 2019 [19 favorites]

I sometimes feel like the most useful take-home conclusion from some of these polls is that a nontrivial percentage of our fellow citizens are just plain ignorant.

I mean, it is definitely true that the average American voter lacks a sophisticated understanding of political theory. I think the average voter would probably struggle to offer a definition of socialism or capitalism. If that's surprising to you, I have to sort of wonder how much contact you have with voters.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:13 PM on July 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

there'd be an uprising of the newly inspired proletariat who would race to the polls in numbers never seen before, rendering every Trump voter irrelevant under a mountain of new formerly-disaffected voters. So where are the test cases? Who pulled off that strategy in 2018?

Right, this is the underpants gnome strategy of electoral politics. "And then a wave of non-voters will swarm the polls!" is "and then a miracle occurs!". When have we seen this happen? Not someone bringing out new voters in additional to the more traditional sort (Obama, to pick one example, did that) but a wave of new voters swamping the more traditional sort all voting for the other guy.

Betting on that to happen is a losing proposition.
posted by Justinian at 4:17 PM on July 14, 2019 [10 favorites]

WaPo on the big winner on Team Trump from Acosta’s resignation: ‘His own fiefdom’: Mulvaney builds ‘an empire for the right wing’ as Trump’s chief of staff

Mulvaney — who is technically on leave from his first administration job as budget director — spends considerably less time with Trump than the two previous chiefs of staff, Reince Priebus and John F. Kelly. And the president has sometimes kept him out of the loop when making contentious foreign policy decisions, advisers say. At a recent donor retreat in Chicago, Mulvaney told attendees that he does not seek to control the president’s tweeting, time or family, one attendee said. Priebus and Kelly had clashed with the president over his Twitter statements and the influence of his eldest daughter and her husband, who are senior advisers.

Instead, Mulvaney has focused much of his energy on creating a new White House power center revolving around the long-dormant Domestic Policy Council and encompassing broad swaths of the administration. One White House official described Mulvaney as “building an empire for the right wing.”

He has helped install more than a dozen ideologically aligned advisers in the West Wing since his December hiring. Cabinet members are pressed weekly on what regulations they can strip from the books and have been told their performance will be judged on how many they remove. Policy and spending decisions are now made by the White House and dictated to Cabinet agencies, instead of vice versa. When Mulvaney cannot be in the Oval Office for a policy meeting, one of his allies is usually there.[…]

Aside from the domestic policy shop, Mulvaney has also tapped allies to fill roles in the White House’s legislative affairs operation, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and his old haunts at OMB. He regularly suggests ideas to all of them.[…]

In the past two months, he has forced out the chiefs of staff at Health and Human Services and the Labor Department amid policy disputes with them and their respective secretaries. Mulvaney and Grogan have repeatedly clashed with HHS Secretary Alex Azar, overruling him, for example, on ending the funding of medical research by government scientists using fetal tissue.[…]

“Everything is controlled. The only people not under his thumb are Kudlow and Bolton,” said one senior administration official, referring to economic adviser Larry Kudlow and national security adviser John Bolton.

Mulvaney may be widely disliked on Capitol Hill by both Dems and GOPers, but by staying out of Trump’s way and concentrating on his own power base, he’s proving a more successful CoS than either of his predecessors, at least as far as Trump’s concerned.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:20 PM on July 14, 2019 [8 favorites]

Trump voters who are fine with racist tweets and leaders are not going to vote against him in 2020, no matter what policies the Democratic party adopts or who leads them.

You drastically underestimate the power of denial. A significant fraction of those who identify as Republican simply refuse to believe the evidence in front of their face that Trump really is putting kids in cages and really is saying racist shit all on his own. They are convinced that any news reports or personal testimony indicating otherwise is made up propaganda.

What's happening is so far outside of what they believed possible that it must be all made up as far as they are concerned. There can't be an ongoing attack by the Russian government because obviously our government would have stopped something that was so effective. That it wasn't stopped is proof in their mind that the interference was minimal at most.
posted by wierdo at 4:35 PM on July 14, 2019 [11 favorites]

It seems that people have taken it as an article of faith that if only we ran Alexandras Ocasio-Cortez in every district (and that poll can go fuck itself, that's not my point here), there'd be an uprising of the newly inspired proletariat who would race to the polls in numbers never seen before, rendering every Trump voter irrelevant under a mountain of new formerly-disaffected voters. So where are the test cases? Who pulled off that strategy in 2018?

This is wildly overstating the progressive argument. We don't need AOC's in every district, we need 100 more Sherrod Browns and the party to not support any more Dan Lipinski's or Henry Cuellars, and not to endorse those "Democrats" with voting records antithetical to the party's supposed goals when there's a viable primary challenger. Or at the very least, not to actively impede democracy with bullshit blacklists and threats. Let's start there before we kick progressives for making unrealistic demands no one is actually making.

And on the state level, Lee Carter is an example of someone who won like that in 2017. Progressives have only had one cycle of being a rising political power, let's also not predict that no one can ever as a progressive win based on one cycle.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:57 PM on July 14, 2019 [28 favorites]

If people don't understand the terms fully when expressing a preference for capitalism over socialism, why are polled preferences for policy ideas like the GND and universal health care taken at face value without consideration for how well the general public understands what they entail?
posted by Selena777 at 5:20 PM on July 14, 2019 [5 favorites]

If that's surprising to you, I have to sort of wonder how much contact you have with voters.


To clarify, I didn’t say voter ignorance was surprising. I mean, you learn fast when canvassing just how clueless some of your neighbors are. It’s depressing to think their completely uninformed vote will carry just as much weight as one that’s the result of significant investigation and research into the issues, the candidates, etc.

(Mad props to those of you who canvass. It’s crucial work, but I just finally got burned out on it.)

Rather, I just meant that sometimes the only real conclusion that can be drawn (once again) from the results of a poll is that a significant number of respondents just don’t have a very good understanding about what the poll is asking about.

Maybe it’s ignorance of what the terms mean. Or maybe it’s ignorance of the candidates and their policies/background. Or perhaps it’s ignorance of the issues, or the history, or the math, or the consequences, or context, or whatever. But even setting aside the crazification factor, some respondents (and maybe many of them) just lack some key understanding, that makes their poll response meaningless.

Which is totally unsurprising, particularly given all of the articles that report some percentage of USians think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court, or that 11% of those between 18-24 years old can’t find the USA — their own country — on a map.
posted by darkstar at 5:38 PM on July 14, 2019 [4 favorites]

If people don't understand the terms fully when expressing a preference for capitalism over socialism, why are polled preferences for policy ideas like the GND and universal health care taken at face value without consideration for how well the general public understands what they entail?

Socialism and capitalism are loaded terms with a variety of potential meanings to them. Like, there are Bernie Sanders supporters who have stated they do not want to support Elizabeth Warren because she has said she considers herself a capitalist, but Sanders and Warren support materially the same policies. Socialism can be Denmark or it can be the USSR depending on your belief system and it's not really wrong.

However, when you talk about specific policies, you talk about... well, specific policies, and even when you're talking more in generalities people understand the basic intent at work. Other than the people who have decided that the GND means taking away your hamburgers and universal health care means death panels and greedy welfare bums going to the doctor on your dime - and those people were going to oppose such policies regardless of the potential benefit to them - most people understand that the GND means "we will spend money to decarbonize the economy and fight climate change and hopefully create jobs" and universal health care means "the government at least acts as the insurer of last resort for everybody."
posted by mightygodking at 5:54 PM on July 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

Churches jump into action with threat of immigration sweeps (AP)

“We’re living in a time where the law may permit the government to do certain things but that doesn’t necessarily make it right,” said the Rev. John Celichowski of St. Clare de Montefalco Parish in Chicago, where the nearly 1,000-member congregation is 90 percent Hispanic and mostly immigrant.

[...] Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, wrote a letter to Archdiocese priests this month saying, “Threats of broad enforcement actions by ICE are meant to terrorize communities.” He urged priests in the Archdiocese — which serves over 2 million Catholics — not to let any immigration officials into churches without identification or a warrant.

The Rev. Robert Stearns, of Living Water in Houston, organized 25 churches in the city to make space available to any families who wanted to seek sanctuary while they sorted out their legal status. A dozen churches in the Los Angeles areas also declared themselves sanctuaries.

Previously: Long-threatened ICE raids set to begin amid questions and protests (News Tribune)

“During the civil rights movement, people sought refuge in the church. This is the civil rights movement of our time,” said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the migrant advocacy group Fiel Houston who joined pastors and vowed to assist their effort.

Venus Rodriguez came to hear the announcement and relayed news to neighbors in the community group Northside Strong, including migrants in the country illegally. Those she knows are staying at home, afraid to go out and seek refuge, but they might reach out to churches for help. “They’re aware and they’re on alert,” she said.

posted by Little Dawn at 6:12 PM on July 14, 2019 [7 favorites]

> Trump Seeking to Effectively Outsource Asylum Seekers to Guatemala / Is Trump Planning to Use Guatemala as a Wall? / Trump Is Poised to Sign a Radical Agreement to Send Future Asylum Seekers to Guatemala

Guatemala cancels meeting between Morales and Trump (AP)

A meeting in Washington between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Guatemalan counterpart Jimmy Morales purportedly over a potential “safe third country” agreement for asylum seekers has been canceled, Guatemala’s office of the presidency said Sunday.

The presidency said that the meeting would be rescheduled because the Constitutional Court has not yet ruled on legal appeals aimed at preventing Morales from acceding to Trump’s requests. The meeting had been set to take place Monday.

“Due to speculation and legal proceedings admitted for processing to the Constitutional Court, a decision was made to reschedule the bilateral meeting until we know what was resolved by said court,” a statement said. “The government of the republic reiterates that at no moment has it contemplated signing an agreement to convert Guatemala into a safe third country.”

[...] A “safe third country” agreement would mean that Salvadorans, Hondurans and people from elsewhere who cross into Guatemala would have to apply for asylum there instead of doing so at the U.S. border — potentially easing the immigration crush that the United States is dealing with and handing Trump a concession he could tout as a win. [...] U.S. officials said that “safe third country” is on the table though not finalized, but the Guatemalan government said it was not intending to make such a deal.

posted by Little Dawn at 6:20 PM on July 14, 2019 [8 favorites]

Mightygodking has it right, there are so many different kinds of socialism that the question is meaningless, even to a committed socialist! Are they asking about social democracy, democratic socialism, libertarian socialism, communism, communalism, or workplace democracy? The poll seems like it wasn't drafted in good faith at all, but it still makes me want to send the creators Richard Wolff's video Three Basic Kinds of Socialism.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 6:21 PM on July 14, 2019 [10 favorites]

I think what the debate over capitalism vs socialism misses is that one of the major universal threats is consolidation of power. Regardless of whether that power is consolidated in the state, a monarch, a single political party, or a company, it’s bad for everyone. Checks and balances is what our system is supposed to be all about. And that needs to be a unifying focus.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 7:07 PM on July 14, 2019 [9 favorites]

I mean, that’s why the most important part of the DSA is the D part.
posted by The Whelk at 7:21 PM on July 14, 2019 [5 favorites]

Mightygodking has it right, there are so many different kinds of socialism that the question is meaningless [...]

You're making the fundamental mistake of thinking the poll is meant to reveal something about policy preference rather than politics. They're not trying to find out if voters think workers should own the means of production, they're trying to find out if "THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS OK WITH SOOOOCIIIAAAALIIISSSM" would be an effective or ineffective attack.

Policy doesn't win elections.
posted by Justinian at 7:41 PM on July 14, 2019 [28 favorites]

the most important part of the DSA is the D part.

Sure, but my point is that unwinnable debates whether Capitalism or Socialism is the one true answer or how DSA is different from other forms of Socialism is a wedge Republicans and lazy journalists amplify to divide us and convince people that it’s not worth voting.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 7:49 PM on July 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

Republicans and lazy journalists

It's almost like the Republicans learned that controlling the means of news production was important.
posted by benzenedream at 7:58 PM on July 14, 2019 [11 favorites]

Regardless of whether that power is consolidated in the state, a monarch, a single political party, or a company, it’s bad for everyone. Checks and balances is what our system is supposed to be all about. And that needs to be a unifying focus.

This is only possible when it isn't only two parties with one party being an insane death cult and the other party defining itself as "at least we're not the insane death cult." Our system of checks and balances has been entirely and irrevocably converted into a system of making sure as much fascism as possible happens (not that far off from the original intent of checks and balances TBH) and a balance between socialism and barbarism is not something to strive for.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:06 PM on July 14, 2019 [6 favorites]

Squad is also a military term. It isn't solely reserved for cheerleaders. I'd prefer to think of them as a nice military squad, all on the same team and working together to win.
posted by Bovine Love at 2:26 PM on July 14 [+] [!]

At my high school, we had a precision drill team that we referred to as "the Squad," although it was formally called the Crack Squad. It's been around since the 19th century and its members were revered and everyone wished they were good enough to make it onto the Squad. (Previously)
posted by Mental Wimp at 10:27 PM on July 14, 2019

Well, CNN's web headline right now is "Frightened GOP won't make Trump pay a price for his racist tweet", and there are four more uses of "Trump" and "racist" in other headlines right now.

I feel like CNN is moving further and further away from the "Both Sides have their Issues" approach to journalism of the last few years, and I applaud them for it.
posted by mmoncur at 10:33 PM on July 14, 2019 [26 favorites]

i'm not sure it's clear how bonkers the Guatemala thing is. Mexico actually is a semi-safe country that a lot of refugees settle in, and they still won't sign a safe third country agreement. The idea of Guatemala signing that kind of agreement is fucking wild. The news pieces linked describe an agreement that is even more fucking wild apparently, like,

“We’re talking about something much bigger than what the term ‘safe third country’ implies,” someone with knowledge of the deal told me. “We’re talking about a kind of transfer agreement where the U.S. can send any asylum seekers, not just Central Americans, to Guatemala.” ........
This is a whole new level,” the person with knowledge of the agreement told me. “In my read, it looks like even those who have never set foot in Guatemala can potentially be sent there.”

Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in the region. i think 3rd poorest. and being hit hard by climate change. This kind of plan would mean dumping people there to starve to death. And even setting aside safety, and setting aside food, Guatemala has only ever processed less than 200 asylum seekers per year. They can't even do the fucking paperwork on the scale we're talking about. and finally there is absolutely no reason they should do jack shit to help us unless it helps them.

the absolute best case scenario for this plan is that the USA spends a large amount of money to build refugee capacity (camps) in Guatemala instead of here. That's it. (That might even be what President Morales has in mind?) There is no reason to think that will happen.

More likely I'd guess that this is just not a real thing in any way. like it's probably just some nonsense posturing to change the negotiations with Mexico. that seems likely also because the headlines said "Trump poised to sign agreement" when that was never at any point true (it was a shitty draft agreement that was already being appealed/challenged in Guatemala before Morales got on the plane).
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 11:55 PM on July 14, 2019 [17 favorites]

“Squad”: Ocasio-Cortez and Omar adopted this term for their group right after the mid-term election. Maybe it's a Millennial thing.

Yeah, it’s a Millennial thing, with kind of a complicated history since its mainstreaming via #squadgoals and Taylor Swift’s squad was seen as appropriative of black culture and black twitter. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a MetaFilter FPP on the term from a few years ago when it really took off.
posted by stopgap at 12:22 AM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

ABC: CA lawmakers pass bill requiring Trump, presidential candidates to release tax returns

California legislation that would require presidential and state gubernatorial candidates to release their tax returns in order to appear on the state's ballot cleared a significant hurdle, passing the State Assembly with an overwhelming majority vote.

SB 27, co-authored by Senators Mike McGuire and Scott Wiener, was approved by the State Assembly Monday with a 57-17 vote, according to McGuire's office. It will be heard again in the State Senate this week, and if approved, will head to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature.[…]

The Presidential Tax Transparency & Accountability Act will require basic tax information to be shared with California residents, and require that all presidential and gubernatorial candidates release the last five years of their tax returns in order to appear on the state ballot. The returns will be made available to the public on the Secretary of State's website, according to McGuire's office.

The measure also includes an urgency clause, which would allow the legislation to take effect immediately, prior to the filing deadline for 2020 presidential candidates.

Axios reports that, as of last month, “Lawmakers in at least 25 states have introduced bills that would require presidential candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the 2020 ballot in that state”.
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:23 AM on July 15, 2019 [19 favorites]

Hi, this is an Australian with a message from your future refugee policy.

Nauru is a small Pacific Island with 11,000 residents no more than 21 square kilometres in size.

Australia pays it about $25 million USD annually to be an island prison for people who tried to seek asylum in Australia.

I'm not sure what the going rate will be for Guatemala.
posted by chiquitita at 4:01 AM on July 15, 2019 [40 favorites]

That's a chilling thought. This 2003 episode of This American Life about Nauru seemed dystopian to me when I first heard it.

It's weird when you realize the dystopia is already here, it's just not evenly distributed...
posted by OnceUponATime at 4:27 AM on July 15, 2019 [15 favorites]

If you remember, Obama had agreed to take in some 1,200 refugees to get them off Nauru, a deal Trump tried to renege upon as soon as he took office.
posted by OnceUponATime at 4:31 AM on July 15, 2019 [14 favorites]

Yes, you don't want to go down Australia's path with refugees.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:42 AM on July 15, 2019 [12 favorites]

Defense News: Turkey Has the S-400. The Trump Administration Is Silent.

Bloomberg has a leak from the Trump administration about considering options in lieu of an official statement about taking action: Trump Aides Pick Sanctions to Punish Turkey for Russian Missiles

President Donald Trump’s team has settled on a sanctions package to punish Turkey for receiving parts of a Russian missile defense system and plans to announce it in the coming days, said people familiar with the matter.

The administration chose one of three sets of actions devised to inflict varying degrees of pain under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, the people said, without identifying which set had been chosen. The plan needs Trump’s approval.

One of the people said the intention is to announce the sanctions late next week. The administration wants to wait until after Monday’s anniversary of a 2016 coup attempt against Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to avoid fueling further speculation that the U.S. was responsible for the uprising, as Erdogan’s loyalists have claimed.

The plan was developed after days of discussions between officials at the State and Defense departments and the National Security Council. It awaits a sign-off by Trump and his top advisers, the people said, requesting anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

FT: Turkey Urges Trump To Avoid Sanctions Over Missile System—Ankara risks retaliation after receiving shipment of Russian weapons despite US warnings

Turkey expects Donald Trump to “find a compromise” over its purchase of a Russian air defence system, president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday as Ankara accepted fresh shipments of components.[…]

Speaking after a report that American officials had prepared a sanctions package to present to Mr Trump and his senior advisers, Mr Erdoğan expressed hope that the US president would exempt his country from punitive measures.

“President Trump can waive or delay . . . sanctions,” he told a group of Turkish journalists, according to the news channel Haberturk. “Since this is the case, the person who needs to find a compromise is Mr Trump.”

Erdoğan clearly has figured out that he can adopt Kim Jong Un's tactic of directly appealing to Trump (and his ego) while flouting sanctions.

While this was going on, Turkey was ramping up in Syria, the Daily Sabah reports: Turkey's Huge Deployment Signals Extensive Offensive East of Euphrates—The large military deployment and tactical mobility on the ground point to Turkey preparing for an offensive east of the Euphrates against YPG terrorists

"Last December, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Ankara temporarily halted operations to wait a little longer until U.S. troops had completely withdrawn from the region, as announced by U.S. President Donald Trump. However, after eight months, Washington has not taken any steps in this regard. Also, the two NATO allies reached the Manbij deal last June to accelerate the withdrawal of the YPG from Manbij and prevent the terrorist organization from disrupting peace efforts. The agreement became yet another promise that the U.S. has been dragging its feet on to implement."

For further reading on the US-Turkey relationship, which has only deteriorated despite Trump's sucking up to the autocratic Erdogan, Foreign Affairs has an overview: Why Turkey Turned Its Back on the United States and Embraced Russia—A Rift That Began in Iraq and Syria Now Threatens to Divide NATO

posted by Doktor Zed at 4:52 AM on July 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

Morning tweets, and, well, there's the angle:

When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!

If Democrats want to unite around the foul language & racist hatred spewed from the mouths and actions of these very unpopular & unrepresentative Congresswomen, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I can tell you that they have made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S.

posted by box at 5:17 AM on July 15, 2019

Again with the word "disgusting." Trump's also a well-known germaphobe.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:48 AM on July 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

↑↑MonkeyToes: Twitter thread from A.R. Moxon (Julius Goat), on the malignant power of not caring.

Lindsey Graham: ‘I Don’t Care’ If Migrants Stay in Overcrowded Detention Centers for ‘400 Days’
posted by 1970s Antihero at 5:49 AM on July 15, 2019 [7 favorites]

Ryan Grim:

I asked top Democratic pollster Celinda Lake of Lake Research what she made of the results of the poll of white, non-college voters that Axios published. Here are her points:

1. "It shouldn't have been reported on. It violated all the standards for publication...The AAPOR, AP, CNN guidelines etc require -- rightly so -- release of all findings, release of who did the poll and who paid for it, release of question wording."

2: "The questions were unbelievably biased and the cherrypicking of results even more so...We know from other polling: Half of Americans don't know what socialism is. What would results have been if you asked a question which is standard wording -- do you have a favorable rating, an unfavorable rating of socialism or don't you know."

3: "22 percent isn't bad among white, noncollege people. We are only going to get 25-35 percent max. What were numbers among millennials and POC whom we need to turnout?"

4: "Noticeably there is no releasing of college without debt, green new deal, or medicare for all. That's because 56-65 percent of the public support those policies."

FWIW, Lake certainly isn't a firebrand with a red rose in her lapel (she just wrote a book with Kellyanne Conway), and she has a long and friendly relationship with the Democratic establishment.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:07 AM on July 15, 2019 [35 favorites]

The New Sanctuary Coalition is seeking more congregations in NYC to commit to sort-term shelter for Friends (non-citizens, their terminology) because Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has a policy of not coming into religious spaces to pick up immigrants for deportation.

There's lots of good information on their website for Buddies and Friends, as well as for congregations who might commit to protecting Friends.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:13 AM on July 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

Morning tweets, and, well, there's the angle

This morning's tweets are a continuation of last night's, in which @realDonaldTrump similarly complaining, in coded fashion, about how Democrats "Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country and who, in addition, hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion" in, of course, "disgusting language". He's gone on this morning to tweet further about "foul language & racist hatred spewed from the mouths and actions of these very unpopular & unrepresentative Congresswomen", "they have made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S", and, in true autocrat mode, "When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!"

These follow-ups to his racist tweets yesterday morning are a clear sign that Trump feels emboldened to double down, thanks to positive feedback from his rabid supporters and a lack of pushback from GOP leadership. This is a only prelude to what his campaigning in 2020 will be like, of course. He probably feels relieved to be on the offensive again instead of having to defend himself about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

While Trump's racism is no secret, the media is still catching up to calling it out, e.g. the NYT leaves it to an interviewee to actually call Trump "racist": Trump Fans the Flames of a Racial Fire

Jack O’Donnell, the former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, later wrote that Mr. Trump openly disparaged others based on race, complaining, for example, that he did not want black men managing his money.

“Trump has not only always been a racist, but anyone around him who denies it, is lying,” Mr. O’Donnell said on Sunday. “Donald Trump makes racist comments all the time. Once you know him, he speaks his mind about race very openly.”

Mr. Trump, he said, regularly trafficked in racial stereotypes — Jews were good with money, blacks were lazy, Puerto Ricans dressed badly. “White people are Americans to Trump; everyone else is from somewhere else,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “He simply denies the reality of how we all immigrated to the United States.”

Or the Grey Lady lets their op-ed writers do the heavy lifting, like Charles Blow's new column: Trump’s Tweets Prove That He Is a Raging Racist.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:16 AM on July 15, 2019 [15 favorites]

Theresa May is the lamest of all lame ducks in history, and this may well be a desperate move to remain relevant, but: May condemns Trump's remarks about four congresswomen
Remember, Theresa May's real legacy is her racist run at the Home Office and her racist focus on immigration as PM dealing with the EU.
posted by mumimor at 6:29 AM on July 15, 2019 [11 favorites]

NBC reports on more leaks of palace intrigue at the Trump White House: Trump Weighs Ousting Commerce Chief Wilbur Ross After Census Defeat—Some White House officials expect the Cabinet secretary, who has known the president for years, to depart as soon as this summer.

President Donald Trump has told aides and allies that he is considering removing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross after a stinging Supreme Court defeat on adding a citizenship question to the census, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations.

While Trump has previously expressed frustration with the 81-year-old Ross, in particular over failed trade negotiations, Ross's long personal relationship with the president has allowed him to keep his job. And after the departure of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, the Cabinet’s only Hispanic who resigned on Friday amid questions about his role in a controversial 2008 plea agreement with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Ross may yet receive another reprieve.

But some White House officials expect Ross to be the next Cabinet secretary to depart, possibly as soon as this summer, according to advisers and officials.

Frustrated by Ross' leadership of the Census Bureau, which is within the Commerce Department, Trump has been making calls to allies outside the White House musing about replacing Ross.[…]

The president has suggested to allies he wants a more hard-charging leader as Commerce Secretary, despite having once talked up Ross as a "killer." However, there's no indication the president has reached out directly to potential replacements for Ross.

Trump loves to talk and complain on the phone to his cronies, of course, but Ross’s bungling of the citizenship question may result in legal exposure to the administration, which is a bright line for Trump.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:46 AM on July 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

Trump Demands Apology From Democratic Congresswomen He Attacked in Racist Diatribe (Inae Oh, Mother Jones)

Same tweets, different take. Notes that his recent tweets should have some staying power in news headlines.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:02 AM on July 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

mumimor: Theresa May is the lamest of all lame ducks in history, and this may well be a desperate move to remain relevant, but: May condemns Trump's remarks about four congresswomen

I suspect that telling anyone to "go back to your home country" falls right in the Venn diagram overlap between "form of racism that is low-hanging fruit for easy condemnation by white elites" and "form of racism that nearly every member of certain demographics has experienced, probably multiple times in their life, and hence perpetuated by a flabbergasting percentage of whites".

Like: racist rhetoric can be placed on a spectrum measuring the extent to which even white people call it racist, with "microaggressions and cultural appropriation" at one end and "KKK hoods" at the other, and this trope is right in the middle. That makes it a near-ideal wedge for "PC culture has gone too far" demagougery than a less-polarized phrase would be.

It doesn't help that "So where are you really from?" lies more on the narrow-agreement side (as in, the median white person thinks "Well, what's wrong with being curious?"). It just takes a bit of extrapolation from the inner logic of that query (plus some basic xenophobic resentment) to get the follow-up remark "How about you go back there?", which just happens to be the bridge too far (at least, I hope) even for the subset of white folks who desire respectability.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 7:09 AM on July 15, 2019 [6 favorites]

Trump moves to end asylum protections for Central Americans
"According to a new rule published in the Federal Register , asylum seekers who pass through another country first will be ineligible for asylum at the U.S. southern border. The rule, expected to go into effect Tuesday, also applies to children who have crossed the border alone."

Stephen Miller is on the march now, I guess.
posted by Harry Caul at 7:11 AM on July 15, 2019 [6 favorites]

From that link:

The policy is almost certain to face a legal challenge. U.S. law allows refugees to request asylum when they arrive at the U.S. regardless of how they did so, but there is an exception for those who have come through a country considered to be "safe." But the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs asylum law, is vague on how a country is determined "safe"; it says "pursuant to a bilateral or multilateral agreement."

This is a "rule" that violates the law.
posted by OnceUponATime at 7:15 AM on July 15, 2019 [16 favorites]

Carter’s Quiet Revolution (Mark Joseph Stern, Slate)

President Jimmy Carter’s diversification of the judiciary is one of the most important and least acknowledged achievements in presidential history. And it’s in danger.

Thanks, TheDonald, for all the not-diverse judicial nominees.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:19 AM on July 15, 2019 [9 favorites]

This is a "rule" that violates the law.

Thanks for this. The headlines was too much for my heart to bear.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 7:24 AM on July 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Mulvaney may be widely disliked on Capitol Hill by both Dems and GOPers, but by staying out of Trump’s way and concentrating on his own power base, he’s proving a more successful CoS than either of his predecessors, at least as far as Trump’s concerned.

From upthread, based on a WaPo article. I think this needs to be talked up more. Mulvaney thinks he's being clever by not restraining Trump's baser proclivities but Trump will definitely not take kindly to someone building their own power base even if at the moment it's not competing with Trump's agenda. Please let this become a talking point on the nightly talk shows.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:14 AM on July 15, 2019

Lindsey Graham: ‘I Don’t Care’ If Migrants Stay in Overcrowded Detention Centers for ‘400 Days’

Graham lost all shame in his capitulation to Trump. Here he is, parroting Trump on Fox this morning (w/video via Aaron Rupar): "We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel. They hate our own country. They're calling the guards along our border concentration camp guards. They accuse people who support Israel of doing it for {air quotes} the Benjamins. They're socialists. They're ant-Semitic. They're anti-America." So naturally @realDonaldTrump retweeted him.

Roll Call, back in March: Lindsey Graham’s Embrace of Trump Working With Home State Gop Voters, New Poll Finds

"The South Carolina Republican’s approval rating among Republicans and those who lean Republican in his state stands at 74 percent, according to a new Winthrop University survey released Thursday. […] Graham’s approval rating among Republican and likely Republicans has risen by 24 percent in less than two years in Winthrop polls. In one released in April 2017, less than 50 percent of such people surveyed said they approved of Graham."

And the Charleston Post and Courier noted late last month: "GOP support for President Donald Trump remains strong in South Carolina. Nine in 10 S.C. Republicans give the president favorable ratings and good marks on his job performance. A bulk of GOP voters, 70 percent, said Trump reflects the Republican Party’s views."
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:15 AM on July 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

A bulk of GOP voters, 70 percent, said Trump reflects the Republican Party’s views.

I wish they'd stop asking such mealy mouthed questions and get the people to actually define what they think "Republican Party views" are, 'cause they seem to shift to fit whatever Trump does, as if there's nothing really there except the usual hate and more wealth and control to those in power.

It'd be nice to either have that confirmed by the voters or have those "views" shown to be as empty as the minds of those who think the party actually stands for anything. I'd like to actually hear those voters express their liking of the rich getting richer at their expense, if that is what they believe in.
posted by gusottertrout at 8:24 AM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

get the people to actually define what they think "Republican Party views" are, 'cause they seem to shift to fit whatever Trump does

What Donald Trump got right, and Justin Amash got wrong, about conservatives

Barber and Pope asked voters if they agreed or disagreed with different policies. Because of the, erm, flexibility of Trump’s rhetoric, they were able to pick policies where Trump had, at some point, taken both a liberal policy position and a conservative policy position. And so some voters were asked about the policy without a cue telling them what Trump thought, but other were asked about the policy and given either Trump’s liberal position on the policy or his conservative one.

The idea here was to see how much of a difference Trump’s positioning made, and to whom. Among the most interesting findings is in the chart below. The people who identified as most strongly conservative were the likeliest to move in response to Trump. And the effect was about the same size whether Trump was taking the conservative or liberal position. It was the direction of Trump, not the direction of the policy, that mattered.

posted by OnceUponATime at 8:28 AM on July 15, 2019 [33 favorites]

NYT: E.P.A. Plans to Curtail the Ability of Communities to Oppose Pollution Permits

I'm out of free NYT articles and can't quote directly, but the gist of it is that EPA has something called the Environmental Appeals Board, which hears administrative challenges to permits before they go to court. It's basically the first step in litigation -- there's a three-person panel of administrative "judges," they weigh evidence and hear oral argument, etc. The Trump administration is proposing to cut that board off at the knees: They could only hear challenges from permittees trying to get their limits loosened rather than environmentalists/neighbors who might argue that the permit is letting too much pollution into the environment, and would have drastically reduced authority to actually overturn an agency action. It's not going over well.

Except, maybe I'm dumb, but....if you're going to cut off the board's authority to the point where it's a rubber stamp, why are you then making it so only industry permittees have to go through this joke of a process, while environmentalists, etc., would be able to go straight to federal court (under federal law you can't sue until you've exhausted all possible administrative remedies)? And in cases where environmentalists are suing you, wouldn't you rather have a robust administrative record to show how you considered all their concerns and explained why they're wrong? "Cutting off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:04 AM on July 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

As usual, GOPers are leaking anonymously to Axios about Trump's racist tweets instead of speaking out: A Tough Time to Be a Trump Supporter

"Republicans with a conscience are cringing," a Trump ally said. "He believes the more he puts 'The Squad' front and center, the better his re-election chances get."

A former White House official tried to explain Trump for a couple of texts and then just said: "It's insane."

One influential Democrat told me Trump had achieved a tactical win — stoking both his own base and Dems' internal tensions: "His view is that he simply cannot go too far. The line doesn’t exist. ... I'm very worried."[…]

With Republican officials staying silent yesterday, the Trump ally told me, "If anything, history has said that this stuff does go away and that it’s not worth the potentially catastrophic political cost of weighing in against him (as a Republican)."

What Donald Trump got right, and Justin Amash got wrong, about conservatives

For whatever it's worth, Justin Amash was unequivocal in his criticism of Trump's racist tweet: "To tell these American citizens (most of whom were born here) to “go back” to the “crime infested places from which they came” is racist and disgusting."
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:10 AM on July 15, 2019 [11 favorites]

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Son of Joe Lieberman contemplates a run for U.S. Senate in Georgia
posted by C'est la D.C. at 9:13 AM on July 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

“Racist, Xenophobic” - Congressman from border country attacks Trump after racist tweets (Guardian)

Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) Texas Republican Will Hurd to CNN's Christiane Amanpour: "Those tweets are racist, and xenophobic... It’s also behavior that’s unbecoming of the leader of the free world. He should be talking about things that unite, not divide us."July 15, 2019

“President Trump was wrong” - GOP Senator slams tweets about the Squad as fallout, rows continue (Guardian)

Here’s Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey’s statement, proving that even if congressional Republicans are in lock-step with the White House, some are prepared to break rank not just in the gossip parlors but in public, too. #MeToomey

posted by Little Dawn at 9:22 AM on July 15, 2019 [12 favorites]

Toomey’s statement is pretty much yeah they’re evil socialists but Trump was wrong in that they were born here which is pretty much having cake and eating it territory
posted by angrycat at 9:36 AM on July 15, 2019 [6 favorites]

Toomey is such an astoundingly craven shithead of a senator that I'm honestly shocked he mustered up even that sliver of minimal cake-eating decency.

I've already left him my daily "yelling at him to do something about the damn concentration camps" email but perhaps with tomorrow's I'll encourage him to try hard to muster up a second shred of decency one day.
posted by Stacey at 9:48 AM on July 15, 2019 [10 favorites]

The Onion (but also real life): Trump Supporters Worried Racist Attacks Against Progressive Democrats Just Talk
posted by zombieflanders at 9:52 AM on July 15, 2019 [29 favorites]

Most Migrants at Border With Mexico Would Be Denied Asylum Protections Under New Trump Rule (NYT)

Most migrants who travel by land to enter the United States from the Mexican border will be denied asylum protections according to plans the Trump administration announced Monday. The new rule was expected to be immediately challenged in court.

The rule goes into effect on Tuesday. It is one of the broadest attempts by the Trump administration to restrict asylum, and was announced after the president of Guatemala backed out of a meeting at the White House that had been set for Monday to discuss a similar policy. [...]

Hours after the rule was released, the American Civil Liberties Union said it “could not be more inconsistent with our domestic laws or international laws.” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the A.C.L.U.’s immigrants’ rights project, said the rule undercut Congress’s commitment to asylum protections.

“The Trump administration is trying to unilaterally reverse our country’s legal and moral commitment to protect those fleeing danger,” Mr. Gelernt said in a statement. “This new rule is patently unlawful and we will sue swiftly.”

posted by Little Dawn at 10:12 AM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

John Katko (R-NY24) tweeted that "the President's tweets were wrong" but he couldn't bring himself to actually say what was wrong about them.
posted by maurice at 10:12 AM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

Understanding the AOC vs. Pelosi feud: It's not a "catfight" but a long-term power struggle

Their feud with AOC, the Squad and the Justice Democrats is about an existential threat, not about one longtime colleague or one seat. If New York’s districts start to fall to left-wing insurgents, one by one, the nation will notice and the pattern will spread. If the pattern spreads, what is endangered is not just the power of certain individuals, but the entire theory of power that has driven the Democratic Party for generations. Those are literally the stakes.

posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 10:17 AM on July 15, 2019 [20 favorites]

Trump’s America Is a ‘White Man’s Country’ (Jamelle Bouie, NYTimes)

If Donald Trump has a theory of anything, it is a theory of American citizenship. It’s simple. If you are white, then regardless of origin, you have a legitimate claim to American citizenship and everything that comes with it. If you are not, then you don’t.

posted by pjenks at 10:25 AM on July 15, 2019 [8 favorites]

"Republicans with a conscience are cringing," a Trump ally said.

But not resigning from their racist trainwork of a party. So, not actually disagreeing.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:32 AM on July 15, 2019 [20 favorites]

A Republican governor today called Trump's tweets shameful. OK, it was Charlie Baker, the Massachusetts Republican who would probably be a Democrat outside the Northeast, but still.
posted by adamg at 10:33 AM on July 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

Also from that Bouie piece:

Indeed, it is instructive — and frankly disturbing — that top Democrats leaked a poll to Axios showing broad dissatisfaction with Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Omar. Not from the entire public or Democratic voters, but from “1,003 likely general-election voters who are white and have two years or less of college education.”

posted by box at 10:44 AM on July 15, 2019 [14 favorites]

CNN's Manu Raju notes this exchange following Trump's Made in America Product Showcase (w/video): “Trump, asked if he has concerns that he's using the language of white supremacists and many view his tweets as racist, says: "It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me."”

CNN's Daniel Dale: “Told that three of the members of Congress he's talking about were born in America, and asked where they should go back to, Trump said, "Well, they're very unhappy. I'm watching them, all they do is complain. So all I'm saying is, if they want to leave, they can leave."” (Trump repeatedly ignored the follow-up question, "And go where?")

Politico: House Democrats are drafting a resolution to condemn President Donald Trump’s racist tweets against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other high-profile freshman congresswomen.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:50 AM on July 15, 2019 [12 favorites]

Oh boy, a Resolution!
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:58 AM on July 15, 2019 [48 favorites]

Rep. Al Green to force impeachment vote against Trump (Politico)

A Democratic lawmaker says he will force a vote on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump by next week, a dramatic step that could force the Democrat-led House to consider the measure for the first time, even over the objection of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“The President of the United States is a racist, a bigot, a misogynist, as well as an invidious prevaricator. To say that Donald John Trump is unfit for the Office of the President of the United States is an understatement," said Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who cited Trump's racist tweets over the weekend about Democratic congresswomen as the impetus for his third effort to push through an impeachment vote.

posted by Little Dawn at 11:11 AM on July 15, 2019 [40 favorites]

More nonsense from Trump's presser, via Aaron Rupar (w/video): “TRUMP: "The stock market started going up the day after I won [this is false -- the market has been steadily going up since about 2010] ... if I would have lost, the stock market could crash ... I'm really good at this stuff. I know what I'm talking about."”

Fortune notes that none of the stock indexes have done as well during Trump's presidency as Obama's: S&P 500 Has Performed Far Worse Under Trump Than Under Obama

The short answer is that Trump has quite a way to go. Under Obama, the S&P 500 grew by 56.4%. The Dow Jones Industrials Average was up 50.6% and the Nasdaq, 92.9%.

The numbers under Trump were 21.4% for the S&P 500, 25.2% for the Dow, and 34.2% for Nasdaq.

posted by Doktor Zed at 11:12 AM on July 15, 2019 [12 favorites]

Even if non-binding, a resolution would be on the historical record, and it is a start (however incremental) towards impeachment.

The question is follow-through — a promise of a draft does not mean an actual vote will result. If that vote is purposefully withheld by the usual parties, then we have been left with nothing (again).
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:12 AM on July 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

I kinda hope the mods delete both my comment and the one I'm replying to, but doesn't an impeachment vote without a removal from office also leave us with nothing (again)? I mean, it's just symbolic either way, right?
posted by OnceUponATime at 11:25 AM on July 15, 2019

I called both my Republican US Senators' DC offices to ask whether the Senator(s) had issued a statement (some statements) about whether Representative Omar should go back to Africa. I was informed they had not. I expressed concern that the President was a racist, and that the Senator(’)s(’) silence in the face of such institutional racism indicated that they also were a racist (some racists), and I was wondering whether the staffer(s) agreed that the President's tweet was racist? I was told that the staffer(s) could not offer their personal opinion, but that they would be happy to take any message(s) I wished to pass on to the Senator(s). I said that my concern was that, in working directly for an aforementioned racist Senator, the staffer(s) themselves was a racist (were some racists). I was answered "No". I asked why the staffer(s) were working for the racist(s). I was informed that the staffer(s) could not offer their personal opinion, but that they would be happy to take any message(s) I wished to pass on to the Senator(s). I noted that the staffer(s) had in fact offered their personal opinion(s) that they were not racist merely because they worked for a racist Senator, and I wished them to continue to provide information as to why they would work for a racist Senator. I was thanked and informed that my message(s) would be passed along
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:26 AM on July 15, 2019 [37 favorites]

I did CTRL-F on this thread for "Chao", but I have only found "He loves chaos". So true. He loves Chaos. This is relevant because the official White House defense of the overtly racist tweets is that the President employs Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, so therefore, he cannot hate women of color. The fact that Elaine Chao is the wife of Senate Majority Leader McConnell is presumably a chaotic coincidence
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:28 AM on July 15, 2019 [9 favorites]

it's just symbolic either way

Beyond the utility of getting incumbent politicians on record before the 2020 elections, impeachment inquiry processes open up many avenues for legal discovery, particularly of information relevant to the conduct of the president and its relation to his business and other interests. Whatever steps get us there (and beyond) are important. Censure is potentially one of those steps.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:35 AM on July 15, 2019 [8 favorites]

I kinda hope the mods delete both my comment and the one I'm replying to, but doesn't an impeachment vote without a removal from office also leave us with nothing (again)?

There has never been a removal, but I don't think anybody is going to say that the process of impeachment has never had an effect.
posted by rhizome at 11:43 AM on July 15, 2019 [14 favorites]

Regardless of what material effect it has on who gets to be in the White House, impeachment is a scarlet letter for future history. Only two presidents have ever been impeached, and it’s the thing they are most remembered for and always will be. It may not help us now, but it’s definitely not a meaningless gesture.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 11:44 AM on July 15, 2019 [21 favorites]

Beyond the utility of getting incumbent politicians on record before the 2020 elections

This may have negative utility, especially in some purple districts. There is a reason politicians don't like going on the record about things, and it's because it makes it harder for them to be elected. I mean going on the record about anything, not just impeachment. Whatever position they take, there are going to be some people who disagree with that position, who may have supported the politician if they had said nothing. Plus every position they take reduces their room to negotiate (since they can't trade votes or make threats about voting for stuff they have already pre-committed on.)

open up many avenues for legal discovery, particularly of information relevant to the conduct of the president and its relation to his business and other interests

An impeachment inquiry may make it easier to justify to the courts why they are entitled to this or that piece of information, but an impeachment vote puts an end to all impeachment inquiries.
posted by OnceUponATime at 11:45 AM on July 15, 2019 [7 favorites]

. . doesn't an impeachment vote without a removal from office also leave us with nothing
It helps the House honor and fulfill their duty to impeach, helps them do that a great deal actually. One of the core purposes of the United States Constitution is to prevent tyranny. That’s why the authors of the Constitution distributed power among the president, Congress and the judiciary.

Impeachment inquiry and/or proceedings is the constitutional duty of House Democrats, even if not politically 'advantageous' for them.
posted by Harry Caul at 11:57 AM on July 15, 2019 [15 favorites]

Republicans start whacking Trump for attacks on congresswomen (Politico)

The pushback on Monday marked some of the strongest condemnations Trump's received from his party, which began with a trickle and then threatened to widen as Trump escalated his attacks in remarks to reporters. Several Republicans called Trump's comments "racist," a description rarely used against the president by members of the GOP. [...]

"Instead of sharing how the Democratic Party’s far-left, pro-socialist policies... are wrong for the future of our nation, the President interjected with unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language," said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the only black Republican senator. "No matter our political disagreements, aiming for the lowest common denominator will only divide our nation further.”

Trumps "tweets from this weekend were racist and he should apologize. We must work as a country to rise above hate, not enable it," said Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio). [...] Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Trump “was wrong to say any American citizen, whether in Congress or not, has any ‘home’ besides the U.S.,” advocating for the defeat of Democrats in next year’s election. [...]

Trump defended himself before reporters Monday, saying his statements were "not at all" racist and that the congresswomen "hate our country." On Twitter, Trump also endorsed Graham's attack on the progressive congresswomen while not addressing the criticism. Trump also reiterated that the four women should leave the country if they don't like it here. [...]

"There is no excuse for the president’s spiteful comments – they were absolutely unacceptable and this needs to stop," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska.). "Instead of digging deeper into the mud with personal, vindictive insults – we must demand a higher standard of decorum and decency."

posted by Little Dawn at 12:03 PM on July 15, 2019 [12 favorites]

Graham lost all shame in his capitulation to Trump. Here he is, parroting Trump on Fox this morning (w/video via Aaron Rupar): "We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel. They hate our own country. They're calling the guards along our border concentration camp guards. They accuse people who support Israel of doing it for {air quotes} the Benjamins. They're socialists. They're ant-Semitic. They're anti-America." So naturally @realDonaldTrump retweeted him.

The Republican Jewish Coalition also retweeted Graham, with the caption "He isn't wrong", although to be fair this is really just them reiterating their support for concentration camps, ethnic cleansing, and state-sponsored bigotry rather than a new announcement.
posted by zombieflanders at 12:12 PM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

Toomey’s statement is pretty much yeah they’re evil socialists but Trump was wrong in that they were born here which is pretty much having cake and eating it territory

It's providing a template for some other Republican politicians to criticize Trump while still attacking Democrats:

From Sen. Tim Scott's (R-SC) statement: "Instead of sharing how the Democratic Party's far-left, pro-socialist policies—not to mention the hateful language some of their members have used towards law enforcement and Jews—are wrong for the future of our nation, the President interjected with unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language. No matter our political disagreements, aiming for the lowest common denominator will only divide our nation further." (Well, at least this admits that racism is a common denominator in today's GOP.)

See also Axios: Republican Backlash Trickles In On Trump's Racist Tweets

The Treasury's event on cryptocurrencies today was derailed by the topic of Trump's racist tweets, Aaron Rupar reports (w/video): "Steve Mnuchin on if he finds Trump's racist tweets to be racist: "I don't find them racist. The president just went on and clarified his comments. I think he speaks for himself on that, and he was very clear. But again, we're focused on cryptocurrency.""
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:14 PM on July 15, 2019 [9 favorites]

Future students of history should note that the most prominent Republican criticism of Trump’s tweets thus far consisted of Senator Graham saying that the President should “aim higher” and eschew personal attacks against political opponents... who, by the way, “hate our country”.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:16 PM on July 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

‘Many people agree with me’: Trump digs in on racist tweets (AP)

Among the few GOP lawmakers commenting, Rep. Pete Olson of Texas said Trump’s Sunday tweet was “not reflective of the values of the 1,000,000+ people” in his district. “We are proud to be the most diverse Congressional district in America. I urge our President immediately disavow his comments,” he wrote.

Maine GOP Senator Susan Collins chimes in to criticize Trump's tweets (Guardian)

Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) GOP ME Sen Susan Collins: I disagree strongly with many of the views and comments of some of the far-left members of the House Democratic Caucus..but the President’s tweet that some Members of Congress should go back to the ‘places from which they came’ was way over the line July 15, 2019

posted by Little Dawn at 12:22 PM on July 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

Future students of history should note that the most prominent Republican criticism of Trump’s tweets thus far consisted of Senator Graham saying that the President should “aim higher” and eschew personal attacks against political opponents... who, by the way, “hate our country”.

And which Trump apparently read as meaning he should be criticizing higher-profile Democrats, since his comments included "These are congresswomen. What am I supposed to do, just wait for senators?"

Sundown comes earlier and earlier every day....
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:31 PM on July 15, 2019 [6 favorites]

Axios: Republican Backlash Trickles In On Trump's Racist Tweets

But not this profile in pusillanimity, NYMag's Yashi Ali reports (w/video): "When asked by @AlisonNBCBoston if Trump’s tweets are racist, @MittRomney says “that’s all I’ve got, thanks.”"

Or Larry Kudlow "Look, I’m not going to go there. That’s way out of my lane. He’s tweeted what he’s tweeted, you’ll have to talk to him about that."

WBAL's Bryan Nehman: “Maryland Congressman @RepAndyHarrisMD tells me President Trump's tweets this weekend were "clearly not racist" and that "he could have meant go back to the district they came from--to the neighborhood they came from."”

Meanwhile, the AP reports on the sentencing of Heather Heyer's murderer: Fields Gets Life Plus 419 Years On State Charges

"James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced Monday to life plus 419 years for killing one person and injuring dozens during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017. Judge Richard Moore formally imposed the sentence recommended by a Virginia jury that convicted Fields in December. Fields, of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced last month to life in prison on 29 federal hate crime charges."
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:33 PM on July 15, 2019 [19 favorites]

CNN Exclusive: Security reports reveal how Assange turned an embassy into a command post for election meddling

Days later, on July 18, while the Republican National Convention kicked off in Cleveland, an embassy security guard broke protocol by abandoning his post to receive a package outside the embassy from a man in disguise. The man covered his face with a mask and sunglasses and was wearing a backpack, according to surveillance images obtained by CNN.

The security company saw this unfold on surveillance footage and recommended that the guard be replaced. But the Ecuadorian government kept him on the job.

On that same day, according to the Mueller report, WikiLeaks informed the Russian hackers that it had received the files and was preparing to release them soon.

posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:42 PM on July 15, 2019 [34 favorites]

I still want to know if Putin-Assange was responsible for the Brexit referendum result
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:48 PM on July 15, 2019 [13 favorites]

The real quesiton they should be asking Republicans is if, given that the tweets are racist, Trump is ever going to sincerely apologize or change in any way. And if they don't expetct he will, why this an acceptable state of affairs. Could he ever go too far, in their minds? What's the limit for acceptable racism?

They sucked his brains out!: Beyond the utility of getting incumbent politicians on record before the 2020 elections, impeachment inquiry processes open up many avenues for legal discovery, particularly of information relevant to the conduct of the president and its relation to his business and other interests.

I could be wrong, but: this is only with respect to the House's own rules regarding impeachment, and it can modify those rules how it likes. There is no written judicial or legal principle that says impeachment means business whereas non-impeachment is weaksauce.

One reason I harp on this is that both Republicans and certain Democrats are all too happy to spread a notion of present powerlessness, forcing a false dichomoty between bringing out the big guns (though the weight of those guns is itself an unclear fact) and doing nothing (e.g just plain not showing up to subpoenas).

wierdo: One of the core purposes of the United States Constitution is to prevent tyranny. That’s why the authors of the Constitution distributed power among the president, Congress and the judiciary.

Impeachment inquiry and/or proceedings is the constitutional duty of House Democrats, even if not politically 'advantageous' for them.

This is not much of a good reason at all. The founders also intended something like a democracy where every voice (well, white male voice, but setting that aside) has a real say in who runs the government. Therefore, when you go to the ballot box, your duty is to vote for your favorite candidate period, even if they're a fringe fourth-partier. Right? No, of course not. You have to sacrifice that for the sake of cold pragmatism, unfortunately. It's an imperfect system, just like one that allows for the partisan capture of justice that we see today.

Pelosi thinks the calculus is such that staying the course keeps Democratic chances healthily above the waterline, whereas impeachment rocks the boat hard enough that we could all tumble overboard, e.g because low-infor voters will go from "Huh, this guy seems corrupt and racist" to "I guess he was innocent after all!" just as soon as the Senate (in total dereliction of its duty) finds not-guilty. She's absolutely wrong on that calculus. But she's not wrong about priorities. If impeachment really does guarantee a Trump re-election, that's game over for the Constitution. Following a supposed constitutional duty to that end is contradictory. The obligation instead is to do whatever it takes to win, whether that's impeachment, or "bread and butter issues", or a Green New Deal, or wearing Juggalo outfits. (I think it's impeachment. The impeachable issues are never going to go away and we need to play offense.)
posted by InTheYear2017 at 12:51 PM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

The Squad (tm) are holding a press conference on the recent racist attacks from the president, today at 5:00pm.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 12:54 PM on July 15, 2019 [9 favorites]

"Instead of sharing how the Democratic Party’s far-left, pro-socialist policies... are wrong for the future of our nation, the President interjected with unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language," said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) (emphasis added)

Note that while Trump's overt, unmistakable racism might be a bridge too far for some Republicans, they're still happy to run with Newt Gingrich's dishonest, divisive, hyper-partisan playbook even when criticizing Trump.
posted by Gelatin at 12:55 PM on July 15, 2019 [10 favorites]

Going solely by the trickle of Republican Senators to have spoken out so far, attacking overt racism while still endorsing cryptofascism entails an act of extraordinary courage
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:00 PM on July 15, 2019 [13 favorites]

WaPo staff photographer Jabin Botsford zooms in on Trump’s notes at the podium today: “@realDonaldTrump notes today on @AOC and @IlhanMN flipped and rotated #for your viewing pleasure.” (Featuring big fonts, short sentences, and lots of underlining in magic marker.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:33 PM on July 15, 2019 [7 favorites]

Connecticut has lots of working-class Italian-Americans (you people not from here might be surprised how many there are). I know quite a few, and a large majority of them are Tr*mp supporters. So I posted this to my Facebook page; we'll see what kind of responses I get ...

Italian-American Trump supporters: Here's a fun fact for you ... There was once a time recently, within Donald Trump's lifetime, that Italians weren't considered "white." Don't take my word for it; look it up for yourself.

How would you feel if some racist douchebag told your American-born grandmother, mother, sister or daughter to "go back to the totally broken and crime infested place from which you came?”

Now do you get it?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:37 PM on July 15, 2019 [32 favorites]

Therefore, when you go to the ballot box, your duty is to vote for your favorite candidate period, even if they're a fringe fourth-partier. Right? No, of course not. You have to sacrifice that for the sake of cold pragmatism, unfortunately.

Following a supposed constitutional duty to that end is contradictory. The obligation instead is to do whatever it takes to win...

Applying cold pragmatism to following the Constitution seems obviously problematic, but maybe that's just me.
posted by diogenes at 1:41 PM on July 15, 2019

It appears CBS News plans to stream the Ocasio-Cortez/Omar/Pressley/Tlaib press conference.
posted by box at 1:51 PM on July 15, 2019 [7 favorites]

The Squad sure has a lot of people freaked out. My Trumpie cousins post anti-AOC stuff on Facebook, and I wonder what's so terrifying about the 430th most powerful person in the House of Representatives.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:17 PM on July 15, 2019 [14 favorites]

California Republicans face backlash for silence over Trump tweets (Politico)

Even as California Democrats universally condemned the president, the head of the California Republican Party did not respond, nor did Republican leadership in the state Legislature. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also has remained silent.

Other California Republicans have taken note of their leadership’s reluctance to speak.

Republican Assemblyman Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley) was the sole GOP legislator to speak out on Twitter following the president’s Sunday tweetstorm. “This is beyond unacceptable, it is wrong and abhorrent,’’ he wrote. “Dear Fellow Republicans, we must speak out and return ourselves to decency. This cannot be who we are!”

Republican strategists and former GOP officials also lambasted Trump. That included never-Trumpers like former Arnold Schwarzenegger aide Rob Stutzman, who called Trump “a disgrace to the office” and “evil” on Twitter, and more conservative voices like Jon Fleischman, a former California Republican official and commentator who said he was “embarrassed” and urged Trump to “delete this and apologize.”

“Donald Trump is speaking to his base and has no interest in talking to the rest of America,’’ said Luis Alvarado, founder of the California-based GOP firm Latino Strategy, who noted that “you can count on one hand” the number in his party speaking out.

“It’s not an issue of partisanship,” Alvarado said. “It’s an issue of being a true believer in what American values are — and that’s why I am in disbelief that our elected officials are not standing up to Donald Trump once again.”

“Time to lead,” former California Republican Party political director Mike Madrid said in a tweet directed at California Republican Party chair Jessica Millan Patterson. “Do the right thing and denounce the racism that has consumed the party. It’s not hard to do the right thing.”

posted by Little Dawn at 2:19 PM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

Trump tweets from ten minutes ago:

We will never be a Socialist or Communist Country. IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE! It is your choice, and your choice alone. This is about love for America. Certain people HATE our Country....

....They are anti-Israel, pro Al-Qaeda, and comment on the 9/11 attack, “some people did something.” Radical Left Democrats want Open Borders, which means drugs, crime, human trafficking, and much more....

....Detention facilities are not Concentration Camps! America has never been stronger than it is now – rebuilt Military, highest Stock Market EVER, lowest unemployment and more people working than ever before. Keep America Great!

posted by box at 2:20 PM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

It appears CBS News plans to stream the Ocasio-Cortez/Omar/Pressley/Tlaib press conference.

@jamescdownie: Veteran Washington move by the four congresswomen to be at least 15 minutes late to their press conference.
posted by zombieflanders at 2:22 PM on July 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's pretty disingenuous how one of the excuses for the president's racist rhetoric is that The Squad members are allegedly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. And isn't Omar the only one who's been accused of being anti-Semitic?

Trump’s latest tweets are about silencing women of color in Congress
posted by kirkaracha at 2:28 PM on July 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

Rep. Ilhan Omar unloaded. I recommend you find the video and watch her wise words.
posted by mikelieman at 2:29 PM on July 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

This press conference is pretty good, .

Rep. Pressley: Re Trump: "Don't take the bait." "If we improve the conditions of children in a cage, they are still in a cage." "This is a disruption and a distraction from the callous, chaotic, and corrupt culture of this administration." "Our squad includes any person committed to building a more equitable and just world."

Rep. Omar: "We have to take action when a president is openly violating the oath he took to the Constitution of the United States." "Right now, the president is carrying out mass deportation raids across the country." "The president is committing human rights abuses at the border." "Credibly accused of committing multiple crimes, including colluding with foreign governments to influence our election..." "This is a president who has said 'grab women by the pussy'.' 'This is a president who has called people from black and brown countries 'shitholes.' 'He's launching a blatantly racist attack on four duly-elected members of the US House of Representatives, all of whom are women of color. This is the agenda of white nationalists." "This is his plan to pit us against one another." "We can hold him accountable to his crimes." "It is time for us to stop allowing this president to make a mockery out of our constitution. It's time for us to impeach this president."
posted by box at 2:29 PM on July 15, 2019 [73 favorites]

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez: "No matter what the president says, this country belongs to you, and it belongs to everyone." "He has authorized raids without warrants on thousands of families." "He has turned our public education system into a cash cow to enrich himself and his friends." "I am not surprised at what he's doing." "We are focused on making it better, because we don't leave the things we love." "We'll stay focused on our agenda, and we won't get caught slippin', because all of this is a distraction from what's most important."

Rep. Tlaib, who spoke faster than I can reliably live-transcribe: "We cannot allow these hateful actions by the president to distract us from the critical work of holding this administration accountable." "He and his administration are continually engaging in acts that harm people in this country. "His utter disregard and disrespect of the US Constitution." "We remain focused on holding him accountable to the laws of the land."

A reporter asks Rep. Omar about the president's remarks that she is a communist and pro-Al-Qaeda:

"Every single person that's brown and black, at some point in this country, heard [Go back where you came from]. So I will not dignify that with an answer. I don't expect that every time there's a white man that kills in a school or movie theater or mosque or synagogue--I don't expect why white community members to respond on whether they love that person or not. It is beyond time to ask Muslims to condemn terrorists. We will no longer allow the dignification of such a ridiculous statement."

A reporter asks whether statements the four have made have given Trump ammunition:

Rep. Omar: "Every single statement that we make is from a position of extreme love for every single person in this country." "We are fighting every single day to create a more perfect union, and fighting on their behalf." "When this president ran, he talked about everything that is wrong in this country." "For him to condemn us... complete hypocrisy."

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez: "I don't think it would've changed anything, because he was making statements that were completely untrue." "Weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy. This president does not know how to make the argument that Americans do not deserve health care... And so he attacks us personally."

As things are wrapping up, a reporter asks if Omar denounces al-Qaeda. She does not reply.

(Transcripts probably aren't perfect, so, if that's a priority, it's probably best to wait for someone else's.)
posted by box at 2:41 PM on July 15, 2019 [45 favorites]

I'm very impressed by the skillful way these congresswomen threaded the needle between dismissing Trump's rhetoric ("this is a disruption and a distraction") and driving home the grave danger of his policies. His hateful tweets gave them a much larger platform than they would have otherwise gotten, but instead of making it about him and his own bigotry, which would have just fed his narcissism, they used that platform to make it about how he's codifying bigotry into law and using the apparatus of the state to maintain white supremacy.

I saw four great candidates for Speaker of the House at that podium today.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:45 PM on July 15, 2019 [63 favorites]

Philip Crowther: Commentators in the @FoxNews studio going after four minority Congresswoman for using profanity on live television. @IlhanMN was reading Trump quotes.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:48 PM on July 15, 2019 [49 favorites]

"Every single person that's brown and black, at some point in this country, heard [Go back where you came from]. So I will not dignify that with an answer. I don't expect that every time there's a white man that kills in a school or movie theater or mosque or synagogue--I don't expect why white community members to respond on whether they love that person or not. It is beyond time to ask Muslims to condemn terrorists. We will no longer allow the dignification of such a ridiculous statement."

YES, YES, YES!

Pretty much from the DAY of 9/11, I have been sick and tired of this idea that individual Muslims have some kind of responsibility to loudly proclaim that they condemn the terrorists. FUCK THAT NOISE. The very suggestion that you can assume Muslims support terrorism unless they specifically state otherwise is moronic, racist, and insulting to everyone's intelligence.

It's so refreshing to hear a Muslim politician push back against this horseshit. Especially since I know how difficult it is to do, and especially for someone as under the spotlight as Omar. BRAVA.
posted by CommonSense at 2:49 PM on July 15, 2019 [65 favorites]

AOC: "Weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy. This president does not know how to make the argument that Americans do not deserve health care... And so he attacks us personally."


Or, as I've long stated in Internet pissing-matches, "First person to ad-hom. loses".
posted by mikelieman at 3:03 PM on July 15, 2019 [12 favorites]

"I saw four great candidates for Speaker of the House at that podium today."

Whoa there. All four are capable, inspirational pols who have done much to advance their issues into the national dialog, but it doesn't seem like those skills are necessarily the same ones required for the Speakership, which is about counting money and votes.

If Pelosi has been especially disappointing lately (and I think she has been), I think it can be traced back to her defeat on the DHS funding bill. She thought she had the votes to get and keep the "tougher" House version of the bill and force the Senate to compromise, instead. She didn't learn she had lost centrist D votes until midday, hours after her office had issued a triumphant tweet. It was a humiliating defeat, and also one that struck at her Special Move ("Pelosi always knows the vote count."). Ever since she's been tacking back to the right so those moderate D votes aren't pushed to/given the opportunity to defect again. Would any of the Squad be willing -- or able -- to make that kind of pragmatic shift if required to maintain the majority?
posted by notyou at 3:16 PM on July 15, 2019 [15 favorites]

Elect a few more than 4 members and they'll be in a position to make demands like the moderates do. Only instead of "let us go home for 4th of July to call our billionaire donors" they can demand "let the fucking kids out of the fucking cages".
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:23 PM on July 15, 2019 [25 favorites]

“White House counselor Kellyanne Conway will ignore a congressional subpoena at the request of President Donald Trump, refusing to testify about a government watchdog's findings that she broke the law dozens of times, the White House said.”

So, you can just ...ignore those things then? Cool.
posted by The Whelk at 3:35 PM on July 15, 2019 [22 favorites]

She didn't learn she had lost centrist D votes until midday, hours after her office had issued a triumphant tweet. It was a humiliating defeat, and also one that struck at her Special Move ("Pelosi always knows the vote count."). Ever since she's been tacking back to the right so those moderate D votes aren't pushed to/given the opportunity to defect again.

re: "moderate D votes"

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

posted by mikelieman at 3:39 PM on July 15, 2019 [32 favorites]

AP: Trump Nominates Esper To Be Defense Chief, Succeeding Mattis

President Donald Trump on Monday asked the Senate to confirm Mark Esper as the successor to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, whose resignation last December opened an unprecedented period of senior-level instability at the Pentagon.

The moment the nomination was received by the Senate on Monday afternoon, Esper was required to step out of his role as acting defense secretary — a job he has held since June — until he is confirmed as the permanent secretary. He reverted to his previous position of Army secretary.

Filling in for Esper pending his confirmation is Richard Spencer, who has been the civilian leader of the Navy since August 2017.

This makes Spencer the third acting Secretary of Defense this year. (And no, not that Richard Spencer.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:03 PM on July 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

This makes Spencer the third acting Secretary of Defense this year.

For perspective, since the position was created in 1947 until the Trump administration there have been a total of two acting Secretaries of Defense who served for a combined 99 days (under Nixon and GHWB). It's another superlative for Trump, more acting Secretaries of Defense serving for longer (194 days and counting) than all previous administrations combined.
posted by peeedro at 4:10 PM on July 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

Rust Moranis: This is only possible when it isn't only two parties with one party being an insane death cult and the other party defining itself as "at least we're not the insane death cult." Our system of checks and balances has been entirely and irrevocably converted into a system of making sure as much fascism as possible happens (not that far off from the original intent of checks and balances TBH) and a balance between socialism and barbarism is not something to strive for.

For those of us not terribly well read on this, could you elaborate on the bold point? I'd appreciate it
posted by JoeXIII007 at 4:12 PM on July 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

Carve those four faces on the side of Mt Impeachmore.
posted by adept256 at 4:43 PM on July 15, 2019 [20 favorites]

George Will doesn’t have the same amount of influence as a conservative pundit that he did 25 years ago, but he’s at least making the right mouth noises about Trump:

"I believe that what this president has done to our culture, to our civic discourse ... you cannot unring these bells and you cannot unsay what he has said, and you cannot change that he has now in a very short time made it seem normal for schoolboy taunts and obvious lies to be spun out in a constant stream. I think this will do more lasting damage than Richard Nixon's surreptitious burglaries did."

posted by darkstar at 5:54 PM on July 15, 2019 [22 favorites]

It's another superlative for Trump, more acting Secretaries of Defense serving for longer (194 days and counting) than all previous administrations combined.

To be fair, he's our first Acting! President. Seriously, does anyone think he would ever have won if he hadn't pretended to be a competent, decisive business leader on TV?
posted by kirkaracha at 6:24 PM on July 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

“White House counselor Kellyanne Conway will ignore a congressional subpoena at the request of President Donald Trump, refusing to testify about a government watchdog's findings that she broke the law dozens of times, the White House said.”

Meanwhile, her husband George has written a new op-ed for the WaPo: Trump Is a Racist President

To this day, I can remember almost the precise spot where it happened: a supermarket parking lot in eastern Massachusetts. It was the mid-1970s; I was not yet a teenager, or barely one. I don’t remember exactly what precipitated the woman’s ire. But I will never forget what she said to my mother, who had come to this country from the Philippines decades before. In these words or something close, the woman said, “Go back to your country.”

He then switches from his experiences growing up in America and hopeful of its ideals to his naiveté about who Trump really is and what that means for the nation:

[…]I thought, President Trump was boorish, dim-witted, inarticulate, incoherent, narcissistic and insensitive. He’s a pathetic bully but an equal-opportunity bully — in his uniquely crass and crude manner, he’ll attack anyone he thinks is critical of him. No matter how much I found him ultimately unfit, I still gave him the benefit of the doubt about being a racist. No matter how much I came to dislike him, I didn’t want to think that the president of the United States is a racial bigot.

But Sunday left no doubt. Naivete, resentment and outright racism, roiled in a toxic mix, have given us a racist president. Trump could have used vile slurs, including the vilest of them all, and the intent and effect would have been no less clear. Telling four non-white members of Congress — American citizens all, three natural-born — to “go back” to the “countries” they “originally came from”? That’s racist to the core. It doesn’t matter what these representatives are for or against — and there’s plenty to criticize them for — it’s beyond the bounds of human decency. For anyone, not least a president.

I can't imagine tonight's conversation at the Conway home as anything but awful, one way or another.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:30 PM on July 15, 2019 [21 favorites]

Trump talks up success of raids, despite little evidence of widespread deportations (Politico)

President Donald Trump on Monday asserted that the mass-deportation raids he confirmed and publicized last week took place, despite few signs of removals being carried out at the scale he promised. [...] despite reports of more routine, smaller removal operations over the weekend, according to multiple media reports and immigration advocacy groups, there was no sign of the wide-scale blitz Trump warned of.

[...] “I spoke to the head of ICE, I spoke to a couple of people,” he told reporters. “We had many people, it was a very successful day.” He began to explain why “you didn’t see a lot of it,” but trailed off and predicted that reporters would hear more about the operation later. “I’m not sure they should be telling you, but it was a lot.”

Nobody Opened the Door’: Neighbors Rally During an ICE Raid in Houston (NYT)

With widespread publicity about the raids, many undocumented migrants have been counseled to avoid opening their doors.

Neighbors, immigration lawyers and migrant rights advocates are issuing warnings when any ICE agents are spotted. Following any report of a raid — real or rumored — the news media descends within minutes [...]

President Trump said on Monday that the raids that began over the weekend were “very successful,” though it wasn’t clear what operations he was referring to. Immigrant lawyers and advocacy groups reported only scattered raids that seemed to result in relatively few arrests.

posted by Little Dawn at 6:43 PM on July 15, 2019 [8 favorites]

Also from the Washington Post, Max Boot on I may not agree with AOC’s squad, but they are better Americans than Trump:

All Republicans who stand mute in the face of Trump’s latest racism are telling you who they really are. It’s an ugly picture of a morally bankrupt party that has now embraced racial prejudice as a platform.

I am ashamed to have spent most of my life as a Republican.

posted by Slothrup at 6:52 PM on July 15, 2019 [30 favorites]

The highbrow, conservative National Review is not a fan ...

Donald Trump’s Tweets Were Malicious, and Republican Silence is Deafening
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:03 PM on July 15, 2019 [21 favorites]

Meanwhile, in Good News ™️ “Congratulations to @CandiCdeBaca, the first democratic socialist ever elected to Denver city council. We are thrilled to fight alongside her for a Denver that works for all of us.”
posted by The Whelk at 7:04 PM on July 15, 2019 [19 favorites]

Man who spends most of his time complaining about America says that people who spend most of their time complaining about America should leave.
posted by clawsoon at 7:23 PM on July 15, 2019 [35 favorites]

All Republicans who stand mute in the face of Trump’s latest racism are telling you who they really are.

Some Republicans are standing anything but mute about Trump's racism, and not in a good way.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT): "Montanans are sick and tired of listening to anti-American, anti-Semite, radical Democrats trash our country and our ideals. This is America. We’re the greatest country in the world. I stand with @realdonaldtrump. 🇺🇸"

Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-LA) "There’s no question that the members of Congress that @realDonaldTrump called out have absolutely said anti-American and anti-Semitic things. I’ll pay for their tickets out of this country if they just tell me where they’d rather be."

With those in mind, here's what Rep. Omar said on to Rachel Maddow's show this evening: "[Trump]'s called on us to go back and fight corruption and fight these countries that have ... inept leaders. Well, we are living in one. He is that president. He is corrupt. He is the worst president we've had. He is inept. And we're going to call him out."
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:28 PM on July 15, 2019 [37 favorites]

Any idea what the word "HOLLYWOOD" written about halfway down Trump's notes means? The next word is obscured. Please tell me it isn't the beginning of the word "PEOPLE".
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:35 PM on July 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

I don't know, but did you see the top of his notes refer to Omar's comments with the words "ALCAIDA" and "SOME PEOPEL"?.... This man is president.
posted by xammerboy at 7:41 PM on July 15, 2019 [19 favorites]

Are there any concrete benefits to impeachment?

Impeachment inquiries allow Democrats to ask for information, request materials, subpoena witnesses, get tax info, see the full Mueller report, and expedite court cases in ways they can't now.

Short of impeachment, congress can also censure the president for his actions. Declaring his actions unconstitutional formally would be precedent setting (i.e. make it harder to do in the future). Doing nothing has legal ramifications as well. Some will argue Democrats' silence equals assent.

Finally, in the same way that Trump used Clinton's vote for the Iraq war against her, you can bank on future politicians using Democrat's failure to hold Trump accountable against them. This strategy will not come without a cost.
posted by xammerboy at 8:13 PM on July 15, 2019 [16 favorites]

Nancy Pelosi Says House Dems Are Drafting Resolution Condemning Trump’s Racist Tweets, which would require Republicans to go on record either supporting or denouncing him.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 8:26 PM on July 15, 2019 [6 favorites]

From MIRAC - Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee:

At 7:20 a.m. Monday morning, July 15, 2019, MIRAC members got notice that ICE was outside a home around 42nd and Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis. Three of us arrived there within minutes to witness two unmarked all-black SUVs and 1 pickup stopped in the far left lane blocking traffic surrounding a car.

We were too late. This person was most likely following the ‘know your rights’ advice that has been given to the community and did not open his car door. The ICE officers then proceeded to bust out the back window of his car to reach in, unlock the doors and drag this man to the ground.

An observer was across the street, yelling over two lanes of traffic, telling ICE that she wanted to see the warrant. The ICE officer moved his hand over his holster and told her not to dare to cross the street or move any closer to them. At one point the man told the ICE officers to please give his car keys to the observer and ICE told her that if she wanted to see any paperwork to meet them at their “office”...

...Minneapolis was not on the list of cities that were supposed to be targeted. But this is an important reminder that ICE takes people away every day in our communities, not just when the president publicly announces it...

Jack-booted thugs.
posted by triggerfinger at 8:46 PM on July 15, 2019 [44 favorites]

That Squad Press Conference was a rare moment of beauty. When was the last time we saw four men graciously and effectively share a political stage anywhere, for any reason? From a place of love, these women spoke truth to power, repeatedly, while clearly delineating their (I'd say utterly sane and necessary) policy goals of universal health insurance and good healthcare, working to aggressively reverse climate change, making certain each American has a good education through college sans debt, and, of course, impeaching the current executive. In ~22 minutes they provided more leadership, vision, and policy than I've seen from the actual Democratic leadership over the past 2+ years (with apologies to Ms. Waters, Mr. Schiff, and your favorite member of The House).

I appreciate The Squad's not allowing itself to be boxed in by the distractions of the right nor by the calculations of its own Democratic leadership, and instead assertively advocating for what they've been elected to do, and also for inviting us to join them in the work. This was, and they are, deeply heartening.
posted by riverlife at 9:06 PM on July 15, 2019 [63 favorites]

ADL Condemns President Trump's Racist Tweets and His Use of Israel and Jews as a Shield

The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) today condemned President Trump’s racist tweets about four U.S. congresswomen, in which he said they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” and his defense of these remarks by saying the congresswomen hate Israel and are anti-Semitic.

“As Jews, we are all too familiar with this kind of divisive prejudice,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. “While ADL has publicly disagreed with these congresswomen on some issues, the president is echoing the racist talking points of white nationalists and cynically using the Jewish people and the state of Israel as a shield to double down on his remarks. Politicizing the widespread, bipartisan support for Israel and throwing around accusations of anti-Semitism is damaging to the security of Israel and the Jewish community. He should lead by example, stop politicizing these issues and stop smearing members of Congress.”

posted by Joe in Australia at 9:41 PM on July 15, 2019 [41 favorites]

Are there any concrete benefits to impeachment?

Were there any benefits to Republicans holding 10000 Benghazi hearings? Did repeating Clinton's supposed "crimes" every day for 5 years have any effect on her public perception and the media narrative coloring her 2016 campaign? Beyond even the whole "it's your constitutional duty" thing, we're being told, without one shred of evidence, that there are not any benefits whatsoever, and holding impeachment hearings can only hurt Democrat's chances to win in 2020. When that's not at all what polls show.

Except if your only definition of a valid sample population is "1,003 likely general-election voters who are white and have two years or less of college education".

Even if they did, leadership is not even trying to influence the public narrative, they're letting Trump define every single news cycle. You know what is a big damn stick that the media couldn't ignore like they ignore all your precious message bills (that Democrats aren't even passing any of)? Impeachment. It's the one thing they have to change the tone. That they're too craven to use.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:54 PM on July 15, 2019 [34 favorites]

Twitter's new anti-hate policies bar attacks on people on the basis of their race, ethnicity or national origin, but Twitter says Trump's racist tweets don't break its rules.
posted by peeedro at 9:59 PM on July 15, 2019 [8 favorites]

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT): "Montanans are sick and tired of listening to anti-American, anti-Semite, radical Democrats trash our country and our ideals. This is America. We’re the greatest country in the world. I stand with @realdonaldtrump. 🇺🇸"

Oh, those proud Montanan ideals and values and those upstanding Montana Republicans.

Today I saw a poster on the front door of a house that was just an enlarged photo of a pile of dead Jews with "Shouldn't Have Given Up Your Guns" beneath it.

Yesterday on a local facebook political discussion page I excerpted some text about the mistreatment of migrant children and someone replied to me with this charming meme. The guy's name was familiar so I looked him up to find that he's the mayor of the closest town to me with a stoplight and a supermarket. The mayor. The mayor. The mayor.

Today a federal judge found that Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin owes a local Jewish family $14 million for orchestrating an online harassment campaign against them. Between Anglin and the family, I know for a goddamned fact who loves Trump and who hates him. I also know that I haven't heard a single fucking peep against Anglin from a single Montanan conservative for the 2 or 3 years that this case has been going through. And I know what kind of judges the GOP is currently putting in place to outweigh this one for the rest of our lives.

You're right Steve: this is in fact America. 🇺🇸
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:30 PM on July 15, 2019 [28 favorites]

@thedailyshow: "Hey media, need to write a headline about Trump being racist, but don't want to call him a racist? Try our Trump Racist Euphemism Headline Generator!"

Where you will find such gems as:

TRUMP DIPS TOE IN POOL OF ETHNICALLY INSENSITIVE KERFLUFLLE

TRUMP TIPTOES AROUND EDGE OF RACIALLY IMBUED BROUHAHA

TRUMP STROLLS ALONG BANKS OF RACE-ADJACENT OOPSIE-DAISY
posted by Rhaomi at 10:51 PM on July 15, 2019 [22 favorites]

It's the racism. But it's not just the racism. It's sex crimes. But it's not just the sex crimes. It's the concentration camps. But it's not just the concentration camps. It's the corruption. But it's not just the corruption.

It's being a traitor. But it's not just being a traitor. It's the obstruction of justice but its not just the obstruction of justice. It's the attacks on rule of law. But it's not just the attacks on the rule of law. It's the assault on freedom of the press.

But it's not just the assault on freedom of the press. It's the pathological lying. But it's not just the pathological lying. It's the unfitness for office. But it's not just the unfitness for office. It's the incompetence. But it's not just the incompetence.

It's the attacks on our most important allies and alliances. But it's not just the attacks on most important allies and alliances. It's the systematic destruction of our environment. But it's not just the systematic destruction of our environment.

It's the violation of international treaties and agreements. But it is not just the violation of international treaties and agreements. It's the embrace of our enemies. But it is not just the embrace of our enemies.

It's the defense of murdering dictators but it is not just the defense of murdering dictators. It is the serial undermining of our national security. But it is not just the serial undermining of our national security. It is the nepotism. But it's not just the nepotism.

It's the attacks on our federal law enforcement and intelligence communities. But it is not just the attacks on our federal law enforcement and intelligence communities. It's the fiscal recklessness. But it's not just the fiscal recklessness.

It's the degradation of the office and of public discourse in America. But it's not just the degradation of the office and of public discourse in America. It's the support of Nazis and white supremacists. But it's not just the support of Nazis and white supremacists.

It's the dead in Puerto Rico and the at the border. But it's not just the dead in Puerto Rico and at the border. It's turning the US government into a criminal conspiracy to empower and enrich the president and his supporters.

But it's not just the turning the US government into a criminal conspiracy to empower and enrich the president and his supporters. It's weaponization of politics in America to attack the weak. But it's not just the weaponization of American politics to attack the weak.

It's all these things together and the threat of worse to come. It is the damage that can not be undone. It is pathology that has overtaken our politics and our society, the revelation that 40 percent of the population and an entire political party are profoundly immoral.

It is a disease that has infected our system and is killing it. At the moment, we still have the wherewithal to fight back. But even those who recognize the dangers of this litany of crimes are proving too complacent, too inert in the face of this threat.

MORE HERE
posted by growabrain at 12:57 AM on July 16, 2019 [51 favorites]

There’s a pretty good graphic linked in that Twitter thread that lays out all the high crimes and misdemeanors, too.

You know, in case anyone needed, say, an outline for drafting an important congressional document...
posted by darkstar at 1:39 AM on July 16, 2019 [12 favorites]

Naive red herring question & possible derail, but I'm posting this question because I'd like to learn more about the history of this type of rhetoric, and it seems timely:

Not criticizing the Squad, who were awesome and said a lot that needs to be repeated a lot.

But one thing I see nativists/racists/fascists doing is claiming the mantle of "real Americans" and the people they accuse of not being "real Americans"...not accusing the nativists of being false Americans. Rhetorically it seems like the most obvious thing to say to me (very fraught hypothetical response to Trump's racist tweets follows) - "No, America is an inclusive, tolerant nation of immigrants with a long history of fighting bigots and winning. The Civil War, the struggle for women's rights, the fight against trusts, World War II, the struggle against Jim Crow; these were battles against racist, bigoted, power-hungry tyrants, battles that define what it is to be American. When you go against the values of our history, the values of freedom, liberty, and justice for all, you are the most un-American thing possible, and your values have no place in this great country."

The patriotism angle. It feels like it should be used more often by the Democrats, but isn't, and it feels like the Squad had a perfect stage to use it here. Again, I think the response today was awesome, but it's not how my instincts would lead me to phrase a response were I in their shoes. I would have tossed the accusation of being un-American right back. 'Cause Trump isn't, in any sense that I can recognize, American. He is the rot of the monopolist, the church bomber, the lynch mob, the eugenicist. Things that go distinctly against American values.

Are there explainers/pieces out there I can read about why that is, or are there some examples in the news about why my perceived lack of "progressive patriotism" among Trump's most frequent verbal opponents is wrong?

FWIW, I'm from Minnesota, love Omar, donate, and spend hours a day glowering over my laptop reading news. Warren for president etc. I try to stay informed, but this is puzzling to me, and I would very much like to know what current reading about the question has to say.
posted by saysthis at 2:47 AM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]

(very fraught hypothetical response to Trump's racist tweets follows) - "No, America is an inclusive, tolerant nation of immigrants with a long history of fighting bigots and winning. The Civil War, the struggle for women's rights, the fight against trusts, World War II, the struggle against Jim Crow; these were battles against racist, bigoted, power-hungry tyrants, battles that define what it is to be American. When you go against the values of our history, the values of freedom, liberty, and justice for all, you are the most un-American thing possible, and your values have no place in this great country."

To clarify - I know, historically speaking, this is way off and it's a lot more complicated, but this was the narrative I learned growing up, and I imagine it's still pretty close to what they teach in social studies today. What I specifically lack in my understanding is an organized academic/political/theoretical/????? framework for why the left doesn't hammer on this narrative harder while the GOP gets to flag-wave seemingly unchecked over all the wrong things.

It also could just be that I'm ignorant and not seeing left-leaning flag waving?
posted by saysthis at 2:59 AM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

I just read Conway's piece. He marvels at his naiveté about race while growing up, and in giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. And then he ends with this:

"That’s racist to the core. It doesn’t matter what these representatives are for or against — and there’s plenty to criticize them for — it’s beyond the bounds of human decency. For anyone, not least a president.

What’s just as bad, though, is the virtual silence from Republican leaders and officeholders. They’re silent not because they agree with Trump. Surely they know better. They’re silent because, knowing that he’s incorrigible, they have inured themselves to his wild statements; because, knowing that he’s a fool, they don’t really take his words seriously and pretend that others shouldn’t, either; because, knowing how damaging Trump’s words are, the Republicans don’t want to give succor to their political enemies; because, knowing how vindictive, stubborn and obtusely self-destructive Trump is, they fear his wrath."

George, lose the very last of your naiveté and face it: the reason that Republican leaders have not admonished Trump is because THEY ARE RACISTS TOO. They are the racist representatives of racist constituencies.
posted by Sublimity at 3:27 AM on July 16, 2019 [24 favorites]

NYT: Tariffs on China Don’t Cover the Costs of Trump’s Trade War

[G]overnment figures show that the revenue the United States has collected from tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods is not enough to cover the cost of the president’s bailout for farmers, let alone compensate the many other industries hurt by trade tensions. The longer Mr. Trump’s dispute with China drags on, the more difficult it could be for him to ignore that gap.

Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports raised $20.8 billion through Wednesday, according to data from United States Customs and Border Protection. Mr. Trump has already committed to paying American farmers hurt by the trade war $28 billion.

The president has rolled out two rounds of financial support for farmers: a $12 billion package that was announced last July, of which nearly $10 billion has been spent, and an additional $16 billion announced in May.

The government has provided no such benefit to the myriad other businesses, including plane makers, technology companies and medical device manufacturers, that have lost contracts and revenue as a result of Mr. Trump’s tariffs and China’s retaliation against American goods.

Reuters: China Says Trump 'Misleading' People Linking Trade Deal, Slowing Economy

CNN: US Government Is Running Out of Money Faster Than Expected, Mnuchin Warns

In a letter to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mnuchin wrote that the US might default on its obligations as soon as early September, before Congress returns from its summer recess.

"Based on updated projections, there is a scenario in which we run of out cash in early September, before Congress reconvenes," Mnuchin wrote in a letter.

The federal government has not been able to borrow money since March, when congressionally-mandated borrowing limits went back into force. The US Treasury, which is facing a growing deficit thanks in part to President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, had said it had enough cash to last until the fall.

WaPo: US Budget Deficit Jumps 23% Through June

The U.S. budget deficit increased by $140 billion during the first nine months of this budget year to $747.1 billion as government revenues and spending both hit records.

The Treasury Department reported Thursday that the deficit for the current fiscal year through June is up 23.1% over the same period a year ago with receipts rising by 2.7% while spending increased 6.6%.

The Trump administration is forecasting that the deficit for the full budget year, which ends on Sept. 30, will top $1 trillion, up from a deficit of $779 billion last year.

The Congressional Budget Office is not quite so pessimistic for this year, forecasting a deficit of $896 billion this year. But the CBO projects that deficits will top $1 trillion beginning in 2022 and will remain above $1 trillion annually through 2029.

Politico: Threat of Budget Disaster Rises Amid Discord In Both Parties (and that's a headline from last week)
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:39 AM on July 16, 2019 [9 favorites]

Just reflecting on Lindsey Graham’s support of Trump after his racist comments attacking the congresswomen this week...

...and contrasting that with how Graham described Trump when they were both running as Republican candidates for President in 2015:

“He is a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn’t represent my party. He doesn’t represent the values that the men and women are fighting for. ...He is putting our soldiers and diplomats at risk. He’s empowering the enemy...You know how to make America great again? You tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”

—U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham

posted by darkstar at 4:13 AM on July 16, 2019 [18 favorites]

Fuck Lindsey Graham! When the dust settles over this disgusting chapter, we will discover what caused him to go Nazi sympathizer
posted by growabrain at 5:30 AM on July 16, 2019 [20 favorites]

Daily Beast: E. Jean Carroll Is ‘Exploring’ Legal Action Against Trump After Alleged Rape in Bergdorf Goodman—The advice columnist and writer, who accused Trump of sexual assault last month, wants to “hire a really smart attorney” to find a way to “get around” the statute of limitations.

The alleged assault occurred long before New York lifted its statute of limitations against rape, but Carroll said she is “thinking about hiring a really smart attorney” to pursue legal action against Trump.

“I hadn’t thought about pressing charges, but now people are convincing me that it's smart,” she told The Daily Beast. “If I get a really smart attorney, we might be able to get around [the statute]. I’ll be exploring it.”

The Atlantic: E. Jean Carroll and the ‘Hideosity Bar’—We have become comfortable with the hideous, and are now content to live alongside horrible things.

Nearly two years into the collective cultural reckoning of the #MeToo movement, [Carroll's] story holds a particular weight for us, a quality of social seriousness that goes beyond the already ample evidence of Trump’s selfishness, corruption, and greed. But perhaps we have endured so much, witnessed so much that is grotesque and dishonest from this president, from these times, that our bar for what we consider hideous has been raised high, and our standards for what we expect from those in power have sunk low.

AOC: "Weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy. This president does not know how to make the argument that Americans do not deserve health care... And so he attacks us personally."

I keep coming back to Trump's Law of Misogyny: When Trump feels angry and insecure, he attacks women personally.
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:38 AM on July 16, 2019 [13 favorites]

When it comes to the apparent hypocrisy of people like Lindsey Graham, I have a framework I tend to think in that I honestly wish the media would adopt.

Sumarized: the media wants to believe that Republicans are on a single spectrum, with "Open White Nationalism" on one end and ... I guess "Small Government Idealists" on the other. It frames so much media coverage, where the writers/presenters are falling over themselves to try to differentiate the two ends.

In reality, though, there are a bunch of parallel spectrums, and they are prioritized between one another. Republicans can disagree quite a lot in some of the lower priority ones, but they have a really phenomenal level of alignment in the higher priority ones.

What are those spectrums?

Well, being charitable there actually is "Small Government ... Big Government", but it's one of the lower priority ones. Way higher priority is the "Less Racist ... More Racist" spectrum, and I'm not gonna be coy here, there's a broad alignment towards the "More Racist" side.

In the middle though, there is one that is important but not top-tier: "Covert Racism ... Overt Racism". There's definitely variation across Republicans on this one, particularly office holders. Lindsay Graham is clearly more towards the covert side, while Trump is rushing to the define the overt side. Crucially, though, this is lower priority than "Less Racism ... More Racism". Graham (and others like him) are willing to take what seems to be an inconsistent position on this spectrum if it means supporting their completely consistent position on the much more important one.

The tl;dr is, Republicans aren't per se a monolith and they do actually disagree on some things, but certain high priority points of alignment override lower priority points of disagreement. If Graham could get his racist policies in a way that was more covert, he'd be all for it, but if he has to choose between being more covert or more racist, he's going to choose the latter.
posted by tocts at 5:58 AM on July 16, 2019 [9 favorites]

Sofi's choice.
posted by prefpara at 6:02 AM on July 16, 2019 [3 favorites]

Need a politics break? CBS news is live streaming the Apollo 11 launch (live+50y). Launch is in 20 minutes.
posted by pjenks at 6:13 AM on July 16, 2019 [22 favorites]

Graham has always been a craven sycophant. It’s just that for years he was sucking up to McCain which hid much of his vileness. But with McCain gone, Trump is his new alpha and Graham’s true nature is revealed.
posted by chris24 at 6:25 AM on July 16, 2019 [15 favorites]

Why doesn't the left doesn't hammer on the inclusiveness narrative harder while the GOP gets to flag-wave seemingly unchecked over all the wrong things?

My best guess is they have polling data that suggests that right now many swing voters are anti-inclusiveness. I even sort of get it. Hillary ran a campaign that highlighted inclusiveness and diversity and it didn't end well.

But the problem with running your strategy off polling data is that it doesn't tell the whole story. I'll be most Americans have mixed feelings on these issues. The politicians job is to reframe, show they understand those different sides, and then make an argument.

Obama was a master at this. He explained he didn't like abortion, but that it was necessary for it to be legal. Obama also knew when to stand firm. Universal healthcare would be a big and scary change, but once explained, the public will stand behind it.

What I don't understand about today's Democratic establishment is the lack of engagement. Someone above said that impeachment isn't being explored as an option, because low information voters won't understand that failure to impeach is not exoneration. I believe Obama would have tried to explain this isn't the case.

Everywhere I see a failure to engage, except for yesterday's press briefing with the squad, explaining that Trump attacks them because he can't justify putting kids in cages. He attacks them personally, because he can't justify denying people healthcare. We need politicians that will engage instead of hiding their heads in the sand.
posted by xammerboy at 7:11 AM on July 16, 2019 [27 favorites]

Are there explainers/pieces out there I can read about why that is, or are there some examples in the news about why my perceived lack of "progressive patriotism" among Trump's most frequent verbal opponents is wrong?

Crooked is running a podcast series I'm enjoying called Reclaiming Patriotism. If you can't abide Lovett don't worry he's not involved in this one.
posted by adept256 at 7:19 AM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

A lot of people have defended the patriotism of the Squad (including at least one Republican, Mike Turner), while others definitely have attacked Trump, on various fronts, for being unpatriotic (though ususally in connection to his deference to foreign autocrats, or his smearing of various troops).

But specifically calling his racism unpatriotic is a little trickier at this point, because the right wing has more or less managed to take ownership of the idea of "America" in a broad sense (thus allowing only the aspects of Trump that were mostly peculiar to him until 2016, such as loving Putin and hating McCain, to be successfully labeled, by both liberals and the never-trump set, as un-American).

Plus, tough it's true that immigration and diversity can't possibly be disentangled from the country's history, the same goes for racism of all varieties. If, for example, ending slavery is part of what makes the USA great, what does that say about half the country's founders? For younger progressive Americans, "They were flawed products of their time" doesn't feel adequate any more. Instead, it's increasingly sensed that "patriotism" and antiracism are somewhat oppositional values, and that where necessary, the former ought to give way to the latter.

All that said, there is something incredibly rich about the argument from Trump and conservatives that "If you don't like it, you can leave" after his whole campaign was explicitly about the USA being such a worn-down hellhole of a country that it need to be, well, made great again (hence the Hillary campaign running with "America is already great", which got some leftward pushback for the aforementioned reasons). Tweet after tweet from Trump explicitly attributes all manner of bad qualities to "our country", including during his own presidency. Probably the most blatent moment is telling Bill O'Reilly "You think we're so innocent?" So, gee golly, what might conservatives actually mean by "America"? What are the unstated rules of play?

In so many ways, Trump has been the perfect control subject for an experiment to test the hypothesis that every stated conservative value was always a cover for white nationalism. They dislike liberals for being out-of-touch big-government nigh-Stalinist coastal celebrities who lazily complain about how terrible this country while hating the troops, sneering at sacrifice, mocking the sanctity of marriage, and flauting almost every other supposed holy commandment. Bingo, this precise caricature is manifested, including literally having been a Democrat until recently... but also super racist. Which cup will our taste-testers prefer? The suspense is too much.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 7:50 AM on July 16, 2019 [22 favorites]

Axios: Poll: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Defining Democrats Among Crucial 2020 Swing Voters

@realDonaldTrump picked up on this poll in his morning Twitter rants. He accuses the Squad of “spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate[…] Horrible anti-Israel, anti-USA, pro-terrorist & public shouting of the F...word […] filthy and hate laced things they have said”. He also tries fanning the flames of the feud between them and Pelosi at every opportunity, and for good measure, while thanking Jason Chafferz for coming to his defense on a Fox, he plugs his new book, which is probably a violation of the Hatch Act. He then claims, incredibly, “Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body! The so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game.”

If that defense seems unbelievable, it’s what Team Trump is going with. Media Matters’s Matthew Gertz highlights this exchange on Fox (w/video): “Howie Kurtz's response to The Washington Post deciding to call the racist comments racist is "since the president denies any racist intent... I don't think the media have to go so far as to say, 'We don't believe the president, we think it's racist.'"”
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:06 AM on July 16, 2019 [5 favorites]

Barr made decision not to bring civil rights charges against NYPD officer in Garner case
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:25 AM on July 16, 2019 [12 favorites]

Follow up on post from MIRAC - Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Committee about ICE detention in Minneapolis.

ICE said the man was an "immigration fugitive" and had a previous misdemeanor conviction in Hennepin County in 2007. They said he was previously deported from the U.S. in 2009. ... The ACLU says that ICE can indeed pull over a car if agents have reasonable suspicion that someone inside the car is violating immigration laws. KARE 11 can verify that ICE had a warrant for the man.

Even if ICE was following the law, this kind of arrest of someone with a misdemeanor conviction likely reflects the administration's change in what it considers a "priority" - to the point that the term is now so broad as to be effectively meaningless.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:37 AM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

> Everywhere I see a failure to engage, except for yesterday's press briefing with the squad, explaining that Trump attacks them because he can't justify putting kids in cages. He attacks them personally, because he can't justify denying people healthcare. We need politicians that will engage instead of hiding their heads in the sand.

the way i think of it, the legacy democrats — the ones who consider the squad a thorn in their sides — understand politics as a contest to see who can be the best thermometer. each side gets polling data, each side attempts to adapt their platform to best embody whatever is currently polling well, and the side that best matches the temperature of the country wins.¹

the radical democrats, on the other hand, think of politics as a venue for changing peoples' minds rather than for measuring the statistical average of their preferences. instead of measuring the temperature of the body politic, they try to change it. as i see it there are two reasons to prefer this epistemological frame. first, and most importantly, is that the thermometer model doesn't work — people tend to see thermometer-model politicians as inauthentic, and are more turned off by them the more they try to adjust their views to match the polling data. second, though, the squad model for how politics works has a historical pedigree — whereas the thermometer model is relatively new and depends on relatively new techniques of polling and statistical analysis, the change model reflects the well-developed understanding of what it means to practice politics in a democracy that we had from the 6th century bce all the way to the 1950s.

under the change model, thermometer-model politicians are essentially refusing to do politics. to change-model politicians, thermometer-model politicians try to keep politics carefully contained — to keep political debate and political change to the minimum level possible, and to ensure that the politics of the future remain, insofar as possible, identical to the politics of the present. it is a methodologically conservative practice that fails to respond to the fraught nature of our times and the disturbing instability of our present-day politics. just like thermometer-model politicians see change-model politicians as impractical and unrealistic,² change-model politicians see thermometer-model politicians as impractical and unrealistic — as people playing weekend-at-bernies with an already dead political system and slipping ever-deeper into denial about the actual state of the world.

the genius of barack obama was in successfully bridging the gulf between the change model and the thermometer model. the tragedy of barack obama — from the perspective of someone who supports change model politics — is that this was an awkward compromise between something that works and something that doesn't.

1: there are of course exceptions to this rule; legacy democrats oppose a number of ideas that poll extremely well — medicare for all, student loan jubilee, etc. this is because they genuinely believe that these popular ideas are practically infeasible, because they're not popular among the donor class rich people who they're obligated to speak to on the telephone for several hours a day, or some mixture of the two.

our political beliefs tend to adjust themselves toward the political beliefs of the people we're around, and the people democratic party politicians must be around rich donors pretty much all the time — and rich donors are on the whole well to the right of most people on anything that approaches material redistribution.
2: "the green dream, or whatever they call it."
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 8:40 AM on July 16, 2019 [43 favorites]

Buzzfeed’s Zoe Tillman is reporting live today from Roger Stone’s court hearing with Judge Amy Berman Jackson:

—Hello from the DC courthouse, where Roger Stone has a motions hearing at 10am. What will the judge have to say about his compliance, or potential lack thereof, with her gag order? Stay tuned.
Also, a Stone summer sartorial update: Seersucker is in play.
—Jackson asks [Stone attorney Bruce] Rogow if her [gag] order was unclear. Rogow chuckles at first (the judge is not laughing) and says no, it was not unclear. He confirms Stone is 100% responsible for his Instagram account.
—The judge asks if Stone sent a text message to BuzzFeed News (full disclosure: it was to me) saying Michael Cohen's testimony to Congress was not true. The judge hands Stone's lawyer this article: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/roger-stone-michael-cohen-trump-wikileaks-emails Rogow says Stone tells him he got his lawyer's permission
—Rogow says he doesn't recall communicating with Stone about Stone's text to BuzzFeed News about Michael Cohen's testimony, which the judge notes came after she entered her order
—The judge is asking Rogow about various Stone posts on Instagram, such as one suggesting Stone was framed (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/03/roger-stone-suggests-robert-mueller-framed-him-despite-gag-order.html) and one about Adam Schiff (https://www.newsweek.com/roger-stone-instagram-adam-schiff-bullschiff-gag-order-1380741) — the judge read that one aloud: "If it's Schiff Flush it"
—A bit surreal to hear the judge read these posts aloud. From 5/8: "The Judge has ruled but @Politico gets most of the story wrong because they are biased elitist snot-nosed fake news shitheads who’s specialty is distortion by omitting key facts to create a false narrative."
—Jackson asks what she should do in light of everything she's presented that Stone has posted. Rogow says to let the hearing "speak for itself," and going forward Stone will have to vet what he wants to send out with counsel
—AUSA Jonathan Kravis is up. Jackson asks what he thinks she should do. Kravis says at least clarify the original order to be very specific, and he asks the judge to consider prohibiting Stone from using social media at all. He says they are *not* seeking a contempt finding

Politico’s Darren Samuelson is also live-tweeting the court proceedings. It’s shaping up to be quite a day in court.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:42 AM on July 16, 2019 [9 favorites]

It’s 15 months til the election and it’s already dumb as hell
posted by The Whelk at 8:49 AM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump picked up on this poll in his morning Twitter rants.

Good to see Dem leadership doing Trump's legwork these days.
posted by chris24 at 9:08 AM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]

Listening to JFK's "We choose to go to the Moon" speech.

Closes browser, goes outside.
posted by Devonian at 9:11 AM on July 16, 2019 [14 favorites]

the radical democrats

I liked your post, but I'm not sure this is the correct label. AOC and company aren't proposing a complete political change. And while they probably do represent an extreme of elected Democrats, I'm not sure they represent an extreme of Democratic voters.
posted by diogenes at 9:14 AM on July 16, 2019 [16 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump is still at tweeting during executive time: “Kevin McCarthy @GOPLeader, “The President’s Tweets were not Racist. The controversy over the tweets is ALL POLITICS. I will vote against this resolution.” Thank you Kevin!”

Bloomberg’s Tim O’Brien has posted a lengthy thread with assorted examples of Trump’s racist, starting here: “1) Trump and his father ran a housing business that was sanctioned by the Justice Department in the 1970s for discriminating against prospective tenants of color. He hired Roy Cohn to defend the family.”
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:15 AM on July 16, 2019 [9 favorites]

Good to see Dem leadership doing Trump's legwork these days.

Inaction in the face of racism can carry worse consequences than action. We're seeing the fuller extent of those consequences play out now with Trump's raids on families, opening of concentration camps, and his tweets that effectively call for stochastic terror attacks on elected government officials.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:19 AM on July 16, 2019 [9 favorites]

D leadership is being active against its own caucus and inactive against Trump. Wonderful combo.
posted by chris24 at 9:30 AM on July 16, 2019 [22 favorites]

> I liked your post, but I'm not sure this is the correct label. AOC and company aren't proposing a complete political change. And while they probably do represent an extreme of elected Democrats, I'm not sure they represent an extreme of Democratic voters.

yeah i went back and forth on what label to use there. at first i put "dsa-aligned," but that isn't totally accurate and also overemphasizes the role played by one (admittedly large and influential) organization in the broader ecology of leftist organizations. ended up going with "radical," since despite them not being as radical as parts of the democratic party electorate — i mean, shoot, i vote for democrats and also i'm on the record as supporting the dismantlement of bourgeois electoral democracy by militant workers' soviets — they are nevertheless a bit to the left of social democrats like bernie sanders.

anyway.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:50 AM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

Hello from the DC courthouse, where Roger Stone has a motions hearing at 10am. What will the judge have to say about his compliance, or potential lack thereof, with her gag order? Stay tuned.

Zoe Tillman is back live-tweeting now that Judge Jackson has reconvened Roger Stone’s hearing:

—Jackson says the clarity of her Feb. 21 order is "undisputed," but "it didn’t take a week before the defendant was emailing BuzzFeed calling a witness in this investigation a liar” (NB: It was a text message)
—The judge then notes that Stone and his lawyers were arguing against a gag order in February at a time when they knew Stone was preparing to release an updated version of his book that addressed Mueller's investigation, and nobody told the judge about it
—Jackson says the book flap didn't "augur well" for Stone's future compliace. She said the "Who framed Roger Stone post" nudged the line, and then made a series of statements/other Instagram posts that were clearly about his case and people in, incl. Michael Cohen and Adam Schiff
—Jackson says the book flap didn't "augur well" for Stone's future compliace. She said the "Who framed Roger Stone post" nudged the line, and then made a series of statements/other Instagram posts that were clearly about his case and people in, incl. Michael Cohen and Adam Schiff
—NOW: The judge has found that Roger Stone is in violation of his release conditions and her media contacts order
—Jackson says Stone "plainly" is seeking attention, and potentially trying to prompt a reaction from the judge: "It seems he is determined to make himself the subject of the story."She will not hold contempt proceedings and will not revoke his bond, however
—NOW: Finding a violation of her previous order, the judge has ordered that Roger Stone may no longer post on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter — at all.

posted by Doktor Zed at 9:55 AM on July 16, 2019 [18 favorites]

July on course to be hottest month ever, say climate scientists (Last month was the hottest June on record)

65% of early primary state Democrats want a climate policy debate

Dates of all scheduled Democratic climate policy debates:
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:05 AM on July 16, 2019 [17 favorites]

—NOW: Finding a violation of her previous order, the judge has ordered that Roger Stone may no longer post on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter — at all.

So for a guy who has called for feds to be killed and committed treason, his punishment for violating court orders is the same as I would give a 13 year old. Time out Roger! Stone and Epstein are pretty much the epitome of white privilege.
posted by benzenedream at 10:10 AM on July 16, 2019 [59 favorites]

I keep coming back to Trump's Law of Misogyny: When Trump feels angry and insecure, he attacks women personally.

If nothing else he's a master of diversion. Note how his turning the racism and misogyny up to 11 has pretty much killed the discussion about his and members of his administration's longstanding connection to a notorious child sex trafficker. It's like the mainstream media can only handle one insane scandal at a time with this person.
posted by fuse theorem at 10:12 AM on July 16, 2019 [15 favorites]

I'm not sure how much the label matters, but I'm fine with calling The Squad "radical". Many of their ideas have broad support in the electorate, and to some extent, they can use their platform to gradually nudge voters in their direction, but the war they're fighting is mostly played out within their own caucus, against the more centrist members of the caucus. On that scale, they're certainly the radicals. In a time of patient, loss-averse pragmatism, they want to move fast and fix stuff. That's pretty radical.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:14 AM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

The judge has found that Roger Stone is in violation of his release conditions

Does this mean he's going back inside? I'm in doubt and I really shouldn't be. This should be an obvious if-then matter.
posted by adept256 at 10:20 AM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

@stevennelson10:

Kellyanne Conway on the White House driveway says Trump is not a racist, continues criticism of 'the squad that hasn't done squat'

'A very dark element in this country' that is anti American, Conway says'

What's your ethnicity?' Kellyanne Conway asks @AndrewFeinberg on the White House driveway, trying to redirect question about Trump's 'go back' tweet on congresswomen

From the US Holocaust Museum's page THE PRESS IN THE THIRD REICH:

The Propaganda Ministry and the Reich Press Chamber

The Propaganda Ministry, through its Reich Press Chamber, assumed control over the Reich Association of the German Press, the guild which regulated entry into the profession. Under the new Editors Law of October 4, 1933, the association kept registries of “racially pure” editors and journalists, and excluded Jews and those married to Jews from the profession. Propaganda Ministry officials expected editors and journalists, who had to register with the Reich Press Chamber to work in the field, to follow the mandates and instructions handed down by the ministry. In paragraph 14 of the law, the regime required editors to omit anything “calculated to weaken the strength of the Reich abroad or at home.”

posted by zombieflanders at 10:27 AM on July 16, 2019 [30 favorites]

During today’s presser, Trump blustered and fumbled when asked about his racist tweets again: (via WH Pool Reports)

Q: "Mr. Trump, will you not use the phrase 'go back to your countries' to citizens and women and color who are citizens or been born in this country?"

POTUS: "I think it's terrible when people speak so badly about our country, when people speak so horribly. I have a list of things here - I'm not going to bore you with it because you would be bored..."

"But I have a list of things here said by the congresswomen that is so bad, so horrible that I almost don't want to read it, it's so bad. I think what you should do is: You have the same list that I do. You should repeat some of that. When the Democrats didn't want to mention the name of the congresswoman, not so long ago, and what they did and the way they're treating Israel is a disgrace.

"But not only Israel, what they say about our country. It's my opinion they hate our country. And that's not good. It's not acceptable."

Oh, and the Trump administration now won’t sell F-35s to Turkey (which, as part of the NATO consortium funding it, is the sole supplier of several parts for it): “It's a very tough situation that they're in. And it's a very tough situation that we've been placed in the United States. With all of that being said, we're working through it. We'll see what happens, but it's not really fair. And we are now telling Turkey ... we're not going to sell you the F-35 fighter jets.”
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:47 AM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

'A very dark element in this country' that is anti American, Conway says'

"Dark element"? That's about as subtle as the Time magazine OJ Simpson cover.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:52 AM on July 16, 2019 [28 favorites]

Have we seen this list of horrible anti-American things they've said?
posted by diogenes at 11:20 AM on July 16, 2019 [5 favorites]

She will not hold contempt proceedings and will not revoke his bond, however

Damn, being a rich old white dude is the life
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:24 AM on July 16, 2019 [20 favorites]

You know who else had a list...
posted by neroli at 11:25 AM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

So for a guy who has called for feds to be killed and committed treason, his punishment for violating court orders is the same as I would give a 13 year old.

Republican operatives have seen how far they can go — how far they can keep going — when the judges and legislators vested with the power of oversight abdicate that responsibility more or less completely.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:30 AM on July 16, 2019 [7 favorites]

Meanwhile, in a tiny little bright spot today, this happened:

1. The Onion posts an article titled "82-Year-Old New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell Quietly Asks Ilhan Omar If He Can Be Part Of The Squad"
2. Pascrell (or a very good social media rep) chimed in: "Well. How bout it @AyannaPressley @AOC @RepRashida @IlhanMN?"
3. AOC responded with "You’re in, @BillPascrell! ☺️💖👯‍♀️👯‍♂️"

posted by zombieflanders at 11:54 AM on July 16, 2019 [73 favorites]

Pretty big of Rep. Omar in particular to welcome him to the squad after he pulled this weak shit.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:11 PM on July 16, 2019 [10 favorites]

From today's Washington Post interview:

Costa: Let's stick with that race point you just brought up. In 1974 you said busing policies were well-meaning in theory but sometimes result in "racial hostility."
Sanders: What else did I say in that?
Costa: You tell me.
Sanders: No, you've got it there. Read the whole quote.
Costa: I don't have the whole quote.
Sanders: The whole quote is that the federal government doesn't give a shit about African Americans.
Costa: That's true, that's why I didn't include it.

posted by Rust Moranis at 12:31 PM on July 16, 2019 [45 favorites]

—NOW: Finding a violation of her previous order, the judge has ordered that Roger Stone may no longer post on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter — at all.

So for a guy who has called for feds to be killed and committed treason, his punishment for violating court orders is the same as I would give a 13 year old. Time out Roger! Stone and Epstein are pretty much the epitome of white privilege.

posted by benzenedream at 10:10 AM on July 16 [37 favorites +] [!]

I couldn't agree more and it contrasts so starkly with the rather draconian sentences you see less wealthy or connected (or white or male) defendants handed for less flagrant acts. And it's not just this case and this judge. It seems like all the Trump-connected slime are getting kid-glove treatment for antagonistic behavior toward the courts. Perhaps someone closer to the federal criminal justice system can explain this phenomenon beyond, hey, white dudes are just better.
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:46 PM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]

A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It’s Really Like to Guard Migrant Children (ProPublica):

At that moment, the agent, a father of a 2-year-old, realized that something in him had shifted during his weeks in the McAllen center. “I don’t know why she’s shouting,” he remembered thinking. “No one on the other end of the line cares. If they did, this wouldn’t be happening.”

As he turned away to return to his duties, the agent recalled feeling sorry for the lawyer. “I wanted to tell her the rest of us have given up.”

Also, crime pays, Six officials at Southwest Key, nonprofit running migrant child shelters, earned more than $1 million in 2017 (WaPo). The NYTimes had a feature last year on the largest provider in long-term detention of migrant children, Southwest Key, He’s Built an Empire, With Detained Migrant Children as the Bricks.
posted by peeedro at 1:02 PM on July 16, 2019 [15 favorites]

Oh, and the Trump administration now won’t sell F-35s to Turkey (which, as part of the NATO consortium funding it, is the sole supplier of several parts for it)

To elaborate on this: Turkey makes F-35 parts and wanted to buy some F-35s for itself. They also wanted a Russian air defense system, which includes Russian techs for at least some part of the deal. This would, of course, put America's wildly expensive new jet and Russian radar techs and analysts in the same country.

US law clearly prohibited this sort of thing as part of the F-35 deal, up to and including explicit sanctions over it, with bipartisan support. Trump made noncommittal noises about that prohibition to Erdogan and so Erdogan figured hey, let's buy the Russian system. And now here we are.

As with all things, it remains to be seen if Republicans actually hold their ground on any issue of disagreement with Trump.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 1:04 PM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]

There’s a fairy large anti ICE protest happening now in DC , people are starting to get arrested
posted by The Whelk at 1:11 PM on July 16, 2019 [30 favorites]

I'd like to highlight what's happening on the House floor right now. The House is considering a resolution to condemn Trump's racist statements. During debate on that resolution, Pelosi expressed sentiments similar to those in the resolution.

The problem: there's a precedential rule in the House that literally prohibits calling the President a racist: "references to racial or other discrimination on the part of the president are not in order." Republicans moved to strike Pelosi's words from the record, which causes all sorts of chaos because what she said is basically what's in the resolution and how do you debate a resolution if you're not allowed to say the things contained in it?

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver was presiding and just tossed down the gavel and said "I abandon the chair," which I don't even know is a thing you can do.

Anyway, the problem with a rule prohibiting people from calling the President a racist is that the President just might be a racist, and then what do you do then? Heck of a system we've got.

@GingerGibson: I can think of no better way to make that case that racism still enjoys institutional protections than to point out with strenuous objection that it's actually against the rules to call something that is racist racist on the House floor.
posted by zachlipton at 1:31 PM on July 16, 2019 [47 favorites]

What is the significance of the dates in that image of the House rules? Can't help but notice that they are all from 2016-2017; Did House Republicans add these rules specifically to preempt criticism of this specific president?
posted by Roommate at 1:46 PM on July 16, 2019 [9 favorites]

As protests grow and turn violent, Puerto Rico Gov. Rosselló insists he won't resign

The remarks and the protests come in the wake of multiple scandals that have hit the Rosselló administration during recent weeks regarding corruption investigations and the leaking of private chats between the governor and some officials and close associates.

At least 889 pages of the private chats, which included profanity-laced, misogynistic and homophobic comments were released Saturday by Puerto Rico’s top investigative journalism media outlet after excerpts were first reported days before.

In the chats on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, Rosselló made fun of an obese man he posed with in a photo, called former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito a “whore” and said Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan who had announced her intent to run for governor against Rosselló in 2020, was “off her meds.”

posted by MrVisible at 1:46 PM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]

Rep. Green to file articles of impeachment against Trump despite pushback from Democratic leaders WaPo
“I think that we should not have this level of bigotry emanating from the president of the United States of America,” Green said in an interview with The Washington Post. “He is clearly making racist comments… The question becomes: what do we do about it?”

Green added: “To tolerate bigotry — racism in this case — is to perpetuate it. We should not perpetuate this kind of behavior coming from the president, and if we don’t check him, he will continue.”
posted by Harry Caul at 1:54 PM on July 16, 2019 [13 favorites]

I guess it's emblematic of the times we live in when we cannot even call Trump a racist because it would undermine the valued comity of our institutions

Literally the least that can be done is beyond the pale and requires the humiliation and submission of anyone who actually gives a shit
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:54 PM on July 16, 2019 [20 favorites]

What is the significance of the dates in that image of the House rules? Can't help but notice that they are all from 2016-2017; Did House Republicans add these rules specifically to preempt criticism of this specific president?

It's a running logbook of rule interpretations dating back to the founding; what happened is that the GOP House c. 2016 decided that racism fell under a more general principle that you're not allowed to disparage the president. See this thread:

https://twitter.com/joshchafetz/status/1151225890011004928
posted by gerryblog at 1:56 PM on July 16, 2019 [8 favorites]

Somebody needs to realize that when youre in charge, rules dont apply to you, and Nancy and the dems are in charge (of the house).

something something elections have consequences.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:18 PM on July 16, 2019 [15 favorites]

See this thread:

https://twitter.com/joshchafetz/status/1151225890011004928

6/ But it is worth noting that any ruling from the chair--say, a ruling that Pelosi's speech is out of order--can be appealed to the floor and overturned by bare majority. 7/ So, should the Democrats believe that the precedents holding that calling the president a racist is out of order are themselves out of date and unwise, they can do away with them today. /Fin/

Of course they didn't do this. Ask yourself if there's anything in this universe you'd bet your life on and feel more confident in than Democrats not doing even the barest minimum.

Matt Fuller:

This whole episode is actually a very instructive lesson in how Democratic leaders respond to Donald Trump. He debases the Presidency and makes a racist attack on Members of Congress, Democrats draft a non-binding resolution and tear themselves apart over parliamentary rules.

posted by T.D. Strange at 2:23 PM on July 16, 2019 [50 favorites]

He debases the Presidency and makes a racist attack on Members of Congress, Democrats draft a non-binding resolution and tear themselves apart over parliamentary rules.

Sufficiently advanced fecklessness is indistinguishable from controlled opposition.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:27 PM on July 16, 2019 [16 favorites]

Well, the vote is currently 189-231 on the motion to strike the words from the record…
posted by carsondial at 2:27 PM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

From today's Washington Post interview

lol, from the same Bob Costas/Sanders interview: "Is Bank of America really sponsoring this?"
posted by windbox at 2:28 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

OK so basically the motion to strike the words was made (by a Republican) and no Dems were willing to make the ruling, so a Republican took the gavel and ruled them out of order, and so now they've voted that the rule be struck down? does not apply in this case? so that the Resolution can be voted on?

I'm stuck in the position of being simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by parliamentary minutiae.
posted by tivalasvegas at 2:36 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

Hoyer ruled Pelosi out of order after Cleaver left the Chair. Then there was a party line vote to leave her words in the record despite being out of order. Now they're voting to let her come back and talk today despite being out of order. There was no appeal of the underlying rule, so it won't be overturned. Although that can be done on a simple majority vote too.

And this is what they choose to spend today doing. Is he held accountable yet?
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:40 PM on July 16, 2019 [12 favorites]

US law clearly prohibited this sort of thing as part of the F-35 deal, up to and including explicit sanctions over it, with bipartisan support. Trump made noncommittal noises about that prohibition to Erdogan and so Erdogan figured hey, let's buy the Russian system. And now here we are.

Yes, the S-400/F-35 situation reached a crisis point in the spring, and Trump's been sitting on it ever since. In April, the chairs of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees warned Turkey that it risked tough sanctions if it pursued plans to purchase Russian S-400 missile defense systems (Reuters), but a month later, Erdogan was talking Trump into forming a "study group" the S-400s after a phone call (Bloomberg). This kicked the can down the road, US defence officials having refused to participate in such a study group multiple times. And now here we are.

Al-Jazeera: Turkey can't have both American F-35s and Russia's S-400s: US

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier on Tuesday, Trump's nominee to become the next secretary of defence, Mark Esper, described the move by the NATO partner as "disappointing".

"They have been a long-standing and very capable NATO ally, but their decision on the S-400 is the wrong one," Esper said.[…]

"The policy that I have communicated to my counterpart ... is that you can either have the S-400 or you can have the F-35. You cannot have both," Esper said.

"Acquisition of the S-400 fundamentally undermines the capabilities of the F-35 and our ability to retain that over-match in the skies going forward," he added.

Erdogan said the S-400s will operational by April next year and joint production of the defence system with Russia would be the next step.

Art of the deal, everybody.
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:42 PM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]

> OK so basically the motion to strike the words was made (by a Republican) and no Dems were willing to make the ruling, so a Republican took the gavel and ruled them out of order, and so now they've voted that the rule be struck down? does not apply in this case? so that the Resolution can be voted on?

I'm stuck in the position of being simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by parliamentary minutiae.

Wait a second -- the gavel in the House of Representatives works like the microphone at a wedding reception in a bad comedy, where people can just pick it up and have the power to say and do whatever they want?
posted by tonycpsu at 2:42 PM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]

The rules of our government prohibit calling someone racist, which is how you know systemic racism is totally a thing of the past.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 2:48 PM on July 16, 2019 [29 favorites]

Hoyer ruled Pelosi out of order after Cleaver left the Chair. Then there was a party line vote to leave her words in the record despite being out of order. Now they're voting to let her come back and talk today despite being out of order.

Politico's John Bresnahan clarifies (somewhat):

Pelosi's comments were ruled out of order but were not removed from Congressional Record. Members still CANNOT call Trump or his tweets racist. Even tho resolution says that, members still can't say it themselves on floor.

House votes 232-190 to support Pelosi and allow her to speak on the floor during rest of day. Now House is voting to go back to the “Trump tweets are racist” resolution"

posted by Doktor Zed at 2:59 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

Now Eric Swalwell is reading Trump quotes including the shithole countries remark, and Republicans are objecting.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:02 PM on July 16, 2019 [19 favorites]

Objecting against the quotes, or against the reading?
posted by Too-Ticky at 3:07 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

Serious question: why didn't they just hold a quick vote to change the rule? Isn't that determined by a simple majority? Don't we have the majority? Shouldn't this be a really fast, like less than 5 minute, affair?

Pelosi: The President is a racist.

Republican: Ha! THe rules say you can't call the President a racist!

Pelosi: Vote to strike the 1st Amendment violating rule that we can't call a racist President a racist? All in favor say aye?

Pelosi: The ayes have it. Now then, on to the vote to condemn the racist President.

Why didn't that happen? Are the Democrats really such horrible cowards they can't even get something this simple right?
posted by sotonohito at 3:10 PM on July 16, 2019 [37 favorites]

Or just like, what if they just ignored the rule and passed the resolution anyways. I would loooove to see Trump waste months of time and a bunch of resources trying to go to court to fight a non-binding resolution that doesn't mean or do anything because his ego wouldn't let him leave it alone and he thinks the breach of rules gives him ammo in court.
posted by jason_steakums at 3:14 PM on July 16, 2019 [8 favorites]

Now Eric Swalwell is reading Trump quotes including the shithole countries remark, and Republicans are objecting.

Wait, is the argument that you can't quote the racist president saying racist things because his racist statements make him sound racist, and you pointing out his racism is tantamount to calling him racist?

I find it a somewhat flimsy argument.
posted by mrgoat at 3:18 PM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

Hoyer ruled Pelosi out of order after Cleaver left the Chair.

Hoyer has now issued a statement trying to explain this away. Awkward.

Now Eric Swalwell is reading Trump quotes including the shithole countries remark

Trump wasn't caught on tape making that remark, so there may be evidentiary rules that they can object to on parliamentary grounds. Swalwell was of course on firmer ground with all the other racist things that Trump has said on the record (w/video via Politics USA's Sarah Reese Jones).
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:18 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

Democrats draft a non-binding resolution and tear themselves apart over parliamentary rules.

I'm not totally sold on the idea that our finest tacticians with unsurpassed mastery of the legislative process would fumble this so badly.
posted by diogenes at 3:33 PM on July 16, 2019 [9 favorites]

Cameron Joseph (Vice):
.@WillHurd votes with Dems on resolution condemning Trump's comments as racist, first R to do so.

Haley Byrd (CNN):
Upton is also a yes — currently four Republicans
posted by chris24 at 3:39 PM on July 16, 2019 [16 favorites]

Looking at that page of rules that basically seems to prohibit calling Trump various forms of a racist (while citing a ton of specific cases involving trump being called a racist for doing racist things), there's also prohibitions of mentioning collusion with a foreign country w/ regards to the integrity of an election, calling the president a "con man", alluding to sexual misconduct, violating/breaking/abusing the law, and other stuff that basically prohibits talking about Trump in any context outside of him existing and occupying space - how the FUCK did any of this become house rule under a Democratic house majority? I would LOVE to see the entirety of this, is there a publicly available source?

I mean, one of the hypothetical "such as" examples of things you can't say about the president include suspiciously specific examples like "remarks that suggest that the President is a undemocratic leader akin to a dictator" - can't imagine why that hypothetical example would come to mind!

But seriously, how do we get anywhere near impeachment if the house is basically OK with rules that prevent talking about any impeachable actions?
posted by MysticMCJ at 3:51 PM on July 16, 2019 [15 favorites]

Hurd - San Antonio - El Paso border
Uptown - Kalamazoo, MI
Fitzpatrick - Philly suburbs
Brooks - Indianapolis
Amash - Grand Rapids, MI
posted by chris24 at 4:01 PM on July 16, 2019 [8 favorites]

how the FUCK did any of this become house rule under a Democratic house majority?

It didn't—these were all rules adopted by the GOP-controlled house in 2016-17 (see the joshchafetz thread gerryblog cited). Here's a link to the Constitution Jefferson’s Manual and Rules of the House of Representatives. Trump-related rules come in on page 190:

References to racial or other discrimination on the part of the President are not in order. As such, remarks may not refer to the President as: (1) a racist (June 9, 2016, p. l; Nov. 16, 2016, p. l; Mar. 9, 2017, p. l); (2) having made ‘‘racial slurs’’ or ‘‘racial epithets’’ (Jan. 9, 2017, p. l; Mar. 16, 2017, p. l); (3) telling a ‘‘racist lie’’ (Jan. 9, 2017, p. l; Feb. 13, 2017, p. l; Mar. 21, 2017, p. l); (4) a bigot (June 9, 2016, p. l); (5) having made a bigoted or racist statement (June 7, 2016, p. l; June 9, 2016, p. l; Nov. 16, 2016, p. l); (6) having taken a bigoted action (Jan. 30, 2017, p. l); (7) not caring about black people (Sept. 8, 2005, p. 19797); (8) a misogynist (June 9, 2016, p. l); (9) having run a prejudiced campaign (Jan. 12, 2017, p. l).

Language impugning the patriotism or loyalty of the President is not in order, such as: (1) directly questioning patriotism (Sept. 9, 2016, p. l); (2) labeling the President as un-American or having an ‘‘un-American ideology’’ (June 7, 2016, p. l; Nov. 14, 2016, p. l; Jan. 30, 2017, p. l; Mar. 1, 2017, p. l); (3) accusing the President of giving ‘‘aid and comfort to the enemy’’ (Jan. 25, 1995, p. 2352; May 6, 2004, pp. 8601, 8602), ‘‘aiding and abetting the enemy’’ (Apr. 22, 2004, pp. 7401, 7402), or ‘‘aiding and abetting a terroristic regime’’ (Sept. 10, 2015, p. l); (4) accusing the President of ‘‘spying’’ on Congress (Jan. 7, 2016, p. l; Jan. 8, 2016, p. l); (5) equating the President’s decisions with regard to armed conflict to his having ‘‘slaughtered’’ thousands (Mar. 8, 2007, p. 5815) or that a soldier’s death was for his ‘‘amusement’’ (Oct. 18, 2007, pp. 27569, 27570).

Basically, right before the RNC convention when it was unavoidably obvious Trump would be the nominee, the House GOP started adopting rules to muzzle the opposition. What I don't know is what parliamentary rules (if any) prevented the Dems from repealing these as soon as they were back in power.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:14 PM on July 16, 2019 [35 favorites]

Thank God for The Squad! As the top-down Democratic leadership ... spontaneously combusts? melts away into history? ... it's becoming quite clear who the real leaders in the room are, and it's a joy to see the bottom-up grassroots finding our footing and lovingly strengthening and reinforcing ourselves day by day to do the obvious and needful work that's been languishing these (at leaat) 40 years.
posted by riverlife at 4:23 PM on July 16, 2019 [17 favorites]

I found the link to the whole manual right as you posted it, and was coming back to share it. It's worth a good Ctrl-F at least....

Here are some other things that are "out of order" to do regarding the president that all were introduced right before the Dems took the house:

- suggesting censure or impeachment
- discussing alleged criminal conduct or obstruction of justice
- accusations of ‘‘illegal’’ activity or actions taken with the knowledge that they were not in accordance
with the law

And here are some unparlimentary things regarding the Senate that aren't allowed to be said that have strangely all come up under McConnell leadership:

- accusing Senate Republicans of hypocrisy
- insinuating that the Majority Leader lied
- accusing the Republican leadership of ‘‘hijacking justice’’
- stating a ‘‘low opinion’’ of the Senate
- stating that the Majority Leader ‘‘has a high opinion of himself’’
- accusing a Senator of being prejudiced, racist, or of making a racist comment
posted by MysticMCJ at 4:28 PM on July 16, 2019 [21 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump, earlier today: “The so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game. Republicans should not show “weakness” and fall into their trap. This should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat Congresswomen”

CNN's Abby D. Phillip: "The meeting President Trump had on his schedule with congressional Republicans, which aides said was about immigration, has been postponed due to the drama on the House floor over the resolution condemning Trump's tweets."

The NYT's Maggie Haberman: "Source says senators were in cars en route when it was canceled."

Guesses for grabs that Trump was too furious with what was happening in the House this afternoon to meet with them.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:30 PM on July 16, 2019 [8 favorites]

What I don't know is what parliamentary rules (if any) prevented the Dems from repealing these as soon as they were back in power.

Literally nothing. The House is a majority institution, they could've overturned this ruling tonight on a party line vote and moved on without going on 3 hours of handwringing and grandstanding. But then they wouldn't have wasted a whole day talking about literally anything other than impeachment, which was the whole goal. Run out one more day on the clock! Repeat tomorrow!
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:32 PM on July 16, 2019 [11 favorites]

CNN Invites White Supremacist Richard Spencer to Talk About Trump’s Racist Tweets

Broke: broadcasting Trump's empty podium instead of the other candidate's rally
Woke: just being an ultra-visible platform for Nazi propaganda in 2019
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:48 PM on July 16, 2019 [14 favorites]

CNN Invites White Supremacist Richard Spencer to Talk About Trump’s Racist Tweets

Just when I thought nobody in the media was going to top the WaPo Magazine's sit-down chat with actual fascist Seb Gorka: Sebastian Gorka says that Obama was our first celebrity president
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:58 PM on July 16, 2019 [3 favorites]

I find it frustrating that even when the headline is "House votes to condemn Trump's racist tweets" we get a bunch of parliamentary procedure experts in here going "this just proves how Democrats suck and are afraid to confront racism."

Anyway, I am proud to see every Democrat going on the record as opposing this open white nationalism, defending their colleagues in The Squad, and putting House Republicans on record as "totally okay with Trump's racism" in case there was any doubt.

If the extra drama of the rule-breaking results in a bit more coverage and attracts attention to the kinds of rules Republicans made in 2016 and 2017 so much the better.
posted by OnceUponATime at 5:23 PM on July 16, 2019 [23 favorites]

Sebastian Gorka says that Obama was our first celebrity president

Ah yes, it's always so tough getting around Hyde Park with the masses of fans trying to get selfies with the law professors and paparazzi parked all over campus.
posted by p3t3 at 5:32 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

That is kinda the thing though, OnceUponATime - your description is wrong. You kinda slipped in that "every Democrat...[is] defending their colleagues in The Squad.." which is incorrect, and extraordinarily frustrating. From the Green New Deal to the "proper" use of Twitter to, like, shitting on people for wanting to impeach the white nationalist president, that's manifestly not what "every Democrat" much less the most powerful ones are doing.

The people in here that are angry with how Democratic leadership are acting are not just a bunch of "parliamentary procedure experts" as you so condescendingly describe them. There are very real, very serious deficits in our leadership in a moment when we absolutely need the best team on the field.

I think you are conflating your personal dislike of the behavior of some people in the Metafilter Megathreads with a very real frustration with the increasingly feckless stewardship of the opposition party in a time of crisis.
posted by lazaruslong at 5:32 PM on July 16, 2019 [16 favorites]

You kinda slipped in that "every Democrat...[is] defending their colleagues in The Squad.." which is incorrect, and extraordinarily frustrating.

I thought OnceUponATime was referring to the House Dems defending the Squad specifically against Trump's racist tweets. I'm unaware of anyone breaking ranks to support Trump or even equivocate. In this one case, it's the Republicans who are all over the shop in their attempts to deal with them.
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:39 PM on July 16, 2019 [7 favorites]

Trump's racist tweets were an attack on Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Every single Democrat in the House (and four Republicans!) voted to pass a resolution condemning those attacks as Not Okay. I call that defending them -- you can call it something else if you like.
posted by OnceUponATime at 5:39 PM on July 16, 2019 [10 favorites]

> I think you are conflating your personal dislike of the behavior of some people in the Metafilter Megathreads with a very real frustration with the increasingly feckless stewardship of the opposition party in a time of crisis.

Without question. Distilling the critiques above down to "Democrats suck and are afraid to confront racism" is extremely unfair. They aren't afraid, but they are definitely unprepared. The blowback that comes from a racist being called a racist is as predictable as the sun coming up. You mean to tell me the Democratic House leadership team doesn't remember those rules being passed, and couldn't game out that they would pull this shit? That a supposed master of N-dimensional chess couldn't think one move ahead against an opponent she faces off against every day? Nonsense.
posted by tonycpsu at 5:40 PM on July 16, 2019 [7 favorites]

I wonder what the incidents were that resulted in the rule notes from 2016. What prompted the Republicans to rule that it was out of order to refer to President Obama as (1) a racist (June 9, 2016, p. l; Nov. 16, 2016, p. l)

I don't think this was very much about Obama...

June 7, 2016

MR. KILDEE:... Last week, for example, Donald Trump questioned the ability of an American Federal judge to do his job— this is a direct quote—because ‘‘he’s a Mexican.’’ He even doubled down on this extreme position, questioning whether a Muslim American judge could also properly do his job based on his religion, based on his beliefs. These are deeply troubling, racist, un-American comments that cannot be tolerated, that cannot be accepted.
Honestly, if I felt as if the leadership in the House were doing its job to overcome that so as to do its own job and not align with those sorts of statements by allowing its own legislation to fail because of the willingness to fly the Confederate flag, it would be far more acceptable.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia). The Chair will remind Members to refrain from engaging in personalities towards presumptive nominees for the Office of the President.

June 9, 2016

Mr. COSTA:... Wrongly questioning a judge’s objectivity because of his ethnic background is pure and simple racism. It is not the American way. We are better than that. And, Mr. Trump, you should apologize for your hurtful statements.
Instead of talking about a wall to keep people out, our next President must focus on efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform so that we can fix our Nation’s broken immigration system. As I said, we are a Nation of immigrants. And that is one of the reasons why the United States is the greatest Nation in the world, period.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues and all Americans to join in celebrating immigrant communities throughout our great Nation by recognizing June as Immigrant Heritage Month.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would remind Members to refrain from engaging in personalities toward presumptive nominees for the Office of President of the United States, a principle memorialized in section 370 of the House Rules and Manual.

And of course after November 8th...

Nov 16, 2016

Donald Trump is a demagogue. His political mentor was Roy Cohn, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s right-hand man. No surprise that Donald Trump burst onto the national conservative scene by peddling a racist birther conspiracy, questioning whether President Obama was even an American.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will remind Members to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President-elect.
Mr. GALLEGO. Duly noted.
Donald Trump is a bigot. Even PAUL RYAN called Donald Trump’s words, when attacking a Federal judge of Mexican descent, the ‘‘textbook definition of racism.’’ Donald Trump is a liar. Senator TED CRUZ called him a pathological liar who is completely amoral to boot. Most of all, Donald Trump is a con artist.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is again reminded to observe the decorum of the House and reminds Members to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President- elect.
Mr. GALLEGO. Duly noted.

Etc.
posted by chortly at 5:40 PM on July 16, 2019 [17 favorites]

I find it frustrating that even when the headline is "House votes to condemn Trump's racist tweets" we get a bunch of parliamentary procedure experts...

Just for kicks, I went to Google News to see what the first headline on this subject would be. It's "House thrown into chaos after Pelosi decries Trump's 'racist' tweets on floor." Cherry picking headlines isn't helpful.
posted by diogenes at 5:44 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

Justice Stevens has died. Fuck. Sorry, my brain went crazy with the news before I registered that this was a retired justice.
posted by SpaceBass at 5:48 PM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]

3-Year-Old Asked To Pick Parent In Attempted Family Separation

At a Border Patrol holding facility in El Paso, Texas, an agent told a Honduran family that one parent would be sent to Mexico while the other parent and their three children could stay in the United States, according to the family.

Well, we figured out how to make Sophie's Choice worse

The agent turned to the couple's youngest daughter — 3-year-old Sofia, whom they call Sofi — and asked her to make a choice.

oh
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:49 PM on July 16, 2019 [19 favorites]

I'm not cherry picking. These are the headlines (besides the CNN one I already quoted) I just found scrolling through my Facebook feed:

NPR: House Votes To Condemn Trump's 'Racist Comments

MSNBC: House passes resolution condemning Trump’s racist comments

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Democrats condemn Trump remarks against Rep. Ilhan Omar, colleagues

BBC: US House votes to condemn Trump's attacks on congresswomen

NBC: House votes to condemn Trump 'racist comments,' with only four Republicans backing the measure

ABC: Trump condemned by House for Twitter attacks against congresswomen

Yahoo News: House votes to condemn 'racist' Trump tweets

They did a good thing today. They deserve some credit.
posted by OnceUponATime at 6:00 PM on July 16, 2019 [43 favorites]

Ilhan Omar seizes spotlight to push pro-BDS resolution

“We are introducing a resolution … to really speak about the American values that support and believe in our ability to exercise our first amendment rights in regard to boycotting,” Omar told Al-Monitor. “And it is an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support a nonviolent movement, which is the BDS movement.”

The Minnesota Democrat noted she intends to introduce the bill early this week. At the same time, Democratic leadership plans to advance another nonbinding resolution condemning the BDS movement on Wednesday.

Bravest member of congress in my lifetime.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:06 PM on July 16, 2019 [21 favorites]

Lindsay Wise (WSJ) has a twitter thread describing her interview with Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) who "abandoned the chair" rather than read the statement prepared by the parliamentarian to strike Nancy Pelosi's remarks (that the President's tweets were "racist") from the record.

.@repcleaver said the parliamentarian had written out a script for him to read that said Pelosi's remarks were out of order.

"And I started reading it and I just thought, oh no I'm not going to do that. I wasn't even looking at the words. I was just standing up there fuming"

"I just got to the point where I just didn't want to be involved in it. I didn't want my grandchildren to see me involved in that mess..."

...

@RepCleaver told me that Pelosi had sent him a message while he was in the chair via staff that she was OK with being ruled out of order.

@RepCleaver, however, was not OK with it.

Later Pelosi told him, "They were supposed to tell you that I was OK with taking this down."

@repcleaver told her, "That wasn't enough."

The last thing he said to me was: "See, the problem is, a portion of the country, I think, is OK with this, and that's what's sad."

posted by pjenks at 6:08 PM on July 16, 2019 [28 favorites]

Just for kicks, I went to Google News to see what the first headline on this subject would be. It's "House thrown into chaos after Pelosi decries Trump's 'racist' tweets on floor."

Yes, that’s from Politico, which likes to stir things up with much livelier headlines than the average news outlet. Slate has a similar editorial bent (“House Votes to Condemn Trump’s Racist Tweets, but Not Before Pelosi’s Words Spark Chaos”). Compare this to the boring old NYT (“House Votes to Condemn Trump’s Language as Racist”), the stodgy WaPo (“House votes to condemn Trump’s racist remarks”) or even the Murdoch-owned WSJ (“House Passes Resolution Condemning Trump Tweets as Racist”).
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:12 PM on July 16, 2019 [5 favorites]

The whole event can be seen on this C-Span stream.

Representative Cleaver defused a request by Democrats to strike the words of Rep. Duffy (R-WI) at 2:56.15, who called the Squad "anti-American". Pelosi then spoke at 2:58.30. Republicans immediately objected at 3:05.15. An hour and a quarter of parliamentary review followed. Rep Cleaver abandoned the chair at 4:25.30.
posted by pjenks at 6:19 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

If "stodgy WaPo" will call racism what it is without some dodge in a headline, it's hardly stodgy.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 6:20 PM on July 16, 2019 [5 favorites]

Yes, that’s from Politico, which likes to stir things up with much livelier headlines than the average news outlet.

This is a much nicer and more generous description of Politico than Politico has earned.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:22 PM on July 16, 2019 [12 favorites]

Rep. Duffy was on the Real World. Married to another RW member. I really can't with this timeline.
posted by armacy at 6:25 PM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]

scaryblackdeath: If "stodgy WaPo" will call racism what it is without some dodge in a headline, it's hardly stodgy.

Independently of whatever the Post's degree of conventionality is, it really is looking like those remarks managed to reach a point where calling them racist is the stodgy take. That's the thing to remember about the unspoken "never call it racist" precept; it's not so much an unbreakable rule as a miscalibrated measurement. Breaking through into "Even publication XYZ says it's racist" territory always remains possible.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 6:32 PM on July 16, 2019 [5 favorites]

USA Today left off the quotation marks too:

House votes to condemn Trump's racist tweets with support from only 4 Republicans
posted by OnceUponATime at 6:47 PM on July 16, 2019 [11 favorites]

ok. but if the genius whips and tacticians among house dem seniority are so on the ball with their eleven-dimensional-chess, why didn't they know about these rules? why aren't they prepared to change them? why have they not already changed them?

or is this the eleven-dimensional coup-de-grace: a multiplier for coverage/discussion of the president's racism, racist expressions, racist ambitions, racist behavior today?

i think it is a happy (delirious?) accident, but concede that "scurrilous dems break rules again" may attract a swath of eyeballs that are less interested in 'dems pass resolution condemning racism,' some of which may be connected to brains that may be moved to wonder why a majority of their patriotic conservative reps felt it necessary to create such rules when last they were the majority. not a whole lotta hope in this regard, but am not a magister ludi, myself.

pretty good PR mileage for not much of a gesture, apparently not very well executed.
posted by 20 year lurk at 6:48 PM on July 16, 2019 [3 favorites]

The WSJ thread talking to Cleaver is pretty interesting. At some point -- probably before this whole thing started, though possibly made in the midst -- the plan by Pelosi was to have the parliamentarian agree that her remarks were out of order. After Cleaver stormed out, Hoyer did the deed, citing not rule 370 (as per the Twitter thread) but rather Deschler's Precedents, Chapter 29 section 65.6, which to my eye seems more about members impugning other members than about the Jefferson rule about the president: "65. Race and Prejudice. -- It is not in order in debate to accuse a Member of bigotry or racism..." Presumably the plan all along was to have the chair rule against Pelosi, allow the Republicans to call the vote to have it stricken from the record, with that motion of course losing, and then moving on the the resolution itself.

The only thing that didn't go according to plan was Cleaver. He basically refused to play his part, literally written out for him according the WSJ report, to be the black man on stage enforcing the rule that accusations of racism are forbidden in Congress. It doesn't require reading Rule 370 or Deschler 29.65.6 to know that these rules have their explicit, well-documented roots in centuries of overt racism in the House. Cleaver was utterly right to refuse to play his part in that misbegotten strategy.
posted by chortly at 6:54 PM on July 16, 2019 [42 favorites]

The irony that the twarts in question would be ruled out of order on many counts doesn't escape me.
posted by adept256 at 6:59 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

also, as i saw no other response:

(not that far off from the original intent of checks and balances TBH)
...could you elaborate...?

(not presuming to speak for Rust Moranis)

was working on a cryptic, sardonic response along the lines of "as everyone knows is clearly expressed in The Federalist No. x," then decided that might not be useful to JoeXIII007, or funny to Rust Moranis and the room (or properly sardonic), and, anyway, i ought to get the right Federalist, which, though i'm no expert, appears to be several: numbers 47, 48, 49 and 51, for values of "right" referencing framers' intentions w/r/t separation-of-powers/checks-and-balances, in this case, rather than outright profession of fascism. (both the federalists and the antifederalists stated their abhorrence of tyranny, as, i understand, have most tyrants).

i initially read Rust Moranis' parenthetical as that sort of gloss on the "founding fathers" as the patriarchal elite of the time, and (implicit) concomitant critique of their document's privileging of owners of private property and endorsement of slavery against a plain reading of the values it, elsewhere, espouses, together with extrapolation from that to permissive contemporary usages of term "fascist."

but writing the foregoing realized it is as likely to be the simple bon mot: the framers of the constitution were indeed doing fascism in the sense of the binding together, forging, the disparate individual sticks of the several states into the sturdier union: e pluribus unum. hence the actual fasces among the icons. in this latter sense, i guess each The Federalist advocating a union of states (maybe nos. 1-10? ...pretty good chart of federalists/authors/subject matter at wikipedia) for statements supporting that principle.

hell: por que no los dos.
posted by 20 year lurk at 7:10 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

Sebastian Gorka says that Obama was our first celebrity president

... and, God willing, Tr*mp will be our last.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:33 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

Or just like, what if they just ignored the rule and passed the resolution anyways.

I've had it with Democrats being stymied by really dumb procedural rules and shady legal arguments. I'm no longer giving them a pass. I don't care if it's not their fault. Figure it out. Do something. Do your own stupid stuff. Make a law saying the president can only appear in front of the nation in pajamas. Refuse to fund the government. Do what you have to do.
posted by xammerboy at 7:38 PM on July 16, 2019 [10 favorites]

What? Nobody got stymied. They voted to keep the words in the record and then they passed the resolution.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:45 PM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

I was either watching a very different procedural shitshow than you or I just don’t know what the word stymie means.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 7:53 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

Oh! Okay, my mistake!
posted by xammerboy at 8:12 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

What was Reagan? Chopped liver? Just an empty suit for Bonzo to throw food at? No, Obama was the first rock star president.

Small voice whispers, "JFK."
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:14 PM on July 16, 2019 [8 favorites]

This is more like it. Thank you, Pelosi.

"These comments from the White House are disgraceful and disgusting and these comments are racist," Pelosi said. "Every single member of this institution — Democratic and Republican — should join us in condemning the president’s racist tweets. To do anything less would be a shocking rejection of our values and a shameful abdication of our oath of office to protect the American people."
posted by xammerboy at 8:16 PM on July 16, 2019 [7 favorites]

This is the fatal flaw of our American left write large as fuck. Parsing out toothless resolutions and counterproductive polling and infighting and other garbage while the other side just says fuck it and does a bunch of evil.

It is natural to expect the resistance to that garbage to increase in proportion to the evil itself - that this isn't happening is hard to look in the eye, so we keep coming back to banal bullshit like trying to 11th dimension analyze Pelosi.

None of this pushback is good enough, and the excuses for why it isn't possible to push back harder are hollow.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:17 PM on July 16, 2019 [16 favorites]

USA Today left off the quotation marks too:

House votes to condemn Trump's racist tweets with support from only 4 Republicans

posted by OnceUponATime at 6:47 PM on July 16 [5 favorites +] [!]

If we can whittle GOP support down to just the racists, we can take back the government. The more we force the GOP to proclaim their allegiance to overt, rather than covert racism, the more non-racists are stripped away from their base. I applaud the Democrats in the House for accomplishing this.

[Black and white footage of Klansmen in white robes and hoods standing around a burning cross with ominous chords repeating on the soundtrack]: "Representative Bill Joe KKKlepper was too timid to condemn his party's White House occupant for saying racist slurs that used to be found only on the darkest sites of the Internet. Why is Rep. KKKlepper afraid to condemn racism? Is he himself a racist?"
posted by Mental Wimp at 8:26 PM on July 16, 2019 [10 favorites]

... a shameful abdication of our oath of office to protect the American people.

Which oath is that? She swore to protect the Constitution, and has opted to forgo her obligation to impeach in order to do so. Non-binding resolutions about tweets while children are tortured and killed in genocidal concentration camps, etc. etc.
posted by polyhedron at 8:33 PM on July 16, 2019 [5 favorites]

The more we force the GOP to proclaim their allegiance to overt, rather than covert racism, the more non-racists are stripped away from their base

Republican support for Trump rises after racially charged tweets: Reuters/Ipsos poll

The national survey, conducted on Monday and Tuesday after Trump told the lawmakers they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” showed his net approval among members of his Republican Party rose by 5 percentage points to 72%, compared with a similar poll that ran last week.

This is what they are. Also guess we're still doing "racially charged tweets;" don't you hate it when you accidentally plug your phone into the race outlet.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:39 PM on July 16, 2019 [19 favorites]

Republican support for Trump rises after racially charged tweets: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Cool story, bro. Trump can't win even with 100% support from registered Republicans, because they only comprise 24% of the electorate. If everyone else is stripped away because of his overt racism, and the overt racism of GOP politicians, he and they are dead meat.
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:03 PM on July 16, 2019 [13 favorites]

Republican support for Trump rises after racially charged tweets: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Bullshit. The wagons are circled and Mitch/Ronna/McCarthy have party discipline, but that is not necessarily forever. They're just trying to stretchgoal to the August break, then the holiday break, then primary season. For instance, Joni Ernst is getting dragged pretty heavily for falling into line. Hopefully it translates into phone calls and more.

I think it's very brittle.
posted by rhizome at 9:15 PM on July 16, 2019 [7 favorites]

They cheat, and they have a fully formed media apparatus to disseminate their propaganda. They openly flout the rule of law. Trump being a racist has not been news for like, half a century and I don't see how this changes anything. The aggressive optimism y'all are sharing is jumping the gun.
posted by polyhedron at 9:22 PM on July 16, 2019 [8 favorites]

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.

— Teddy Roosevelt
posted by kirkaracha at 9:25 PM on July 16, 2019 [39 favorites]

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, read the following on the House floor Tuesday night.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 9:30 PM on July 16, 2019 [21 favorites]

A historian has discovered a royal decree issued to Donald Trump’s grandfather ordering him to leave Germany and never come back. Roland Paul, a historian from Rhineland-Palatinate who found the document in local archives, told the tabloid Bild: “Friedrich Trump emigrated from Germany to the USA in 1885. However, he failed to de-register from his homeland and had not carried out his military service, which is why the authorities rejected his attempt at repatriation.”
posted by xammerboy at 10:09 PM on July 16, 2019 [35 favorites]

Grandpa refused mandatory military service so was permanently kicked out of Germany, and the entire family has been carrying a grudge of narcissistic dispossession ever since. This is so pathetic, so infantile.

It's also ironic that he likely cannot go back where he came from.
posted by riverlife at 10:52 PM on July 16, 2019 [23 favorites]

from @JamiePrimak

This man just asked me to “please stop speaking Spanish” on this plane to NYC (in his defense it’s very early and he’s racist) so the man next to him STARTED SPEAKING SPANISH and then the flight attendant and my GOD i have never wanted to get up and dance more than i do now.

heart emoji heart emoji
posted by angrycat at 11:35 PM on July 16, 2019 [91 favorites]

If someone wants to read that Twitter thread, it's here: https://twitter.com/JaimePrimak/status/1151081999626657793
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:13 AM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]

This man just asked me to “please stop speaking Spanish”

This is one of those "Wow, I really do live in a bubble" moments for me. While I know any number of people here in Indiana think stuff like this all the time, I guess I'm shocked that somebody would feel emboldened to tell a stranger that to their face when they're not, like, surrounded by their own redneck buddies in their local watering hole or whatever. That's some bullshit fascist tribal signaling, or maybe the plea of a white man so emotionally overwhelmed by an encounter with an America that doesn't properly center him that he's literally saying "Please, make it stop!" Maybe both.

And now I'm shocked that I'm shocked by this. But in my defense, it’s very early and I'm not racist.
posted by Rykey at 3:53 AM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

His Republican support may have edged up after the racism, but overall his support has pretty much always fallen when he goes full racist. Charlottesville and shithole countries both resulted in dips into the 30s for approval. When he's "normal" and people can kinda pretend he's not an abomination, he edges up.

Also, he tried the whole full racist thing as his closing argument just months ago for the 2018 election - remember caravans and Kaepernick - and Rs suffered the biggest midterm loss in history.
posted by chris24 at 3:54 AM on July 17, 2019 [14 favorites]

I'm shocked the person used "please". Usually it is a straight command of "speak English".
posted by phoque at 4:26 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Washington Examiner (David Drucker): Trump attacks on 'The Squad' drive wedge between campaign and critical voters

President Trump's incendiary claims that his Democratic critics in Congress are un-American are driving a deep wedge between his 2020 campaign and critical elements of the coalition he needs to secure a second term with.

Suburban women and college-educated whites sidelined doubts about Trump and provided support crucial to his victory over Hillary Clinton. But many, fed up with the president’s antics and rhetoric, defected to the Democratic Party in midterm elections two years later. Senior Republican strategists are warning that Trump’s divisive attacks on the four female minority congressional Democrats could permanently exile these key voting blocs, costing the president reelection.

“Republicans want this election to be about the economy and judges. If it's about Trump's tweets and temperament, it's likely that Democrats will have an enthusiasm advantage,” said Alex Conant, a GOP operative who has advised presidential candidates.

Multiple Republicans interviewed for this story declined to speak on the record for fear of angering Trump or causing a problem for their clients.

Granted the protection of anonymity, however, some said the president had committed an egregious, self-inflicted error that could haunt him all the way into next year. A veteran Republican consultant said this latest episode was a bigger political problem for Trump than his controversial response to a violent gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, two summers ago.

“It’s the worst thing he has done,” this GOP insider said. “It’s a blunder and the telling fact that not a single person in the White House has the ability to course correct … and keep it from being a week-long story sets up a terrible narrative.”

posted by chris24 at 5:12 AM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

His Republican support may have edged up after the racism, but overall his support has pretty much always fallen when he goes full racist.

I think what's also crucial is that the rest of the GOP are being forced to take sides, which hasn't really happened before. They're being forced to stand up and take a vote in public on whether Trump is racist or not. The toxicity of Trump's overt racism is finally being smeared onto the whole party by a series of House maneuvers, and, I hope, the stink will not wear off before the 2020 election.
posted by Mental Wimp at 5:13 AM on July 17, 2019 [16 favorites]

USA Today: Poll: Most Americans call Trump's tweets targeting 4 congresswomen 'un-American'

More than two-thirds of those aware of the controversy, 68%, called Trump's tweets offensive. Among Republicans alone, however, 57% said they agreed with tweets that told the congresswomen to go back to their "original" countries, and a third "strongly" agreed with them. [...]

That said, the dispute could be costly for Trump among some key voters in his bid for a second term in next year's presidential election. Independents by more than 2-1 said his tweets were "un-American." Three-fourths of the women polled called them offensive. [...]

Two-thirds of those surveyed, 65%, said that telling minority Americans to "go back where they came from" was a racist statement. Nearly three-fourths of Democrats strongly agreed with that. Republicans were inclined to agree that the comment was racist, but only by a narrow margin, 45% to 34%.

And honestly, while 57% of Rs agreeing with Trump is awful, it’s actually a pretty low percentage of a president’s party supporting him on an issue.
posted by chris24 at 5:26 AM on July 17, 2019 [25 favorites]

CNN's Daniel Dale follows up on the cabinet meeting: Trump Makes 13 False Claims In Cabinet Meeting Most of them are Trump's greatest hits of falsehood: Caravans, migrants and the courts, human trafficking, Democrats and borders, North Korea and US remains, the auto trade, his border wall, women's unemployment, tariffs on China, trade deficit with China, the Chinese economy, and the Iran Deal. He came up with a new-ish one in which he took credit for getting permits for a Louisiana LNG plant, which Obama actually granted in 2014.

Trump was also asked about his tweet yesterday morning when he was watching creepy billionaire and Palantir Technologies co-founder Peter Thiel talking trash on Fox News about how Google should be investigated for treason over their business dealings with the Chinese government. ("A great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone! The Trump Administration will take a look!"):

Trump was asked about a tweet this morning in which he quoted an accusation against Google from billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel, who suggested in a speech this weekend that Google might have made a "seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military."

"He (Peter Thiel) made a very strong charge," Trump said. "He's one of the top, maybe the top expert on all of those things, and he made a very big statement about Google. ... it's a big statement when you say that, you know, Google is involved with China in not a very positive way for our country," Trump said.

Facts First: Thiel, a board member at Facebook, provided no evidence for his accusation either in the Sunday speech or in his Monday appearance on Fox News. Google has rejected the accusation: "As we have said before, we do not work with the Chinese military," Google told CNN on Tuesday.

In March, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Google's work in China is "indirectly benefiting the Chinese military."

In a Monday interview on Fox Business, National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow said he had not spoken to Thiel and was "not sure where he was going or what he's pointing to."

And then there was this hyperbolic lie: "Our ambassador for hostage negotiation said Trump is the greatest of all time. I only tell you that because you'll never say it."

The weirdest thing, though, was this exchange between Trump and Ben Carson, Reuters's Jeff Mason reported: "Sec. Ben Carson tells ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ he believes God is using him, thanks Trump for his courage. Carson says: would we rather have a leader with a silver tongue or someone who gets things done? Trump responds: I thought I had a silver tongue..."
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:31 AM on July 17, 2019 [9 favorites]

His Republican support may have edged up after the racism, but overall his support has pretty much always fallen when he goes full racist. Charlottesville and shithole countries both resulted in dips into the 30s for approval. When he's "normal" and people can kinda pretend he's not an abomination, he edges up.

Polls gathered after the 14th (538-adjusted):
Yougov: 42%
Ipsos: 42%

Compare to the average approval of: 42.3%

I want his popularity to dip as much as anybody but the only thing that budged it in over a year was the shutdown, and that only cost him 3% tops. Charlottesville and the Shithole Incident occurred when his approval was somewhat softer and hadn't yet solidified into an iron plateau. We can't keep surely-thising his approval until the data actually truly show it sinking.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:57 AM on July 17, 2019 [6 favorites]

New Quinnipiac poll showing Harris leading in California.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:16 AM on July 17, 2019 [4 favorites]

In the YouGov poll his approval dropped 2% and his net approval dropped 3 points from last week. Ipsos dropped 1%.

And regardless, I'm fine fighting 2020 on racism rather than the economy. In 2017, centrist pundits were all "oh no Dems are blowing it and Gillespie's racist ads are gonna make a difference." Yeah no. In 2018 every centrist pundit was "oh no Dems are blowing it and the caravans and Kaepernick race stuff is gonna work." No again.

Remember how Maxine Waters was Trump's crazy radical face of the Democratic Party? That didn't really work out did it. And that was on a midterm. The chance of Trump making the squad the focus of 2020 when there's an actual candidate he's facing is slim to none.
posted by chris24 at 6:20 AM on July 17, 2019 [7 favorites]

Republican support for Trump rises after racially charged tweets: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Also, 72% is really fucking low for own party presidential support.
posted by chris24 at 6:29 AM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

I mean, Metafilter couldn't deal with a discussion about dealing with racism on the site, and you think the larger USA can? People here actually acknowledge that racism isn't over and white people are not discriminated against. That is not the case for the general white population of the US.
posted by Anonymous at 6:58 AM on July 17, 2019

I've been hoping that Taylor Swift's attorneys might put a stop to Squad.
posted by emelenjr at 7:07 AM on July 17, 2019

im pretty sure its a self-appellation bruh
posted by entropicamericana at 7:07 AM on July 17, 2019 [15 favorites]

Before he was President, there was nothing more gross than 90s Mar-a-Lago Trump. Here partying with his new best friend, Jeffrey Epstein. <video, NBC, Daily Beast.
posted by Harry Caul at 7:10 AM on July 17, 2019 [8 favorites]

Of course the Republicans are going to approve of Trump's racism - that's why they are Republicans. The R's are nothing if not loyal. I don't see how that affects our side, though - there is far less crossover and swing voting than there used to be. Trump's base is fanatically loyal and all in, but it's not that large as voting blocs go. Bush II was actually at 50% popularity pre-9/11 - he had more approval even in the aftermath of Bush v. Gore than Trump has had at any time.

Our problem as Democrats is when people stay home or vote third party, and, to be honest, I don't see any polling or other ominous signs that "The Squad" or whoever is going to drive Democrats into the arms of a third party or the comfort of their couches.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 7:14 AM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

The chance of Trump making the squad the focus of 2020 when there's an actual candidate he's facing is slim to none.

The chance of Trump making any single thing "the focus" of 2020 is slim to none. It's gonna be a daily wheel-of-fortune with spaces marked "invading Mexicans" and "upstart Congresswomen" and "schoolyard taunts of Democratic nominee" and "stupid, amateurish flail at whatever policy Fox & Friends talked about this morning". Over and over, repeat as necessary, ad infinitum.
posted by Etrigan at 7:16 AM on July 17, 2019 [14 favorites]

Trump's focus on 'the squad' reminds me a little of McCarthyism. Perhaps someone could mention that to get under his thin skin.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:20 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Trump's focus on 'the squad' reminds me a little of McCarthyism. Perhaps someone could mention that to get under his thin skin.

Because it would remind him of his dead friend and mentor Roy Cohn? Trump's mind was built by one of the architects of McCarthyism.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:26 AM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

I mean, Metafilter couldn't deal with a discussion about dealing with racism on the site, and you think the larger USA can?

I'm saying Trump is going to use racism like he did 2018 when it didn't work. If he wants to make the same mistake in 2020, go ahead. This granting him of special electoral powers and thinking he's playing 3D chess is giving him way too much credit. 2017 and 2018 showed that playbook didn't work well.
posted by chris24 at 7:26 AM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

I'm already sick of the name "Squad". These may seem like fringe players to dumbass old white people but they're representative of the districts of the heartland of the USA that sent them to DC. "Squad" is just more othering.

But as was already remarked above the appellation has been adopted by the group - and they seem to mean it as inclusive rather than othering. Take a look at this thread on Twitter -- with Ocasio-Cortez tweeting: "Who’s in the Squad? Check in! ⬇️ 🙋🏽‍♂️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏿‍♂️🙋🏼‍♀️🦹🏼‍♀️" -- after quoting Ayanna Pressley: "We are more than four people. We ran on a mandate to advocate for those ignored, left out, and left behind. Our squad is big. Our squad includes any person committed to building a more equitable and just world."
posted by bitteschoen at 7:30 AM on July 17, 2019 [36 favorites]

His Republican support may have edged up after the racism, but overall his support has pretty much always fallen when he goes full racist.

If memory serves me correctly, while Trump remains popular with his Republican base, the number of people willing to publicly identify as Republicans has been dropping.
posted by Gelatin at 7:37 AM on July 17, 2019 [11 favorites]

(And now the squad even has a fifth official member...)
posted by bitteschoen at 7:41 AM on July 17, 2019 [4 favorites]

I shouldn't be, but I am still amazed by DJT's ability to seize public discourse and shove it in the direction that he wants. We (the U.S. and our media) have been consumed by reaction to and discussion of Trump's racist statements over the past few days, which are par for the course for him (i.e., we've learned nothing new about his character: he's racist and misogynist, and remains so). But consequently, little media--and thus, very little public discourse--have spent any coverage on the Epstein arrest and obvious, documented connections to DJT, which are real and quite damning.

I also remain amazed that we have a president so horrible, that its preferable to him to just publicly be an asshole racist and have everyone arguing over the horrible things he said, rather than have people pay attention to crimes he's actually done. Elected Democrats have yet to learn to stop spending so much time reacting to and talking about DJT's words, and focus on actions in response to what he's actually doing. Actions do speak louder than words, even in our media-saturated culture, and at this point every bit of energy spent in reaction to words is a cost taken from action that any resistance cannot afford to lose. (i.e., "yes, I'm aware that the President said some horribly racist things this morning, but the Congress remains focused on the illegality of the President's actions regarding....")

(he boldly says, in a forum where there are only words....)
posted by LooseFilter at 7:45 AM on July 17, 2019 [33 favorites]

Before he was President, there was nothing more gross than 90s Mar-a-Lago Trump. Here partying with his new best friend, Jeffrey Epstein.

In addition to this video showing Trump leering and laughing at young women with a pedophile, it also shows him grabbing women and patting their asses.
posted by chris24 at 8:10 AM on July 17, 2019 [6 favorites]

The chance of Trump making any single thing "the focus" of 2020 is slim to none. It's gonna be a daily wheel-of-fortune with spaces marked "invading Mexicans" and "upstart Congresswomen" and "schoolyard taunts of Democratic nominee" and "stupid, amateurish flail at whatever policy Fox & Friends talked about this morning". Over and over, repeat as necessary, ad infinitum.

It might be nice if part of the Democratic messaging to the so-called "liberal media" is that Trump's antics are entirely predictable and as such not novel, not interesting, and not news.

Trump's antics are disgusting, yes but the novelty has worn off. But just as it took the media until well into George W. Bush's second term, long after the disasters of his wars and Hurricane Katrina, to figure out that he was no longer a "popular wartime president," they are lagging behind the American public in realizing that the sad antics of a racist coot are just boring.
posted by Gelatin at 8:12 AM on July 17, 2019 [8 favorites]

I mean, Metafilter couldn't deal with a discussion about dealing with racism on the site, and you think the larger USA can?

Trump needs to be called out, but everyone should be aware of what they're getting into. Trump absolutely wants to be called a racist. Many conservative strategists want to weaponize the word racist the same way they did the word deplorable.

For a long time, conservatives have been weaponizing call out culture. They want their voters to believe that liberals think they are dirt. Moreover, that no matter how inoffensive what you do or say is, liberals will find a way to call you out.

This isn't just to make conservative voters outraged and indignant. It's also to convince them that racist thought and policy isn't really racist. Rather, it represents common sense ideas that liberals have twisted. The goal, in part, is to normalize racism.

You see this with the ok symbol, which started as a "joke" that liberals would jump to believe and label nearly any gesture racist. There's another movement to do the same thing with air fresheners in cars. Pepe the frog started as a joke that liberals could be made to believe in a cartoon frog is racist. Now he's their every day mascot.

I thought the way the squad handled their press release was excellent. Trump is trying to distract you. He can't justify not giving you healthcare, so he's attacking us personally. Yes, his comments are racist, but they are also designed to be relatable. Most people have had that thought about someone at some time in their lives justifiably or not.

Running a campaign on Trump being racist will be made to sound to conservatives as "liberals despise you and want to call you racists." Trump must be called out, but I think Democrats need to be very aware of the trap being set for them.
posted by xammerboy at 8:18 AM on July 17, 2019 [15 favorites]

Trump set the exact same trap in 2018 and Rs lost every statewide race in WI, MI and PA. And the national House popular vote by almost 9%, the biggest gap since women got the vote.
posted by chris24 at 8:21 AM on July 17, 2019 [21 favorites]

Plus, to reuse a quote from Alexandra Erin, you can't deny ammunition to a munitions factory. No matter how the Democrats actually respond to this stuff, it'll be twisted out of context to provide the necessary framing for the Fox News crowd, or in a pinch they'll just make it up like the "Ilhan Omar supports al-Qaeda" (sorry, "alcaida") thing. The bigger risk in how Dems react is that they'll depress their own base, not that they'll gin up the Republicans who've already been primed to hear elitist liberal judgment in the beat of a fly's wings.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:25 AM on July 17, 2019 [21 favorites]

Shimon Prokupecz :

Very significant news out of the SDNY: Feds end investigation into Trump Org and hush money payments.

Tomorrow we learn more:
US District Court Judge William Pauley ordered search warrant materials connected to the Cohen investigation to be filed publicly with very limited redactions by Thursday at 11 am.

posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:33 AM on July 17, 2019 [15 favorites]

Exactly. The party of QAnon, Benghazi, Seth Rich, Uranium One, etc., etc. will be fired up regardless.

You win by firing up your base, not placating theirs.
posted by chris24 at 8:35 AM on July 17, 2019 [30 favorites]

“More than a thousand Jews, immigrants, and allies shut down DHS/ICE headquarters for hours today. Dozens were arrested.

This is a more significant development in the history of this administration than the House censure resolution.” @studentactivism
posted by The Whelk at 8:35 AM on July 17, 2019 [63 favorites]

“More than a thousand Jews, immigrants, and allies shut down DHS/ICE headquarters for hours today. Dozens were arrested.

I think this is the next step, only it needs to be planned out so that there are ongoing lockdowns with relatively few people in each. At ICE, at politicians' offices, anywhere that can put a spoke in the wheels.

I really, really think that nothing is going to change or stop unless the campaign against the detention camps escalates.

Anyone can escalate their involvement, even if they are not ready to get arrested. If you don't go to marches, you can start. If you don't want to get arrested, you can still either attend large protests where there will be civil disobedience and stay away from the front/arrestees. You can do jail support.

You can also raise money for bail bond funds for immigrants, distribute flyers, put up signs against detention camps.

The more people are doing the non-arrest work, the more it frees arrestable/militant people to do the other stuff.

~~
Yesterday I had immigration court observation again. For the first time that I'd seen, they were processing detainees in batches - three or four people for each hearing. Now, the judge was the one widely held to be the best, so each person was dealt with individually and got individual explanations for next steps, but still, I'd never seen groups in immigration court before. Once again, I was in Minnesota but the majority of the detainees were asylum seekers brought here from the Texas border. All had been detained since the very beginning of May.

One of the detainees had actually had some kind of entry visa but was told by fiat that it was void. He was not given an explanation of why. The judge made them change the charge. I mean, for all I know it really was void for some reason, but that's the sort of thing people should be told.

The longer I do this, the more bullshit immigration laws themselves appear - not in an abstract "I think this is kind of bullshit" way but in a really felt, visceral way. Why do we have this stupid, time-consuming, expensive carceral apparatus that does no one any good instead of some kind of Schengen-area arrangement? I mean, I know why - racism on the emotional side and the immense profits to be made by restricting the flow of labor and running jails on the other - but it's not a reason, it's an excuse.

I also feel dumber and dumber to be sitting there in the courtroom. Nothing divides me from these detainees except stupid, phony political rules, but I'm sitting there in my free time and they're going back to jail. The railings that divide the courtroom seem ever more bullshit each time I go. It's all artificial - they have the wrong papers and I have the right ones, they have to wear prison orange and manacles while I wear what I want, but that's the only real difference and you could fix that with a printer and a trip to H&M.
posted by Frowner at 8:59 AM on July 17, 2019 [68 favorites]

Based on my few non-blocked conservative Facebook friends, the sense of persecution is very high as xammerboy implied. While I condemn all thoughtless and bigoted statements, I've been trying to acknowledge that our culture has become much more aware of and thoughtful about how we talk to people, which sometimes means that non-politically focused people miss the memo. So I'm trying to engage and make clear that I personally am sympathetic as long as people mean well. So like:

- "Go back to your home country" = straight up blatant racism.
- not being able to say LGBTQ without stumbling, or fucking up a transgender person's pronoun a couple of times = room for improvement, assuming it's just coming from novelty or ignorance.

The problem is that the rank and file Republican voters who don't think of themselves as horrible racists are very susceptible to the idea that liberals hate them and will pick on them no matter what. If it's not stuff like the above, it's that their Budweiser sucks and they need to drink craft brew, or their music sucks and they need to listen to [whatever]. That's their problem, not mine in a way, but I have been trying to not put them down as a group without engaging with specific people on specific things.

Of course a lot of times they turn out to be horrible racists anyway :-(
posted by freecellwizard at 9:00 AM on July 17, 2019 [13 favorites]

In addition to this video showing Trump leering and laughing at young women with a pedophile, it also shows him grabbing women and patting their asses.

All the way back in the 90s, obscured in the mists of time
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:01 AM on July 17, 2019 [2 favorites]

Just so we know where House Dems stand, Politico reports: Why Democrats’ Oversight Machine Is Moving So Slowly Against Trump—Lawmakers say they are building a record of White House resistance to testimony from Mueller witnesses — but angst on the left is growing.

House Democrats say they are also focused on meticulously building a record of the Trump administration’s resistance to their investigations in order to help persuade a court to rule in their favor and break the White House blockade. Rushing into it, they say, could backfire — even as angst on the left has begun to swell.

“I’m not too wild about incrementalism, but that’s where we’re at,” said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee.[…]

Many of the Democrats leading the investigations say they’re in no hurry to put the fights before federal judges and are comfortable with the snail’s pace. They say they trust Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to pick the panel’s battles and strike when the time is right.

“Right now, we’re kind of in a wind-up phase,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. “When litigation is filed, then the game begins.”[…]

“In limited defense of our wrist-slapping, we’ve never seen an administration that, across every cabinet official, from the top down throughout the administration, there was utter disdain for the rule of law,” added Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), who supports launching an impeachment inquiry. “So in a sense, they’ve laid down such a gauntlet for the Congress that we don’t have any precedent for dealing with this level of lawlessness.”[…]

“Unfortunately, this is the process that we must adhere to,” Johnson lamented. “It is in accordance with the rule of law, which ironically the executive branch is trampling. But we can’t get down in the mud and trample our Constitution and our laws along with the administration.”[…]

“This is very serious business, so when we go to court, we absolutely have to win,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), a member of the Judiciary Committee. “So that’s why we’re making sure we have bulletproof cases when we do go to court.”

Lieu agreed that the punishments levied against the Trump administration amount to little so far. “They won’t take it seriously until there’s a court ruling,” he said.[…]

“The chairman has a plan. I’m deferring to him,” said Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), a Judiciary Committee member. “I think it’s moving.”

If any Mefites are among their constituents—or even just registered voters and concerned citizens—who'd like to discuss this strategy with their offices, the Capitol Hill switchboard is 202-224-3121.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:04 AM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]

trying to engage and make clear that I personally am sympathetic as long as people mean well.

I have had a version of this conversation several times, and it actually seems to go over pretty well...

Them: "The left desperately needs to learn the difference between being a racist and being insensitive. Neither are good things, but they are not the same thing." (actual quote from friend of a friend, in reference to Trump's latest racist tweets)

Me: "Racism is like selfishness. It's an instinct most humans have which makes living with other humans harder. We have a hard time recognizing it in ourselves and often resent it when others call us out on it. Most people are rarely intentionally racist, just as most people are rarely intentionally selfish. They just don't have the self awareness to realize when they are hurting other people and rationalizing it with bad logic.

This is what racism is. It's not people steepling their fingers together and saying "Bwahaha, let us persecute everyone with some arbitrary physical attribute for no reason!" It's people saying to themselves "Why do *those* people have to be *that* way? It makes me so uncomfortable! Why can't they just leave *us* alone?" They have no concept of an "us" that includes people who don't look like them, sound like them, worship like them. Instead of selfishness, it's people-like-myselfishness.

Everybody is racist sometimes, usually without realizing it. The important thing is whether you are capable of recognizing it when it's pointed out, apologizing, and trying to do better. It's the proud racists, the unapologetic racists, who are really dangerous."

Or, as Ijeoma Oluo puts it: "The beauty of anti-racism is that you don't have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it's the only way forward."
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:16 AM on July 17, 2019 [41 favorites]

Shits Totally Fucked Up: mutual aid. What you can do that’s not contracting your reps or voting every so often (YouTube)
posted by The Whelk at 9:18 AM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]

Oh god, we deserve hell

“A private prison VP (who previously ran ICE's arrest and detention arm) asked ICE to bail out his company for the potential tens of millions in lawsuits it faces for allegedly forcing people to work for less than $1/day:”
posted by The Whelk at 9:21 AM on July 17, 2019 [21 favorites]

Trump absolutely wants to be called a racist. Many conservative strategists want to weaponize the word racist the same way they did the word deplorable.

I think that both Pelosi and Trump (and their respective teams) over-estimate the tolerance of racism among key voters (as an extension of having not-accurate mental models of those voters). But Pelosi's miscalculation is small, and it's partly rooted in valid statistics about what happened in 2018 with suburban moderates. Trump, meanwhile, overestimates racism-tolerance by a very wide margin, to a degree that, electorally, can only be achieved by itself-racist policy like voter suppression.

The short version is: racism isn't how Trump won in 2016, it's at best how he didn't lose for the thousand-plus non-racism-related reasons that he should have. (He won because of the Comey letter, Russian interference, etc). Racism only raises his floor, never his ceiling.

So the simple fact that House Democrats were unanimous in signing that declaration -- even when "I personally think he's racist bu using that word against him in an official capacity violates our chamber's own rules" serves as a plausible excuse to just sit out the controversy -- is definite cause for hope.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 9:31 AM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]

> You win by firing up your base, not placating theirs.

this is a really significant thing, not just on a level of "what political tactics are most effective," but in an underlying "what does it mean to do politics right now" sense.

most of the people reading this grew up in north america in the 20^th century, when the liberal version of what it means to do politics was still embraced. politics was thought of as consisting primarily of debate and argumentation. we thought of ourselves as being essentially in one polity, and we generally considered ourselves as one people with shared interests and shared goals, but with differing ideas on how to achieve them. we thought that we could figure out which course to take to our shared goals through rational debate. this was, of course, a lie — a lie in large part built by ensuring that people who weren't white, well-off, straight, male, and cis were in varying ways excluded from the political debating society. but at least among people in the charmed circles of whiteness, wealth, cismaleness and heterosexuality, it was a lie commonly accepted.

if politics is a debate society, changing your debate opponents' minds is the top priority — because everyone is assumed to be acting in good faith toward everyone's shared interests, you know your ideas are good if people initially opposed to them come around to your side. now that we've been forced to acknowledge that politics is a struggle for material resources between groups without common interests and goals — and, indeed, often with mutually incompatible interests and goals — we can no longer think of politics as a debate club. instead we must think of politics as war by other means — a struggle wherein the varying sides aim to demonstrate that their potential army is bigger and stronger than the potential armies that can be mustered by the other sides, but in such a way that no one actually has to start shooting at anyone else. in our politics-as-relatively-bloodless-war period, one knows that ones ideas are good when people who already agree with your ideas are inspired to become metaphorical foot soldiers — to go to meetings, to knock on doors, to write postcards, to give money, to make phonecalls, to send texts, to plan and hold rallies, and so forth. in short, you know your ideas are good if your ideas activate people.

this is all of course incredibly dangerous. if politics is a relatively bloodless proxy for war, we must all strive to make sure that this war-proxy remains relatively bloodless despite the inherent violence of the ideologies we're struggling against. but nevertheless, it's more dangerous at this juncture to go on pretending that we have a common polity with shared interest, and it's maximally dangerous to abandon the field of struggle. we are balanced on a knife's edge.

politicians who despite it all aim for bipartisanship with republicans are like... i don't know, they're like people who try to win a war by petitioning the generals on the other side to change their minds. it's madness and folly.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:32 AM on July 17, 2019 [59 favorites]

> You win by firing up your base, not placating theirs.

Base mobilization strategies often mobilize the other party's base too, unfortunately.

most of the people reading this grew up in north america in the 20th century, when the liberal version of what it means to do politics was still embraced.

I am not ready to give up on liberal democracy just yet, thanks. Talking IS better than fighting. Money spent on election campaigns IS better than money spent on weapons. As Churchill said, the alternative to jaw, jaw, is war, war.
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:39 AM on July 17, 2019 [3 favorites]

Some reps may have to start going on the record on impeachment today. House to vote on whether to consider articles of impeachment for Trump

'The move, forced by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who used a procedural mechanism that required action within two days, is unlikely to succeed. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long opposed efforts to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Trump and confirmed she would not support Green’s resolution.
“No I don’t,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday when asked about Green’s effort. “Does that come as a surprise?” she added with laughter.'
posted by Harry Caul at 9:43 AM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

Base mobilization strategies often mobilize the other party's base too, unfortunately.

Our base is bigger than theirs.
posted by chris24 at 9:44 AM on July 17, 2019 [15 favorites]

I am not ready to give up on liberal democracy just yet, thanks.

It's an obvious misreading to conflate "the liberal version of what it means to do politics" with "liberal democracy";

Talking IS better than fighting.

Please read the whole comment before responding--to wit, it concludes in part: if politics is a relatively bloodless proxy for war, we must all strive to make sure that this war-proxy remains relatively bloodless despite the inherent violence of the ideologies we're struggling against.

You agree with the comment that you are strongly disagreeing with. The firing squad is circular.
posted by LooseFilter at 9:44 AM on July 17, 2019 [8 favorites]

> the alternative to jaw, jaw, is war, war.

this is jaw, jaw. it's how jaw, jaw works these days. it's probably how it's always worked.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:51 AM on July 17, 2019 [3 favorites]

I didn't realize the vote was going to be on whether to consider the articles of impeachment rather than on the articles themselves. That makes this whole thing seem even more pointless.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:55 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

I am not ready to give up on liberal democracy just yet, thanks.

It's an obvious misreading to conflate "the liberal version of what it means to do politics" with "liberal democracy";


Also our current problem stems from focusing exclusively on the liberal part (freedom of markets, individual rights) and not the democracy part, which results in a minority government given free reign to rule over the vast majority that did not vote for them and do not share their goals.
posted by The Whelk at 9:55 AM on July 17, 2019 [12 favorites]

it's how jaw, jaw works these days.

Even moreso, it's mostly how war, war works these days, too--if the weaponizing of social media to utterly pollute public discourse and interfere in elections aren't considered actual acts of war, then we're waaay behind in the conceptual reframing department.

(What's pernicious and maybe difficult to see is that these are weapons of thought and speech, not physical armaments that explode and shred, and they often work best by persuading us to do the actual exploding and shredding in the physical world on their behalf. Putin and the rest of his mob will destroy liberal democracy with these weapons vastly more completely than with tanks and missles.)
posted by LooseFilter at 9:59 AM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

it's how jaw, jaw works these days.

Even moreso, it's mostly how war, war works these days, too--

Worth mentioning that the right has already killed a large number of people through stochastic terrorism in the last few years, spurred by the speech of those in power. The line between rhetorical and literal acts of war is pretty close to blurred out.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:05 AM on July 17, 2019 [7 favorites]

Lots of the newly elected House Democrats ran on not particularly left platforms and won in traditionally GOP areas by persuading formerly Republican-voting people. AOC and the squad won in very blue districts. Lefty candidates in less blue areas did not do particularly well - Eastman in NE-02, Jealous in MD gov.

I completely support trying to push the party leftwards. That said, both base mobilization and persuasion need to be tools in our armory, used where appropriate.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:08 AM on July 17, 2019 [27 favorites]

Even moreso, it's mostly how war, war works these days, too--if the weaponizing of social media to utterly pollute public discourse and interfere in elections aren't considered actual acts of war, then we're waaay behind in the conceptual reframing department.

this is such an important insight. thank you so much.

a second ago i watched the brilliant video on mutual aid that the whelk posted a little bit upthread. inspired by that video, i'm right now googling how to get involved in prisoner support programs. and thanks to your comment i'm struck by how the sorts of meaningful supportive connections that one builds through mutual aid are — unlike all this jaw jaw on the Internet — something that vladimir putin can't pervert into a weapon of war.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:09 AM on July 17, 2019 [8 favorites]

I'm just super frustrated with arguments against attempting to change minds. If we are not trying to change minds, we are are not doing democracy.

If your idea is "we can't change minds, we just have to win by any means necessary" that will end in violence. And Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon also said, in this thread: "i mean, shoot, i vote for democrats and also i'm on the record as supporting the dismantlement of bourgeois electoral democracy by militant workers' soviets." That colored my interpretation of this last comment.

This is the same exact line of argument used by Sohrab Ahmari and his allies on the far right (it's a common theme at "First Things" which published Ahmari's essay):

[T]here is no “polite, David French-ian third way around the cultural civil war.”[...] “The only way is through”—that is to say, to fight the culture war with the aim of defeating the enemy and enjoying the spoils in the form of a public square re-ordered to the common good and ultimately the Highest Good.
...
Progressives understand that culture war means discrediting their opponents and weakening or destroying their institutions. Conservatives should approach the culture war with a similar realism. Civility and decency are secondary values. They regulate compliance with an established order and orthodoxy. We should seek to use these values to enforce our order and our orthodoxy, not pretend that they could ever be neutral. To recognize that enmity is real is its own kind of moral duty.

I hate this argument whether it purports to come from the left or the right. I hate it whether it styles itself "against David Frenchism" or "against Nancy Pelosi-ism."

Back in 2016 I posted a link to this essay as an FPP.

As Congress becomes increasingly dysfunctional, as it sets up more and more of these holding-the-country-hostage situations, presidents will feel more and more justified in cutting Congress out of the picture.

We know where that goes: Eventually the Great Man on Horseback [like Caesar Augustus] appears and relieves us of the burden of Congress entirely.
...
About half of the erosion in Rome was done by the good guys, in order to seek justice for popular causes that the system had stymied.
...
If the American Republic is going to survive, its mechanisms have to work. If they don’t work — if the system stays as clogged as it has been these last few years, and each cycle of attack-and-reprisal gums things up worse — then eventually someone will sweep it all away. Maybe not Trump, maybe not this year, but someone, someday sooner than you might think possible. That would be a tragedy of historic proportions, but crowds would cheer as it happened.

The essay also links to a punch of poll results (now several years old) showing the decreasing popularity of democracy. " It’s disturbing enough that 28% of American college graduates think it might be good to have “a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with congress and elections”, but among non-graduates it is actually a close question: Democracy still beats authoritarianism, but only 56%-44%."

On the right I hear people say all the time now "we're a Republic, not a Democracy." Putin says liberal democracy is dead, and Orban says he practices "illiberal democracy" and the editors of First Things openly advocate for the same system in America.

I hate hearing the echo of that on the left. I hate hearing "I've had it with Democrats being stymied by really dumb procedural rules and shady legal arguments. I'm no longer giving them a pass. I don't care if it's not their fault. Figure it out. Do something. Do your own stupid stuff. Make a law saying the president can only appear in front of the nation in pajamas. Refuse to fund the government. Do what you have to do."

I am testy lately because I feel like everywhere I go I am having the argument from A Man for All Seasons...

William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

posted by OnceUponATime at 10:13 AM on July 17, 2019 [34 favorites]

Firing up your base isn’t just feeding them red meat. That’s just how Republicans do it. Firing up the Dem base is coming up with good healthcare plans, defending democracy, fighting for the oppressed, etc. All of those things are making an argument that people can be persuaded by. They are attempts to change minds. It’s not our fault that most Republicans won’t and don’t listen and vote against their interests. Racism is a helluva drug.

Also, arguments for “we need to persuade Rs” often seem to end up basically being we need to compromise with racist fascists over the humanity of POC, LGBT, etc.
posted by chris24 at 10:19 AM on July 17, 2019 [26 favorites]

Mod note: Folks we've had this same back-and-forth many times, with people restating their positions; let's let it rest there for now?
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:29 AM on July 17, 2019 [12 favorites]

@scottwongdc
@SpeakerPelosi calls the Trump resolution yesterday as a "benign approach": It condemned the words of the president and lifted up Ronald Reagan's words about inclusion. "By definition those words [by Trump] are racism. ... That was as gentle as could be," Pelosi said. @SpeakerPelosi clarified today she is not calling Trump a racist, she is calling Trump's words racist

posted by Rust Moranis at 11:23 AM on July 17, 2019

Always relevant but especially so just now - Jay Smooth on "How to Tell Somebody They Sound Racist."
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:48 AM on July 17, 2019 [7 favorites]

Meanwhile, Aaron Rupar reports, "Eric Trump claims on Fox & Friends that "95 percent of this country" is behind his father's message. (His approval rating is actually about half that.)" (w/video)

“He is willing to fight, and I’ve said this time and time again, but America didn’t have a fighter for administrations — by the way, both on the Republican and Democratic side. We haven’t had somebody in there fighting. My father is in there, and he’s fighting every single day. And he has to fight against the media. He has to fight against these lunatics. And guys, I’m telling you, 95 percent of this country is behind him in this message. I mean, people love this nation."

It's hard to say which is more pathetic, Eric's televised attempts to win his monstrous father's love, or his transparently unreal propaganda message to reinforce the MAGA audience's hermetic news bubble.

Not even @realDonaldTrump went this far in his morning tweet: "New Poll: The Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in predicting the 2016 Election, has just announced that “Trump” numbers have recently gone up by four points, to 50%. Thank you to the vicious young Socialist Congresswomen. America will never buy your act! #MAGA2020"
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:17 PM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

"@SpeakerPelosi clarified today she is not calling Trump a racist, she is calling Trump's words racist"

I'm not calling him racist-- of course not, only his words. And what are words really? Overrated I say! Some say they allow us the ability to share our inner self with others. But can words really describe what a person thinks and are? Of course not.

Actions though! Well, no-- not actions either, can you really know the inner heart of someone who does a racist thing? Let's not rush to judge! Just imagine for one second you were called racist purely because you said and did something racist. My heart rends even thinking about the unfairness if such a world existed.

So let us all agree, racism is prevalent in our society, but no-one is actually racist. **SCREAMING INTO PILLOW**
posted by Static Vagabond at 12:20 PM on July 17, 2019 [11 favorites]

Thank you to the vicious young Socialist Congresswomen.

This, but sincerely.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:23 PM on July 17, 2019 [39 favorites]

Daily Mail, via CNN: Leaked cables show British ambassador saying Trump abandoned Iran deal in act of 'diplomatic vandalism' to spite Obama

Politico: Trump’s Better Deal With Iran Looks A Lot Like Obama’s—Trump has repeatedly urged Iran to negotiate, saying that Tehran’s nuclear ambitions are his chief concern, talking points that experts say echo the 2015 deal.

Trump has repeatedly urged Iran to engage in negotiations with him, while saying that Tehran’s nuclear ambitions are his chief concern — “A lot of progress has been made. And they'd like to talk,” Trump asserted Tuesday at the White House. His aides and allies, meanwhile, have recently suggested that Iran and other countries should follow the guidelines of a deal they themselves have shunned as worthless.

At times, analysts and former officials say, it sounds like Trump wants to strike a deal that essentially mirrors the agreement that his White House predecessor inked — even if he’d never be willing to admit it. Iranian officials seem willing to egg him on, saying they’ll talk so long as Trump lifts the sanctions he’s imposed on them and returns to the 2015 Iran deal. And as European ministers warn that the existing deal is nearly extinct, Trump may feel like he is backed into a corner and running out of options.[…]

The administration’s confusing messaging is a result of warring between two major factions, U.S. officials say, with Trump in his own separate lane. The infighting has been deeply frustrating to those involved in the debate. “In the past, even when I personally disagreed with a policy, I could explain its logic,” a U.S. official said. “Now I can’t even do that.”[…]

As tensions have spiked, one voice pushing for a deal has been Trump.

He’s said he’s “not looking for war,” wants to talk to Iran without preconditions and isn’t interested in regime change. He called off a military strike on Iran over its downing of an unmanned U.S. drone, overriding the advice of several top aides. His main public demand is that Iran not build nuclear weapons. In return, Trump has offered to help revive Iran’s sanctions-battered economy.

To observers, that sounds suspiciously like the 2015 deal.[…]

Several European officials express astonishment at the audacity of the Trump administration demanding that Iran adhere to the deal when the U.S. the one who breached the agreement in the first place. Some said they were not surprised that Iran may have taken actions in the Persian Gulf as payback for the U.S. abandonment of the deal.

Trump repeatedly takes credit for Obama's achievements, such as the VA Choice bill, energy permits, and the economy, so why not plagiarize his diplomatic successes as well?

Also from Politico: Rand Paul Angles to Become Trump's Emissary to Iran—The senator pitched the idea during a recent round of golf with the president.

Given Paul's chummy relationship with Putin, why not send him as a US envoy to Russia's main ally in the Middle East?
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:45 PM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Politico's Dan Diamond reports on who's holding up the renewal of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (w/video):

RAND PAUL blocks compensation for 9/11 victims fund: “Any new spending … should be offset by cutting spending that is less valuable.”

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND gets heated in response: “Enough of the political games — the 9/11 first responders and the entire nation are watching.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) joined Paul in placing a hold on the legislation.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:56 PM on July 17, 2019 [21 favorites]

@jaketapper
.@tabletmag “As the leading targets of hate crimes, Jews are routinely being attacked in the streets of New York City. So why is no one acting like it’s a big deal?”

"I'll be discussing this later tonight on the channel that thinks it's no big deal to casually platform Richard Spencer"
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:12 PM on July 17, 2019 [40 favorites]

New Poll: The Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in predicting the 2016 Election

Hahahahahahahahaha. Rasmussen was off by *10 points* in 2018.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:45 PM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]

20 year lurk: appreciate the interpretation. Makes sense. I hope to find time to read those Federalist papers. At initial view, it's a little less dark than I originally read from Rust.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 2:45 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Hahahahahahahahaha. Rasmussen was off by *10 points* in 2018.

It was not exactly a beacon of accuracy in 2016 either, no? It had Trump winning the popular vote IIRC.
posted by Justinian at 2:50 PM on July 17, 2019

CNN Invites White Supremacist Richard Spencer to Talk About Trump’s Racist Tweets

CNN has been criticized about their booking practices for a while now.

MIT lecturer Michael Trite noticed another recent example: “CNN had a panel of women on defending Trump from accusations of racism. Looked them up and they’re a political coalition that also made media appearances in 2016 to defend him after The Access Hollywood tape. CBS: Texas Women Express Unwavering Support For Trump”
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:51 PM on July 17, 2019 [13 favorites]

The House just voted to table impeachment. 332-95. Cool. Super cool. Holding them accountable woo.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 2:59 PM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

@ZekeJMiller: Trump on Rep. Omar before leaving White House: "There's a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it."

So I guess he's not ready to leave this particular nuclear garbage fire news cycle quite yet? Sorry, I'm gonna go scream into a trash can now. Won't be the right trash can, but it's all I've got.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 3:05 PM on July 17, 2019 [21 favorites]

Not that anyone’s beholden to laws anymore, but doesn’t the fact that he phrased it as “the fact that she’s married to her brother” take this into official slander territory?
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 3:16 PM on July 17, 2019 [16 favorites]

RAND PAUL blocks compensation for 9/11 victims fund: “Any new spending … should be offset by cutting spending that is less valuable.”

Death by a thousand tax cuts: The long-term goal of the 1T tax cuts has always been to put the US into a precarious financial state, ultimately forcing the dismantling of Social Security and Medicare programs.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:17 PM on July 17, 2019 [9 favorites]

I’m glad for that vote, actually. Not the outcome I wanted, but knowing the results is informative.

It shows that the idea of the House voting to impeach and the Senate then acquitting is probably a flawed expectation. Because there doesn’t seem to be the will even in the House to impeach.

And that’s not just among the Dem leadership, either. It appears that over half of the Dems don’t want to go down that road. Hence, the only real card Pelosi can play right now is to have the various committee investigations continue until they turn up enough inflammatory evidence that a majority of her own caucus — not to mention a majority of the House — is clamoring for impeachment.

As maddening as it is to not have impeachment on the table, it’s more maddening that there just isn’t broad support for it in either house of Congress, despite all of the corruption, nepotism, recklessness, misogyny, racism and everything else that has already been revealed in stark detail about Trump.

Additionally, by keeping congressional investigations going, enough media cycles can be occupied with coverage of Trump’s sliminess that maybe it can pierce the fog with low-information voters, and so hopefully shift the 2020 elections by 2-3%, and tip some important close races (including the one for the White House).
posted by darkstar at 3:18 PM on July 17, 2019 [4 favorites]

Here's the list of House members who voted in favor of starting an impeachment inquiry.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:30 PM on July 17, 2019 [13 favorites]

Greg Sargent: Moderate Democrats are getting skittish about confronting Trump’s racism. Seriously? (emphasis in original)

According to the Times, moderate Democrats feel that too much time has been spent on talking about Trump’s racist remarks. But this isn’t just some parlor debate with no real-world consequences. Trump is sending a signal to the country that it’s acceptable to treat racial, ethnic and religious minorities as fundamentally not belonging to the American nation.
[...]
No amount of time condemning this — no amount of time spent telling the country as loudly and urgently as possible that it is wrong, and that the Democratic Party stands for the proposition that it is entirely unacceptable in a president — is too much.

The Times also reports that moderate Democrats grew particularly upset over a procedural dust-up involving the House resolution. Republicans formally objected to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s suggestion that Trump’s attacks are “racist," casting it as a breach of decorum, and the House vote to strike her words from the record failed, with Democrats opposing it along party lines. But that was too much for some of the moderates:

They were particularly angry about being asked to vote to condone Ms. Pelosi’s breach of the rules, which two of them described as throwing moderate lawmakers “under the bus” in order to help the speaker shore up support among progressives who had been alienated by her feud with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and her allies. One lawmaker described the upshot of the extraordinary episode as “another week burned on his terms instead of ours.”

Again, I’m more sympathetic to the political challenges these moderates face than others are. But this is simply nuts. It’s absolutely desirable for the speaker to firmly align herself with these lawmakers in the face of Trump’s abusive and bigoted attacks, whatever separate motives she might have that are rooted in intra-caucus politics. The party should unite in their defense.

As for the notion that this is time wasted fighting on Trump’s turf, that’s just utter madness. There’s little doubt that these types of racist displays produced the large popular backlash that delivered Democrats control of the House. Yes, many candidates won by talking about health care and local issues. But the grass-roots energy that boosted organizing and voter turnout was to no small degree driven by that backlash against Trump’s racism. It’s part of why moderates won, too.
[...]
Moderate Democrats: No matter how purple your district is, if you can’t explain to swing voters why Trump’s racist and white-nationalist displays and provocations are unacceptable in terms that they’ll understand — if this isn’t a fight you want to have — then you should ask yourself what the heck you’re doing there in the first place.

posted by zombieflanders at 3:31 PM on July 17, 2019 [19 favorites]

scaryblackdeath: @ZekeJMiller: Trump on Rep. Omar before leaving White House: "There's a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it."

For anyone curious about that bizarre contention, here's a pretty good summary: There Is No Credible Evidence Rep. Ilhan Omar Married Her Brother

It's made entirely from whole cloth. Even birtherism and, say, moon-landing denial are on firmer ground (what with the one Harvard bio that made a serious error in listing Obama's birthplace, and the photo of the waving flag combined with a lay misunderstanding of physics). This is not about, like, two people having the name "Muhammad" and what are the odds??? It's 100% dribble. Some dude named Scott Johnson claimed to have heard it as a rumor, and... that's all it took to spread among the deplorables.

In real life, 17-year-old Ilhan became a US citizen in 2000, got engaged and religiously (but not legally) married to one man in 2002, divorced and married a UK citizen in 2009, then divorced him and reconciled with her first husband, remarrying (this time governmentally as well) last year. The accusation is that the second (or "middle") husband is the brother, and that the marriage was for citizenship purposes, even though, again, she had been a citizen for 9 years and he's not a US citizen anyway. So there you have it.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 3:33 PM on July 17, 2019 [40 favorites]

CNN: House votes to hold Attorney General Barr and Commerce Secretary Ross in criminal contempt over census question issue.

“The vote was 230-198, largely along party lines. Four Democrats broke with their party and voted against the resolution. One independent -- Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan -- supported the resolution.

The vote marks the first time that the full House has voted on criminal contempt of Trump administration officials since Democrats took over the majority.”
posted by darkstar at 4:01 PM on July 17, 2019 [27 favorites]

Moderate Democrats: No matter how purple your district is, if you can’t explain to swing voters why Trump’s racist and white-nationalist displays and provocations are unacceptable in terms that they’ll understand — if this isn’t a fight you want to have — then you should ask yourself what the heck you’re doing there in the first place.

I feel this way generally. No one can tell me that the people voted for a blue wave in 2018 so Democrats could sit on their hands and hold their breath until 2020. This is not incrementalism or third way politics that attempt to make a reasoned argument that also resonates with conservatives. This is no politics. This is not doing your job.
posted by xammerboy at 4:06 PM on July 17, 2019 [30 favorites]

CNN: House votes to hold Attorney General Barr and Commerce Secretary Ross in criminal contempt over census question issue.

I can't help but note that, unlike impeachment, criminal contempt is a legal pathway to putting someone in jail.

I'm not placing bets on that happening. I'm just putting that out there in contrast to the common assumption that impeachment falls on the doing-real-stuff-that-holds-people-accountable side of the line, while everything else is fecklessness and disarray. This was a non-trivial step almost the entire Democratic caucus was willing to take. The fact of four exceptions underscores the non-triviality, I think.

Criminal contempt is, at the very least, an asterisk next to the names Barr and Ross. And it could definitely lead to more.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 4:13 PM on July 17, 2019 [21 favorites]

Agreed — and what’s more, if the Dems take the White House in 2020, I don’t think there’s anything preventing the House from having these guys arrested after the elections, when Barr and Ross can no longer hide behind the Executive Branch.
posted by darkstar at 4:33 PM on July 17, 2019 [3 favorites]

This is not doing your job.

It is, if your job is to please your donors through the promotion/enactment of center-right fiscal policy and through the active suppression of a Left with no other viable party to call home.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:54 PM on July 17, 2019 [15 favorites]

and what’s more, if the Dems take the White House in 2020

seems like a pretty fucking big "if" with all the interference and disenfranchisement and gerrymandering that will be happening
posted by entropicamericana at 5:17 PM on July 17, 2019 [5 favorites]

@passantino
Crowd at tonight's Trump rally in North Carolina breaks out into chants of "Send her back!" as the president attacks Rep. Ilhan Omar [video]

I can't imagine going to work every day as public figure knowing that tens of millions of armed men believe (more or less accurately) that the president is telling them to kill you. Omar's made of stronger stuff.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:27 PM on July 17, 2019 [56 favorites]

That's a lynch mob.
posted by asteria at 5:29 PM on July 17, 2019 [41 favorites]

The lynch mob's words are certainly racist, but it's important that we be careful not to say that the lynch mob itself is racist
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:36 PM on July 17, 2019 [73 favorites]

In my family it’s pronounced pogrom
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 5:38 PM on July 17, 2019 [54 favorites]

This afternoon, Jake Tapper posted a thread of a handful of anonymous Democrats saying they feel like Trump was the real winner of this whole racism skirmish, because it forced Dems to stand up for "the squad" and thereby paint the Democrats with the same entire brush. It's getting shared around a lot, with the usual hand-wringing from some and dismissal from others.

What bothers me most: going anonymous means they basically get to put on a mask and present themselves as speaking for all or most Democrats. If we had the context of their names, they might be completely mainstream, or they might be a collection of usual whiners nobody cares about. We don't know, and thus it creates a misleading narrative.

This whole incident turned Democratic division into unity, even exposed some tiny cracks among Republicans and embarrassed many more, and the polling clearly shows it was a loser for the president--and yet here we are with this same inevitable bullshit about how the Dems lost another round.

If Trump has a new bigoted chant from his bigoted cult out of all this, it sure as hell isn't going to go away.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 5:50 PM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]

As always, we have only two possible narratives:

Democrats Are Losing
or
Democrats Are Winning--Here's Why That's Bad for Democrats
posted by scaryblackdeath at 5:51 PM on July 17, 2019 [57 favorites]

Daniel Dale’s been live-blogging/fact-checking Trump’s NC rally, and as has been noted upthread, this one is especially Trumpy.

—Trump begins: "We have all night. We're going to have a lot of fun tonight. I have nothing to do. Nothing. Nothing." He then adds, "We have nothing to do but make our country great again."
—Trump on his election night: "Maybe, there are those that say, one of the most extraordinary and exciting evenings in the history of television. In the history of anything."
—Trump starts to say, as usual, that he could've gotten more done if he didn't have the Russia "witch hunt," then says "I don't know that we would've done any better," then says, "Could you imagine what it could've been if we didn't have the witch hunt?"
—Trump says he is doing "really well" with Hispanics because "they want a strong border" and "they want that wall." His approval with Hispanics is in the 20s. https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/21/politics/fact-check-trump-telemundo/index.html
—Trump repeats his smear of Ilhan Omar, falsely saying she said Al Qaeda "makes you proud." This is a grossly inaccurate description of her comments. Full fact check: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/15/politics/trump-falsely-accuses-omar-al-qaeda-fact-check/index.html
—Trump calls Ocasio-Cortez "Cortez," and then says somebody said, "That's not her name, sir," and he says he responded, "No no: I don't have time to go with three different names. We'll call her Cortez. Too much time. Takes too much time." The room is quiet.
—Trump says some of the migrants in detention are so happy to be there, and that they've said, "'We've never lived like this before.' They have water, they have air conditioning, they have things they've never seen."
—Trump falsely says Democrats want to do nothing about human trafficking. He then falsely says most US trafficking comes through the southern border. He then falsely says human trafficking doesn't happen through legal ports of entry. He concludes, "Everybody knows it."
—Trump is making a false claim about...fact-checks by me and others. He says that people fact-checked a joke he made about Dems giving illegal immigrants a free Rolls-Royce.
What happened: he told a joke at one rally, then *turned it into an assertion of fact* at the next rally.
—Trump with absolute nonsense: "Patients with pre-existing conditions are protected by Republicans much more so than protected by Democrats who will never be able to pull it off."
Democrats pulled it off, in Obamacare. Republicans are trying to weaken the protections.
—Trump mocks people who think he won't leave office, then adds, "Hey, maybe that is a good idea. Let's think about it. Watch, you wanna drive them crazy?" He says all he has to do to drive the media crazy is say that. He says: "I promise: 2024, I leave."
—Trump tells a Sir story about a senator who came to his office, said, "Sir, I'm 6 for 7, I'm great, I'm 6 for 7, sir, I can give you great advice. I said, Senator, I'm 1 for 1, but it happened to be the president." He's previously had the senator saying he won 4 of 6 and 7 of 7.
—Trump: "I have friends, really good friends...and you lose all your friends when you're president, because they're all afraid to talk to you."
—Trump is telling his multi-Sir story about military officer "Raisin Caine." ("Like, you mean, a little raisin?" "Yes SIR.") Some of the crowd is delighted. He adds that many of these generals were "Central Casting," except even better looking.
—I would say this is probably the second-most-rambling speech of Trump's presidency, behind the two-hour CPAC address. He is now saying, of a baby, "What a baby! What a baby! That is a beautiful baby! That's like from an advertisement! Perfect!"
—Trump was building to his conclusion, like four scripted lines away, then talked about how people look beautiful in MAGA hats and how he will still use the slogan Keep America Great, and now he is done.

posted by Doktor Zed at 6:08 PM on July 17, 2019 [14 favorites]

Democrats Are Winning--Here's Why That's Bad for Democrats

I look forward to the day when it's possible to write that story.
posted by diogenes at 6:15 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Vox’s Aaron Rupar has a thread of video highlights of Trump in NC of Trump in NC:

—Trump begins his speech by saying it could be a long one because he has "nothing to do." Good gig if you can get it.
—Trump tries to goad the crowd into booing the "fake news" but in an unusual twist they don't really take the bait this time
—TRUMP, echoing someone in the crowd, refers to the Mueller probe as "bullshit." The crowd goes wild.
—Trump, alluding to Democratic congresswoman of color, says they "want to demolish our constitution, weaken our military, eliminate the values that built this magnificent country." The crowd boos them loudly.
—Trump mentions Ilhan Omar, and the loudest boos of the night break out. Trump's speech is then interrupted by a protester.
"He goes home now to mommy and he gets reprimanded and that's the end. 'Sorry mommy. Sorry mom. Didn't mean to embarrass you, mom,'" Trump says.
—Trump's brain short circuits when he tries to say "ninth congressional district"
—Trump spends a couple minutes "joking" about staying in office for longer than two terms.
—Trump complains that he has no friends: "I lost all my friends! They've tightened up. They've choked. They can't breathe. Because people have such respect for the office of the president."

Dale’s fact-checks are vital, but it’s important to watch Trump work his crowds, too.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:32 PM on July 17, 2019 [4 favorites]

Mitt Romney has concerns:

My favorite meat is hot dog 🌭 Happy #NationalHotDogDay!

6:05 PM - 17 Jul 2019

RT at 9:05 PM - 17 Jul 2019
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:01 PM on July 17, 2019 [11 favorites]

The NYT’s Astead Herndon makes a point about the importance of on-the-ground reporting of Trump’s rallies:

At the Trump rally in NC, as Trump goes on a riff about Ilhan Omar, audible screams from the crowd
"Traitor!"
"Treason!"
"Send her home!"
Crowd now full chanting "SEND HER BACK!"
a mini contest always breaks out at Trump rallies, among crowd, to yell the most eye popping thing as the president speaks on a given subject. that's what's missed on TV
ppl yelling about hillary/AOC/Pelosi/media. One woman just yelled "obama sucks" outta nowhere. never stops

Emphasis added, because the media’s filter of their Trump coverage misses so much of what’s going on with his supporters.
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:05 PM on July 17, 2019 [18 favorites]

I hope there's an Epstein-Barr connection. That would go viral.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:15 PM on July 17, 2019 [72 favorites]

Emphasis added, because the media’s filter of their Trump coverage misses so much of what’s going on with his supporters.

By which I mean that with the revival meeting/medicine show atmosphere of Trump's rallies, the dynamic between him and his crowds revolves around them urging and goading one another to say the most outrageous and attention-grabbing things. Sometimes they're competing to see who can sound the most aggrieved and outraged, sometimes just who can get off a zinger. Either way, they're playing off each other in ways that are unserious yet consequential. And Trump's one talent as a speaker is his sensitivity to the crowd's mood, which he revs up with impromptu shockers whenever he feels their attention slipping. In these conditions, there's a kind of rhetorical inflation at work, since Trump feels the unquenchable need to top himself from his previous rally, and the crowds are chasing the thrill of chanting a new slogan denouncing the next target. It's like 1984's Two Minutes Hate stretched out to an hour and played as entertainment, or a professional wrestling match crossed with talk radio news.

TV and newspapers have been unable or reluctant to cover that aspect of it in their regular reporting. Occasionally a news show or magazine will do a longer piece on Trump supporters during his rallies, and sometimes it's just the Daily Show doing vox pop interviews and overdubbing commentary. They tend to focus on the MAGA faithful who follow him around like rock band groupies, travelling out of state to see every appearance they can. They also pick up on the first-timers who swing by for the novelty, having less interest in politics than in Trump as a celebrity. There are cultural forces at work that we seem ill-equipped to recognize or confront.
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:51 PM on July 17, 2019 [27 favorites]

It's so weird because to me and probably most people here Trump is the least charismatic person in the world. Disgusting no matter how you look at him. But he does have an ability to read a crowd and (if they seem to like him) respond to their energy and rile up a fire. Like a combination of his deep insecurity and need to win approval along with his never really working and being a professional celebrity for 40 years. He's good at working a crowd. He's awful as a human. But he's good at stirring up emotion to benefit him.
posted by downtohisturtles at 7:58 PM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]

Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale ("the world's tallest campaign manager in the history of the world", according to Trump) lies about tonight’s rally:

Another historic turnout in Greenville North Carolina! Capacity record inside and overflow is huge! Over 20,000 here to see @realDonaldTrump

He just keeps setting records. Bigly!

Jon Rogers (coiner of the Crazification Factor) fact-checks this:

The official capacity of Minges Coliseum is 8,000 people. The previous capacity record is almost exactly that number, a 2002 game vs. Maquette. You can Google it.

We are so, so far into sociopathology, disinformation ... it’s madness.

posted by Doktor Zed at 8:20 PM on July 17, 2019 [33 favorites]

We have all night. We're going to have a lot of fun tonight. I have nothing to do. Nothing. Nothing.

The 2020 attack ad writers are going to be paralyzed by the sheer number of options.
posted by contraption at 9:14 PM on July 17, 2019 [7 favorites]

He's good at working a crowd. He's awful as a human. But he's good at stirring up emotion to benefit him.

Trump is human cancer—a grotesque, malformed aberration that lives off of the destruction of others.
posted by blueberry at 9:21 PM on July 17, 2019 [8 favorites]

Even being disgusting is a form of charisma; he grabs attention; he evokes emotion; he's the opposite of boring.

anyway. The whole anti-racist resolution from the House yesterday with the Pelosi kerfuffle blah blah blah, well, when Maddow covered it (last night?) i was very surprised to find out that a) it's a trenchantly conservative document and b) it was written and sponsored by my own congressman, Tom Malinowski, who you will be surprised to learn is not Nancy Pelosi

Malinowski is a freshman Dem congressman, elected in the same wave as the four Congresswomen under discussion (Tlaib, Omar, etc.) He reps NJ-7, a conservative district. He's also a middle-aged white dude and literally an immigrant from Poland. On Maddow he talked about taking an oath and becoming a citizen at age 10.

Maddow took the time to read the resolution in full, video link here followed by the conversation with Malinowski, text of the resolution here. Half of it quotes directly from Reagan. It's not groundbreaking. It's ... ugh, i don't have an essay in me tonight, but it's almost deracialized in its rhetoric, focused only on the concept of "immigration".

And Malinowski's very presence just draws a very big contrast, because those Congresswomen are mostly NOT immigrants, Omar is the only one not born in the USA. And Malinowski IS an immigrant, yet he is safe from Trump's attacks by virtue of being a white man, and being moderately conservative. It's meaningful that - in this context - he put himself forward to support "the Squad". I'm going to write a small note to his office in praise. but still. Idk.

as Maddow was reading, at first I thought that the resolution was one volley, a part of the conversation about immigration, and I thought it charted out some ways to talk about immigration with conservative people, because this is how conservatives used to talk about immigration. But the problem is that this is all about race. It's not about the abstract idea of immigration. It's not about a foreign-born population.

anyway i'm gonna pullquote some things that jumped out as statements worth making.

Whereas American patriotism is defined not by race or ethnicity but by devotion to the Constitutional ideals of equality, liberty, inclusion, and democracy and by service to our communities and struggle for the common good; ....

Resolved, That the House of Representatives— (1) believes that ... those who take the oath of citizenship are every bit as American as those whose families have lived in the United States for many generations;

posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 9:39 PM on July 17, 2019 [20 favorites]

A U.S. Border Patrol agent allegedly sought out an undocumented Guatemalan woman living in California, sent her Facebook messages and asked her to watch a live video of him masturbating — all while her 12-year-old son was in custody at the Border Patrol station in Clint, Tex., where he worked.

It kinda seems like America has to end
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:16 PM on July 17, 2019 [44 favorites]

It took Charles Blow explaining this for me to understand the particularly scariness to the anti-Omar chant is that it's gone from the tried and true leave if you don't like it to a forced deportation (it's such just different flavors of shit at this point it's kind of hard to sort out what is the really bad shit).

For me, it's also terrifying to watch him in action, which I try to never do, but I guess is good to do once in a while. He doesn't look like a man who thinks he's fucked. He looks like a man who is high on his own supply and pretty confident that his supply doesn't need a re-up anytime soon.
posted by angrycat at 12:19 AM on July 18, 2019 [25 favorites]

The 2020 attack ad writers are going to be paralyzed by the sheer number of options.


For that matter, a whole campaign ad could be generated from derogatory things his own staff and current and former allies have called him:


“A race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” — Sen. Lindsey Graham

“An idiot...unhinged” — White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly

“A fifth- or sixth-grader” — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis

“Racist, misogynist bigot” — White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman

“Idiot” — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin

“Dumb as shit” — Economic Advisor Gary Cohn

“Idiot” — Chief of Staff Reince Priebus

“Like an 11-year-old child” — Chief Strategist Steve Bannon

“A moron” — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

“An idiot...a dope...a kindergartener” — National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster

“A racist, a conman, and a cheat” — Personal Lawyer Michael Cohen
posted by darkstar at 2:50 AM on July 18, 2019 [87 favorites]

In the light of both Jake Tapper's off-record Dems who worry that the Squad is a bad image for the party, and that that leaked Axios poll... at a certain point, "the only real Americans are the prototypical white folks in diners" becomes an amazing exercise in special pleading, on the part of both parties (the one to a much more extreme degree than the other). I'm reminded of Alexandra Erin's image of a white Starbucks barista observing African-Americans over the counter and thinking to themself "I wish these guys would finish up with their order, they're holding up the line for the customers."
posted by InTheYear2017 at 3:20 AM on July 18, 2019 [9 favorites]

Storm clouds continue to gather for Trump Admin officials regarding their census question lies. On the same day that AG Barr and Commerce Secretary Ross were found in criminal contempt by the House, their minions now may find themselves standing in front of a federal judge explaining their attempts to mislead the court.

TPM: ACLU Will Pursue Sanctions Against Trump Administration In Census Case

In a court filing Tuesday evening, the ACLU alleged that top Trump administration officials in the Justice Department and Commerce Department “engaged in litigation conduct that is nothing less than a fraud on the Court.”

“Through the use of false or misleading testimony, they obscured evidence suggesting that the true purpose of Secretary Ross’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census—suppressing the political power of minority immigrant communities,” the filing said.

The ACLU is requesting that the court order 60 days of discovery — or let the ACLU piggyback on the discovery that may move forward in a separate census case — “to determine the scope of potentially sanctionable conduct and the identities of the culpable parties.”

At least five attorneys and administration officials are now implicated in “false and misleading testimony” and/or withholding documents from the federal judge overseeing the earlier case, including John Gore, Mark Neuman, James Uthmeier, Peter Davidson, and Earl Comstock.

The ACLU is petitioning the judge to approve subpoenas for files and witness depositions to determine the extent of these misrepresentations, which could open the door to court-imposed sanctions on these Trump officials.
posted by darkstar at 3:23 AM on July 18, 2019 [22 favorites]

.....For that matter, a whole campaign ad could be generated from derogatory things his own staff and current and former allies have called him....

The Clinton campaign generated a whole campaign ad from things he said himself and it didn't work.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:52 AM on July 18, 2019 [14 favorites]

Man pour one our just for people who are pushing back on the Omar chant. I know Joh Favreau is prominent enough to attract his share of haters, but you know, scrolling through the replies to his description of deep disgust at the chant, it's just like, I don't know man, a fountain of shit; there's reason in there of course but then you also get here are two photos of Rep Omar saying "America" scornfully and "Al Qaeda" happily and it's like WTF.

It is just so FRUSTRATING that people not paying very much attention to this might believe some/all of the lies told about her and other members of the left. Just, aliens, giant spiders, what have you, invade, please
posted by angrycat at 3:53 AM on July 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

CNN Gearing up for war with Iran

The US is sending 500 troops to an air base in Saudi Arabia located near the capital of Riyadh, where they are making runway and airfield improvements and preparing for a Patriot missile defense battery.

October surprise, anyone?
posted by 6thsense at 4:07 AM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

This afternoon, Jake Tapper posted a thread of a handful of anonymous Democrats saying they feel like Trump was the real winner of this whole racism skirmish, because it forced Dems to stand up for "the squad" and thereby paint the Democrats with the same entire brush. It's getting shared around a lot, with the usual hand-wringing from some and dismissal from others.


Daniel Nichanian (Justice Collaboration)
Why are Dems still acting like it's not a "bread-&-butter" issue for it to be alright to tell nonwhite people to "go back home," as if living in a country where that's routine & shrugged off doesn't affect job prospects & economic stability & income inequality & policing choices?


Astead Herndon (NYT)
What gets me is that the political calculus never takes into account the inverse, that pushing back against Trump's bigoted attacks is, in fact, a bread-and-butter issue for many voters and ignoring them could be even worse for Democrats electoral prospects
posted by chris24 at 4:41 AM on July 18, 2019 [38 favorites]

a mini contest always breaks out at Trump rallies, among crowd, to yell the most eye popping thing as the president speaks on a given subject. that's what's missed on TV

The NYT's Glenn Thrush doesn't get it: "The biggest enigma about Trump is why fans and enemies alike never seem to get bored with the routine. The man says, more or less, the same stuff every single time -- and people get riled up like it's the first time he ever did the shtick." (He's since deleted this wrongheaded hot-take.)

His colleague Jamelle Bouie responds:

It’s not routine, it’s ritual. A communal performance and affirmation of shared values. And you don’t have to look particularly hard in American history to see this kind of ritualistic behavior around racism.

I’ve said this before but I think it is important to understand the public performance of racism as a pleasurable activity. There’s lust behind these shouts to “send her back,” a violent desire they want to make real. It’s the libidinal economy at work.

NYU prof and fascism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat also observes:

Trump needs his base to be as intimidating as possible, to make people feel too frightened to protest, to sue him, to expose his crimes, to fight back. He needs this because he knows he is guilty of a whole host of crimes. Recourse to racism and thuggery is a sign of weakness.

[…] He has trained them so well that they turn his latest hateful thoughts into campaign slogans. They enjoy the thrill of being able to express hatred sanctioned by the Leader. I was just writing about this feeling... among Nazis.

But to keep things in perspective, the WaPo's Dave Weigel notes how small Trump's MAGA base really is:

For the umpteenth time, the base was *not enough* to win 2016 for him. The key voters were those who disliked Trump AND Clinton and broke for Trump.

In Michigan, for example, 20% of voters disliked both candidates; Trump won them by 21 points.

On election day 2016, Trump's favorable rating in Michigan was just 39%. Two years later, his approval rating there was 44%. But 90% of voters who disapproved voted Democratic.

USA Today's new poll reflects this: Most Americans Call Trump's Tweets Targeting 4 Congresswomen 'Un-American'

More than two-thirds of those aware of the controversy, 68%, call Trump's tweets offensive. Among Republicans alone, 57% say they agree with tweets that told the congresswomen to go back to the countries "from which they came," and a third "strongly" agree with them. All four lawmakers are American citizens; three were born in the USA.[…]

That said, the dispute could be costly for Trump among key voters in his bid for a second term. Three-fourths of the women polled call his tweets offensive. Independents, by more than 2-1, say the comments are "un-American."

Overall, 59% call the president's tweets "un-American."

posted by Doktor Zed at 4:58 AM on July 18, 2019 [30 favorites]

> Why are Dems still acting like it's not a "bread-&-butter" issue for it to be alright to tell nonwhite people to "go back home"...

I'm not aware that a lot Democrats are saying it's "alright to tell nonwhite people to 'go back home'". And I don't think talking about racism means you can't also talk about access to health care and other economic issues. Both racism and lack of access to health care have direct personal impacts on a lot of poor and working class Democrats. We should be talking about both.

Anyone who claims these issues are mutually exclusive is being deliberately dishonest, and is probably a strait-up class bigot. It's a dogwhistle aimed at bigoted affluent Democats, and I'm sick of seeing that crap here.
posted by nangar at 6:13 AM on July 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

From anonymous "Dem Rep 2" (emphasis mine):

The president's words and actions speak for themselves. We need to focus on the issues that got them here: jobs, health care instead of the issues the president brings up deliberately. Anything that takes away from bread and butter issues is playing into his hands."

Get mad at the people saying it, not at the ones pointing it out.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:27 AM on July 18, 2019 [9 favorites]

Also, these are the same people that said--and this is a direct quote--"Pelosi was trying to marginalize these folks." Which, BTW, is a hell of an admission, considering that just a couple of days ago many of these same anonymous cowards worked themselves into a righteous fury over AOC claiming that she felt like Pelosi was trying to marginalize them.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:35 AM on July 18, 2019 [12 favorites]

Holy shit can’t link to it on my phone but that interview with Barney Frank in the New Yorker
posted by angrycat at 6:37 AM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

Angrycat -- here you go: Barney Frank Defends Nancy Pelosi From Her Critics.
posted by Quindar Beep at 6:39 AM on July 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

I should slightly amend something I said earlier regarding the absurd smearing of Ilhan Omar: This is not about, like, two people having the name "Muhammad" and what are the odds??? It's 100% dribble. I won't provide links, but the absolute least-bogus thing I could track down was an assertion that classmates of Omar's ex-husband Elmi supposedly told a wingnut source that his father's name was "Nur Said Elmi Mohamed", and that this is Omar's father's name. One problem is that her father's name is actually Nur Omar Mohamed, no "Elmi" or "Said" in it at all.

It's just embarrassing because, as with birtherism, there are so many forms of evidence one would expect that isn't there, and so many ways the conspiracy makes no sense....

A Barack born in Kenya would be an American citizen automatically thanks to his mother, so placing a fake birth announcement in Honolulu could only be done as a long game to become, not a citizen, but president of the USA, just to meet a narrow interpretation of "natural born citzen" that other candidates like George Romney hadn't even bothered with.

Ilhan is the youngest in her family, and Elmi is younger than her, so he'd have to be a "secret" brother for his entire life, or someone is pointlessly lying about birth order (the plot thickens! urgh). After that, supposing the goal was to get him (not her) citizenship, and they were already siblings, then just saying "We're siblings" would have a lot more pull than marriage, requiring fewer additional legal hurdles. Whereas green-card marriages tend toinvite scrutiny, and the blood relationship would surface really quick.

I wouldn't normally harp on this turducken of horsecrap, but my spidey-sense tells me that after a presidential endorsement, it's going to break from the fringes into the mainstream Fox News right wing, just the way that birtherism did, and we need to be prepared to handle the bamboozling by some very self-assured people. Conspiracy theorists have shifted strategy from "This raises questions! What are they hiding?" to just... plainly treating the assertions as a given, like it were already public knowledge. That's a bolder approach insofar as it's even more deceptive, but it also casts a wider net, beyond the set of people who like feeling "in on the secret" and onto those who follow the crowd by default.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 6:42 AM on July 18, 2019 [13 favorites]

it's going to break from the fringes into the mainstream Fox News right wing

It is already the top reply in every single journalist's tweet about Omar. It is being pushed heavily.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:46 AM on July 18, 2019 [7 favorites]

These people can just fuck right off. Ilhan Omar was elected by us, here in the 5th district in Minnesota, where virtually alone among bloviating idiot Americans we elected a Muslim because we have a religiously integrated community where Muslims are participants instead of talking points. They have a lot of goddamn gall and hubris trying to tell us how to feel about Muslim politicians. They should come here and say that - we'll run them out of the 5th district on a burning rail. This whole thing makes me really mad as a Minnesotan.

not that I'm trying to say that things are perfect here or that there's no racism or Islamophobia, but we at least have a critical mass of people who can see what's in front of their goddamn eyes.
posted by Frowner at 7:03 AM on July 18, 2019 [87 favorites]

Frowner, that's exactly how this NYer felt after the WTC/Pentagon attacks.
posted by kokaku at 7:07 AM on July 18, 2019 [7 favorites]

Anyone who claims these issues are mutually exclusive is being deliberately dishonest, and is probably a strait-up class bigot. It's a dogwhistle aimed at bigoted affluent Democats, and I'm sick of seeing that crap here

Yes, this tweet from a criminal justice reformer highlighting how racism is a big component of economic inequality and not given its proper weight is clearly a rich class bigot dogwhistling. I honestly don’t even know how this fucking comes up.

Daniel Nichanian (Justice Collaboration)
Why are Dems still acting like it's not a "bread-&-butter" issue for it to be alright to tell nonwhite people to "go back home," as if living in a country where that's routine & shrugged off doesn't affect job prospects & economic stability & income inequality & policing choices?

posted by chris24 at 7:10 AM on July 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

If prioritizing 80,000 white voters over every black and brown person in the country and calling concerns about fascist lynch mobs distractions from talking about the things you think the 80,000 whites want to hear isn't literal white supremacy, I don't know what is.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:15 AM on July 18, 2019 [41 favorites]

A federal judge in Boston yesterday sentenced some Arizona loser to 15 months in prison for threatening on Instagram to travel to Cambridge in 2017 to murder black Harvard students celebrating their impending graduation. One interesting thing is that the US Attorney's office asked he be sentenced to 18 months in prison in part to send a message:

Online discourse has simultaneously deteriorated in quality and made it easier to broadcast threats, and threats made online suffer from network effects. That is, when someone surfing the Internet sees a threat online, he may conclude that the norms of public discourse have changed to allow such discourse free of penalty. This is so because threats posted online condition like-minded (but sometimes less vocal) readers to believe that posting threats will be tolerated, that it is the new normal. The Court must reject the prospect of such a "new normal."

By imposing a substantial sentence here, the Court can promote, even create, respect for the law that posting true threats, especially true threats motivated by racial animus, is illegal.

posted by adamg at 7:18 AM on July 18, 2019 [21 favorites]

FYI Acting DHS head Kevin McAleenan is in front of the House right now (CSPAN stream)
posted by fluttering hellfire at 7:19 AM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

If prioritizing 80,000 white voters over every black and brown person in the country and calling concerns about fascist lynch mobs distractions from talking about the things you think the 80,000 whites want to hear isn't literal white supremacy, I don't know what is.

Absolutely. Everyone from Bernie to Pelosi to pundits have been complicit in racism even if not racist themselves in prioritizing the white working class and minimizing the importance of and threats to the diverse coalition that actually power this party and nation.

I could post dozens of quotes like the one zombieflanders posted that dismiss concerns about racism, bigotry and inequality as identity politics and call for a return to bread and butter issues (i.e. straight white male issues) where discrimination is not only not focused on but ignored.
posted by chris24 at 7:29 AM on July 18, 2019 [16 favorites]

Overall, 59% call the president's tweets "un-American."

Another MeFi post explored the conservative "gray man" theory. The gray man won't publicly endorse racism but will vote for it. You see this is conservative memes that often have hundreds of gray men in the backgrounds.

I'm not sure they're wrong that there isn't a sea of gray men voters out there. The polls were wrong about how many people would vote for Trump. The election, if anything, proved that racism was the draw, not a side tactic, of the Republican party and probably had been for years.

And, as pointed out in this thread, people that are racist don't generally identify as racist. They identify as "I'm not racist, but..." You could call this another "silent majority" political strategy, except one really needs to consider whether or not racism always drove the silent majority.
posted by xammerboy at 7:44 AM on July 18, 2019 [12 favorites]

I wouldn't normally harp on this turducken of horsecrap, but my spidey-sense tells me that after a presidential endorsement, it's going to break from the fringes into the mainstream Fox News right wing.

The president was asked yesterday by Fox News what he thought of the Omar rumor. He said that "the fact that she married her brother is something that needs to be looked into." This meme is already huge in conservative circles and repeated endlessly as fact. I would venture to say a lot of people believe it to be true that never seriously believed in birtherism.
posted by xammerboy at 7:48 AM on July 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

Why are Dems still acting like it's not a "bread-&-butter" issue for it to be alright to tell nonwhite people to "go back home?"

Boy, this is such a good point. If jobs is all Democrats want to talk about, why aren't they re-framing all their issues in terms of jobs? So many industries are driven by immigration. Healthcare, global warming, infrastructure, a living wage, all these issues could be talked about in terms of job creation. The "we need to talk about jobs" excuse has no legs at all when you think about it.
posted by xammerboy at 7:56 AM on July 18, 2019 [9 favorites]

CNN: House votes to hold Attorney General Barr and Commerce Secretary Ross in criminal contempt over census question issue.

The House should also withhold their salaries from all future budgets -- not one dime -- until such time as they, and anyone else defying subpoenas, choose to appear.
posted by Gelatin at 8:04 AM on July 18, 2019 [23 favorites]

I admit to knowing little about slander and libel beyond their definitions, but I will never understand why Clinton just swallowed Pizzagate and did not go after them for slander/libel. The same here with Omar. I understand the definitions do not give weight to the complexity of these words in the realm of courtrooms and lawyers, but it feels like now anyone can just say anything regardless of fact/truth and we just move on to the next horrible screamed thing. I can't understand how both women do not have a case for this impacting their safety, livelihoods, and their own pursuit of happiness. JFC they've gotten death threats over this.
posted by archimago at 8:14 AM on July 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

CNN: House votes to hold Attorney General Barr and Commerce Secretary Ross in criminal contempt over census question issue.

The House should also withhold their salaries from all future budgets -- not one dime -- until such time as they, and anyone else defying subpoenas, choose to appear.

And their direct office and personal staff, including security, except by direct personal approval by the Chair of the Oversight Committee for such expenses as are deemed necessary (by the Chair) for the Secretary to prepare and give testimony to Congress.
posted by Etrigan at 8:20 AM on July 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

As ordered by the judge, the (mostly) un-redacted documents in the Michael Cohen trial have been released. The last item on this page (July 18, 2019) has links to pdf "Attachments" which are the unredacted items.

Ten minutes of speed reading by reporters have found:

• We now know the name of Individual-1
• There were a series of calls on 8 Oct 2016 between Cohen, Trump, and Hope Hicks with the purpose of preventing Stormy Daniels from going public.
• SDNY prosecuters have "effectively concluded" the investigation of anyone else involved in campaign finance violations

Follow this thread by Adam Klasfeld (Courthouse News) for more...
posted by pjenks at 8:24 AM on July 18, 2019 [13 favorites]

but I will never understand why Clinton just swallowed Pizzagate and did not go after them for slander/libel. The same here with Omar.

Because American libel law is very unfriendly to public figures. The burden of proof is very high (you have to prove that the falsehood was knowingly made with either malicious (intended to harm you) or reckless (didn't care who got hurt) intent), and there's a lot of people happy to paint you as the villain just for filing the suit.
posted by NoxAeternum at 8:24 AM on July 18, 2019 [9 favorites]

The polls were wrong about how many people would vote for Trump.
A good many of those polls were right, or close to right. Clinton won the popular vote within margins that were often predicted. But neither the electoral college nor Putin care about the popular vote.
posted by Harry Caul at 8:26 AM on July 18, 2019 [11 favorites]

> Overall, 59% call the president's tweets "un-American."

Another MeFi post explored the conservative "gray man" theory. The gray man won't publicly endorse racism but will vote for it. You see this is conservative memes that often have hundreds of gray men in the backgrounds.

I wanted to take a closer look at the opinions in the USA Today poll to find if that phenomenon applied. In answer to the question, "Do you agree or disagree with the following: President Trump's tweets are un-American", 45% strongly agreed, 14% somewhat agreed, 10% somewhat disagreed, and 20% strongly disagreed, with 11% in the neither agree nor disagree gray area. The responses to the question "Do you agree or disagree with the following: Telling minority Americans to "go back where they came from" is a racist statement" broke down along the same lines, with 48% strongly agreeing, 17% somewhat agreeing, 18% somewhat disagreeing, and 8% strongly disagreed, with 13% neither agreeing nor disagreeing and 4% "don't know".

That suggests that whether the framing is about patriotism or racism, Trump's overt support is noticeably lower than his MAGA rally crowds would suggest and that the fence-sitting "gray men" are not a significant source of potential support.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:28 AM on July 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

And in the same twitter thread, Adam Klasfeld is also covering the Epstein hearing:

@KlasfeldReports 🚨Berman rejects Epstein's bail application.

posted by pjenks at 8:37 AM on July 18, 2019 [29 favorites]

Another MeFi post explored the conservative "gray man" theory. The gray man won't publicly endorse racism but will vote for it. You see this is conservative memes that often have hundreds of gray men in the backgrounds.

Huh? I thought those grey "NPCs" were meant to represent mindless liberals, with the caption always being "Orange Man Bad". Is there another layer whereby they secretly vote for Trump, or what?

Anyway, the results for the "un-American" poll are cause for optimism. For one thing, I would have expected considerably more "Don't know, not getting involved Plus, thank you" than "Yes, it is un-American." Plus they have the ideal excuse of "Who am I to judge the president?" Basically, this country reeeally hates this guy.

Meanwhile, it looks like about 4% of respondents consider those tweets entirely too American, in the worst way, so "Un-American" isn't just proxy for "disapprove" -- it's a strict subset. (I'm assuming here that no respondents would regard the tweets as admirable and un-American -- few white-identitarian types have given up their ownership of the idea of "America" quite that easily.)
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:40 AM on July 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Because American libel law is very unfriendly to public figures. The burden of proof is very high (you have to prove that the falsehood was knowingly made with either malicious (intended to harm you) or reckless (didn't care who got hurt) intent), and there's a lot of people happy to paint you as the villain just for filing the suit.

It's worth pointing out that libel is a state by state issue and the precise particulars can vary, though that's an accurate summation of how it is just about everywhere.

Also worth mentioning is that any sensible individual thinking of filing a libel suit has to consider the Streisand Effect and if trying to stomp on the roaches is going to just provide a bigger megaphone than they had to begin with.

Perhaps now we need to add the Youtube Effect to this calculation; if you make news fighting this stuff there's a good chance that Google et all are going to start showing "related" items to people, where said related items are crackpot bullshit they're happy to host. So your lawsuit saying "Humptygate claims are false, malicious, and harmful" may lead to even more people going down the rabbit hole of Humptygate videos repeating the claim.

Add to all that the fact that a huge number of the clowns spreading this stuff don't have anything to claim in a tort action and how reluctant judges are to muzzle folks. Roger Stone got a year's worth of leash to hang himself with before finally being fully silenced... assuming he honors that order.
posted by phearlez at 8:45 AM on July 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

FaceApp went viral with age-defying photos. Now Democratic leaders are warning campaigns to delete the Russian-created app ‘immediately’ (WaPo)

The app’s terms of service say users grant the company a “irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferrable sub-licensable” license to use a user’s photos, name or likeness in practically any way it sees fit.

If a user deletes content from the app, FaceApp can still store and use it, the terms say. FaceApp also says it can’t guarantee that users’ data or information is secure and that the company can share user information with other companies and third-party advertisers, which aren’t disclosed in the privacy terms.

posted by box at 8:59 AM on July 18, 2019 [22 favorites]

From the Barney Frank interview with the New Yorker on AOC:

I think the first thing to say is that it is not nearly as big a split as people think. They are a fraction, a splinter. The overwhelming majority of the Democrats agree with [Pelosi]. Frankly, I think there is a conspiracy among Ocasio-Cortez, the media, and the Republican Party to make her look much more influential than she is.

He may as well come out and say she's not really a Democrat.

A month or so ago Jan Schakowsky, the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 9th congressional district, who is close to Pelosi, said that at her town hall meetings people weren't talking about impeachment. They cared about "kitchen table" issues like jobs. After being deluged with phone calls, she took it back and said she was mistaken. In that same mea culpa statement, she said most of her constituents like their private health care, implying some of kind of shored up Obamacare is the answer.

I feel like I need to call Democrats about everything: Hey racism is not okay, right? Please stop the president from breaking the law. The universal healthcare Democrats said was a fundamental human right, your voters still think that. This is exhausting.
posted by xammerboy at 9:22 AM on July 18, 2019 [19 favorites]

FaceApp went viral with age-defying photos. Now Democratic leaders are warning campaigns to delete the Russian-created app ‘immediately’ (WaPo)

Independent muck-rakers Forensic News reports on FaceApp's suspicious ties:

Late in 2018, #FaceApp moved to the Skolkovo Innovation Center run by the Russian government.

FBI in 2014 on the Skolkovo foundation (managed by Oligarch Vekselberg): "The Foundation may be a means for the Russian government to access our nation’s sensitive or classified research, development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial applications."

#FaceApp is now in the same building as Skolkovo Ventures - a Russian government investment company into IT and tech. It appears that FaceApp is a Russian government funded operation to harvest data.

Megathread regulars will remember Viktor Vekselberg from Michael Cohen's mysterious payments from Columbus Nova, the Trump Tower Moscow affair, and the Cohen-Flynn-Ukrainian back channel/peace plan.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:23 AM on July 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

I'm not a poll watcher, don't know the weight of this particular poll, but the new new Morning Consult shows:

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) saw a 16-point drop in her net approval, the biggest decline of anyone in the Senate.

Trump could be a drag in Iowa, where his net approval is 20 points worse than that of Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) has a 23-point advantage over Trump’s net approval.

posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:25 AM on July 18, 2019 [14 favorites]

I feel like I need to call Democrats about everything: Hey racism is not okay, right? Please stop the president from breaking the law. The universal healthcare Democrats said was a fundamental human right, your voters still think that. This is exhausting.

Primaries are less exhausting than convincing people that human dignity is worth preserving when their paycheck depends on them disagreeing.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:26 AM on July 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

I am a lifelong NC resident and for some reason, the rally last night in Greenville really got to me. As in, I was in bed and my wife read my a bit of a news report about it and I got so upset that I barely slept at all and am struggling at work. I'm not sure why that is; I'm a cishet white guy with a good job and so I could easily just say "I'm not that into politics" and pretend it's not real. But it *is* real, and some of the people chanting at those rallies are people in my community, and they are mindlessly chanting to boot other people from my community out of the country. Despite a comment I made here yesterday, I'm struggling to make nice about it. Deep down I really feel like all Trump supporters and diehard Republicans are either:

* terrible mean racist people
* Amazingly gullible people
* Cowardly people
* Unusually selfish/rich people
* People who are happy to see this happen and are deliberately trying to accelerate Trumpism

It's really challenging my desire to be kind and meet people where they are. I'm also feeling a lot of despair at the thought that facts don't matter and that we are making decisions based on our worst animal impulses. If that's dominating the discourse, then science doesn't matter, research doesn't matter, reasoned debate doesn't matter, Elizabeth Warren's "policy for everything" doesn't matter ... we're just going to kick out the brown people and the atheists and non-Christians, and burn up all our natural resources until there's nothing left.

How can 47% or American voters be totally on board with this? It seems they are my mortal enemy, right?
posted by freecellwizard at 9:29 AM on July 18, 2019 [79 favorites]

Meghan McCain feels victimized by Trump’s attacks on Omar: ‘You’re taking away my agency to criticize her’
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:31 AM on July 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

I think the first thing to say is that it is not nearly as big a split as people think. They are a fraction, a splinter. The overwhelming majority of the Democrats agree with [Pelosi]

Peter Welch just became the 87th House D to publicly call for impeachment.
posted by chris24 at 9:33 AM on July 18, 2019 [7 favorites]

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) saw a 16-point drop in her net approval, the biggest decline of anyone in the Senate.


May the Flying Spaghetti Monster grant that the voters of Maine have finally seen thru her phony "talk like a centrist, vote in lockstep" schtick.
posted by Gelatin at 9:37 AM on July 18, 2019 [12 favorites]

No, presidential campaigns should not be using FaceApp, but it's not necessarily because of "The Russians" - I can guarantee you that for every phone that has run FaceApp that there's a shit ton of other apps that are leaking more data all over the place, and they shouldn't be running ANY app that accesses their data that they cannot trust.

FaceApp, from what I can tell, asks for permissions to your photos, your camera, and for notifications. There's always some concern there, but so many other dubious applications ask for so much more - Fecebook, for example, generally gets permissions to contacts, and so many other facebook related apps end up with these same permissions granted in a more indirect fashion, in ways that people don't pay attention to. I could cause a SHIT ton more trouble with that than access to someones camera roll, even if that camera roll had potentially embarrassing photos on it.

I'm not saying that FaceApp is 100% benign here, or that there aren't other dirty exploits going on in the background. Democratic campaigns have well been known to be a security nightmare, I know that many members here have come with horror stories about how even basic password safety is an issue, let alone anything like 2FA. With zero central controls over what does / does not go on campaigners phones, FaceApp is probably one of the least offensive thing going on there. If this gets people thinking twice about what they are running on their phones, then great - but if the only lesson is "it's dangerous because it's built by The Russians" then I won't be surprised when there's a massive migration to some similar platform build by a more dubious company that asks for more access just because it's not directly traceable to The Russians.
posted by MysticMCJ at 9:38 AM on July 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

Doktor Zed: Independent muck-rakers Forensic News reports on FaceApp's suspicious ties

Wired thinks Facebook is a bigger security threat than FaceApp, and at this point, we're probably headed into "get your own thread" territory for this discussion.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:39 AM on July 18, 2019 [16 favorites]

> Fecebook
That was accidental, but on review, I think I'll leave it.
posted by MysticMCJ at 9:41 AM on July 18, 2019 [45 favorites]

Meghan McCain feels victimized by Trump’s attacks on Omar: ‘You’re taking away my agency to criticize her’

Reminder that she also believes that Jews that criticize her are the real anti-Semites.
posted by zombieflanders at 9:52 AM on July 18, 2019 [14 favorites]

Trump directly involved in talks that led to Stormy Daniels payment, FBI says Politico

"A court filing unsealed on Thursday said Trump and Hope Hicks spoke repeatedly with Michael Cohen, Trump’s longterm legal fixer, in October 2016 as Daniels – also known as Stephanie Clifford – threatened to sell her story of an affair with Trump.

“I believe that at least some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford from going public,” an FBI agent wrote, in an application for a search warrant.

Cohen later admitted to making payments totalling $280,000 through a shell company to buy the silence of Daniels and the former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also alleged she had an affair with Trump.

The new disclosures raise the possibility that Hicks lied to the FBI. Hicks told an agent in an interview that “she did not learn about the allegations made by Clifford until early November 2016”, the new filings said. Hicks, who is now a senior executive at Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, has denied wrongdoing."
posted by Harry Caul at 9:55 AM on July 18, 2019 [9 favorites]

I hope there's an Epstein-Barr connection. That would go viral.

You may be joking, but has no one pointed out yet that Bill Barr's dad, Donald Barr, was Epstein's boss at the private high school where he was mysteriously hired without any qualifications, and where he began creeping on teenage girls?
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 9:55 AM on July 18, 2019 [23 favorites]

Rep. Ilhan Omar introduces resolution affirming boycotts as protected free speech < Salon
posted by Harry Caul at 10:00 AM on July 18, 2019 [20 favorites]

The controversy over whether the media should call Trump’s racist tweets “racist,” explained (Matthew Yglesias, Vox)
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:02 AM on July 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

If y’all aren’t watching the McAleenan hearing then you’re missing out. Mr. Cummings (D, MD-07) is about to [metaphorically] burn the place down. McAleenan is a horrible person, and I’m glad someone’s calling him on his nonsense.
posted by wintermind at 10:06 AM on July 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

Crowd at tonight's Trump rally in North Carolina breaks out into chants of "Send her back!" as the president attacks Rep. Ilhan Omar

NYT’s Peter Baker via the WH pool: “Trump disavows “send her back” chant at his rally last night: "I was not happy with it. I disagree with it." Trump asserts that he tried to stop the “send her back” chant: "I think I did -- I started speaking very quickly."”

CNN’s Daniel Dale: “He went silent for more than 13 seconds to let the chants proceed, then kept attacking Omar without rejecting the chants in any way.”

WaPo’s Josh Dawsey: “Trump said he disavows "send her back" chant last night about Rep. Ilhan Omar. "I was not happy with it. I disagree with it," he said. He was the first person to suggest she "go back" in a Sunday tweet.”
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:10 AM on July 18, 2019 [28 favorites]

"I was not happy with it. I disagree with it,"

Think of how vocally he'll disagree with the first murder of a representative he causes, and think of how much media praise he'll get for his unhappiness and disagreeingness.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:14 AM on July 18, 2019 [16 favorites]

On occasion he notices the intense blowback, he buckles to it--and in a day or two his resentment boils over and he'll be right back on this. "Very fine people" all over again. You can bet he's pissed to disavow it. This chant won't go away.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:15 AM on July 18, 2019 [25 favorites]

It won't go away because I'm pretty sure he *can't* stop it, not that he won't. Pandora opened the box.
posted by Quindar Beep at 10:19 AM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

So despite lying to the FBI and Congress, and materially participating in crimes, Hicks is rewarded with a senior post at Fox -- while Cohen does three years despite cooperating with prosecutors. Is that a clear message from this DOJ on who gets stitches and who doesn't?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:19 AM on July 18, 2019 [18 favorites]

I mean, it possibly says a lot more about Hicks than Cohen, who really has done scummy enough things that three years is being kind.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 10:22 AM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

This chant won't go away.
Correct, Command/ Verb + 'Her' + Preposition seems to be the chant formula de riguer. Which falls into the traditional ending-with-a preposition fashion.
posted by Harry Caul at 10:23 AM on July 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

Matthew Miller

DOJ has been quite forthcoming about the fact that it was Barr who decided against charges in the Eric Garner case. It should be equally transparent about who made the decision to end SDNY’s campaign finance case with no further charges.

If SDNY decided on its own that no further charges were warranted, including after Trump leaves office, then fair play. But given Barr’s history of intervening on behalf of POTUS, DOJ needs to tell us what happened.

Mimi Rocah

I want to know more too. Sometimes prosecutors don’t charge even if someone has committed a crime because they can’t get enough admissible evidence. That may be what happened here because no one would rely just on Cohen.

I do find it really strange that SDNY reportedly scheduled interviews with witnesses & then never followed through. Also the timing with Barr is suspect. More importantly, does this mean all investigation of Trump Org is done or just this piece on campaign finance violations?

posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:27 AM on July 18, 2019 [18 favorites]

Elijah Cummings ripping McAleenan a brand new asshole is from 2:48:35 - 3:01:12 in this video.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 10:34 AM on July 18, 2019 [13 favorites]

I do find it really strange that SDNY reportedly scheduled interviews with witnesses & then never followed through. Also the timing with Barr is suspect.

Josh Marshall also speculates about the timing, What Happened in New York?
posted by peeedro at 10:58 AM on July 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

‘Absolutely disastrous’: Progressives furious as fellow Democrats push funding cut for health clinics that serve 30 million Americans

“The plan backed by Pallone, while better than letting the funding expire altogether, would amount to a nearly 20 percent funding reduction over four years for the clinics, almost certainly cutting the amount of medical, vision, dental, and mental healthcare they can provide primarily low-income Americans,” Stein reported, citing Sara Rosenbaum, a health expert at George Washington University.

In a healthy democracy, you get a choice between 20% less health care and dying in a gutter.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:58 AM on July 18, 2019 [13 favorites]

On occasion he notices the intense blowback, he buckles to it

Trump will buckle if GOP members tell him he could lose the election, but he’s happy to keep fighting if only the opposition objects.

The NYT’s Julie Davis: “House GOP leaders raised the "send her back" chant at breakfast with VP Pence this morning & cautioned, "we cannot be defined by this," per Rep. Mark Walker, who called it "something that we want to address early" before it becomes a campaign staple like "lock her up"”

You can bet he's pissed to disavow it.

Trump’s definitely pissed reporters kept asking about it (video via Aaron Rupar). He repeats, “I disagree with it”, but he won’t either tell his supporters to stop or admit he raised the topic with his racist tweets.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:58 AM on July 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

I mean, not that this is a shocking revelation here, but: if you're in the middle of a speech and the crowd starts chanting something that you actually have a big problem with, you stop your speech and address the thing and specifically address why it's not acceptable. If you don't do any of those things, it's pretty clear that you in fact don't have a problem with it.

Trump's disavowal after the fact is about as credible as the straight-up white supremacists at the Unite The Right rally who literally cheered David Duke and then quickly were like "oh but of course, I disavow him".
posted by tocts at 11:02 AM on July 18, 2019 [24 favorites]

if you're in the middle of a speech and the crowd starts chanting something that you actually have a big problem with, you stop your speech and address the thing and specifically address why it's not acceptable.

See: John McCain remembered: defending Obama from racist questions – video (Guardian)
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:05 AM on July 18, 2019 [20 favorites]

Perhaps stopping the chant by explaining why it's wrong is too McCainesque for El Drumpo.
posted by HyperBlue at 11:06 AM on July 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

The State of the United States, 2019, exhibit #26343123993: Fired Over Too Much Tupac? A Rap-Loving Bureaucrat From Iowa Says He Hopes Not (Tim Mak for NPR, July 17, 2019)

The public servant who led Iowa's Department of Human Services was forced to resign in June, just one business day after he sent an email to more than 4,000 agency employees that included an inspirational quote from the rapper Tupac Shakur.

[Jerry Foxhoven] used his love of rap from time to time to "reach out to our staff, tell them that I'm human, have a little levity," he tells NPR.

Foxhoven regularly held "Tupac Fridays" in his office, where the rapper's music was played — the lawyer said he liked breaking stereotypes about who listens to rap.

"I'm a 66-year-old white guy from the Midwest who likes rap music, who likes Tupac!" he says.

In fact, Foxhoven is a Tupac superfan. The civil servant is utterly dedicated to the slain rapper, celebrating his birthday with Tupac-themed baked goods; marking Tupac milestones ("I might seem a little down because today is the 22nd anniversary of 2Pac's death," he wrote once to a staff member); and assigning Tupac as mandatory reading for his ethics class at Drake University.

But Foxhoven's tenure at the Department of Human Services ended without warning — and without a chance for an orderly transition. After his email citing the rapper, Foxhoven was asked to resign. He says that he was not even granted a meeting with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Instead, the governor's chief of staff confiscated his cell phone and ID card on the spot and ordered him not to go back to his office. They did not cite a reason, and Foxhoven was not made aware of why he was let go after two years on the job.

The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment from NPR. But according to the Associated Press, the governor's office would not confirm or deny that Foxhoven's rap references were part of the reason for Foxhoven's dismissal.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:30 AM on July 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

Remember when Joe Biden said, in 2007 when they were both running for president, about Barack Obama, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man"?

I bet Kamala Harris does.
posted by box at 11:31 AM on July 18, 2019 [36 favorites]

Elijah Cummings ripping McAleenan a brand new asshole is from 2:48:35 - 3:01:12 in this video.

It's a beautiful thing but stop at the 3:01:02 or Jim Jordan will make your head explode.
posted by archimago at 11:32 AM on July 18, 2019 [7 favorites]

Josh Marshall also speculates about the timing, What Happened in New York?

The timeline Marshall outlines is highly suspicious, given Barr’s growing record of interfering at the DoJ on Trump’s behalf:

April 2018 – Deputy US Attorney Robert Khuzami, supervising case after recusal of US Attorney Geoffrey Berman, signs off on raids of Michael Cohen’s home and workplaces.

December 2018 – Cohen sentenced to three years in prison.

January 2019 – US Attorney’s office requests interviews with Trump Organization officials. Office never follows up and interviews never take place.

February 2019 – Bill Barr sworn in as Attorney General.

Jan-Feb 2019 – Communications between US Attorney’s Office and Trump Organization executives ends.

March 2019 – Khuzami leaves government.*

July 2019 – CNN reports investigation likely to end with no criminal charges.

It’s also very odd that the SDNY granted immunity in exchange for cooperation to AMI, yet now it appears they offered little if any evidence of value to the investigation.

* Khuzami announced his departure in March, effective in April. At the time, although he had no plans for his next job, multiple anonymous sources told the media that his departure was for personal reasons, not because of political pressure. Incidentally, like Barr, he worked for a time at Kirkland & Ellis.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:36 AM on July 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

Jerry Foxhoven certainly sounds like an awesome guy but according to him, his 2Pac zeal was not the reason for his firing.
posted by Aubergine at 11:53 AM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

> This afternoon, Jake Tapper posted a thread of a handful of anonymous Democrats saying they feel like Trump was the real winner of this whole racism skirmish, because it forced Dems to stand up for "the squad" and thereby paint the Democrats with the same entire brush. It's getting shared around a lot, with the usual hand-wringing from some and dismissal from others.

Jake Tapper Appears to Have Taken a Break From Truth-Telling

This was the question posed to him by the New Republic’s Alex Pareene (and, full disclosure, my former boss).

@pareene: I assume you made every effort to get the targets of these comments to respond, because you are a straight-shooting objective reporter and not simply carrying water for one side in a political fight, but you didn't mention it because you didn't want to do an unlucky 13th tweet

@jaketapper Yes. Though I suspect they are more likely to want to respond through their own social media accounts than through mine, if they choose to do so at all.

If Tapper had made such an effort to reach out to the offices of Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, and Tlaib as he claimed, it seemed odd not to have included it in his 12-tweet thread, so I decided to ask the offices myself. At the time of publication, two of the four said that they did not receive any outreach from Tapper prior to his Twitter thread, one of which confirmed that Tapper had reached out only after Pareene’s questioning. Weird. (The other two have yet to respond.) (Update, 10:15 a.m.: One just did, and also said that Tapper only reached out after Pareene’s tweet.)

posted by tonycpsu at 12:07 PM on July 18, 2019 [34 favorites]

Many USDA workers to quit as research agencies move to Kansas City: ‘The brain drain we all feared’ (WaPo):

Two research agencies at the Agriculture Department will uproot from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City in the fall. But many staffers have decided to give up their jobs rather than move, prompting concerns of hollowed-out offices unable to adequately fund or inform agricultural science.

About two-thirds of the USDA employees declined their reassignments, according to a tally the department released Tuesday. Ninety-nine of 171 employees at the Economic Research Service, an influential federal statistical agency, will not move. At the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which manages a $1.7 billion portfolio in scientific funding, 151 of 224 employees declined to relocate.

posted by peeedro at 12:18 PM on July 18, 2019 [13 favorites]

I am in awe of the way these Congresswomen are handling all this evil bullying, death threats, and insane pressure from all sides. It is the one thing that gives me a tiny bit of hope, they way they are able to handle themselves and not back down.
posted by chaz at 12:21 PM on July 18, 2019 [27 favorites]

Charlie Pierce: Democrats' Minimum-Wage Bill Is as Dead as Impeachment in the Senate. Why'd It Get a Vote?

[T]his bill is as dead as Kelsey's nuts in the Senate and everybody knows it. Mitch McConnell will not even allow it to come to a vote. And this whole ball-spiking in the House strikes me as peculiar. After all, the Democratic House leadership won't even swing for an impeachment inquiry at least in part because it never would result in a conviction in the Senate. But this bill, which has no more chances of passing through the Senate than an impeachment would, is an occasion for chest-pounding.

And, of course, there was resistance among the only Democrats in the House that seem to matter. They got courted. They got their hands held. They didn't get snotty remarks aimed at them through the moth-eaten cultural references of Maureen Dowd.

Still, Democratic moderates — especially those who represent districts carried by President Trump — were nervous about the measure, and it took champions of the bill months to bring them around. In the end, the sponsors tacked on two provisions: one authorizing a study of the measure’s effects after it has been in place for two years, and another extending the deadline for a $15 minimum wage from 2024 to 2025.

(And we note, once again, the customary framing of progressives and "Democratic moderates." Apparently, the conservative Democrat continues to be a mythical beast.)

In other words, to win over the only Democrats who matter, the leadership had to set the bill's effective date for six years from now, and they had to authorize a study two years after that. If any progressive congresscritter had tried that kind of a hold-up, the howls from the leadership and from sensible liberal pundits wouldn't have yet died away. Six Democrats voted against it anyway. They will pay no political price. Because they matter.

posted by zombieflanders at 12:21 PM on July 18, 2019 [11 favorites]

A bit earlier, Joey Buttafoucault wrote:

I hope there's an Epstein-Barr connection. That would go viral.

You may be joking, but has no one pointed out yet that Bill Barr's dad, Donald Barr, was Epstein's boss at the private high school where he was mysteriously hired without any qualifications, and where he began creeping on teenage girls?

I know jokes are better if not explained, but since there were lots of favorites, yes it was a sharp joke about the real Epstein-Barr virus.
posted by bcd at 12:34 PM on July 18, 2019 [10 favorites]

Trump says US Navy shot down Iranian drone in ‘defensive action,’ escalating tensions in Gulf region < CNBC
posted by Harry Caul at 12:44 PM on July 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

The House just passed a $15 minimum wage. It would be the first increase in a decade. Vox (w a little bit of their Explainer style).
posted by Harry Caul at 12:52 PM on July 18, 2019 [11 favorites]

@Farenthold: The @PGA, set to hold 2022 PGA Championship at @realdonaldTrump's Bedminster, on his racist tweets: “As an organization, we are fully committed to Diversity and Inclusion, but we are not a political organization & simply don’t weigh in on statements made in the political arena."

Drew Magary, Deadspin: You’re Not Sticking To Sports When You Stick To Sports

Sports fans of a certain ilk have been loudly bitching for a firewall between sports and politics for years and years now, since well before ESPN and the insane rights fees they pay became a source of endless frowny faces for Disney stockholders. Pretty much every other broadcaster is equally fearful of raising the dander of any area mustache driving a Ford pickup. “Stick to sports” [is] such a tired gripe that even joking about it is tired now. It’s a complaint that is always made by the exact same type of sports fan, be they core or casual, with the exact same type of politics… [...]

But revanchism has become THE hot rebooted trend under the Trump administration, and so these MAGA toads keep at it, endlessly demanding that their precious sports and the people within those sports be castrated of anything resembling progressive attitudes, lest their enjoyment of a fucking Steelers game be slightly diminished. In the PGA, NFL owners, and network heads, they’ve found perfect corporate panderers to take those complaints at face value, to craft those grievances into a formal mandate, and then to hold that bullshit mandate up as the proven solution to their profit woes, even if it isn’t. It’s like Mitt Romney is commissioner of everything.

So, although the argument’s been made a million times before, I guess I’m gonna have to make it one more goddamn time: there is no sticking to sports. Sports are a highly visible part of the world, and they are both underwritten and infiltrated by multiple political forces in that world. You think I wanna fucking talk about politics? I don’t. I swear. I just wanna smoke some dope and chill the fuck out and treat politics as something tedious and inconsequential.

But that is not the country I live in. It never has been, really. When you’re talking about everyday politics like farm subsidy bills and shit, you have better odds of compartmentalizing it and keeping it isolated from discussions about whether or not the Twins can hang on to win their division. But when a President is screaming GO BACK TO AFRICA at citizen lawmakers and when lawmen are forcibly, GLEEFULLY ripping children away from their parents, and when Trump’s spokesghoul is coyly asking people to identify their race before her, there is no sanctuary from such problems, nor should there be. That is when the political stops being political and becomes a human crisis, one that should be denounced from every rooftop and one that spurs conversations that easily seep into every aspect of American living, including the field of play.

posted by tonycpsu at 12:57 PM on July 18, 2019 [44 favorites]

The controversy over whether the media should call Trump’s racist tweets “racist,” explained (Matthew Yglesias, Vox)

Since the article links to the much-criticized opinion piece on NPR, here’s a good counterpoint from the Columbia Journalism Review, with a reminder that actually there are guidelines for journalists regarding this... "controversy":

The debate around the “R word” is not new; nor, at this point, does it seem especially controversial. The Associated Press Stylebook—a trusted arbiter for newsrooms nationwide that is hardly known for its leftist radicalism—ruled in March that we should “not use racially charged or similar terms as euphemisms for racist or racism when the latter terms are truly applicable.” (Interestingly, the AP’s lead story on Trump’s tweets does not use either term without attribution.) So why do the euphemisms persist?

Also:
- Have You Been Tinged By a Racial? Handy Euphemisms For White Supremacists
- Trump Racist Euphemism Headline Generator
posted by bitteschoen at 12:58 PM on July 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

Peter Welch just became the 87th House D to publicly call for impeachment.

Add two more to make three today.

Jonathan Weisman (NYT)
Another, @BillPascrell: "The sitting President’s crimes and obstruction of justice have not abated but accelerated because of failure to constrain him. It is only Congress that can finally hold him to account. We must do this by commencing impeachment hearings of the President."

The third today! @RepRickLarsen: “This president has no concept of this widely and tightly held belief of Americans. His comments do not protect the concept of U.S. citizenship. They undermine it. He should not be the President of the United States.”

—

The sitting President’s crimes and obstruction of justice have not abated but accelerated because of failure to constrain him. YEP
posted by chris24 at 1:10 PM on July 18, 2019 [33 favorites]

How can 47% or American voters be totally on board with this? It seems they are my mortal enemy, right?

I try and see them as relatives that have been taken in by catfishing or nigerian email scams. People that have been conned often have extreme difficulty believing so, and will even go to court to testify as to the good character of the scam artist who has bilked them out of their life savings.
posted by xammerboy at 1:37 PM on July 18, 2019 [10 favorites]

O’Hare Standoff: Border Patrol Detaining Three Children Of Undocumented Parents

Several immigration lawyers, advocates and reporters have gathered inside the international terminal at O’Hare to await the outcome of what is shaping up as a standoff between border patrol and the undocumented parents of the three children, all girls, ages 9, 10 and 13.

Activists here say the children were detained by border patrol and will not be released until their parents pick them up. They’ve been detained since 3 a.m. The children flew back from Mexico early this morning with a cousin who had a valid visitor visa. The girls’ cousin is being detained, too.

Activists say that’s a trap and the parents are afraid of being detained and placed in deportation proceedings.

They're kidnapping American citizen children and turning an airport into an impromptu mini-camp to honeypot their family. Enabling this behavior is collaboration.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:37 PM on July 18, 2019 [46 favorites]

Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman: “It’s Going to Be Staggering, the Amount of Names”: As the Jeffrey Epstein Case Grows More Grotesque, Manhattan and DC Brace for Impact

One source who’s done business with Epstein told me that Epstein’s 21,000-square-foot townhouse on East 71st Street welcomed a steady stream of the Davos crowd in the past decade. The source said Bill Gates, Larry Summers, and Steve Bannon visited the house, which has been called one of the largest private residences in Manhattan. “Jeffrey collected people. That’s what he did,” the source said.[…]

Similarly, DC is on edge. “Epstein bragged about his contacts in Washington,” Boies said. Reporters are likely to dig into why the Justice Department decided not to prosecute Epstein and kept the deal secret from his victims. One theory circulating among prominent Republicans is that Epstein was a Mossad agent. Another is that the George W. Bush White House directed Acosta not to prosecute Epstein to protect Prince Andrew on behalf of the British government, then the U.S.’s closest ally in the Iraq war. “The royal family did everything they could to try and discredit the Prince Andrew stuff,” Boies told me. “When we tried to follow up with anything, we were stonewalled. We wanted to interview him, they were unwilling to do anything.” (Prince Andrew could not be reached for comment).

Of course, the two Epstein friends that people are most curious about are Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, both of whom have denied anything untoward. During the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton’s campaign consulted Bill’s post–White House Secret Service logs because they were worried Trump would bring up Bill’s close association with Epstein and wanted to get ahead of the story, a source told me.

Business Insider: Inside the Relationship of Trump And Convicted Sex Offender Epstein, From Party Buddies to 'Not a Fan'

Courthouse News, for good measure, reports: Prosecution of Child-Sex Traffickers Plummeted Under Trump
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:42 PM on July 18, 2019 [24 favorites]

OK, USDA workers, but the cost of living in KC is glorious compared to DC.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 1:43 PM on July 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

Find your representative's stance on impeachment with this handy website: Need to Impeach.

Note that you may want to do a bit more research to confirm the tool's analysis. My rep is listed as as supporting impeachment, but this news article from last month doesn't inspire much confidence. I for one plan on calling her office in the near future and saying something along the lines of "I will donate money to literally any primary challenger of yours unless you cut the bullshit and support impeachment."
posted by miltthetank at 1:45 PM on July 18, 2019 [14 favorites]

OK, USDA workers, but the cost of living in KC is glorious compared to DC.

Oh, absolutely, but it would take more than just a cost-of-living improvement to make me uproot myself and my family, leave all my friends (and extended family) behind and move across the country. Plus I’m sure they’re making the relocation process as unpleasant as humanly possible, because the whole point is to shrink the agency by getting the workers so miserable that they quit.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:53 PM on July 18, 2019 [27 favorites]

Two research agencies at the Agriculture Department will uproot from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City in the fall. But many staffers have decided to give up their jobs rather than move, prompting concerns of hollowed-out offices unable to adequately fund or inform agricultural science.

About two-thirds of the USDA employees declined their reassignments, according to a tally the department released Tuesday. Ninety-nine of 171 employees at the Economic Research Service, an influential federal statistical agency, will not move. At the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which manages a $1.7 billion portfolio in scientific funding, 151 of 224 employees declined to relocate.

No worries. Under Trump farmers have been switched over to the far more reliable practice of growing agricultural subsidies since the trade war has cut off access to the foreign the markets for their crops (which were already threatened anyways thanks to climate change induced fluctuations of drought and flood).
posted by srboisvert at 2:22 PM on July 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

RAND PAUL blocks compensation for 9/11 victims fund: “Any new spending … should be offset by cutting spending that is less valuable.”

Daily Beast: Jon Stewart Eviscerates Rand Paul for Blocking 9/11 Victim Funding: ‘It’s an Abomination’

Responding directly to Paul, Stewart called his objection “absolutely outrageous,” adding, “Pardon me if I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling.”

Stewart went on to condemn Paul for supporting President Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut that “added hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit” and now trying to “balance the budget on the backs of the 9/11 first responder community.”

“Bret, this is about what kind of society we have,” a clearly furious Stewart continued. “At some point, we have to stand up for the people who have always stood up for us, and at this moment in time maybe cannot stand up for themselves due to their illnesses and their injuries. And what Rand Paul did today on the floor of the Senate was outrageous.”

“He is a guy who put us in hundreds of billions of dollars in debt,” he said of Paul. “And now he’s going to tell us that a billion dollars a year over 10 years is just too much for us to handle? You know, there are some things that they have no trouble putting on the credit card, but somehow when it comes to the 9/11 first responder community—the cops, the firefighters, the construction workers, the volunteers, the survivors—all of a sudden we’ve got to go through this.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins follows up with Paul:

Sen. Rand Paul defends delaying 9/11 bill, saying, “Most of you guys don’t really understand the way the Senate works.”

REPORTER: We do.

PAUL: “I think you don’t...No one’s blocking any bill. We’re asking for amendments on the bill, & I think we’ve been granted the amendment.”

posted by Doktor Zed at 2:42 PM on July 18, 2019 [12 favorites]

Some good news? CBP has released the three children they'd been detaining at O'Hare since 3am:

Three girls were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at O’Hare International Airport more than 12 hours Thursday after returning from a trip abroad.

The girls — ages 13, 10 and 9 — are U.S. citizens and arrived in Chicago at 3 a.m. with an adult who had written permission from the parents to travel with the children, said Mony Ruiz-Velazco, an attorney working with the family said.

However, Border Protection officials denied entry to the girls as well as their companion, who was traveling on a tourist visa; officials said they were waiting for a parent to come get the girls.

After some negotiation, the girls were released about 4 p.m.

posted by asteria at 2:45 PM on July 18, 2019 [18 favorites]

Sherrilyn Ifill (LDF)
Can we stop w/the disavowal headlines? If you want to know what’s on the President’s mind, go to his twitter feed. This morning it was praise for the “great crowds” in NC, praise for ICE & Border Patrol, & disparaging Puerto Rico. There was not a thought about disavowal.


Sasha Samberg-Champion
This is important because the President can't be permitted to maintain alternate realities for different audiences. He hasn't disavowed anything until he says it to the same people he was speaking to originally. His base thinks he approved of the chants. They don't care what he says to D.C. press (if they even hear about it). He needs to tell them directly, or it's not real.
posted by chris24 at 2:47 PM on July 18, 2019 [42 favorites]

This chant won't go away.
Correct, Command/ Verb + 'Her' + Preposition seems to be the chant formula de riguer. Which falls into the traditional ending-with-a preposition fashion.

SWEAR HER IN!

SWEAR HER IN!
posted by mmoncur at 2:50 PM on July 18, 2019 [45 favorites]

OK, USDA workers, but the cost of living in KC is glorious compared to DC.

I never really know how to respond to this. What, precisely, is cheaper in Kansas City? I guess you can get a bigger house for the same money, but then you’ve still got a mortgage payment. Are cars, gas, food, insurance, and taxes all 18% cheaper? That’s the pay cut anyone moving to KC is going to have to eat, and I’ve not noticed such big differences in my travels around the country. I’ve only been to KC once, and it seemed like an okay place, but that’s not much comfort when you’ve got 30 days to decide if you’re moving or not. If you’re not moving they’re going to fire you, not let you resign, so the number of people saying they’re moving is probably inflated because people are hoping to find new jobs and quit. It’s a mess, and it’s being carried out in a needlessly cruel way. It’s almost as though forcing people to quit is the goal...
posted by wintermind at 3:13 PM on July 18, 2019 [16 favorites]

LAT has published a lengthy investigative report on the Trump administration gutting yet another department: Homeland Security Has Gutted Programs Aimed At Stopping WMD Terrorism

The Trump administration has quietly dismantled or cut back multiple programs that were created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to help detect and prevent terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction, a Times investigation has found. The retreat has taken place over the last two years at the Department of Homeland Security, which has primary domestic responsibility for helping authorities identify and block potential chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. The changes, not previously reported, were made without rigorous review of potential security vulnerabilities, The Times found, undermining government-wide efforts aimed at countering terrorist attacks involving unconventional weapons, known as WMD.

More than 30 current and former Homeland Security employees and contractors voiced concern that the changes — including the cancellation of dozens of training exercises and the departure of scores of scientists and policy experts — have put Americans at greater risk.[…]

The cutbacks and shifts have been directed by James F. McDonnell, who has been appointed by President Trump to successive posts at Homeland Security, a long-troubled department that has seen waves of leadership changes and policy upheaval since 2017.[…]

McDonnell has used broad discretion over the last two years to shift priorities and policies regarding WMD terrorism. Some of the changes are at odds with priorities authorized by formal presidential directives and by legislation enacted into law, The Times found.[…]

Current and former Homeland Security officials said they have struggled to grasp McDonnell’s rationale for cutting back training and other efforts intended to improve readiness, detection and tracing. They cited instances when specialists were removed from their areas of expertise in apparent retaliation for raising concerns about his policies.

It's hard to say what's driving the sweeping changes McDonnell is instituting, maybe some kind of ideological fixation, maybe just the Peter Principle at work.
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:55 PM on July 18, 2019 [15 favorites]

Make it 6 for impeachment today, though he doesn’t list Pascrell so it may be 7.

Kyle Cheney (Politico)
There are 6 new Dems who say they'd support an inquiry if given a chance to vote: Reps. WELCH and LARSEN issued public statements. Reps. ROYBAL-ALLARD and PAYNE confirmed they'd back an inquiry. Reps. BASS and PALLONE said they would too.
posted by chris24 at 3:57 PM on July 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

wintermind: "What, precisely, is cheaper in Kansas City? I guess you can get a bigger house for the same money, but then you’ve still got a mortgage payment. Are cars, gas, food, insurance, and taxes all 18% cheaper? That’s the pay cut anyone moving to KC is going to have to eat, and I’ve not noticed such big differences in my travels around the country."

Respectfully, you not noticing the difference does not make Kansas City as expensive as DC.
Cars, gas, food, insurance, and taxes may not add up to 18% cheaper, but the biggest discount is the one you handwaved away at the start.

While cost-of-living calculators do differ, they are all in agreement that KC is, like, at least 25% cheaper overall, with housing being the most drastic difference, at almost 70% cheaper. (Real numbers: NerdWallet's calculator has KC 40% cheaper overall, with the median 2BR rent alone at almost $1800 a month cheaper than DC).

Now, with that being said,


"It’s a mess, and it’s being carried out in a needlessly cruel way."

We are definitely in agreement that it is a mess and that the cruelty remains the point.
posted by namewithoutwords at 3:57 PM on July 18, 2019 [10 favorites]

Mod note: Couple comments removed. Shitty people involved in state governments and shitty majority voting bloc in a state aren't the same thing as a state and everyone who lives their being shitty. Please keep your generalizations in check and try harder not to jump straight to broad-brush dismissals or lazy jokes about places people live.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:59 PM on July 18, 2019 [14 favorites]

I’ll say one more thing and let this go: most federal employees in this area don’t live in DC, and there’s a lot of variation in real estate prices based on where you want to live. I’m sure housing is cheaper in Kansas City, but it’s not enough of a reason to take a substantial pay cut to move across the country for no clearly articulated reason.
posted by wintermind at 4:07 PM on July 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

NYT, How America Got to ‘Zero Tolerance’ on Immigration: The Inside Story. This is a long magazine feature, with too many horrifying moments to summarize (including Trump's offer to pardon McAleenan if he blocked asylum seekers and ended up in trouble for it), but I want to mention this bit in particular:

“The president would endlessly sit in meetings with the secretary and say, ‘I don’t know why you’re dicking around,’ ” the former administration official recalls. “ ‘You have this magical authority — it’s called 2-something-something; it allows you to keep anyone out.’ ” When administration officials, including White House counsels, informed Trump that 212(f) does not in fact give him the legal authority to override other parts of that or any other federal law, the president would often tell the story of how he once put up a giant flagpole at Mar-a-Lago. It violated Palm Beach ordinances, resulting in fines and a lawsuit by Trump, but he was ultimately allowed to keep it after he and Palm Beach officials agreed to a court-ordered settlement.

“His constant instinct all the time was: Just do it, and if we get sued, we get sued,” a former senior administration official says. “To him, it’s all a negotiation. Almost as if the first step is a lawsuit. I guess he thinks that because that’s how business worked for him in the private sector. But federal law is different, and there really isn’t a settling step when you break federal law.”

I think a lot of people looked at Fahrenthold's reporting, and other reporting on Trump's businesses, as reporting on Trump's character, as more evidence that he's an asshole of the sort who stiffs vendors and abuses a charity for private gain. But we should have viewed it through the frame of fascism: someone who believes they can and should ignore the law to get what they want. And the only difference is that as a businessman, he wants money and self-aggrandizement, while as president, he wants his ravings turned into policy without regard to any restraints imposed by our system of government, basic human decency, or common sense.

Because what this example shows is the lesson he took away from his business experience: there are no real consequences to ignoring the law. He certainly never faced any. Breaking the law and contracts would usually get him what he wanted eventually. And despite what the former senior administration official says, federal law seems to work the same way: nothing bad actually happens to him or anyone else when he gets told he can't break federal law, which is a thing that now happens on a regular basis. As the Muslim ban showed, he even gets to keep trying again until they let him get away with it. The worst-case scenario is he finally loses, he gets mad, rants about the judge and loses interest in the topic.

A big corporate law firm put out a memo yesterday (no relation to the name partner on my part). It starts off by acknowledging that white-collar prosecutions have dropped way down in the past two years, as have the penalties in those cases that are brought, but urges their clients that having "an effective compliance program" is still important. In other words, the Trump administration doesn't seem to care about making sure businesses follow the law, but a corporate law firm would like to remind you that it's still a good idea to not do illegal stuff (and, presumably, pay them lots of money for advice on that). Extremely normal country stuff here. But the illegality is the point: Trump learned that there were no consequences to lawlessness, and now that's government policy: both for his administration and for corporations.
posted by zachlipton at 4:13 PM on July 18, 2019 [45 favorites]

@mkraju
Just asked Omar about the chants, and she says of Trump: "I believe he is a fascist." Responding to Lindsey Graham, who said if she were wearing a MAGA hat Trump wouldn't have said 'go back:' "Because I criticized the president, I should be deported?"

Does this make Omar the first national politician to openly call him a fascist?

Related: House Dems warn Omar in 'imminent danger' after Trump rally chants

Senior Democrats are now calling for authorities to evaluate security for Omar (D-Minn.), as well as the three other lawmakers who Trump called out by name at his Wednesday night rally in North Carolina — warning that Trump has escalated the risk of threats or even acts of violence toward the four minority freshmen. “It’s crystal clear to me that her life is in imminent danger,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus. “He has threatened the safety of a member of Congress. That takes this to a whole different level.” “It’s bad enough that the president didn’t stop the chant last night. But he started it. It’s instilling fear, it’s going to instill violence,” added Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), the House’s No. 4 Democrat.

posted by Rust Moranis at 4:24 PM on July 18, 2019 [33 favorites]

CBP, DHS Using Quasi-Scientific Guesswork To Turn Adult Immigrants Into Minors

Our nation's immigration agencies wield a considerable amount of power. So much power, in fact, that they're free to dump incoming immigrants off the space-time continuum at will. If a CBP officer decides a person isn't the age they say they are, they can alter the person's age so it matches the officer's beliefs.

posted by M-x shell at 4:27 PM on July 18, 2019 [13 favorites]

LAT has published a lengthy investigative report on the Trump administration gutting yet another department: Homeland Security Has Gutted Programs Aimed At Stopping WMD Terrorism

I'll take "what would American policy look like if it were secretly directed by Putin?" for $1000.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:33 PM on July 18, 2019 [32 favorites]

Vox, Yglesias - Trump’s racism is part of his larger con - The Trump Show isn’t exactly popular, but it does mask a plutocratic agenda that’s even less palatable.

Trump’s signature tax bill didn’t pay for itself as promised or lead to a massive surge in business investment, but it did boost bank profits to record levels. And it spurred a massive series of stock buybacks that benefitted rich people who own lots of stock and corporate executives with stock-linked compensation packages. He’s approving a Sprint/T-Mobile merger that will raise cellphone plan prices for consumers, repealed net neutrality regulations, and in one of his first acts decided to allow internet service providers to sell private user data to advertising companies.

Under Trump, decades of steady progress on non-climate air pollution have finally been reversed, and his administration is hard at work writing new rules that would increase water pollution levels as well.
...
And it’s easy for a dialogue on racism to swiftly descend into intramural sniping between liberals and leftists and NeverTrumpers about exactly who objected to what when and in the right ways. By contrast, virtually nobody is going to stand up and publicly defend the idea that it’s good that under Trump’s watch the air is becoming more toxic and that corporate criminals are getting off so easily that their lawyers may be facing unemployment.

But racism’s function in American politics has been in part to serve as a kind of scam. The Jim Crow South had the lowest living standards for white people of any American region alongside the even lower standards for African Americans. And Trump is nothing if not a connoisseur of cons and scams.

No punches pulled here, just the media starting to say what we've known here long time. Within, my previous question about "why doesn't the left loudly call Trump's racism un-American more" is answered directly by Omar herself in this tweet:

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work." -Toni Morrison

I am not going to let them distract. Today I am going to do the work the people of Minnesota sent me to do and vote to #RaiseTheWage to $15 an hour.
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) July 18, 2019

I needed that reminder.
posted by saysthis at 5:27 PM on July 18, 2019 [37 favorites]

California: 'resistance' state has donated more to Trump than to most Democrats in 2020 race
President has raised $3.2m in California this year, analysis finds – more than Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders

(Exceptions being Harris and Buttigieg)
posted by XMLicious at 5:31 PM on July 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

It’s hardly a news flash that there’s lots of conservatives in California, including a lot of rich conservatives. All that says is that California is big and perhaps also has a healthier economy than many other states (no thanks to our conservatives). And all their donations go to Trump, rather than split n-ways across a Pokédex of candidates.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:37 PM on July 18, 2019 [29 favorites]

What a crappy use of technically correct statistics to create a meaningless headline. The Guardian is better than this.

If they'd done a per-capita analysis and compared the fundraising numbers for an incumbent president at this point in the cycle there might be some mildly interesting information, at least
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:47 PM on July 18, 2019 [11 favorites]

We've already seen the NRA route campaign donations from prominent Russian bankers and oligarchs to the GOP. After Susan Collins got an influx of dark money to match her opponent in Maine's general election, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that similar shenanigans are surreptitiously funding Trump from various states, including California.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:47 PM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

It's really no surprise that in such a large state there are people making donations for Trump. All you have to do is travel through the central valley to see how strong his support is. I saw a roadside MAGA booth in Oakhurst last weekend. I don't really get it, but it's part of the landscape in a lot of non-urban areas. Not wanting it to be true won't stop anyone from giving money. Honestly, I went into that article thinking the disparity would be greater, but if you combine most of the democratic money to better represent the inevitable convergence over time, things look a little different. The situation hardly supports their characterization of the situation.
posted by feloniousmonk at 5:48 PM on July 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

"It’s hardly a news flash that there’s lots of conservatives in California, including a lot of rich conservatives"

When people accuse me of being in a "liberal bubble" I like to say that LA country probably has more conservative people than many states have people.
posted by flaterik at 5:54 PM on July 18, 2019 [14 favorites]

Yes, there are moneyed conservatives in California.
With that, here is your reminder that Republicans lost literally all of Orange County House elections in 2018.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 6:02 PM on July 18, 2019 [19 favorites]

Ilhan Omar responds to 'send her back' chant with Maya Angelou poem.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
posted by adamvasco at 6:12 PM on July 18, 2019 [34 favorites]

The lesson he took away from his business experience: there are no real consequences to ignoring the law. He certainly never faced any. Breaking the law and contracts would usually get him what he wanted eventually.

My biggest take-aways so far from the Trump years:
1. Law's purpose is to serve the interests of the rich and powerful.
2. Conservative philosophy's purpose is to mask racist intent.

I always knew it was true to an extent, but I never knew how fully.
posted by xammerboy at 6:18 PM on July 18, 2019 [44 favorites]

For those on the “impeachment doesn’t help our case” side of the argument, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, the person in charge of impeachment proceedings, disagrees.

Charles Johnson (LGF)
Interesting @chrislhayes interview with Jerry Nadler - did I really hear him admit that opening an impeachment inquiry would put the Democrats on firmer legal ground for investigations?

Chris Hayes
You did
posted by chris24 at 6:30 PM on July 18, 2019 [26 favorites]

Can we stop w/the disavowal headlines? If you want to know what’s on the President’s mind, go to his twitter feed.

God, yes. The same with asking "Is the president a racist?" At the very least ask, "Why did the president make such a racist statement?" or "Why did the president lie about Xyz?" Make them reply to the content or they'll simply deny.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:30 PM on July 18, 2019 [10 favorites]

Matt Yglesias, quoted by saysthis:

By contrast, virtually nobody is going to stand up and publicly defend the idea that it’s good that under Trump’s watch the air is becoming more toxic and that corporate criminals are getting off so easily that their lawyers may be facing unemployment.

I respect Yglesias but I think he's simply incorrect here. Those things are partisan issues just as much as racism, with arguments made on all sides.

They also, within the American mindset, lack the same moral bite as a label like "racism". A mainstream assumption is that you will always have polluters, and while most Americans want constraints on pollution, the more-or-less standard conservative/libertarian stance, for years and years now, has been that the problem should be solved in markets alone, with maybe the occasional class-action lawsuit but probably not even that. Meanwhile, any national conversation about white-collar crime will soon devolve into one about capitalism-vs-socialism. Millions of Americans truly believe it's good if those CEOs get away with whatever, because they have a different mental model of class conflict.

For better or worse, the reason racism grabs these headlines is that under our political vocabulary, "racism" is always an inexcusable act, not a necessary evil. Anything that people excuse, they do so as "This isn't racism" rather than "This racism is okay". Hence, the president saying increasingly hard-to-deny-as-racist things becomes a big deal in the public mind, more than if he'd said something like "We should remove every single regulation on the finance industry," which approximates the sort of thing Rick Perry (now the least controversial member of his cabinet, amazingly enough) was already saying many years ago.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:00 PM on July 18, 2019 [9 favorites]

Seriously, watch this video of Ingraham absolutely incensed and disbelieving Fox pollster Frank Luntz that anyone could actually be moved and angry about kids in cages. And saying no Republicans she's talked to or met cares. The difference between us and Rs is they are sociopaths.

Jason Campbell (MMFA):
Here's Laura Ingraham viscerally refusing to believe that putting children in cages would be offensive to voters
VIDEO
posted by chris24 at 8:27 PM on July 18, 2019 [21 favorites]

In the same vein as the USDA, the Bureau of Land Management is now moving forward with plans to splinter its DC headquarters into multiple field offices and scatter almost 85% of its DC workforce all over the country. Its HQ will no longer be in Washington; instead, it will move to Grand Junction, Colorado.

I know someone who works for BLM in DC. He likes his work. He has lived in DC his whole life. His family and friends are there. A couple days ago he was told that his job is going to be moving to Salt Lake City, and that he could follow it there or quit. His preferred option at this point is to quit and find something else at home. Which, of course, is exactly what Ryan Zinke wanted to happen when he came up with this idea.
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 9:07 PM on July 18, 2019 [37 favorites]

Grand Junction?

We stayed the night there once, on the way home to Long Beach,Ca from Fort Collins, Co.

Beautiful country. Weird place to HQ the media relations and data acquisition arms of the organization, though?
posted by notyou at 9:26 PM on July 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

In the same vein as the USDA, the Bureau of Land Management is now moving forward with plans to splinter its DC headquarters into multiple field offices and scatter almost 85% of its DC workforce all over the country.

This is intentionally being done to destroy morale and effectiveness of the federal workforce. This is what they really meant by draining the swamp, it's not lobbyists, they've declared war on the federal civilian workforce.

My agency has had shadowy negotiations for several years over the future of the current lease, I would not be that shocked to get this same announcement. And if that happened, personally it would be an untenable position, as I am a little under 1 year from public service loan forgiveness, but all my professional and personal contacts are in DC at this point. But the entire purpose of these moves is to force line federal employees into exactly that choice, as punishment for choosing a professional career with the federal government.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:31 PM on July 18, 2019 [55 favorites]

Don't they have to work with congress people in Washington as a major part of what they do? How effectively can you lobby or negotiate from across the country?
posted by xammerboy at 9:39 PM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

That’s the entire point. They said “destroy the administrative state” remember? This is what that looks like
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:41 PM on July 18, 2019 [32 favorites]

A cashier at Bucky's Convenience Store in Naperville, Illinois lost his job after being recorded telling some customers to "go back to their country".

That's understandable, Convenience Store Cashier is a very important job that is critical to the country so it's important that it have the highest impeccable standards.

sigh.
posted by mmoncur at 10:19 PM on July 18, 2019 [38 favorites]

Adam Serwer in The Atlantic: What Americans Do Now Will Define Us Forever
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:46 PM on July 18, 2019 [13 favorites]

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work." -Toni Morrison

The WaPo points out that yesterday's rally was "originally scheduled as counterprogramming for what was expected to be a day of congressional testimony from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III". Mueller's testimony was moved back a week, so expect another peak racist frenzy, or some new outrage, coming shortly.
posted by peeedro at 11:37 PM on July 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

And in a poll, Michelle Obama was just rated the most admired woman in the world, so I’m sure Man-child Trump will find a way to make some horrible statements about her in the coming days.

(while on the most admired men list, Trump comes in 14th, behind Bill Gates (#1), President Obama (#2), Jackie Chan (#3)... and Putin (#10))
posted by blueberry at 12:12 AM on July 19, 2019 [13 favorites]

Rep. Ilhan Omar engulfed by crowd of cheering supporters at airport baggage claim upon returning home to Minnesota.

“We are not deterred, we are not frightened, we are ready. We are in the ring,” Omar said before departing for a town hall in south Minneapolis. “We are in the people’s house, and we are going to continue to fight it until we have the America we know we all deserve.”
posted by theory at 1:06 AM on July 19, 2019 [55 favorites]

2nd debate lineup is set...

Warren and Sanders will join Delaney, Hickenlooper, Ryan, Bullock, Williamson, Klobuchar, O'Rourke and Buttigieg on July 30.

Harris and Biden will join Gillibrand, Gabbard, Bennet, de Blasio, Inslee, Booker, Yang and Castro on July 31.

Bullock has replaced Swalwell (who ended his campaign) as the 20th person.
posted by OnceUponATime at 2:37 AM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

In re splitting up the various federal bureaus: I bet part of it is that a lot of federal employees are union and/or enjoy strong civil service protections. It's dramatically harder to work as a union or take advantage of your rights on the job when there is no "shop floor" because there are fifty one-person offices.

I have to admit, there's evil genius to doing this. I had not anticipated it at all.
posted by Frowner at 3:32 AM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

Given the lineups it feels like a chance for Harris to tear Biden up. With Booty, Warren, and Sanders all on the first night she's got a chance to turn the second night into what amounts to a one on one with Biden, with Booker and Castro trying to horn in but nobody cares.
posted by Justinian at 3:43 AM on July 19, 2019 [7 favorites]

That Ingraham video is sickening. I'm hoping that, for the sake of humanity, that these views are truly a minority of the US populace, because seriously how pathological does one have to be to believe that caging human children (and adults, for that matter) is better than paying a few extra bucks towards a socialized system that provides for those less fortunate. (I know, my Canadian is showing - but my expat American husband is just as disgusted)
posted by meowf at 4:26 AM on July 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

Weird place to HQ the media relations and data acquisition arms of the organization, though?

GJ is not a very large city nor area, but is the main CO city on the western slope. That said, these two sentences from an article also in the Moab Times neatly summarize why this happened:

Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., would like to see the headquarters move to Grand Junction. He is up for re-election in 2020.

This also taps into a deep-running independent vibe that many – but not all – old-school Coloradans have, this whole "that's happening over in Washington, we do things differently here, we don't want anyone moving here, and government can't tell us what to do" attitude. Moving BLM out here literally takes it out of Washington, so this is a "prize" that Gardner can point to to claim a victory, I suspect.
posted by hijinx at 5:31 AM on July 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

Owning The Libs By Selling Trump Campaign…Straws

Of all the President Donald Trump merchandise available on his reelection campaign website, one product really sucks: straws.

“Liberal paper straws don’t work,” reads the product description. “STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP and buy your pack of recyclable straws today.”

The ten-pack of straws, which can be yours for the low, low price of $15.00 (plus tax and shipping) are — literally just plain red plastic straws with the word “Trump” stamped on the side.

If there was ever any doubt, let it hereby be laid to rest — Trump is a straw man.

posted by lazaruslong at 5:32 AM on July 19, 2019 [25 favorites]

Leaked documents show Jeffrey Epstein kept funds offshore. Can the money even be tracked?
< Miami Herald
"When asked to document his wealth, lawyers for Epstein told Senior U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman that the answer is complex.
It’s unclear how long Epstein ran Liquid Funding, which tied back to a similarly named company in Delaware, and how much it contributed to the known narrative of Epstein losing big sums during the financial crisis.
But coupled with the fact that many of his businesses were operated in or with help from Caribbean offshore tax havens, the documents raise the likelihood that Epstein’s wealth is spread secretly across the globe. Wealthy people commonly employ opaque offshore companies to mask their true fortunes from tax authorities and creditors, although the companies also have legitimate business and tax-planning uses."
"The most voluminous document about Epstein in the Paradise Papers is a 541-page document detailing Liquid Funding Ltd., a company that was innovative for its time in trying ways to broaden the kind of debt that is accepted on the repurchase, or repo market. These involve a lender giving a borrower cash in exchange for securities that the borrower will buy back at an agreed upon date for a fixed price.

Rather than having stocks and bonds as the underlying security, Liquid Funding had commercial mortgages and investment-grade residential mortgages bundled into complex securities. The three main credit rating agencies — Standard & Poor’s, Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service — all helped Bear Stearns create the securities in a way that would allow the creative product to get a gold-plated AAA rating."
posted by Harry Caul at 5:53 AM on July 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

USA Today has more on the SDNY's unexpected conclusion of the Trump Org campaign finance investigation: Prosecutors Weighed DOJ Policy Blocking Indictment of a Sitting President In Closing Trump Hush-Money Probe

Federal prosecutors' decision to end an investigation into hush money payments to women claiming affairs with Donald Trump relied at least in part on long-standing Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.[…]

A person familiar with the case, who was not authorized to discuss it publicly, said it was unclear whether prosecutors made a determination that they had sufficient evidence to bring a case against Trump or anyone other than his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year. But the Justice Department's opinion that a president cannot be indicted factored into the decision to end the probe, the person said.[…]

[F]rom a federal prison in upstate New York, Cohen continued to claim that his conviction should not mark the end of an investigation that has long shadowed the White House.

"I and members of The Trump Organization were directed by Mr. Trump to handle the Stormy Daniels matter; including making the hush money payment,” Cohen said in a statement Thursday. “The conclusion of the investigation exonerating The Trump Organization's role should be of great concern to the American people and investigated by Congress and the Department of Justice.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the unsealed documents bolstered Cohen's assertions.

"The inescapable conclusion from all of the public materials available now is that there was ample evidence to charge Donald Trump with the same criminal election law violations for which Michael Cohen pled guilty," Schiff said.

If the OLC was the main reason for the feds dropping this case without further charges, the House Judiciary committee should investigate further, calling up the Trump Org witnesses that the DoJ suddenly lost interest interviewing once Barr arrived as Attorney General.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:00 AM on July 19, 2019 [21 favorites]

Catholic Nuns, Leaders Arrested While Protesting Detention Of Migrant Children (yesterday, in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building--70 arrests in all).
posted by duffell at 6:01 AM on July 19, 2019 [25 favorites]

Eric Levitz (NY mag)
Moderate Democrats: The Squad is preventing our party from winning over swing voters with common-sense ideas on pocketbook issues.

Also Moderate Dems: We will NEVER support your popular idea for addressing a GOP constituency's top pocketbook concern.

NY mag: Moderate Democrats Warn That AOC Is Distracting From Their Nonexistent Message

Meanwhile, centrist Democrats have blocked their party from passing a bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, a measure that would effectively transfer large sums of money out of Big Pharma’s profit margins and into seniors’ pockets. This a winning issue in every district in the country (at least, if you value the approval of voters more than lobbyists). A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 86 percent of Americans approve of Medicare negotiating lower drug prices. There is a reason that Donald Trump pretended to support such a policy through the bulk of his presidential campaign, and is now desperately searching for more industry-friendly means of pushing down the cost of pharmaceuticals. The GOP cannot compete at the national level without winning an outsize share of older voters. And older voters cannot stomach the rising cost of their pills. This gives Democrats a golden opportunity to expand their coalition by gaining the upper hand on a high-salience issue: As the party that’s less allergic to price controls, they’re well-positioned to give a right-leaning constituency something it desperately wants, but cannot get from the GOP.

But moderate Democrats aren’t letting them.

They delayed the minimum wage hike for months and weakened it, fought against Pelosi as speaker, and are blocking this bill, but hey, let’s attack AOC some more, huh Nancy?
posted by chris24 at 6:12 AM on July 19, 2019 [34 favorites]

Re moving federal offices out of Washington, D.C. and to a Midwestern city: there was serious talk about how this was a good idea in, as I recall, either Vox or The Atlantic. The idea was to get educated professionals (and, by extension, blue voters) to revive areas which were draining population and take some of the pressure off the coasts - to try to reverse "the big sort", in other words. And I can see the point - if we want more Senate seats, some red states are going to have to turn purple.

Under other circumstances, moving some federal offices to Kansas City could be a way to Make Kansas Great Again, making it less elderly and angry and red, but of course nothing that the Trump administration does is "benign." I don't know about plotted and diabolically clever, though - it was no doubt impulsive and not thought through.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 6:21 AM on July 19, 2019 [17 favorites]

I keep reading that Democrats only one in swing states because the party ran centrist candidates. I'm finding that a little hard to believe. Wasn't Trump a major factor in these swing states turning blue? Didn't disgust with what Republicans were doing play a major role?

Was it really that smart to run a bunch of candidates that aren't really Democrats? Who are now holding the party hostage? Who refuse to go along with even lowering drug costs for senior citizens? Who don't really seem "kitchen table" focused at all, but rather conservative in every way other than actually being in the Republican party?

Am I really to believe that the blue wave was a massive movement in this country in support of logjam government that accomplishes nothing and lets this president run amok unchallenged? We now have a Democratic party that is too conservative to even fight for heat for detained children and lower priced drugs. In short, as long as the party is hostage to these moderates they're worthless as a party.
posted by xammerboy at 6:37 AM on July 19, 2019 [5 favorites]

Was it really that smart to run a bunch of candidates that aren't really Democrats?

It was definitely smart to run candidates who could win the districts they ran in, yes. I'll leave the "aren't really Democrats" thing as an exercise for the reader.
posted by Justinian at 6:38 AM on July 19, 2019 [12 favorites]

There is absolutely a good-faith case to make for moving many of the agencies out of DC, even without getting into the idea of gaming political demographics. With modern computing and telecommunications technology, we no longer need everybody in the same city to make collaborative work possible, and the District itself absolutely has more people than it can reasonably support. The problem is that it's very tricky to make that kind of move without causing mass resignations at the agencies, which means it's absolutely the kind of thing an administration that wants mass resignations should not be allowed to do.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 6:42 AM on July 19, 2019 [14 favorites]

Federal prosecutors' decision to end an investigation into hush money payments to women claiming affairs with Donald Trump relied at least in part on long-standing Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.[…]

I don't know how to read this except that the DOJ is in the president's pocket. We're talking about election fraud, which goes to the heart of whether or not Americans get free and fair campaigns. It's especially galling considering all of the money and time that went into investigating Clinton's affair. Another argument for rolling these investigations into impeachment inquiries.

And yes, I understand that some people argue Americans are too dumb to understand the difference between an investigation and a vote, or that they're too stupid to understand it's necessary because witnesses are refusing to appear before the courts. I just don't buy it. It can be explained in a sentence or two. In fact, I just did. The excuse is offensive.
posted by xammerboy at 6:44 AM on July 19, 2019 [17 favorites]

@SenTedCruz and @BillCassidy introduce Senate resolution that "calls for the groups and organizations across the country who act under the banner of Antifa to be designated as domestic terrorist organizations."

Mountain of corpses murdered by fascists: [GOP crickets]
Antifascism: "to Guantanamo with you"

Do we get it yet?
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:44 AM on July 19, 2019 [48 favorites]

>Catholic Nuns, Leaders Arrested While Protesting Detention Of Migrant Children (yesterday, in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building--70 arrests in all).

God this moved me to tears. The human microphone has come so far since Occupy. The police officer who intrudes has to use a bullhorn, and an electronic alarm, to even speak. We need to develop this, to speak morally.
posted by stonepharisee at 6:51 AM on July 19, 2019 [15 favorites]

Re moving federal offices out of Washington, D.C. and to a Midwestern city: there was serious talk about how this was a good idea in, as I recall, either Vox or The Atlantic.

I also remember that idea circulating around. Besides Vox (by neolib Matt Yglesias), there were opinion pieces in Reason, CNN (by media mogul Steven Price), the Atlantic's City Lab. The Trump administration and GOP picked up on this as a way to "drain the swamp" (and Andrew Yang is big on the concept, too).

Naturally, the Trump administration is bungling their moves, e.g. The USDA Violated Rules Trying to Move Agencies Out of D.C., New House Report Finds—Rules including reprogramming department funds and not seeking public opinion were violated, a House Appropriations report says (Roll Call)
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:54 AM on July 19, 2019 [13 favorites]

I don't know about plotted and diabolically clever, though - it was no doubt impulsive and not thought through.

A lot of the ideas that are getting put in place now were dreamed up years ago in anticipation of a Romney presidency. Like the executive order that two regulations have to be axed for every new one. Of course, Trump is the one implementing the ideas now, so of course it’s done in the most idiotic and outrageous way possible.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 6:56 AM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

It was definitely smart to run candidates who could win the districts they ran in, yes. I'll leave the "aren't really Democrats" thing as an exercise for the reader.

Yes, please. The question of if we can afford this centrist strategy is something everyone should consider.
posted by xammerboy at 6:57 AM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Was it really that smart to run a bunch of candidates that aren't really Democrats?

The problem in the Democratic party right now is because we have a system that pretty much requires two parties and one party has openly become the party of complete and utter guanopsychotic fascist nutjobs. Anyone who is NOT a fascist nutjob has two choices: don't vote or vote Democratic. There are a lot of people who aren't leftists who are also not fascist nutjobs. The Democratic party is attempting to gather all those folks into their already huge tent. I don't see how you can have a single party trying to represent the ideology of 70% (n-.3 crazification factor) of 325 million people. I mean, we're trying because this is the system we are stuck with, but it's bonkers.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:07 AM on July 19, 2019 [44 favorites]

Yeah and intrinsic to xammerboy's question is the assumption that the districts we flipped in 2018 would still have flipped had the Democratic candidate been significantly further left. That's not something one can assume. Maybe? Maybe not? Who the hell knows anymore.
posted by Justinian at 7:16 AM on July 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

Is there even a group called Antifa or are we just going to start arresting anti-fascists? How would this even be enforced or is it supposed to be as simple as you’re wearing a mask at a protest so you must belong to Antifa.

Maybe we could round-up some WWII veterans and charge them.
posted by misterpatrick at 7:17 AM on July 19, 2019 [21 favorites]

Is there even a group called Antifa or are we just going to start arresting anti-fascists?

On the plus side, we'll get a bunch of new Indiana Jones movies -- he'll be the villain.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:20 AM on July 19, 2019 [9 favorites]

How would this even be enforced or is it supposed to be as simple as you’re wearing a mask at a protest so you must belong to Antifa.

Even simpler than that: Are you someone that the police want to arrest? You're Antifa.
posted by Etrigan at 7:21 AM on July 19, 2019 [34 favorites]

I keep reading that Democrats only one in swing states because the party ran centrist candidates. I'm finding that a little hard to believe. Wasn't Trump a major factor in these swing states turning blue? Didn't disgust with what Republicans were doing play a major role?

Trump is extreme enough, just personality-wise, that merely being disgusted by his very existence is the moderate reaction. It's not a proxy for supporting leftist policy (or to be more precise, leftist aesthetic) any more than liking Obama, whose appeal functioned oppositely from Trump's, was much of a proxy for being liberal.

What's hard to get across to the median American is that if you want to "go back" to something like a boring government with non-putrid leadership, you need solid lefties just to cancel out what the fascists have already done. You can't be like "Of course I despise fire but I also dislike excess water, so let's calmly set down those extinguishers" even if that sounds reasonable on the surface.

(Regarding "crazification factor", I think the premise of that notion is correct, but could we steer a bit further from ablism there? Trump voters aren't temporarily-embarrassed egalitarians afflicted with some variety of insanity; they're extremely sane white supremacists.)
posted by InTheYear2017 at 7:21 AM on July 19, 2019 [11 favorites]

Is there even a group called Antifa or are we just going to start arresting anti-fascists?

When milkshakes = concrete acid brainbleed weapons of mass destruction, opposition to child concentration camps = you're a terrorist. That's all there is to it.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:23 AM on July 19, 2019 [17 favorites]

Yeah and intrinsic to xammerboy's question is the assumption that the districts we flipped in 2018 would still have flipped had the Democratic candidate been significantly further left. That's not something one can assume. Maybe? Maybe not? Who the hell knows anymore.

Not saying we definitely needed Blue Dogs to win those seats, but the districts are more conservative.

WaPo: What’s behind the tensions between moderates and progressives? Numbers, partly.

The basic reality here is that one of the key pillars of the Democratic majority consists in the 43 seats that Democrats flipped from GOP control in 2018. Those 43 districts are way more conservative on average than the remaining 192 Democratic-held seats are.

You can use the Cook Partisan Voter Index to get a sense of this. The PVI calculates the partisan lean of a given district, relative to the country as a whole, by averaging together the differences between the presidential vote breakdown in the district — vs. the nation as a whole — in the past two elections.

Because Democrats won the majority by picking up lots of districts Trump carried in 2016, and lots of moderate, suburban and even a few rural districts, the PVI in most of those 43 districts tilts Republican. That is, those districts voted more Republican than the nation as a whole.

We’re talking about districts — in places such as southern Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania and upstate New York and southern New Jersey and even Kansas and Oklahoma — that are +3, +4, +5, +6 or even more Republican-leaning than the country.

What’s the upshot? According to calculations Wasserman shared with me, the average PVI of all 43 of those Democratic-held districts is R+2, meaning on average they tilt two points more Republican-leaning than the country.

By contrast, Wasserman tells me, the remaining 192 Dem-controlled districts have an average PVI of D+16, meaning on average they’re very Democratic-leaning. That striking disparity is the result of structural factors, such as heavy concentrations of Democratic voters due to geographic sorting.

Now let’s take the members of “the Squad.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s New York district has a PVI of D+29. Ayanna Pressley’s Massachusetts district has a PVI of D+14. Rashida Tlaib’s Michigan district has a PVI of +32. And Ilhan Omar’s Minnesota district has a PVI of D+26. Those are very Democratic-leaning districts.

Why are the 43 districts that Democrats flipped so much more Republican-leaning? One reason, Wasserman points out, is that the median House district overall is five points more Republican-leaning than the nation as a whole, due to gerrymandering and structural factors (again like geographic sorting). This means the seats that push Democrats into the majority are going to lean Republican. Also see Eric Levitz on the deeper factors in our politics and history that have brought this about.

posted by chris24 at 7:28 AM on July 19, 2019 [19 favorites]

Is there even a group called Antifa or are we just going to start arresting anti-fascists?

If this isn't rhetorical, and purely as a point of information: no, there really is not a group called Antifa. Any reporting on anti-fascist action that describes a person as "a member of Antifa" is outing itself as not actually knowing what Antifa is and is imagining a sort of centralized organizing force behind it that doesn't exist.
posted by tocts at 7:31 AM on July 19, 2019 [21 favorites]

WaPo: What’s behind the tensions between moderates and progressives? Numbers, partly.

Thanks cris24. I knew that the swing districts were, well, swing districts but I hadn't realized precisely how much more Republican leaning they are than the other Democratic seats. Those numbers entirely explain the friction in the Democratic House caucus.
posted by Justinian at 7:34 AM on July 19, 2019 [10 favorites]

And not to harp on the antifascism=terrorism thing, but the general bipartisan US policy on terrorism suspects is that kidnapping them and torturing them to death or murdering their US citizen minor children with flying robots is absolutely legal and OK. That's what Ted Cruz would allow to be done to you.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:36 AM on July 19, 2019 [21 favorites]

By contrast, Wasserman tells me, the remaining 192 Dem-controlled districts have an average PVI of D+16

To me this means that we need to push for more left-leaning candidates in these 192 districts. I can understand having to tolerate dems who are more conservative than we'd like in those 43 swing districts but that's less than 20% of the seats dems currently hold which should make those voices a solid minority of the party. AOC and The Squad aren't the extremists here.
posted by VTX at 7:38 AM on July 19, 2019 [7 favorites]

They are a minority of the party... but you still need them to pass anything since you'll lose 98% of Republicans on everything. So every bill and piece of legislation must be slanted towards Reps who are from Republican-leaning districts. Every single bill.
posted by Justinian at 7:41 AM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

peeedro: Many USDA workers to quit as research agencies move to Kansas City: ‘The brain drain we all feared’ (WaPo)

fluttering hellfire: OK, USDA workers, but the cost of living in KC is glorious compared to DC.

Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish: Oh, absolutely, but it would take more than just a cost-of-living improvement to make me uproot myself and my family, leave all my friends (and extended family) behind and move across the country. Plus I’m sure they’re making the relocation process as unpleasant as humanly possible, because the whole point is to shrink the agency by getting the workers so miserable that they quit.

Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam: In the same vein as the USDA, the Bureau of Land Management is now moving forward with plans to splinter its DC headquarters into multiple field offices and scatter almost 85% of its DC workforce all over the country. Its HQ will no longer be in Washington; instead, it will move to Grand Junction, Colorado.

It's pretty obvious that as carried out by the Trump administration, this is designed to gut these agencies. But if done well, with a transition plan including some way to help people ease into their new home cities, would be great to bolster mid-sized cities across the country.

Housing costs in D.C. are absurd, so if DC-centralized agency functions that don't need to be in D.C. were distributed to regional hubs (many state agencies already have district, division or state-specific offices), there could be a distribution of wealth and a decrease in staffing costs, because if you want to get someone to live in D.C., you have to pay them enough to live in the area. People could take pay cuts and still bring home more money if the offices are moved. Yes, that would mean uprooting career folks, and hiring new people to replace those who don't want to move, but it could be done, and done well.

This is not that. This is "draining the swamp," or "purging the deep state," or whatever shitty terminology is being used to justify gutting institutional knowledge and experience bases, allowing more new hires of pro-industry types.


Meanwhile, Committee Democrats Prepare For Highly Anticipated Robert Mueller Hearings (Tim Mak for NPR, July 19, 2019)

Members of Congress likely won't confine themselves to former special counsel Robert Mueller's report when they question him next week in two open hearings, staffers said.

Mueller, who is reluctant to appear, has said he would confine himself to what he's already written — but the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence won't.

"I would expect us to ask some questions that would require answers that are not necessarily in the four corners of the report," an intelligence committee staffer said.

"We do not expect him to violate any policies, laws or regulations. But there is no policy, law or regulation that says he cannot go beyond ... a report that he selectively wrote. There were obviously parts of the investigation that were not included... so there's no reason why he can't discuss his investigation."

Getcher popcorn a-poppin'.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:41 AM on July 19, 2019 [22 favorites]

So every bill and piece of legislation must be slanted towards Reps who are from Republican-leaning districts. Every single bill.

The problem here is that the Republicans aren't being properly branded as "The Party of Racists", and pointing out that if you're still a Republican AFTER the Trump Administration started stealing children from their families -- exactly as Adolph Hitler did with Polish children -- then you're only in it because Donald Trump's public displays of racism make you feel great about being a racist again.

Once we clarify what the GOP really is the party of racism, then it's easy to peel away the "But I'm not a Racist" segment.
posted by mikelieman at 7:47 AM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

> The GOP cannot compete at the national level without winning an outsize share of older voters. And older voters cannot stomach the rising cost of their pills. This gives Democrats a golden opportunity to expand their coalition by gaining the upper hand on a high-salience issue: As the party that’s less allergic to price controls, they’re well-positioned to give a right-leaning constituency something it desperately wants, but cannot get from the GOP.

so here on this site we're pretty sophisticated people who know (for example) the differences in strategy and preferred outcomes that mark liberalism and leftism as separate ideologies, and moreover we know that liberalism and leftism are separate ideologies, coming from different intellectual traditions.

if we are honest though we must admit that the genpop can't even reliably distinguish conservative ideas from liberal ideas from fascist ideas from socialist ideas from maoist ideas. we're surrounded by people who think that regulations on what types of straw to use is creeping socialism, but that state-run medical insurance and pension systems for people in their late 60s and older is solid conservative common sense.

which i guess is one key reason why i'm skeptical of claims that candidates must deploy conservative platforms to win. my hypothesis — which admittedly is a hypothesis with a leftist pedigree — is that people like stuff. if you can offer people stuff they want, and if you can stand by that offer, people will like you. because we like stuff, and we like people who give us stuff. if you instead offer people complex plans that will establish economic tendencies that will eventually make their lives better through an indirect process that's difficult to explain, people will think you're a pointy-head who's trying to pull one over on them. and this is true even if your indirect strategy for improving the lives of the electorate will actually work.

anyway. i think it would probably help in all districts, D+16 and R+5 alike, if our elected leaders could adopt something like reagan's 11th commandment. without centrist democrats — especially centrist democrats from san francisco i mean what is that even? — agreeing with republicans when they say that that broadly popular stuff-based arguments are radical leftism, i suspect great swathes of the electorate wouldn't even notice, much like how great swathes of the electorate didn't notice when the republicans shifted from being a methodologically conservative liberal party to being a methodologically radical fascist party — but only after centrist republicans stopped telling the electorate that the republican party's own right flank was radical.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 7:52 AM on July 19, 2019 [27 favorites]

Washington Post: Immigration does increase terrorism, but only home-grown, right-wing terrorism
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:03 AM on July 19, 2019 [39 favorites]

Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Farmer, Retired Marine Wants To Challenge Mitch Mcconnell In 2020 US Senate Race

Farmer and retired Marine Mike Broihier (pronounced Broy-er), a first-time candidate, entered the race Thursday with a three-minute advertisement that calls on voters to forget their labels.

“It's time to retire Mitch McConnell," Broihier said in an interview with the Courier Journal this week. "We have to do it to restore our democracy, and I've been warned about what he's capable of doing, but it doesn't scare me."[…]

Broihier, 57, is a Wisconsin native who moved to the Bluegrass State in 2005 after he and his wife, Lynn, also a retired Marine officer, bought a 75-acre farm in Lincoln County. He said the two have raised grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, pigs and sheep on their farm.

Since living in Kentucky, he has worked as a reporter and editor for The Interior Journal, a small town newspaper which is the third-oldest such publication in the state.[…]

Other Democrats who are thinking about running include sports radio host Matt Jones, state Rep. Charles Booker, of Louisville, and House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins, of Sandy Hook.

posted by Doktor Zed at 8:08 AM on July 19, 2019 [16 favorites]

The Sanders campaign is learning the hard way why you eat your own dog food, as a fight over $15/hr pay breaks out internally:

Unionized campaign organizers working for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential effort are battling with its management, arguing that the compensation and treatment they are receiving does not meet the standards Sanders espouses in his rhetoric, according to internal communications.

Campaign field hires have demanded an annual salary they say would be equivalent to a $15-an-hour wage, which Sanders for years has said should be the federal minimum. The organizers and other employees supporting them have invoked the senator’s words and principles in making their case to campaign manager Faiz Shakir, the documents reviewed by The Washington Post show.

Short version - field workers are being hired on salary that is calculated to be $15/hr - based on a 40 day work week. Given that these workers are expected to work 60 hour weeks, this means that their effective hourly rate is more along the line of $13/hr - and since the long weeks are part of the job, the workers, through their union, are demanding the salary calculations take that into account.
posted by NoxAeternum at 8:32 AM on July 19, 2019 [37 favorites]

Axios: Delaney's staff have asked him to drop out
posted by Chrysostom at 8:33 AM on July 19, 2019 [12 favorites]

From the Delaney link, emphasis mine: One source close to the campaign argued he'd be better positioned to run for governor or get a Cabinet position if he drops out before September.

God no. I live in Maryland. We haven't exactly put forward the best Democratic nominees for governor in the last couple of elections, but Delaney would be so much worse.
posted by duffell at 8:48 AM on July 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

They are a minority of the party... but you still need them to pass anything since you'll lose 98% of Republicans on everything. So every bill and piece of legislation must be slanted towards Reps who are from Republican-leaning districts. Every single bill.

The American system was not designed to work with a party that opposes everything in total lockstep that also controls all the checks and balances and throws out precedence whenever it wants to. Either something big changes or we quietly cease having a federal government except for concentration camps and prisons.

I said it two years ago and I was right then. The American government has Cotard’s Syndrome.
posted by The Whelk at 8:52 AM on July 19, 2019 [32 favorites]

The American government thinks it is dead, but is not? I'm not sure I'm following that metaphor.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:55 AM on July 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Reverse Cotard? Dead and doesn’t know it.
posted by chris24 at 8:57 AM on July 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

I believe that's Shyamalan's Syndrome.
posted by duffell at 8:59 AM on July 19, 2019 [43 favorites]

The American government has Cotard’s Syndrome.

Just to be technical, here's the correct definition from an NIH paper: "Cotard's Syndrome (CS) is a rare clinical event, characterized by negation delusion (or nihilist), generally regarding the body (frequently the patient believes that he or she does not have one or more organs) or regarding the existence (the individual judges that himself or everybody in the world is dead or reduced to nothing, being able to judge himself a zombie)"

Tangentially back on topic, Nature reported a couple of months ago: Trump Seeks Big Cuts To Science Funding — Again—The US president wants to cut spending at the National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:59 AM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Yesterday, in a new nadir for the Trump White House, 2018 Nobel Peace Prize–winner and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad met with Trump in the Oval Office: 'You Had the Nobel Prize?' Trump learns of Yazidi activist Murad (AFP) The UAE National posted a video of the exchange, in which Murad begs for aid for her refugee community and Trump isn't even able to feign interest.

Here's an excerpt from the transcript:

Murad: We are not million of people; we are only half million people. And after 2014, about 95 years -- 95,000 years, Yazidi, they immigrate to Germany through a very dangerous way. Not because we want to be a refugee, but we cannot find a safe place to live. All this happened to me. They killed my mom, my six brothers. They left behind.

Trump: Where are they now?

Murad: [ISIS] killed them. They are in the mass graves in Sinjar. And I'm still fighting just to live in safe. Please do something. And it's not about one family —

Trump: (interrupting) I know the area very well, you're talking about. It's a tough — yeah.

Murad: It's about half million. It's about the whole community.

Trump: Okay. Well, I'm going to look into it very strongly.

You really have to watch the video to witness Trump's utterly callous indifference. He clearly doesn't want to be there and sends her off with a quick hand shake and "OK, thank you very much."
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:14 AM on July 19, 2019 [36 favorites]

Re moving federal offices out of Washington, D.C. and to a Midwestern city: there was serious talk about how this was a good idea in, as I recall, either Vox or The Atlantic.

I also remember that idea circulating around. Besides Vox (by neolib Matt Yglesias), there were opinion pieces in Reason, CNN (by media mogul Steven Price), the Atlantic's City Lab. The Trump administration and GOP picked up on this as a way to "drain the swamp" (and Andrew Yang is big on the concept, too).

I'm pretty lefty and I believe moving department HQs out of DC is a great idea for a whole bunch of reasons (decentralizing power, distancing from lobbyists, regional wealth redistribution, strategic locating (like in the heart of agriculture country), cost minimization, depoliticizing the civil service, etc..). However, I don't agree with a short notice "You're moving next month" policy because I am not a dictatorial asshole.

This kind of ship turning has to be gradual and carefully done rather than at political whims. The military which is a run on pretty harsh dictatorial model doesn't even close or move bases like this.
posted by srboisvert at 9:15 AM on July 19, 2019 [22 favorites]

Immigration does increase terrorism, but only home-grown, right-wing terrorism

After Walter Lübcke was killed in Germany for his pro-immigration views, AfD politician Martin Hohmann issued a press release which said "If there had been no illegal opening of borders through Chancellor Angela Merkel then Walter Lübcke would still be alive."
posted by Slothrup at 9:20 AM on July 19, 2019 [9 favorites]

> Trump: Okay. Well, I'm going to look into it very strongly.

Trump officials pressing to slash refugee admissions to zero next year (Politico)

The Trump administration is considering a virtual shutdown of refugee admissions next year — cutting the number to nearly zero — according to three people familiar with the plan.

During a key meeting of security officials on refugee admissions last week, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services representative who is closely aligned with White House immigration adviser Stephen Miller suggested setting a cap at zero, the people said. Homeland Security Department officials at the meeting later floated making the level anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000, according to one of the people.

The proposal for a near-shutdown of the refugee program is alarming officials at the Department of Defense, who don’t want to see a halt in admissions of Iraqis who risked their lives assisting U.S. forces in that country. The possible move comes after the Trump administration cut refugee admissions by a third this year, to 30,000.

posted by Little Dawn at 9:31 AM on July 19, 2019 [15 favorites]

House Republicans are Pressuring Amazon to Sell Books on Gay Conversion Therapy (Vice)

Amazon removed books by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, a clinical psychologist who is credited with originating gay conversion therapy, a debunked — and in some cases illegal — pseudoscientific method of trying to turn gay people straight.

Nonetheless, the Republicans want to lobby to get his books — such as “A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality” and “Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality” — back in circulation.

posted by box at 9:37 AM on July 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

David Souter spends part of his time in retirement from the Supreme Court by sitting in on cases for the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston.

Today, he authored a ruling that stays the deportation of a Nepali man. The government argued Nepal is safe now and the Congress Party member has nothing to fear from the Maoists now in government, who previously had threatened him, beat him and held him hostage - based on random sentences in a 2016 State Department "country report." Souter said the government for some reason didn't cite the very next sentences, all of which basically said that the Maoists remained as much a threat to opponents as before, maybe even more so, now that they're in the government.
posted by adamg at 9:42 AM on July 19, 2019 [29 favorites]

Katie Hill flipped her red leaning district and now dem "moderates" are backing her Republican challenger.

And people wonder why people become disenchanted with electoralism
posted by The Whelk at 9:43 AM on July 19, 2019 [23 favorites]

pown the libs with campaign branded recyclable straws, sounds bogus to me.
don't libs get owned by hating recycling?

casual search suggests plastic straws are made of polypropylene, which could be recycled, but because of their size and shape causing them to either fall through the conveyors or gum up the machinery, most recyclers won't accept them. That latter link suggests they can be recycled by packing them inside another type-5 plastic (e.g., margarine containers), but that the material doesn't make financial sense to recycle.

(there was no detailed product information on the campaign page)

so, i think this is actually owning the libs by sabotaging recycling machinery and dumping in landfills. which is at least more on brand.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:45 AM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Katie Hill flipped her red leaning district and now dem "moderates" are backing her Republican challenger.

And people wonder why people become disenchanted with electoralism

Much like any Intercept article, it approaches the subject with a totally unbiased eye and does not skew the facts whatsoever.

Ten Democrats have received money from the PAC backing her challenger--received money, not determined who the money goes to--and this is characterized as a horde of moderates attacking the Justice Democrats. I've said it before and I'll say it again: The Intercept is trash.
posted by Anonymous at 9:49 AM on July 19, 2019

I'm pretty lefty and I believe moving department HQs out of DC is a great idea for a whole bunch of reasons...

I work for a federal agency in the DC area (Maryland, not the District). I agree that there are ways to make geographical changes, but it's going to be a tough sell to the people already in the jobs. As an example, a strong argument could be made for moving some of what my agency does to, say, Madison, WI. But the personnel in my group skew older, and several of my employees are retirement-eligible, or close to it. For those people it doesn't make any sense to move halfway across the country for a pay cut. So if you're going to do that then you need a plan to deal with the resulting staffing shortages. My agency has proven to be almost comically inept at maintaining a functional HR system (if you want something to be angry about as a taxpayer, there's a perfect target), and the Secretary has decided to cap employment at my agency regardless of the funding appropriated by Congress to pay salaries. I'll leave it as an exercise to the attorneys in the room to determine if that's a lawful exercise of authority, or not. At least half of my staff would decline to move, perhaps more. I don't have a functioning HR system. Professionals, such as engineers and scientists, are underpaid in the federal service relative to the private sector, which will be a big issue when I have to compete for a small pool of workers by offering below-market wages. Federal benefits are good, but they're not THAT good. We can hire only US citizens or lawful permanent residents for most positions, which might sound reasonable until I explain that, in many agricultural disciplines, most of the folks graduating with advanced academic degrees are not from the US. Such a move, even if there's logic to it on paper, would be very harmful to our mission and would take years to recover from. So it's a perfect storm of problems, none of which have easy solutions, and even under an administration with good intentions is likely to be a disaster in practice.

I'm not trying to misrepresent srvoisbert's point, I actually think they're correct, but there are a lot more ways to do it wrong than do it right.
posted by wintermind at 10:04 AM on July 19, 2019 [24 favorites]

Short version - field workers are being hired on salary that is calculated to be $15/hr - based on a 40 day work week. Given that these workers are expected to work 60 hour weeks, this means that their effective hourly rate is more along the line of $13/hr

I'm a little surprised they're not also talking about overtime laws and the fact that field workers are being classified as exempt employees. That seems pretty fishy for non-managing workers with a $31,200 yearly salary.
posted by toxic at 10:07 AM on July 19, 2019 [12 favorites]

Just received an email from Chuck Schumer asking Will you share your thoughts?

So I replied Stop voting to fund American concentration camps, you absolute fucking cowards.
posted by duffell at 10:10 AM on July 19, 2019 [53 favorites]

The obvious solution is for the field workers to refuse to work more than 40 hours per week. Either they get paid more or more workers get hired.
posted by Justinian at 10:15 AM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

there are a lot more ways to do it wrong than do it right.

The Base Realignment and Closure process is one of those rare things that actually achieves the goal of doing a hard thing by making everyone equally unhappy. But it takes years, and is run by experts who genuinely want what's best for the DoD, its people, and the country, so.
posted by Etrigan at 10:16 AM on July 19, 2019 [12 favorites]

I'm sorry. My flippant defense of the Midwest caused a derail. Ope.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 10:23 AM on July 19, 2019 [8 favorites]

Aaand he’s back to it and doubling down:

Reversing his reversal, Trump has now totally abandoned his disavowal of a racist “send her back” chant about Representative Ilhan Omar at his North Carolina rally. He previously said he was “unhappy” about the chant, but he told reporters in the Oval Office just now that he is actually “unhappy” about many other things.

“I’m unhappy with the fact that a congresswoman can hate our country. I’m unhappy with the fact that a congresswoman can say anti-Semitic things,” Trump said during an event with Apollo astronauts to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. “She’s lucky to be where she is, let me tell you. And the things that she has said are a disgrace to our country.”

And Trump couldn’t bid adieu to the press without bragging about the crowd size at his rally. “Those people in North Carolina -- that stadium was packed,” the president added in the middle of his rant against Omar. “It was a record crowd, and I could have filled it 10 times, as you know.”

tweet with video - @atrupar:
Wow. Trump is now back to making a full-throated defense of his fans who engaged in racist chants at his rally.

"Those people in North Carolina -- that stadium was packed. It was a record crowd ... Those are incredible people. Those are incredible patriots."

Meanwhile, Angela Merkel was asked about the racist attacks on the four congresswomen and had a clear answer.
posted by bitteschoen at 10:37 AM on July 19, 2019 [29 favorites]

Rep. Ilhan Omar engulfed by crowd of cheering supporters at airport baggage claim upon returning home to Minnesota.

Trump must have seen this on TV because this morning, because as part of another batch of batshit tweets, he ranted:

It is amazing how the Fake News Media became “crazed” over the chant “send her back” by a packed Arena (a record) crowd in the Great State of North Carolina, but is totally calm & accepting of the most vile and disgusting statements made by the three Radical Left Congresswomen Mainstream Media, which has lost all credibility, has either officially or unofficially become a part of the Radical Left Democrat Party. It is a sick partnership, so pathetic to watch! They even covered a tiny staged crowd as they greeted Foul Mouthed Omar in Minnesota, a State which I will win in #2020 because they can’t stand her and her hatred of our Country, and they appreciate all that I have done for them (opening up mining and MUCH more) which has led to the best employment & economic year in Minnesota’s long and beautiful history!

Emphasis added, because Trump notoriously paid people to show up to his announcement of his presidential bid in 2015.

Other topics @realDonaldTrump weighed in on today include the Federal Reserve ("faulty thought process"), Tom Freidman ("He called me a Racist, which I am not", "Really Nasty to me in his average I.Q. Columns, kissed my a.. on the call. Phony!"), and the Mueller investigation ("3 year Witch Hunt").
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:53 AM on July 19, 2019 [10 favorites]

Btw, Trump’s latest response was in reply to a question by Weijia Jiang, the CBSNews White House Correspondent, who’s not afraid to ask other pesky logical questions: "I asked Trump if he would be okay with someone telling the First Lady to go back to her country. He did not answer."
posted by bitteschoen at 10:55 AM on July 19, 2019 [31 favorites]

Interesting reply in the Twitter thread to the tweet bitteschoen links to as well: "Please don’t forget that Trump’s running slogan was "MAGA," meaning that he didn’t like the USA."

(I mean we all know what MAGA really means, but still, I don't know that I've ever heard anyone raise that point before.)
posted by duffell at 11:02 AM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

duffell, our very own InTheYear2017 got there upthread a couple of days ago. *so proud, wipes tear*.
posted by Quindar Beep at 11:08 AM on July 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

“I’m unhappy with the fact that a congresswoman can hate our country. I’m unhappy with the fact that a congresswoman can say anti-Semitic things,” Trump said during an event with Apollo astronauts to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

Many people would say taking an event meant to celebrate a collective American achievement and making it all about you, your racism, and your lies doesn't show a lot of patriotism either, buster.
posted by Gelatin at 11:10 AM on July 19, 2019 [22 favorites]

Gelatin, to be fair (not to Trump! but just to the context) he was asked about it, he was answering a series of questions from the press at the end of the meeting, on all sorts of topics from Brexit to Japan. And, to be fairer to the context of how awful he is, it seems he didn’t even let the reporter finish the question - here’s the full video of the meeting on C-Span, the relevant bit starts at 19:25.
posted by bitteschoen at 11:20 AM on July 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

They killed my mom, my six brothers. They left behind.

Trump: Where are they now?

Murad: [ISIS] killed them. They are in the mass graves in Sinjar.

Jesus fuck
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:47 AM on July 19, 2019 [22 favorites]

Senator Hawley (R - Indiana) gave the keynote at the National Conservatism Conference yesterday. Here's a transcript or you can watch the video on the same page. He spends most of it railing against Cosmopolitan elites and says things like

Because who now listens to the American middle? The cosmopolitan agenda has driven both Left and Right.
[...]
It’s time we ended the cosmopolitan experiment and recovered the promise of the republic.

So that's fine and nothing to worry about I bet.
posted by Justinian at 11:49 AM on July 19, 2019 [20 favorites]

The cosmopolitan agenda has driven both Left and Right.

I had no earthly idea what he was talking about, but this seems like a terrifying new wrinkle on "only WE are REAL Americans." I do think it's at least a little interesting that he identifies both Left and Right as opposition. So...what's his side, Right-est?
posted by wintermind at 11:54 AM on July 19, 2019 [5 favorites]

So...what's his side, Right-est?

White-est.

And he has a much smaller definition of "white" than you do.
posted by Etrigan at 11:56 AM on July 19, 2019 [12 favorites]

To be clear: when people like Hawley say "cosmopolitan," what they mean is "the Jews."
posted by zombieflanders at 11:57 AM on July 19, 2019 [44 favorites]

I mean, I did link to the wikipedia page for "rootless cosmopolitan" but I coulda been less subtle I guess.
posted by Justinian at 11:58 AM on July 19, 2019 [12 favorites]

George Nader, Witness in Mueller Probe, Hit With New Charges of Sex Trafficking. He pleaded not guilty today to charges of child pornography, obscenity, and having sex with a 14 year old he trafficked from Europe to the US. These charges are on top of previous child porn charges last month.
posted by peeedro at 11:59 AM on July 19, 2019 [11 favorites]

Oh, yeah, I was just putting it out there for anyone who didn't read the link. Anyway, Jamelle Bouie (in the course of a long Twitter argument with a some bigoted "free market" bozo) says it pretty succinctly here:

There is an entire American tradition of right-wing nationalist language that frames a herrenvolk middle against an underclass of racial and ethnic others and an overclass of the wealthy, defined primarily as cultural elites and often identified as Jews.

posted by zombieflanders at 12:00 PM on July 19, 2019 [22 favorites]

Josh Hawley is Missouri's senator and he's a piece of shit. I knocked doors for Claire McCaskill to keep her seat against him, even though she publicly dissed progressives. Show Me Aggro.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 12:03 PM on July 19, 2019 [11 favorites]

No one has yet mocked me for writing R-Indiana instead of R-Missouri for AntiSemitic Bigot Josh Hawley. You're slipping.

Anyway, I meant Sen. Hawley (R-Mo).

(preview: curses!)
posted by Justinian at 12:03 PM on July 19, 2019 [5 favorites]

wintermind: I do think it's at least a little interesting that he identifies both Left and Right as opposition. So...what's his side, Right-est?

Rather than anything novel, he's expressing a line of thought lifted 100% from the alt-right, and that's kind of terrifying.

It's easy to forget this now because nearly the entire Republican Party has capitulated to Trump and Trumpism, but back in 2015 when his campaign was merely speculation, the very first not-just-Russian-trolls people to get excited about him were not any old conservatives (e.g evangelicals), but alt-righters who hated mainstream Republicans almost more than they hated Democrats, primarily on the issue of immigration. (And, if you dug deeper, on other racial issues as well; immigration was just the most speakable part). That's what made them "alt".

They disliked George Bush's frame of "compassionate" conservatism, his brother Jeb speaking Spanish and marrying a Latina, and were probably still bitter about Reagan's amnesty program. "Cuck" was an abbreviation for "cuckservative", by extension from that gross racial metaphor; the shortened form later managed to transfer to the overall set of anyone they dislike (or at least anyone white and male they dislike).

Nowadays, Hawley doesn't "need" to pin any of that threatening cosmopolitanism on "the Right", because never-Trumpers have long ceased to be the "establishment" and are today's meek "alt" conservatives, at best. Yet he chooses to mention them regardless, and I'm certain that's a deliberate bone for the kind of fascists who would, in private conversation with one another, happily cop to being fascists.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 12:31 PM on July 19, 2019 [8 favorites]

Hawley is apparently citing Nussbaum's Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism when he says, "And then there’s Martha Nussbaum, who wrote that it is wrong and morally dangerous to teach students that they are 'above all, citizens of the United States.” Instead, they should be educated for 'world citizenship.'" That line does appear to accurately summarize her beliefs.

But he goes on to say things like "the cosmopolitan elite look down on the common affections that once bound this nation together."

You won't be surprised that that's a bit of an oversimplification of what Nussbaum argues: "...the student in the United States, for example, may continue to regard herself as in part defined by her particular loves—her family, her religious, ethnic, or racial communities, or even for her country. But she must also, and centrally, learn to recognize humanity wherever she encounters it..."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:50 PM on July 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

From our big red boy in the VA state house, reminding you why it's good for leftists to run against incumbent Republicans.

@carterforva
Antifa is literally not an organization you tremendous dipshit.
Also, opposing fascism is good because fascism will kill us all if left unchecked. Thanks for coming to my talk, Ted.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:09 PM on July 19, 2019 [50 favorites]

"And then there’s Martha Nussbaum, who wrote that it is wrong and morally dangerous to teach students that they are 'above all, citizens of the United States.'”

That's funny... because I thought that True Conservatives(tm) believe that Christian religious belief takes precedence _over_ American values. That Christians are entitled to be Christians first, citizens of the United States second. That Kim Davis, or the gay-wedding-cake bakery owner, or others who wish to discriminate in the public square on explicitly Christian grounds are perfectly justified in doing so.

If you are serving in a branch of the US military, which is about as "I support the government of the United States" as one can get, you are still considered to be human first; you have the right and the imperative to disobey an illegal order, to refuse to commit blatant atrocities, to make appropriate moral judgments when a situation calls for them. Now, your mileage may vary very strongly should you choose to TRY that particular tactic while in uniform and disobey an order... so, good luck to you. But that principle is fully in line with "that we should give our first allegiance to no mere form of government, no temporal power, but to the moral community made up by the humanity of all human beings."

It is, as always, about control. Those who control the government, who control citizenship, who control its privileges control its people. And our authoritarians believe that all of those boil down to "what we say they are."
posted by delfin at 1:32 PM on July 19, 2019 [14 favorites]

Rather than anything novel, (Hawley's) expressing a line of thought lifted 100% from the alt-right, and that's kind of terrifying.

I mean, that line of thought is a much older strain in American conservatism than the "alt-right". See Richard Weaver's entire oeuvre, for instance.
posted by non canadian guy at 1:43 PM on July 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

It appears that finally, after years of lying, philandering, and corruption, Trump's North Carolina rally at long last crossed the line and moved at least a few members of his hardcore base to rebuke him publicly. Most notably WV senator Paul Hardesty:

“There is no place in society — anywhere, any place and at any time — where that type of language should be used or handled. Your comments were not presidential."

And even a FreeRepublic.com blogger was having none of it:

“It will not matter if you are a street sweeper or the leader of the greatest Republic on earth......GOD will drop you like a stone."

So what finally did it? The racist attack on Democratic congresswomen? The unrepentant arrogance? His 100,000th blatant lie? The Charlotte Observer explains:

Trump cursed, and it was not just a few vulgarities. He took the Lord’s name in vain.

Twice. [...]

“I am, however, appalled by the fact that you chose to use the Lord’s name in vain on two separate occasions, when you went off the prompter during your speech,” [Hardesty] says in his letter. [...]

Hardesty concluded by asking Trump to reflect on his comments and curb his cursing. “Please remember Mr. President, in the United States of America, ‘In God We Trust,’ not curse,” he added. [...]

“If you don’t support me, you are going to be so Goddamn poor, you are not going to believe it’,” Trump quoted himself.

posted by Rhaomi at 1:45 PM on July 19, 2019 [29 favorites]

George Nader, Witness in Mueller Probe, Hit With New Charges of Sex Trafficking.

Nader is good pals with Erik Prince, Betsy DeVos' brother and erstwhile soldier of fortune, outfitting murderous regimes around the world (when not committing perjury here in the US).
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:47 PM on July 19, 2019 [13 favorites]

So in other Missouri news, while Josh Hawley was making his fascist mouth noises, Rep. Bruce Frank's, who was a Ferguson activist, who ran for the statehouse and won, is quitting the legislature and leaving town.

He's a great guy. This city, the state legislature, and the Post-Dispatch are all responsible. Fuck you Tony Messenger for publishing hit pieces on him.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 2:09 PM on July 19, 2019 [9 favorites]

And in local news that may superficially seem good, but is probably Nazi long game shit we need to keep an eye on: Jack Dorsey is throwing money at St Louis to tear down poor neighborhoods and our police supporting mayor is all about it
posted by fluttering hellfire at 2:16 PM on July 19, 2019 [7 favorites]

nb: "superficially seem good" refers to how the local media is covering this.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 2:17 PM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

[Democratic moderates/conservatives] are a minority of the party... but you still need them to pass anything since you'll lose 98% of Republicans on everything. So every bill and piece of legislation must be slanted towards Reps who are from Republican-leaning districts. Every single bill.

Or Democrats need to recruit talent that can actually lead their district and give them cover with a better messaging machine.

Bill Orton won Utah's 3rd District in 1990. That might have been a fluke from his opponent's deeply uncharitable ad, but he held that seat for two more elections in one of the most reliably conservative seats in the nation. I'll grant that he was on the conservative side for Democrats then, perhaps even more so now, but that's not the point. The point is that all of us are prone to thermometer thinking that treats district demographics as destiny.

There's no denying some districts are a steep uphill battle and maybe even not the wisest places to spend resources but that's not the point. The point is that no district is forever fixed, and at the margins Democrats should be thinking about actively selling R-leaning districts on their agenda at least as often as filing the edges off it to make it palatable.
posted by wildblueyonder at 3:54 PM on July 19, 2019 [8 favorites]

@aterkel
Two House Dem aides tell @danielmarans that leadership presented members with material suggesting that describing Trump as “ineffective” rather than “racist” was more politically savvy

So long as establishment representatives don't feel that they or their families are personally in danger, they will not lift a finger to save our lives.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:11 PM on July 19, 2019 [39 favorites]

You know, given how he's now doubling down on the racist angle, I think Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley, and Tlaib should offer Donald Trump a heartfelt ‘thank you,” for gifting them the most amazing reelection campaign slogan.

“SEND HER BACK!…to Washington”

I can only imagine the meltdown he’d have as it sunk in.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 4:45 PM on July 19, 2019 [26 favorites]

Daniel Dale’s settling in to his regular Fact Check column at CNN: Trump falsely accuses Ocasio-Cortez of calling Americans 'garbage' and Omar of saying “evil Jews.”

His Twitter glosses of Trump's impromptu remarks to the press are still worth reviewing:

—Asked how he'd feel if someone said to him that Melania should go back to where she came from, Trump just repeats that the congresswomen he's attacking have said "terrible" things. He then starts talking about all he's done for Israel.
—Asked if this fight is good or bad politics, Trump says, "I don't know if it's good or bad politically, I don't care." He says, "You can't talk that way about our country. Not while I'm the president."
—Told that the congresswomen of color have the First Amendment right to criticize the country, Trump says he also has First Amendment rights.
—Reminded of his own past criticism of the state of the country and asked why that was okay but this isn't, Trump says, "I love our country" and "I believe all people are great people."
—Trump says what is "racist to me" is what the congresswomen have said, since they, he claims, "hate everybody." (He mentions comments he says are antisemitic.) He adds, again, "We're dealing with people who hate our country."

A couple earlier via CNN's Manu Raju: “"Asked why Trump was on the phone with Michael Cohen -- in the aftermath of new FBI records showing Trump and Cohen trying to arrange hush money deal right before 2016 elections -- Trump tells reporters: "I don't really know, I'd have to look into it. That was a long time ago."” And "Trump says Rand Paul asked him if he could “get involved” in Iran talks, and, “I said yes.”"
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:54 PM on July 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

3 sentenced for violence at Virginia white nationalist rally

Benjamin Daley, Michael Miselis and Thomas Gillen each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to riot. The men were sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville by Judge Norman Moon. Daley, 26, of Torrance, California, was sentenced to 37 months in prison. Gillen, 25, of Redondo Beach, California, received a sentence of 33 months. Miselis, 30, of Lawndale, California, received 27 months.

bye bye dickheads
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:06 PM on July 19, 2019 [14 favorites]

Mod note: deleted old news story
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 5:52 PM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Mr. President, could you please put up or shut up? Cite the antisemitic and America-hating comments.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:23 PM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

I don't remember Trump telling the neo-nazis to go back to Germany when they chanted "You (Jews?) will not replace us." Pretty sure he called them good people and made no comment about their antisemitism.
posted by p3t3 at 7:36 PM on July 19, 2019 [35 favorites]

I think a smart low-cost campaign tactic for one of the Democratic candidates would be to purchase a list of American adults who have purchased Marianne Williamson books or event tickets, and send them targeted messaging with vague progressive platitudes and weird pseudoscientific jargon to appeal to them. The theory is, someone who was already a Marianne Williamson fan is likelier than John Q. Public to support her candidacy. And someone like that is probably extremely suggestible, a campaign manager's dream voter. Could gobble up a chunk of voters.
posted by duffell at 8:05 PM on July 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

Trump is extreme enough, just personality-wise, that merely being disgusted by his very existence is the moderate reaction. It's not a proxy for supporting leftist policy.

It's not, but it logically follows that people that voted Democrat out of disgust for Trump want Democrats to hold him accountable and push back against his signature policies (e.g. the wall, family separations, tariffs, etc.).

The argument I am reading in the press is that Democrats cannot move forward with impeachment inquiries nor, for instance, add provisions to bills funding ICE, because the new blue wave centrist Democrats will lose their voters.

Am I missing something? It seems highly likely to me that if one voted Democrat out of disgust for Trump they would support efforts to defeat and constrain him. No, I don't really "know" that, but it seems a surer bet than that they voted for inaction.
posted by xammerboy at 8:55 PM on July 19, 2019 [17 favorites]

The wall has still not been built (there was a government shut down over the issue.) Family separations are not happening on anything like the same scale as they were a year ago. This is something, at least.

The tarriffs were put in place under an authority congress delegated to the president for national security purposes. Obviously this is NOT really a national security issue, but that argument has been taken all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear it.

As for the provisions on the funding for detentions -- that was a hostage situation. If funding for detentions centers ran out, Republicans would not release the detainees. They would simply feed them less, offer them less medical care, crowd the cells more, stop paying the guards, and blame the lack of funding (ie, Democrats.) I think they made it pretty clear that was their plan.
posted by OnceUponATime at 4:25 AM on July 20, 2019 [6 favorites]

Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.) has joined a bipartisan group of nine colleagues proposing a pilot program that would expedite the deportation of migrants who make "invalid" asylum claims.

Sinema and Johnson are joined by Republican senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso of Wyoming, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Rob Portman of Ohio, and John Cornyn of Texas, as well as Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Doug Jones of Alabama. The group plans to meet with McAleenan in the coming weeks to explain the program in further detail.

Moderate Democrats: promising and delivering bipartisanship, just as long as it's over shipping out undesirable races
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:18 AM on July 20, 2019 [27 favorites]

The wall has still not been built

Yay, we stopped them from building something that was always more useful to them as a metaphor anyway!
posted by diogenes at 8:12 AM on July 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

The NYT looks at electoral college "tipping point" states Wisconsin and Florida, and decides "It is even possible that Mr. Trump could win while losing the national vote by as much as five percentage points."
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:14 AM on July 20, 2019 [6 favorites]

CNN's Manu Raju follows up on the SDNY case:

Deputy AG Jeffrey Rosen said hush money probe “was handled by experienced prosecutors.” But when asked by @evanperez if officials at main Justice played a role and if DOJ policy that POTUS can’t be indicted was a factor, Rosen said: “I don’t have anything to add.”

Meantime, Cummings sends letter to federal prosecutor to ask if DOJ policy played a role in Trump not getting indicted in hush-money case https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2019-07-19.COR%20to%20Strauss-SDNY%20re%20Hush%20Money%20Investigation.pdf

Cummings writes: "The Committee is seeking to determine whether the internal Department of Justice policy against indicting a sitting President—the same policy that prevented Special Counsel Robert Mueller from bringing an indictment against President Trump for obstruction of justice in the Russian election interference investigation—played any role in your office’s decision not to indict President Trump for these hush money crimes. If prosecutors identified evidence of criminal conduct by Donald Trump while serving as President—and did not bring charges as they would have for any other individual—this would be the second time the President has not been held accountable for his actions due to his position. The Office of the President should not be used as a shield for criminal conduct."

CNN: Oversight Chairman Cummings Asks If DOJ Guidelines Kept Trump From Being Prosecuted
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:20 AM on July 20, 2019 [18 favorites]

so this isn't exactly a hot take, but here is a recent post by vintage political blogger atrios on why purple state democratic party candidates don't support broadly popular proposals like increasing the minimum wage. the tl;dr of it (even though it's not that long) is:

[T]he calculation is not "boy if I support a higher minimum wage then the voters will get mad." The calculation is "boy if I support a higher minimum wage then the voters will like that, BUT the Chamber of Commerce types will dump a bunch of money into the race to oppose me and run ads calling me a child molester (or highlighting something else that might be unpopular about me)." Supporting the popular thing is a problem not because the popular thing is unpopular (by definition!), but because it's tough to win as a Democrat generally and extra hard if the big money comes after you.

opinions vary about how to fix this problem. i'm guessing my preferred approach ("bourgeois electoral democracy is a sham we must smash the state") isn't exactly the most popular, but well a boy can dream.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 8:43 AM on July 20, 2019 [27 favorites]

okay, my real preferred strategy is for the whole damn party to swerve so hard toward popular proposals everywhere that the bastards with money have too many targets to target. a sort of political human wave attack.

support yr local dsa.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 8:50 AM on July 20, 2019 [36 favorites]

Profile of Never Again Action and thier attempts to protest, block, and close the camps
posted by The Whelk at 9:28 AM on July 20, 2019 [18 favorites]

#IceoutofLittleSiagon
posted by The Whelk at 9:31 AM on July 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

Mr. President, could you please put up or shut up? Cite the antisemitic and America-hating comments.

I share your sentiment, but this matters not a bit politically for Trump and the Republicans, and they all know it. Trump's said the dumbest, most demonstrably false shit imaginable forever three years now, and it's only galvanized his base and advanced the R agenda. If lying your ass off meant you'd suffer politically, Trump would never had gotten the nomination in the first place. We're way past the "truth matters" marker.
posted by Rykey at 9:39 AM on July 20, 2019 [12 favorites]

If anything actually mattered we wouldn’t have trump in the first place cause his father would’ve had all his assets seized for the all the white collar crime he did.
posted by The Whelk at 9:43 AM on July 20, 2019 [28 favorites]

"bourgeois electoral democracy is a sham we must smash the state"

This is just not a funny joke anymore, if it even is a joke.
posted by OnceUponATime at 10:02 AM on July 20, 2019 [7 favorites]

we must smash the state

Needs more detail here.
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:02 PM on July 20, 2019 [6 favorites]

I dream of fully automated luxury communism as much as anyone around here, but smashing the state rarely leads anywhere near there.

But then I'm just a boring social democrat.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:22 PM on July 20, 2019 [15 favorites]

Marcy Wheeler, writing on Emptywheel.net: Stormy, Pee Tapes, and Pussy-Grabbing: The Three Explanations For The Cohen-Hicks-Trump Call On October 8, 2016

The warrant to search Michael Cohen’s property released yesterday revealed what the FBI Agent who wrote the affidavit supporting the application believed was a conference call between Michael Cohen, Donald Trump, and Hope Hicks on October 8, 2016.[…]

The agent’s description (which was based entirely off toll records and assumed every call pertained to this scandal and not the many other scandals Trump’s campaign was juggling at the time) has led many to question Hicks’ testimony to HJC, including (in a letter to her lawyer) from Jerry Nadler. Her lawyer Robert Trout (who should be taking a victory lap from his likely imminent win in the Bijan Kian trial) says she stands by the her testimony, in which said that that call involved rumors that TMZ had found the pee tape.[…]

But that testimony is not entirely consistent with something in the Mueller Report, which suggested (based off FBI interviews with both Cohen and Giorgi Rtskhiladze) that the one time Trump would have heard about a pee tape was later in October, after Cohen and Rtskhiladze discussed the tapes via text.[…]

Frankly, it may well be that everyone is mixing up the many sex-related scandals Trump was fighting in October 2016. Or it may be that Hicks, Cohen, and Trump responded to the Access Hollywood video by deciding that they had to try to chase down all of the potential sex scandals — the long-simmering pee tape allegations, the several hush payment demands, among others — and preemptively quash them. That would be consistent with Steve Bannon’s claim that Marc Kasowitz was chasing down hundreds of scandals. If such a discussion took place (which might explain why all three would get on the phone together), then Hicks might otherwise have forgotten knowing about the hush payments earlier, or she locked in testimony denying that knowledge in December 2017 when she testified, and continues to tell a partial truth to avoid further legal jeopardy.

This would be just the sort of inconsistency to invite another round of congressional hearings, if the Democrats could get their strategy together.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:33 PM on July 20, 2019 [6 favorites]

So this is kind of weird. Apparently, rapper A$AP Rocky was arrested in Sweden for assault and Kanye West reached out to his BFF Trump, who called the Swedish PM to "personally vouch" for A$AP Rocky. Despite not knowing him. And is claiming that this is why the African American community loves him.
posted by Weeping_angel at 1:00 PM on July 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

"It is even possible that Mr. Trump could win while losing the national vote by as much as five percentage points."

The fact that a President can be elected with a minority of the vote isn't as much of a problem as the Senate's baked-in Republican advantage. That's a huge and growing concern, even if there's a Democratic president. We've seen the consequences for a recalcitrant Senate refusing to take a vote on Presidential appointments: nothing. That's only the start; I have no idea what might be done if the Senate just flat-out refuses to pass funding bills; I don't know if anyone does.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:20 PM on July 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

Yeah, Kim Kardashian reached out to Trump to ask for help with Sweden. #2019
posted by armacy at 1:22 PM on July 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

The fact that a President can be elected with a minority of the vote isn't as much of a problem as the Senate's baked-in Republican advantage.

That one anti-democratic compromise made to slave holding states 300 years ago is worse than the other anti-democratic compromise made to slave holding states 300 years ago isn't much of an argument. Both are bad. Both will continue to hurt Democrats and bestow disproportionate political power on rural white racists for the rest of this country's existence.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:35 PM on July 20, 2019 [18 favorites]

Hope Hick's eventual defense may actually be that she cannot be expected to remember a conversation about a hundred thousand dollar payoff to a porn star during the presidential election, because this was just one of hundreds of sex scandals involving the future president the campaign team was keeping hidden from the public.

Trump didn't understand the law so he can't be prosecuted, he's president so he can't be prosecuted, and now he's committed just too many crimes for anyone to remember the details of any single one. His presidency is such a blur of total sleaze it engulfs any attempt to focus on its particulars.
posted by xammerboy at 1:43 PM on July 20, 2019 [28 favorites]

This seemed relevant to *gestures around* the current unpleasantness: Watching trashy TV as kids made people more susceptible to populist rhetoric as adults (WaPo)
posted by zeptoweasel at 1:55 PM on July 20, 2019 [8 favorites]

We've seen the consequences for a recalcitrant Senate refusing to take a vote on Presidential appointments: nothing.

This is one of several reasons it's unlikely there's ever going to be a return to "normal", not without setting up some new rules.

I think the Obama admin may have made a deep mistake in letting the Senate sit on the SC appointment. I'm ignorant about the bowels of legal thinking behind that decision but my guess is that the idea that in absence of advice from the Senate a Presidential appointment simply stands is as plausible a legal theory vs idea that the Senate may simply refuse to advise. It'd certainly seem that a system where the Senate must use it or lose it is one that's more likely function well. But in any case, an inevitable legal battle where the rules were actually clarified instead of left on the calvinball field would be an improvement no matter the outcome.

And sure, the more pressing issue is getting rid of a partisan structural advantage in the Senate Or if necessary, being willing to take up the goal of a Democratic structural advantage, which is no less constitutional or princpled than the current Republican structural advantage. But for that, Democrats need the Presidency and all of congress. The other fight might well have been done on the field of the judiciary alone, and one less corrupted circa 2016.
posted by wildblueyonder at 2:22 PM on July 20, 2019 [14 favorites]

This Electoral College talk is relevant here in CO because while Gov. Polis added us to the national popular vote compact, a question to undo that will likely hit the ballot next year (assuming the signatures are all valid.)

But it’s the quotes in here that are telling. Here’s one:

“I think it’s absolutely foolish to allow our vote to be ceded to essentially the liberal population centers,” he said. “What are we are left with when our vote gets taken away? That’s tyranny and that gets ugly very fast.”

It’s truly interesting because the arguments here are basically things folks interested in the popular vote say. One more quote from
an Electoral College fan:

The national popular vote is “a violation of how we functioned as a country for over 200 years,” she said. “I don’t want mob rule. I want to function as a republic. We are not a democracy, we are a constitutional republic. And (a popular vote) goes against everything we hold dear.”

Okay.
posted by hijinx at 2:31 PM on July 20, 2019 [5 favorites]

And (a popular vote) goes against everything we hold dear.

Except for every other election for every office in the land.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:35 PM on July 20, 2019 [16 favorites]

The national popular vote is “a violation of how we functioned as a country for over 200 years,” she said. “I don’t want mob rule. I want to function as a republic. We are not a democracy, we are a constitutional republic. And (a popular vote) goes against everything we hold dear.”

They said this about popular elections for the Senate, too
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:38 PM on July 20, 2019 [19 favorites]

A not insignificant number of authoritarian Republicans want to get rid of direct voting for the Senate as well. They think the government would conform to their political goals if they could just get those pesky voters out of the way. And I'm not sure they're wrong.
posted by downtohisturtles at 2:54 PM on July 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'm not hugely enamored with the idea of a straight popular vote for the Presidency with the current first past the post system that most of the country uses, but it's certainly better than the current broken ass system that results in literally millions of effectively meaningless votes for that one specific office that can anoint even a big time loser.

The original intent was to promote compromise candidates and to work around the incredibly slow and shitty transportation of the day.. probably more the latter, actually, not to disenfranchise vast swaths of the country. They had plenty of other rules to disenfranchise all but a select few anyway. That said, were we to "simply" reign in the ridiculous power of the Presidency, there would be no reason to bother with anything but a straight national popular vote. I'm not sure whether that would be easier or mandating ranked choice voting.

Funny how the people who most loudly proclaim their love for the spirit of our Constitution and the need to examine the original intent of the document are the least interested in sticking to that spirit when it comes to any of the bits that are remain relevant today.
posted by wierdo at 3:08 PM on July 20, 2019 [6 favorites]

Al-Monitor: Source: Iran FM Met Rand Paul to Feel Out Possible US-Iran Talks

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) in New York July 18 to feel out prospects for possible discussions between Iran and the United States, a non-government expert in contact with the Iranian team told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

The Iranian mission to the UN did not respond to Al-Monitor queries on the meeting. Zarif told reporters in New York Thursday that he was holding meetings while in New York this week with some members of Congress, but not with US administration officials or envoys. He would leave it to the US lawmakers he met with to identify themselves if they wish, he told UN reporter Susan Modaress.

The US administration was aware of a possible meeting between a US Senator and Zarif in New York, a US official said Wednesday. Paul was not acting as an official US envoy, Al-Monitor understood.

“We're aware of reports of a supposed meeting between a US Senator and Zarif,” the US official, speaking not for attribution, told Al-Monitor on Wednesday. “It's unclear how productive a conversation with Zarif would be, given his limited role in making decisions on behalf of the Iranian regime.[…]"

Zarif, speaking to reporters in New York Thursday, proposed that Iran could move up ratification of the Additional Protocol, ensuring lifelong extensive International Atomic Energy Agency inspections and verification to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is strictly for civilian purposes, in exchange for the United States moving up its lifting of sanctions.

Besides wondering who leaked this, the overarching question remains, why is Paul now playing at back-channel diplomacy after visiting Moscow last summer? (Russia Today just published an article headlined "War with Iran as 2020 election boost? Ron Paul optimistic Trump may tell Bolton ‘to get lost’".)

And why is someone leaking the opposite of this to CNN's Kaitlan Collins? "Sources tell me & @Kevinliptakcnn Trump’s reverted to a more hawkish tone on Iran lately. After emphasizing a diplomatic solution, he’s not focusing on talks much & is downplaying possibility action could escalate tensions, since things haven’t improved despite backing off strike"
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:26 PM on July 20, 2019 [5 favorites]

VA election news: Democrats need to pick up 1 seat in the state Senate to take control, and a Republican incumbent just mysteriously withdrew today [non-registration walled]. They may have to mount a write-in campaign without a Republican on the ballot.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:29 PM on July 20, 2019 [12 favorites]

WSJ: Russia, Iran, North Korea Launch Hundreds of Cyberattacks on U.S. Political Groups, Microsoft Says

Think tanks and nongovernmental groups that work with candidates or political parties—or on issues important to their campaigns—have suffered most of the attacks. The assaults could be a precursor to direct attacks on campaigns and election systems, a trend in recent election cycles in the U.S. and Europe, Microsoft said Wednesday.[…]

The majority of nation-state activity spotted by Microsoft originated from Iran, North Korea and Russia, Microsoft said. It includes attacks from a group known as Fancy Bear believed to have ties to Russia’s military intelligence and linked to the hack of Democratic emails in 2016.

The company in its findings didn’t mention China—a country usually included with the other three when Western intelligence agencies or security experts discuss state-sponsored cyberattacks. Asked about the omission, Microsoft said China was also an active threat but that its attacks against political groups weren’t as voluminous.[…]

At a gathering of state election directors this week in Austin, officials voiced frustration over public attitudes that little is being done to safeguard elections.[…]

During the same briefing, one state official said President Trump, who last month said he might accept information from foreign governments that was damaging to his rivals, had been an obstacle.

Also at the Aspen security conference, Adam Schiff spoke about election security, Politico’s Natasha Bertrand reports:

Schiff: “I’m not particularly confident” that we can stop another foreign interference campaign in 2020.

Schiff says NSA and CIA didn’t know that certain midterm candidates had been victims of attempted Russian hacks last year, which was discovered by Microsoft. (Clarifying this from “hacked”)

Further to that piece of news, from the Aspen Institute (w/video): ".@RepAdamSchiff says he learned about spearfishing attempts on 2-3 Senate campaigns last year during a panel at #AspenSecurity with a Microsoft rep. He went back to DC and NSA and CIA also weren't aware. “That told me as a matter of quality control that something is broken here.”"
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:17 PM on July 20, 2019 [13 favorites]

> Democrats need to pick up 1 seat in the state Senate to take control, and a Republican incumbent just mysteriously withdrew today

Actually. it's a House of Delegates seat. But it's a very nice little present. The Republicans one-seat majorities in both chambers, and Freitas' district normally goes red by a comfortable margin.
posted by nangar at 6:34 PM on July 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

As for the provisions on the funding for detentions -- that was a hostage situation. If funding for detentions centers ran out, Republicans would not release the detainees. They would simply feed them less, offer them less medical care, crowd the cells more, stop paying the guards, and blame the lack of funding (ie, Democrats.) I think they made it pretty clear that was their plan.

I think the point has been made before that in any sane world adding provisions to funding legislation ensuring children get soap and toothbrushes would be holding Republicans hostage to accepting those provisions. Blame Democrats for the conditions in detention centers for demanding toothbrushes? If that's not politically a winner for Democrats I don't know what is.

But what I haven't really heard remarked upon before is that after all the hundreds of posts about what Democrats can do about the squalid camps where children are being sexually assaulted, this bill was probably their best, maybe even only shot to do anything. Democrats had all the leverage for once. Maybe the public can stage protests, but this was the Democratic party's moment, and that moment has in all likelihood passed forever.

The clock is also running out on investigating Trump. Over the past seven months not a single investigation or meaningful piece of legislation constraining Trump's powers has been completed. Democrats have just begun their slow walk of calling witnesses from the Mueller investigation, making court challenges, and holding officials in contempt. All likely too late to see results. In a sane world, this would be considered taking a hard pass on what anyone would normally have considered a massive political advantage.

Unless Democrats abruptly turn about face, their foot dragging will likely mean their investigations will clock out. Trump will never be held accountable. Trump's flagrant flouting of the law could well become standard political operating procedure for the foreseeable future. All of this is necessary, I am told, because some Democratic politicians in some battleground states cannot sell the idea to their constituents that children should be treated humanely and the president should not be above the law. I don't buy it.
posted by xammerboy at 8:35 PM on July 20, 2019 [35 favorites]

Not can't sell. Are too cowardly to even try.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:53 PM on July 20, 2019 [11 favorites]

RNC more than doubles DNC's fundraising haul in June (Politico)

The Democratic National Committee raised $8.5 million in June, the month of the party's presidential debates in Miami — less than half of the $20.7 million the Republican National Committee pulled in during that time period, new disclosures show.

The DNC also spent almost as much money as it raised — $7.5 million — during that time and finished the month with $9.3 million cash on hand. The RNC is meanwhile building a larger war chest during the lead-up to 2020 and had $43.5 million cash on hand at the end of the month.

posted by Little Dawn at 8:59 PM on July 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

The house is on fire. The Democratic Party can’t decide who to call and which phone to use. Meanwhile the Republicans are pouring on more gasoline. At least these threads may serve as a good historical document if there ever is an arson investigation.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:27 PM on July 20, 2019 [18 favorites]

The Democratic National Committee raised $8.5 million in June, the month of the party's presidential debates in Miami — less than half of the $20.7 million the Republican National Committee pulled in during that time period

Well yeah. When you're pulling in dirty money it just multiplies itself.
posted by rhizome at 9:33 PM on July 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

I guess what my feelings boil down to regarding the presidential popular vote is that we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good here. Better a tyranny of the heterogeneous majority than one of the stubborn minority of bigots, conspiracy theorists, and religious extremists.

Ideally, the House would be full of radical (rhetorical) bomb throwers, the Senate catching up a few years later, and the President somehow required to administrate equally and apolitically. While I often disagreed with his foreign policy, I think Obama was largely doing the right thing at the wrong time in terms of how he approached what the office should be. I'd much prefer the office look more like a popularly elected city manager than a strong mayor. Express opinions, sure, but the House should be the source of policy in an ideal world.

Sadly, that is not presently the world we are in, so we need to buck up and deal with it and support each other to the maximum extent possible without turning into entirely amoral shits until we can at least get things in a broadly reasonable state. Part of that is holding our noses long enough to work together to at least break the racist, immoral, and largely illegal electoral advantages the Republicans have given themselves over the past couple of decades. Hopefully we can also do other great things we all agree on in principle, too, but if we fail to beat back the cheaters none of the rest is worth talking about since it will never happen with a group of amoral sociopaths having an enormous head start on us.

(I still may end up eating that hat, but it's very much an excessively pessimistic read of events to say no progress on the investigations has been made. It's just been the boring and largely invisible work of laying a solid foundation, which is made even harder by the Hurricane Harvey-esque repeated torrents of shit, doubly so because of the insane impatience of the social media age where waiting even 12 hours to speak about whatever fresh hell has gushed forth results in frankly insane accusations that someone is tacitly approving of whatever horribleness. This isn't 1975 or even 1990 when Congresspeople had masses of staff making it appear that their principal is supernaturally well informed on every new event by the deadline for the morning paper. Especially in these times of constant disinformation and misinformation, I consider at least some deliberation on the part of our elected officials a good thing. How many times have we all had a collective facepalm moment over something Democratic Congresspeople have said because of misleading early reporting and their race to get out in front of the news cycle led them to say some half cocked shit that sounds terrible in light of the actual happenings but would have merely been uncomfortably centrist if the original story had been the full story? The news media, too, need to slow their fucking roll so that less disinformation gets planted in people's minds, but so do we when it comes to people who are notionally on our side in the immediate battle, at least in this specific context.
posted by wierdo at 9:36 PM on July 20, 2019 [9 favorites]

It's very much an excessively pessimistic read of events to say no progress on the investigations has been made. It's just been the boring and largely invisible work of laying a solid foundation.

The investigations were stopped cold before they started. Congress's requests for the information and witnesses they need to begin investigating have been ignored.

Before starting investigations, Democrats must first rebut Trump's claim that Congress does not even have the right to investigate him, a right Trump could not challenge if Congress were investigating through an impeachment inquiry.

But say good work is still being done. It's still doubtful there is enough time between now and campaign season to complete the investigations. It still doesn't make sense that this slow court walk is necessary to placate blue wave voters disgusted with Trump.

Democrats would have us believe they are trying to thread an impossibly fine needle for reasons somewhat absurd on their face, and failing through no fault of their own. It's starting to look more like they are running out the clock on purpose.
posted by xammerboy at 11:18 PM on July 20, 2019 [6 favorites]

I think the point has been made before that in any sane world adding provisions to funding legislation ensuring children get soap and toothbrushes would be holding Republicans hostage to accepting those provisions.

Detained children, but Democrats, were the hostages. If they couldn't agree on funding, the plan was to punish the children. And if there was any political blowback the Democrats would be blamed ("how can we provide humane conditions without funding?") But the threat was to the children, not the Democrats. I mean the argument was "Drop the conditions or the children get no food or medical care" not "Drop the conditions or we'll point fingers at Democrats in the media." The children were literal hostages, held captive with Republicans threatening their lives to get what they wanted from Democrats.
posted by OnceUponATime at 12:09 AM on July 21, 2019 [7 favorites]

You don't give money with no strings attached to an agency that builds camps to abuse children without assurances the abuse will stop.

Democrats would not have been blamed if Republicans killed the funding. The blame would have fallen on Republicans, who refused funding because it included toothbrushes for kids.

In terms of opportunities to protect those kids, I don't think Democrats will see a better one. Their funding was needed. The moral imperative was clear. The situation was politically easy for voters to understand.

Walking away from this fight was morally and politically inexcusable.
posted by xammerboy at 1:29 AM on July 21, 2019 [11 favorites]

"Feeling sorry for Melania" and other horseshit...

My father, whom I've referred to countless times in my posts, once told me that the most frightening two words a soldier can hear are the words "Unconditional Surrender". That means and meant that the military must fight until the last breath of the enemy is taken from him and the capitulation is forced rather than elective. For my Dad, who agreed with the policy as implemented in WWII, it meant that he would most certainly die on the shores of the islands of Japan, since they were readying his battalion for the land invasion. The bomb was then dropped of course, and the rest is history, and he, unlike hundreds of thousands of others including the resident populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was spared.

We must fight and force unconditional surrender of these fascists who have co-opted the Federal Government and are systematically destroying anything and everything which promotes liberty, health, welfare, education, science, and Truth. The process can give no quarter to the enemy...not one iota, because even if half-dead, they will rise up and attempt to destroy us.

So I don't particularly want to hear odes to the sanctity of the wives and children of these miscreants. There is a pervasive evil which is imbued in them all and like the Anopheles mosquito or the Medfly, we must eradicate them from the positions of power, starting with dogcatcher and proceeding up the ladder to the Presidency. I for one give not a millimeter of ground. There is no falling back, only marching forward.
posted by growabrain at 2:16 AM on July 21, 2019 [9 favorites]

Sorry, that should have said "Detained children, NOT Democrats." Lives, not political fortunes.
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:39 AM on July 21, 2019

The Democratic National Committee raised $8.5 million in June, the month of the party's presidential debates in Miami — less than half of the $20.7 million the Republican National Committee pulled in during that time period

i mean ok

Has *anyone* here given to the DNC lately? I know I haven't. I want my money to be spent ccompetently. I have, however, donated hundreds of dollars over the past year to candidates and to groups who work to get Democrats elected and who fight voter suppression.

I'm not sweating this data point in isolation.
posted by duffell at 3:50 AM on July 21, 2019 [15 favorites]

I do wonder how much of that money the RNC pulled in is going to end up going toward legal fees for an assortment of people or just getting skimmed off the top.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 5:15 AM on July 21, 2019 [7 favorites]

I do wonder how much of that money the RNC pulled in is going to end up going toward legal fees for an assortment of people

CNN, with an update on that topic: Trump campaign and RNC spend more than $600,000 on law firm representing Hope Hicks

So despite lying to the FBI and Congress, and materially participating in crimes, Hicks is rewarded with a senior post at Fox

Speaking of the revolving door between the Trump White House comms team and Fox News, CNN's Brian Stelter reports, Former White House spokesman Raj Shah is now a senior VP at Fox "Last fall Hope Hicks, previously one of Trump's closest aides, joined the Fox Corp C-suite as an executive vice president in charge of public relations and other communications functions. Hicks reports to Viet Dinh, Fox's chief legal and policy officer. Dinh, in turn, reports to Lachlan Murdoch. Now Shah will report to Dinh as well, the company said."

Stelter adds on Twitter, "Fox isn't saying exactly what Raj Shah's role is, but he's an SVP."
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:54 AM on July 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

Agree that the fundraising disparity between the RNC and DNC is not something of great concern at this time. With 20+ presidential candidates, money from Democratic donors naturally is going to be more dispersed at this point.

And that's a good point about RNC money being used for legal fees.

In fact, that's yet another reason for congressional Democrats to be more aggressive in their investigations - they should subpoena *everyone*, including all of Individual-1's family members and personal staff (secretary, scheduler, "body man," etc) and make them either spend their own money on defense lawyers, or get the RNC to pick up the tab. Either way, somebody bad loses $$.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 6:18 AM on July 21, 2019 [7 favorites]

We are now apparently playing checkers with tankers.

'Alter your course,' Iranians warned before seizing UK-flagged ship

WaPo: Why the United States is playing rope-a-dope with Iran in the Persian Gulf:

"about three hours after Iran seized the British ship, Centcom had affirmed freedom of navigation in the gulf by sending a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, the Maersk Chicago, through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. drones and fighter jets flew above the freighter to protect it in case the Iranians tried to interfere, but the Iranians stayed away."

This business will get out of control....
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:21 AM on July 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

WaPo: Why the United States is playing rope-a-dope with Iran in the Persian Gulf

The Guardian's Simon Tisdall has this analysis of how : Trump’s arch-hawk lured Britain into a dangerous trap to punish Iran

[W]hen Bolton heard British Royal Marines had seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar on America’s Independence Day, his joy was unconfined. “Excellent news: UK has detained the supertanker Grace I laden with Iranian oil bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions,” he exulted on Twitter.

Bolton’s delighted reaction suggested the seizure was a surprise. But accumulating evidence suggests the opposite is true, and that Bolton’s national security team was directly involved in manufacturing the Gibraltar incident. The suspicion is that Conservative politicians, distracted by picking a new prime minister, jockeying for power, and preoccupied with Brexit, stumbled into an American trap.

In short, it seems, Britain was set up.

The consequences of the Gibraltar affair are only now becoming clear. The seizure of Grace I led directly to Friday’s capture by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of a British tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz. Although it has not made an explicit link, Iran had previously vowed to retaliate for Britain’s Gibraltar “piracy”. Now it has its revenge.

He also notes that this incident is driving a wedge behind the scenes between the UK and the EU, "And even though Britain was supposedly upholding EU regulations, the External Action Service, the EU’s foreign policy arm, has remained silent throughout."
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:29 AM on July 21, 2019 [14 favorites]

Hicks reports to Viet Dinh, Fox's chief legal and policy officer. Dinh, in turn, reports to Lachlan Murdoch. Now Shah will report to Dinh as well, the company said

That's Viet "primary author of the Patriot Act" Dinh, by the way.
posted by jedicus at 7:21 AM on July 21, 2019 [11 favorites]

Jerry Nadler has a new excuse today appearing on FOX News:

NADLER also indicates that he would already be in court suing for McGahn's testimony "if the House counsel weren’t so busy enforcing subpoenas."

They haven't been "enforcing subpoenas". They've filed ONE suit to enforce a subpoena, for the tax returns. And that after months of delay. But sure, the lawyers are just too busy.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:57 AM on July 21, 2019 [18 favorites]

Mueller report shows evidence Trump committed crimes, House Judiciary chairman says (Reuters)

The top Democrat on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee said Sunday he believes there is “substantial evidence” that President Donald Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors, and he plans to ask former Special Counsel Robert Mueller to present those facts at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

“The report presents very substantial evidence that the president is guilty of high crime and misdemeanors, and we have to let Mueller present those facts to the American people and then see where we go from there,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“The administration must be held accountable, and no president can be above the law.”

Nadler’s comments are significant because evidence of such crimes would be required if Democrats pursue impeachment proceedings against the president.

In two nationally televised back-to-back hearings on Wednesday before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, Democrats are expected to try and get Mueller to focus his testimony on specific examples of Trump’s misconduct.

By having Mueller lay bare the unflattering details of how Trump tried to stymie the investigation into his campaign, Democrats hope they can build support for their ongoing investigations into the president and potentially, impeachment proceedings.

posted by Little Dawn at 8:34 AM on July 21, 2019 [18 favorites]

Japanese Americans among hundreds protesting plan to detain migrant children at Fort Sill (NBC News)

Fort Sill served as an internment camp during World War II, holding around 700 Japanese Americans. They were among the more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. rounded up and detained in camps at that time. "It is horrific that a place like Fort Sill, which was once used to unjustly detain Japanese Americans, should be used today to hold migrants. We cannot allow our past mistakes to become present policy,” actor and activist George Takei, who lived as a child in two internment camps, said in a United We Dream statement.

🚨HAPPENING NOW! Native Oklahomans, Japanese Americans, Jewish and undocumented leaders are outside a military base, #FortSill, demanding they STOP the opening of a concentration camp! #CloseTheCamps @UNITEDWEDREAM @actdottv https://t.co/OuVXu6a7lT — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 20, 2019

“This is why our elders came to Fort Sill to demand that this army base not be used yet again to detain 1400 migrant children,” added Mike Ishii, co-chair of Tsuru for Solidarity. Apache indigenous people are also among those who have been held in Fort Sill. “Fort Sill presided over the displacement of native people. The great Apache chief Geronimo and families from his tribe were imprisoned for years at Fort Sill — the first instance of child incarceration there,” said Mari Matsuda, a law professor at the University of Hawaii, in an op-ed in USA Today.

The protests Saturday were led by a coalition of immigrant youth, Japanese Americans, indigenous people, veterans, and Jewish and racial justice groups “who fiercely reject this administration's immigration policies,” said the immigrant youth organization United We Dream in a statement to NBC News. The protesters called on Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt not to collaborate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), among other demands.

Migrant mental health crisis spirals in ICE detention facilities (Politico) (cw: suicide, trauma)

One estimate puts the number of detainees with mental illnesses between 3,000 and 6,000. Some advocates and lawyers who work with migrants in the facilities say it’s probably more. Many of the migrants with mental illness are not stable enough to participate in their own legal proceedings, so they languish in detention. [...] “This is a system that, for a long time, has failed to understand, neglected, and even ignored the mental health needs of folks caught up in it,” said Elizabeth Jordan, director of the Immigration Detention Accountability Project at the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center. “But under this administration ... it has gotten so much worse.”

'This is an emergency': the volunteers bailing out migrants from detention (Guardian)

Twenty-three years after the Clinton administration systematized mandatory detention of migrants known or suspected to have a criminal history, more than 50,000 are now behind bars. The number has increased dramatically since Trump entered the Oval Office, as a growing number of ordinary asylum seekers and others crossing the border without papers have been thrown in along with those being assessed as possible threats to public safety. Still, bailing out individuals seems likely to become more of a thing now, to the delight of overworked immigration lawyers who typically spend weeks or months trying to line up sponsors they hope can raise, scrimp or borrow thousands of dollars to get their clients out of custody. “This is huge. It’s amazing. It changes everything,” said Mona Iman, an attorney with Immigrant Defenders.

PSA: The National Bail Fund Network maintains a list of Immigration Bond Funds that accept donations.
posted by Little Dawn at 9:22 AM on July 21, 2019 [24 favorites]

Re Iran and shipping, a global business; there is more. A second ship Mesdar was also briefly intercepted but allowed to continue.
It should be noted that both Mesdar and Stena Imperio were in ballast with no cargo onboard.
MV Riah has also been siezed for smuggling.
Also remember that drone? Could have been an own goal.
Shipping is global and two Iranian Bulk carriers are unable to bunker in Paranagua, Brazil. Monopoly supplier Petrobras is stating that to do so would break US sanctions.
Both vessels are laden with Corn. Iran is Brazil's largest purchaser of Corn as well as listed fifth in purchase of other agro products and beef. This will affect agribiziness which is the Bolsonazi's largest financial backer. However Trump is the Bolsonazi's idol, as seen by the fact that he is naming his son to be Brazilian ambassador to Washington.
This is how regional instability and global conflicts start especially if Iran decides to engage in a bit more assymetrical warfare at which they are masters.
posted by adamvasco at 10:41 AM on July 21, 2019 [10 favorites]

Plus, this Washington diplomatic cables leaker story stinks
posted by Mrs Potato at 10:56 AM on July 21, 2019

In 'pay no attention to the man behind the curtain' news:

Nadler: Mueller has evidence of Trump high crimes and misdemeanours (Guardian)

Trump, who has repeatedly and inaccurately claimed exoneration, said this week he would not watch Mueller’s testimony and accused Democrats of “just playing games”. On Sunday he tweeted a nonspecific but familiar complaint about “presidential harassment” and focused on his ongoing racist attacks on four progressive Democratic congresswomen.

Republicans who will question Mueller have tried to dampen expectations. The hearing will be “like an old TV show that you watched years ago”, Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the judiciary committee, told the Associated Press. “After a few minutes you could quote what the characters could say, and nothing is new anymore. Frankly, the American people have moved on.”

Unsurprisingly, David Ciciline, a New Jersey Democrat on the same panel, disagreed. He told the AP the hearing would be “the first opportunity for the American people to hear directly from Mr Mueller about what he found about Russian interference in the American presidential election and efforts by the president to impede, undermine or stop the investigation.”

He added: “I do think that the contents of the report are so significant, and so damning, that when Mr Mueller brings them to life, and actually tells the American people ... it will have an impact.” Accordingly, Democrats have been preparing intensely.

Jamie Raskin of Maryland, another member of the judiciary committee, told the AP: “There are still millions of people who think, absurdly, that there is no evidence of presidential obstruction or collusion in the report.” That, he said, was because Barr and Trump have created a “fog of propaganda”.

“We just want to clear the fog,” Raskin said.

posted by Little Dawn at 11:00 AM on July 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

AHEM. David Cicilline is from Rhode Island.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 11:07 AM on July 21, 2019 [6 favorites]

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States have set up an antiterrorist coordination group to monitor the Triple Border between the three Latin American countries, a turbulent region where, according to several intelligence services, the Lebanese organization Hezbollah collects funds for its activities on the continent.
posted by adamvasco at 11:43 AM on July 21, 2019

Mueller report shows evidence Trump committed crimes, House Judiciary chairman says

They are finally edging closer (I hope) to what the strategy should have been from day 1 of the report. From day 1, the Democrats should have been coordinated in their interpretation of the report: "Mueller's report finds evidence of high crimes which he did not prosecute because of the DOJ rule against indicting the president." Don't hem and haw and lay out the evidence for that reading in a diffident and uncertain way ("who knows what Mueller really thinks?") -- just say, This is our reading of the report, and Mueller is free to disagree if he wishes. The first and repeated question to Mueller should be:

"By our reading of the report you find numerous instances of crimes such as A, B and C, but could not proceed further because of DOJ policy. Is that incorrect?"

Put the burden on Mueller to dispute that interpretation if he wants. But if he remains silent or mumbles a bunch of bafflegab, you conclude "I take that as not disagreeing with our interpretation." Present the interpretation as the default and offer him every opportunity to disagree or clarify, but structure it (as it should have been from day 1) that this is the default interpretation by all Democrats going forward unless Mueller himself clearly states otherwise. And then take non-disagreement (upon given the explicit opportunity) as concurrence.
posted by chortly at 12:46 PM on July 21, 2019 [21 favorites]

He'll mumble a bunch of bafflegab amounting to the position that he did not evaluate whether or not Trump would have been indicted without that DOJ policy because he knew the policy in advance. That his report simply laid out facts and did not examine whether or not those facts amounted to the elements of a crime.

If a Democratic questioner says that they take his position as concurrence I am sure he will dispute that. Whether or not that disputation matters is up for interpretation/
posted by Justinian at 1:39 PM on July 21, 2019 [4 favorites]

That his report simply laid out facts and did not examine whether or not those facts amounted to the elements of a crime.

Even that would be extremely helpful; the obvious follow up would be “by extension, then, it is not your position that this exonerates the President, as he has publicly claimed?”
posted by Kelrichen at 1:45 PM on July 21, 2019

Yeah he would likely agree that his report does not exonerate the president given that he has publicly stated that if it exonerated the president he would have said so.
posted by Justinian at 1:55 PM on July 21, 2019 [4 favorites]

Mueller obviously is not going to take positions on the President, but that doesn't mean that he won't say the things the President said and did were criminal if he is questioned accurately. Unless he's going to lie, or refuse to speak, which seems unlikely. How useful this testimony is, I think, will depend on what questions are asked.

Also,

Twitter thread by Tim Wise you should read
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:02 PM on July 21, 2019 [21 favorites]

Comey was well known for being an electric witness whose testimony would be headline grabbing. Mueller is well known for being the opposite. I think getting him to say the president committed crimes is going to be like pulling teeth, but it's not impossible.

I expect congress to ask Mueller to reiterate his definition of obstruction being defined as comprised of three elements, what those elements are, and how Trump's various actions meet that criteria. It will be slow. It will be boring. But hopefully it will also be ultimately inescapably damning.

I'm not sure it will change minds, but it may bring us as a nation to a point where we accept the truth: the president is a criminal and many people don't care. Acceptance is the first step on the road to recovery.
posted by xammerboy at 2:05 PM on July 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

What I Would Ask Robert Mueller (James Comey, Lawfare)

If I were a member of Congress with five minutes to question Robert Mueller, I would ask short questions drawn from the report’s executive summaries.

[...] Did you find substantial evidence that the president had committed obstruction of justice crimes?

For example, did you find that the president directed the White House counsel to call the acting attorney general and tell him the special counsel must be removed? (p. 4)

Did you find that the White House counsel decided he would rather resign than carry out that order? (p. 4)

Did you find that the president later directed the White House counsel to say he had not been ordered to have the special counsel removed? (p. 6)

Did you find that the president wanted the White House counsel to write a false memo saying he had not been ordered to have the special counsel removed? (p. 6)

Did you find that the White House counsel refused to do that because it was not true? (p. 6) [...]

posted by Little Dawn at 2:15 PM on July 21, 2019 [20 favorites]

(James Comey, Lawfare)

This can't be serious.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:31 PM on July 21, 2019 [8 favorites]

I expect congress to ask Mueller to reiterate his definition of obstruction being defined as comprised of three elements, what those elements are, and how Trump's various actions meet that criteria. It will be slow. It will be boring. But hopefully it will also be ultimately inescapably damning.

But you don't need to force him to painfully and obscurely articulate each of those steps. If, upon characterizing the logic start to finish ("Our interpretation of your report is that you found evidence for crimes A, B and C but declined to indict because of DOJ"), he objects, then you just ask leading questions for each of the stages rather than trying to induce him to articulate it himself. As the Lawfare article implies, in the case of a recalcitrant witness (as he has stated and shown he will be), you phrase everything as yes-no questions with the thesis of each articulated clearly by yourself. This is what AOC just did with Powell, for instance: "AOC: Given these facts, do you think it’s possible that the Fed’s estimates of the lowest sustainable unemployment rate may have been too high? Powell: Absolutely." Mueller will never be that forthright, but a simple sequence of "yes"s will do the job. The hope of getting a soundbite of Mueller saying the President committed a crime is misguided and at best will lead to an obscure recapitulation of the obfuscatory report. Rather, a sequence of clear questions followed by "yes" is the best they can do, which most importantly allows them to assert forever after that he agreed with their interpretation.
posted by chortly at 2:35 PM on July 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

Let's be honest -- Mueller has every reason to come in as an extremely hostile witness, because if _I_ was being put into a situation where I actually had to converse with Louie Gohmert, Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz, I would be spitting roofing nails.
posted by delfin at 2:37 PM on July 21, 2019 [12 favorites]

Frankly I don't trust my sense of Comey's motivations.

[Mueller will take] position that he did not evaluate whether or not Trump would have been indicted without that DOJ policy because he knew the policy in advance.

I'm not sure how this is possible, certainly there's a reason he bumped up against the policy. Would he be like, "oh, some smoke... probably nothing."
posted by rhizome at 2:39 PM on July 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Let's be honest -- Mueller has every reason to come in as an extremely hostile witness

He's also got zero reason to help Democrats out of their own fuck ups here. The report was very explicitly an impeachment referral. They looked at it and said, "yea we're not gonna do that because white guys in Ohio". They've already refused to do what he told them was necessary and their duty, not his.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:40 PM on July 21, 2019 [37 favorites]

Democrats to face off against a reluctant Mueller (Politico)

The Judiciary Committee will zero in on volume two of Mueller’s report, which lays out evidence that, in some instances, Trump’s actions may have met all of the elements necessary to charge an obstruction of justice offense.

According to aides, Democrats will focus on five of the roughly dozen episodes of potential obstruction — most notably, Trump’s direction to former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, and his subsequent order that McGahn deny that Trump ever sought to remove the special counsel. They’ll also highlight Trump’s alleged witness-tampering efforts for his former confidants Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen.

“If anyone else had been accused of what the report finds the president had done, they would’ve been indicted,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said on Fox News Sunday [...] in public remarks when he formally concluded his probe, Mueller said a sitting president can only be held accountable through “a process other than the criminal justice system” due to Justice Department guidelines prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president. Many Democrats viewed that statement alone as an impeachment referral. [...]

On the substance, the Intelligence Committee plans to examine volume one of Mueller’s report, with a keen focus on the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia and WikiLeaks. Democrats also plan to highlight Trump’s posture toward WikiLeaks during the campaign, and whether he knew in advance about the group’s disclosures of Democratic National Committee emails.

“That ought to be damning enough. And that doesn’t require us even to go beyond the report,” Schiff said.

posted by Little Dawn at 2:52 PM on July 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

He's also got zero reason to help Democrats out of their own fuck ups here. The report was very explicitly an impeachment referral.

Since impeachment is, above all, a political process, a dedicated lawman like Mueller would be loathe to insert himself into it. Beyond what he's written in the report, he's not going to let the Dems use him as their catspaw.

WaPo: Hostile witness or Democrats’ hero? Mueller’s past turns before Congress offer important clues

John Pistole, who served as Mueller’s deputy for years when he was FBI director […] said he expects Mueller to be “as unresponsive as possible, while telling the truth. I think his first approach will be, ‘Read the report and form your own conclusions.’ He’s no longer a government employee, and he can tell them to pound sand, not that he would use those words.”[…]

Mueller is a veteran of congressional testimony, but past hearings were marked by his polite reticence and lawmakers’ deference to his judgment. He often would try to say as little as possible. But some lawmakers realized that, when pressed, he would sometimes give in.[…]

Some close to Mueller said that [his 2007 testimony about the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program] encapsulates his approach to congressional hearings — a desire to say as little as possible, but also a begrudging willingness, when pressed, to try to give lawmakers enough of an answer to make informed decisions.

Privately, though, current and former law enforcement officials have expressed frustration that lawmakers are making Mueller testify at all. They contend Mueller’s work should have ended when he submitted his report. If members of Congress want to further explore the president’s conduct, those current and former officials argue, they should call the witnesses to that conduct, not the prosecutor.

And they also worry that Mueller is stepping into a hyperpartisan horror show, one that is far more toxic and confrontational than any hearing he participated in during his time at the FBI.[…]

“This may be the first time he’s ever gone into a hearing where he’s not treated by both sides of the aisle as a credible, nonpartisan figure,” said Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman during the Obama administration. “I assume he will handle it the same way, but there is some evidence that if the Republicans treat him the way they have treated other figures from the Justice Department the last couple years, that he won’t stand for it.”

Incidentally, it seems that Fox has decided they won't broadcast the hearings live.
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:38 PM on July 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Incidentally, it seems that Fox has decided they won't broadcast the hearings live.

Probably for the best, god knows what the POTUS would order if Mueller says something mean.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 3:45 PM on July 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

Ricardo Rosselló resigns as party president over text messages <Guardian . . . but deciding to stay on until 2020 as governor. Trial balloons fly over over Puerto Rico now I guess.
posted by Harry Caul at 3:59 PM on July 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

Incidentally, it seems that Fox has decided they won't broadcast the hearings live.

What's the basis for this claim? I know Joyce Vance tweeted it earlier but she later deleted the tweet as baseless after lots of pushback. Is there another source?
posted by Justinian at 4:04 PM on July 21, 2019

Dammit, Joyce Vance was my source for that, and now it’s spread all over.

What she “intended ironically” was supposed to be in response to Trump saying he doesn't plan to watch Mueller testify (Politico).
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:19 PM on July 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

Yeah she done fucked up. I didn't get the joke re: her tweet and apparently nobody else did either.
posted by Justinian at 5:02 PM on July 21, 2019 [4 favorites]

Former "Director of African-American Outreach" for Donald Trump's presidential campaign Omarosa Manigault Newman claims that VP Mike Pence's nephew leads chants at Trump's rallies, including the event in NC:

“I had to attend many of these rallies when I worked on the campaign and even in the White House,” Newman told Sharpton Sunday. “There are these section leaders who start the chant, control how long the chants go and quiet them down when they want to.”

She explained that these organized “section leaders” are embedded in the rally crowd themselves.

“In fact, you’ll be surprised to learn that Vice President Pence’s nephew, John Pence, is one of the big coordinators of these rallies,” she continued. “And so this is how closely these rallies are coordinated with also what’s going on in the White House. John Pence is a very big key player in the campaign, but he’s particularly responsible for all of the staging and choreography of the campaigns and, yes, they are very much orchestrated and manufactured to get the outcome that we saw from Donald Trump saying go back to your countries that you came from and if you don’t love it, leave it.”

She explained that all of it is coordinated and manufactured “to stoke fear in this country and we’ve seen it, we feel it, and they’re going to continue on because they believe it’s a winning strategy.”

posted by They sucked his brains out! at 6:32 PM on July 21, 2019 [37 favorites]

Fox News’ Chris Wallace burns down Stephen Miller over Trump’s racist lies: He let ‘send her back’ chant ‘go for 13 seconds’ (David Edwards, Raw Story via Alternet)

White House adviser Stephen Miller on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s racist tweets directed at four non-white congresswomen: Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ayanna Pressley (MA) and Rashida Tlaib (MI).

In an interview on Fox News, host Chris Wallace asked Miller to explain Trump’s “go back” remark and the “send her back” chant at a recent presidential rally.

“That is not protecting the American people, that is playing the race card,” Wallace said. “Let’s take the Obama birther — you don’t think that questioning whether the first black president is [a citizen]…”

“That’s not a race question!” Miller interrupted.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:42 PM on July 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

Well if Omarosa says it, and rawstory reports it, it must be true.
posted by notyou at 6:44 PM on July 21, 2019 [6 favorites]

Reminder that Postcards to Voters is still running a bunch of campaigns, notably the Florida Vote By Mail one, which, according to their analysis, has made a notable difference in vote by mail registrations:

Sending handwritten postcards to voters definitely had a noticeable effect on Vote by Mail signups among Pasco [Florida] Democrats. The two weeks that postcards were arriving in Pasco there was a lot of buzz in person and online among those that received the postcards.

The sentiment was overwhelmingly positive and helped push forward the idea of postcards as a way to reach voters.

One voter came to the Pasco Dem Executive Committee meeting because the postcard he received made him realize that there were Dems to connect with in the area.

They are now on a mission to write to the entire state in time for the 2020 Presidential election. If you want to help but don't feel artistic, you can now buy postcards on their website which only require you to write in a few details specific to the campaign you're helping with.
posted by triggerfinger at 7:18 PM on July 21, 2019 [22 favorites]

Fox News’ Chris Wallace burns down Stephen Miller

Really odd to see FOX's token 'journalist' Chris Wallace given the "Jon Stewart ***DESTROYS***" _____" treatment. These headlines are why Wallace is on the payroll at FOX still. Every 3-6 months he gets to ask a couple questions and liberal/mainstream sites run these headlines, 'See, FOX does have journalists!' Meanwhile they have 3 hours of explicit white power programing every night, and 4 hours of white power direct line to the president in the morning, every single day. But one flaccid semi-pushback from Wallace against the least savvy and least sympathetic member of the Trump administration, well FOX is back in good standing again! CNN will cite Chris Wallace's questioning of Miller if the next Democratic administration moves to exclude FOX, because see, FOX has journalists! Like Chris Wallace!
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:49 PM on July 21, 2019 [44 favorites]

Well if Omarosa says it, and rawstory reports it, it must be true.

She was on MSNBC, for whatever it is worth.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:51 PM on July 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

In any case, whatever value her voice has, the news reporting so far shows her to be entirely correct: The White House is continuing to push its racist position, ride or die, because either it really is working with the American public, or they think it is working.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:55 PM on July 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

I find value in the statement, because I never really thought about it before. Do politicians plant people in their audience to energize the crowds? To start chanting? In Trump's case, it's kind of a chilling thought.
posted by xammerboy at 10:04 PM on July 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

I find value in the statement, because I never really thought about it before. Do politicians plant people in their audience to energize the crowds? To start chanting? In Trump's case, it's kind of a chilling thought.

Absolutely. Politicians, salesmen, circus barkers, snake oil peddlers, etc.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 10:47 PM on July 21, 2019 [12 favorites]

Recent precedent. And ancient precedent -- basically the claquer was invented shortly after applause itself was invented, first for Greek theater, then Roman politics, and more recently, 19th century French theater, with a well-organized professional society (that got very grumpy when their profession was disrupted at the turn of the century).
posted by chortly at 10:52 PM on July 21, 2019 [8 favorites]

Shill
posted by skyscraper at 11:21 PM on July 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

Absolutely. Politicians, salesmen, circus barkers, snake oil peddlers, etc.

You forgot cult leader, otherwise you would have won at Trump Bingo.
posted by benzenedream at 12:54 AM on July 22, 2019 [8 favorites]

During America’s ‘most segregated hour,’ preachers grapple with Trump’s politics (WaPo):

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once called church services one of the “most segregated hours” in America. Decades later, King’s quote holds true. One of the biggest events to hit Greenville in decades was barely mentioned in at least two white churches here, where pastors were reluctant to blend politics and faith.

At Howard’s church, the political, the spiritual and the moral were unavoidably intermixed. He promised his congregants that if they were steadfast in their faith, their deliverance from evil and sin would be heavenly.

posted by kingless at 2:51 AM on July 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Brief John Pence bio with photo. His father Greg Pence is VP Mike Pence’s older brother and the current U.S. Representative for Indiana's 6th congressional district.
posted by cenoxo at 5:38 AM on July 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Ugh - The New Yorker's Jane Meyer has written an article trying to exonerate Al Franken that's basically filled with the usual turning the accusations around on the victim. If you're wondering why we keep struggling with sexual harassment, here's Exhibit A.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:27 AM on July 22, 2019 [12 favorites]

I don't get it. Franken has been gone for two years. He was replaced by a Democrat. This Democrat, Tina Smith, easily won re-election and has been a great Senator. (And no Republican has stepped up to challenge her so far this cycle, which suggests to me her seat is solid D.) Aside from the fact that not defending sexual harassers doesn't make us look like hypocrites (can you imagine Franken questioning Kavanaugh?) what practical difference has been made?

What is so special about Franken that people - women, at that - still give a shit after two years, when his resignation is done and dusted? Is it because his comedy career still holds a special place in the 60+ heart? Or because he was in the media and the meedja defends its own? Regardless, it seems like a really stupid hill to die on.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 6:57 AM on July 22, 2019 [17 favorites]

it seems like a really stupid hill to die on.
It may be a desperate choice of which hill to not have to pick a side on. Like a Pelosi hill, an AOC hill, an Epstein hill, a children in cages hill.
posted by Harry Caul at 7:02 AM on July 22, 2019

What is so special about Franken that people - women, at that - still give a shit after two years, when his resignation is done and dusted? Is it because his comedy career still holds a special place in the 60+ heart? Or because he was in the media and the meedja defends its own? Regardless, it seems like a really stupid hill to die on.

Loyalty to individual figures and not to policy is reflective of a politics drained of ideology and refilled with spectacle.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:06 AM on July 22, 2019 [4 favorites]

I thought the article was balanced. When I started the article, I was afraid that the article would exonerate him, but found the portrayal to be much murkier. And it is important to note how the story came out of a propaganda wing, because it will happen again.
posted by armacy at 7:06 AM on July 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

Loyalty to individual figures and not to policy is reflective of a politics drained of ideology and refilled with spectacle.

Well, we do live in the Age of Reality TV, and Trump is absolutely the malevolent orange Bad Seed borne of that. But I also think that maybe in an era where Congress is so divided and gridlocked that it cannot do its job, "Great Man" fantasies rush in. When we have the Presidency, obviously it's that. But when we don't...Mueller will save us! Pelosi will save us! AOC will save us! Franken was the Great Man who Wudda Saved Us! We look to individual figures of power and/or charisma and hope they can do all kinds of heavy lifting that we really shouldn't need them to do in the first place.

It is absolutely sexism (though Mayer seems to see Schumer, not Gillibrand, as the prime mover behind Franken's resignation; that hasn't stopped the Twitter twits or the Reddit ragers) but it's also savior fantasies, I think. It shows how far our system has broken down.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 7:15 AM on July 22, 2019 [5 favorites]

Ugh - The New Yorker's Jane Meyer has written an article trying to exonerate Al Franken that's basically filled with the usual turning the accusations around on the victim. [emphasis added]

Just for context, the big sexual misconduct stories of the last couple years that were popularly attributed to Ronan Farrow were not just his work; he shared the byline with Jane Meyer.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:16 AM on July 22, 2019 [17 favorites]

Laura Olin
Do people who think Franken shouldn’t have resigned have any opinions about how the conversation around the Kavanaugh hearings would have gone for Democrats with Franken on the dais?
• We already know there’s a large segment of people who think it’s worth sacrificing the full humanity of several women for the sake of one man’s career. With Franken, they tell us we should have sacrificed the integrity of our party at a critical moment for one man’s career.
• Take one second to imagine the epic both-sides-ing that would have happened in the press; take one second to remember how Ted Kennedy neutered the Anita Hill hearings
• Yes, Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed. But there’s a black mark next to his name, some momentum for court reform, and we crushed the GOP in the midterm elections two months laters in no small part because women were fired up.
posted by chris24 at 7:18 AM on July 22, 2019 [19 favorites]

Sure seems like she was trying to be balanced.

Jane Mayer
How @alfranken got railroaded: my story here
posted by chris24 at 7:23 AM on July 22, 2019 [10 favorites]

I thought the article was balanced. When I started the article, I was afraid that the article would exonerate him, but found the portrayal to be much murkier.

Possibly out of synch with the actual contents of the article, the NYer's twitter account has been flogging the article all morning in a manner that is heavily framed along "he was railroaded, justice was not done, etc." I just finished reading it and, as a constituent who called for his resignation at the time, nothing in there makes me feel regret that decision. I do think it's a weirdly-written article, doggedly knocking down peripheral issues while leaving central ones unchallenged.
posted by COBRA! at 7:26 AM on July 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

Knowing what I know about how media operates I wonder what editorial or funding higher up was his friend
posted by The Whelk at 7:29 AM on July 22, 2019 [8 favorites]

WATCHING A VIRTUALLY ALL-WHITE CROWD of viciously angry, red-faced people chanting “Send her back!” at the mention of Representative Ilhan Omar during the President’s latest herrenvolk rally was horrifying. But the real horror is that this, sixteen months out from the election, is just the tip of an iceberg. This is bad and it will get worse. Much worse.
posted by The Whelk at 7:30 AM on July 22, 2019 [38 favorites]

The Al Franken thing is still a cause célèbre for the brogressive left, it allows them to push the narrative that a favored progressive man was brought down by a distrusted centrist woman who they think has never truly moved from the right wing positions she won on in earlier in her career.

Why the NYT has suddenly taken a renewed interest is pretty obvious, it feeds into their favorite "Dems in Disarray" narrative. They have to do whatever they can to gin that up every few weeks, and Franken stories are an easy go to.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:31 AM on July 22, 2019 [7 favorites]

What does the NYT have to do with this?
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 7:36 AM on July 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Why the NYT has suddenly taken a renewed interest is pretty obvious, it feeds into their favorite "Dems in Disarray" narrative.

It's not the NYT, though, it's the New Yorker.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 7:36 AM on July 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

No it’s not. Not a single person I know working in politics on a local, state, or national level, either in electoral, reform, or labor levels has said two small words about Franken. The literal only time it has come up in my mixed circle of progressives and socialists is when someone talks about a nice thing Gillibrand did (“I don’t like her politics but she was right to go after Franken and it got the worst people in the party mad”)

No one cares about Franken except

1. His friends
2. Cranks.

You want to talk about ineffectual politicians talk about how Schumer can’t find a petty moral outrage he doesn’t like despite being legally dead for the last ten years.
posted by The Whelk at 7:37 AM on July 22, 2019 [17 favorites]

This is bad and it will get worse. Much worse.

It will get worse because the House majority for which so many people fought so hard in 2018 has already signaled that impeachment is off the table, so even the pretense of accountability or oversight is gone. Instead, the House intends to hold endless “hearings” and point desperately to the Mueller Report like the losing coaches point to the rule book in Air Bud, gesticulating wildly as the dog dunks on them over and over, and the crowd loves the dog with all its heart and looks at the losing team with the contempt reserved for such demonstrations of learned helplessness, while the very voters to whom Democrats most desperately want to appeal don’t know or care about rules but sure do notice that one team managed to lose a basketball game to a fucking dog.

Look, we just want to work with the dog on bread-and-butter issues, meanwhile he's self-neutering every dang day
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:43 AM on July 22, 2019 [8 favorites]

The RFT calls out Josh Hawley's antisemitism, because god knows the Post Dispatch won't.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 7:44 AM on July 22, 2019 [9 favorites]

Just for context, the big sexual misconduct stories of the last couple years that were popularly attributed to Ronan Farrow were not just his work; he shared the byline with Jane Meyer.

This. Jane Meyer (along with Farrow) has done more to expose powerful sexual harassers than any other journalist in the country.
posted by diogenes at 7:46 AM on July 22, 2019 [8 favorites]

This. Jane Meyer (along with Farrow) has done more to expose powerful sexual harassers than any other journalist in the country.

Yes, this is what has me wondering. She's done so much great reporting on #MeToo, Kavanaugh, Schneiderman, etc. and now I'm wondering why she's on Team Harasser and False Accusations all of a sudden.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 7:49 AM on July 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

I wonder if it's possible that Meyer genuinely buys the common notion that "fringe" or "grey area" accusations spoil the validity of less-unequivocal ones, in which case we can also expect her to re-litigate the Aziz Ansari thing.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 7:59 AM on July 22, 2019

Trump Weighs Ousting Commerce Chief Wilbur Ross After Census Defeat—Some White House officials expect the Cabinet secretary, who has known the president for years, to depart as soon as this summer.

Politico has some juicy leaks as the knives come out for Ross: ‘It’s A Disaster Over There’: Commerce Reaches New Heights Of Dysfunction—Under Secretary Wilbur Ross, the department is chaotic and adrift.

Constant infighting among top officials. Sudden departures of senior staffers without explanation. A leader who is disengaged and prone to falling asleep in meetings.

The Commerce Department has reached its apex of dysfunction under Wilbur Ross, according to four people with knowledge of the inner workings of the department. The 81-year-old Commerce secretary, who has for months endured whispers that he is on the outs, spends much of his time at the White House to try to retain President Donald Trump’s favor, the sources said, leaving his department adrift.[…]

One common complaint: Ross, a successful investor before Trump tapped him for his current job, isn’t frequently seen in the building talking to employees or rallying them to do good work.[…]

Ross doesn’t hold routine meetings with senior staffers, according to a person familiar with the department’s inner workings and a former outside adviser -- a departure from past practice that one source attributed to the secretary’s lack of stamina.

“Because he tends to fall asleep in meetings, they try not to put him in a position where that could happen so they’re very careful and conscious about how they schedule certain meetings,” said the former outside adviser. “There’s a small window where he’s able to focus and pay attention and not fall asleep.”[…]

[T]op Commerce officials have pushed to not have Ross called to testify at congressional oversight hearings, according to two sources close to the department, because they fear he isn’t up to the task. “There’s a great deal of effort to shield him from testifying ever again,” said one of the sources.

The gerontocratic streak in Trump's cabinet is something that isn't discussed much, despite its prominence.
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:59 AM on July 22, 2019 [29 favorites]

No one cares about Franken except

1. His friends
2. Cranks.

3. People who are looking for an excuse to kneecap Gillibrand and have realized that "She's so careerist" and "There's just something I don't like about her..." don't work anymore.
posted by Etrigan at 8:03 AM on July 22, 2019 [13 favorites]

The Ed Burmila piece linked by The Whelk above is depressing as hell, but worth reading.

Most of all, it will get worse because this is what Donald Trump is, and what Donald Trump always was, and what so many Respectable People spent so much time over the past three years desperately insisting, pretending, hoping, admonishing, that Donald Trump is not. He is a blank, sucking nullity of ego and omnidirectional rage, angry that he does not have more of what he deserves, which is more. More money, more adulation, more power, more Playboy models, more tacky Central African dictator furniture, more flaccid suburban dad golf resorts. The Chinese government figured it out long before many Americans will: throw Trump a big parade, and he will give you anything, because inside he is a twelve-year-old boy who wants to be king, a king so gaudy that no one could possibly mistake him for anything else.

posted by Surely This at 8:06 AM on July 22, 2019 [22 favorites]

What is so special about Franken that people - women, at that - still give a shit after two years, when his resignation is done and dusted?

Franken was the most visible Democratic Senator during the Bush years. He was the one whose questions during hearings made it to television and the internet. Many of his supporters feel the accusations against him should have been investigated before he was asked to resign. I am not trying to re-litigate Franken. These are the comments I see / hear most often.
posted by xammerboy at 8:11 AM on July 22, 2019 [7 favorites]

Franken was the most visible Democratic Senator during the Bush years.

Franken wasn’t elected to the Senate until 2008 and wasn’t seated until July 2009 thanks to a nasty and long recount. One of the reasons the D supermajority was much shorter than most people think.
posted by chris24 at 8:15 AM on July 22, 2019 [21 favorites]

Mod note: Folks, if we need another thread about Franken, that can happen, but it needs to not become a major rehash here. Thanks.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 8:20 AM on July 22, 2019 [11 favorites]

The coming economic crash and how to prevent it @teamwarren
posted by The Whelk at 8:34 AM on July 22, 2019 [12 favorites]

Attacking “coastal elites” when u live in a Nyc penthouse and shit in an actual gold toilet in between rounds of golf at your namesake country club, while convincing ignorant white people that you care about them, (was) the single greatest con job act of snake oil salesmanship ever
posted by growabrain at 8:35 AM on July 22, 2019 [33 favorites]

Some interesting reads I thought might be worth sharing here:

Editorial: Trump is truly America’s Bigot-in-Chief

... Trump’s burst of tweets hit all the notes: It is xenophobic, it is “othering” in the most obvious sense of the word, it is mean-spirited, it is divisive, and it is factually wrong. He reflexively moves the American civic conversation backward rather than forward. And he revels in the blowback, as evidenced by his tweets Sunday night chastising Democrats for defending their colleagues.

He is just trolling, as usual. He is just trying to get a rise out of us. He is baiting us. He wants headlines, he spoils for a fight, he is hoping to exacerbate the tensions that have bubbled up between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and these four congresswomen. We shouldn’t rise to his bait, but how can we not? If we ignore him, we normalize his reckless behavior, and that’s even worse.

And a Twitter thread [read in Threadreader] written in response to that, by Jay Rosen

... The problem with "ignore him!" is that when it's the President of the United States indulging in it, behavior we might recognize as infantile and attention-getting can have huge effects beyond the manipulation of our domestic news cycle.
Journalists cannot ignore his acting out when it may have geopolitical consequences, or trigger suffering in real people, even when they know that Trump's latest outrage may be a ploy for news coverage, and the ploy may be part of an attention cycle in which they are caught.
This problem is real, not just a matter of spine. If the President decides it's okay to say to some of his fellow Americans go back where you came from, or to advise elected members of Congress to leave the country if they have complaints about it...

...by what defensible code can journalists decline to share with their publics these surprising, disturbing, and consequential facts ("if you don't like it here, leave!") even IF they believe them to be a ploy for media attention or meant to keep his base in a pop-eyed state?
There is no such code. They have to report it, because with the American executive it is often true that words are actions. If journalists took the advice never to take the bait they would often be taking a holiday from their most basic responsibility: to say what happened.
But that is not the end of the story. We can do better than the mournful ask of the LA Times: “We shouldn’t rise to his bait, but how can we not? If we ignore him, we normalize his reckless behavior."

Take the bait or normalize Trump: these are NOT the only choices. Read on!

... The Truth Sandwich is third on my list of choices newsrooms have beyond 'take the bait' or 'ignore the toddler.' First you say what is. Only then do you report his latest falsehood. Then you repeat what is actually the case. That is the truth sandwich. [WaPo: Instead of Trump’s propaganda, how about a nice ‘truth sandwich’?]

...Newsrooms of America: You cannot keep from getting sucked into Trump’s agenda without a firm grasp on your own. But where does that agenda come from? It can’t come from the journalists. Who cares what they think? It has to originate with the voters you are trying to inform.

posted by bitteschoen at 9:00 AM on July 22, 2019 [15 favorites]

Zero tolerance is something that sounds great in principle but it's actually another form of extremism and it similarly causes a lot of unnecessary damage. There are many things in this world that are good and true, and totally eliminating this or that thing we cannot tolerate is certainly one of those good and true things. But there are so many good and true things in this world that they crowd each other out and overlap and compete in the good and true space such that overemphasizing one too much impacts unavoidably others negatively. It's hard to find that balance, and even harder to get crowds of people to want that balance.
posted by M-x shell at 9:00 AM on July 22, 2019 [4 favorites]

Attacking "coastal elites" when u live in a Nyc penthouse and shit in an actual gold toilet in between rounds of golf at your namesake country club, while convincing ignorant white people that you care about them, (was) the single greatest con job act of snake oil salesmanship ever

While there is certainly an element of that, I don't think that is the main thing he has done.

I used to oversimplify things by saying that Democrats put the interests of society ahead of their own personal interests and that Republicans put their own personal interests above the interests of society. So the trick in converting a Republican voter was to demonstrate that doing what was in the best interest of society was also in their own personal best interest. That is often difficult to do, but at least the concept is pretty simple.

I think Republicans (or at least a very significant number of them) have changed. They still put their own personal interests above the interests of society, but they now also place a new category above both of those: they want to harm or insult a certain faction of society. So now they value hurting other people above helping themselves. This is where Trump has really stepped in. People want what is best for society. More than that, they want what is best for themselves. And more than that, they want to cause harm to other people. I am not so sure that many of his supporters think he is one of them or think he has their best interests at heart. The don't really care because he does the one thing that they value more than helping them -- he hurts the people they want to see hurt.

And how you convert those people is somewhat of a mystery to me.
posted by flarbuse at 9:00 AM on July 22, 2019 [9 favorites]

Another interesting Twitter thread [view on Threadreader] - recommended especially after reading Friedman’s opinion piece in the NYT (whose main thesis is Trump is going to get re-elected because the Dems are in shambles and too far on the left):

If the Dems blow this election it will not be because they were "too far left on policy" or because they "weren't left enough." It will have little to do with policy at all. They are making a mistake caused by traditional consultant theory that does not apply here...
And by listening to influential pundits in liberal media who also don't get the unique nature of Trumpism, relative to normal political movements & campaigns...this election is NOT going to be won by talking about all your "great plans" for health care, jobs, education, etc..
And the reasons are several...Let me begin by saying that I have experience confronting the kind of phenomenon we see in Trumpism, and far more than most. Any of us who were involved in the fight against David Duke in LA in 90/91 know what this is and how it must be fought...

posted by bitteschoen at 9:29 AM on July 22, 2019 [20 favorites]

I am not so sure that many of his supporters think he is one of them or think he has their best interests at heart. The don't really care because he does the one thing that they value more than helping them -- he hurts the people they want to see hurt.

This rings true to what I see. I've heard "The cruelty is the point" a lot but that doesn't seem to get at it. It feels like a large part of this country wants revenge. It feels like they might put on dead eyes and wide smiles when it suits them to pass as civil, but that's only because they know they have to bide their time. And it feels less and less like they're biding their time.

Before the election I heard people say "okay, Clinton will win but these people won't go away" and I dismissed it then, but that's what I keep thinking now. If a scandal brought down the administration tomorrow (lol) it wouldn't feel like we dodged a bullet, it would feel like the scene in Aliens where it turns out they're in the ceiling in the room along with us.
posted by Brainy at 9:32 AM on July 22, 2019 [16 favorites]

The coming economic crash and how to prevent it @teamwarren

Trump is juicing the economy as much as possible.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:51 AM on July 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Today in "current Democrats killing off any chance for future Democrats to ever do anything," we learn that they're already planning to hand a time-bomb for the next President, by voting on a debt limit deal that moves the next vote to July 31...of 2021. As Brian Beutler puts it:

The plan goes:

1. Trump self-impeaches;
2. Democrats win the presidency.

But leaving it at that would be spiking the football, so Democrats have helpfully offered Republicans the power to hobble the next president with a recession.

But wait, there's more! In the Senate, the so-called "moderates" and "centrists" are already very upset that Democrats would ever want to do anything to the precious court system, so leadership there has decided that the best strategy is to go back to the way things were in 2014. Yep they're actually talking about bringing back both the 60-vote threshold and home-state "blue slips," which Republicans continue to ignore, all the while moaning about "playing fair."

Your opposition party, everybody!
posted by zombieflanders at 9:58 AM on July 22, 2019 [32 favorites]

Two Unofficial US Operatives Reporting To Trump’s Lawyer Privately Lobbied A Foreign Government In A Bid To Help The President Win In 2020 (Buzzfeed News)

In a whirlwind of private meetings, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — who pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican campaigns and dined with the president — gathered repeatedly with top officials in Ukraine and set up meetings for Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani as they turned up information that could be weaponized in the 2020 presidential race.

The two men urged prosecutors to investigate allegations against Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. And they pushed for a probe into accusations that Ukrainian officials plotted to rig the 2016 election in Hillary Clinton’s favor by leaking evidence against Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chair, in what became a cornerstone of the special counsel’s inquiry.

posted by box at 10:05 AM on July 22, 2019 [11 favorites]

Today in "current Democrats killing off any chance for future Democrats to ever do anything," we learn that they're already planning to hand a time-bomb for the next President, by voting on a debt limit deal that moves the next vote to July 31...of 2021.

I thought that delaying a debt-ceiling vote for X years was pretty much always the optimal choice on that subject. It's only "kicking the can down the road" relative to a hypothetical plan of outright abolishing it, which definitely ought to happen, but which doesn't seem politically viable to me, and would absolutely waste the capital needed to fight Republicans on more critical grounds.

Unless the argument is that Democrats need to consider it leverage, taking the economy hostage in exchange for [I'm not sure what]? Hmm. Hmmmmm.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 10:09 AM on July 22, 2019 [4 favorites]

Two points:

1) Yes, it's leverage. The Trump administration is committing crimes against humanity on a daily basis, every pressure point extant should be brought to bear.

2) Making the next deadline halfway through the first year of the next presidential term is the best timing possible if your goal is to hamstring a new president as they would be making their first big policy push in Congress.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:12 AM on July 22, 2019 [12 favorites]

Another interesting Twitter thread [view on Threadreader] - recommended especially after reading Friedman’s opinion piece in the NYT (whose main thesis is Trump is going to get re-elected because the Dems are in shambles and too far on the left)

The author has experience with campaigns against actual white supremacist David Duke in Louisiana, and his point is that trying to pry away Trump's voters is a fool's errand -- not only will it not work, but it will also demoralize the anti-Trump vote by normalizing his behavior.

Instead, make the election about Trumpism being a betrayal of what we stand for as a nation, and fire up the anti-Trump base (you know, the one that turned out in 2018).
posted by Gelatin at 10:27 AM on July 22, 2019 [21 favorites]

Evil does not always triumph, because evil people constantly betray each other.

Taking hostages is a technique that evil people can use against good, but it's not a technique good people can use against evil. We cannot copy Republican hostage taking tactics and we should not try.
posted by OnceUponATime at 10:29 AM on July 22, 2019 [5 favorites]

Trump Seems Worked Up Over Mueller Testimony He Says He Won’t Watch (Summer Concepcion, TPM)

This was from 9:55 AM EDT. He's working his way up to admitting that he'll probably watch all of it live.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:32 AM on July 22, 2019 [6 favorites]

I would have thought the idea was to push off the debt ceiling issue until we have Democratic president, house and (shrugs, maybe) Senate. Then we can do away with it entirely. Risky? Sure! So is letting Trump and McConnell abuse this false crisis repeatedly.
posted by M-x shell at 10:33 AM on July 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

This new move is going to be a global financial tipping point, mark my words.


The United States Is Going After China’s Banks

On June 25, the court found the banks in contempt for refusing to comply. The contempt order empowers the U.S. treasury secretary and the attorney general to terminate SPD Bank’s U.S. correspondent accounts. That step, pursuant to Section 319 of the Patriot Act, would end SPD Bank’s ability to conduct U.S. dollar-denominated transactions. In a global financial system still dominated by the almighty U.S. dollar, that sanction is known as a financial “death penalty.”
[...]
But imposing the “death penalty” under these measures requires a reasonable basis for the action: for example, showing that the foreign bank was knowingly involved in the underlying violation or facilitated it. The recent Washington court ruling opens a more direct and expedient path and dramatically increases the breadth, reach and potential frequency of using this tool. Under Section 319 of the Patriot Act, it is not necessary to show the company knew it was violating sanctions; any foreign bank could lose its access to U.S. dollar end transactions when its only transgression is refusal to comply with a Patriot Act subpoena.

It is hard to overstate the potential implications of a readily available, broadly applicable new tool to impose the financial “death penalty.” Thus far, the “death penalty” has been rarely applied, and mostly to tiny banks—for good reason. Even the threat of cutting SPD Bank and the other two Chinese banks, each of which holds around a trillion dollars in assets, out of U.S. dollar transactions will likely cause a flurry of repositioning. Actually following through with the so-called death penalty may well throw segments of the global banking system into chaos.

[...]
To be sure, neither the U.S treasury secretary nor the attorney general has yet requested the “death penalty” against SPD Bank. And U.S. officials may face challenges in replicating the Washington court’s factually dependent ruling when a foreign bank challenges enforcement of a subpoena. But there is every indication that this newly available, more direct, and quite forceful tool for securing Chinese bank records will be put to use. US officials are under enormous pressure to further the Trump administration’s China agenda.
posted by Mrs Potato at 10:36 AM on July 22, 2019 [6 favorites]

This was from 9:55 AM EDT

So again, this morning, Trump said "Result of the Mueller Report, NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!"

I'm sure I'm missing something and I'll be disappointed, but it seems like it should be so easy get Mueller to clearly state that "NO OBSTRUCTION!" was not the result of the report.
posted by diogenes at 10:46 AM on July 22, 2019 [4 favorites]

Trump administration expands scope of rapid deportations Politico.
"The Department of Homeland Security will publish a notice in the Federal Register Tuesday that aims to use the department’s full statutory authority to employ “expedited removal” to a wider range of undocumented immigrants who cross the border illegally."
"A 2004 regulatory change currently limits expedited removal to immigrants who were arrested within 14 days of arrival and caught within 100 miles of a U.S. land border. However, the 1996 statute that created the process allows the speedy removal of people who cannot prove at least two years of continuous presence in the U.S.

The notice set to publish Tuesday will allow the use of the faster process against people caught anywhere in the U.S., not just within the 100-mile border zone."
posted by Harry Caul at 10:50 AM on July 22, 2019 [4 favorites]

US officials are under enormous pressure to further the Trump administration’s China agenda.

To the extent that the climate crisis will likely kill off most of humanity, fossil fuels are also a boondoggle to the extent that petrodollars pegged to the US dollar have given the US immense power over other nations' economies. I'd like to see Republicans answer how you can ever have real free-market capitalism when a government run by dumb racists holds an economic "kill switch" over other countries.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:52 AM on July 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

A basic civil need for impeachment is revealing itself before our very eyes.

La. officer suggests Ocasio-Cortez should be shot Houston Chronicle, and NOLA.com
"A Gretna police officer posted a comment on his Facebook page this past week calling U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a "vile idiot" who "needs a round, and I don't mean the kind she used to serve."
The comment, which alludes to the freshman Democrat's past work as a New York City bartender while apparently saying she should be shot, comes amid increasing scrutiny of racist and violent social media posts by police officers in departments across the country."
posted by Harry Caul at 12:06 PM on July 22, 2019 [27 favorites]

2) Making the next deadline halfway through the first year of the next presidential term is the best timing possible if your goal is to hamstring a new president as they would be making their first big policy push in Congress.

But this is the genius of the Democratic party! They're dropping a big turd right in the first year of Trump's second term!


*blink blink*
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:28 PM on July 22, 2019 [6 favorites]

La. officer suggests Ocasio-Cortez should be shot

The officer in question has now been placed on administrative leave. Dunno if they're actually going to fire him or just wait until a couple news cycles have gone by.
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:31 PM on July 22, 2019 [9 favorites]

The reason Pence's New Hampshire trip a few weeks ago was abruptly cancelled has come out: One of the people he would have met just pled out for moving 1.5kg of fentanyl.
posted by Etrigan at 12:38 PM on July 22, 2019 [24 favorites]

A basic civil need for impeachment is revealing itself before our very eyes.

That's the same police department that went around during Katrina murdering any black person who wandered within Gretna city limits.
posted by ocschwar at 12:47 PM on July 22, 2019 [32 favorites]

zombieflanders: In the Senate, the so-called "moderates" and "centrists" are already very upset that Democrats would ever want to do anything to the precious court system, so leadership there has decided that the best strategy is to go back to the way things were in 2014. Yep they're actually talking about bringing back both the 60-vote threshold and home-state "blue slips,"

Well, sure, as long as we agree that all the appointments that were not subject to these rules are illegitimate and revoked as part of this deal, I'm OK with that. Of course that's not what's being proposed, is it? What's being proposed is not just an amnesty to Republicans for their bad behavior, but a most generous reward. So... no.

Meanwhile, here's a little bit from a Matt Levine column where he critiques Elizabeth Warren's proposal to "tweak" the rules for private equity firms:

Warren’s approach is briskly radical: Private equity built a business model on taking advantage of limited liability? Guess what, then, private equity doesn’t get limited liability anymore. [... He's not a huge fan ...] But I do want to say that I admire the tactical ingenuity here. Elizabeth Warren is proposing to ban private equity, but not in so many words. She’s just proposing one little tweak to the business model: If you want to buy a company with a lot of debt, you have to be responsible for the debt. She understands how revolutionary that would be for the model, and certainly the private equity firms do, but, especially to a non-financial audience, it just sounds so reasonable. And the other side doesn’t. “We want to be able to walk away from companies that we own that go bankrupt” is both a central feature of modern law and finance, and also a little counterintuitive.

Not only does Elizabeth Warren "have a plan for that", I'm really coming around to liking her plans.
posted by RedOrGreen at 1:06 PM on July 22, 2019 [71 favorites]

The openly racist attacks are starting to have an effect:

@SahilKapur A new NPR/PBS/Marist poll finds that Donald Trump’s job approval rating is 44%, reaching an all-time high in his presidency.

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/...

posted by pjenks at 1:42 PM on July 22, 2019 [4 favorites]

Does Marist call land lines?
posted by fluttering hellfire at 2:00 PM on July 22, 2019

Private equity built a business model on taking advantage of limited liability? Guess what, then, private equity doesn’t get limited liability anymore

Fuck. Yes. Where do I sign up to help push this into existence?
posted by rhizome at 2:06 PM on July 22, 2019 [22 favorites]

Marist is a very good pollster and isn't the only one to show Trump's approval moving up. (though others have him flat). This is why people shouldn't be surprised the Democrats are having trouble coordinating their response here; the moral thing ("fuck you, racists") and the politically smart thing are not the same even if we very much wish they were. Pushing back hard on Trump's racism leads to his support shoring up, not decreasing.

That doesn't mean the Democrats shouldn't push back hard. Why have a Democratic party if it goes with racism-lite as the message? You can't coddle racists even when it costs you. But lots of folks online don't seem to get that it does have a real cost and that this isn't a "winning" issue for Democrats from a realpolitik point of view. So we have to accept that white folks are awfully racist, calling out that racism makes winning in 2020 harder not easier, and hope we can win despite that because we have to confront the racism anyway.
posted by Justinian at 2:16 PM on July 22, 2019 [20 favorites]

Friedman has a suggestion for "the Squad" and Democrats in general, in a response to reader comments to his opinion piece - honestly no idea if this sounds ridiculous or what (or if it’s in good faith at all, sounds more like an excuse to gripe about "AOC et al. exacerbating the problem" as the reader he’s responding to put it) but don’t you wish it were as easy as he makes it sound:

You know what I would have done in response to Trump’s racist attack on the four Democratic congresswomen? I would not have put a censure motion up for a vote in the House (which turned into a circus and more fodder for Trump). I would have announced a plan to register one million more Democratic voters in swing districts and states and created an all-night telethon where people could call in or email in donations to pay for that registration drive. Maybe even enlist a few celebrities to answer the phones.

Don’t get angry; get even! Don’t play into Trump’s hands. Tell him: “Thank you Donald, we just registered one million more voters on the back of your racism. Have a nice day, you knucklehead.’’

posted by bitteschoen at 2:27 PM on July 22, 2019 [17 favorites]

> UPDATE: The cop who posted on FB that AOC needs a round has been fired, and a cop who liked the post has also been fired.

Blue likes matter. Didn't see that coming. Good on the Gretna PD brass.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:29 PM on July 22, 2019 [57 favorites]

Private equity built a business model on taking advantage of limited liability? Guess what, then, private equity doesn’t get limited liability anymore

Fuck. Yes. Where do I sign up to help push this into existence?


Funny thing. Back when company shares were these paper certificates whose owners could be counted on to show up to collect dividends, but whose owners would no doublt "lose" them if a company's liabilities ever exceeded its assets on liquidation, the limitation of liability was an inevitable necessity.

But since the 1950s, we've used computers to track exactly who owns how much of a company, and established ownership at the end of every trading day within a half hour. So we very much could go to having unlimited liability corporations.
posted by ocschwar at 2:34 PM on July 22, 2019 [11 favorites]

That would be bloodthirsty keyboard kommando Tom (suck-on-this) Friedman. SLYT. On Charlie Rose, to add insult.

Also famous for the eponymous Friedman Unit.

I don't think leftists/progressives/Dems should listen to a word he says. Ever. On any subject. IMNSHO.
posted by j_curiouser at 2:44 PM on July 22, 2019 [16 favorites]

The openly racist attacks are starting to have an effect:
@SahilKapur A new NPR/PBS/Marist poll finds that Donald Trump’s job approval rating is 44%, reaching an all-time high in his presidency.
http://maristpoll.marist.edu/...

posted by pjenks at 1:42 PM on July 22 [3 favorites +] [!]

Don't panic, though. Disapproval is also up, 52% over 49% a month ago. Though not an all-time high, it shows a majority do not support him.

In any event, we now know that the hardcore racists comprise 44% or so of the pollable voters. I guess some were hanging back because he was too subtle for them.
posted by Mental Wimp at 3:12 PM on July 22, 2019 [9 favorites]

Axios Trump Whisperer Jonathan Swan reports: Trump Tells Confidants He's Eager to Remove Dan Coats

Politico: Trump Met with Nunes to Talk Intel Chief Replacements—The president's get-together with the top House Intelligence Republican has fueled more chatter that Dan Coats may be on his way out.

Nunes, who grabbed national attention with his controversial allegations of Obama administration surveillance abuses, met with Trump and other senior White House officials last week to discuss who could take over for Coats at the Office of Director of National Intelligence, according to three people familiar with the get-together.[…]

The meeting between Trump and Nunes has only fueled more chatter about Coats’ departure. The pace of Trump’s discussions with allies about potential replacements has ramped up in recent weeks, the people said.

Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst who served as national security adviser John Bolton’s chief of staff, has been discussed as a possible ODNI replacement. Fleitz left his White House post in October 2018 to serve as president and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, a far-right think tank that has been sharply critical of “radical Islam.”

Some within the intelligence community have also promoted the ODNI’s current No. 2, Sue Gordon, as be a logical replacement for Coats. Gordon is a career intelligence official who is generally well-liked within the organization.

But wait, there’s an even worse potential candidate being floated by Team Trump leakers:

Trump and Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, are closely aligned on intelligence issues. Both have pushed accusations that career officials — particularly under the Obama administration — have been misusing their power to target political enemies and manipulating intelligence findings for political purposes.

Because of these similar views, some on Capitol Hill and in the intelligence community think Nunes himself could be in the mix for an intelligence post, even if it’s not at ODNI.

“The president would certainly consider Devin Nunes for the director’s position and I eventually see him serving in some capacity in this administration,” said one member of Congress who speaks to Trump frequently. He noted, however, that he sees “all of Devin’s efforts being directed towards a reelection effort in Congress.”

Such speculation has provoked some anxiety at the top of ODNI, according to one person with direct knowledge.

If Trump wanted to demoralize the IC (which he does), it’s hard to think of a better-worse candidate for a news DNI.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:44 PM on July 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

Bloomberg: Army Lets Slip That It's Conducting Secret Operation Around D.C.

The Pentagon has revealed a few details about a secret Army mission that has Black Hawk helicopters flying missions over the Washington, D.C., area backed by active-duty and reserve soldiers.

The mysterious classified operation was disclosed when the Army asked Congress for approval to shift funds to provide an extra $1.55 million for aircraft maintenance, air crews and travel in support of an “emerging classified flight mission.”[…].

“Soldiers from assault helicopter company and aviation maintenance units will be supporting the mission with 10 UH-60s and maintenance capabilities for four months,” according to the document, referring to the Black Hawks. The money will also pay for a specialized “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility” at Davison Army Airfield at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, just outside Washington.

posted by Doktor Zed at 5:46 PM on July 22, 2019 [6 favorites]

Neighbors stop ICE from arresting a man at his Hermitage home: "They came to the wrong community on the wrong day."
posted by donatella at 5:46 PM on July 22, 2019 [52 favorites]

Mental Wimp: In any event, we now know that the hardcore racists comprise 44% or so of the pollable voters. I guess some were hanging back because he was too subtle for them.

Yup, as I said last week, when he gets especially racist it both raises his floor and lowers his ceiling. Though I think what's going on is subtly distinct from people withholding support until he became racist enough to merit it. It's probably more a sense, among those people, that "He was all right, but having invited these liberal attacks, now he (and the grand conservative cause in general) need my support more than ever". In short, polarizing behavior increases the sense of the stakes, the sunk costs, and the team loyalties.

It's the flipside of the much more heartening statistic that (according to Gallup) more Americans then ever before agree that immigration is a "good thing". Was that a result of anything immigrants did, or any social campaign to improve their image? Probably not. It's more like: Wow, there is a serious threat here and while I may have been less concerned before, at this point I definitely do not want to align myself with the bad guys.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 5:47 PM on July 22, 2019 [4 favorites]

Neighbors stop ICE from arresting a man at his Hermitage home: "They came to the wrong community on the wrong day."

To be clear, that's Hermitage, Tennessee, which:

is a neighborhood in Metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee, located in eastern Davidson County, adjacent to – and named in honor of – The Hermitage, the historic home of Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States.

posted by shenderson at 6:21 PM on July 22, 2019 [17 favorites]

candidate for a news DNI.

...is such an apt typo.
posted by AwkwardPause at 6:45 PM on July 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

@NBCNews
WATCH: President Trump says that he could win the 18-year Afghan War in 10 days, because he has plans that could wipe Afghanistan off the face of the Earth and kill 10,000,000 people, but "I don't want to go that route."

Nice country you have here, be a shame if someone committed nuclear genocide
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:57 PM on July 22, 2019 [36 favorites]

Adam Jentelson:

In 2011 Republicans used the debt ceiling to cripple Obama and impose trillions in cuts. Today, Dem leaders agreed to lift the debt ceiling for the remainder of Trump’s presidency but reimpose it in 2021, when Republicans could again use it to cripple a Democratic president.

“Dems can’t really believe McConnell won’t use the debt ceiling against a Dem POTUS,” you say. Well, here’s a story from today in which Dem senators say we should reimpose the 60-vote threshold on judges on because Rs will listen to their “better angels.”

posted by T.D. Strange at 7:20 PM on July 22, 2019 [27 favorites]

The openly racist attacks are starting to have an effect:
@SahilKapur A new NPR/PBS/Marist poll finds that Donald Trump’s job approval rating is 44%, reaching an all-time high in his presidency.

This is the most demoralizing thing I've read in a long time.
Does anyone else ever feel like they're being gaslit by actual reality or is it just me?
posted by scaryblackdeath at 7:21 PM on July 22, 2019 [26 favorites]

Well, here’s a story from today in which Dem senators say we should reimpose the 60-vote threshold on judges on because Rs will listen to their “better angels.”

That is lazy or dishonest paraphrasing; what is quoted in the story is this:

“When you think about Merrick Garland and what McConnell has done to the Senate, there’s a lot of feelings of vengeance and revenge," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “We just hope the better angels of our nature will prevail.”

Which clearly says nothing about Republicans; Durbin is saying that the Democrats should listen to their "better angels" rather than pursue what he characterizes as "revenge". Now, that is still idiotic, but it's nothing like the tendentious and misleading tweet.
posted by thelonius at 7:50 PM on July 22, 2019 [10 favorites]

Dallas Morning News: A Dallas-born citizen picked up by the Border Patrol has been detained for three weeks

Galicia wasn’t allowed to use the phone for the three weeks he was in CBP custody, Sanjuana said. But he has been able to make collect calls to his mother since since Saturday, when Galicia was transferred to ICE’s custody.

Galan said she met with CBP officers last week and presented them with Galicia’s birth certificate and some other documents but was unsuccessful in getting him released. She plans on presenting the same documents to ICE officers later this week.

posted by adamg at 8:29 PM on July 22, 2019 [27 favorites]

Galan said she met with CBP officers last week and presented them with Galicia’s birth certificate and some other documents but was unsuccessful in getting him released.

Not to draw any parallels to the Holocaust, but this sort of experience, of wives trying to get their husbands out of internment, was commonplace during the periods when Nazi governments and their accomplices still made a pretence of legality. E.g., at some points Hungarian Jews weren't subject to deportation if they could show three generations of residence, or if they were veterans, or whatever. Ultimately it didn't make a difference of course.

The thing is, this seems a major escalation. Once it's generally accepted that people arrested at a CBP checkpoint have the burden of proving their immunity then it's going to percolate through the rest of society: people are going to be denouncing their neighbors and everybody's going to be scared of being dragged off at 3AM. This is what the Right want, this is what they're working towards.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:48 PM on July 22, 2019 [43 favorites]

The thing is, this seems a major escalation. Once it's generally accepted that people arrested at a CBP checkpoint have the burden of proving their immunity then it's going to percolate through the rest of society: people are going to be denouncing their neighbors and everybody's going to be scared of being dragged off at 3AM.

Remember this from last summer? U.S. is denying passports to Americans along the border, throwing their citizenship into question

Add today's expansion of "expedited deportation" across the entire country, allowing anyone to be detained and deported by ICE with no judge or due process.

One little step at a time, one more component of the machine quietly installed.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:12 PM on July 22, 2019 [30 favorites]

It's worth following former senior BP agent Jenn Budd's Twitter feed if you want to get an idea of the scale of abuses. For instance, this article from BuzzFeed News:

A US-born Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan had his US passport, a REAL ID driver’s license, a military ID card, and his US Marine Corps dog tags with him when he was arrested by police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which held him for three days before his lawyer demanded his release, according to the ACLU of Michigan.

Literally nobody is safe.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:27 PM on July 22, 2019 [52 favorites]

A job posting for a doctor at a major ICE detention facility requires only 2 years experience for $400K/yr (in Louisiana), requires no board certification, but does require the applicant's loyalty in being "philosophically committed to the objectives of this facility."

They might as well have started the job description with "you don't have to be Mengele to work here, but it helps!"
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:56 PM on July 22, 2019 [52 favorites]

CNN’s Manu Raju has this jaw-dropping clip from yesterday’s Oval Office meeting between Trump and Pakistan’s PM:

According to Trump, India's Prime Minister Modi "actually said, 'Would you like to be a mediator or arbitrator?' I said 'Where?' He said, 'Kashmir.'"

India's official spokesman just issued statement saying: "No such request has been made by Prime Minister to the US President."

Trump’s narcissistic mendacity knows no bounds. The idea of lying about sensitive negotiations over one of the most contentious regions in the world, in front of one of the parties and the press, is so beyond diplomatic norms, it might as well come from a Terry Southern script.
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:15 AM on July 23, 2019 [20 favorites]

Maine Governor Janet Mills makes rule allowing asylum seekers to receive General Assistance while they wait to go through the process. This reverses a rule denying assistance to asylum seekers made by former Governor Paul LePage.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 2:29 AM on July 23, 2019 [29 favorites]

Warren's "little change" is genius. It doesn't at all ban private equity, it merely eliminates the loophole that makes the corporate raider con job profitable. It does nothing to the economically useful firms that do legitimate business.

The hack and slash business delivers windfall profits to the PE firm by, arguably illegally but never prosecuted and rarely sued over, loading up the target with debt and then transferring the proceeds of the loans to the parent. Legitimate firms don't loot the businesses they purchase, so little changes for them.

Through smart regulation, we get to keep the beneficial parts while finally doing something about the bloodsucking leeches.
posted by wierdo at 2:30 AM on July 23, 2019 [49 favorites]

This is the most demoralizing thing I've read in a long time.
Does anyone else ever feel like they're being gaslit by actual reality or is it just me?


To me, it feels more like we’re getting a lesson in pre-WW2 Germany and Italy, in a way that the History Channel could only dream about.

Nevermore will we have to ask the question “How could they let that happen?” Because it’s been answered. A third of adults can easily be manipulated into following an authoritarian demagogue, as long as he promises them “greatness” carved out of the backs of racial minorities and wraps it in the twin banners of nationalism and religion.

Another third of adults will let it happen because they:
1. Don’t want to (or are afraid to, or can’t) imagine that being a “reasonable centrist” isn’t sufficient to stop the march of evil, and/or
2. Are fundamentally more concerned with not jeopardizing their middle-class status and affluence than with promoting actual justice, and/or
3. Are so apathetic that they just can’t be arsed to go out and vote.

Which leaves only a third of adults who are prepared to resist in some way, on a spectrum running from the bare minimum of actually voting for reformers, up to donating money and time, on up to actively protesting in the streets.

We’re essentially getting a master course in the depravity and apathy of our fellow citizens.
posted by darkstar at 3:37 AM on July 23, 2019 [51 favorites]

Are so apathetic that they just can’t be arsed to go out and vote.
Or, even if they do vote in larger numbers (2016), the US electoral system still managed to fulfill it's design of maintaining the minority rule of original slave-owning states, with more than a little help from a foreign adversary.
posted by Harry Caul at 3:49 AM on July 23, 2019 [33 favorites]

Absolutely, Harry. And in many ways, this is the bigger issue: the systematic disenfranchisement of millions of people of good will from being able to participate equally in the democracy.

1. Electoral College gerrymandering the Senate at the state level
2. Partisan and racial gerrymandering on the district level
3. The disenfranchisement of felons
4. Restrictions on same-day voter registration
5. The elimination or restriction of early and absentee voting
6. Excessive ID requirements for voting
7. Underfunding and understaffing polling places
8. Moving polling places so they require transportation
9. Voter intimidation
10. Unauditable election technologies
11. Restrictive residency requirements for college students and immigrants
12. Partisan review of provisional ballots
13. Partisan certification of election results
14. Partisan judicial review of election fraud
15. Criminalizing collection of voter registrations and ballots
16. Modern poll taxes (see Florida)
17. Voter caging
18. Understaffing and hamstringing the FEC, or appointing partisan hacks to serve on it
19. Campaigns to misinform voters on election dates and regulations

And that doesn’t even get into the numerous other systems that oppress minorities and poor people, undermining their voter efficacy.


I mean.
posted by darkstar at 4:38 AM on July 23, 2019 [39 favorites]

I just want to say that we have to escalate what we're doing to try to resist this Nazi machine. What we're doing now is not working. Some people are obviously escalating with lock-downs and militant protest, but they need numbers and back-up.

Everyone of good will should commit to taking at least one more step - if you do nothing, start calling or donating; if you call and donate start volunteering; if you volunteer, start protesting; if you protest, start doing civil disobedience (or supporting civil disobedience if you can't get arrested...or whatever an escalation looks like in your situation.

The funny thing is, think about how fast things blew up in Puerto Rico. In some ways, it wasn't fast at all, because people have been under the heel of the US for a long time and then there was the hurricane. But in terms of daily life, it went from zero to sixty in about a minute. This has really made me reconsider my expectations about how fast something massive can happen. We need something massive to happen because things are getting worse and worse.
posted by Frowner at 5:25 AM on July 23, 2019 [50 favorites]

The women of Puerto Rico have been protesting since almost as far back as the president's inauguration. Certainly in great numbers since last fall, 2018.
posted by Harry Caul at 5:28 AM on July 23, 2019 [9 favorites]

Nevermore will we have to ask the question “How could they let that happen?” Because it’s been answered. A third of adults can easily be manipulated into following an authoritarian demagogue, as long as he promises them “greatness” carved out of the backs of racial minorities and wraps it in the twin banners of nationalism and religion.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

(The above quote is attributed to Sinclair Lewis, but apparently falsely. Nevertheless, its meaning is all too accurate.)
posted by Gelatin at 5:49 AM on July 23, 2019 [7 favorites]

It's definitely wrapped in the flag. They aren't really bothering with the cross.
posted by diogenes at 5:57 AM on July 23, 2019 [4 favorites]

The women of Puerto Rico have been protesting since almost as far back as the president's inauguration. Certainly in great numbers since last fall, 2018.

That's true, and I didn't express myself very well - there's absolutely a lot more protest in Puerto Rico because of resistance to colonialism and its intrinsic racism and misogyny, and there's more organization and more language of opposition available. What has really amazed me is the way that so many self-organizing actions have sprung up - divers doing protests, boaters doing protests, so many people creating ways to protest out of the immediate texture of their daily lives. This clearly rests on a foundation of ongoing protest and organization, but it has at least seemed to me very different because it seems to be so self-organized rather than totally planned by larger or established groups. It seems like how you go from a steady culture of protest to being uncontainable.

I feel like that's where there's a tipping point, where people who haven't been involved or have only been peripherally involved but who care about the situation are moved to act, and where people feel confident enough to act immediately in the moment in ways that flow from their lives.

~~
I fear so much that what's going to happen in the US is that these camps will be forever, no matter who gets elected - that the Democrats may scale them back but won't want to waste political capital on dismantling them, that there will be so much patronage involved and so much infrastructure that they'll just be left to go on. And of course it will be convenient for the Democrats to have somewhere to stash inconvenient immigrants, even if they're not doing it at the same scale as the GOP. My sense is that the only way these things are getting shut down is if we become as uncontainable as possible.
posted by Frowner at 6:00 AM on July 23, 2019 [23 favorites]

Justice Department tells Mueller to not answer a wide swath of questions (WaPo).
posted by peeedro at 6:09 AM on July 23, 2019 [5 favorites]

Yeah Frowner, that's my fear too. I think of the pushback I get from Democrats when I say ICE needs to be abolished ("oh no, that's too radical, what would Joe Six-Pack think?") and I have the very same worry. These are all people who said, when Bush was in power, that we needed to get serious about dismantling all of the horrible systems he put in place. Those same apparatus are all still in place (ICE, Patriot Act, the Authorization of Force), most of them adapted for purposes even more monstrous than before. And it's just a part of our fabric now.
posted by sugar and confetti at 6:12 AM on July 23, 2019 [15 favorites]

Justice Department tells Mueller to not answer a wide swath of questions (WaPo).

Justice Department tells Democrats which avenues of questioning to pursue.
posted by Gelatin at 6:22 AM on July 23, 2019 [26 favorites]

@RepMaxineWaters

The Judiciary members have a good plan to force more info out of Mueller when he testifies before the committee. If this works, this will give us the ammunition we need to start impeachment immediately.

Well, here's hoping.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:47 AM on July 23, 2019 [30 favorites]

> Justice Department tells Mueller to not answer a wide swath of questions (WaPo).

Justice Department tells Democrats which avenues of questioning to pursue.

It's more that these leaks—the WaPo's piece comes from the Team Trump whisperer Matt Zapotosky—are providing on Trump loyalists Capitol Hill and in the media with a ready-made excuse to attack Mueller's testimony. If Mueller sticks to the report as intended, Trumpist hacks like Jordan, Gaetz, and Nunes can obfuscate the logical conclusions a sensible person would draw from it but which Mueller held off on. If the Dems somehow draw him out, I wouldn't put it past them to object on pseudo-constitutional grounds and to try to turn the proceedings into a circus (which they've tried in the past).

Speaking of leaks to the WaPo: Ahead of Mueller hearings, top Democrats call Trump ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ and accuse him of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ "Aides say Nadler has privately voiced support for impeachment proceedings against Trump, but he has stopped short of publicly calling for such a move."

Nadler's clearly trying to prepare for a reversal of his public opinion on impeachment if Mueller's testimony goes well. (And if it doesn't, perhaps he thinks staying a couple degrees of separation off the record theoretically will preserve his political capital.)

@RepMaxineWaters The Judiciary members have a good plan to force more info out of Mueller when he testifies before the committee. If this works, this will give us the ammunition we need to start impeachment immediately.

n.b. Waters is the only House committee head to publicly call for impeachment.

* * * *

US POLITICS HOUSEKEEPING NOTE:
Later today, we'll be posting a separate FPP on Mueller's upcoming testimony. The current draft is on the wiki for those who would like to contribute/collaborate on it.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:49 AM on July 23, 2019 [30 favorites]

In preparation for Mueller's testimony, I gathered links to all the live readings / podcast "book clubs" / otherwise more accessible retellings of the report that I have found and posted them here.

If anyone knows of others, send me a message and I will add them.
posted by OnceUponATime at 6:58 AM on July 23, 2019 [13 favorites]

"Aides say Nadler has privately voiced support for impeachment proceedings against Trump, but he has stopped short of publicly calling for such a move."

Nadler's clearly trying to prepare for a reversal of his public opinion on impeachment if Mueller's testimony goes well.

I can’t help but read this as the same BS we hear about Ivanka and Republicans.

“Privately, Ivanka expressed her concern with her father’s actions.”

“An anonymous senator said they were disgusted by Trump’s recent statements.”

It doesn’t mean shit what people supposedly say privately or what people claim is in their hearts. Leaking shit to try to preserve your standing in the eyes of angry Dem voters isn’t any better than leaking to try to preserve your place in Manhattan society. Action is all that counts and people are doing nothing. And Nadler is the one person who can do something. He can open impeachment hearings and he doesn’t need Pelosi’s permission.
posted by chris24 at 7:12 AM on July 23, 2019 [18 favorites]

Hmm, I don't see this mentioned anywhere:

Trump’s New Favorite Channel Employs Kremlin-Paid Journalist

If the stories broadcast by the Trump-endorsed One America News Network sometimes look like outtakes from a Kremlin trolling operation, there may be a reason. One of the on-air reporters at the 24-hour network is a Russian national on the payroll of the Kremlin’s official propaganda outlet, Sputnik.

Kristian Brunovich Rouz, originally from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, has been living in San Diego, where OAN is based, since August 2017, reporting on U.S. politics for the 24-hour news channel. For all of that time, he’s been simultaneously writing for Sputnik, a Kremlin-owned news wire that played a role in Russia’s 2016 election-interference operation, according to an assessment by the U.S. intelligence community.

...

Kremlin propaganda sometimes sneaks into Rouz’s segments on unrelated matters, dropped in as offhand background information. A segment on the Syrian rescue workers known as the White Helmets references “allegations of the White Helmets’ involvement in military activities, executions, and numerous war atrocities,” but doesn’t disclose that those “allegations” were hoaxes that originated with Vladimir Putin and his proxies.

...

In all of Rouz’s OAN segments reviewed by The Daily Beast, he is introduced as a “One America correspondent,” with no disclosure of his work for Russia’s state-owned media, where he continues to file stories daily, primarily on economic news.

“This completes the merger between Russian state-sponsored propaganda and American conservative media,” said former FBI agent Clint Watts, a research fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. “We used to think of it as ‘They just have the same views’ or ‘They use the same story leads.’ But now they have the same personnel.”

posted by perspicio at 7:47 AM on July 23, 2019 [26 favorites]

Justice Department tells Democrats which avenues of questioning to pursue.

Mueller biographer Garrett Graff and separately former FBI agent Josh Campbell (who has prepped Mueller for Congressional hearings in the past) tell Democrats which avenues of questioning to pursue.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:52 AM on July 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

The Trump Administration Is Moving to End Food Stamps for 3 Million People
posted by MrVisible at 7:59 AM on July 23, 2019 [15 favorites]

Trump Might Use the G-7 Summit to Bail Out His Struggling Golf Club (Russ Choma, Mother Jones)

The Trump National Doral in Miami, which has seen revenues plummet since he took office, is on his shortlist to host world leaders [for the 2020 G-7 Summit].

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:00 AM on July 23, 2019 [8 favorites]

Jimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm.
posted by chris24 at 8:22 AM on July 23, 2019 [67 favorites]

Attacking “coastal elites” when u live in a Nyc penthouse and shit in an actual gold toilet in between rounds of golf at your namesake country club, while convincing ignorant white people that you care about them, (was) the single greatest con job act of snake oil salesmanship ever

Oh it's ever so much worse than that. He didn't run on a platform he ran on hate. And the thing about hate is that it overrides executive function. He stood up infant of all kids of audiences, told them he hated what & who they hated and invoked the unwritten electoral override on the usual limitations of free speech. He did this all day everyday to countless audiences.

And because he did this without interruption, rest, strategy or foresight he (of course) told everyone who had an axe to grind that he hated what they hated, abused the election as a platform for delivering hate speech, all the while leveraging the fact that audiences he shared hate with would conveniently ignore the fact that yesterday day, the day before or maybe tomorrow he was/would tell someone else that he hated something or someone different. Even (perhaps especially) if the group he is hating with today was a group he projected hate for with someone else yesterday.

Hate overrides executive function; you're just not going to out reason hate.
posted by mce at 8:53 AM on July 23, 2019 [5 favorites]

Trump Might Use the G-7 Summit to Bail Out His Struggling Golf Club

I actually kind of hope this happens, so that it links G-7 to Trump's corruption in the public's mind.
posted by Rykey at 8:53 AM on July 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

For the background on the SNAP (food stamp) proposal: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Categorical Eligibility.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 9:02 AM on July 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

The Trump National Doral in Miami, which has seen revenues plummet since he took office, is on his shortlist to host world leaders [for the 2020 G-7 Summit].

The host country of each year’s conference foots the bill

If only we had some sort of governmental agency or branch who was explicitly granted the power to appropriate funds and the responsibility to write the conditions regarding the use of those funds...
posted by Etrigan at 9:14 AM on July 23, 2019 [18 favorites]

One month after opening, HHS is shutting down the model facility for migrant kids it showed off to journalists

Hard not to conclude that they consciously emulated Theresienstadt.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:17 AM on July 23, 2019 [53 favorites]

Christopher Wray testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the oversight of the FBI, and weird array of other subjects. < Guardian.
posted by Harry Caul at 9:26 AM on July 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

More Than 2,000 Migrants Were Targeted in Raids. 35 Were Arrested. (MSN)

More than 2,000 migrants who were in the United States illegally were targeted in widely publicized raids that unfolded across the country last week. But figures the government provided to The New York Times on Monday show that just 35 people were detained in the operation. [...]

Advance notice of the large-scale operation also gave immigrant advocates time to counsel families about their rights, which include not opening the door or answering questions. On social media, community groups shared detailed information about sightings of ICE agents.

posted by Little Dawn at 9:31 AM on July 23, 2019 [16 favorites]

Senate votes 90-8 to confirm former defense industry lobbyist Mark Esper as secretary of defense.

Eight senators voted against putting a Raytheon executive in charge of enforcing world empire.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:09 AM on July 23, 2019 [22 favorites]

> Advance notice of the large-scale operation also gave immigrant advocates time to counsel families about their rights, which include not opening the door or answering questions. On social media, community groups shared detailed information about sightings of ICE agents.

does ice's recent "expedited removal" rule changes change the tactics we have to use to block them from kidnapping people?
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:26 AM on July 23, 2019

> Senate votes 90-8 to confirm former defense industry lobbyist Mark Esper as secretary of defense.

Wait, what? We're still confirming cabinet appointments for this criminal conspiracy of an administration? On a BIPARTISAN basis? WHAT THE HELL? What about "We'll confirm the appointment as soon as we have testimony under oath from your Attorney General about the ongoing obstruction of justice"?
posted by RedOrGreen at 10:31 AM on July 23, 2019 [40 favorites]

Booker blasts Trump as a a "physically weak specimen": "My testosterone sometimes makes me want to" punch him

Based on the sample of three mediocrities (B, B, and now B), "I punch you, tiny cheeto man" rhetoric is indicative of a candidate with no ideology grasping for voters with no ideology.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:31 AM on July 23, 2019 [15 favorites]

Some media outlets are characterizing the 90-8 Esper confirmation vote as 'bipartisan,' but I'm not sure I agree:

Of the eight Democrats who voted against Esper’s nomination, five are running to replace Trump as president in 2020: Warren, Cory Booker (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kamala D. Harris (Calf.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.). A sixth presidential hopeful, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), missed the vote. (WaPo)

(The other three that voted against were Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden (both (D-OR)), and Ed Markey (D-MA).)
posted by box at 10:36 AM on July 23, 2019 [4 favorites]

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

(The above quote is attributed to Sinclair Lewis, but apparently falsely. Nevertheless, its meaning is all too accurate.)

posted by Gelatin at 5:49 AM on July 23 [5 favorites +] [!]

What he did say (from It Can't Happen Here):

But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word "Fascism" and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty. For they were thieves not only of wages but of honor. To their purpose they could quote not only Scripture but Jefferson.

posted by Mental Wimp at 10:55 AM on July 23, 2019 [17 favorites]

"Bipartisan" means in Washington-speak that one member of the other party voted for it. Joe Manchin voted for Gorsuch, so Gorsuch was confirmed on a bipartisan basis. This is the majority of the Democratic caucus voting to confirm, that's pretty bipartisan on an objective and mathematical level, not just the usual DC usage of the term.

It's really hard to overstate how much Democrats, specifically in the Senate, are just pretending everything is fine and this will all go back when Republicans see the light. The presidential candidates are the exception, and its pretty questionably how much many of their actions are dictated by the primary campaign. Would say Cory Booker have voted no if he wasn't running? The party writ large is not going to use the tools they have to fight Trump, and this is a preview of a post-2020 Democratic world and what will be their extreme reluctance to even undo everything Republicans have done, much less anything more.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:00 AM on July 23, 2019 [10 favorites]

Nate Silver and Sahil Kapur have some numbers about Democratic policy preferences from the latest Marist poll. One they zero in on is that Biden's supercharged-public-Obamacare-option polls way better even among Democrats than a Sanders-style M4A plan (90% to 64%).

But if you went by the online commentariat you'd think that the Biden public option plan was essentially an unacceptable death knell for his campaign. So another reminder that we aren't exactly representative of the electorate.
posted by Justinian at 11:06 AM on July 23, 2019 [16 favorites]

At first I overlooked Warren's name in the list of nays, and I nearly had a heart attack.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:06 AM on July 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

I wonder if any factor is a belief that it's always preferable to have a confirmed head of a department than an "acting" one, because the acting one could hypothetically be more of a Trump rubber-stamp rather than an independent person who merely works toward the Fuhrer?
posted by InTheYear2017 at 11:06 AM on July 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

I mean, any stopgap against Bolton doing whatever he pleases could certainly be considered a plus.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 11:19 AM on July 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

If it looks like the nominee is going to be confirmed (and given who holds the majority, Esper was a lock), and the political downside is minor (nobody except us loons is paying attention (and note which Senators voted against -- the ones who might take some political heat over an "Aye")), then it makes sense to confirm rather than alienate the incoming Dept head, with whom your office and your constituents are likely going to need to work with.
posted by notyou at 11:19 AM on July 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

Especially when the nominee is for DOD, since everybody has a base somewhere in their state they don't want messed with.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:22 AM on July 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

Both of those responses make sense if this was business as usual, yes.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:24 AM on July 23, 2019 [11 favorites]

A good interview with Seymour Hersh in Salon: “The world is run by ignoramuses, wackos and psychotics”.
posted by growabrain at 11:28 AM on July 23, 2019 [4 favorites]

Based on the sample of three mediocrities (B, B, and now B), "I punch you, tiny cheeto man" rhetoric is indicative of a candidate with no ideology grasping for voters with no ideology.

I am really disappointed in Booker. I think he does have an ideology, but it is centered on community-building and understanding and he openly talking about love, and I wonder if this is a sad attempt to make himself seem more masculine. Because if you're into that touchy-feely stuff you gotta prove yourself a Real Man.
posted by Anonymous at 11:29 AM on July 23, 2019

"Bipartisan" means in Washington-speak that one member of the other party voted for it.

I disagree. Today "Bipartisan" means in Washington-speak that Democrats (though, yes, perhaps only one) agreed with what Republicans want, largely because the so-called "liberal media" expects compromise to come only from Democrats and never from Republicans.
posted by Gelatin at 11:31 AM on July 23, 2019 [7 favorites]

If you are someone who has harbored fears about the possibility that trump might refuse to accept the results of the 2020 election should he lose, it seems preferable to have an actual appointed secretary in charge of the military at that time, rather than someone who can be replaced at the drop of a hat for—say—refusing to comply with an unlawful order. Either one will be a ghoul, but only one of them is (ostensibly) answerable to Congress in any real sense of the word.

Well, at least that was how things used to work.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:41 AM on July 23, 2019 [9 favorites]

Hate overrides executive function; you're just not going to out reason hate.
posted by mce at 12:53 AM on July 24 [2 favorites +] [!]

I hate Trump. But, this

If you are someone who has harbored fears about the possibility that trump might refuse to accept the results of the 2020 election should he lose, it seems preferable to have an actual appointed secretary in charge of the military at that time, rather than someone who can be replaced at the drop of a hat for—say—refusing to comply with an unlawful order. Either one will be a ghoul, but only one of them is (ostensibly) answerable to Congress in any real sense of the word.

makes sense. Also, remember that the administration is a career graveyard. Acosta is just the latest to burn like Icarus. It is definitively not true that "Republicans can get away with anything".

Fine. Let's have an SOD. Let's grill the crap out of him until he either does the right thing or resigns in disgrace. Welcome to the furnace bitch. Now put up or burn.
posted by saysthis at 12:53 PM on July 23, 2019 [6 favorites]

Ahead of Mueller testimony, Democrats rip into McConnell on election security (Politico)

The criticism comes as the country prepares for Mueller’s long-awaited congressional testimony about his investigation into Russia’s interference into the 2016 election.

The final 448-page report, issued in April, concluded that Moscow “interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” Mueller himself emphasized the need to address the nation’s election security gaps before 2020 during a brief press conference last month, saying “that allegation deserves the attention of every American.”

Tuesday’s press conference also coincided with testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Russians “are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections.”

But McConnell has argued that Washington doesn’t need to take further action to shore up the nation’s election systems ahead of next year’s presidential vote. Earlier this month, he dismissed the need for a classified meeting on the issue before senior Trump administration officials briefed lawmakers on election security efforts. He has also accused Democrats of making election security a political issue. [...]

Warner, whose committee has been investigating Moscow’s 2016 meddling for more than two years, said the panel would soon issue a report on election security that would detail what Russia did and suggest how to fix the vulnerabilities through legislation.

The document will be the first of five the committee intends to release, he said, adding that an announcement will be made later on Tuesday or Wednesday with additional details.

And speaking of Mueller's testimony tomorrow, fyi, the FPP has been posted:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Mueller Under Oath

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
posted by Little Dawn at 1:12 PM on July 23, 2019 [9 favorites]

That’s going to be the next catch-all thread, correct?
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 1:15 PM on July 23, 2019

No. This is the catch-all, that one is for Mueller only.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:16 PM on July 23, 2019 [8 favorites]

Just wanted to share that the Twitter thread by Tim Wise as posted above (and summarized by Gelatin here) has now been reworked and published on the Washington Post:
How do you beat Trump in 2020? The same way we beat David Duke in 1991. It’s smart politics to challenge racists head-on.

"The lesson now for Democrats is that they must make this election about the threat of Trumpism, which is racist at its core. That doesn’t mean that policy ideas aren’t important, but first and foremost, it’s about making it clear to voters what the stakes are. No issue — climate, jobs, health coverage — overrides the importance of getting a bigot with authoritarian tendencies out of office. Focusing on look-how-much-I’ve-thought about-this stuff might make for good primary debate theater, but it’s not going to move the needle in 2020."

posted by bitteschoen at 1:18 PM on July 23, 2019 [13 favorites]

The problem with that analogy is that Duke was essentially disavowed by the national Republican party, while that same institution is all-in for Trump. Wise puts those dots in his story but never really connects them.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:59 PM on July 23, 2019 [10 favorites]

Indian Asylum Seekers on Hunger Strike at El Paso and Otero Threatened with Force Feeding and Retaliation

Verbally berated with ethnic slurs, denied any possibility for release, and not allowed sufficient time to prepare evidence for their cases, these men faced unreasonable obstacles throughout the process. After languishing a year or more in detention with no end in sight, these men were left with no other options to call attention to their prolonged detention and unfair immigration proceedings, and to obtain their freedom. On July 17 the men were transferred to EPSPC. Now on day 14 of their hunger strike seeking freedom, medical staff told the men that force feeding orders will be sought today (Monday July 22). The men are resolute that threats of involuntary force feeding will not prevent them from continuing their struggle. They are clear: they will not eat until they are free.

posted by Rust Moranis at 1:59 PM on July 23, 2019 [7 favorites]

Fox News helped radicalize domestic terrorist Cesar Sayoc, say his lawyers (WaPo)

From the lawyer's sentencing memo:

Mr. Sayoc began watching Fox News religiously and following Trump supporters on social media. He became a vocal political participant on Facebook, something he had not done previously. He was not discerning of the pro-Trump information he received, and by the time of his arrest, he was “connected” to hundreds of right-wing Facebook groups. Many of these groups promoted various conspiracy theories and, more generally, the idea that Trump’s critics were dangerous, unpatriotic, and evil....They deployed provocative language to depict Democrats as murderous, terroristic, and violent.....Fox News furthered these arguments. For example, just days before Mr. Sayoc mailed his packages, Sean Hannity said on his program that a large “number of Democratic leaders [were] encouraging mob violence against their political opponents.” Hannity Transcript, FOX NEWS (Oct. 11, 2018).

Fox News as a vector of terrorist radicalization is something that will have to be addressed. We're going to need to look at an updated fairness doctrine, and something that'll cover the socials. Then some kind of deprogramming therapy... It's going to be difficult, perhaps impossible. It may be irreversible.
posted by adept256 at 2:57 PM on July 23, 2019 [24 favorites]

Ilhan Omar's 2020 Republican challenger is a QAnon follower

You know what, why not
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:59 PM on July 23, 2019 [5 favorites]

Mod note: Major house-keeping note: we're moving away from the megathread process for US politics discussion on the site. Doesn't affect this thread, but since it's a big change folks who follow these threads should be aware of what the plan is going forward. Please head over to the MetaTalk for details and discussion.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:01 PM on July 23, 2019 [16 favorites]

.
posted by Windopaene at 4:58 PM on July 23, 2019 [31 favorites]

we're moving away from the megathread process for US politics discussion on the site

Hello darkness my old friend
posted by diogenes at 5:52 PM on July 23, 2019 [53 favorites]

Some major news that's broken since the Megathread MeTa was launched:

NBC: Trump Sues to Block New York Law Allowing Congress to Get His State Taxes—The president contends that Democrats are trying to embarrass him politically by revealing person financial info.

The suit referred to an NBC News article on Monday that said Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., was under pressure from fellow Democrats to make use of the new law.

The suit asks the court to provide a declaratory judgment that the committee "lacks a legitimate legislative purpose for obtaining the President's state tax information."

Politico: Trump Transition Adviser Convicted On Foreign-Agent Charges

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner of Michael Flynn, on a pair of foreign-agent felony charges stemming from work the two men did for Turkish interests during the final months of the Trump presidential campaign in 2016.

The verdicts, returned by jurors in Alexandria, Va., after a weeklong trial and only about four hours of deliberation, amount to a belated courtroom victory for special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated the $600,000 lobbying and public relations contract at the heart of the case and then handed the matter off to other federal prosecutors after Flynn’s guilty plea to a false-statement charge in 2017.

Rafiekian, 67, faces up to 15 years in prison on the two felony counts against him: acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the U.S., and conspiracy to violate that law as well as to submit false statements to the Justice Department in a foreign-agent filing. Defendants are typically sentenced in accord with federal sentencing guidelines that result in far less than the maximum.

AP: The Justice Department says its new review of Big Tech’s market power will delve into competition “in an objective and fair-minded manner.”

The agency says it wants to ensure that Americans have access to free markets and that companies compete on merits. The Justice Department says it will take into account the “widespread concerns” about social media, search engines and online retail services expressed by consumers, businesses and entrepreneurs. Its antitrust division is seeking information from the public, including those in the tech industry.

In a statement Tuesday, top antitrust official Makan Delrahim worries that without meaningful competition, “digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands.”[…]

The Justice Department didn’t name any companies, but the targets are most likely Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook. All four were the subject of congressional hearings last week.

Miami Herald: He’s a Chinese billionaire and a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Is he also a communist spy?

A high-profile Chinese fugitive — who belongs to President Donald Trump’s exclusive South Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, and has railed against China’s communist government — is accused of being a spy for that very regime, according to new documents filed in a federal court case in New York.

Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who also goes by Miles Kwok, fled to the United States four years ago after learning an associate had been arrested on corruption charges. He is now one of China’s most-wanted, accused of myriad crimes by the Chinese government, including paying bribes and sexual assault. He maintains his innocence, saying the charges are politically motivated.

Now, filings in a civil case, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, suggest Guo may not be the dissident he claims. “Instead, Guo Wengui was, and is, a dissident-hunter, propagandist, and agent in the service of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party,” according to federal court papers filed on Friday.

At this point, Mar-a-Lago is looking like Cold War Berlin in terms of spies per capita.
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:57 PM on July 23, 2019 [28 favorites]

"Trump really believes that confrontation with foreign countries gets him votes."
posted by Mrs Potato at 6:23 PM on July 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

T.D. Strange: "VA election news: Democrats need to pick up 1 seat in the state Senate to take control, and a Republican incumbent just mysteriously withdrew today [non-registration walled]. They may have to mount a write-in campaign without a Republican on the ballot."

The VA GOP has RE-nominated Freitas, which I guess they can do?
posted by Chrysostom at 9:39 PM on July 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

Delrahim used to work for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, a corporate law firm. Delrahim's client list included AT&T, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Google and Intel, according to public documents. He has spent his entire private career lobbying to allow giant mergers. Why the sudden turn away from free marketeering now? Trump is obviously using the one extortion tool he has (antitrust) to coerce the tech giants into supporting him during the election. Or perhaps Amazon will be the only one hit hard due to Bezos' criticism of Trump and MBS.
posted by benzenedream at 12:05 AM on July 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

Trump: 'I have an Article 2 where I have the right to do whatever I want as president'

He's not quite at the divine right of kings, but he's pushing about as close as he can get away with. Again, it's a Nixon speedrun.
posted by jaduncan at 1:22 AM on July 24, 2019 [15 favorites]

As of yesterday evening, Jon Stewart and his posse have finally done it. Senate overwhelmingly passes 9/11 victim fund bill, 97-2 (CNBC)

By all appearances, it guarantees funding for their lifetimes (or to be precise, 70 years).

I can't figure out what, if any, concessions were made to achieve such near-unanimity. Perhaps my impression that the Republican Party as a unit was opposed was not accurate, and in fact McConnell plus the 2 "no" votes were held by people with enough power to delay it to this point.

Or, perhaps the game-theory goes like: The party as a whole did oppose it, but there's absolutely no way to justify that to voters -- an outright "no" vote, much more than any procedural foot-dragging, is the ultimate fodder for a Democratic attack ad. Thus, once a slim GOP majority was won over, and it become clear a vote of some kind would happen, the rest had to shift en masse.

Anyway, much kudos to the people who worked so hard for this.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 3:24 AM on July 24, 2019 [31 favorites]

Stephen Colbert shared an interesting perspective on the 9/11 Victim Fund bill.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:08 AM on July 24, 2019 [3 favorites]

Trump allegedly flashed a "White Power" sign when mentioning AOC. I can't find the original so I don't know whether this clip is misleading, but his hand signal does look weird and out of place.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:08 AM on July 24, 2019 [6 favorites]

Joe in Australia: I can’t see how that clip could be misleading? I saw it first posted by Aaron Rupar, who is a journalist for Vox, as he was live-tweeting a series of clips from Trump’s speech at the Turning Point USA rally.
(I guess Trump could claim he was making a gesture for the "OC" part in "AOC" but it is indeed weird he’d do that... And the way he speaks about her is in any case entirely awful. Here’s another ugly clip where he "jokes" about not having time to pronounce her whole name).
posted by bitteschoen at 5:19 AM on July 24, 2019 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I’m really surprised that the gesture isn’t a bigger deal. Some people have pointed it out and been outraged, but it hasn’t blown up. It seems clear to me he threw a bone to his Nazi followers, which let’s be honest, Turning Point is basically Hitler Youth. Not sure if it hasn’t done so because people are worried it’s not super clear and other things have taken precedence, but that kind of normalization that some things aren’t worth the outrage because of all the other shit is fucking infuriating.
posted by chris24 at 5:30 AM on July 24, 2019 [5 favorites]

NBC: Trump Sues to Block New York Law Allowing Congress to Get His State Taxes—The president contends that Democrats are trying to embarrass him politically by revealing person financial info.

Once again it boggles the mind that Trump's people can't mount a defense that isn't also a frank admission of guilt. Thanks for admitting you're hiding your tax returns because they're sketchy as hell.

It's been mentioned before, but the "legitimate legislative purpose" dodge that Trump has deployed often is an openly authoritarian move. Oversight absolutely is Congress' legitimate purpose and the Trump regime is trying to wish it away and make Congress just a rubber stamp for passing legislation.

I can remember back when conservatives used to insist they were the true defenders of the Constitution, but now they barely bother to hide that they'd rather have a king from their party that a president from another.
posted by Gelatin at 5:41 AM on July 24, 2019 [17 favorites]

Gelatin: I can remember back when conservatives used to insist they were the true defenders of the Constitution, but now they barely bother to hide that they'd rather have a king from their party that a president from another.

The founders, as every conservative knows, were very leery of tyranny by majority. That's why we're not a democracy, which inevitably leads to mob rule. Instead, we are a republic, which is as different from democracy as night and day.

If the mob were to propel some city-slicker demagogue to a throne, Jefferson would turn in his grave. However, a man with the support of that minority that constitues real Americans is the ultimate fulfillment of their vision. Some naive Democrats want to increase the size of the House of Representatives, which means a more democratic, less republican system. However, the fewer representatives in whom power is vested, the better the health of the nation.

In short, the ideal republic is a government ruled entirely by one man who, ideally, is hated by the unwashed masses. Call him a "monarch" if you wish, but regardless, that's exactly what "republic" has always meant.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 6:58 AM on July 24, 2019 [8 favorites]

I'd like to take this moment to formally welcome our UK friends to the Orange-Haired Incompetent Fascist Dictator Club (North Atlantic Division).
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:34 AM on July 24, 2019 [15 favorites]

Ladies and gentlemen, the Notorious RGB on NPR: "Justice Ginsburg: “There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced, with great glee, that I was going to be dead within six months... That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now dead himself, and I am very much alive.”"
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:38 AM on July 24, 2019 [44 favorites]

The founders, as every conservative knows, were very leery of tyranny by majority. That's why we're not a democracy, which inevitably leads to mob rule. Instead, we are a republic, which is as different from democracy as night and day.

Oh, this old canard. There is absolutely no conflict between the two. We are a democratic republic.

re·pub·lic

a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.
ARCHAIC
a group with a certain equality between its members.
"the community of scholars and the republic of learning"

de·moc·ra·cy

a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
"capitalism and democracy are ascendant in the third world"
synonyms: representative government, elective government, constitutional government, popular government; More

posted by Mental Wimp at 9:41 AM on July 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

Ladies and gentlemen, the Notorious RGB on NPR: "Justice Ginsburg: “There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced, with great glee, that I was going to be dead within six months... That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now dead himself, and I am very much alive.”"

Her implication that SCOTUS is a partisan and political body is notable. Of course it's been obvious since Bush v Gore, but it's notable that Ginsberg doesn't do Roberts the favor of pretending not to notice.
posted by Gelatin at 9:58 AM on July 24, 2019 [13 favorites]

The founders, as every conservative knows, were very leery of tyranny by majority. That's why we're not a democracy, which inevitably leads to mob rule. Instead, we are a republic, which is as different from democracy as night and day.


This is, as they say, not even wrong. Someone with more patience will have to explain why.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 10:06 AM on July 24, 2019

Um, people, I think InTheYear2017 was being sarcastic when they said that.
posted by sotonohito at 10:16 AM on July 24, 2019 [16 favorites]

Um, people, I think InTheYear2017 was being sarcastic when they said that.

posted by sotonohito at 10:16 AM on July 24 [5 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

I see that now. Thank you for pointing it out, sotonohito, and my apologies to you, InTheYear2017.
posted by Mental Wimp at 10:27 AM on July 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Her implication that SCOTUS is a partisan and political body is notable.

I legitimately cannot see where you get that implication from that quote, especially when the article it comes from goes on to say, "Like other members of the current Supreme Court, liberal and conservative alike, Ginsburg rebuts the notion that the court is a partisan institution."
posted by Etrigan at 10:33 AM on July 24, 2019

The founders, as every conservative knows, were very leery of tyranny by majority. That's why we're not a democracy, which inevitably leads to mob rule. Instead, we are a republic, which is as different from democracy as night and day.

Since this came up earlier in the discussion of checks and balances will probably do so again, I think it's worth a brief quote to illuminate the source of these attacks on the founders for those who aren't as familiar with the primary texts. Madison for instance was quite clear in Federalist 10 about the anti-majoritarian impulses behind the federal republic design, particularly as a tool for defending against reallocation of property by the majority. It's the combination of federalism plus republicanism that's the key, but regardless of the terminology, the basic impulse -- to curb the majority, particularly from reallocating property -- is quite clear.

Complaints are everywhere heard... that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.... the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society.... If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote.... When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens...

A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking. Let us examine the points in which it varies from pure democracy, and we shall comprehend both the nature of the cure and the efficacy which it must derive from the Union....[Lots of clear examples of how federal republics, unlike pure democracies, actively foil democratic majoritarian impulses in a variety of ways.] ... A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it... In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government.

posted by chortly at 10:38 AM on July 24, 2019 [6 favorites]

Trump has been in office for two and one-half years as of last Saturday. I've posted these trackings of the Dow Jones performance for presidents at the time of their six-month anniversaries.

The Dow Jones has been around in some form since May 2, 1885. My usual source of historic data has gone 404, so I ended up using a database from a financial firm that goes back to 1900. Here is a list of the percent increase (or decrease) in the first two-and-one-half years of the presidencies covered in this time period. Gerald Ford and Warren Harding did not make the two-and-one-half-year list.

With a recent spike in the markets, Trump squeaked out sixth place.

1. F. Roosevelt +146.3%
2. Coolidge +79.1%
3. Eisenhower +59.1%
4. Obama +58.2%
5. Clinton +43.7%
6. Trump +37.0%
7. Wilson +36.5%
8. Bush I +34.9%
9. Reagan +29.2%
10. Johnson +23.2%
11. Truman +14.2%
12. Kennedy +9.4%
13. Taft -5.3%
14. Bush II -6.0%
15. Carter -13.6%
16. Nixon -21.2%
17. T. Roosevelt -28.8%
18. Hoover -57.7%

Every elected Republican president has had one or more recessions begin during their term of office, going back to Lincoln. (Five out of six of the last Democratic presidents did not have a recession begin during their terms.)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:11 AM on July 24, 2019 [9 favorites]

I legitimately cannot see where you get that implication from that quote

Ginsburg is at least implying that that Senator saw SCOTUS as partisan, because anticipating her death was presumably an opportunity to appoint a Republican conservative judge.
posted by Gelatin at 11:23 AM on July 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yes, I was sarcastic, and accept Mental Wimps's apology while also expressing my own apology to everyone for being so on-the-nose. The United States is a democratic republic, there being no actual contradiction there.

My point was partly to explore the way an almost-identical train of "logic" has pretty much taken root to unify "classical liberals" and the "neoreactionary" (literally pro-feudal) segments of the right and alt-right. My punchline is to evoke "monarchy", which has been a pretty standard definition of "the thing a republic never is" for a long time.

For example, if you're a "republican" in the UK or Canada, that doesn't mean you have a particular opinion about how Parliament should be structured or elected, but rather that you wish to abolish the monarchy, even if at present it's only a symbolic institution (mostly). Those countries are govered by elected representatives, but they're normally never called "republics" for the simple reason that Elizabeth II is their head of state.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 11:37 AM on July 24, 2019 [3 favorites]

I legitimately cannot see where you get that implication from that quote

Ginsburg is at least implying that that Senator saw SCOTUS as partisan, because anticipating her death was presumably an opportunity to appoint a Republican conservative judge.

Alluding to other people thinking the court is partisan and political is not the same thing as implying it herself, especially when she pushes back against the idea of the court being partisan and political in the article.
posted by Etrigan at 11:51 AM on July 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Someone pointed out yesterday that the 'white power' hand sign is essentially the ASL sign for "asshole" pointed at yourself
posted by mbo at 12:09 PM on July 24, 2019 [22 favorites]

It seems obvious that an SC Justice is never going to say the Court is a partisan body. It's also obvious that it is, and always has been, a partisan body.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:43 PM on July 24, 2019 [4 favorites]

Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI-10) is retiring. District went Trump 64-32, and has a Cook PVI of R+13, so this one should stay safe GOP.

Mitchell had been critical of Trump at times, so we're keeping with the theme of people only opposing him once they have an exit planned.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:06 PM on July 24, 2019 [5 favorites]

Mitchell had been critical of Trump at times

Mitchell voted with Trump 97 percent of the time. His "criticism" of Trump was limited to the occasional "I wish he wouldn't say the quiet parts out loud" when Trump got particularly racist.
posted by Etrigan at 1:28 PM on July 24, 2019 [15 favorites]

Like other members of the current Supreme Court, liberal and conservative alike, Ginsburg rebuts the notion that the court is a partisan institution.

For similar reasons, she rejects the idea of expanding the number of justices: "Nine seems to be a good number. It's been that way for a long time. […] I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court."
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:29 PM on July 24, 2019

Yes, I wasn't trying to cast Mitchell as a profile in courage, just pointing out that, at this point, even mealy-mouthed criticism is often a tell that a retirement is coming.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:38 PM on July 24, 2019 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I like RBG but I think she is (quite naturally) too bought in to the idea of the court as independent. I think the vast majority of people know it is partisan (which is why people care which President appoints the judges, after all). Unfortunately as it stands now it is a partisan institution with very little ability for citizens to influence it, as it depends on weird timing artifacts (when someone dies).

Normalizing "court packing" is an easy way to add a democratic lever to the court without having to rewrite the Constitution. If we could have an actual independent judiciary that would be awesome, but I don't see how we get that. So I'd rather have one that can be remade when political opinion changes, rather than waiting for people to die. (Obviously this won't always work out in the way I'd like, but it's better than occasionally locking in a particular partisan bent for potentially decades).
posted by thefoxgod at 2:50 PM on July 24, 2019 [6 favorites]

The Mueller testimony PBS feed I was watching switched to this PBS News Hour Mueller report summary when it was done. It's a 28 minute video and a great summary of both volumes. Worth sharing.
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:08 PM on July 24, 2019 [7 favorites]

Texas Monthly:

Autopsy Offers Jarring New Details About the Death of a 16-Year-Old Guatemalan Boy
Days after he was supposed to be in a children’s shelter, Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez died of the flu near the toilet in his Border Patrol holding cell.

posted by XMLicious at 4:59 PM on July 24, 2019 [21 favorites]

Buzzfeed: Trump’s Policy Banning Most Asylum-Seekers Has Been Blocked By A Judge—Hundreds of thousands of Central Americans and others were expected to have been affected by restrictions that went into place last week.

A federal court judge in San Francisco on Wednesday blocked a policy banning asylum for thousands of Central Americans and others who cross through Mexico to reach the southern border, dealing a significant blow to the Trump administration’s effort to restrict immigration.

As he granted a preliminary injunction Wednesday, Judge Jon Tigar, who was appointed by former president Barack Obama, said the Trump administration had overstepped by making a radical change to established asylum law.

“Under our laws, the right to determine whether a particular group of applicants is categorically barred from eligibility for asylum is conferred on Congress,” Tigar wrote.

Tigar’s order requires the Department of Homeland Security to immediately suspend implementation of the policy, which bars asylum for anyone who crosses through a third country but does not apply there for protection before reaching the US.

Earlier today, a federal judge in D.C. had declined to grant a temporary restraining order against these new anti-asylum rules.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:09 PM on July 24, 2019 [9 favorites]

So which judges’ ruling stands? Or is it different based on where you try to claim asylum?
posted by Weeping_angel at 6:32 PM on July 24, 2019

No shower for 23 days: U.S. citizen says conditions were so bad that he almost self-deported

Galicia says he lost 26 pounds during that time in a South Texas immigrant detention center because officers didn’t provide him with enough food. [...] He and 60 other men were crammed into an overcrowded holding area where they slept on the floor and were given only aluminum-foil blankets, he said. Some men had to sleep on the restroom area floor. [...S]ome were very sick, Galicia said. But many were afraid to ask to go to the doctor because CBP officers told them their stay would start over if they did, he said. [...] “It was inhumane how they treated us. It got to the point where I was ready to sign a deportation paper just to not be suffering there anymore. I just needed to get out of there,” he said. [...]“I told them we had rights and asked to make a phone call. But they told us, ‘You don’t have rights to anything.’ ”

posted by Rust Moranis at 6:49 PM on July 24, 2019 [23 favorites]

WSJ: House Judiciary Panel Prepares Lawsuit to Enforce Subpoena of Don McGahn
posted by Chrysostom at 9:00 PM on July 24, 2019 [14 favorites]

Good luck everyone.
posted by vrakatar at 10:58 PM on July 24, 2019 [3 favorites]

Epstein Found Injured in Jail
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:09 PM on July 24, 2019 [3 favorites]

Via The Daily Beast...

Judge: Trump and His Children Must Face Multilevel Marketing Fraud Lawsuit

President Trump, his three children, and his company must face a class-action lawsuit that accuses them of scamming thousands of people with two multilevel marketing operations and a live-seminar program that promised to reveal Trump’s “secrets to success” in real estate, a judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled that the lawsuit, filed by four anonymous individuals, can proceed with “fraud, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices” claims, Bloomberg reports.

posted by darkstar at 2:34 AM on July 25, 2019 [28 favorites]

WaPo: How did Trump end up in front of a presidential seal doctored to include a Russian symbol?

The eagle has two heads instead of one — a symbol historically tied to empire and dominance. It closely resembles the bird on the Russian coat of arms and also appears on the flags of Serbia, Albania and Montenegro. Its left talons, rather than clasping 13 arrows, appear to clutch a set of golf clubs.

posted by Joe in Australia at 4:30 AM on July 25, 2019 [22 favorites]

Popular Information (an email list that mostly focuses on smaller stories, often social-media-related, and seems reputable): Trump using Facebook ads to lie about his Democratic opponents

The Trump campaign has launched a series of new Facebook ads that blatantly lie about the policy positions of several Democratic candidates for president. One ad, for example, claims that Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Andrew Yang support eliminating private insurance.

posted by box at 5:22 AM on July 25, 2019 [8 favorites]

Facebook's ad policies prohibit "false and misleading" ads. But they have not consistently enforced this policy against the Trump campaign, its largest political advertiser.

Facebook did not respond to request for comment.

Forgive my naivete, but how come this is not major news? Shouldn’t it be? Or is it just taken for granted now that Trump can lie relentlessly and with impunity on Twitter, Facebook, tv, any platform he uses? IF the platforms don’t take action themselves then the media at least should step up and do their job of exposing the lies. They cannot let him get away with it constantly.

Related, reposting it because it seems like a good reminder:
Instead of Trump’s propaganda, how about a nice ‘truth sandwich’? (Washington Post)
Trump has turned words into weapons. And he's winning the linguistic war (Guardian)
From ‘spygate’ to ‘fake news’, Trump is using language to frame – and win – debates. And the press operate like his marketing agency
posted by bitteschoen at 6:49 AM on July 25, 2019 [14 favorites]

And the press operate like his marketing agency

On NPR, both All Things Considered last night and Morning Edition today made sure to have Republicans on to talk about the Mueller hearing, so they seem committed to the "no collusion" narrative they swallowed with Barr's phony summaries.
posted by Gelatin at 7:18 AM on July 25, 2019 [3 favorites]

Video footage of man being dragged out of car by local police in front of his family, so that he can be turned over to ICE.

He politely but firmly tells them they need a warrant.

They insist they do not.

They break the window.

They reach in.

They drag him out.

You hear the mother comforting the 11 year old, who is sobbing that is he is scared and that he doesn't want them to take daddy.

There's a part where the guy says goodbye to his family, and the guy asks to say goodbye to his other child. The officer says, and I quote, “No, right now we are being extremely nice to you. What you just put us through, what we had to go through -- you're lucky I'm letting you talk to her now. ”

They were on their way to take the baby to a medical appointment.
posted by joyceanmachine at 7:19 AM on July 25, 2019 [68 favorites]

Like, my parents were in the country without legal authorization when I was young.

My dad immigrated to get his degree, and my mom joined him. After he got his doctorate in an obscure but apparently useful specialty, a big multi-national conglomerate hired him straight out of school with a wink-and-a-nod. A couple years later, that division of big multi-national conglomerate got bought out by one of the most famous companies in the world at the time, one of the great corporate symbols of the American hegemony, and they decided he was valuable and important, so they not only paid to move him cross country, but had their in-house counsel handle his immigration case for over a decade.

By right-wing terminology, my sister and I are anchor babies. And there was a time when I would have been 11 years old, sitting in our old Pontiac Parisienne with the bench seats, terrified while the local police broke the window and dragged him out.

Only, y'know, they would've dragged both my parents out, because neither of them was authorized to be in the country.
posted by joyceanmachine at 7:43 AM on July 25, 2019 [46 favorites]

On NPR, both All Things Considered last night and Morning Edition today made sure to have Republicans on to talk about the Mueller hearing

Literal, actual, classic controlled opposition.

Attorney General William Barr orders first federal executions in nearly two decades

Barbarism is the only law.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:44 AM on July 25, 2019 [19 favorites]

It's like they all get up every day, look in the mirror, and ask "how can I be even more terrible today?" Then they do that.
posted by Justinian at 8:25 AM on July 25, 2019 [31 favorites]

Trump delivered a speech in front of a modified presidential seal including a double-headed eagle (an apparent Russian reference) clutching a wad of cash and a set of golf clubs along with the text "45 es un titere" (45 is a puppet). Washington Post coverage and Business Insider.
posted by exogenous at 9:25 AM on July 25, 2019 [22 favorites]

Facebook's ad policies prohibit "false and misleading" ads. But they have not consistently enforced this policy against the Trump campaign, its largest political advertiser.

Facebook did not respond to request for comment.

Between the broken disinformation tools and the $5 billion fine levied by the FTC related to ongoing privacy concerns, there might be a good FPP to be made about Facebook.
posted by box at 9:38 AM on July 25, 2019 [6 favorites]

box: there’s also this article I read recently on CJR which might be relevant, specifically to Facebook and in general to the election campaigns, feel free to reuse —
Scandals like Cambridge Analytica mean that social media giants are becoming even less transparent, restricting research vital to journalism. (Columbia Journalism Review)

While ethical researchers can still get some data, new limitations make answering some of society’s most pressing questions more difficult—in many cases, impossible. Both Twitter and Facebook are imposing tighter restrictions on their data. This limits how well academic researchers can act as sources for journalists, and thus how well the public is informed.

... Most of our research addresses messaging, such as negativity in campaign messages, whether messages are related to a candidate’s image or the issues, what kinds of messages are spread, and who influences the diffusion of political information. Without this research, the public would be less informed about how politicians and the public use social media during the political process. We would lack an understanding of the ways platforms like Facebook and Twitter are affecting how we access political information.

... We believe the research we do supports journalists and, ultimately, democracy, but we are concerned that in a justified effort to improve privacy, social media companies are making it harder for researchers to do work that is valuable for the health of democracy. Currently, researchers submit requests for access to Facebook and Twitter through the same channels as for-profit businesses. Other models deserve consideration: fair use laws in the US allow for the free use of portions of copyrighted material for educational purposes. We think informing the public is worthy of such special consideration.

posted by bitteschoen at 9:47 AM on July 25, 2019 [4 favorites]

Between the broken disinformation tools and the $5 billion fine levied by the FTC related to ongoing privacy concerns, there might be a good FPP to be made about Facebook.

Along with the F.U.D-ridden announcement by the DoJ that they're officially investigating the tech sector.

On a related note, last month Bloomberg reported (and the megathread missed): Warren Demands DOJ Antitrust Head Recuse Himself From Google, Apple Probes

Warren wrote to Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, who oversees the antitrust division, in a letter dated Tuesday that his past work advocating on behalf of the tech giants would create the appearance of a conflict of interest as the agency oversees antitrust scrutiny of both companies. The Massachusetts senator sent a similar letter calling for Delrahim’s recusal to a Justice Department ethics official.

"As the head of the antitrust division at the DOJ, you should not be supervising investigations into former clients who paid you tens of thousands of dollars to lobby the federal government," Warren’s letter said. "American consumers and markets deserve the confidence that the DOJ will conduct any antitrust investigation into Google or Apple with integrity, impartiality, and with the best interest of competitive markets and consumers in mind."

Warren’s letter comes days after the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission divvied up antitrust oversight of Google, Facebook.com Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Apple.

Under that agreement, the Justice Department will pursue an antitrust investigation of Google and oversee any scrutiny of Apple while the Federal Trade Commission will be responsible for antitrust oversight of Amazon and Facebook. The House Judiciary Committee has also opened a separate investigation into competition issues in the technology industry.

posted by Doktor Zed at 9:52 AM on July 25, 2019 [5 favorites]

Steven T. Dennis: Susan Collins Faces Re-Election as Standing Erodes in Trump Era

Senator Susan Collins isn’t used to seeing her popularity under water in her home state, but that’s where the Maine Republican finds herself as she decides whether to run for a fifth term next year.

Collins, 66, says she’s focused on preparing for a re-election bid but won’t decide until the early fall whether she’ll run. Her decision will shape the 2020 fight for the Senate, where she’s part of a shrinking group of lawmakers still eager to tout their record of bipartisan cooperation.

“The divisiveness of our country and the unceasing attacks by dark money groups in Maine have clearly had an impact,” Collins said in an interview at the Capitol.

Adam Smith: You know, if Susan Collins was concerned about "dark money groups," she could've been the 60th vote for the DISCLOSE Act in 2010, which would have ensured its passage. But guess what!
posted by zombieflanders at 10:50 AM on July 25, 2019 [45 favorites]

Detroit Free Press:

Ford, Volkswagen, BMW and Honda have reached a deal with California to increase gas mileage standards and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, setting a national standard, a longtime auto industry goal.

The deal between the four automakers and the California Air Resources Board appears to offer a way around the thorny standoff between the Trump Administration and California over the administration's push to roll back the standards laid out during the Obama Administration. The fight, however, is expected to continue in the courts despite the deal as the administration works to rewrite the rules. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Notably, the deal "recognizes California's authority" and would increase the average fuel economy of the automakers' new vehicle fleets to almost 50 mpg by model year 2026. During a conference call Thursday with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and CARB Chair Mary Nichols, officials noted that the Trump Administration's plan would bring that only to an average of 37 mpg by that time.

posted by Chrysostom at 11:35 AM on July 25, 2019 [18 favorites]

On a related note, last month Bloomberg reported (and the megathread missed)

Didn't, but it wasn't very prominent.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:44 AM on July 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

> On a related note, last month Bloomberg reported (and the megathread missed)

Didn't, but it wasn't very prominent.

Thanks, I missed that. The headline in the comment was "Yay, Warren", however, rather than "Warren Demands DOJ Antitrust Head Recuse Himself From Google, Apple Probes". (That's an example of why I scrupulously quote the exact headline when I'm blockquoting an article.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:51 AM on July 25, 2019 [4 favorites]

> Notably, the deal "recognizes California's authority"

I suspect conservatives will come away with a different interpretation* of "states' rights" after seeing this.

* Interpretation applies only to this result (Cf. Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98)
posted by tonycpsu at 12:03 PM on July 25, 2019 [4 favorites]

MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin:

“The Senate Intel Committee has released its election security findings in the 1st volume of their Russia report, finding:
* Russian gov't directed extensive activity against US election infrastructure
* DHS & FBI warnings in 2016 didn't provide enough info
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume1.pdf

posted by Doktor Zed at 12:34 PM on July 25, 2019 [10 favorites]

Trump delivered a speech in front of a modified presidential seal

Update: Turning Point USA has fired an aide they claim is responsible for the "45 is a puppet" seal and are saying someone tried to Google up a presidential seal and got this one. Which seems unlikely to me, but extreme incompetence out of a Charlie Kirk organization seems incredibly likely, so it's hard to say.
posted by zachlipton at 1:00 PM on July 25, 2019 [11 favorites]

Pro-Trump Republican aiming to unseat Ilhan Omar charged with felony theft

First she stole some tick spray and cat merchandise...

Then she stole voters' hearts.
posted by vverse23 at 1:44 PM on July 25, 2019 [16 favorites]

> Pro-Trump Republican aiming to unseat Ilhan Omar charged with felony theft

They're not sending their best.

Or maybe this is their best.

No wonder the GOP is begging for more help from Russia.
posted by tonycpsu at 1:50 PM on July 25, 2019 [8 favorites]

“Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data”
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:03 PM on July 25, 2019 [3 favorites]

Trump delivered a speech in front of a modified presidential seal

Another update, Meet the man who created the fake presidential seal — a former Republican fed up with Trump (WaPo). It was a graphic designer who made it in 2016, still no idea how it ended up on stage with Trump.
posted by peeedro at 4:05 PM on July 25, 2019 [10 favorites]

Russian cyberactors were are and will for the foreseeable future continue to be in a position to delete or change voter data

posted by Rust Moranis at 4:09 PM on July 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

@politico: It’s been a great week for Donald Trump

John McCain is so confused right now.
posted by tonycpsu at 5:53 PM on July 25, 2019

NBC: Active-Duty U.S. Troops Are Now Just Feet Away from Migrants in Texas—The troops "monitor" migrants at a Texas facility. One congressman said they shouldn't be prison guards, and are close to breaking the posse comitatus law.

Active-duty U.S. troops are now stationed inside the Border Patrol's holding facility in Donna, Texas, and monitoring migrant adults and children from just a few feet away, according to two current and two former defense officials, a move a congressman says comes close to violating a 140-year-old federal law.

Despite past assurances from federal officials that the active-duty U.S. troops deployed to the border would not be in direct contact with migrants or be used for law enforcement, the service members stand watch among the migrants. The troops are perched on raised platforms throughout a large room where the migrants are held, according to the four officials.

The troops were assigned to the facility to provide welfare checks on the migrants, but the officials say that has evolved into a continual presence watching over them.

The troops are not armed and are supposed to refer problems to CBP officials rather than interact with the migrants, say the officials, but they are permitted to respond to situations that require immediate medical attention.

Active-duty troops are barred from performing law enforcement functions inside the U.S. by the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law enacted in 1878 that prohibits the government from using military forces to act as a police force within U.S. borders.

posted by Doktor Zed at 5:53 PM on July 25, 2019 [15 favorites]

Rep Pete Olson [R - TX-22] retiring. District went Trump 52-44, Romney 62-37.

Olson only won by 4 points in 2018; this will definitely be seen as a good pickup opportunity for Dems.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:33 PM on July 25, 2019 [14 favorites]

I feel like there are some good chances for us in TX. TX-23 (Will Hurd - R) just needs a tiny nudge to topple, too. I don't care that he's the least assholish Republican left in the House, he's still a Republican and has to be tossed into the dustbin of history with the rest.
posted by Justinian at 7:47 PM on July 25, 2019 [11 favorites]

Yes, there were a couple of close losses in TX. It was basically gerrymandered based on a conservative suburb model that is changing pretty quickly. Obviously, there are still many conservative Texans, but the base is moving more heavily to rural/exurban areas, leaving a number of GOP seats potentially vulnerable.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:57 PM on July 25, 2019 [9 favorites]

NBC: Active-Duty U.S. Troops Are Now Just Feet Away from Migrants in Texas—The troops "monitor" migrants at a Texas facility. One congressman said they shouldn't be prison guards, and are close to breaking the posse comitatus law.


Frankly that's the least scary thing I've read about. Soldiers are better versed about not obeying illegal orders than cops are. What's scary about ICE and the BCP is that it's loaded with people who couldn't hack it in the military.
posted by ocschwar at 8:10 PM on July 25, 2019 [11 favorites]

Correction: the one less scary thing I read was about INS staff being sent to the border. When the ICE was created as an enforcement body, the people who stayed in the INS instead of shifting over to ICE were those who preferred pushing paper over pushing people. The fictional INS staffers you see in the movies are fiction. The real life ones have made an INS errand into something less scary than an errand at the DMV, at least in my experience. They tend to see themselves as representatives of the US, and they act like embassy staff. If you're so short of goons to send to the border that you're sending INS clerks to the border, that is good news.
posted by ocschwar at 8:19 PM on July 25, 2019 [5 favorites]

Turning Point USA said there was “zero malicious intent” behind the use of the doctored seal, blaming the error on a haphazard Google search.

Then why did they fire the guy who did the search? If they're a one-strike-and-you're-out organization, they have a lot to explain about Charlie Kirk.
posted by rhizome at 10:00 PM on July 25, 2019 [5 favorites]

Three months ago, the FBI arrested Larry Hopkins, leader of the armed right-wing militia group, United Constitutional Patriots. Now, troubling evidence has emerged that shows US Customs and Border Patrol were actually cooperating with the UCP.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:37 AM on July 26, 2019 [21 favorites]

Active-duty U.S. troops are now stationed inside the Border Patrol's holding facility in Donna, Texas, and monitoring migrant adults and children from just a few feet away, according to two current and two former defense officials, a move a congressman says comes close to violating a 140-year-old federal law.

(Emphasis added)

Why do they call out how old the law is? This administration is breaking laws from all over the timeline and violating the constitution all over the place, what difference does this make?
posted by mikepop at 6:52 AM on July 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

NBC: Trump Sues to Block New York Law Allowing Congress to Get His State Taxes

Buzzfeed’s Zoe Tillman: “Trump's lawsuit seeking to block House Dems from getting his state tax returns from NY – and challenging the NY law that made it possible – has been assigned to the DC federal district court's newest judge, Judge Carl Nichols”

Nichols is a former clerk of Clarence Thomas and current member of the Federalist Society. We’ll see if he show any political bias…
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:58 AM on July 26, 2019 [4 favorites]

zchlipton: Update: Turning Point USA has fired an aide they claim is responsible for the "45 is a puppet" seal and are saying someone tried to Google up a presidential seal and got this one.

It's amazing how plausible that is. Like, I'm pretty sure past presidents' staff would be able to find and provide whatever the official digital file is, on some White House server. The president used to have a real schedule and everything! But now the responsibility is, momentarily and arbitrarily, in the hands of this third-tier conservative group, so of course Googling is pretty much the only option available. The intern still screwed up but it's (hilariously) forgivable since it shouldn't have been their job anyway.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 7:24 AM on July 26, 2019 [5 favorites]

I would not be surprised if they were hiring interns via 8chan.
posted by benzenedream at 8:11 AM on July 26, 2019 [4 favorites]

The guy who designed the parody seal did an AMA on Reddit and claims that it would not have been easy to Google up by mistake. He sold merch with that logo after the 2016 election but had closed his online shop a while back.
posted by Sublimity at 9:00 AM on July 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

The number of Dems publicly supporting impeachment or inquiries hits 100, and via Manu Raju we learn that Nadler might be looking to kick things off in that direction:

Nadler announces that their new suit to get grand jury info from Mueller probe argues they need the info to decide whether to recommend articles of impeachment. I asked him if there could be a point where he calls for impeachment without Pelosi’s support, and he sidestepped it[.] Language from the suit makes clear that impeachment under consideration. “Articles of impeachment are under consideration as part of the Committee’s investigation, although no final determination has been made.”

More: “The Committee seeks key documentary evidence and intends to conduct hearings with Mr. McGahn and other critical witnesses to determine whether the Committee should recommend articles of impeachment or any other Article I remedies, and if so, in what form”[.] Pelosi has signed off on this language, Dems say[.]

Just asked Nadler if what they’re doing now is the same thing as an impeachment inquiry, and he said: “In effect.” And then he said the distinction is that impeachment inquiry is just about impeachment. His probe is a bit broader but could lead to recommendation of impeachment

posted by zombieflanders at 10:00 AM on July 26, 2019 [14 favorites]

I realize that it would be pulling punches, but I wonder whether the House could form an official group to determine whether there is sufficient cause to pursue impeachment proceedings.

Maybe one step back would be enough to bring more members in.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:19 AM on July 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

Sounds like a soft open to an impeachment inquiry. This seems significant, if incremental.

House Democrats say they need Mueller grand jury information to decide on impeachment (CNN.com)
posted by DrAstroZoom at 11:17 AM on July 26, 2019 [7 favorites]

It is such a massive downer that "Pelosi won't do one single tiny thing to talk up impeachment, but will grudgingly go so far as to allow her caucus to eventually get enough supporters together so that she can go ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to the handful of center-lefters and say she can't put a lid on it anymore" represents the most optimistic take on the Speaker's actions.

I mean, I guess you could keep on claiming some Nth dimensional chess where she really really wants impeachment but this is the best political kayfabe ever done. But it feels more like our choices are (a) she's firmly against and this brief hint of a ray through the clouds will be stepped on before Sundy night or (b) she'll allow herself to be dragged every inch of the way over the line but she isn't digging her fingers into the ground or holding onto something to hinder movement.
posted by phearlez at 11:19 AM on July 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

For some comic relief, or more tears, or both, here’s a video clip of Danielle Stella, Ilhan Omar’s 2020 challenger, the very same Stella who supports the QAnon conspiracy theory and has been held twice this year over alleged shoplifting. She loves freeeedom!
posted by bitteschoen at 11:38 AM on July 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

I live in MN-5, and have been fairly deluged with Danielle Stella material over the past few days. And I really quickly went from scornfully wanting to see the hammer come down on her to just feeling plainly bad for her, honestly. She really comes across as fundamentally not well, and whoever in her life is telling her she should run is doing her a grave disservice. She doesn't have a prayer against Omar; she never did (for all practical purposes, the D primary in MN-5 is the election), but now this person who really isn't well-served by having a news spotlight on her is going to have a big platform on which to make a spectacle of herself.
posted by COBRA! at 11:45 AM on July 26, 2019 [15 favorites]

Option 3, which I hadn't really thought of before but the more I think about it seems to be the best fit, is that swing-district Dems are privately telling her that they will absolutely never vote for impeachment for fear of tanking their re-election campaigns, and she's terrified of the aftermath that would ensue if the whole thing fails in the House rather than the Senate (where it would be simple to throw at Mitch McConnell's feet). Not unlike how she passed the Republican border bill rather than whip the centrists for votes they didn't want to cast.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:11 PM on July 26, 2019 [9 favorites]

She really comes across as fundamentally not well, and whoever in her life is telling her she should run is doing her a grave disservice.

I understand what you mean and why you may feel bad for her, but I wouldn’t assume she’s not capable of her own decisions about running. Her twitter feed has some low-level stuff like this and this against Omar, it’s not the kind of thing that makes you feel as bad for the person posting it as for the person who’s the target of this sort of lies and prejudice.
posted by bitteschoen at 12:15 PM on July 26, 2019 [4 favorites]

Rep Martha Roby (R - AL-02) is retiring. District went Trump 65-33, should stay Safe R.

Third GOP House retirement this week. Two (Roby, Mitchell) were looking at likely competitive primaries for being less than 100% toadying to Trump, the other (Olson) is in a district that is trending rapidly bluer.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:22 PM on July 26, 2019 [6 favorites]

Israel Channel 13 News’s Barak Ravid has a scoop:

1 \ I reported tonight on @newsisrael13 that the Israeli ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer went on a secret trip to Alaska last week. Israeli officials told me this wasn't a usual diplomatic trip in one of the states in the U.S. but much more important and even dramatic trip
2 \ Israeli officials told me Dermer's visit to Alaska had to do with an issue which is at the core of the U.S.-Israel security and strategic relationship and mainly with the cooperation against the threat from Iran
3 \ At this time I can't report on all the details I know about Dermer's trip to Alaska due to a gag order by the military censor in Israel. But more details will be released in the next 48 hours
4 \ Israel and the U.S. have a robust security relationship and vast cooperation on issues ranging fron intelligence sharing to missile defense. The event Dermer traveled to Alsake for is another testament for the upgrade in the U.S.-Israel cooperation against Iran. END

(For “scoop” read “leak”, of course, but he’s proved to have reliable sources.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:25 PM on July 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

Third GOP House retirement this week. Two (Roby, Mitchell) were looking at likely competitive primaries for being less than 100% toadying to Trump, the other (Olson) is in a district that is trending rapidly bluer.

One of the many ways contemporary journalism and punditry is failing us is quoiting every Republican who describes every Democrat as a radical socialist while completely failing to note how very much more conservative their gerrymandered districts, media bubbles, and dependence on dark money have made them.

This comment was starting to develop like Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch -- "*among* the things making them more radically conservative are gerrymandered districts, media bubbles, dependence on dark money, and adherence to unpopular policies that benefit the wealthy -- so I'm just stopping now.
posted by Gelatin at 12:27 PM on July 26, 2019 [5 favorites]

Hastings: We don’t do the reunifications is my point, sir.
Nadler: So you would do the deportation before the reunification without any knowledge of whether the parents are being reunified?
Hastings: Yes.
Nadler: So, in other words, you’re kidnapping the child.
Hastings: We’re not kidnapping the child. We follow the guidelines that are out.
Nadler: Deporting a parent without their child is literal kidnapping. [SLSlate]
posted by benzenedream at 1:23 PM on July 26, 2019 [61 favorites]

Old and busted: "I was just following orders!"

New hotness: "We follow the guidelines that are out."
posted by Gelatin at 1:26 PM on July 26, 2019 [27 favorites]

Trump Signs Deal With Guatemala to Limit Asylum Claims in U.S. (says Trump)

Guatemala U-15 players denied U.S. visas amidst Trump administration's threats toward Central American nation
posted by BungaDunga at 1:38 PM on July 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

From the Slate article benzenedream links about the family separation hearings:

During a lightning round of opening questions from Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, the CBP official confessed what many had long suspected but that the administration has repeatedly denied against all evidence: The Trump administration intended for family separation to be permanent.

They intended it to be permanent. This wasn't just knock-on or opportunistic evil, or a general "we don't care if we reunite families" or a few racist child thieves.

Are you ready to riot? I personally am pretty fucking ready to riot.
posted by Frowner at 1:41 PM on July 26, 2019 [49 favorites]

Also, I think this ought to be an attack ad, maybe the attack ad. Maybe a clip of this testimony with they intended it to be permanent scrolling over it.
posted by Frowner at 1:42 PM on July 26, 2019 [6 favorites]

Dara Lind sez this may not be a real safe third country agreement
posted by BungaDunga at 2:01 PM on July 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

She then says that it may be after all. Conflicting descriptions of a legal matter where precision is key? From THIS White House? I'm so very shocked.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:21 PM on July 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

\ Israel and the U.S. have a robust security relationship and vast cooperation on issues ranging fron intelligence sharing to missile defense. The event Dermer traveled to Alsake for is another testament for the upgrade in the U.S.-Israel cooperation against Iran

Alaska? Alaska is where the US keeps its bestest anti-ballistic missile systems, so maybe some kind of transfer of heretofore not transferred weapons?
posted by notyou at 2:49 PM on July 26, 2019

WaPo, Joshua Matz: The House has already opened an impeachment investigation against Trump

In an official court filing, the committee has described its activities as an impeachment investigation.
...
On June 6, for instance, the committee recommended that Attorney General William P. Barr be held in contempt for failing to produce the full, unredacted Mueller report. In so doing, the committee stated that it was “considering whether any of the conduct described in the Special Counsel’s Report warrants the Committee in taking any further steps under Congress’ Article I powers. That includes whether to approve articles of impeachment with respect to the President or any other Administration official.”

Four days later, before a hearing on the report, the committee issued a memo stating that the purposes of its ongoing investigation include “whether to approve articles of impeachment with respect to the President.” In advance of a similar hearing on June 20, the committee reiterated its pressing need for evidence bearing on “whether to recommend ‘articles of impeachment’ with respect to the President.”

The committee confirmed this point in a memo released on July 11: “Articles of impeachment have already been introduced in this Congress and referred to the Judiciary Committee. They are under consideration as part of the Committee’s investigation, though no final determination has been made.” The same day, Nadler stated at a hearing that “the Committee has the authority to recommend its own articles of impeachment for consideration by the full House of Representatives.”

While these events unfolded at the committee level, the House approved H. Res. 430, a resolution stating that the committee “has any and all necessary authority under Article I of the Constitution” to seek key grand jury material and compel McGahn’s testimony. Given that Article I enumerates the “legislative Powers,” including the “sole Power of impeachment,” the message wasn’t subtle. And it was bolstered by a report accompanying H. Res. 430, which cites the Judiciary Committee’s contempt referral for Barr as an example of using “all necessary authority under Article I” — adding that the committee is investigating “whether to recommend articles of impeachment with respect to the President or any other administration official.”

I would note again that once there is an impeachment vote, that will put an end to the impeachment inquiry.
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:24 PM on July 26, 2019 [19 favorites]

Judge Dismisses Kentucky Teen's Lawsuit From Viral Encounter

A federal judge has thrown out a Kentucky teen's lawsuit accusing the Washington Post of falsely labeling him a racist following an encounter with a Native American man at the Lincoln Memorial...

Federal judge William O. Bertelsman ruled that there may have been "erroneous" opinions published by the Post, but they are protected by the First Amendment.

posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:35 PM on July 26, 2019 [14 favorites]

Russia's bot farm has discovered Tulsi Gabbard. Related: why Hawaii's LGBTQ community questions her "evolution."

(Edited to add. From February)
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:37 PM on July 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

"France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the US," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.

"We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron's foolishness shortly. I've always said American wine is better than French wine!"


Freedom whine.
posted by Mrs Potato at 5:18 PM on July 26, 2019 [8 favorites]

As posted by jason_steakums in the Mueller testimony thread...

Judiciary Vice Chair Rep. Scanlon and three other members of the House Juciary Committee write: "Why We're Moving Forward With Impeachment"
posted by OnceUponATime at 5:35 PM on July 26, 2019 [7 favorites]

"We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron's foolishness shortly. I've always said American wine is better than French wine!"

Said a man who is quite proud of having never consumed alcohol...
posted by jedicus at 5:38 PM on July 26, 2019 [5 favorites]

Someone should remind Trump that the best wines come from California and watch his head explode.
posted by Justinian at 5:57 PM on July 26, 2019 [7 favorites]

Trump’s wine tariffs won’t pass the Mar-a-Lago committee.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:19 PM on July 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

Doktor Zed > Israel Channel 13 News’s Barak Ravid has a scoop:

1. I reported tonight on @newsisrael13 that the Israeli ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer went on a secret trip to Alaska last week. Israeli officials told me this wasn't a usual diplomatic trip in one of the states in the U.S. but much more important and even dramatic trip

2. Israeli officials told me Dermer's visit to Alaska had to do with an issue which is at the core of the U.S.-Israel security and strategic relationship and mainly with the cooperation against the threat from Iran
...
4. Israel and the U.S. have a robust security relationship and vast cooperation on issues ranging fron intelligence sharing to missile defense. The event Dermer traveled to Alsake for is another testament for the upgrade in the U.S.-Israel cooperation against Iran.

Probably a show & tell of the not-so-secret U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse Defense anti-ballistic missile system at Fort Greeley, Alaska. The U.S. completed a joint THAAD missile deployment exercise in Israel in April 2019.
posted by cenoxo at 8:08 PM on July 26, 2019 [5 favorites]

Supreme court allows Trump to use $2.5bn in Pentagon funds for border wall
posted by bitteschoen at 2:30 AM on July 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

We’ve heard this before. Go back where you came from. Go back to Africa. And now, “send her back.” Black and brown people in America don’t hear these chants in a vacuum; for many of us, we’ve felt their full force being shouted in our faces, whispered behind our backs, scrawled across lockers, or hurled at us online. They are part of a pattern in our country designed to denigrate us as well as keep us separate and afraid.

As 148 African Americans who served in the last administration, we witnessed firsthand the relentless attacks on the legitimacy of President Barack Obama and his family from our front-row seats to America’s first black presidency. Witnessing racism surge in our country, both during and after Obama’s service and ours, has been a shattering reality, to say the least. But it has also provided jet-fuel for our activism, especially in moments such as these.

We stand with congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, as well as all those currently under attack by President Trump, along with his supporters and his enablers, who feel deputized to decide who belongs here — and who does not. There is truly nothing more un-American than calling on fellow citizens to leave our country — by citing their immigrant roots, or ancestry, or their unwillingness to sit in quiet obedience while democracy is being undermined.

(...) We refuse to sit idly by as racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia are wielded by the president and any elected official complicit in the poisoning of our democracy.

We are African Americans, we are patriots, and we refuse to sit idly by - WaPo op-ed co-signed by 148 African Americans who served in the Obama administration.
posted by bitteschoen at 7:09 AM on July 27, 2019 [39 favorites]

The WaPo has a longish article about Kushner's role in the Trump 2020 campaign, it boils down to the question of whether he's a boy genius or a fucking idiot. Here's one anecdote so you can decide yourself:

Other advisers were also dubious when, during planning discussions for the official 2020 launch, Kushner suggested restaging the president’s now-famous 2015 Trump Tower escalator ride.

posted by peeedro at 7:43 AM on July 27, 2019 [7 favorites]

[Crown Prince Jared] has asked Bill Stepien, a senior political adviser to the campaign, to provide him with a 10-year plan outlining how Republicans can win inner-city voters.

lol

Kushner’s campaign duties are the latest in a mushrooming list of high-profile responsibilities, from working to fashion an immigration compromise on Capitol Hill to being tasked with attempting to deliver Middle East peace. Neither has had much success...

lol

“It’s not an accident we have so much money in the bank,” Kushner said. “It’s not an accident we’ve built out the team. It’s not an accident there have been so few leaks out of what we’ve done. I think what you’re seeing is a super highly competent operation.”

lol
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:59 AM on July 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

On the other hand: repetition works. Works much more reliably than ridicule.
posted by rhizome at 12:08 PM on July 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

Trump tweets support for antifascism to be formally considered terrorism so that it will be "easier for police to do their job"
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:09 PM on July 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

"Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 & others)."

In a sane society, this sentence alone would be considered an act of terror but ok
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:30 PM on July 27, 2019 [29 favorites]

So is there a list of the $2.5 billion in military construction projects that apparently aren't as important as building a useless border wall?
posted by Reverend John at 1:54 PM on July 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

Trump tweets support for antifascism to be formally considered terrorism so that it will be "easier for police to do their job"

When you've blown past saying the quiet parts out loud and gotten to screaming the loud parts even louder.
posted by non canadian guy at 1:57 PM on July 27, 2019 [5 favorites]

"Major," "organization" and "terror" each get their own Citation Needed tag.
posted by delfin at 2:00 PM on July 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

So is there a list of the $2.5 billion in military construction projects that apparently aren't as important as building a useless border wall?

Family housing, I’d bet. It’s pretty much always the first thing on the chopping block.
posted by Etrigan at 2:03 PM on July 27, 2019 [7 favorites]

So is there a list of the $2.5 billion in military construction projects that apparently aren't as important as building a useless border wall?

It's apparently coming from two different sources and the SC ruled on two separate cases? It's quite confusing.

Quoting this Vox article:

"In June, Gilliam ordered that work be stopped on a stretch of the wall between California and Arizona. Vox’s Gabriela Resto-Montero reported that the $1.5 billion in financing for that 79-mile portion would have come from “military pay and training accounts through a Department of Defense counterdrug program.” In May, Judge Gilliam ruled that a stretch of wall being built between Arizona and Texas likewise could not draw upon reprogrammed $1 billion in Army personnel funds."
posted by soundguy99 at 2:43 PM on July 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

The great thing about Antifa not being a real thing is that you can declare anything to be Antifa, like reporters and protesters.
posted by benzenedream at 4:22 PM on July 27, 2019 [43 favorites]

rhizome > On the other hand: repetition works...

Fortunately, it’s not infallible. From BBC-Future, 26 October 2016, Tom Stafford [bio], How liars create the illusion of truth:

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Among psychologists something like this known as the "illusion of truth" effect.

[Studies reveal that]

...people tend to rate items they've seen before as more likely to be true, regardless of whether they are true or not, and seemingly for the sole reason that they are more familiar.

...the illusion of truth effect worked just as strongly for known as for unknown items, suggesting that prior knowledge won’t prevent repetition from swaying our judgements of plausibility.

...participants were asked to rate how true each statement seemed on a six-point scale, and one where they just categorised each fact as "true" or "false". Repetition pushed the average item up the six-point scale, and increased the odds that a statement would be categorised as true. For statements that were actually fact or fiction, known or unknown, repetition made them all seem more believable.

...the biggest influence on whether a statement was judged to be true was... whether it actually was true. The repetition effect couldn’t mask the truth. With or without repetition, people were still more likely to believe the actual facts as opposed to the lies.

This shows something fundamental about how we update our beliefs – repetition has a power to make things sound more true, even when we know differently, but it doesn't over-ride that knowledge.

...We can all bring to bear more extensive powers of reasoning, but we need to recognise they are a limited resource. Our minds are prey to the illusion of truth effect because our instinct is to use short-cuts in judging how plausible something is...

Once we know about the effect we can guard against it. Part of this is double-checking why we believe what we do... rather than having to take it on faith.

...part of guarding against the illusion is... to stop repeating falsehoods. We live in a world where the facts matter, and should matter. If you repeat things without bothering to check if they are true, you are helping to make a world where lies and truth are easier to confuse.

posted by cenoxo at 7:48 PM on July 27, 2019 [10 favorites]

ICE Arrest Thwarted After Neighbors Form Human Chain Around Father and Son. Thirty or so community neighbors formed a human chain around a family, bringing them water and food, while ICE agents illegally threatened to arrest them.
posted by xammerboy at 10:41 PM on July 27, 2019 [15 favorites]

Trump slams 'rat-infested' district – but his own restaurant had a rodent problem

Calling Elijah Cummings' district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess”, it's clear Trump has had some time between his rallies and watching Fox to polish his mirror some more.
posted by Stoneshop at 12:28 AM on July 28, 2019 [7 favorites]

I would just like to say, over in the metatalk about the megathreads, Rhaomi posted links to all of the previous megathreads.

I've been sort of skimming through them, and holy shit there's so much wacky, insane, nutball crap that happened that I'd just completely forgotten about or blanked out. You guys should check it out.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:53 AM on July 28, 2019 [25 favorites]

Baltimore Sun editorial: Better to have a few rats than to be one

... It’s not hard to see what’s going on here. The congressman has been a thorn in this president’s side, and Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremacists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don’t to scream. President Trump bad-mouthed Baltimore in order to make a point that the border camps are “clean, efficient & well run," which, of course, they are not — unless you are fine with all the overcrowding, squalor, cages and deprivation to be found in what the Department of Homeland Security’s own inspector-general recently called “a ticking time bomb."

... This is a president who will happily debase himself at the slightest provocation. And given Mr. Cummings’ criticisms of U.S. border policy, the various investigations he has launched as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, his willingness to call Mr. Trump a racist for his recent attacks on the freshmen congresswomen, and the fact that “Fox & Friends” had recently aired a segment critical of the city, slamming Baltimore must have been irresistible in a Pavlovian way. Fox News rang the bell, the president salivated and his thumbs moved across his cell phone into action.

... Finally, while we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner — or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman’s name correctly (it’s Cummings, not Cumming) — we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are “good people” among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post. Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.

posted by bitteschoen at 4:19 AM on July 28, 2019 [49 favorites]

This CNN video (via Yashar Ali on Twitter) has a very powerful and moving response to Trump's attack on Elijah Cummings.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:26 AM on July 28, 2019 [21 favorites]

I recommend that video. The broadcaster basically breaks down, and reminds the president that the people of Baltimore are Americans. I want more of this. I am ashamed and disgusted by everything that's happening, yet I don't feel I hear very many moving speeches from today's politicians. Am I missing it? Or did Democrats essentially give up on speaking this way when they adopted a strategy of appeasement?
posted by xammerboy at 8:23 AM on July 28, 2019 [14 favorites]

Office sit-ins aren't just for Republicans. On July 12, six constituents of Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA-08) visited his main office to ask he say something, anything, about the border camps (he's chairman of the subcommittee on national security, which oversees Homeland Security). He didn't. This past Thursday, about 70 people flooded his office. He still hasn't said anything (a spokesperson said he's visited Central America). On Aug. 2, they'll do it again, now also asking that he join the call for impeachment.

Lynch's district borders MA-07, Ayanna Pressley's district, and while it's far more conservative and white (after the 2010 census, the district lines were re-done to make MA-07 the state's first majority-minority congressional district), it has some significant progressive pockets (the Boston neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, two of the Boston's more progressive areas, for example, were split in two between MA-08 and MA-07). Last year, Brianna Wu (yes, that Brianna Wu) ran an abysmal campaign against Lynch; she's running again next year.
posted by adamg at 10:28 AM on July 28, 2019 [11 favorites]

Axios’s Trump whisperer Jonathan Swan has a leak from Trumpland: Rep. John Ratcliffe Favored to Replace Dan Coats as DNI

President Trump is expected to nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence, according to three sources familiar with the president's deliberations.

Trump was thrilled by Ratcliffe's admonishment of former special counsel Robert Mueller in last week's House Judiciary Committee hearing. "The special counsel's job, nowhere does it say that you were to conclusively determine Donald Trump's innocence or that the special counsel report should determine whether or not to exonerate him," Ratcliffe, a former prosecutor, said to Mueller.[…]

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman was the first to report that Ratcliffe was in the mix to replace Coats as DNI. And CNN reported that Ratcliffe was under consideration for an unspecified job in the administration.

Even if Ratcliffe is now the favored contender over Devin Nunes for DNI, what hasn’t changed is Trump’s apparent determination to nominate a political ally to this office instead of someone from the intelligence community.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:44 AM on July 28, 2019 [6 favorites]

Politico’s Natasha Bertrand adds, “🚨 I’m told Nunes was offered the job but turned it down & would want an intel job, like CIA Director, post 2020 if Trump is re elected. Per Axios Ratcliffe is now the front runner, though there’s been some concern that he’s too inexperienced to be confirmed.”
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:56 AM on July 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

"The special counsel's job, nowhere does it say that you were to conclusively determine Donald Trump's innocence or that the special counsel report should determine whether or not to exonerate him," Ratcliffe, a former prosecutor, said to Mueller.[…]

That Trump and his minions loudly proclaim him exonerated by Mueller, and then turn around and excoriate Mueller for saying the report doesn't exonerate Trump by pointing out that the report wasn't authorized to determine whether or not Trump is exonerated just makes my mind twist into tiny little knots like hair suffused with bubble gum.

Please. Make it stop.
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:18 PM on July 28, 2019 [6 favorites]

Breaking WaPo: Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats is expected to resign soon, capping a tumultuous relationship with President Trump

This is, as of this writing, the full text of the article: "Coats’s resignation, which was confirmed by people familiar with the matter, follows years of the intelligence director being at odds with Trump over the wisdom of negotiations with Russia, Iran’s nuclear weapons program and the severity of foreign threats to U.S. elections."
posted by box at 1:52 PM on July 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

Protesters descend on ICE data facility in Vermont
posted by The Whelk at 1:53 PM on July 28, 2019 [12 favorites]

So, did Coats get fired on twitter? The Washington Post article only says he's "expected to resign soon", and there goes Donnie announcing his successor already.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 2:49 PM on July 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

So, did Coats get fired on twitter?

Yes, @realDonaldTrump just announced Ratcliffe is in, Coats is out (last day August 15).

Ratcliffe’s most relevant intelligence background is serving for a couple of years as the DoJ’s Chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security for the Eastern District of Texas.
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:13 PM on July 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

From I-1 country, in The Daily Star (Oneonta, N.Y.): Chuck Pinkey: Nothing he's done shows Trump is a racist. (Chuck routinely gets more Facebook traffic than anything else the Star posts, which of course is why they post him.)

In one generation we went from Keating/Javits/Rocky Republicans (no, not perfect), and GOP fans of RFK to this.

Yes, I know, Delgado won the CD here. As I've said, he won the colleges and the towns and small cities on the Hudson.
posted by jgirl at 4:29 PM on July 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

Gee, Chuck Pinkey’s email address is posted at the bottom of the article linked above. Would he appreciate some comments? What a fool...
posted by njohnson23 at 4:37 PM on July 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I just listened to some of the Pod Save America podcast on the Mueller testimony, where they pointed out that Mueller admitted the only reason he did not come to a conclusion as to Trump's guilt was the DOJ guideline against doing so. They also pointed out that this is a really strange take on the guideline.

Mueller really fell down on the job here. I read blogs, articles, etc. for a year that predicted what the final report would look like. None of them said Mueller wouldn't come to conclusions. In the end, his loyalty to his institution was greater than his loyalty to his country. His decision to not come to any conclusions will go down in history as an abdication of duty.
posted by xammerboy at 7:06 PM on July 28, 2019 [19 favorites]

People think Comey should have said nothing about Clinton's behavior, since he was not charging her with a crime. Yet the same people (in many cases) think Mueller should have drawn conclusions about Trump's behavior, though not charging HIM with a crime?

Mueller lived through the Comey controversy with the rest of us, and he knows Comey personally and has been FBI director. He found himself in more or less the same position as Comey -- knowing some embarrassing stuff about a politician who wasn't going to be charged. Of course he tried not to make Comey's mistake of inserting his own opinion and conclusions into his summary of the findings of his investigation. (Then again, Comey had a charging decision to explain, and Mueller had no charging decision to make.)

Both Mueller and Comey have been attacked from both sides as "obvious" partisans of the other side... both have, in my opinion, done their best in an almost impossible position, to uncover the truth. Mueller handled this difficult job better than Comey precisely because he did not do what so many are now trying to force him to do -- assert his own opinions about the meaning of the facts he uncovered.

He stated the facts and the law and left it to us, the American people, to decide whether those facts matter to us. We need to stop trying to get him to do our job. Authoritarian leaders are brought down by vast protest movements, not by prosecutors.
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:45 AM on July 29, 2019 [21 favorites]

Trump's threat to label Antifa terrorist group triggers row in Germany (Deutsche Welle)

The hashtag #IchbinAntifa ("I am Antifa") began trending on Twitter in Germany on Sunday after US President Donald Trump said he was considering labeling the group a terrorist organization.

... "I am Antifa always and every time. German history compels us to stand up against racism and fascism. On the street and in parliament," wrote Bernd Riexinger, co-chairman of the Left party.

... Sven Lehmann, a Greens MP and the party's spokesperson for social and queer policy, wrote on Twitter that he supports Antifa because the group "often looked closely when people were devalued or attacked, where others looked away."

... The hashtag sparked ire among politicians of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, several of whom expressed support for Trump and called for a similar measure in Germany.

... The Hamburg branch of Germany's police union also criticized Antifa, posting pictures of black-clad protesters holding signs calling for violence against police.

"Violence as a means of political conflict must be prohibited and criminally prosecuted — this must be a democratic consensus that transcends party and ideological boundaries," the union wrote.

posted by bitteschoen at 7:16 AM on July 29, 2019 [16 favorites]

Environmentalists, tribes blast Bears Ears national monument plan: The 15% of the monument that remains "protected" will have fewer protections in place than the pre-monument resource management plan allowing more extractive activities. The new plan allows chaining (clearing of pinyon and juniper forests for grazing by dragging heavy chain between two bulldozers), creation of OHV roads, does not protect paleontological or cultural resources, and does not contain a recreational use plan to balance shared land uses.

The management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante, the other monument dramatically shrunk by Trump, is on hold because of this administration's incompetency and corruption: Watchdog to investigate whether BLM broke the law by studying Grand Staircase monument’s potential for oil and gas leasing.
posted by peeedro at 7:25 AM on July 29, 2019 [16 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump just announced Ratcliffe is in, Coats is out (last day August 15).

In his resignation letter yesterday, Coats writes, "I have ensured that we have the capabilities necessary to protect against those who would do us harm, including through reauthorization of Section 702 authority, establishment of an election security executive to support the whole-of-government effort to address threats against our elections, reforms to the security clearance process, and improvements to our budget processes." That's quite a bit shade in the first two categories with respect to Trump administration scandals, not unlike Mattis's resignation letter.

Shane Harris observes: "Noting again this morning, the law is unambiguous that when the DNI position is vacant, the Principal Deputy DNI serves as acting DNI. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/3026 Unclear why Trump teased an announcement of the acting—it has to be Sue Gordon, the current principal deputy. […] If Gordon were no longer the Principal Deputy DNI, the law speaks to that as well: The DNI (Coats until Aug. 15, as far as we know now) recommmends a new deputy to the president."

For comparison Lawfare's David Preiss has posted a thread with the bios of all previous DNIs. He concludes, "John Ratcliffe was a US Attorney for a year and Mayor of Heath, TX for eight years. He’s sat on the Homeland Security Committee, though not its Counterterrorism & Intel Subcommittee, since joining Congress in 2015. He’s been on the Intelligence Committee for seven months."

Meanwhile, Ratcliffe told Fox's Maria Bartiromo yesterday (via the conservative Washington Examiner): “I think the first thing we need to do is make sure we don’t do what the Democrats have done. They accused Donald Trump of a crime and then they try and reverse engineer a process to justify that accusation. So I’m not going to accuse any specific person of any specific crime, I just want there to be a fair process to get there. What I do know as a former federal prosecutor is that it does appear that there were crimes committed during the Obama administration.”
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:24 AM on July 29, 2019 [8 favorites]

Bandy Lee to Robert Mueller: Time to stop "enabling Trump's disease" (Chauncey DeVega, Salon)

What do you think Donald Trump's inner dreams and desires are?

Donald Trump has shown through his behavior that he does not have a core self and sense of being. That might seem like a drastic thing to say, but I have actually treated and encountered over a thousand individuals who have exactly this kind of predisposition. Such people often state that they feel dead inside, that they are living tombs.

This is one of the reasons why Donald Trump needs an adoring crowd — he needs to see thousands of people cheering him on. Trump constantly needs that. Trump must have these political rallies because they are his source of self. To live in such a way is a very terrifying existence. This helps to explain Trump's constant paranoia. He believes that the world is a threatening place where everyone is against him. This explains why Trump feels like he must always fight for his own survival. This is a very dangerous disposition to have in a position of power.

Loneliness only exposes Trump to his utter emptiness. Donald Trump suffers from feelings of worthlessness and powerlessness far greater Loneliness only exposes Trump to his utter emptiness. Donald Trump suffers from feelings of worthlessness and powerlessness far greater than what others would attribute to him. This is why Donald Trump cannot even contemplate the possibility that he is anything less than an expert in everything, and insists that he is the greatest president in history, the least racist person, and the most "stable genius" ever in human existence. This all shows the levels of insecurity and emptiness that Donald Trump is suffering from.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:29 AM on July 29, 2019 [14 favorites]

@KamalaHarris: Yesterday I announced that, as president, I’ll establish a student loan debt forgiveness program for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities.

Erik Loomis, LGM: How Not to Issue Policy Pronouncements: The Kamala Harris Story

What? Does this describe like one person? Does Harris understand who gets Pell Grants? Does she understand the structural issues around employment in disadvantaged communities? Does she understand what these communities really need and why bigger policy proposals are necessary? And who is this really going to appeal to? [...]

This is what happens when you surround your campaign with centrist staffers who fear angering rich people and don’t understand how, in primaries at least, big proposals are what attracts voters. It’s like they took the most popular student financial aid program, combined it with something that the Wall Street financiers will like (no debt relief for those who provide social services!) and then made it all as tepid as possible.

posted by tonycpsu at 10:39 AM on July 29, 2019 [6 favorites]

i mean if she got this crackpot scheme enacted into law i would immediately look into standing up the most absolutely minimal potemkin business in order to get my 20k and my three years off from loan repayments.

first thought for what my potemkin business would do: i'd become a consultant to other similar-minded people who likewise wanted to run potemkin businesses for the purpose of student loan deferral/forgiveness.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 11:05 AM on July 29, 2019 [16 favorites]

I like Harris but that proposal is like a parody of the super-complicated solutions to simple problems that centrist think-tanks churned out in the '90s. The DLC was dissolved in 2011 but its stupid policy ideas live on.
posted by octothorpe at 11:06 AM on July 29, 2019 [5 favorites]

I feel dumber for having read Harris' proposal. I think she's great but... come on. At least Biden's position of "lol good luck" is easy to understand and has the virtue of being simple.
posted by Justinian at 11:22 AM on July 29, 2019 [7 favorites]

New Q poll of the Dem primary.

Biden 34%
Warren 15%
Harris 12%
Sanders 11%

Sanders falling to 4th and trending down below that 15% mark seems pretty important. It really looks like Warren is going to be the standard bearer for the progressive wing this time around.
posted by Justinian at 11:25 AM on July 29, 2019 [11 favorites]

going by the “who is sending me the thirstiest spam” metric, sanders’ campaign is in freefall right now.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 11:33 AM on July 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

It really looks like Warren is going to be the standard bearer for the progressive wing this time around.

Maybe actually being a Democrat is going to pay off in the Democratic primary race?
posted by The Tensor at 11:47 AM on July 29, 2019 [30 favorites]

i still hold out hope for california (with its new early primary) going harris, warren, biden, sanders, thereby knocking both biden and sanders out of the race and clearing the field for warren to win in states where harris isn’t as well-known.

(warren, harris, sanders, biden would also be acceptable)
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 11:50 AM on July 29, 2019 [8 favorites]

Wisconsin legislature may avoid requiring governor's signature on new district maps by passing them as a joint resolution rather than a bill.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 12:05 PM on July 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

There's a lot of debate on Election Law Twitter about that. It *seems* that the WI state constitution would require otherwise, but we shall see, I suppose.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:11 PM on July 29, 2019 [6 favorites]

going by the “who is sending me the thirstiest spam” metric, sanders’ campaign is in freefall right now.

I think he needed to become the face of pushing back against Trump after 2016 if he was going to sustain his movement and that really didn't happen, he hasn't been much more visible than other well known senators and representatives. He had a window after 2016 when everybody was all Monday morning quarterbacking the election thinking he would have won that he was heir apparent to the Democratic party but he didn't really seize the opportunity and it seemed to all peter out when Perez beat Ellison for DNC chair.
posted by jason_steakums at 12:18 PM on July 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

Rep Rob Bishop (R - UT-01) is retiring. District went Trump 50-22 (remember McMullin ran strong in Utah), district should stay Safe R.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:20 PM on July 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

The Justice Department’s immigration division (EOIR) is routinely sending employees articles from the far-right website Breitbart, per emails I obtained.

Typical headline: “GOP’s ‘Recycled Children’ Drama Beats Democrats’ ‘Family Separation’ Claim”
posted by The Whelk at 12:31 PM on July 29, 2019 [17 favorites]

Speaking of radicalization from far-right sites, Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting suspect has ties to white supremacist ideology.

White supremacy is once again directly tied to terrorist acts and deaths in this country.

When the DHS identified white supremacism as the biggest domestic terrorist threat back in 2009, Republicans complained and pushed back.

Yet it's "Antifa" that Trump, Barr, and Cruz want to declare as terrorist. And I've seen no significant pushback from Democrats on this.

The FBI "lost" its files on Stormfront. Show of hands: how many folks think the FBI would ever "lose" its files on The Nation of Islam? Or on Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, Indigenous Rights Groups, PETA, the ACLU, SPLC, CAIR, RAICES, etc?

Once again, Dr King said it best: This country is sick.
posted by lord_wolf at 2:25 PM on July 29, 2019 [54 favorites]

There's a lot of debate on Election Law Twitter about that. It *seems* that the WI state constitution would require otherwise, but we shall see, I suppose.

This is [non-ironically] fine. Let's remember that the GOP threw all of the most ridiculous anti-ACA arguments at the courts to see what might possibly stick, and they ended up doing significant harm to the law.

If they're going to rules-lawyer us out of a democratic society built on the rule of law, we should at least try to keep up.
posted by tivalasvegas at 6:05 PM on July 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

Maybe actually being a Democrat is going to pay off in the Democratic primary race?

you mean unlike all those other times?
posted by entropicamericana at 6:12 PM on July 29, 2019

People think Comey should have said nothing about Clinton's behavior, since he was not charging her with a crime. Yet the same people (in many cases) think Mueller should have drawn conclusions about Trump's behavior, though not charging HIM with a crime?

The whole point of Mueller's investigation was to establish whether or not the president had committed a crime. The whole point of Comey's address was to confirm that Clinton had not committed a crime. In both cases, the FBI bent over backwards to do exactly the opposite of their sworn duty to appear politically neutral.
posted by xammerboy at 8:19 PM on July 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

When asked on television why Comey had criticized Hillary's actions so strenuously, he claimed a Russian document was floating around falsely stating that the FBI was beholden to Clinton. He claimed he exaggerated the importance of her email server, because he didn't want people thinking the fake Russian document was real.

In other words, solely to make the FBI appear politically neutral, Comey was willing to smear someone he thought would be the next Democratic president with accusations that would hobble her ability to lead the country, and which may have robbed her of the presidency. Rather than tell Americans the truth, he saddled the country with a political distraction that continues to derail all political discourse to this day.

Mueller, on the other hand, admitted on the stand that the only reason he did not conclude the president is guilty of obstruction is because of DOJ policy, a policy few legal experts felt he was beholden to, and that most, including his boss, felt did not apply to his ability to make a conclusion in his report. I cannot help but think Mueller's report will go down in history as the complete opposite of the way to report the outcome of an impeachment investigation.

Where does this leave the reputation of the FBI? Why trust the organization to tell the people the truth regardless of political consequences in the future? If they distorted or neglected to tell the truth in these incredibly high stake circumstances, I can only conclude that in every circumstance the FBI's paramount concern is to do what's best for the FBI.
posted by xammerboy at 8:48 PM on July 29, 2019 [7 favorites]

McConnell Cries ‘McCarthyism’ Over Backlash For Killing Election Security Bill (Cristina Cabrera, TPM)
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:37 PM on July 29, 2019 [7 favorites]

Dems should start describing hypocritical say-anything dissembling in service of Trump and in spite of law and custom as “McConnelism.”
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:19 AM on July 30, 2019 [21 favorites]

Both Comey and Mueller were taxed with investigating whether a crime was committed. Both faced the challenge of reporting to a boss who was a political appointee with a perceived conflict of interest. Both told the truth and were viciously attacked for doing so.
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:21 AM on July 30, 2019

House Republicans plan yearly retreat in Baltimore despite Trump’s attacks
posted by octothorpe at 3:35 AM on July 30, 2019 [6 favorites]

Baltimore should utterly reject the House Republican retreat, tell them they aren't welcome since their President thinks the city is filthy and bad.

Nor should any major metropolitan area be willing to host the Republican National Convention. They chose to side with Trump and against the 80% of Americans who live in urban areas, they can bloody well go to one of those rural nowheresville places for their convention.
posted by sotonohito at 5:45 AM on July 30, 2019 [33 favorites]

Secret texts cast light on UK's early role in Trump-Russia inquiry
Senior MI5 and FBI officials shared concerns about ‘our strange situation’ in 2016
The Guardian
posted by mumimor at 8:44 AM on July 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

first thought for what my potemkin business would do: i'd become a consultant to other similar-minded people who likewise wanted to run potemkin businesses for the purpose of student loan deferral/forgiveness.
posted by Recursive Novelist Thomas Pynchon
posted by workerant at 9:04 AM on July 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

On the subject of #CrimeInfested
posted by bitteschoen at 9:09 AM on July 30, 2019 [12 favorites]

Nah, for the Trump family, that's #CrimeInvested
posted by tonycpsu at 9:14 AM on July 30, 2019 [12 favorites]

> first thought for what my potemkin business would do: i'd become a consultant to other similar-minded people who likewise wanted to run potemkin businesses for the purpose of student loan deferral/forgiveness.
posted by Recursive Novelist Thomas Pynchon

honestly it's less recursive and more... pyramidal...

anyway, here's what i came here to post:

Frontrunner no more: California poll puts Harris on top and Biden (way) down

Kamala Harris ranks first with 19% of likely Democratic voters in California. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders come second and third. And that leaves Biden, the presumed frontrunner, falling to fourth place and Buttigieg, the top fundraiser in the state last quarter, in fifth place in the new PPIC poll.

posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:16 AM on July 30, 2019 [6 favorites]

Nor should any major metropolitan area be willing to host the Republican National Convention. They chose to side with Trump and against the 80% of Americans who live in urban areas, they can bloody well go to one of those rural nowheresville places for their convention.

As a Clevelander, I feel I should point out that a very common sentiment expressed back in 2016 was, "Oh these Republican assholes who hate the cities and their residents and are constantly fucking with our money want to have a big ol' blowout here? Fine, we'll get our money back and then some by charging top dollar for everything."
posted by soundguy99 at 9:25 AM on July 30, 2019 [8 favorites]

Apparently Biden’s been coached to be “less nice” to Harris and “not go so easy on her” in the future so I’d give him pretty good odds of saying something that ends his candidacy.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:28 AM on July 30, 2019 [34 favorites]

Delegate Ibraheem Samirah
I just disrupted the @realDonaldTrump speech in Jamestown because nobody's racism and bigotry should be excused for the sake of being polite. The man is unfit for office and unfit to partake in a celebration of democracy, representation, and our nation's history of immigrants.

video here - he called out "you can't send us back, Virginia is our home!"
posted by bitteschoen at 9:53 AM on July 30, 2019 [31 favorites]

That's my delegate! I had some qualms about him at first but good going there.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:09 AM on July 30, 2019 [3 favorites]

SacBee: California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a bill on Tuesday to force President Donald Trump to release his tax returns in order to get on the state’s 2020 primary ballot.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:36 AM on July 30, 2019 [27 favorites]

If you didn't happen to see this in the megathread Metatalk, I've moved ELECTIONS NEWS stuff to my own blog.

(I hope this doesn't come across as self-promotional)
posted by Chrysostom at 10:47 AM on July 30, 2019 [59 favorites]

I would hope not. I know many MeFites, myself included, appreciate the information you share. Thanks for continuing it offsite.
posted by meowf at 11:58 AM on July 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

My initial reaction back when CA started with the tax return stuff was positive but I've found the arguments that state governments beginning to impose additional requirements beyond Constitutionally mandated ones (or those directly relevant to the administration of the elections) represents a very problematic slippery slope to be persuasive. This is humorous as a poke at Trump, sure, but we don't want to see a ballot war where red and blue states impose all sorts of requirements that the other party's candidates are unwilling to meet.

I'm all for playing tit-for-tat in response to Republican bullshit (such as in the case of gerrymandering) but this isn't tit-for-tat, it's a new front being opened and a potentially very serious one. This is for the primary rather than the general but I think the principle stands.
posted by Justinian at 11:58 AM on July 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

We don't want to see a ballot war where red and blue states impose all sorts of requirements that the other party's candidates are unwilling to meet.

I can understand this concern in theory, but can anyone come up with a realistic example where this would be a problem? Other Republicans have had no issue submitting their tax returns, and what sort of disclosure would the Republicans approve of that Democratic candidates would hate?
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:07 PM on July 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

There's no reason to assume it would be limited to disclosures of information.
posted by Justinian at 12:08 PM on July 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

"slippery slope" is a logical *fallacy*
posted by flaterik at 1:04 PM on July 30, 2019 [5 favorites]

Some informed opinions on the tax return thing that have probably been linked to in prior megathreads:

On strategy, "Pandora's Box, etc.:

Rick Hasen: How States Could Force Trump to Release His Tax Returns

So, will it work? It’s hard to predict how courts will rule, but given precedents on both sides of the issue, the argument for the tax return gambit is not a slam dunk. The Supreme Court might, if faced with the issue, hold that state legislators cannot require tax returns of presidential candidates even given state legislatures’ much greater power over presidential elections.

And it is possible that state laws requiring candidates disclose their tax returns would not matter much. After all, only solidly Democratic states, such as California and Hawaii, are likely to enact such laws. So maybe rather than release his returns to get on the ballot, Trump will just take a pass on being on the ballot in those states. (There is not a single state which Trump won and which has a Democratic-controlled state legislature.)

No doubt as soon as they are enacted, such laws would be challenged in court. Trump would already have standing to challenge, as he declared his candidacy for reelection in 2020 on the day he was inaugurated. There’s plenty of time for courts, even the Supreme Court, to work out the issue before 2020 ballots would have to be printed in any state.

Yet even if the legal case is hopeless—and it’s not at all clear that it is—there’s not much downside for Democrats at first glance. Passing these laws not only throws red meat to Democratic constituents, it forces the issue of tax returns back into the news, which can only help Democrats, given that the public overwhelmingly agrees that Trump should disclose them.

Still, Democrats should consider the Pandora’s box they might be opening here. Will solidly Republican states allow electors to vote only for Republican candidates for president? If the tax gambit is OK, then such a law might also be constitutional. Or perhaps the GOP would retaliate with laws aimed at voter suppression or other such measures that target typically Democratic constituencies.

On constitutionality:

Laurence H. Tribe, Richard W. Painter and Norman L. Eisen: Candidates who won't disclose taxes shouldn't be on the ballot

We have studied the recent round of state proposals requiring presidential candidates to release tax return information carefully and have concluded that they would be constitutional.

Our federal Constitution allows states to create ballot access requirements that ensure that the ballots for every office, including the office of presidential elector, are comprehensible and informative.

A line must of course be drawn between permissible ballot access laws and impermissible attempts to add qualifications to those specified in the federal Constitution. But our research and analysis lead us to conclude that tax return disclosure laws such as the one proposed in California resemble ballot access laws in structure, impact, and purpose much more closely than they resemble laws imposing additional qualifications for presidential office.

As a result, we believe these laws comport fully with the U.S. Constitution.

Of course, none of Messrs. Tribe, Painter, or Eisen currently sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, so their beliefs are more academic than anything else. It may be that Republican challenges to a tax return requirement in California would be upheld by the Court as presently constituted, while Democratic challenges to a hypothetical "No Candidates Whose Last Names Rrhyme With 'Foreign', 'Flanders', 'Widen', or 'Paris'" requirement would be rejected.

Then again, there's no reason to believe that, if the GOP thought intervening to restrict access to the ballot would be successful, that they would be waiting for Democrats to do it first.
posted by tonycpsu at 1:17 PM on July 30, 2019 [7 favorites]

Maybe we're getting into the weeds, but only some slippery slope arguments are fallacies and it depends on the strength of the causal relationship between the events (and some would argue the length of the chain between the proposed cause and result). Unintended consequences are a real thing, and not all arguments proposing that such can occur are fallacious! As I'm sure anyone who thinks about it can come up with examples.
posted by Justinian at 1:19 PM on July 30, 2019 [6 favorites]

Claiming that the GOP will only be evil and ratfuck democracy if the Democrats give them the opportunity is an interesting take.
posted by Etrigan at 1:23 PM on July 30, 2019 [19 favorites]

NYT: ‘Moscow Mitch’ Tag Enrages McConnell and Squeezes G.O.P. on Election Security

"But Mr. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is incensed with his new moniker, 'Moscow Mitch,' and even more miffed that he has been called a 'Russian asset' by critics who accuse him of single-handedly blocking stronger election security measures after Russia’s interference in the 2016 election."

"'I was called unpatriotic, un-American and essentially treasonous,' he fumed on the Senate floor."
posted by reductiondesign at 1:33 PM on July 30, 2019 [24 favorites]

> NYT: ‘Moscow Mitch’ Tag Enrages McConnell and Squeezes G.O.P. on Election Security

And in there, this bit of hilarity:

Even President Trump felt compelled to come to his defense — as only he could. “Mitch McConnell is a man that knows less about Russia and Russian influence than even Donald Trump,” the president told reporters Tuesday as he was leaving for a speech in Jamestown, Va. “And I know nothing.”

(Donald Trump as Jon Snow? This is what we have to deal with now?)
posted by RedOrGreen at 1:35 PM on July 30, 2019 [12 favorites]

A very basic but critical point from Sam Stein on Twitter: "McConnell, who has been righteous in his indignation over being called Moscow Mitch, could just vote against the election security legislation as a measure of showing his opposition while still allowing it a vote on the floor…. Right?"
posted by InTheYear2017 at 1:48 PM on July 30, 2019 [16 favorites]

NYT: More Than 900 Migrant Children Have Been Separated From Their Families Over Past Year

New BLM head, who is opposed to existence of public lands, is now in charge of all public lands
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:08 PM on July 30, 2019 [22 favorites]

Still, Democrats should consider the Pandora’s box they might be opening here. Will solidly Republican states allow electors to vote only for Republican candidates for president? If the tax gambit is OK, then such a law might also be constitutional. Or perhaps the GOP would retaliate with laws aimed at voter suppression or other such measures that target typically Democratic constituencies.

I consider the SC a Supremely partisan body, and even I think this the first possibility a Mr. Fantastic-level stretch. GOP laws that target Dem constituencies is a done deal in many states, there's no "retaliation" left - check out Georgia.
posted by benzenedream at 2:09 PM on July 30, 2019 [6 favorites]

The proposed law doesn't affect people's constitutional right to run for President, only which names will appear on the ballot. If I were a Republican, and evil, and not concerned with consistency (but I repeat myself) I'd change the ballot rules in Republican states to read "ballots shall carry the name of the incumbent, if any, and space where a voter may write the name of a challenger". They could change the design back to the usual one if a Democrat was the incumbent.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:26 PM on July 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

NYT: ‘Moscow Mitch’ Tag Enrages McConnell and Squeezes G.O.P. on Election Security

Hey! Something is finally working, I liked this part the best:

But whatever Mr. McConnell’s reasoning, criticism of him for impeding a number of election proposals has taken hold — even back home in Kentucky, where the majority leader faces re-election next year.

It gives me a tiny bit of hope. Haven't seen that for a while.
posted by mumimor at 3:11 PM on July 30, 2019 [7 favorites]

Is there a separate debate thread now that we're moving away from megathreads or are we riding this one until they turn the lights off on us?
posted by Justinian at 3:36 PM on July 30, 2019

We're drafting a separate debate thread on the MeFi wiki for those who'd like to contribute/collaborate. (The previous debate thread worked out pretty well, both for covering the debates themselves and discussing developments in the candidates' campaigns afterward, but it closed automatically a few days ago.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:42 PM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

Since we've only got about an hour before the debates begin, let me say that it has been an honor and a privilege to share with most of you the wonder and the terror of the megathread era..

With apologies to L. Cohen --

Now so long, megathread
as our land has been misled
we've laughed and cried
and torn our hair
at all the news we've read..

posted by Nerd of the North at 3:58 PM on July 30, 2019 [25 favorites]

NYT: ‘Moscow Mitch’ Tag Enrages McConnell and Squeezes G.O.P. on Election Security

As the saying goes... a hit dog always hollers.
posted by azpenguin at 4:31 PM on July 30, 2019 [13 favorites]

It will mean that if he wins in the electoral college he'll lose by even more in the popular vote
posted by mbo at 4:55 PM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

For folks wanting to follow tonight's debate or chatter about directly-related stuff after, there's a new post up on that topic.
posted by cortex at 5:09 PM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

YouGov poll finds "Dems are moving too far left" fears groundless - the same % of people think the party is "too extreme" now as in 2014.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:42 PM on July 30, 2019 [11 favorites]

Fifth GOP House retirement in the last two weeks: Mike Conaway of TX-11. Distict is Safe R (Trump 78-19).

This one may just be Conaway not loving life in the minority.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:57 PM on July 30, 2019 [4 favorites]

News from North Carolina, Bladen County political operative faces new perjury, obstruction of justice charges:

A Republican political operative who worked for former congressional candidate Mark Harris in rural Bladen County faces felony charges in connection with the 2018 general election, an indictment revealed Tuesday by the Wake County district attorney shows.

Leslie McCrae Dowless was charged with two counts of felony obstruction of justice, perjury, solicitation to commit perjury, conspiracy to obstruct justice and possession of absentee ballot, the document showed.

Dowless was previously indicted on charges related to an absentee ballot harvesting operation he allegedly ran in Bladen County in 2016 and during the 2018 primary. His earlier charges include three counts of felonious obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of an absentee ballot.

Also in NC, the chairman of the state board of elections resigned today after telling "an extremely lengthy dirty joke" during the kick-off of a training session of 600 election officials and administrators plus guests representing 100 countries.
posted by peeedro at 7:05 PM on July 30, 2019 [9 favorites]

Something light and happy, as the thread winds down: Seesaws on the border bring both sides together (CNN, July 30, 2019)

It may seem like an ordinary scene: Children and adults playing on pink seesaws, carelessly laughing and chatting with each other.

But this is a playground unlike any other. These custom-built seesaws have been placed on both sides of a slatted steel border fence that separates the United States and Mexico.

The idea for a "Teeter-Totter Wall" came from Ronald Rael, an architecture professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Virginia San Fratello, an associate professor of design at San Jose State University -- and it was a long time coming.

In 2009, the two designed a concept for a binational seesaw at the border for a book, "Borderwall as Architecture," which uses "humor and inventiveness to address the futility of building barriers," UC-Berkeley said.

Ten years later, their conceptual drawings became reality. Rael and his crew transported the seesaws to Sunland Park, New Mexico, separated by a steel fence from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

The New Mexico town is also where a militia detained migrants this year and where a private group built its own border wall using millions of dollars raised in a GoFundMe campaign.

Article includes video of the seesaws in use. I'm glad something positive is coming to the New Mexico/ Chihuahua border area.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:10 PM on July 30, 2019 [18 favorites]

A Republican political operative who worked for former congressional candidate Mark Harris in rural Bladen County faces felony charges in connection with the 2018 general election, an indictment revealed Tuesday by the Wake County district attorney shows.

Leslie McCrae Dowless was charged with two counts of felony obstruction of justice, perjury, solicitation to commit perjury, conspiracy to obstruct justice and possession of absentee ballot, the document showed.

Dowless needs to be in jail, yes, but where are the charges against Mark Harris, the candidate who hired him? Who hired him, actually, after being warned repeatedly by his son the federal prosecutor not to get involved with Dowless? A ton has happened since the 2018 congressional election season but let's not forget how blatantly corrupt this was.
posted by Nerd of the North at 1:07 AM on July 31, 2019 [13 favorites]

May yet be coming - the impression that I got was that the DA's investigation was still ongoing.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:18 AM on July 31, 2019 [4 favorites]

Ted Cruz to Trump administration: More magic tax cuts for the rich, please (Igor Derysh, Salon)

Hypocrisy even by Ted Cruz standards: Texas senator urges executive action by Treasury to cut capital-gains taxes

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:27 AM on July 31, 2019 [4 favorites]

@aoc:

McCarthyism is the practice of baselessly accusing political opponents of being communists as unjust grounds for targeting & harassment.

You are blocking action to protect US elections despite official DoJ pleas. That doesn’t make you a communist. It just makes you a bad leader.

3:30 PM - 30 Jul 2019

'Moscow Mitch' McConnell:

Modern-day McCarthyism is poison for American democracy. It is shameful to imply that policy disagreements make the other side unpatriotic. The people who push such unhinged smears are doing Putin’s destabilizing work for him.

2:14 PM - 29 Jul 2019

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:53 AM on July 31, 2019 [26 favorites]

Recall that McConnell has earlier complained, on the record, that Democrats' attempts to secure our election system and make it more accessible were a "power grab." He has all but admitted -- not that the so-called "liberal media" draws the obvious inference -- that an insecure and undemocratic election system benefits the Republicans, so it's a little late to whine about the fact that his shoring up the Republican Party's political fortunes also benefits Russia, especially when he controls whether the issue comes up for a vote.

It's also a bit rich for McConnell to whine about "McCarthyism," since for most of my political memory, Republicans were quick to accuse any Democratic policy about being creeping Communism, and since have transformed seamlessly to the nebulous specter of "socialism." Feh.
posted by Gelatin at 8:21 AM on July 31, 2019 [15 favorites]

Also in NC, the chairman of the state board of elections resigned today after telling "an extremely lengthy dirty joke" during the kick-off of a training session of 600 election officials and administrators plus guests representing 100 countries.

I had to know what this joke was, and lucky me, someone shared it (a blogger, no thanks to the killjoy newspapers who kept it 'tastefully' vague!) And, wow, it's even more of a non sequitur than I was imagining. Was the dude just angling to get fired or what?

Also, uh:

Cordle, a retired Charlotte laywer, is the third [NC] state elections chairman to resign since December.

The near land, the dear land, whatever fate, the blessed land, the best land, the Old North State!

I moved away from NC in early 2011 - ie, right after we got Tea Partied - and the state I remember vs. the state I read about on the news could not be more different places politically.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:07 AM on July 31, 2019 [7 favorites]

Marcy Wheeler, writing on Emptywheel.net, takes apart John Ratcliffe's previous boosting for Team Trump during congressional hearings : Aspiring Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe Does Not Want DOJ’s Mob Experts Exchanging Information with Mob Experts. "Because he has been one of the key players into the Republican investigation into the Trump investigation, there are a bunch of transcripts of him acting really stupid in depositions, even more stupid than he acted in public in the Mueller hearing."

Here are her main points:

—The Republican conspiracy theory about Bruce Ohr depends on a series of misunderstandings
—The information Christopher Steele shared in the July 30 meeting is not the same information that appears in the dossier
—John Ratcliffe thinks the FBI should remain ignorant about Russian organized crime
—Ratcliffe objects that Ohr shared information with career employees and not his political appointee boss
—The echo chamber Ratcliffe occupies would prevent him from keeping America safe

Elsewhere in Trump intelligence appointments, the Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff reports: Nunes Ally Kash Patel Who Fought Russia Probe Gets Senior White House National Security Job—Patel was one of the leading staffers pushing back against FBI investigations of Trump-Russia. He’s now senior director of the National Security Council’s terrorism directorate.

A former congressional staffer who worked feverishly to discredit the Russia investigation has recently been promoted on the National Security Council staff.

Kash Patel, who helmed the efforts of former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes to scrutinize the court-authorized surveillance of a Trump associate has taken on the role of Senior Director of the Counterterrorism Directorate of the National Security Council (NSC), according to two sources familiar with the move.

Earlier this year, Patel left Capitol Hill for the NSC’s Directorate of International Organizations and Alliances. His latest promotion—to a leadership post focusing on counterterrorism—has not previously been reported. A spokesperson for the NSC declined to comment.

Politico's Natasha Bertrand adds: "woooow...Patel is the former Nunes staffer who traveled to London in 2017—without the knowledge of the U.S. embassy or British government— in search of Christopher Steele." See her Atlantic article from January 2018: The Men Behind the Nunes Memo "Patel previously attracted media attention by traveling to London late last summer—without the knowledge of the U.S. embassy or British government—along with committee staffer Doug Presley in search of Christopher Steele, author of a controversial dossier on Trump. […] Patel set off for London last summer without first informing Ranking Member Schiff and Republican Representative Mike Conaway, who took over the panel’s Russia probe after Nunes stepped aside last April."

Fifth GOP House retirement in the last two weeks: Mike Conaway of TX-11. Distict is Safe R (Trump 78-19).

That's right, having carried Nunes's water on the House intel committee while Nunes had to recuse himself, Conaway's not sticking around.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:03 AM on July 31, 2019 [8 favorites]

I moved away from NC in early 2011 - ie, right after we got Tea Partied - and the state I remember vs. the state I read about on the news could not be more different places politically.
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:07 PM

I had to move back to my old hometown (to act as caregiver for my elderly parents) after living in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Asheville for over 20 years. This place is far more disturbing than it was when I was in high school. You'll see at least a dozen people open-carrying at the local Walmart at any given time. Also, MAGA hats and Trump 2020 bumper stickers are ubiquitous.
posted by Token Meme at 10:08 AM on July 31, 2019 [11 favorites]

The Watergate tapes keep on giving. Reagan's comments were redacted from a previous release.

“To see those, those monkeys from those African countries. Damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes,” Reagan told Nixon, reportedly in reference to members of the Tanzanian delegation dancing in the United Nations’ General Assembly following its vote to recognize the People’s Republic of China.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:33 AM on July 31, 2019 [12 favorites]

Politico's Natasha Bertrand reports on "Moscow Mitch"'s sweetheart deal for Paul Manafort's favorite Russian oligarch: Ex-McConnell Staffers Lobbied On Russian-Backed Kentucky Project—Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to review the project, and they say McConnell indirectly helped facilitate it.

Two former top staffers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have lobbied Congress and the Treasury Department on the development of a new Kentucky aluminum mill backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, according to a new lobbying disclosure.

The disclosure comes as Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to review Rusal’s $200 million investment in the Kentucky project — concerned that the mill will supply the Defense Department — and as McConnell weathers criticism for helping block a congressional effort to stop the investment.

The Russian firm was only able to make the investment after it won sanctions relief from penalties the Treasury Department initially imposed in April 2018 on Rusal and other companies owned by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and Kremlin ally accused of facilitating Moscow’s nefarious activities, such as seizing land in Ukraine, supplying arms for the Syrian regime and meddling in other countries’ elections.[…]

It’s unclear whether the former staffers — Hunter Bates, a former McConnell chief of staff, and Brendan Dunn, who advised the Kentucky Republican on tax, trade and financial services matters before heading to K Street last year — directly lobbied McConnell’s office over the aluminum mill project. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the law and lobbying firm where Bates and Dunn work, and McConnell’s office declined to comment on whether they had done so.

NBC: Kentucky Democrats Mock McConnell with 'Moscow Mitch' Merch
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:38 PM on July 31, 2019 [13 favorites]

I want to roll with this Moscow Mitch thing. Think I'll turn it into a cocktail.

Moscow Mitch recipe
Take one bottle of bourbon, pour its contents on the ground, and refill it with any cheap Russian vodka.

Pour 1/2 of the bottle of bourbon-tinged vodka onto a copy of the US Constitution; set Constitution on fire. Pour the remaining contents of the bottle into highball glasses garnished with a Cheeto. Serves four (poorly).

I don't understand how he flies under the radar for so many folks. Even friends of mine who are following politics far more closely than the average citizen (though still far less than most of us hopeless Metafilter addicts) don't ever really mention him in the context of all the poisonous things he's done and continues to do.

I guess that old saying is right: One of the greatest tricks The Devil ever pulled was making people believe he doesn't exist.
posted by lord_wolf at 2:55 PM on July 31, 2019 [31 favorites]

I googled Moscow Mitch. It's really catching on, both sides of the divide. It seems Fox has completely forgotten about the Streisand Effect. I wonder why this is the thing that works?
posted by mumimor at 4:16 PM on July 31, 2019 [2 favorites]

I wonder if he's just more visible for criticism and vulnerable after Jon Stewart shamed him on the 9/11 first responders bill? Because yeah other than that, no idea why this is working, especially to the point of Mitch getting up in front of everyone to complain about poor him and his treatment.
posted by jason_steakums at 4:36 PM on July 31, 2019 [4 favorites]

I wonder why this is the thing that works?

Amazing alliteration.
posted by Grangousier at 3:43 AM on August 1, 2019 [9 favorites]

For the megathread:

Via CNN: Five Ohio Police Officers Disciplined in 2018 Arrest of Stormy Daniels

The arrest charges were dropped. The police department is not divulging why the officers are being disciplined, because of ongoing litigation. Daniels is suing the department for false arrest.

The lawsuit alleges that the officers targeted her because they were "avowed supporters" of President Donald Trump and believed Daniels was "damaging President Trump and they thereafter entered into a conspiracy to arrest her during her performance in Columbus in retaliation for the public statements she had made" about Trump.

posted by darkstar at 4:20 AM on August 1, 2019 [28 favorites]

USDA Bailout for Impact of Trump’s Tariffs Goes to Biggest, Richest Farmers

The top one-tenth of recipients received 54 percent of all MFP payments.

Eighty-two farmers have so far received more than $500,000 in MFP payments.

The top 1 percent of MFP recipients received, on average, $183,331. The bottom 80 percent received, on average, less than $5,000.

Thousands of residents of the nation’s largest cities received MFP payments.

MFP payments continue to leave out minority farmers.

posted by peeedro at 7:09 AM on August 1, 2019 [23 favorites]

According to The Guardian, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Vladimir Putin today and expressed concern over the vast wildfires afflicting Siberia. The leaders also discussed trade between the two countries.” Some on the interwebs see this as a strong overture/naked appeal for fully restored bilateral relations between the US and Russia.

Now that there's a new election coming, Putin asks Trump to show him the money before handing over the next one.
posted by xammerboy at 7:57 AM on August 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

According to The Guardian, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Vladimir Putin

Russian media scooped everyone on yesterday's phone call between Trump and Putin, Russia-watcher Julia Davis reported: "Putin praised Trump's offer to help fight wildfires in Siberia "as a pledge of intent to restore full-fledged relations between the two countries in the future." During their conversation, Trump and Putin agreed to continue contacts — both over the phone and face-to-face." (She also notes that the Kremlin's read-out didn't mention trade, which would awkwardly raise the issue of sanctions relief.)

The Trump White House didn't bring it up until last night just as the Dem primary debates were winding down.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:08 AM on August 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

if we're doing disaster relief in Siberia while Puerto Rico still doesn't have electricity and Flint doesn't have clean water i'm gonna spit nails.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 8:33 AM on August 1, 2019 [19 favorites]

Puerto Rico does have electricity. We were down to the last 1,000 houses needing to be restored a year ago. We averaged 83 days without per household. We're not third world.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:49 AM on August 1, 2019 [28 favorites]

FWIW, the Michigan state government says that Flint's water has tested better than federal standards for two years (note that MI is now a Dem governor, so it's not just a coverup).
posted by Chrysostom at 9:22 AM on August 1, 2019 [14 favorites]

Incidentally, if alliteration is the thing, perhaps we can start seeding the earth with Traitor Trump and Deadbeat Donnie.
posted by Grangousier at 10:29 AM on August 1, 2019 [10 favorites]

LA Times, 1992: COVER STORY : The Power, the Glory, the Glitz : Marianne Williamson, an ex-nightclub singer, has attracted many in Hollywood with her blend of new-time religion and self-help--and alienated more than a few

Williamson is also the latest mystical sensation in Hollywood, where many work assiduously to cultivate their souls, often with the same devotion they apply to their physiques. Anthony Perkins, Lesley Ann Warren, Tommy Tune, Cher and Roy Scheider go to her lectures. David Geffen and Sandy Gallin listen to her on tape and have sought her private counsel; she lunches with the likes of Barbra Streisand and Dawn Steel, and last summer she officiated at the wedding of Elizabeth Taylor and Larry Fortensky. “Her sense of spirituality triggered off my own,” the bride said recently through a spokeswoman.

Many of the entertainment industry’s biggest names have helped raise money for Project Angel Food, a service launched by Williamson in 1989 that now delivers more than 300 hot meals a day to housebound AIDS patients in Los Angeles.

Since the turn of the century, when Katherine Tingley established her exotic Point Loma Theosophical Community near San Diego and became known as the Purple Mother, Southern California has been a magnet for prophets promising to unlock the secrets of the metaphysical and the occult. From Krishnamurti to Aimee Semple McPherson to the so-called I AM cult, they found easy acceptance in a land populated by migrants eager to rid themselves of their ties to the past and exorcise “the nameless fears which so many of them had acquired from the fire-and-brimstone theology of the Middle West,” as journalist Carey McWilliams wrote in 1946.

While Williamson’s gift for showmanship sometimes calls to mind Sister Aimee, there is no evidence the theatrical and controversial faith healer had a Hollywood following. It was left to other guides to the spiritual and supernatural to attract such figures as Greta Garbo, Mae West and Aldous Huxley.

Many more celebrities have since heeded the call. These days, Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson say their mantras with the spiritual heir to the Swami Muktananda, Swami Gurumayi Chidvilasananda; Sharon Gless and Michael York are devoted to Lazaris, a “non-physical entity” whose message is “channeled” through a wealthy former business executive in Florida named Jach Pursel; while Streisand and Richard Chamberlain have participated in “transformational” workshops in Arizona led by a former practicing physician, W. Brugh Joy.

But no spiritual master is more talked-about than Williamson.

Via Seth Cotlar on Twitter
posted by notyou at 10:31 AM on August 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

Trump says he will expand tariffs to remainder of $300 billion of Chinese imports to US.

Expanded 10% tariffs will now include iPhones and toys.
posted by darkstar at 11:30 AM on August 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

The Week: Dow falls more than 450 points after Trump announces new China tariffs

And that's after the main stock market indexes on Wall Street all closed more than 1% lower yesterday following the Fed's mild 25 basis point cut (Trump, having pressured Powell for a while now, tweeted he was unimpressed).

And also yesterday, GOP senators led by Ted Cruz were demanding a new emergency tax cut for the ultra-rich.

Reminder: The U.S. Economy Is Worse Than It Seems. Wages are trending up but are still too low amid pervasive economic insecurity, surging inequality, shortage of affordable housing. Meanwhile, the tax stimulus is proving expensive and fleeting, and, of course, there are worrisome signs from the stock market.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:21 PM on August 1, 2019 [20 favorites]

Expanded 10% tariffs will now include iPhones and toys.

And it's still not common knowledge that this amounts to a huge tax increase. It's political malpractice that aren't millions of dollars of ads going out right now that consist of kids crying about Trump's toy tax.
posted by zachlipton at 12:44 PM on August 1, 2019 [26 favorites]

Tweeting yesterday afternoon, President Donald Trump rescinded the Navy Achievement Medals recently awarded to four prosecutors tied to the war crimes case against Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward “Eddie” Gallagher. [...] Pentagon officials told Navy Times that they will comply with the president’s order. (Navy Times)

In March, Trump had intervened to have Gallagher, accused of murdering a teenaged Iraqi prisoner in 2017, released from the brig; in early July, Gallagher was acquitted of most of the charges: "He was convicted of a single count of posing with a human casualty and given the maximum sentence of four months' confinement for the offense. Gallagher will serve no jail time because he spent nearly nine months in pre-trial custody." (NBC)

Also, Maine state senator Sara Gideon, the Democratic front-runner in the race to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, "ran afoul of election law with political donations in 2015 and 2016," per the Bangor Times, "by using a state political committee funded partially by corporations to reimburse herself for donations." The donations total at least $2,750; the campaign maintains that the fundraising committee had been given "incorrect guidance" for processing the funds, and that the error has been addressed. Gideon had pledged to refuse contributions from corporate political committees, and is endorsed by End Citizens United.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:45 PM on August 1, 2019 [6 favorites]

The most painful part of Weisman's rank idiocy to me is that if he had ever been to any of the places he talks about he would realize that there is a lot more racial and ethnic diversity outside of cities than he is willing to acknowledge. It's not only othering city dwellers, but entirely erasing 10-20% or more of the population in many areas.

It's completely nuts how many people whose position implies they actually know things instead act as if they are ancient Greek philosophers arguing about a world that only exists in their imagination. Especially if you're in the news media, you ought to be engaging with the world as it is. You're actively lying to your readers when you appear to be talking about the real world but are in fact discussing a fantasy world that only superficially resembles our own.

We're all being constantly gaslit by this and other assholes like him. Even journalists doing good work often buy into their delusions subconsciously or have their work edited in a way that makes it conform to the pretend world.
posted by wierdo at 5:33 PM on August 1, 2019 [17 favorites]

Texas Rep. Hurd, lone black Republican in House, won’t seek reelection
posted by mcdoublewide at 6:32 PM on August 1, 2019 [10 favorites]

That's by far the biggest retirement. Hurd's district is likely now the #1 pickup opportunity.
posted by Justinian at 6:50 PM on August 1, 2019 [9 favorites]

Since pretty maps are the most important thing in government, note that Hurd's district constituted the big majority of the Western/Southern border which still stood in Republican hands. If we capture his district the entire coast/border from the OR/WA line to the Gulf of Mexico is solid blue.

Unfortunately there would be one remaining Republican district, just north of the OR/WA border, which still touched the coast: WA-03. It prevents a Blue Wall from stretching all the way from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. And thus must be destroyed.
posted by Justinian at 6:58 PM on August 1, 2019 [14 favorites]

I'm a little concerned that Trump is ratcheting up trade tensions for as long as he can while the economy is good, and then, if a slowdown occurs between now and the election, he'll rescind them and point to some minor, meaningless, symbolic concession by the Chinese (or any other fig leaf) and declare victory. At that point the stock market will respond positively to the removal of uncertainty and there will be a short term boost in the economy due to Trump "solving" the problem that he created. People will forget (or conveniently ignore for their own political purposes) that he has been managing the economy into the ground for the benefit of the rich. Even if that isn't his explicit plan, because maybe he's not smart enough to think that far ahead, it is a scenario I worry about carrying him into a second term.
posted by Reverend John at 7:21 PM on August 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

In addition to sole black Republican, Hurd was one of only three Republicans in Hillary seats, and one of only three Republicans in majority-minority districts.

Cook and Sabato have moved to Leans Dem.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:25 PM on August 1, 2019 [14 favorites]

Via dKos: Virginia election officials reject GOP delegate's gambit to get on ballot after paperwork screwup

On Wednesday, the Virginia Department of Elections announced that it was too late for local Republicans to place Del. Nick Freitas’ name on the general election ballot, potentially requiring the GOP to run a write-in campaign to keep from forfeiting Freitas’ solidly red district this fall. Freitas vowed to appeal the decision to the state Board of Elections when it meets on Tuesday, adding that he’s willing to wage a write-in effort.

Currently, political control of Virginia is:

House of Delegates: 51 R, 49 D

State Senate: 21 R, 19 D

A tie in the state Senate can be broken by the Lt. Governor, Justin Fairfax (D). There is no provision for breaking a tie in the House of Delegates, so some power-sharing deal would have to be negotiated in case of a tie.

The Governor of Virginia is Ralph Northam (D).
posted by darkstar at 8:29 PM on August 1, 2019 [12 favorites]

Ann Ridgeway is the Dem candidate in VA-HD-30, if you want to help her out. The district is red enough (Trump 60-36) that a write-in campaign could work.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:46 PM on August 1, 2019 [8 favorites]

Just Try to Understand This NYT Editor's Racist, Incoherent Twitter Thread (Splinter)

"The truth is, these aren't very bright guys, and things got out of hand."
posted by rhizome at 12:07 AM on August 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

Some were despairing the notion that Trump jumped in the polls after his recent racist attacks.

According to fivethirtyeight and their poll-averaging, on July 14 (the day Trump wrote the go back tweet), Trump was at 42.6% approval and 52.6% disapproval.

For August 1, he was at 42.4% approval and 52.7% disapproval.

A tiny downward tick, but certainly not improvement.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:34 AM on August 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

Ratcliffe's turning out to share Trump's habit of resumé inflation and dissembling:

WaPo: Trump’s Pick to Lead U.S. Intelligence Claims He Arrested 300 Illegal Immigrants In a Single Day. He Didn’t.

“As a U.S. Attorney, I arrested over 300 illegal immigrants on a single day,” Rat­cliffe (R-Tex.) says on his congressional website.

But a closer look at the case shows that Ratcliffe’s claims conflict with the court record and the recollections of others who participated in the operation — at a time when he is under fire for embellishing his record.

Ratcliffe played a supporting role in the 2008 sweep, which involved U.S. attorneys’ offices in five states and was led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, according to a Justice Department news release. The effort targeted workers at poultry processor Pilgrim’s Pride who were suspected of using stolen Social Security numbers.

Only 45 workers were charged by prosecutors in Ratcliffe’s office, court documents show. Six of those cases were dismissed, two of them because the suspects turned out to be American citizens. One of those citizens, a 19-year-old woman, was awakened in her home and hauled away by immigration agents, the woman said in an interview.[…]

Leticia Zamarripa, a spokeswoman in ICE’s El Paso office who also participated in the operation, questioned Ratcliffe’s characterization of his role in the arrests. “No, that doesn’t sound factual. That sounds incorrect,” she told The Washington Post.

Zamarripa said she does not recall Ratcliffe being involved. “The name doesn’t ring a bell,” she said.

Center for American Progress fellow and NSC, DOJ, ODNI vet Katrina Mulligan notes, in an exhaustive thread about Ratcliffe's lack of qualifications:

—Ratcliffe also claims he was appointed—by President Bush! —as “chief of anti-terrorism and national security in the Eastern District of Texas.” DOJ formers (myself included) scratched our heads when we saw that. Because that role doesn’t exist.
—Ratcliffe is presumably referring to the Anti-terrorism Advisory Council (ATAC) Coordinator, a role that is nowhere near as significant as Ratcliffe has represented.
—It’s not a presidential appointment as Ratcliffe’s campaign website implies. It’s a bureaucratic duty you are assigned by your supervisor (not the President of the United States).

WaPo: Trump’s Pick For National Intelligence Director Is Disengaged From Committee Work On Capitol Hill, Officials Say

Though Rep. John Ratcliffe’s membership on the House committee is perhaps his most important credential for the top intelligence job, officials said he has yet to take part in one of its overseas trips to learn more about spy agencies’ work. The other new lawmakers on the panel have done so or are scheduled to travel in the coming months.

It is also unclear whether Ratcliffe (R-Tex) has spent much time at the headquarters of the CIA, the National Security Agency or other parts of the sprawling U.S. intelligence community that he has been nominated to direct.

Before his nomination, he made at least one trip to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in suburban Virginia. One of the most common reactions across those agencies when Ratcliffe’s nomination was announced, officials said, was: “Who?”[…]

Ratcliffe […] was described as an infrequent visitor to the classified “reading room” and a member known for brief appearances at the weekly business meetings and hearings that the panel often conducts behind closed doors.

While Dems vow to derail Ratcliffe nomination amid questions over his resume, Trump says Ratcliffe will 'rein in' US intelligence agencies as spy chief (CNN).
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:45 AM on August 2, 2019 [9 favorites]

The media amplifies Trump’s racism. Should it stop? (Ezra Klein, Vox)

Perhaps, to receive the coverage he seeks, Trump should have to normalize himself. […]

Whether we like it or not, we in the media are the crucial amplifiers of American politics. Trump has learned that he can get us to amplify racist invective as often as he wants. We have set up a very particular incentive structure for not only him but everyone else in politics, where the coverage that can be generated by abnormal, offensive behavior far outweighs the coverage on offer for simply trying to do a good job and be a decent person.

If there’s truth to the equation “offensiveness times media amplification equals social damage,” well, we can’t control the offensiveness, but we can control the amplification. The question we have to ask ourselves now is whether we’re comfortable with the role we’re playing in American politics.

Emphasis mine.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:00 AM on August 2, 2019 [15 favorites]

Daniel Dale took the night off from live-tweeting Trump's Cincinnati rally and gives us a CNN fact-check instead. He does give us this gem: "I am the smartest guy." Featuring a Sir, here's last night's version of Trump's story about his genius idea to invent the Veterans Choice program (which already existed because Obama had signed a McCain-Sanders bill into law).

The Washington Post gives the rally the coverage it deserves, in the style section as an entertainment product instead of as political news, Fear and gloating in Cincinnati:

Open throats, captive minds. Maybe 17,000 of each, deafening in different ways. Joy, fear, love, hate, fellowship. Unbridled, roaring nationalism. Shirts that said “JESUS IS MY SAVIOR, TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT,” though it was hard to tell the difference here at rally No. 64 of his presidency, on day 923 of his first term.

Indeed: Trump claims he'll 'end the AIDS epidemic,' 'cure childhood cancer' at Cincinnati rally

There was no "send her back" chant, but racism abhors a vacuum: Explicitly demeaning blue cities and states is now a feature of Trump’s campaign speeches.
posted by peeedro at 8:25 AM on August 2, 2019 [6 favorites]

The Washington Post gives the rally the coverage it deserves, in the style section as an entertainment product instead of as political news, Fear and gloating in Cincinnati

The Post's reporter notes the familiar presence of QAnon conspiracy theorists:

Down on the polished concrete floor of the arena, in the standing VIP section, was a woman named Michelle Sellati, wearing a shirt adorned with the letter “Q.” She was part of a noticeable contingent of rallygoers wearing the symbols of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which at least one FBI field office has identified as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a Yahoo News story published earlier in the day. Besides being a portal to uncertain revelations of a dubious nature, QAnon also helps explain the president’s foibles to those who see him as the author of living scripture.

There was also this incident at the rally: Hours after an FBI warning about QAnon is published, a QAnon slogan turns up at Trump’s rally (WaPo)

Before President Trump came to the stage at his rally in Cincinnati on Thursday, several other speakers warmed up the crowd.

One was Brandon Straka, founder of the “Walk Away” movement. Straka was a liberal, until, as he told the crowd, he learned that the media falsely reported that Trump had mocked a disabled reporter during the 2016 campaign. (Trump did do that.) Straka is a minority within Trump’s coalition, a gay Democrat-turned-Trump-supporter, and he presented himself to the audience as a validator for Trump’s relationship with non-majority groups.

"This is not a president who panders to minorities because he needs them,” Straka said. “This is a president who serves minorities because he loves them. And he loves this country. We are all in this together."

"Where we go one,” Straka added, “we go all."

To the casual observer, that last line may seem fairly anodyne, a clunky but earnest way of capturing the sentiment behind “e pluribus unum.” But it is not anodyne. It is, in fact, the main rallying cry of QAnon conspiracy theorists.[…]

At no point has Trump addressed the QAnon theory directly. Were he to do so, of course, he might only stoke the theory further. But that a speaker at a Trump rally could refer to the theory so directly, citing the slogan to a crowd sprinkled with Q adherents, demonstrates the scale QAnon has reached.

Trump's been embracing QAnon openly on Twitter, however. Earlier this week, he tagged a QAnon account in a tweet.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:48 AM on August 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

>Texas Rep. Hurd, lone black Republican in House, won’t seek reelection

I was just looking at this district (TX-23) the other day! Gina Ortiz Jones ran a pretty fantastic campaign against Hurd in the 2018 mid-term elections. Came within 0.5% last time (less than 1,000 votes out of ~210,000).
Watching the Mueller testimony 9 months ago (days, sorry, it was last week) Hurd stood out to me as the only Republican with an actual question that wasn't stupid.... I don't know what that means for this situation, but I suspect that whatever new candidate the R's cough up for this seat won't be as thoughtful as Hurd. Please send Gina Ortiz Jones a donation, or an encouraging word, whatever you can.
posted by ButteryMales at 9:12 AM on August 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

It is worth noting that in all likelihood Gina Ortiz Jones would have won in 2018 except that Beto kneecapped her campaign. He not only, and very pointedly, refused to endorse her, he praised Hurd to the skies and actually organized a fundraiser for Hurd's re-election campaign. She lost by 926 votes.

Sitting Congresspeople typically only retire when either a) there's a scandal, b) they have health problems, or c) they know they can't win the next election and would rather not suffer that indignity. I suspect C in this case. Like all Texas districts, TX23 is gerrymandered to hell, but it's been trending more towards the Democrats lately and I think he'd be voted out in 2020 and only survived 2018 due to the unusual support of the superstar Texan Democrat of that year.
posted by sotonohito at 10:14 AM on August 2, 2019 [15 favorites]

Excellent follow-up from Virginia Delegate Ibraheem Samirah, Why I Disrupted Trump’s Speech at Jamestown.
posted by peeedro at 10:36 AM on August 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

At that point the stock market will respond positively to the removal of uncertainty and there will be a short term boost in the economy due to Trump "solving" the problem that he created.

Once consumers have been conditioned to higher prices for Chinese manufactured goods I bet the prices won't drop on any tariff removal and middlemen will eat the "benefit" so yeah stocks will probably go up.
posted by srboisvert at 11:07 AM on August 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Gina Ortiz Jones ran a pretty fantastic campaign against Hurd in the 2018 mid-term elections. Came within 0.5% last time (less than 1,000 votes out of ~210,000).

Not to count any chickens before theyve hatched or hard on too many "firsts" but i believe she would become the first female Filipino-American member of Congress?
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 11:24 AM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

I won't link to his Twitter, but Trump has rescinded Ratcliffe's nomination as DNI.
posted by Etrigan at 11:27 AM on August 2, 2019 [16 favorites]

Our great Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by the LameStream Media. Rather than going through months of slander and libel, I explained to John how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people....

....John has therefore decided to stay in Congress where he has done such an outstanding job representing the people of Texas, and our Country. I will be announcing my nomination for DNI shortly.

E.g. Trump Intel Pick John Ratcliffe Started Theory of FBI Anti-Trump ‘Secret Society’ (Daily Beast), Trump’s pick to lead U.S. intelligence claims he arrested 300 illegal immigrants in a single day. He didn’t. (WaPo), Trump’s spy chief pick, Texan John Ratcliffe, accused of fudging role in 'Holy Land' terrorism case (Dallas Morning News), Does John Ratcliffe Have Enough Expertise To Be Director Of National Intelligence? (NPR), and Dems Vow to Derail Ratcliffe Nomination over Questions about his Resume (CNN),

'Lamestream' is an interesting choice--I kinda thought that one was Sarah Palin's thing.
posted by box at 11:42 AM on August 2, 2019 [13 favorites]

I won't link to his Twitter, but Trump has rescinded Ratcliffe's nomination as DNI.

Whomp whomp! I also dislike linking directly to Trump's Twitter as a policy against giving him clicks, and I prefer the Real Press Secretary Bot or the Trump or Not Bot (70%/83% chance of authentic Trump authorship).

As for timing this for the Friday afternoon news dump—today's the last day the Senate is in session before the August recess—I'm amused that this gives Trump less than two weeks to nominate a new DNI.

The Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff has more: White House Asks for List of Top Spies During Intelligence Shakeup—It’s unclear what the White House will do with the list. People on it may be eligible to temporarily lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Meanwhile, the NYT reports: Trump Won’t Let No. 2 Spy Chief Take Over When Coats Leaves

The White House is planning to block Sue Gordon, the nation’s No. 2 intelligence official, from rising to the role of acting director of national intelligence when Dan Coats steps down this month, according to people familiar with the Trump administration’s plans.[…]

Mr. Trump did not allow Ms. Gordon to personally deliver a recent intelligence briefing after she arrived at the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence, Amanda J. Schoch, said Ms. Gordon was not blocked from attending any recent briefing, but she declined to comment about what happened inside the Oval Office.

Opposition in the White House to letting her serve as acting director has raised the question of whether she will be ousted as part of a leadership shuffle at the intelligence director’s office that will be more to Mr. Trump’s liking.

A federal statute says that if the position of director of national intelligence becomes vacant, the deputy director — currently Ms. Gordon — shall serve as acting director.

Incidentally, earlier today Rod Rosenstein tweeted his support for Gordon, which is probably the kiss of death.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:46 AM on August 2, 2019 [7 favorites]

'Lamestream' is an interesting choice--I kinda thought that one was Sarah Palin's thing.

"Lamestream" has bubbled into the conservative lexicon over the last few years because it also makes their point that that "mainstream media" does not represent the "real" mainstream of America.
posted by Etrigan at 11:50 AM on August 2, 2019

(And it's subtly ableist, which is very on-brand.)
posted by box at 11:52 AM on August 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

Sue Gordon was with the CIA for more than 25 years; she worked her way up from analyst to become director of the Information Operations Center and the CIA director’s senior adviser on cybersecurity. As part of the latter job, she was responsible for integrating cybersecurity capabilities into all of the CIA’s mission areas.

Transcript: Sue Gordon talks with Michael Morell on "Intelligence Matters" (CBS, July 17, 2019) Gordon's strongly in favor of government agencies sharing information and talks about transparency in general (But we are producing much more information openly. So, I'm proud of the intelligence community assessment on the 2016 election that was published unclassified. That was a huge leap). More specifically, she's concerned about the erosion of public trust, how it's in the national interests of ...our adversaries using information in order to sow seeds of division and, again, make us not believe in ourselves, or make people believe their votes don't count, or position tools in our infrastructure so they could deny us either information or withdraw information or... damage infrastructure.

That was two weeks ago. Gordon's particularly competent in an area where this administration really needs a water-carrying knuckle-dragger, so of course she's not in the running for Director of National Intelligence.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:44 PM on August 2, 2019 [9 favorites]

of course I missed the main quote I wanted to include from that interview

Sue Gordon: It's a world where increasingly, secrets aren't going to stay secret forever. And so whether we are transparent so that the American people understand our efforts on their behalf, described in a way that we can describe it and still protect advantage, make data available that helps people understand what is really going on in the world or provide assessments that help national security, I think those are all the ways you have to be behave in a world that is increasingly transparent on its own.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:52 PM on August 2, 2019 [9 favorites]

srboisvert: Once consumers have been conditioned to higher prices for Chinese manufactured goods I bet the prices won't drop on any tariff removal and middlemen will eat the "benefit" so yeah stocks will probably go up.

With some luck, Chinese labour activism will have more success and wages for Chinese workers will rise.

One can hope.
posted by clawsoon at 2:37 PM on August 2, 2019

Of course, none of Messrs. Tribe, Painter, or Eisen currently sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, so their beliefs are more academic than anything else.

Particularly when the most recent appointee to the Supreme Court is themselves a recipient of large amounts money of mysterious and undisclosed origin!
posted by srboisvert at 3:06 PM on August 2, 2019 [4 favorites]

Pelosi wins; Chakrabarti's out
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 3:42 PM on August 2, 2019

Per the NYT, via dKos: United States terminates Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, plans to test new missiles

As Donald Trump stated he would do back in January, he has withdrawn the United States from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. This action follows another failure of Trump’s vaunted negotiation skills in which his team was unable to secure an agreement to bring a pair of borderline new Russian weapons under the auspices of the agreement, or to reach agreement on these weapons with China. Instead, the treaty will go by the wayside, as the U.S., Russia, and China all push for new systems that increase the likelihood of nuclear weapons being used on future battlefields.

...The purpose of the INF Treaty was to restrict the use of nuclear weapons as a kind of last-ditch option on the battlefield—a go-to for taking out an entire army at a punch. Particular concerns centered around Russia’s ability to target Europe and the Middle East, and U.S. efforts to counter by deploying weapons in areas such as Turkey. But with the collapse of the treaty, those weapons can be expected to proliferate, and the possibility of their use in a conflict is rising.

Two of the authors of the original treaty describe the situation in dire terms. “The United States and Russia are now in a state of strategic instability,” said former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and former Sen. Sam Nunn. “Not since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis has the risk of a U.S.-Russian confrontation involving the use of nuclear weapons been as high as it is today. Yet unlike during the Cold War, both sides seem willfully blind to the peril.”

With the INF Treaty gone, the only major treaty remaining to restrict the numbers of nuclear weapons is the New START Treaty, which regulates the longer-range ballistic weapons that threaten U.S. cities and facilities.

posted by darkstar at 3:49 PM on August 2, 2019 [6 favorites]

Worst. Timeline.
posted by Windopaene at 5:18 PM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

Reddit reminded me of this post on dKos:

Executive Branch Criminal Activities by Party Since 1968

Administration—Total Years in Office—Criminal Indictments—Criminal Convictions—Prison Sentences

Democratic: 20–3–1–1
Republican: 28–120–89–34

Note: these figures do not include the Trump years.
posted by darkstar at 6:02 PM on August 2, 2019 [41 favorites]

Ex-McConnell Staffers Lobbied On Russian-Backed Kentucky Project—Democrats are pushing the Trump administration to review the project, and they say McConnell indirectly helped facilitate it.

Politico has the scoop on more ex-McConnell staffer ties to Oleg Deripaska's Kentucky project: Russian-Backed Kentucky Mill Makes PR Push Amid Democratic Concerns—Democrats want the Trump administration to review a Russian aluminum company's $200 million investment in the aluminum mill project.

Braidy Industries, which is developing a new Kentucky aluminum mill partially backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, has hired a firm with ties to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to give the project a public relations boost as Democrats raise concerns about the initiative.

The firm, RunSwitch PR, was co-founded in 2012 by Scott Jennings — a former McConnell aide and CNN political commentator who ran a super PAC in support of the Senate Majority Leader called Kentuckians for Strong Leadership. Braidy hired RunSwitch in July “following recommendations from fellow business leaders naming them the best statewide media relations agency,” a Braidy spokesman said.

"Moscow Mitch" Mini-roundup:

WaPo's Dana Millbank: McConnell’s New Posture Toward Moscow

Louisville Courier-Journal: Why Is McConnell So Upset About Being Called Moscow Mitch? Maybe It Hits Too Close To Home

Daily Beast: Moscow Mitch Is on It, Guys—A new billboard along Interstate 65 in Hart County, Kentucky, has a photo of McConnell next to the words “Putin’s Mitch.”

Newsweek: 'Moscow Mitch' McConnell is Now a Ben Folds Song (Live performance)
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:29 PM on August 2, 2019 [20 favorites]

Devastating news for America’s intelligence (Alexandra Petri, WaPo)

Bad, terrible, gloomy news, citizens! Rend your garments and lament with loud groans.

Donald Trump had found, for once, someone who matched his level of intelligence. After many years of futile struggle against the intelligence community, who contumaciously persisted in contradicting his belief that all that is worth knowing about the world can be extracted from a careful daily viewing of "Fox & Friends," he had at last found someone who shared his point of view.

Finally, the thick clouds of information were parting and a great white light of perfect clarity was breaking through. Donald Trump had tapped Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.) to become the director of national intelligence. Unlike the outgoing director, who preposterously claimed that Russian meddling was a real threat (It is neither! Though if it were real, we ought to be flattered!), Ratcliffe was no mere pushover who imbibed all facts without prejudice. He stood firm against any piece of information that would suggest Donald Trump was less than perfectly wonderful or innocent. And now he is withdrawing!

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:34 PM on August 2, 2019 [7 favorites]

From last night: Man charged with assault after punching anti-Trump protester outside Cincinnati rally. In front of a bunch of cops, even.

At his bail hearing, Frasier's lawyer goes out of her way to mention that her client was totally not-at-all there to support Trump in any way, no siree. Either way, the guy who got punched isn't letting the incident get him down.
posted by Rykey at 6:47 PM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

Pelosi wins; Chakrabarti's out

Was...there a battle I didn't hear about?
posted by rhizome at 7:11 PM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

Chakrabarti previously in the megathreads.
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:58 PM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

Speaker Pelosi issues formal statement on Progress of House Investigations

“When we take the oath of office, we solemnly vow ‘to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.’ The Mueller report states unequivocally that Russia interfered in the 2016 election ‘in sweeping and systematic fashion.’ And the Intelligence Community informs us that Russia is working 24/7 to undermine our elections. This assault on our elections is a serious national security matter which the President chooses to ignore.

...Why do the President and the Republican Leader in the Senate choose to protect Russia rather than to protect the integrity of our elections? We will continue to lead a drumbeat across the country demanding the GOP Senate act.

The assault on our elections and our Constitution is a grave national security issue. We owe it to our Founders to sustain our system of checks and balances and our democracy. We owe it to our heroic men and women in uniform who risk their lives for freedom to defend our democracy at home. We owe it to our children to ensure that no present or future president can dishonor the oath of office without being held accountable.

In America, no one is above the law. The President will be held accountable.”

It’s an extensive statement and well worth reading.
posted by darkstar at 8:44 PM on August 2, 2019 [27 favorites]

Putin's Mitch is from Maddog
posted by mbo at 9:26 PM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

it is a good, pithy, confident statement. my only quibble with it would be that bit at the top that says "August 2, 2019."

(megathread, i just can't quit you!)
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:38 PM on August 2, 2019 [9 favorites]

Chakrabarti previously in the megathreads.

Oh I know about the situation, I just wasn't aware that there was like a back and forth about it or anythnig. Anyhoo, not important.
posted by rhizome at 3:30 AM on August 3, 2019

I thought this Tweet from CNN's Nathan McDermott was interesting:

@natemcdermott

There are 197 House Republicans.
• 13 are women, two are retiring
• Will Hurd, the caucus’s only black member, is retiring
• Justin Amash, an Arab American, left the party
In an increasingly diverse country, the GOP caucus is becoming increasingly more white and male.

He's not kidding: I ran the numbers on Jewish, Arab & Middle-Eastern, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Hispanic &Latinx members: 2 out of 35 Jewish Representatives are Republican; 3 or 4 (depending whether you count Amash) out of 8 Arab and Middle Eastern Representatives are Republican; 10 out of 44 Latinx Representatives (not counting non-voting delegates from Puerto Rico) are Republican; zero out of 17 >Asian and Pacific Islander Representatives are Republican.

That's 15 or 16 out of 104 non-African American minority Representatives, if I counted correctly. About one in eight. And that's not even addressing the gender ratio. Is the US really so racist that the Demnocrats can't make a big thing out of this?
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:22 AM on August 3, 2019 [12 favorites]

Is the US really so racist...

Well, we've got a center-right (by international standards) party and a neofascist party, so I'd have to say yes to that.
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:32 AM on August 3, 2019 [28 favorites]

Is the US really so racist...

The answer to that question is almost always yes. But also, the Republicans are explicitly running on an appeal to white identity politics right now. That's always been a strain in the Republican party, and now it's the dominant-bordering-on-exclusive strain. Everyone knows it, including Republicans, and it's barely worth pointing out.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:55 AM on August 3, 2019 [7 favorites]

Karem writes in a new opinion piece for Playboy (SFW): Trump is a sad, strange little man who is the envy of some, the pity of others and to me is merely another rube selling snake oil.

Brian Karem yesterday: Received an email today shortly before 5 p.m. from the WH: as of Monday afternoon my press pass is suspended for 30 days.

The WaPo reports:

The suspension will begin Monday, Karem said. In an interview late Friday, he said the White House told him the suspension was related to his actions in the Rose Garden nearly a month ago, where he infamously sparred with former White House aide Sebastian Gorka.

The White House wrote that Karem “failed to abide by basic norms of decorum and order” on July 11, Karem said. The letter further suggested that Karem had been rude to Gorka — “a guest of the president.”

But Karem told The Washington Post he thinks the move was retaliation by the White House for his tough questioning of President Trump. He said his attorney will appeal the suspension Monday.

Incidentally, yesterday Karem pressed Trump about who were his top names for DNI after Ratcliffe withdrew (and snarked that Trump's indicating to his pocket about a list of names was an empty gesture). That's the same presser at which Trump told reporters, "When I give a name, I give it out to the press, & you vet for me...the vetting process for the WH is very good... we save a lot of money that way. But in the case of [Ratcliffe], I really believe he was being treated very harshly & very unfairly."
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:39 AM on August 3, 2019 [8 favorites]

Brian Karem yesterday: Received an email today shortly before 5 p.m. from the WH: as of Monday afternoon my press pass is suspended for 30 days.

No self-respecting WH press corp member should be without at least one press pass suspension from the current administration.
posted by srboisvert at 11:18 AM on August 3, 2019 [27 favorites]

Since the actual news are now reporting it, rather than fringe weird sites, the guy who just killed a couple dozen people in El Paso is a young white supremacist asshole. Which is obviously inherently political.

I won't name him, and there are reports that go further about his... political leanings... but until those get confirmed as well I won't link them. But the news (CNN etc) are confirming the shooter was a politically motivated white supremacist terrorist.
posted by Justinian at 2:45 PM on August 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

WAPO: At least 20 dead in El Paso mall shooting

Officials identify suspect as 21-year-old man. The death toll could rise, officials said, noting that some of the dozens of people injured are in critical condition. Officials are investigating a manifesto against immigrants.

What's to say at this point that hasn't been repeatedly said? No "hero" with a gun stepped forward to take out the gunman. They police couldn't even intervene. They had to send in the military.
posted by xammerboy at 4:59 PM on August 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah: El Paso gunman allegedly posted ‘wildly anti-immigrant' essay online, from MSNBC.

This cannot be separated from Trump's rhetoric of invasion at the border and immigrants as vermin. He is spurring it, and the blood will keep flowing.
posted by Justinian at 5:01 PM on August 3, 2019 [18 favorites]

Some conservative writer gets roughed up at a protest, Republicans call for labeling antifa a terrorist organization. Repeatedly, white nationalists shoot and kill dozens of people, silence. They're complicit. The whole party.
posted by perhapses at 5:05 PM on August 3, 2019 [40 favorites]

Guardian:

Texas governor Greg Abbott said 20 people had been killed, and more than two dozen more were injured. Mexico’s President Manuel Lopez Obrador said three Mexicans were among the dead and six were among the wounded. [...]

A 21 year-old white male from Allen, a suburb of Dallas more than 600 miles away, was taken into custody after surrendering to officers. El Paso police chief Greg Allen said a “manifesto” was being investigated in connection with the suspect, and the shooting was being investigated as a potential hate crime.

“Right now we have a manifesto from this individual, that indicates to some degree, it has a nexus to potential hate crime,” Allen said at an evening press conference on Saturday evening, adding that he would not name the suspect.

El Paso is located in western Texas, right on the border with Mexico. The diverse city has around 680,000 residents, and its population is 80% Latino. Its Mexican twin city Ciudad Juárez, sits directly across the large barrier that divides their downtown areas. More than 23,000 pedestrians cross from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso to work every day.

.
posted by Little Dawn at 5:24 PM on August 3, 2019

Mod note: Deleted a few about the El Paso mass shooting; the main points have been hit above and until we know more we don't need to speculate on every bit of conjecture and guesswork that comes out.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 5:47 PM on August 3, 2019

Bellingcat
The El Paso Shooting and the Gamification of Terror.
posted by adamvasco at 5:56 PM on August 3, 2019 [5 favorites]

Texas Lt. Gov. tells Antifa to 'stay out' of El Paso after Walmart shooting

Do we get it yet? "Stay out of our stochastic killing zone, antifascists."
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:03 PM on August 3, 2019 [25 favorites]

The Bellingcat article about the "gamification of terror" is alarming. It linked to a copy of the El Paso villain's manifesto, which concludes with a very telling paragraph:

My ideology has not changed for several years. My opinions on automation, immigration, and the rest predate Trump and his campaign for president. I putting this here because some people will blame the President or certain presidential candidates for the attack. This is not the case. I know that the media will probably call me a white supremacist anyway and blame Trump’s rhetoric. The media is infamous for fake news. Their reaction to this attack will likely just confirm that.

Trump's racism was also referenced by the Christchurch murderer, and very probably by others. I think Trump's racism reflects his prejudices and self-absorption; it's not any way coherent or theoretical. None the less, many racists have found an almost mystical significance in the election of a vicious and vitriolic racist and it has almost certainly emboldened them.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:05 PM on August 3, 2019 [8 favorites]

It's hard to take his disavowal of being influenced by Trump seriously when he uses Trump's "fake news" rhetoric literally in the middle of his disavowal. I guess it's hard to see the water when you're a fish.
posted by Justinian at 7:26 PM on August 3, 2019 [30 favorites]

Also this, seeing as it's a US Politics thread... while I'm pretty solidly on Team Warren, there are times I wish Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was running for president: "To my colleagues - get off your ass and do something."

(Murphy, memorably, was the senator who soloed a 15-hour filibuster after the Pulse nightclub shootings in 2016, forcing a Senate vote on two gun control measures. Both failed)
posted by martin q blank at 8:41 PM on August 3, 2019 [7 favorites]

🚨 Dedicated FPP for the El Paso shootings is here. 🚨
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:43 PM on August 3, 2019 [5 favorites]

Another mass shooting just occurred in Dayton, Ohio, only 12 hours after El Paso incident. Sources are reporting at least ten people killed.
posted by darkstar at 12:41 AM on August 4, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah I guess the other thread is now the "mass shootings happening all over the place" thread rather than the "El Paso" thread. This is (not) fine.
posted by Justinian at 12:43 AM on August 4, 2019 [3 favorites]

Just when the Trump megathreads are fading out, we get mass-shooting megathreads.
posted by rhizome at 1:27 AM on August 4, 2019 [7 favorites]

It's all one story, sadly.
posted by bootlegpop at 3:10 AM on August 4, 2019 [11 favorites]

Beto O'Rourke cancelled campaign appearances elsewhere to hurry to El Paso in the wake of the mass shooting. I contacted his campaign to suggest that he cite this event and his love of Texas as the reason why he's abandoning his Presidential run and going after John Cornyn's Senate seat instead. Too soon?
posted by carmicha at 4:16 AM on August 4, 2019 [25 favorites]

Yes.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 7:45 AM on August 4, 2019

A$AP Rocky was arrested in Sweden for assault and Kanye West reached out to his BFF Trump, who called the Swedish PM to "personally vouch" for A$AP Rocky.

In an update on the diplomatic angle to this absurd affair, NBC reports that the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs warned Sweden of 'negative consequences' if A$AP Rocky wasn't released.

According to the letters, obtained by NBC News partner Aftonbladet, the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs wrote to Swedish prosecutors urging them to release Rocky.

"The government of the United States of America wants to resolve this case as soon as possible to avoid potentially negative consequences to the U.S.-Swedish bilateral relationship," Amb. Robert O'Brien wrote in the letter, dated Wednesday.

In response Sweden's prosecutor-general, Petra Lundh, defended the independence of Swedish courts and said she therefore had to deny O'Brien's requests.

"No other prosecutor, not even I, may interfere with a specific case or try to affect the prosecutor responsible," Lundh wrote in a letter dated Thursday.

Meanwhile, Trump triumphantly tweeted on Friday, "A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!"
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:49 AM on August 4, 2019 [4 favorites]

Radio Sweden English on Friday on late events in the trial and the release:

The decision came an hour after court proceedings had finished at 19:15, but does not mean that they have been found guilty or not guilty. The sentence is due to be announced on the 14th August, and will probably be a suspended sentence or a short jail sentence, according to Swedish Television.

Prosecutor, Daniel Suneson, said in a press message: "That they are released from detention means that the district court has considered that there are no longer grounds for detention. I do not want to speculate on whether they will be sentenced or acquitted, but we will await the district court's judgment on August 14."

posted by XMLicious at 8:46 AM on August 4, 2019

Just an FYI in this last megathread that there is now a topic-thread on Tulsi Gabbard, for those who would like to discuss her (and read more about her in the copius FPP links.) Thanks to Doktor Zed for collaborating on it.
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:11 AM on August 4, 2019 [10 favorites]

Speaking of this megathread winding down, we are discussing crafting the next megathread post, with the idea that it will be posted on the MeFi-adjacent (but unaffiliated) DW site. Further discussion here.
posted by darkstar at 12:18 PM on August 4, 2019 [7 favorites]

Louisville Courier-Journal reports that McConnell was heckled at his first recess appearance: McConnell Couldn't Escape 'Moscow Mitch' at Kentucky's Biggest Political Picnic "National derision followed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell home as Democrats taunted the GOP leader with T-shirts, signs and continuous chants of “Moscow Mitch" during his speech at St. Jerome Catholic Church's annual political picnic." (w/video of the protests)

Lexington Herald-Leader: ‘Moscow Mitch’ strikes gold for Democrats, with $200K+ in merch sold in about 48 hours
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:51 PM on August 4, 2019 [7 favorites]

Mitch McConnell fractures shoulder after falling in Kentucky home.

Send your thoughts and prayers for his recovery.
posted by Justinian at 1:54 PM on August 4, 2019 [13 favorites]

Trump's Counties: The administration is focusing on a level of government that past presidents have often neglected

This is a shockingly smart strategy for the I-1 administration, and something the Democrats need to think about.
posted by jgirl at 3:22 PM on August 4, 2019 [5 favorites]

McConnell's got great insurance, but he's 77, and post-polio syndrome (if that's the cause; he has balance issues, and required a triple bypass in 2003) is incurable.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:26 PM on August 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

Trump's Counties
This is a shockingly smart strategy for the I-1 administration, and something the Democrats need to think about.

The only way for the president to focus on individual counties is to neglect the vast majority of the country, which is what's going on here.

“They’re not just talking to us -- we’ve seen real action on things we’ve been pushing for for years,” says Christian Leinbach, who chairs the county commission in Berks County, Pa.

Berks County has fewer people than the city I live in.

Griffin, who serves on the Otero County, N.M., commission, had the presence of mind not just to flatter Trump, but to bring up policy concerns.

Otero County has 66,000 people, fewer than fit in the Superdome.

This is happening because Trump is borderline-innumerate and thinks a "huge" (and therefore important and influential) crowd of people is one that's too big for him to see every face. Any remotely competent president would not be trying to discuss policy at the county level; he's supposed to be working on projects that are much larger in scope.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 3:42 PM on August 4, 2019 [7 favorites]

This is happening because Trump is borderline-innumerate and thinks a "huge" (and therefore important and influential) crowd of people is one that's too big for him to see every face.
I don't think so. I think it is because Trump can only be reelected by the people who are disproportionately represented, who live in counties in less populated states. Trump is not smart, but the people who run his numbers are, and they have not retired.
posted by mumimor at 3:59 PM on August 4, 2019 [14 favorites]

“They’re not just talking to us -- we’ve seen real action on things we’ve been pushing for for years,” says Christian Leinbach, who chairs the county commission in Berks County, Pa.

PA is a swing state, one that was essential for Trump's 2016 win and will be again in 2020, just like Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Griffin, who serves on the Otero County, N.M., commission, had the presence of mind not just to flatter Trump, but to bring up policy concerns.

New Mexico is likewise a swing-ish state, which, like Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia, fell within a 10 point margin of victory in the 2016 Election. Maybe spending extra attention on local counties in Arkansas and Nebraska isn't a wise political investment, but this retail politics is surprisingly competent on the part of the Trump Administration.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:27 PM on August 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

Trump confuses voters and land area all the time and likes maps showing all the counties he won in red because it feeds his ego. He actually has such a map displayed outside the oval office. If he has anything to do with this strategy, it's probably to single out the geographically huge ("uge!") counties for special attention.
posted by carmicha at 4:28 PM on August 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

NBC reports that the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs warned Sweden of 'negative consequences' if A$AP Rocky wasn't released.

Look on the bright side: At least Tr*mp didn't have to send Dennis Rodman to DPRK to strong-arm them into releasing a "hostage."
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:33 PM on August 4, 2019

One additional comment about Berks County, Pa.: It went for Trump with two exceptions, Kutztown (a college town) and Reading (a city). If I were feeling paranoid about a Trump strategy at a county level, I would say that helping the more rural parts of red counties--and failing to help blue parts--pits neighbor against neighbor. That's ugly. (I mean, it's much like the oft-repeated refrain of Why should the middle of Pa. do anything for Philly and Pittsburgh?--meaning of course this strategy will get a warm reception--but still ugly.)
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:43 PM on August 4, 2019 [5 favorites]

I don't know what it is with Minnesota:
Rep. Emmer, NRCC: Wealthy Jewish donors ‘bought’ Congress

A letter sent by National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Tom Emmer that said wealthy Jews “bought” Congress has been called anti-Semitic by local Jewish leaders.

NRCC spokesman Chris Pack defended the letter. “There is nothing anti-Semitic about drawing attention to billionaire donors and who they are giving money to,” he said in an email to the Jewish World.

The letter by Rep. Emmer, who represents Minnesota’s Sixth District in the U.S. House, says “the news of impactful, real progress on turning our nation around was undercut by biased media and hundreds of millions of dollars of anti-Republican propaganda put out by liberal special interests, funded by deep-pocketed far-left billionaires George Soros, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg.”

This is pretty much identical to the claim put out last year by Republican Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader and a Representative for California. It even has the names in the same order. But Minnesota is also represented by Republican Jim Hagedorn, another believer in the Soros libel (and worse) and Democratic Party Representative Ilhan Omar, whose similar claim about AIPAC earlier this year was widely described as antisemitic.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:24 PM on August 4, 2019 [8 favorites]

Word on the street is that TX-24's Kenny Marchant (R) is going to announce his retirement tomorrow. District went Trump 51-45 and for Beto 51-48.

This is maybe a half notch down from Hurd's TX-23, but this is definitely another prime Dem target.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:57 PM on August 4, 2019 [15 favorites]

Yair Rosenberg is one of the writers for Tablet and has a newsletter, the latest edition of which is very much worth reading:
Tucker Carlson's Bigoted Comparison of Cory Booker to Louis Farrakhan
The FOX host likened one of Congress's most philo-Semitic gentiles to one of America's most anti-Semitic preachers, simply because they're both black

The relationship between America's Black and Jewish communities is very complex and fraught with mutual pain, shame, guilt, and responsibility (as well as some marked high points) but I cannot sufficiently express my outrage and disgust at this Republican attempt to leverage it for political advantage. Anyway.

Booker is ridiculously, awesomely philosemitic. That is not a word I have ever used to describe contemporary politicians; it's pretty much obsolete; but how else do you describe a Baptist who co-founded a Jewish students' society and taught himself enough Hebrew so he can quote a posuk without sounding stupid?

Bonus: Booker getting down on Purim.

Both links taken from another of Rosenberg's newsletters, Why Cory Booker Quoted Torah at His CNN Town Hall
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:05 PM on August 4, 2019 [14 favorites]

Trump confuses voters and land area all the time and likes maps showing all the counties he won in red because it feeds his ego. He actually has such a map displayed outside the oval office. If he has anything to do with this strategy, it's probably to single out the geographically huge ("uge!") counties for special attention.

Trump likes winning, and has a good data team. I'd think it's less random than you imagine.
posted by jaduncan at 1:17 AM on August 5, 2019 [11 favorites]

Trump is not smart, but the people who run his numbers are, and they have not retired.

posted by mumimor 15 hours ago [9 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

We forget this at our own peril. When Trump's handlers send him to a small, rural county in a swing state, you can bet every other small, rural county knows about it. And they don't select the county randomly based on Trump's toddler impulses; they are strategically selected. Trump is stupid; his team is not, but they are evil and will do anything to win, as we saw in the last election.
posted by Mental Wimp at 7:15 AM on August 5, 2019 [11 favorites]

Regarding Trump and counties, let's not forget that he's taking a lesson from Putin here.

Putin has "press conferences" where he takes questions from people who ask him to solve local issues (streets with potholes, etc) which he then magnanimously resolves to the great joy of the people.

It's a return to the idea of monarchy, the idea that to get anything done you must find the powerful figure and personally implore him (and it's always him) for aid so he can appear kind and generous by bestowing upon you what in a sane government would be taken care of by the bureaucracy without hassle or groveling before a quasi-monarch.

It's a strategy of making the government and the great man synonymous. It's the strategy of convincing people that only the great man can get things done and that all those useless government employees can be safely despised and fired since they don't get things done while the great man can accomplish it with a single decree. It's the strategy of concentrating power in a single individual so that nothing **CAN** be done without that single individual authorizing it.
posted by sotonohito at 9:38 AM on August 5, 2019 [27 favorites]

dKos has a pretty good community journal outlining the shifting political winds in Texas. It’s rather breathlessly written (Texodus!), but there’s a lot of decent data shared by the poster that gives context for the recent retirements coming from the Texas congressional delegation.

tl,dr: the GOP’s gerrymandering efforts may come back to bite them in the ass. A lot of GOP congresspersons currently represent districts in which they won by only a few percentage points in 2018. Trump is underwater statewide, and the 2020 elections promise to have even greater turnout of Democrats. Some Republicans see which way the wind is blowing and are getting out now, rather than spend the time, money, and effort in trying to win a losing congressional race.
posted by darkstar at 10:09 AM on August 5, 2019 [7 favorites]

These retirements of US House from Texas are great (and I won't be surprised to see one or two more). That said, the key targets here below the headlines for the Dems are really the state Supreme Court and the TX state house. Those are both possible, and would allow Dems to have a role in redistricting on both state and federal levels, which would go a *long* way.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:48 PM on August 5, 2019 [18 favorites]

In response to Trump’s escalating trade war, China just devalued its currency.

China also said it asked state-owned companies to stop buying U.S. agricultural products.

The US Dow index just dropped over 850 points.
posted by darkstar at 12:58 PM on August 5, 2019 [22 favorites]

The Dow is down 1500 since Thursday.

A lot of magical thinking goes into the Dow. Until it no longer does.

Bitcoin has more than tripled in the last several months which means it's getting close to where it was 18 months ago before it crashed to a quarter of its price.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 1:16 PM on August 5, 2019 [6 favorites]

In response to Trump’s escalating trade war, China just devalued its currency.

China also said it asked state-owned companies to stop buying U.S. agricultural products.

The US Dow index just dropped over 850 points.

I've had friends over, so no time to read news, but the radio said the whole global economy is taking a dip today. Waking up tomorrow will be interesting.
Another thing on the radio: the Washington reporter didn't say Trump looked presidential today as he might have a year ago, he said: it's interesting to see that Trump clearly feels vulnerable to all the attacks on him for being a racist and responsible for the growth in right-wing terror (me paraphrasing, obvs.)
posted by mumimor at 3:11 PM on August 5, 2019 [4 favorites]

With China's retaliation against the latest round of Trump's tariffs, I've started a draft of a Trade War FPP on the MeFi wiki for collaboration and contributions. This is just the sort of broad topic that would benefit from the MeFi hivemind.

Also, apropos of the NYMag cover story on Ivanka, there's a draft of an FPP on Javanka/Trump family corruption. (I wonder how her Chinese business will be affected by the trade war.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:29 PM on August 5, 2019 [9 favorites]

Teleprompter Trump meets Twitter Trump as the president responds to mass slayings (WaPo):

“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,” the president said, reading from a script that scrolled on a teleprompter in front of him. He added, “Now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside — so destructive — and find the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion and love.”

That unifying message stood in stark contrast to more than 2½ years of name-calling, demonizing minorities and inflaming racial animus, much of it carried out on Twitter. Just two hours before his White House speech, Trump tweeted an attack on the “Fake News” media for contributing to a culture of “anger and rage.” And in another set of tweets, the president suggested pairing “strong background checks” with “desperately needed immigration reform” — then dropped the matter entirely during his speech.

Such is the picture of a divisive leader trying to act as a healer, particularly in the aftermath of Saturday’s anti-immigrant attack in El Paso, where officials are still investigating but believe the gunman posted a manifesto that echoed Trump’s harsh rhetoric on immigrants, including describing his attack as “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Trump, in tweets and in rallies, has repeatedly decried the “invasion” of undocumented immigrants across the nation’s southern border.

Stephen Miller wrote today's statement on the shootings while Trump was busy crashing weddings at his Bedminster golf club. The president spent part of the weekend complaining to allies and club members that the media coverage seemed to blame him for the shootings, but he was not "nuclear level" upset about it.

In today's statement, Trump blessed the memory of "those who perished in Toledo" which did not escape Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.
posted by peeedro at 5:54 PM on August 5, 2019 [14 favorites]

It is tomorrow in Japan and the Nikkei Index is down 500. The Nikkei Index is half of what it was in 1989. Thirty years and it hasn't recovered.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:10 PM on August 5, 2019 [8 favorites]

As a matter of curiosity, has there ever been a successful trade war? Not a one off battle where one side folded, but a multi-year war such as we have?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:14 PM on August 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

New topical FPP is up: Trade War II—"Trade wars are good, and easy to win". Many thanks to peedro and zachlipton for their help creating it.
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:50 PM on August 5, 2019 [19 favorites]

Gabby Giffords calls on Mitch McConnell to apologize for joking about deaths of political opponents (Joseph Neese, Salon)

"The nation is turning to Leader McConnell right now for leadership, and this is the furthest thing from it" […]

Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who survived a 2011 mass shooting, has demanded that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to apologize for joking about the deaths of his political opponents in the immediate aftermath of Saturday's massacre in El Paso, Texas, which claimed the lives of 22 Americans.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:34 AM on August 6, 2019 [17 favorites]

What?!?! Mitch McConnell posted that?? I just thought his racist fans did it.
Surely this...
posted by mumimor at 7:55 AM on August 6, 2019

What?!?! Mitch McConnell posted that?? I just thought his racist fans did it.

They do many things. For example:

Ocasio-Cortez responds to photo of McConnell supporters groping cutout [of her]: ‘Is this just standard culture of Team Mitch?’ (Jake Johnson, Common Dreams via AlterNet)
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:05 AM on August 6, 2019 [8 favorites]

Jon Huntsman, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, resigns, probably to run for Governor of Utah in 2020. I give it 50/50 that Trump attacks him on the way out, just because he was insufficiently fulsome to Trump in his resignation letter.
posted by Etrigan at 8:50 AM on August 6, 2019 [4 favorites]

Mitch McConnell won't apologize for joking about the death of his political opponents, because he wasn't joking.
posted by Tabitha Someday at 8:55 AM on August 6, 2019 [20 favorites]

Cesar Sayoc--you remember, had a van, mailed Democrats pipe bombs--was sentenced to twenty years. Prosecution wanted a life sentence, but the judge concluded the bombs weren't supposed to go off. Which, uh...

The judge concluded that Sayoc, “though no firearms expert, was fully capable” of building a functioning bomb if he had wanted to do so. “He hated his victims,” the judge added, “but did not wish them dead, at least not by his own hand.”

....

At Sayoc’s guilty plea, he insisted that the devices were “intended to look like pipe bombs,” but that he did not mean for them to detonate. Pressed by the judge to explain further, Sayoc added, “I was aware of the risk that they would explode.”

....

While none of the devices detonated, [FBI Director Christopher] Wray said they were “not hoax devices.” Authorities have described them as “improvised explosive devices,” and they said that each of the 16 devices was placed in a padded envelope and filled with explosive material and glass shards meant to function as shrapnel. Outside of each was a photograph of the intended victim with a red “X” marking, officials said.

posted by box at 9:18 AM on August 6, 2019 [10 favorites]

He hated his victims,” the judge added, “but did not wish them dead, at least not by his own hand.”

Building bombs that might explode is a strange way to express your desire not to kill anyone.
posted by diogenes at 10:03 AM on August 6, 2019 [21 favorites]

So this judge just showed leniency to the perpetrator of an undeniable and admitted act -- no, multiple acts of political terror.

Said perpetrator was a right winger targeting those he perceived as liberal.

Got it.
posted by Gelatin at 10:12 AM on August 6, 2019 [19 favorites]

Jon Huntsman, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, resigns, probably to run for Governor of Utah in 2020

CNN, last week: Trump and Putin discussed need for new ambassador during phone call

President Donald Trump phoned his Russian counterpart this week after seeing a map of widespread wildfires in Siberia, according to senior administration officials.

But their conversation also drifted to a discussion of the need for a new US ambassador in Russia, two officials said, since the current envoy Jon Huntsman is expected to depart his post soon.

Huntsman's been caught between his pragmatic Republican base and Trump's pro-Russian policies ever since he took on the job, but he's resisted public calls to resign. It will be interesting to find out later what's prompted his stepping down (maybe it's just a health issue, but I doubt it).
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:35 AM on August 6, 2019 [6 favorites]

Checked. The judge was appointed by Clinton.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 1:12 PM on August 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Jon Huntsman, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, resigns, probably to run for Governor of Utah in 2020

This is... odd. Hunstman has filled the role before, and it is not clear what specific ambition or constituency he might be pursuing in a field that's already crowded from a broadly popular current Lt Governor (Spencer Cox) to Utah State speaker Greg Hughes (who I'm given to understand is Huntsman's friend, no less), Jason Chaffetz and Rob Bishop and Mike Lee and Mitt Romney's son and local business scions and probably half a dozen others I've forgotten about since my last conversation with Utah political junkie friends.

The easy speculation is that this gives him another fig leaf for retirement besides the cancer diagnosis. The wishful thinking speculation is that there's a battle for the Utah Republican party soul, with factions that probably include Team Trump, Team Let's Solidify Fascism But Cleaner Cut With Good Hair, Team Capitalists Who Are Embarrased By Racists & Fascists, and maybe even Team Moderate Capitalists Who Don't Want Racism & Fascism and Mildly Prefer Some Democracy, and that Huntsman is one of the latter two. Wild speculation would be that he'd run on an independent or Utah United ticket. But something definitely seems weird here.
posted by wildblueyonder at 1:52 PM on August 6, 2019

Jon Huntsman, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, resigns, probably to run for Governor of Utah in 2020

He said in advance he'd only stay on for 2 years, he has a very serious form of cancer, and he doesn't like Trump much. Maybe he's just leaving because he said he would.
posted by mumimor at 4:11 PM on August 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

I doubt Huntsman wants to run for Governor of Utah again although Gary Herbert has said he isn't running again. I think it's more likely he wants to get his cancer treated at the highly-acclaimed cancer center founded by his father rather than in Russia.


The megathread is dying anyway so I might as well mention that I saw Jon Huntsman perform with REO Speedwagon in 2005 and he was very good.
posted by mmoncur at 6:00 PM on August 6, 2019 [10 favorites]

Daily Beast: Trump Campaign Ad Features QAnon Signs—Whether accidental or not, the Trump campaign keeps nodding to QAnon conspiracy theorists, even after the FBI called them a potential source of domestic terror

Two signs promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory are visible in a video from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, marking the latest link between the president and followers of the fringe movement that the FBI recently described as a potential source of domestic terror.

The signs, which were first noticed by Vox reporter Aaron Rupar, appear in close-up shot in a “Women for Trump” video posted by Trump’s campaign late in July. Around halfway into the video, the first sign appears, with Trump’s “Keep America Great” slogan and a “Q” taped onto it. Another shows “Q”’s replacing the O’s on a “Women for Trump” sign.

The inclusion of the signs in the campaign video could be entirely accidental, as Trump rallies have become prominent gathering spots for believers in the QAnon conspiracy, making it harder to grab footage from the rallies that do not include such images. At a Trump rally last week, for example, a warm-up speaker recited a QAnon slogan during his speech. But the campaign video will, nevertheless, be likely interpreted by the Q community as a cryptic acknowledgement by Trump that their beliefs are real.

posted by Doktor Zed at 8:07 PM on August 6, 2019 [5 favorites]

More good news in the continuing story about the Virginia House of Delegates race, where Republican Nick Freitas filed too late to get on the ballot.

Virginia’s State Board of Elections on Tuesday rejected Republicans’ attempt to get a candidate on the ballot in a legislative district where GOP officials failed to file paperwork by state-imposed deadlines.

That means Democrat Ann Ridgeway will be the only candidate on the ballot.

Only two options remain for the Republicans at this point: stage a costly write-in campaign, or take the State Board of Elections to court, either of which will soak up some resources.
posted by darkstar at 10:17 PM on August 6, 2019 [16 favorites]

But the campaign video will, nevertheless, be likely interpreted by the Q community as a cryptic acknowledgement by Trump that their beliefs are real.

It will definitely be interpreted that way. The Q community sees cryptic acknowledgment in their breakfast cereal.
posted by diogenes at 6:23 AM on August 7, 2019 [9 favorites]

Ocasio-Cortez responds to photo of McConnell supporters groping cutout [of her]: ‘Is this just standard culture of Team Mitch?’

MoscowMitch's campaign responded with (essentially) 'boys will be boys'.

AOC blasts McConnell again: ‘Boys will be held accountable… starting with Mitch’.
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:31 AM on August 7, 2019 [22 favorites]

Is Donald Trump Actually [And Literally] Just Blind? An Investigation. (Ashley Feinberg, Slate)

This covers ground well before the 2017 Solar Eclipse, tying together all sorts of random-seeming incidents like verbal miscues and fear of stairs.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:03 AM on August 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Is Donald Trump Actually [And Literally] Just Blind? An Investigation. (Ashley Feinberg, Slate)

Slate's click-bait contrarianism sometimes produces alternate-reality hot takes. Yes, Trump has poor vision and refuses to wear glasses, but he has also displayed signs of cognitive impairment on numerous occasions, as we've exhaustively discussed. It doesn't help that he has a third-rate mind and is profoundly ignorant and incurious. Sure, he marks up his talking points with egregious spelling errors, but as we've seen on the megathreads, transcripts of interviews show he cannot recite facts or maintain his train of thought for any length of time. The "Toledo" gaff isn't simply evidence of Trump's inability to read off a teleprompter—it shows he's unable to retain facts about what he was briefed on just before he stepped up to the podium.

"But perhaps it all isn’t quite as bad as we thought. Perhaps Donald Trump just needs to wear his goddamn glasses." is just happy-talk at this point in Trump's presidency.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:34 AM on August 7, 2019 [19 favorites]

It will definitely be interpreted that way. The Q community sees cryptic acknowledgment in their breakfast cereal.

Are they eating Quisp?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:41 AM on August 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

At the time, the most likely explanation seemed to be senile degeneration. But again, the simpler explanation would be that Trump just genuinely did not see him because he couldn’t.

the most likely explanation seemed to be senile degeneration

Says it all, really.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:16 AM on August 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Given the strong possibility the anti-Trump candidate will end up being Joe Biden, I wish he were a better speaker.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:05 PM on August 7, 2019

Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris would beat Trump up in a debate.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:16 PM on August 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

Yeah for the good of the Republic, Joe Biden needs to step out of the race.
posted by notyou at 12:17 PM on August 7, 2019 [12 favorites]

Less than six months until the Democratic primaries

February 3: Iowa caucuses
February 11: New Hampshire primary
February 22: Nevada caucuses
February 29: South Carolina primary
March 3: Super Tuesday (Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia primaries)
posted by kirkaracha at 12:22 PM on August 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Hillary Clinton took him to the cleaners three times in a row and we saw how much good that did.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:30 PM on August 7, 2019 [34 favorites]

True, but I think she would have looked strong and thrown Trump off his game if she had directly confronted him about stalking her instead of not dignifying it with a response. Like Bugs Bunny: "Stop steaming up my tail! Whaddaya tryin' to do, wrinkle it?"
posted by kirkaracha at 12:40 PM on August 7, 2019 [5 favorites]

Given the strong possibility the anti-Trump candidate will end up being Joe Biden, I wish he were a better speaker.

Biden could of course be more passionate and inspiring, but he's not wrong about Trump: "His vacant-eyed mouthing of the words written for him condemning white supremacists this week I don't believe fooled anyone."

@realDonaldTrump responded with a childishly petulant but 100% authentic tweet composed en route to El Paso. ("Sooo Boring! The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks with this guy.")

And yesterday evening he was taking shots at former El Paso congressman Beto O'Rourke, telling him to "be quiet" during Trump's visit. O'Rourke, who is already there, responded, "22 people in my hometown are dead after an act of terror inspired by your racism. El Paso will not be quiet and neither will I."
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:42 PM on August 7, 2019 [23 favorites]

> kirkaracha:
"Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris would beat Trump up in a debate."

I'd love to see either one of them debate Trump (and wouldn't mind seeing the other debate Pence), but I have no expectation that there will be a single debate this time around.
posted by maurice at 1:03 PM on August 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

> Hillary Clinton took him to the cleaners three times in a row and we saw how much good that did.

*sniffs*
posted by tonycpsu at 1:04 PM on August 7, 2019 [5 favorites]

Brian Beutler, Members of the Press, WTF Indeed!

The answers to these questions are no more reassuring or elusive than the answer to the question that bedevils the political establishment most of all: Why does Trump constantly stoke hatred of immigrants and Muslims and minorities? They are all easy to answer if you can acknowledge that Trump is engaged in a fundamentally malevolent project. The inability to do that, and the attendant unwillingness to connect the dots around it, has given rise to a media failure that in some ways exceeds the 2002 and 2003 coverage of the build up to war in Iraq. The consequences of this more recent failure have not been as catastrophic, not so far anyhow, but at least back then the fact that the Bush administration was building a case for war with Iraq didn’t escape the notice even of the reporters who most eagerly laundered its lies and propaganda.

Today, before our eyes, Trump and his allies seek to crush the foundations of multiracial democracy and replace them with a white ethnostate where the ruling class directs violence at scapegoat communities to create the climate it needs to get away with looting the country and dismantling all checks on its power. If you can see that, and articulate it, you don’t ask what Trump might do to make things better, or say he “urges unity vs. racism.” If you can’t see it, or your job requires you to blind yourself to it, you must treat his ultimate purposes as an impenetrable mystery. You might explain away his efforts to end an investigation of an attack on the United States, and his coziness with the perpetrator, as impulses of a man who merely worries the Russia matter undermines his legitimacy. You might marvel at his occasional, scripted, disingenuous condemnations of all the forces he has fostered, and chase down Democrats to ask them if they think Trump is racist. But seriously: What the fuck?

posted by zachlipton at 1:24 PM on August 7, 2019 [29 favorites]

I have no expectation that there will be a single debate this time around.

Mocking him for being too afraid to debate might work, especially if the nominee is a woman.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:16 PM on August 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

The one Clinton-Trump debate I watched reminded me of a high school confrontation where somebody tries to take a jerk down with a well-reasoned argument, the jerk responds by farting and everyone laughs and takes his side. I don't think anyone can "win" a debate with Trump because he could respond to everything his opponent said by smirking and making the "jerk-off" motion with one hand and all of his supporters and half the press would declare him the victor.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:57 PM on August 7, 2019 [29 favorites]

CNN: House Democrats file suit to force Don McGahn to testify, saying his testimony needed for impeachment investigation

The lawsuit alleges that McGahn's testimony is essential to the committee's investigation, calling McGahn the "most important witness," and it outlines exactly how the Judiciary Committee might use McGahn's testimony in an impeachment proceeding.

"The Judiciary Committee is now determining whether to recommend articles of impeachment against the President based on the obstructive conduct described by the Special Counsel. But it cannot fulfill this most solemn constitutional responsibility without hearing testimony from a crucial witness to these events: former White House Counsel Donald F. McGahn II," the lawsuit says.

The House's arguments Wednesday have some of the strongest language yet before a judge that they're working toward formal impeachment proceedings over whether Trump obstructed the Russia investigation, and the lawsuit sets the stage for a precedent-setting legal showdown between the White House and Congress over executive privilege.

posted by darkstar at 3:19 PM on August 7, 2019 [10 favorites]

Clinton went up in the polls after each debate, I believe.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:22 PM on August 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

USAT: The House Judiciary Committee asked a federal court Wednesday to force President Donald Trump's former White House counsel, Donald McGahn, to testify before lawmakers who are weighing whether the president should be impeached.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:24 PM on August 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

CNN: House Democrats file suit to force Don McGahn to testify, saying his testimony needed for impeachment investigation:

McGahn's attorney William Burck said in a statement that "when faced with competing demands from co-equal branches of government, Don will follow his former client's instruction, absent a contrary decision from the federal judiciary."

The White House Counsel is an employee of the federal government and his client is the office of the president, not the president personally. Courts have already ruled that the White House Counsel cannot claim executive privilege or attorney-client privilege in a criminal investigation.

The appeals court ruled that the primary duty of White House lawyers is to uphold the law, not to protect the president. “When an executive branch attorney is called before a federal grand jury to give evidence about alleged crimes within the executive branch, reason and experience, duty, and tradition dictate that the attorney shall provide that evidence,” the D.C. Circuit said. “With respect to investigations of federal criminal offenses, and especially offenses committed by those in government, government attorneys stand in a far different position from members of the private bar. Their duty is not to defend clients against criminal charges and it is not to protect wrongdoers from public exposure. The constitutional responsibility of the president, and all members of the executive branch, is to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.’”

The President’s Lawyer and His Cooperation in the Russia Investigation

...the White House counsel is a government employee, not personal counsel to the president. Courts presented with the question have ruled that, in a criminal investigation, the attorney-client privilege does not shield a White House counsel from providing his or her evidence. Neither is executive privilege a safe harbor if the government can demonstrate need for the information and its unavailability from other sources.

The Clinton administration litigated and lost both privilege claims in defending against the independent counsel investigations.

posted by kirkaracha at 3:43 PM on August 7, 2019 [16 favorites]

So, basically a dare to take it as far as the rigged system has made straight the way...
posted by bird internet at 5:37 PM on August 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

For the debates, how about having each candidate in a separate room isolated from each other and any audience. Each can see and hear the other candidate on a video monitor.

This would prevent either candidate from theatrically walking about the stage - if they are not in front of their camera they are invisible.

You might even only show the candidate speaking, so the other candidate couldn't pantomime objection or incredulity (or like Chevy Chase, making funny faces).

And each can try to craft what they think will be audience friendly lines, but without the feedback from the audience they run the risk of misjudging the room.

Doubt this would ever be adopted, but it would be an interesting way to force the candidates to consider what they say.
posted by rochrobbb at 6:14 PM on August 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

Trumpism in a nutshell:

Roll Call: Senate GOP Plans to Divert Health, Education Funds to Border Wall—$5 billion move would set up clash with Democratic House over fiscal 2020 spending

Senate Republicans are looking to pay for President Donald Trump’s border wall in part by putting about $5 billion less in the largest domestic spending bill, several people with knowledge of the process said.

That move signals a likely fight over wall funding, as well as over Trump’s ability to reprogram or transfer funds to the border, when the fiscal 2020 appropriations process resumes after Congress returns in September.

According to several people familiar with the process, Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby, an Alabama Republican, wrote an allocation for the fiscal 2020 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill that is about $5 billion lower than it would have been to provide funding for the wall.

posted by Doktor Zed at 7:06 AM on August 8, 2019 [6 favorites]

Man who attacked 13-year-old boy for not removing hat during anthem cites Trump in defense.

"[His lawyer says] he believes he was acting on an order from President Trump.

'His commander in chief is telling people that if they kneel, they should be fired, or if they burn a flag, they should be punished. He certainly didn't understand it was a crime.

'I am certain of the fact that [Brockway] was doing what he believed he was told to do, essentially, by the president...'"
posted by jgirl at 8:36 AM on August 8, 2019 [8 favorites]

Trump considering a pardon for Blagojevich. Why would this even be a thing? Does anyone other than Blag want this?
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:20 AM on August 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Apparently Blago's wife has come up with a smart strategy of appearing on Fox News and making a case for his pardon. (If you have a relative in prison, I highly recommend that you plead their case on Fox News.) And for some reason, Trump seems to think that pardoning Blagojevich will improve his popularity among Democrats. I have no idea why anyone would think that, but there you go. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Trump empathizes with Blagojevich. They're cut from the same crooked, narcissistic cloth.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:23 AM on August 8, 2019 [12 favorites]

It's an article of faith for many Republicans that Democrats/liberals/lefties only attack them over corruption, incompetence, general-purpose lawbreaking and so forth out of partisan rancor and resent any attempt to police bad behavior on our own side. While that's not completely false -- see the intraparty fight over Al Franken -- the idea that anyone outside his immediate family and payroll was sad to see Rod Blagojevich go down is Olympic-level projection from the White House.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:37 AM on August 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

When you read an article in the American press about Trump "throwing red meat to his base" please be sure to remember that that red meat is, in many cases, human flesh.
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:48 AM on August 8, 2019 [8 favorites]

Trump considering a pardon for Blagojevich. Why would this even be a thing? Does anyone other than Blag want this?

Isn't this a clear conflict of interest, since Blagojevich was on the 9th season of Celebrity Apprentice?
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:45 PM on August 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

Banks hand over documents on Russians with possible ties to Trump - report (Guardian)

Major Wall Street banks have handed over thousands of pages of documents related to Russians who may have had ties to the president.

The material has been given to congressional committees investigating Donald Trump, and the documents relate to Russians who have possibly had dealings with him, his family or his business, people familiar with the congressional investigations have told the Wall Street Journal.

Some banks are also giving documents related the Trump Organization to New York state investigators, people familiar with the New York investigation said.

Firms include Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. They have reportedly recently provided the documents to congressional investigators, people familiar with those investigations told the Journal.

posted by Little Dawn at 1:08 PM on August 8, 2019 [16 favorites]

Separately, Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump’s primary bank, has reportedly turned over emails, loan agreements and other documents related to the Trump Organization to the office of New York attorney general Letitia James.

So Deutshe Bank still isn't cooperating with Congress.
posted by diogenes at 1:45 PM on August 8, 2019

ZeusHumms: "Isn't this a clear conflict of interest, since Blagojevich was on the 9th season of Celebrity Apprentice?"

Sure, but the president's pardon power is unrestricted. So it's legally fine, and it's not as if looking bad has ever stopped this guy doing things.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:40 PM on August 8, 2019 [6 favorites]

Business Insider: A scathing new Pentagon report blames Trump for the return of ISIS in Syria and Iraq

The Pentagon inspector general issued a report to Congress saying that the Islamic State is again growing in power in Syria and Iraq, with approximately 14,000 to 18,000 militants.

The report specifically said President Donald Trump's decision to rapidly draw down troops in Syria and pull diplomatic staff from Iraq increased instability and allowed the militants to regroup.

Former Special Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk, who resigned following the drawdown announcement, has repeatedly warned of this scenario, saying that Trump's policies would lead to chaos and "an environment for extremists to thrive."

From that well known liberal think-tank, The Pentagon.
posted by darkstar at 3:42 PM on August 8, 2019 [25 favorites]

Here's the link to the Pentagon's report.

WSJ reports: Report Cites Trump Policy Decisions in Signs of Islamic State Comeback—Extremist group’s determination, difficulties encountered by U.S.- backed forces are noted

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that he hadn’t read the report, but insisted that the administration wasn’t complacent about Islamic State. “This administration is incredibly mindful of the success we’ve had versus ISIS, and the challenge that it continues to present to the world,” Mr. Pompeo said. {emphasis added, because that's some bullshit right there}[…]

A State Department decision to reduce the U.S. Embassy staff in Baghdad following several rocket attacks in the Green Zone, where embassies and government buildings are located, has eroded the ability by the U.S. to carry out humanitarian efforts in the country, the report states, citing State Department assessments. Those efforts are aimed at precluding Islamic State from rebuilding support among the country’s disaffected Sunni population.

In Syria, a reduction of U.S. forces has affected the ability of the U.S. to monitor the al-Hol camp, where thousands of displaced people reside. Though the perimeter of the camp is guarded by U.S.-backed Syrian forces, those forces are unable to provide more than “minimal security” inside the compound, where Islamic State likely is working to recruit new members, the report notes.

The U.S.-led military command that is spearheading the campaign against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria reported that the drawdown of U.S. forces in Syria has reduced its ability to maintain “visibility” at the camp, forcing it to rely on what the report calls “third-party accounts of the humanitarian and security situation there.”

posted by Doktor Zed at 4:37 PM on August 8, 2019 [6 favorites]

The New York Times rebuked one of its staffers, deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman, on Thursday after he posted several problematic tweets that many saw as racist over the past week.
posted by octothorpe at 5:00 PM on August 8, 2019 [14 favorites]

Earlier today, Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs reported, "Scoop: The deputy director of national intelligence, Sue Gordon, will leave her position following a meeting in Oval with Trump today, sources tell me. Some natl security aides have told me Sue Gordon is one of strongest leaders in intel community, saying she tells truth even when people don’t want to hear it. But she has detractors*, including those who tagged her an acolyte of John Brennan, who has become a major Trump foe.”

Sure enough, Trump later fired the career intelligence official with four decades of experience by tweet. He's named retired Admiral Joseph Maguire, current Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting DNI—because despite Maguire's comparatively thin intelligence background, Trump loves a man in uniform. Trump promises to name a new DNI nominee "shortly". (Names I keep hearing are Pete "Netherlands no-go zones" Hoekstra and Islamophobic nutjob Fred Fleitz.)

* Supposedly, one of these was… Don Jr.
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:09 PM on August 8, 2019 [12 favorites]

The New York Times rebuked one of its staffers, deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman, on Thursday after he posted several problematic tweets that many saw as racist over the past week.

Wow, these tweets are astonishing in their stupidity. I should be numb to it but still amazed at how you can be this dumb and also a big salaried very important person.
posted by dis_integration at 5:13 PM on August 8, 2019 [12 favorites]

.
posted by scrowdid at 6:18 PM on August 8, 2019

Sure, but the president's pardon power is unrestricted. So it's legally fine, and it's not as if looking bad has ever stopped this guy doing things.

My guess is that Trump would pardon Blagojevich for the following reasons:
1) normalize political crime pardoning, getting him ready for the mass pardon sure to come if he loses in 2020
2) restoke the fires of "dems are corrupt too"
3) get Blagojevich to promise to run for office somewhere just to drag Democrats down and depress voter turnout
4) Blago's wife is on Fox News

but mostly #4.
posted by benzenedream at 6:25 PM on August 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

Oh, apparently it's an even dumber reason. Kushner thinks pardoning him will appeal to Democrats. Trump's Razor applies again.
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:58 PM on August 8, 2019 [8 favorites]

Emma Kinery: Biden slipped and said: “poor kids are just as smart as white kids.” He quickly corrected himself and added “wealthy kids, black kids”.

He left out fat kids, skinny kids and kids who climb on rocks
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:40 AM on August 9, 2019 [21 favorites]

“We should challenge students in these schools and have advanced placement programs in these schools,” Biden said. "We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids." He quickly added, "Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids, no I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”

Note also that these remarks were made at a gathering of Iowa PAC the Asian & Latino Coalition.
posted by box at 7:13 AM on August 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

Biden also referred to Theresa May as “Margaret Thatcher”. Again.

Getting through eight years as Veep without major gaffes may go down Biden’s signature accomplishment. I’m half-convinced that Obama had some kind of subliminal effect on him at the time.
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:23 AM on August 9, 2019 [10 favorites]

Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids." He quickly added, "Wealthy kids..."

Meh. This is getting more attention than it warrants. I won't mind when our collective attention gets diverted to some other inane and insignificant event in 15 minutes or so.
posted by diogenes at 7:59 AM on August 9, 2019

Meh. This is getting more attention it warrants. I won't mind when our collective attention gets diverted to some other inane and insignificant event in 15 minutes or so.

The fact that the unapolegetically pro-segregation frontrunner can't help making racist slips of tongue seems worth focussing on, to me.

Can't wait for the Trump Biden debate, two alpha males whose brains are turning to mush challenging each other to feats of masculinity and competing dogwhistles. Just beautiful to think about.
posted by dis_integration at 8:05 AM on August 9, 2019 [8 favorites]

Its getting the exact right amount of attention, imo, bc it validates the CLEAR AND OBVIOUS CONCERNS REGARDING UNCLE JOE'S AWARENESS OF THE BIG ISSUES AND ABILITY TO TALK ABOUT THEM COHERENTLY.

hes so old hes asleep (in the sense of it being the opposite of 'woke')
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 8:10 AM on August 9, 2019 [16 favorites]

Blagojevich is linked with Comey as I think he investigated him. It’s all just a way to piss off his “enemies.”
posted by njohnson23 at 8:24 AM on August 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

‘If you’re a good worker, papers don’t matter’: How a Trump construction crew has relied on immigrants without legal status (WaPo):

For nearly two decades, the Trump Organization has relied on a roving crew of Latin American employees to build fountains and waterfalls, sidewalks and rock walls at the company’s winery and its golf courses from New York to Florida.

Other employees at Trump clubs were so impressed by the laborers — who did strenuous work with heavy stone — that they nicknamed them “Los Picapiedras,” Spanish for “the Flintstones.”

For years, their ranks have included workers who entered the United States illegally, according to two former members of the crew. Another employee, still with the company, said that remains true today.

posted by peeedro at 8:26 AM on August 9, 2019 [7 favorites]

Apparently Trump is considering COMMUTING Blagos sentence, not pardoning him, which would at least keep him from running for office again.

I truly can't imagine who Kushner thinks this will appeal to, Illinois Democrats fucking LOATHE Blagojevich, and Illinois Republicans' post-Blago victory lap was Bruce Rauner, who drove the entire state party apparatus into the ground and took most of the GOP establishment with him; they're down to a rump party of overt suburban racists and downstate nutjobs (and also racists) who are literally running for office on the promise to cut Chicago out of Illinois.

Illinois Democrats have a pretty solid statewide Democratic team (Durbin and Duckworth; Pritzker, Raoul, Frierichs, Mendoza, and Jesse White is the one concern spot but only because he's so old); a good bench in the statehouse and in the US House; and an anti-corruption mayor in Chicago. Sure, the FBI is busting a whole bunch of Dem pols in Chicago right now, but they're a) mostly old and b) in Democratic districts so deep they'd elect a ham sandwich with a (D) after the name. There will be no shortage of talented young Democrats ready to take those seats.

I think it's the personal connection from being on the Apprentice, the fact that it was Obama's seat that Blago tried to sell (so it's a thumb in the eye to Obama), Comey's involvement, and Patty Blagojevich's willingness to utterly debase herself on Fox News at great length.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:28 AM on August 9, 2019 [8 favorites]

Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids." He quickly added, "Wealthy kids..."

Meh. This is getting more attention than it warrants.

I disagree, but not from the point of view that we should keep beating up on Biden for it. I think it needs attention because so many people do conflate poor people with non-white people, even though until recently most poor people were white. Now whites are only ~42%, but they are a large plurality. It makes terribly difficult the needed policy arguments when people's unconscious racism clouds their ability to understand and solve the problem. So Biden's gaffe is a good starting point for the process of reeducating folks about the nature of poverty in America and who is poor.
posted by Mental Wimp at 8:28 AM on August 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

racist slips of tongue

The idea that slips of the tongue reveal the thoughts and desires of the unconscious mind isn't exactly on the cutting edge of cognitive psychology.

I'd rather beat up on Biden for the stupid shit he says intentionally.
posted by diogenes at 8:53 AM on August 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

I wonder if Trump would resign if Fox News said he should.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:19 AM on August 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

—————————
—————————

Just a reminder that the new off-site alternative for the US Politics Megathread Experience — hosted at https://megathread.dreamwidth.org — is scheduled to go live with it’s first megathread post today at 3pm EST.

Over 40 MeFites have already joined up!

—————————
—————————
posted by darkstar at 9:21 AM on August 9, 2019 [17 favorites]

Woohoo! Let's do this!
posted by diogenes at 9:40 AM on August 9, 2019

How do I join the new megathread? Do I use my Metafilter userid and password?
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 9:59 AM on August 9, 2019

The Young Turks: Leaked FBI Documents Reveal Bureau’s Priorities Under Trump

Under President Trump, the FBI’s official counterterrorism priorities have included “Black Identity Extremists,” “anti-authority” extremists, and “animal rights/environmental extremists,” according to leaked Bureau documents obtained exclusively by The Young Turks. The documents, many of which are marked “Law Enforcement Sensitive” and “For Official Use Only,” also reference a mysterious plan to mitigate the threat of “Black Identity Extremists” with a program codenamed “IRON FIST” involving the use of undercover agents.[…]

[A]lthough the FBI last month reportedly assured Senate Democrats that it had dropped the term “Black Identity Extremist” in favor of one that isn’t race-specific, the documents suggest that this was misleading. Despite changing the name, the Bureau retained much of the original definition and still targeted black people.

So grave did the Bureau consider the threat of black extremists that from 2019 to 2020, using new designations, it listed the threat at the very top of its counterterrorism priorities — above even terror groups like Al Qaeda.[…]

“The 2018 threat guidance strongly suggests that the “Black Identity Extremist” term emerged from the Black Lives Matter movement — specifically, the 2014 shooting of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and its aftermath.

“The FBI judges BIE perceptions of police brutality against African Americans have likely motivated acts of pre-meditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement,” the document states. “The FBI first observed this activity following the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the subsequent acquittal of police officers involved in that incident.”

Obviously this contradicts FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony to the Senate last month: "A majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we've investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence."
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:03 AM on August 9, 2019 [12 favorites]

How do I join the new megathread? Do I use my Metafilter userid and password?

Lots more about the DW instantiation of the megathread over in this MeTa (skip to near the end, probably, to get to more DW-specific details).
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:04 AM on August 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

Blagojevich is linked with Comey as I think he investigated him. It’s all just a way to piss off his “enemies.”

Blagojevich was taken down by Patrick Fitzgerald, not Comey, but those latter two are close associates.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:09 AM on August 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

How do I join the new megathread?

It was my understanding there would be no math
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 10:36 AM on August 9, 2019 [12 favorites]

Illinois Democrats fucking LOATHE Blagojevich


This morning on the radio I heard that Durbin, inexplicably, has made some sympathetic noises about Blago. I can't for the life of me understand why he'd want to weigh in with this corrupt president to benefit a convicted corrupt politician, but there it is.

I"m going to call his office and ask WTF.
posted by Reverend John at 11:02 AM on August 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

Wednesday, from the Independent: North Korea launches two missiles as South Korea and US military exercises begin: “In the fourth set of missile tests in the last two weeks, rockets were fired from an area near the western coast of the country on Tuesday.The launches were confirmed by South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff minutes before the North’s foreign ministry released a statement denouncing Washington and Seoul for the drills, which it sees as an invasion rehearsal.”

Today, via CNAS fellow Kingston Reif, “Trump this morning: "I got a very beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un yesterday..He wasn’t happy with the war games..And as you know I’ve never liked it either..I don’t like paying for it. We should be reimbursed for it and I’ve told that to South Korea."”
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:29 AM on August 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

This morning on the radio I heard that Durbin, inexplicably, has made some sympathetic noises about Blago. I can't for the life of me understand why he'd want to weigh in with this corrupt president to benefit a convicted corrupt politician, but there it is.

One can only hope that hes baiting him into doing it bc Durbin knows it is colossally stupid?
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 11:37 AM on August 9, 2019

As we're winding down here, I have to ask: does anyone else ever think about how the president couldn't be stopped from ripping up all his papers, so they had a team of people taping them back together, and then those people were summarily fired, and then we just heard nothing else about the subject? Because I do all the time.
posted by zachlipton at 11:56 AM on August 9, 2019 [20 favorites]

Okay everyone that wants to try and continue megathreads offsite now that this one is about to close:

Here's the Dreamwidth Megathread Offshoot Experiment!

Here it is in:

* Flat comment viewing mode
* Dark mode
* Dark and flat
posted by foxfirefey at 11:58 AM on August 9, 2019 [8 favorites]

Also, if you want to give it a try without getting an account: anonymous commenting is allowed right now, it'll just be screened until I approve it.
posted by foxfirefey at 12:02 PM on August 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

.
posted by HyperBlue at 12:09 PM on August 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

The Daily Beast’s Lachlan McKay: “The FEC just sent the Trump campaign a 265-page spreadsheet of "apparent excessive, prohibited, and impermissible contributions" https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/415/201908080300044415/201908080300044415.pdf”

Interesting timing after the recent dust-ups over Julian Castro tweeting out the publicly available names and contact info of Trump’s high-roller donors and the the chairman of the Equinox/SoulCycle fitness chains‘ parent company planning a big-ticket Hamptons fundraiser on today for Trump.

CNN: Uproar over Trump donations sparks fresh debate about disclosure
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:40 PM on August 9, 2019 [9 favorites]

CNN: Uproar over Trump donations sparks fresh debate about disclosure

For values of "debate" that are pretty much limited to "rich people are embarrassed that the public record of their donations to Trump are exposed."

I think Harry Truman once offered a useful analogy about tolerance for thermal differentials.
posted by Gelatin at 12:49 PM on August 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

As we're winding down here, I have to ask: does anyone else ever think about how the president couldn't be stopped from ripping up all his papers, so they had a team of people taping them back together, and then those people were summarily fired, and then we just heard nothing else about the subject? Because I do all the time.

I remember when he started eating them.

Okay everyone that wants to try and continue megathreads offsite now that this one is about to close:

Here's the Dreamwidth Megathread Offshoot Experiment!

I'm confused but I'm reading along
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:03 PM on August 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Donald Kuyrkendall, one of the San Antonio donors named in Castro's tweet, said he backs Trump because he supports his economic policies, including confronting China on trade.

Back in the 1940's we had a word for people who backed the Nazi Party not out of antisemitism or a love of war, but because they were economically anxious, or liked Hitler's economic policies, or felt that they weren't given enough attention by the previous government. We called those people "Nazis".
posted by sotonohito at 1:08 PM on August 9, 2019 [22 favorites]

With the final megathread's imminent closure I just wanted to say good luck and we're all counting on you.
posted by Justinian at 1:09 PM on August 9, 2019 [24 favorites]

It ain't over until someone puts out the milk and cookies.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:10 PM on August 9, 2019 [9 favorites]

I just want to tell you good luck. We're all counting on you.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:26 PM on August 9, 2019 [5 favorites]

Back in the 1940's we had a word for people who backed the Nazi Party not out of antisemitism or a love of war, but because they were economically anxious, or liked Hitler's economic policies, or felt that they weren't given enough attention by the previous government. We called those people "Nazis".

Just a friendly reminder that for much of the 20th Century, Republicans had no problem labeling anyone who opposed their agenda as a Commie. Republicans now know exactly what they're doing and how bad it looks; that's why they lie about it. I have no sympathy to their protestations when others describe their depravity in accurate terms.
posted by Gelatin at 1:31 PM on August 9, 2019 [13 favorites]

Maggie Haberman euphemistically profiles spittle-flecked loon and professional bigot Katie Hopkins whom Trump loves to retweet: A Divisive Voice Once Again Has Trump’s Ear

As President Trump doubles down on a re-election approach of stoking fear of immigrants, he is once again elevating a voice of validation — and many say racism — that he discovered during his last presidential campaign.

That voice is Katie Hopkins, a far-right British commentator who has made denunciations of migrants and Muslims — and defenses of Mr. Trump — a staple of her public discourse. British headlines have routinely labeled Ms. Hopkins a “racist” and a “bigot” for her views about immigrants.[…]

Ms. Hopkins, a former Sun and Daily Mail columnist who appeared on the British version of “The Apprentice,” has become well known in Britain for her provocative views.[…]

Managing Mr. Trump’s Twitter habits is sometimes a group effort, done in conjunction with his longtime adviser, Dan Scavino. But on weekends, while alone, Mr. Trump tends to scroll through the replies to his tweets, and will often pick up what he has seen there, a former administration official said.

He is particularly receptive to tweets that reinforce his own views, the official said, as well as posts by people who have blue checks next to their names, designating them as verified by Twitter.[…]

In an interview, Ms. Hopkins said she had never spoken with Mr. Trump, but she declined to answer whether any of his advisers had ever reached out to her. Still, she described Mr. Trump as a kindred spirit who was being treated unfairly for speaking out about immigration.

“I think it’s not a surprise that Trump would retweet my tweets,” Ms. Hopkins said, adding that she saw Britain and the United States as similar in terms of urban elites speaking with louder voices than others.

“I guess that’s why President Trump and I have ended up with a similar message,” she said. She praised Mr. Trump’s efforts to impose a travel ban on a half-dozen mostly Muslim countries early in his term.

“I think the travel ban was at least a way of saying we need to take back control,” she said.

posted by Doktor Zed at 1:35 PM on August 9, 2019 [6 favorites]

From that link: "And after a suicide bombing killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in 2017, Ms. Hopkins tweeted that “we need a final solution” to the terrorism problem. She later deleted the post."

This is who Trump follows on Twitter.
posted by OnceUponATime at 1:57 PM on August 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

For values of "debate" that are pretty much limited to "rich people are embarrassed that the public record of their donations to Trump are exposed."

Am i having a serious brain fart or are these only DUMB rich people who dont funnel their contributions through PACs and dark money groups.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 1:59 PM on August 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

Maggie and her peers are loath to spell out just how much ghostwriting and retweeting Scavino now does for the boss's account. (It's more than we think, even if you think it's a lot.) This is a problem. An uncanny-valley tweet from the golf caddy & ball polisher has the potential to get people killed.

The Scavino-Grisham era is worse than what came before it. Grisham has taken the control she applied around Melania and applied it to her new job. The WH press seems to have accepted there will be no more briefings, just yelled questions from the driveway where the audio is murky and the video not really suitable for broadcast use.
posted by holgate at 2:10 PM on August 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

Katie Hopkins is well known in the U.K. as the worst sort of person, the kind of writer who gives Fleet Street hacks a bad name. She was fired from talk radio LBC over her tweets about the Manchester Arena bombing, and she’s lost a couple of high-profile libel suits over her so-called journalism. Haberman really soft-pedals how vile she is.

Anyroad, I won’t be around for the megathread’s close tonight, so let me just say thank you all for your informative links and engaging discussion as we’ve swirled around the newsvortex for the past few years. With the megathreads decommissioning, the transition to more focused topical #uspolitics/#potus45 FPPs looks like their spirit will carry over on the Blue. See everyone there—we’ve only got to get through 425 days until the 2020 election.
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:26 PM on August 9, 2019 [11 favorites]

I also want to thank everyone so much for all of the hard work and dedication it has taken to create, develop, and follow the megathreads, and that includes the posters, commenters, lurkers, and moderators.

As we transition to more focused uspolitics and potus45 posts, please also note that the U.S. Politics FPP Draft MeFi Wiki page has been reconfigured to support collaboration on topic-specific US Politics and US Politics-adjacent FPPs, and the spirit of the megathread still has a home there.
posted by Little Dawn at 2:55 PM on August 9, 2019 [17 favorites]

Here, at the end of all things.
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:45 PM on August 9, 2019 [14 favorites]

We should put a warning on the megathreads when we close them up so people know what to expect if they read them.

This place is a message… and part of a system of messages… pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.

This place is not a place of honor…no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here… nothing valued is here.

What is here is dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.

posted by mmoncur at 3:56 PM on August 9, 2019 [28 favorites]

i just want to tell you good luck. we're all counting on you.
posted by entropicamericana at 3:57 PM on August 9, 2019 [7 favorites]

Katie Hopkins is well known in the U.K. as the worst sort of person, the kind of writer who gives Fleet Street hacks a bad name. She was fired from talk radio LBC over her tweets about the Manchester Arena bombing, and she’s lost a couple of high-profile libel suits over her so-called journalism. Haberman really soft-pedals how vile she is.

Katie Hopkins is also the woman expelled from South Africa for inciting racial hatred after running a horrifically racist film on white farmers. As the reliably wonderful Marina Hyde put it,

"This sort of haute journalisme was accompanied by videos and shots of her posing moodily in denim at various locations. Think of her as Bluejean Terreblanche

So tl;dr: Trump is retweeting and validating someone literally deported for racism.
posted by jaduncan at 4:09 PM on August 9, 2019 [10 favorites]

And, of course, vice versa.
posted by jaduncan at 4:11 PM on August 9, 2019

All these threads are yours except Eurmega. Attempt no comments there.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:15 PM on August 9, 2019 [6 favorites]

[clever comment for posterity and favorites]
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 5:14 PM on August 9, 2019 [16 favorites]

I'm just glad we finally figured out who was at fault for the 2016 primaries.
posted by mittens at 5:26 PM on August 9, 2019 [13 favorites]

Much will be lost, with the loss of the Megathreads.

So much has already fallen through the cracks.

I just want to tell all you megathreaders...

Good luck, we are all counting on you.
posted by Windopaene at 5:34 PM on August 9, 2019 [18 favorites]

Hey zachlipton, remember when Trump went on the campaign trail, said that the U.S. should just kill the families of suspected terrorists, had it pointed out that it would be a war crime, got elected, and then... killed a little girl, the daughter of a suspected terrorist, in a questionable foreign raid? I do.

Donald Trump's political career is a target-rich environment. If I could give the megathread readers one piece of homework to come away with, it would be to choose just one indictable thing and shop it around until you find one person, place or media platform to grind it into until it gains purchase. The easy path for me is to spend the Congressional off-season reminding John Lewis that Jail-no-Bail turned out to be a poor strategy during the Civil Rights Movement, so why and how can we turn our backs on people in much more dire straits today?

That's still just low-hanging fruit though. If I really wanted to be provocative I'd spin out my theory about what happened when Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin got together to speak in private. It's weird that so few people bring that up anymore. (warning: conspiracy theory-ish, also kind of gross) When it comes to opportunities, Trump is an foolish, egotistical, self-aggrandizing blowhard who cannot keep a secret to save his life. The only things that he even tries to keep secret are those that he recognizes as humiliating, and those are either money issues (seriously, why is no one pubically claiming that Trump is hiding his tax returns because he is, brace yourselves, a poor fraud? Even the people who claim to be entirely against Trump seem to fall in line and play by his stupid unspoken rules anyhow!) or they're sexual issues.

*sigh* Look, I'll just say it. At some point during those private meetings, Vladimir Putin probably extracted from Donald Trump the ultimate kompromat: some sort of coerced, explicit, graphic sexual submission by Trump, to Putin, on camera. (All of this recent talk about "deep fakes" isn't trying to get out ahead of anything, is it?) Donald Trump doesn't understand diplomacy, politics, subterfuge, or anything resembling subtlety. What he does understand, given reports of his own behavior (around teen beauty pageant contestants, his own wives, other people's wives, just women in general...) is his own stupidly brutish worldview, and that if I can see that, then Vladimir Putin would definitely know, and have a plan to exploit it, and be willing to try pulling it off. And that's the worst-timeline chase for you: two of the self-styled most powerful people on Earth, engaged in a petty act of prison-bitchery. That's where I sincerely believe we are. Trump is an object lesson about why laws exist.

You're disgusted? Yeah, me too. I certainly don't relish the thought in any way, and sexual assault isn't funny no matter who the victim is. You think it's ridiculous? Yeah, so do I, and if you can come up with some logical explanation for how it can't be true I would be eternally grateful. I don't like anything about this particular nagging thought, but the thing is that, since Trump is a government official ostensibly wrapped up in a number of constitutional laws and levels of governmental protocol, this shouldn't even be a workable hypothesis: why are there gaps in Trump's records that the public is just obliged to tolerate? I guess I better be careful though, because we all know what happened to the last foul-mouthed, disrespectful, slanderous dolt who made a habit out of insulting the current sitting president for all sorts of poor behavior ranging from the incompetent to the outright unconstitutional and/or treasonous.

Oh shit, let me start again: *ahem*

Once upon a time there was a disgruntled Russian mobster.

He had perfectly understandable reasons for being upset! Sure, his "side" "lost" the Cold War, but even so he had managed to acquire a great many resources, both governmental and economic, for himself in his home nation. It was the treatment from the "winners" that he came to find so galling: those bastards were in no way less petty avaricious, cynical and amoral than he, yet they made a great show of wrapping themselves in an air of self-righteousness even as they set forth in an orgy of nations-level exploitation, destruction and greed that would make a conquistador blush.

That brazen hypocrisy was just too much to take. The Russian mobster was heir to a load of Soviet and post-Soviet espionage, and he knew his rivals well. One carryover from the Cold War was the ready awareness of, say for example, racial tensions in the United States. The Soviet Union had repeatedly tried using this issue to its political advantage. The United States did have to sheepishly address its glaringly racist laws and practices (and all it took was the cold-blooded assassination of a Nobel Peace Prize winner), but it didn't exactly collapse into helplessness or anything.

Ah, but Putin (yeah, it's actually Putin guys, sorry if my fairy-tale setup was too deep for you, it's Vladimir Putin here) is a martial arts practicioner, right? Sometimes the best way to fight is to use your opponents' own strengths or vulnerabilities against them. Instead of attacking them publically for their flaws, why not privately encourage their vanities and weaknesses? Quietly sow dissent in other countries by playing on their xenophobia and nationalist/racist desires, then stand back while they self-destruct for the sake of their own preening egos in the face of all common sense and reason.

Does anyone here have a more direct through-line explanation that accounts for Brexit, Donald Trump's election, the New Zealand shootings, and anything else that may conceivably come up in the next couple of years? All of the "Western democracies" have the same zero-day exploit, in that their inhabitants may say that they have firm beliefs in equality and democracy, but there is a critical mass of citizens in every country for whom that is lip service at best, and at worst is gleefully discarded with the slightest provocation. All anyone needs to do to throw an entire country into crisis is to poll its citizens about whether they really believe that all people are created equal. Ask that in juuust the right way and you can sit back and watch the targeted country melt down. (Sorry Canada, but "[something] [something] First Nations" is halfway toward a political phrase designed to tear your country apart. Well, a quarter of the way, since you'd have to translate it into French, too.)

We are currently in the middle of a politcal gut-check era, in which everyone is going to have to identify and actively support those vestiges of democracy that they may have (foolishly) believed to be pretty much implicit just a few short years ago.

(I am personally VERY disappointed with the collective reaction by the Democrats and their simulacrum of normalcy in an age where obvious concentration camps are filling up with stolen children at the behest of the United States government. The U.S. Constitution is a proscription on what the government can do to human beings, American citizens or NOT, and our current actions are in clear violation of those restrictions, and yet everyone is playing "politics of respectability" long after that game has been exposed as a fraud. Before you tell me to be patient until 2020 [really 2021], learn enough broken Spanish to sneak into one of these holding compounds and say that to the child migrants. Let me know how they respond and I promise to follow suit. In the meantime, don't you dare ever quote Martin Niemoller to me again.)

We have very much work to do in order to drag this world toward a vague semblance of what it should be. That work goes far beyond what one series of threads can encompass. Is this a great time to point out that I am a U.S. citizen, but still don't have any means of health care? No? Would it be okay for me to point out that I've been saying that my right to vote has been in constant danger for, oh, fourteen years or so (Typical MetaFilter response = "shruggo"), long before you guys started getting obsessed with polling and telling me to vote? NO? Okay then! Talk to you later I guess!

There is so much left that we have to see through. I hope that, no matter where you go after this thread is closed, you do what you can to make this world better for yourselves and for others.
posted by tyro urge at 5:51 PM on August 9, 2019 [15 favorites]

“Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid.”
They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made

-30-
posted by zachlipton at 6:05 PM on August 9, 2019 [16 favorites]

Dearest Tehhund, I hope this message finds you well.

There's no telling how many ages have passed between my posting this comment and you finding it -- the megathreads were too verbose in their day for a whole team of mods to manage, and you are but one man. But whether you're reading these words direct from a battered terminal while huddled for shelter in the climate change-ravaged sub-basement of the MetaFilter server facility, or jacked into a Wayback Machine holobrowser in our fully automated luxury gay space communism future, I have encouraging words for you:

You've done it. This is the end. The end of the megathreads. The Very Tail End of the Very Last One. Nearly half a million comments in all, and you've read them all. Congratulations!

Of course, this last thread leaves our story at somewhat of an anticlimax, with impeachment still a hypothetical, the primary elections months away, and no clear trajectory for good or for ill. But rest assured knowing that the exhaustive chronicling you felt compelled to complete has finally come to an end. You've done it. You've won.

Rest well, friend -- you've earned it.

*cough*

oh btw the megathreads have now splintered into dozens of sub-threads on every conceivable sub-topic plus a Dreamwidth spin-off helpfully labeled "Megathread #0001". Good luck!

posted by Rhaomi at 6:18 PM on August 9, 2019 [107 favorites]