Friday, March 3, 2017

Back Door Man


The White (Supremacist) House was forced to acknowledge that Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak met with disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael "Jack D. Ripper" Flynn and up-and-coming grifter Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner at Trump Tower in December. Yesterday's acknowledgement is apparently part of a Nixonian strategy of "limited hangout" to release info that's about to be published anyway. It comes just after the bombshell disclosure that Attorney General for the Confederate States of America and evil elf Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III had met with Kislyak but lied about it in his Senate confirmation hearings.

What makes the December meeting with Kushner et al highly suspicious is the manner in which Kislyak entered Trump Tower. He was hustled in through a private entrance, not through the public front entrance, where cameras (C-SPAN, etc.) were filming the comings and goings of various political and celebrity hacks eager to curry favor or seek employment with the new administration. The Trumpers clearly didn't want the Russian ambassador to be seen entering and leaving Trump Tower so soon after an election known to be tainted by Russian hacking, rumormongering and other dirty tricks. And Kislyak himself? It's naive to think that he fills his day with tea and cookie receptions and charity functions:
"Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia's top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington, according to current and former senior US government officials."
It's common knowledge that the U.S. intelligence community monitors Kislyak's communications regularly, and likely has a trove of information about these secretive meetings with the "back door man" that are just waiting to see the light of day.
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Pence Has His Own E-Mail Problem



While he was campaigning with his ticket-mate, sociopathic con artist Donald "Rump" Trump, Vice President Mike "Dense" Pence was hiding some information about his conduct as Indiana's governor: that he was using his personal e-mail server to conduct state business, including sensitive homeland security materials:
"...Pence communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governor’s residence to the state’s response to terror attacks across the globe. In one email, Pence’s top state homeland security adviser relayed an update from the FBI regarding the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges....Cyber-security experts say the emails raise concerns about whether such sensitive information was adequately protected from hackers, given that personal accounts like Pence's are typically less secure than government email accounts. In fact, Pence's personal account was hacked last summer." (emphasis added)
This leads one to wonder what (if anything) was going through Dense's head as he heard the angry chants of "lock her up" from the rubes at the Rump rallies aimed at Secretary Clinton's nothingburger e-mail story (probably something like, "Hmmm, did I send that money to the Nigerian princess yet?").

Once again, Rethuglican hypocrisy and deceitfulness apparently has no boundaries.

(Photo: "Lock him up! Lock him up!")
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On The Trump-Russia Scandal, "Follow The Money"


Folks who lived through or are students of the Watergate scandal are probably familiar with the phrase, "Follow the money." That was the clue to how investigators finally got to the root of the scandal that led to the impeachment and resignation of Richard Nixon.

The unfolding Trump - Russia scandal is so far focused on Russian hacking in the 2016 to boost the prospects of neo- fascist Putin poodle Donald "Rump" Trump. That's the focus (if you can call it that at this point) of the Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry as well as what's been made public about the FBI's investigation.  Every day, new revelations are coming out about contacts between top advisors like son- in- law Jared Kushner and Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and Russian officials.

However, beyond the welter of contacts between members of Rump's inner circle and Russian officials or go- betweens is the real unanswered question at the heart of the matter: what do the Russians have on Rump that makes him so pliable to their national interests? That's something that can only be resolved with a forensic review of Rump's tax returns, which he adamantly refuses to release.

Here's Norman Eisen, former ambassador to the Czech Republic and White House ethics czar under President Obama, getting right to the point (h/t Raw Story):


BONUS:  More on "follow the money."


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Today's Cartoon Twofer: Thou Shalt Nyet Lie


(click on images to enlarge)
Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tom Toles, Washington Post
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Thursday, March 2, 2017

Empowering Bullies In Trump's America (UPDATED)


It appears the inner Himmlers of some U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been unleashed for some unknown and completely inexplicable reason.  Here are a few examples rounded up by Dana Milbank:
You can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, but you can’t come in if your name is Ali. 
That’s the way it was looking for Muhammad Ali Jr., son of the late boxing legend, when he returned home to the United States last month from a black-history event in Jamaica. Ali, who is American born and an American citizen, was detained for hours by Customs and Border Protection and interrogated about being a Muslim.  
But if border officials have gained newfound zealotry under President Trump, they appear to have lost all sense of irony. Also last month, they detained Australian Mem Fox, who writes children’s books about — wait for it — tolerance and acceptance. She told the Guardian that she was treated with “shocking insolence” and “monstrous” and “horrible” behavior by people “gone mad.” 
Henry Rousso knows about monstrous and horrible: He’s a leading French scholar on the Vichy regime and its collaboration with Nazi Germany. And Rousso, an Egyptian-born Jew, said he was detained for more than 10 hours after arriving in America last month to give a lecture. “The United States is no longer quite the United States,” Rousso wrote in the French Huffington Post.  (our emphasis)
Then there were these folks caught in a CBP dragnet:
The detention of a former prime minister of Norway coming for the National Prayer Breakfast. 
CBP requiring identification from all passengers arriving in New York on a domestic flight. 
An undocumented woman seeking a protection order against her boyfriend arrested in the courthouse by immigration officials. 
A NASA scientist, an American-born citizen, detained and directed to turn over his phone. 
Canadians alleging they were turned away at the U.S. border after telling U.S. officials that they were coming to participate in anti-Trump protests. 
A British Muslim schoolteacher traveling to New York with a group of children ordered off a plane on instructions from U.S. authorities. 
Then there's the story of Celestine Omin, a software engineer from Nigeria who was detained for several hours because, well, you know =cough= Nigeria =cough=:
It was Sunday, Feb. 26, and the 28-year-old software engineer had left his home in Lagos, Nigeria, to come to the United States for the first time. It was a work trip. For the last six months, Omin had been working for Andela, a startup that connects the top tech talent in Africa with employers in the U.S. Andela accepts less than 1% of applicants into its program and is backed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. For this particular role, Omin was helping NYC-based fintech startup First Access create a JavaScript application for emerging markets and had secured a short-term joint B1/B2 visa. 
After landing, Omin waited for 20 minutes and then reached the front of the line, where a Customs and Border Protection officer asked him a series of questions. It was here that Omin realized that the job might be challenging, but getting into America could now be impossible. No one at Andela had prepared him for the new reality.
After a few minutes of grilling him about the job, the border agent escorted Omin into a small room and told him to sit down. Another hour passed before a different customs officer came in. (our emphasis)
(In our fantasy world, Omin would have told the interrogators to "byte me.")

Go to the link above to find out how the crack CBP interrogators finally determined Omin might be okay to let into the US of A (but they were still suspicious!).  It'll make you proud of American genius at work.

As far as the seeming increase in these "aggressive" tactics by the CBP folks?
[I]t appears that border officers, feeling emboldened by Trump, are taking it on themselves to act more aggressively. 
And where would they get such an idea? Well, perhaps from the president’s tweet saying “I have instructed Homeland Security to check people coming into our country VERY CAREFULLY.” Or White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s claim that Trump wants to “take the shackles off” deportation officials.  (our emphasis)
The President's national security actions vill not be kvestioned!  

Most of us have had experiences with good law enforcement and bad. As with any other profession, there are some people who have no business being in law enforcement because they see it as an opportunity to grind axes or simply feel powerful. We don't know about you, but these anecdotes seem more to be examples of empowered bullies than trained officers doing their jobs professionally. But maybe empowered bullies will become the rule rather than the exception in an America with a bully as the "president."

 UPDATE:  It's not just the boys at CBP;  there are some real hard asses (emphasis on "asses") at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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Rethugs' Health Care Bill Locked Up Or On The Lam?



Hidden away in a room guarded by Capitol Hill police was the House Rethuglican bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. (Apparently, the Rethug House leadership was so proud of their effort, they would allow only trusted fellow Rethugs to view it... but not copy it or take it from the room.) When loopy "libertarian" Sen. "Ayn" Rand Paul (who has been a critic of the House's efforts) went to the room and demanded to see it, the police turned him away (perhaps it doesn't deny enough people health insurance to suit Paul). Now, however, it's being reported that the bill may have grown legs and slipped past the guards, as at least one Rethug Congressman says he went to the room and there was no bill (!!). This last development may be closest to the truth about the clusterf*ck that Rethugs find themselves in as they flounder around for a replacement for the Affordable Care Act after 7 years of failing to come up with an alternative: they have nothing worth revealing.

(gif: Never fear, House Rethuglicans are on the case of the missing bill)
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Today's Cartoon Threefer


(click on images to enlarge)


(Steve Benson, Arizona Republic)


(Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune)


(Matt Davies, Newsday)
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The Trump - Russia Scandal: Sessions Edition, Cont.


Some reactions to the blockbuster revelation of contacts between Attorney General of the Confederate States of America and evil elf Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and the Russian ambassador while Beauregard was an advisor to the campaign of neo- fascist Putin poodle Donald "Rump" Trump:


(Painter is the former chief ethics lawyer for the G.W. Bush administration)





The pursuit of Rump's campaign ties to Russia is just the first course; the main course will be when information comes out (and it will) showing the controlling leverage Russia has over him =cough= loans underpinning his companies? = cough= Russian mob? =cough=.  Let's see those tax returns for starters, shall we?  We know you're out there!

BONUS:  From Dan Rather, who knows about these things as the former CBS White House correspondent during Watergate, "The fuse is lit."
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Add "Liar" To Sessions' Resume



Justice Department officials have confirmed that Attorney General of the Confederate States of America and right-wing bigot Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III had two contacts with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year during the campaign of neo-fascist con man Donald "Rump" Trump, contradicting sworn testimony he gave in his confirmation hearing and in a written response submitted later for the record. Sessions met with Kislyak at the Rethuglican National Convention in July, and then again in his Senate office in September.

In attempting to deflect accusations of misleading the Senate and perjury, Sessions' spokesperson said that the meetings were on Senate business relating to his role on the Senate Armed Services Committee. That's ridiculous on its face: ask yourselves, what would the Russian ambassador be doing at the Convention in Cleveland discussing Senate armed services matters, and why would a U.S. Senator be discussing issues having to do with our armed forces with the Russian ambassador.* Sessions was one of the earliest and most prominent advisors and supporters of Rump, a status that separated him from others and made him useful for Russia to cultivate.

There's a growing chorus of demands that either Sessions resign as AG or that he immediately recuse himself from overseeing ongoing investigations into Russia's involvement with the Rump campaign, and Russian ties to Rump personally. His intentionally misleading responses under oath to the Senate about his contacts with the Russian ambassador should also prompt perjury charges.
______________
*Sen. Claire McCaskill adds a dose of reality on Sessions' "Senate Armed Services" canard:
Also, the WaPo reports that no other Senator on the Armed Services Committee was contacted by the Russian ambassador last year:
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Wednesday, March 1, 2017

More On Media Malpractice


The people who are supposed to be the watchdogs of our democracy? The fearless truth tellers? Those centurions of our values who are "indispensable to democracy?" Yeah those guys:
Even I didn't believe they could lower the bar far enough that an otherwise sensible fellow like Van Jones would take the indecent exploitation of a war widow's fresh sorrow and turn it into Lincoln's Second Inaugural. Even I didn't believe they could sink the bar far enough into Middle Earth that otherwise critical observers would look at a pile of deceptive leaves and see a coherent tree... [snip]
When one calls that speech "presidential," whose presidency are you summoning? Pierce? Buchanan? Rufus T. Firefly? Jesus, people, at least try to sound like you graduated middle school. 
Hard to believe, but the second day punditry, after otherwise sensible folks had a night to sleep on it, is even worse than the instant analysis on Tuesday night. What Trump did with Carryn Owens was bad enough on the merits, coming as it did after he spent 48 hours fobbing off the blame of the botched raid into Yemen on everybody who walked past the White House in the past three months. But to hear it now described as a powerful, emotional evocation of the unifying power of the presidency, instead of one more rank attempt at deflecting the moral responsibility for the death of the person being mourned, is to abandon critical thinking and give your responsibility to the truth over to unthinking slobber.
The speech was chock-full of barefaced non-facts regarding crime, immigrants, crime committed by immigrants, the accomplishments of the current administration, and the condition of the country when it handed itself over to his half-baked stewardship last November. I don't care if you sell your mendacity in perfect iambic pentameter in the voice of Laurence Olivier. It's still bullshit, and dangerous bullshit at that. And it will sell. That's the heart and start of it. The people who bought this when it was poured out to them straight up during the campaign certainly will buy it now that it's mixed with some sweetener lifted whole from every middle-school graduation speech ever given. 
While we always knew that, despite being called the "enemy of the people" by neo- fascist shitgibbon Donald "Rump" Trump, there would still be enough frightened, delusional, cynical or all of the above media folks who would ultimately fall back into the same role they played in the recent deplorable campaign -- that of Trump normalizers and pivot pundits. We just didn't think it would be so soon after the recent provocations. Silly us.

BONUS:  Josh Alvarez nails it, too --
This hasty normalization of Trump’s vision reveals just how deeply uncomfortable our press is in its rediscovered role as a critically-minded adversary to power. Getting journalists to go along with the creation of Trump’s America appears to be a simulacrum of the man himself—it’s merely a matter of the wrapping in which it’s presented.
BONUS II:  Here's a stat for you - out of 61 statements made by Rump, 51 were lies.  But tone!

BONUS III:  Brian Beutler takes a whack --
There is apparently less capacity for living and learning in political journalism than there is in elementary school; less object permanence than in nursery school. 
Trump’s shows of relative restraint on the campaign trail were always temporary, and generally served as memory holes for offenses against Gold Star parents, beauty show contestants, and sexual assault victims. He rode temporary bouts of “discipline,” celebrated by a political media that failed to raise their bar for his conduct, all the way to the White House, where his erratic and unseemly behavior continues. (our emphasis)
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Today's Cartoon Threefer - Trump's Big Boy Speech


(click on images to enlarge)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution)


(Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle)


(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)
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On The Media -- Is They Learning (Spoiler Alert: Nah!)


As we noted earlier, some in the media were quick to jump over the low expectations bar and pronounce neo- fascist dimwit Donald "Rump" Trump's lie- filled speech to Congress last night "presidential," or some other positive, essentially worthless adjective.  Whether this is done to make themselves feel better about abetting his rise to power (as Melissa McEwen notes), or to turn down the heat from the anti- media fire Rump's been stoking since forever, or simply out of wishful thinking that the edges of Rump's budding authoritarianism can be sanded down by responding positively to appeals by Rump to treat him "fairly," we are reminded of Masha Gessen's Rule #2 for surviving an autocracy: "Do not be taken in by small signs of normality." In too many cases, the media was taken in (see Media Matters here and here, for example). Unfortunately, the impulse to normalize Rump (even while offering criticism) has seeped over political boundaries (hello, Van Jones;  et tu, Michael Tomasky?). That's. Not. Good.

He read a speech written for him. Give him a cookie.

Once again, we turn to Charles Pierce for perspective (who is also of the belief that the media is "terrified of the truth: that, on his best day, the president* is an ill-prepared lout..."):
A couple of times this week, I have heard alleged journalists express dismay that what we may be living under at the moment is a "failed presidency." The panelists all agreed that this would be a catastrophe for the country. Now, as a citizen, I can see their point, I guess, although I'm more afraid that a Congress under Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan will succeed. As a journalist, this attitude revolts me. We are not supposed to care whether a president fails or not. Our job is to chronicle how and why the president fails and inform the public in the (perhaps vain) hope that the public will do better at electing a president the next time. We certainly are not obligated to prop up a failed president just because he got elected once.
The media would also do well to note Gessen's Rule #1: "Believe the autocrat." Delivering a demonizing, authoritarian message in a softer tone is still a demonizing, authoritarian message. A "Victims Of Immigrant Crime Engagement" in the Department of Homeland Security?  How about acts and of anti- Semitic and ethnic hate that Rump's rhetoric has spawned? And the tweaked ban on immigrants from Muslim countries?  Comin' atcha soon! Throwing sops to his alt- right, bigoted base go virtually unremarked by the chin strokers and panderers in the media, to our common peril.

Speaking of peril, how many times did Rump mention Russia in the speech?  Right you are -- zero! That's the ball we need to keep our eye on, even as the media is distracted by Rump's "tone" and optics.

BONUS:


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"The Sickness Of This Man" QOTD


“Ryan Owens, his death came as a result of a dinner Trump had with his son-in-law. The widow, that’s why she’s there as sort of an F-you to the people who are criticizing him for this. And this poor woman, this widow who has lost her husband is in desperate grief right now. And to use that to put another notch on his belt, what is he thinking about? 'My ratings, my record applause. I’m going to get an Emmy for this, most applause for a dead soldier on my watch.’ That is the sickness of this man.” (emphasis added) -- Michael Moore, on MSNBC last night, reacting to the exploitation of Navy SEAL Ryan Owens' widow sitting in the gallery of Congress listening to Donald "Rump" Trump's speech.

Ryan Owens' father is calling for an investigation into the failed Yemen raid that Rump hastily approved over dinner, after being briefed by former National Security Advisor Michael "Jack D. Ripper" Flynn.
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Mid-Week Green Lights Song


We first featured Austin, TX based singer/songwriter Sarah Jarosz in October, 2012. Her multi-instrument talent was honed at the New England Conservatory of Music, along with her American roots / folk bluegrass musical style. Her latest album "Undercurrent" won this year's Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. Here's a track off of that album, "Green Lights." Enjoy.



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Wrapping Up Trump's Speech To Congress


The Late Show's Stephen Colbert was live last night after neo-fascist con artist Donald "Rump" Trump's soporific, contradictory and lie-filled speech to Congress, and he went right at Rump with both skewers. It might be the best summary you'll see, certainly not one you'll be getting from a corporate media eager to proclaim Rump has "changed his tone," "pivoted" or become more "Presidential."



BONUS: What Glenn Thrush said:

And Dana Houle:


Hack (n.) -- see Cillizza, Chris.
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