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Friday, August 31, 2018

Reckoning With John McCain | The Nation

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"I am clearly not a pacifist like this writer but I share his conflicted feelings concerning John McCain.  "...John McCain deserves a substantive reckoning, beyond the endlessly hagiographic (and even nasty kneejerk) reactions on record since his death. It is an undeniable fact that McCain has been one of the most dominant and consequential figures in modern US politics. No doubt this is why his congressional colleagues have decided that he will be the 32nd person in the nation’s history to lie in state at the US Capitol before his funeral in Washington, DC, and burial at Annapolis next weekend. I can scarcely remember a time in the last 30 years—from the Keating Five scandal in the 1980s to his two presidential bids, in 2000 and 2008—when he wasn’t a major player on the national stage. He was certainly a devoted public servant, in his own way of defining service to a nation he clearly loved (that, too, is hard to deny). And I take that seriously, as someone who also tries to be of service to society, albeit in a very different way. As a human-rights advocate, I honor the courage and tenacity he displayed as a tortured prisoner of war, even as I will never honor the war in which he flew bombing missions as a naval aviator. I admire his personal and political opposition to the Bush-Cheney regime’s indefensible use of torture tactics in the so-called “War on Terror,” even as I will never abide or excuse his vocal support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and his ongoing advocacy for the so-called “surge” and liberal use of drones during the Obama presidency. Even as I understand why some of my friends and family members and students have, like McCain, chosen to serve in the military, I will never accept the term “war hero”—war being one of our chronic national addictions, and “hero” being one of the most overused words in our vocabulary. I say this as the grandson of two men who fought in US-led wars in the middle of the last century, as the brother and husband of two men whose fathers also fought in Vietnam, and as the friend of men and women who have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. I have seen firsthand how wars can ruin people, physically and psychologically, and how this has pernicious ripple effects across generations. There is nothing “heroic” about war, especially wars led by the United States, even the so-called “great” ones. (I have written about these matters before, here and here, in these very pages.) These are just some of the reasons why I’m a pacifist."



Reckoning With John McCain | The Nation

Poll: 60 percent disapprove of Trump, while clear majorities back Mueller and Sessions - The Washington Post





"President Trump’s disapproval rating has hit a high point of 60 percent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that also finds that clear majorities of Americans support the special counsel’s Russia investigation and say the president should not fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions.



At the dawn of the fall campaign sprint to the midterm elections, which will determine whether Democrats retake control of Congress, the poll finds a majority of the public has turned against Trump and is on guard against his efforts to influence the Justice Department and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s wide-ranging probe.



Nearly half of Americans, 49 percent, say Congress should begin impeachment proceedings that could lead to Trump being removed from office, while 46 percent say Congress should not.



And a narrow majority — 53 percent — say they think Trump has tried to interfere with Mueller’s investigation in a way that amounts to obstruction of justice; 35 percent say they do not think the president has tried to interfere.



Overall, 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance, with 36 percent approving, according to the poll. Because of random sampling variation, this represents only a marginal shift from the last Post-ABC survey, in April, which measured Trump’s rating at 56 percent disapproval and 40 percent approval.



The new poll was conducted Aug. 26 to 29, in the week after former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted of federal tax and bank fraud and after former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty and implicated the president in illegal payments to silence women who alleged sexual encounters with Trump."



Poll: 60 percent disapprove of Trump, while clear majorities back Mueller and Sessions - The Washington Post

Lobbyist Says He Illegally Helped Russian and Ukrainian Buy Tickets to Trump Inauguration - The New York Times

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"WASHINGTON — An American lobbyist who worked with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs pleaded guilty on Friday to failing to register as an agent of a foreign power and disclosed to prosecutors that he helped a Russian political operative and a Ukranian businessman illegally purchase four tickets to President Trump’s inauguration.
Prosecutors disclosed that the inauguration tickets were worth $50,000 and were purchased with funds that flowed through a Cypriot bank account. Prosecutors did not name the foreigners involved. However, the tickets were purchased for Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a Russian political operative believed to have ties to a Russian intelligence agency, and a Ukranian oligarch."

(Via.). Lobbyist Says He Illegally Helped Russian and Ukrainian Buy Tickets to Trump Inauguration - The New York Times

Midterms Winning Formula: Excitement vs. Real Strategy

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Jimmy O. Yang - “Crazy Rich Asians” and “How to American” | The Daily Show

Berman: Evidence doesn't matter to Trump

The Kind of Story We Need Right Now: Waitress Body Slams Groper

‘Winter is coming’: Allies fear Trump isn’t prepared for gathering legal storm - The Washington Post



‘Winter is coming’: Allies fear Trump isn’t prepared for gathering legal storm - The Washington Post

Did Trump just admit that he tried to fire Mueller and Sessions? - The Washington Post



In a tweet Thursday morning, Trump called it “fake news” that now-outgoing White House Counsel (or “Councel,” in Trump’s spelling) Donald McGahn stopped him from firing both special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Did Trump just admit that he tried to fire Mueller and Sessions? - The Washington Post

“Mississippi Is Failing”: As Prisoner Deaths Reach 13 in August Alone, A...

“Mississippi Is Failing”: As Prisoner Deaths Reach 13 in August Alone, A...

Cynthia Nixon: Andrew Cuomo's Record Is Hard To Defend | Morning Joe | M...

Barnicle: Don't Be Surprised By President Donald Trump's Violence Talk |...

Trump resign? His antisocial personality makes that unlikely .

"We’ve been thinking about Trump as a world-class narcissist, but really, his psychological afflictions are slightly more specific, and this distinction can give us insight into the months ahead."



"Nearly two years into this presidency, it’s become all but normal for pundits and professionals alike to regularly express concerns about Donald Trump’s mental health. Most speculations focus on Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and it’s easy to see why. If you look at the DSM-5 criteria for NPD, Trump’s public behaviors are consistent with all nine diagnostic criteria. Even further, because only 5 of 9 criteria are needed for an NPD diagnosis, Trump getting 9 of 9 is huge; perhaps no one has ever seen a narcissism quite so obvious. Nevertheless, we still can’t diagnose Trump with NPD, because it’s unethical to diagnose anyone without first conducting a professional, in-person evaluation. Besides, what good would it do? Trump doesn’t seem to care, and also, Trump doesn’t meet the distress or impairment criteria required for a mental disorder diagnosis, anyway.



At any rate, as disturbing as observations of Trump’s narcissism may be—and as frustrating as it is that none of it seems to matter at all—what I find most frightening about his personality isn’t the narcissism. Narcissistic traits among politicians and presidential candidates, who often have big personalities, are common. Far more worrisome and dangerous is that his statements and behaviors fit so well with a different personality style. This style is what the renowned psychologist Theodore Millon called “The Aggrandizing-Devious-Antisocial Personality,” aka antisocial personality.


Millon summarized these personalities as “driven by a need to … achieve superiority.” They act “to counter expectation of derogation and disloyalty at the hands of others,” and do this by “actively engaging in clever, duplicitous, or illegal behaviors in which they seek to exploit others for self-gain.” Sound familiar?



What follows are summary descriptions of Millon’s formulation of antisocial personality. Millon’s statements are not diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder (the purpose here is not psychiatric diagnosis), they are simply psychological observations that can help us to better understand and describe Trump, speculate on his future behaviors, and consider how antisocial behaviors can be contained.



Impulsive imprudence. Millon described antisocial personalities as “ … shortsighted, incautious, and imprudent. There is minimal planning, limited consideration of alternative actions, and consequences are rarely examined.”



Blaming others for shirked obligations. Antisocial personalities “frequently fail to meet or intentionally negate obligations of a marital, parental, employment, or financial nature.”



Pathological lying. Millon wrote, “Untroubled by guilt and loyalty, they develop a talent for pathological lying. Unconstrained by honesty and truth, they weave impressive talks of competency and reliability. Many … become skillful swindlers and imposters.”



Declarations of innocence. During times of trouble, antisocial personality types employ an innocence strategy. “When … caught in obvious and repeated lies and dishonesties, many will affect an air of total innocence, claiming without a trace of shame that they have been unfairly accused.”



Empathy deficits. Antisocial personalities are devoid of empathy and compassion.

Millon called this “A wide-ranging deficit in social charitability, in human compassion, and in personal remorse and sensitivity.” He added that “many have a seeming disdain for human compassion.”



Counterattacks. Millon noted that antisocial personalities are hyperalert to criticism. He “sees himself as the victim, an indignant bystander subjected to unjust persecution and hostility” feeling “free to counterattack and gain restitution and vindication.”



Moral emptiness. Antisocial personalities have no ethical or moral compass. As Millon described, they “are contemptuous of conventional ethics and values” and “right and wrong are irrelevant abstractions.” Antisocials may feign religiosity—when it suits their purpose. But the moral litmus test will always involve whether they stand to gain from a particular behavior, policy, or government action.



Clinicians have observed that some individuals with antisocial personalities burn out. Over time, negative family and legal consequences take a toll, prompting antisocials to conform to social and legal expectations. However, when antisocial personalities wield power, burning out is unlikely. Power provides leverage to evade personal responsibility for financial maleficence and sexual indiscretions. Antisocial personalities who have the upper hand will increase their reckless, impulsive, and self-aggrandizing behaviors in an effort to extend their ever-expanding need for power and control. This seems to be the case with Trump: He will continue to be drawn toward authoritarian leaders, for example, because they symbolize his interpersonal goal of gaining even more power and authority over everyone.



Because antisocial personalities don’t change on their own and don’t respond well to interventions, containment is the default management strategy. Without firm, unwavering limits, the antisocial’s deception, law-breaking, greed, manipulation, and malevolent behaviors will increase. An antisocial person in a position to self-pardon or self-regulate is a recipe for disaster. Containment must be forceful and uncompromising, because if an antisocial personality locates a crack or loophole, he will exploit it. Staff interventions, comprehensive law enforcement, and judicial systems that mandate accountability must be in place. The three main containment strategies that remain in play for Trump are Republican power checks, the Robert Mueller investigation, and the potential for a November blue wave.



It seems near certain that the first option is not moving forward. Although many Republicans profess to be concerned about Trump’s behaviors, they have not managed to stand up to their president. Defying Trump has proven too costly; he can make Republicans pay with electoral consequences. Like him or not, Republicans have little motivation for clashing with a powerful leader who promises them judicial appointments and legislative opportunities. This leaves the Mueller investigation and a November blue wave as the main means of checking Trump’s power.



As we contemplate how these strategies might work to check the antisocial dimensions of Trump’s personality, it’s important to return to what Millon posited as the core distinction between the pure narcissist and the antisocial. Having a deeper understanding of this distinction can help predict and contextualize Trump’s future behaviors and potential response to containment efforts.



Although pure narcissistic personalities are profoundly egotistical and perpetually preoccupied with grandiose fantasies of admiration, idyllic love, and eternal success, they differ from antisocials in that they aren’t constantly striving to achieve advantage over others via aggression, deceit, and manipulation. Narcissistic personalities love to be revered and may experience narcissistic rage when criticized, but they prefer voluntary reverence. In contrast, the antisocial dynamic is far more active; it’s also based on an underlying assumption that the world is unsafe, unfair, and that all others—at their core—are untrustworthy. This translates into a combination of paranoid thinking and living with the mantra “I can only trust myself” and it requires continuous and active deception and manipulation. Antisocials are allergic to passivity and drawn to coercive control.



What does this say about how Trump will respond to containment strategies? We should be ready for a pattern of increasing denial, increasing blame of others, increasing lies, declarations of complete and total innocence, and repeated claims of mistreatment. He will protect and insulate himself from critique and responsibility through active counterattacks, along with alignment, even briefly, with whatever sources of power, control, and dominance he can find. This might mean further alignment with Vladimir Putin, more campaign rallies, and an additional need to gather others around him who will offer only adulation. He will gleefully throw anyone and everyone who betrays him under the bus. As he escalates, his insults toward others will become increasingly demeaning—virtually everyone questioning his superiority will be labeled a dog or disgrace or traitor.



The antisocial personality is a force that requires an equal or greater counterforce for containment. This is not a man who will slip quietly into the night. In fact, if we don’t gather together an adequate counterforce, Trump’s antisocial behaviors will continue, expand, and potentially lead us toward an international crisis. In the meantime, we should collectively buckle up. Trump won’t be waving a white flag any time soon, and the fight to contain him promises to be an ugly one."



Trump resign? His antisocial personality makes that unlikely .

Asian-American Students Suing Harvard Over Admissions Win Justice Dept. Support - The New York Times





"WASHINGTON — The Justice Department lent its support on Thursday to students who are suing Harvard University over affirmative action policies that they claim discriminate against Asian-American applicants, in a case that could have far-reaching consequences for the use of affirmative action in college admissions.



In a so-called statement of interest, the department supported the claims of the plaintiffs, a group of Asian-Americans rejected by Harvard. They contend that Harvard has systematically discriminated against them by artificially capping the number of qualified Asian-Americans from attending the school in order to advance less-qualified students of other races.



In its filing, the Justice Department argued that the court should deny Harvard’s request to dismiss the case before trial.



The government said that Supreme Court rulings require that universities considering race in admissions meet several standards. They must define their diversity-related goals and show that they cannot meet those goals without using race as a factor in admissions decisions..."



Asian-American Students Suing Harvard Over Admissions Win Justice Dept. Support - The New York Times

Harried Staff Sees Donald Trump Unready For Possible Democratic House | ...

National Enquirer Had Decades of Trump Dirt. He Wanted to Buy It All. - The New York Times





"Federal investigators have provided ample evidence that President Trump was involved in deals to pay two women to keep them from speaking publicly before the 2016 election about affairs that they said they had with him.



But it turns out that Mr. Trump wanted to go even further.



He and his lawyer at the time, Michael D. Cohen, devised a plan to buy up all the dirt on Mr. Trump that the National Enquirer and its parent company had collected on him, dating back to the 1980s, according to several of Mr. Trump’s associates.



The existence of the plan, which was never finalized, has not been reported before. But it was strongly hinted at in a recording that Mr. Cohen’s lawyer released last month of a conversation about payoffs that Mr. Cohen had with Mr. Trump.



“It’s all the stuff — all the stuff, because you never know,” Mr. Cohen said on the recording.



The move by Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen indicated just how concerned they were about all the information amassed by the company, American Media, and its chairman, David Pecker, a loyal Trump ally of two decades who has cooperated with investigators.



It is not clear yet whether the proposed plan to purchase all the information from American Media has attracted the interest of federal prosecutors in New York, who last week obtained a guilty plea from Mr. Cohen over a $130,000 payment to the adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, and a $150,000 payment to a Playboy model, Karen McDougal.



But the prosecutors have provided at least partial immunity to Mr. Pecker, who is a key witness in their inquiry into payments made on behalf of Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign.



The people who knew about the discussions would speak about them only on condition of anonymity, given that they are now the potential subject of a federal investigation that did not end with Mr. Cohen’s plea.



Lawyers for Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen declined to comment for this article as did American Media.



It is not known how much of the material on Mr. Trump is still in American Media’s possession or whether American Media destroyed any of it after the campaign. Prosecutors have not said whether they have obtained any of the material beyond that which pertains to Ms. McDougal and Ms. Clifford and the discussions about their arrangements.



For the better part of two decades, Mr. Pecker had ordered his staff at American Media to protect Mr. Trump from troublesome stories, in some cases by buying up stories about him and filing it away.



EDITORS’ PICKS



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A ‘Generationally Perpetuated’ Pattern: Daughters Do More Chores

In 2016, he kept his staff from going back through the old Trump tip and story files that dated to before Mr. Pecker became company chairman in 1999, several former staff members said in interviews with The New York Times.



That meant that American Media, the nation’s largest gossip publisher, did not play a role during the election year in vetting a presidential candidacy — Mr. Trump’s — made for the tabloids.



Mr. Pecker also worked with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen to buy and bury Ms. McDougal’s story of an affair with Mr. Trump, a practice known as “catch and kill.” Mr. Cohen admitted as much in making his guilty last week.



In August 2016, American Media acquired the rights to Ms. McDougal’s story in return for $150,000 and commitments to use its magazines to promote her career as a fitness specialist. But American Media never published her allegations about a relationship with Mr. Trump.



Shortly after American Media completed the arrangement with Ms. McDougal at Mr. Trump’s behest, a troubling question began to nag at Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, according to several people who knew about the discussions at the time: What would happen to America Media’s sensitive Trump files if Mr. Pecker were to leave the company?



Mr. Cohen, those people said, was hearing rumors that Mr. Pecker might leave American Media for Time magazine — a title Mr. Pecker is known to have dreams of running.



There was perennial talk about American Media’s business troubles. And Mr. Trump appeared to take a world-wearier view of the wisdom of leaving his sensitive personal secrets in someone else’s hands:



“Maybe he gets hit by a truck,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Pecker in a conversation with Mr. Cohen, musing about an unfortunate mishap befalling his good friend."



National Enquirer Had Decades of Trump Dirt. He Wanted to Buy It All. - The New York Times

FBI debunks Trump's latest conspiracy theory

Matt Apuzzo: More indictments could still come in Mueller probe



Matt Apuzzo: More indictments could still come in Mueller probe

Democrats alarmed at GOP use of private security documents



Democrats alarmed at GOP use of private security documents

Painter: I Wouldn't Be Donald Trump's Lawyer, I Don't Want To Go To Jail...

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

How Donald Trump Got Involved in a Global Fraud | The New Yorker

Democrats Are Going To Get Trump’s Tax Returns If They Win The House | HuffPost

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"If Democrats win control of the House in November they will finally have the votes to force an issue they’ve been hammering for nearly two years: Making President Donald Trump disclose his tax returns.

Since Trump took office, Democrats have forced 11 votes in the House of Representatives to require that the IRS hand over Trump’s returns. These votes all failed because only one member of the Republican majority joined the Democrats in their request. If Democrats win 217 or more seats in the November election ― which they have a 74 percent chance to do, according to the polling aggregation site FiveThirtyEight ― they will have enough votes to get these documents.

‘You’re damn right’ Democrats will vote to get Trump’s tax returns if they win a majority in November, said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.)."

(Via.). Democrats Are Going To Get Trump’s Tax Returns If They Win The House | HuffPost:

Congressman calls President Trump a con artist


The electric plant was working before the hurricane. Donald Trump is The electric #PsychopathInChief

Congressman calls President Trump a con artist

DeSantis to Florida voters: Don't 'monkey this up' by electing Gillum

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(Via.). DeSantis to Florida voters: Don't 'monkey this up' by electing Gillum:

DiscrimiNATION | The Daily Show

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Is Donald Trump A Psychopath? Should His Cabinet Invoke The 25th Amendment?

Sterling Stuckey, 86, Dies; Charted African Culture in Slavery - The New York Times





"Sterling Stuckey, an eminent black historian who challenged his white colleagues by documenting how uprooted Africans not only retained their culture while they survived slavery but eventually suffused the rest of American society with their transplanted folkways, died on Aug. 15 in Riverside, Calif. He was 86.



His death was confirmed by his wife, Harriette Stuckey, who said he had a stroke nine days earlier in his office. He taught history at the University of California, Riverside, from 1989 until he retired in 2004. He had recently finished the manuscript of his latest book, “The Chambers of the Soul: Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville and the Blues.”



Through meticulous research Professor Stuckey sought to discredit the white academics who had dominated and, in his view, devalued the field of African studies.



Early on he was bitterly critical of “numerous white experts on black Africa,” as he described them, who “have elaborated a fabric of untruths to rationalize continued white control over African studies.”



Beginning with his breakthrough essay, “Through the Prism of Folklore: The Black Ethos in Slavery,” published in 1968 by The Massachusetts Review, Professor Stuckey maintained that political and cultural studies of Africa must encompass people in North America and the West Indies.



He wrote that enslaved workers imported to those places from diverse tribes, with slavery as a unifying force, perpetuated and adapted their traditional music, dance, poetry and art to resist the efforts of slaveowners to destroy or demean that heritage, and that those traditions went on to imbue modern American culture.



That overlooked cultural history was evolving, he said, while in colleges as well as in the cotton fields “the besmirching of the African past” became pivotal to the process not only of enslaving blacks but of destroying their spiritual and psychological moorings.



“His article stood out as the harbinger of the new slavery studies that would be taken up in the next decade,” Prof. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, chairwoman of Harvard’s history department and president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, said in a statement after Professor Stuckey’s death.



In 1970, when “Through the Prism of Folklore” was included in an anthology of essays, Julius Lester, an author and professor, wrote in The New York Times Book Review that Professor Stuckey had methodically made the case that in the long years of slavery the black spiritual — among other cultural tools, like the ring shout dance — “was a major weapon of resistance to that dehumanizing institution (which others have found only ‘peculiar’) and the principal means through which the slaves fashioned and maintained an identity separate from that which the slaveholders fought to impose upon them.”



Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard, said in an email that Professor Stuckey had “helped us to see that the enslaved Africans who came to the New World did not sail alone: They brought their various cultures and belief systems along with them.”



“And out of these rich resources,” he added, “they, in contact with dozens of other African and European cultures for the first time, improvised the world’s first truly Pan-African culture, an African American culture, as it were, in the New World, similar in form to that of its several antecedents, but different, unique. And that is the culture to which all Americans are heir today.”





Professor Stuckey was the author of several books on slavery, including this one from 1987.

Professor Stuckey’s black nationalist ideology jelled as a student at Northwestern University. He met Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois, picketed a Woolworth’s store in Chicago to protest segregation in the South, and supported a voter registration project in Tennessee sponsored by the interracial Congress of Racial Equality.



He often praised champions of black nationalism. “Each proposed to build on this nationalism as a means to end prejudice, though none saw it as an ultimate goal,” he wrote, adding the caveat that “one by no means must be a separatist to be a black nationalist.”



Eric Foner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor at Columbia University, said in an email that Professor Stuckey, along with several other historians, “was a pioneer of the study of slave culture and how it became the springboard for slave resistance and for later black nationalism.”



Professor Stuckey’s books included “Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America” (1987) and “Going Through the Storm: The Influence of African American Art in History” (1994).



Ples Sterling Stuckey Jr. was born on March 2, 1932, in Memphis. His mother, Elma Earline Johnson Stuckey, had been a teacher in the South and a hat checker and a maid in Chicago before becoming a supervisor for the Illinois labor department. After retiring, she published her first poetry collection when she was 69.



His father had been a waiter at the historic Peabody Hotel in Memphis before moving the family to Chicago when the couple’s son was 13.



Professor Stuckey worked part-time as a high school teacher and postal clerk while earning his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Northwestern. He joined its faculty in 1971 and became a full professor in 1977.



He left for the University of California, Riverside, in 1989 and, most recently, was distinguished professor emeritus of history there.



In addition to his wife, who was Harriette Coggs before they married, he is survived by a daughter, Lisa Dembling; a son, Cabral Wiley-Stuckey; a granddaughter; and a great-granddaughter.



Professor Stuckey once said in an interview that while growing up he was most inspired by two books, Du Bois’s “The Souls of Black Folk" (1903) and “Folk Songs of North America” (1960), by the ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax.



Transplanted blacks who suffered under slavery, he said, were united by a centripetal force, which inspired Pan-Africanism, spirituals and the blues.



“Though slave culture was treated for centuries as inferior, it was the lasting contribution of slaves to create an artistic yield that matched their enormous gift of labor, in tobacco and cotton,” Professor Stuckey wrote in his preface to the 25th anniversary edition of “Slave Culture” (2013). “We must add that the intellectual as well as the cultural and economic history of the African American is rooted in slavery.”



Sterling Stuckey, 86, Dies; Charted African Culture in Slavery - The New York Times

Former ‘Apprentice’ contestants analyze Omarosa’s change on Trump Omarosa Manigault Newman now says that Donald Trump is a racist, and defended her decision to remain in his White House earlier today on AM JOY. Joy Reid and her panel discuss her apparent change of heart regarding the president. Duration: AM Joy on MSNBC



AM Joy on MSNBC

Omarosa Manigault: Trump Is Trying To Use His Limited Intellect To Fool ...

Chris Cuomo: Trump looked like a loser

Hurricane Maria Caused 2,975 Deaths In Puerto Rico, Independent Study Estimates : NPR. Trump's Katrina except hardly anyone talks about it.





Hurricane Maria Caused 2,975 Deaths In Puerto Rico, Independent Study Estimates : NPR

Pres. Carter: Trump made 'serious mistake' refusing to lower flag for McCain



Pres. Carter: Trump made 'serious mistake' refusing to lower flag for McCain

Lawrence: Trump Talks Impeachment, As Trump Allies Talk To Fed Prosecuto...

So, You Want To Impeach The President | Ron's Office Hours | NPR

50 Years Ago: Antiwar Protesters Brutally Attacked in Police Riots at 1968 Democratic Convention | Democracy Now!



50 Years Ago: Antiwar Protesters Brutally Attacked in Police Riots at 1968 Democratic Convention | Democracy Now!

Bound & Gagged: Black Panther Party Chair Bobby Seale Describes His Trial After 1968 DNC Protests | Democracy Now!



Bound & Gagged: Black Panther Party Chair Bobby Seale Describes His Trial After 1968 DNC Protests | Democracy Now!

1968 DNC Protests, 50 Years Later: Organizers Recall Coalition Building. The 50th Anniversary of the police riot at the Democratic National Convention. Bobby Seale and Weather Underground leaders discuss this event interviewed by Juan Gonzalez who was also there.

Federal Court Throws Out North Carolina’s Congressional Districts, Again - The New York Times





Federal Court Throws Out North Carolina’s Congressional Districts, Again - The New York Times

Trump accuses Google of 'suppressing' conservative voices - POLITICO #PsychopathPresident

Donald Trump. | Getty Images



Trump accuses Google of 'suppressing' conservative voices - POLITICO

Monday, August 27, 2018

Trump Reaches Trade Deal With Mexico, Vows to End NAFTA - The Atlantic

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"President Trump said Monday he’s “terminating” NAFTA, the free trade deal with Canada and Mexico he’s called a “disaster” and blamed for job losses in the United States. It looked like a potentially massive development, as if Trump were signaling the end of a $1 trillion trade deal that’s defined trade in North America for more than two decades.
But what he went on to describe seemed like more of a rebrand than a revolution. He hailed new trade arrangements with Mexico, said he’d “see if Canada can be part of the deal,” and signaled that what he might really want to terminate was the name “NAFTA” itself.

“They used to call it NAFTA. We’re going to call it the United States-Mexico Trade Agreement, and we’ll get rid of the name NAFTA,” Trump said in the Oval Office, with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on speaker phone. “It has a bad connotation because the United States was hurt very badly by NAFTA for many years.” (Peña Nieto, in his remarks, referred to the agreement as NAFTA.)

How easily could Trump withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA?

Trump also appeared to suggest that the agreement with Mexico was a bilateral one and that the U.S. would reach a separate bilateral agreement with Canada, the United States’s second-largest trading partner. “I think we’ll give them a chance to probably have a separate deal,” he said. “We can have a separate deal or we can put it into this deal.”
He added: “One way or another we’ll have a deal with Canada. It’ll either be a tariff on cars or it’ll be a negotiated deal. Frankly, a tariff on cars is a much easier way to go. Perhaps, the other would be much better for Canada.” A tariff on Canadian auto imports to the U.S. would make cars more expensive for American consumers.

Monday’s remarks fit the pattern of Trump’s international negotiations. They showed his preference for dealing with countries one-on-one rather than through multilateral institutions, a tendency he’s displayed in trade negotiations with Europe as well. And they also showcased a strategy where Trump bluffs, rebrands, and claims victory. It’s not clear Trump can actually terminate NAFTA without congressional approval; he signaled his dislike of the agreement’s “connotations;” and he declared his arrangement with Mexico “an incredible deal for both parties.”

But what it may amount to in the end is some tweaks to the existing agreement—albeit ones that concern some of the most significant issues in the U.S. trade relationship with Mexico. Among these is the auto industry. The two countries agreed on steps that would, in effect, stimulate American manufacturing. The auto negotiations, the Toronto Star reported, had become contentious, which is part of the reason they didn’t include Canada. Other details of the deal with Mexico, and any agreement with Canada, will likely emerge in the coming days and weeks.

Trump Reaches Trade Deal With Mexico, Vows to End NAFTA - The Atlantic: ""

(Via.)

Bombshell: Paul Manafort Sought Mueller Plea Deal | The Beat With Ari Me...

What the ban on Serena Williams’ catsuit says about the sexualising of black women’s bodies | Life and style | The Guardian

‘A warrior’ … Serena Williams at the French Open.



"If Wide Awoke were invited to come up with a list of feminist moments of 2018, Serena Williams in a black catsuit winning her first grand slam match since giving birth would top it. Williams, probably the greatest female tennis player of all time, said the bodysuit she wore on court at this year’s French Open made her feel like “a warrior”, as well as helping her cope with the blood clots that threatened her life when she gave birth. It was fun, it was functional, it was fabulous. It made returning to work from maternity leave look like the stuff of superhero movies, which it basically is. Minus the kudos.



The catsuit has been banned from future French Opens. “I believe we have sometimes gone too far,” said the French Tennis Federation president, Bernard Giudicelli. “Serena’s outfit this year, for example, would no longer be accepted. You have to respect the game and the place.” But how exactly does a full bodysuit go too far? This has nothing to do with respecting the game; in fact it shows deep disrespect to one of its greatest players."



What the ban on Serena Williams’ catsuit says about the sexualising of black women’s bodies | Life and style | The Guardian

Opinion | The DeVos School for the Promotion of Student Debt. The education secretary is working hard to protect the scandal-ridden for-profit education industry from accountability. - The New York Times





"The education secretary is working hard to protect the scandal-ridden for-profit education industry from accountability.



Say this for Betsy DeVos: The secretary of education has shown an impressive commitment to rescuing her friends in the for-profit college business from pesky measures to rein in their predatory behavior. As pet projects go, it lacks the sulfurous originality of her emerging idea to let states use federal dollars to put guns in schools. But it is a scandal nonetheless. Given the choice between protecting low-income students — and, by extension, American taxpayers — and facilitating the buck-raking of a scandal-ridden industry, Ms. DeVos aggressively pursues Option B.



This summer has been a fertile period for the secretary. A couple of weeks back, her department formally introduced its plan to jettison so-called gainful employment rules. These 2014 regulations require that, to receive federal student-aid dollars, for-profit colleges — along with certain programs at nonprofit and public institutions — must maintain a reasonable debt-to-income ratio among graduates. If a program’s attendees typically rack up massive student debts and then cannot find decent jobs, the program is deemed a failure. Programs that fail in two out of three years become ineligible to receive the taxpayer-backed loans and grants with which so many students finance their schooling. The rules also require for-profit programs to make clear in their promotional materials whether or not they meet federal job-placement standards.



Ms. DeVos, delighting industry executives, promptly hit the pause button on these regulations upon assuming her post. Now the pending demise of the rules has been made official. Ms. DeVos contends that the system, put in place by President Barack Obama after bloody battles with the for-profit college industry and congressional Republicans, capriciously targets the sector. She has had far less to say about the industry’s eye-popping overrepresentation in fraud complaints. A recent review of “borrower defense claims” — requests for loan relief filed with the Education Department by students asserting they were defrauded or misled by their schools — found that almost 99 percent involved for-profit institutions.



In recent years, for-profit colleges have been swamped by lawsuits charging that they use deceptive marketing practices and high-pressure recruitment tactics to snooker students into taking on crippling debt in the pursuit of worthless degrees. Two industry giants, ITT Technical Institute and Corinthian Colleges, have collapsed under the weight of the legal claims and government probes.



Dozens of additional programs have shut their doors of late rather than attempt to meet the new accountability standards. Consumer advocates see this as evidence that the common-sense regulations are working. Industry executives, and Ms. DeVos, see it as proof that the Obama administration had it in for the sector.



Gainful employment rules are but a piece of the accountability puzzle that Ms. DeVos is looking to end. In late July, the department announced it was tightening rules governing the forgiveness of student loans, increasing the burden of proof on individuals to show that they’ve been misled intentionally by their schools or that they’ve suffered grave financial hardship.



The secretary insists that she wants to root out bad actors as much as anyone. But if that were true, she probably wouldn’t have dismantled the department’s team tasked with investigating fraud at for-profit schools. She also might have opted not to end her department’s information-sharing arrangement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is among the agencies that regulates this industry. (Until the Trump era, it was one of the most aggressive to do so.)



This problem affects not just students taken in by the schools’ false claims, but also taxpayers who foot the bill for defaulted student loans. By the Education Department’s own figures, repealing the Obama-era rules will cost taxpayers $5.3 billion over the next decade.



Ms. DeVos is a fan of using government money to fund private schools while demanding little accountability. It is no coincidence that she packed her department with aides with ties to for-profit colleges. One ex-industry executive, Robert Eitel, is a senior adviser who was involved in suspending the loan-forgiveness rules that are now being rewritten. Another hire, Julian Schmoke, is a former dean for the DeVry Education Group. Under President Obama, DeVry was being investigated by the department’s special fraud unit. The probe was abandoned shortly after President Trump took office in 2017, and, that summer, Ms. DeVos put Mr. Schmoke in charge of the unit. (Mr. Schmoke will, the department has assured the public, recuse himself from issues involving DeVry.)



Under Ms. DeVos, the department also has halted investigations into Bridgepoint Education and the Career Education Corporation. Former executives and counselors for those companies now hold senior positions at the department.



All of them, of course, work for Mr. Trump, whose eponymous “university” eventually paid $25 million to settle fraud claims of its own.



This is what happens when an administration stocks its agencies with people whose allegiances are to the industries they are meant to oversee. Mr. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, has begun to resemble less a regulatory body than a convention of fossil-fuel fan boys. Former administrator Scott Pruitt was an unabashed cheerleader for oil and gas. His replacement, Andrew Wheeler, is a former coal lobbyist. On Monday, he proposed a rollback of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which aimed to curb the release of greenhouse gases from power plants.



Ms. DeVos’s plan to ax the gainful employment rules was entered into the Federal Register on Aug. 14, officially starting the 30-day period open to public comment on the proposed changes.



Barring an unforeseen twist, executives in the for-profit education industry will soon be sleeping better, secure in the knowledge that even the worst are no longer at risk of being thrown off their taxpayer-backed gravy train, no matter how epically they fail their students."



Opinion | The DeVos School for the Promotion of Student Debt - The New York Times

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Opinion | The Full-Spectrum Corruption of Donald Trump - The New York Times





"... But the greatest damage is being done to our civic culture and our politics. Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are right now the chief emblem of corruption and cynicism in American political life, of an ethic of might makes right. Dehumanizing others is fashionable and truth is relative. (“Truth isn’t truth,” in the infamous words of Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.) They are stripping politics of its high purpose and nobility.



That’s not all politics is; self-interest is always a factor. But if politics is only about power unbounded by morality — if it’s simply about rulers governing by the law of the jungle, about a prince acting like a beast, in the words of Machiavelli — then the whole enterprise will collapse. We have to distinguish between imperfect leaders and corrupt ones, and we need the vocabulary to do so...."



Opinion | The Full-Spectrum Corruption of Donald Trump - The New York Times

Trump's Week of Corruption Scandals: A Closer Look

Monologue: Orange Tuesday | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Opinion | John McCain, a Scarred but Happy Warrior - The New York Times





The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.


"With John McCain, you never quite knew. That was a big part of his appeal, one of the things that made him interesting, and also one of the things that drove people who value ideological consistency a bit batty.



As a professed maverick, Mr. McCain, who died Saturday at the age of 81, was bound to make somebody unhappy. Though for much of his career his votes on the Senate floor were mostly along party lines, his periodic challenges to Republican orthodoxy made him more popular among independents, Democrats and the tattered remnants of his party’s moderate wing than with the absolutists in the party’s base. Five years of torture in a North Vietnamese prison camp appeared to have left him with a pretty good idea of who he was, an ability to think for himself and the capacity to tune out partisan noises.



He had principles, and he had flaws, from time to time betraying those principles — most grievously in the 2008 presidential campaign. But in a Senate mostly devoid of the kind of commanding figures who once roamed its halls, he was a rare bird. And he could surprise you.



Especially his fellow Republicans. At a time of confusion and nastiness over immigration, it is worth recalling that he joined with Senator Edward Kennedy in 2005 and then again in 2007 to push a grand compromise that paired stronger controls at the border with a path to citizenship for the nation’s 11 or so million undocumented immigrants.



At a time when the political system is once again drowning in money from special interests, it is worth recalling that back in the early 2000s he co-wrote, with Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, a landmark bill to tighten the post-Watergate campaign finance reform laws.



At a time when the man who now occupies the White House and his cabinet factotums deny the plain reality of climate change, it is worth recalling that back in the early 2000s, Mr. McCain and Joseph Lieberman, then a Connecticut Democrat, drafted the first serious bipartisan bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions by putting a price on carbon.



The campaign finance reform effort eventually succeeded, named for a companion bill in the House sponsored by Chris Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, and Marty Meehan, a Democrat from Massachusetts. The climate and immigration bills did not succeed, partly for want of Republican support. But even in defeat, Mr. McCain, through his willingness to tackle thorny and even politically toxic issues, gave hope for the future. His example still does.



A military man to the core, and the son and grandson of two decorated admirals, Mr. McCain held views on foreign and defense policy that were relentlessly hawkish; He lobbied hard for the ruinously misguided invasion of Iraq, as well as the bombing of Libya. At the same time, and despite his brutal treatment as a prisoner of war, he strongly supported Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to normalize relations with North Vietnam.



As a politician with national aspirations beyond the Senate, Mr. McCain has a decidedly mixed legacy. His 2000 primary campaign against George W. Bush inspired something close to rapture among normally cynical political reporters, who were impressed equally by his refusal to exploit his five years of suffering in North Vietnam, his ready access to the media and what the writer Joe Klein described in the Jan. 17, 2000 issue of The New Yorker as “an unrelenting candor that verges on self-reproach.”



Mr. McCain’s decision against demanding an eye for an eye when Mr. Bush and his henchmen savaged him and his family in the South Carolina primary campaign, one of the most vicious and depressing in modern times, earned him further credit. Yet he lost it all, and then some, when he deployed the same tactics against Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign. Having stood up at one point to a woman who called Mr. Obama an untrustworthy “Arab” — Mr. McCain seized her microphone and said: “No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man, citizen” — he then allowed his own campaign, and himself, to descend to the same debased level, portraying Mr. Obama as a shadowy, untrustworthy and even unpatriotic figure. No campaign decision drew more criticism than his ill-considered selection of a running mate in Sarah Palin, whom he hardly knew and who went so far as to charge Mr. Obama with “palling around with terrorists.”



Mr. McCain’s final years in the Senate were a similar mix of independence and fealty to party norms. Last summer, he dramatically entered the Senate chamber and cast a decisive vote against the administration’s ghastly health care bill, partly on grounds that it had been concocted in haste and without hearings and had thus failed the basic requirements of sound legislative process. But not long afterward, he voted in favor of a similarly ill-conceived, backward-looking tax bill. (Mr. McCain was absent for medical reasons when the bill came up for final passage three weeks later and he did not cast a vote).



That vote provided precisely the kind of opportunity for one last display of the adventurous bipartisanship for which Mr. McCain was so well known. It was not to be. Still, there had been plenty such moments in a long and distinguished career. Mr. McCain was a charming, imperfect man, driven by a code of honor and self-aware enough to know when he had violated it. A Senate where the phrase “happy warrior” is an oxymoron will miss him."







Opinion | John McCain, a Scarred but Happy Warrior - The New York Times

Friday, August 24, 2018

Why Trump would be indicted if he weren't president



Why Trump would be indicted if he weren't president

Republicans Are Talking About Impeachment Way More Than Democrats | FiveThirtyEight

President Trump Holds Rally In Support Of U.S. Senate Candidate Patrick Morrisey



"Legal blows fuel impeachment fears” declared Politico in a headline on Tuesday, after news broke that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen had entered a guilty plea and a jury had convicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on eight counts of various financial crimes. The story featured three Republicans (and no Democrats) speculating about the possibility of Democrats impeaching President Trump if they win control of the House in November. On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested that impeachment is, “the only message they seem to have going into the midterms,” referring to congressional Democrats. Even Trump himself appears to have impeachment on the mind.



Here’s the thing: If the Democrats are planning to impeach Trump if they win control of the House, they are doing a really great job of hiding it. Congressional Democrats aren’t talking about impeachment.



On Wednesday, for example, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, a leading candidate for speaker of the House if Democrats win control, again all but ruled out an impeachment push, saying that Democrats would use congressional power to oversee the Trump administration and make sure the president does not interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, where any impeachment resolutions would likely be introduced, spent Wednesday pushing a bill he sponsored that would make it harder for Trump to fire Mueller. Nadler has suggested that the party will only pursue impeachment if they think they can get the 67 Senate votes they’d need to remove Trump from office — a very high bar, since that would mean something like 17 Senate Republicans would agree to vote out a Republican president."



Republicans Are Talking About Impeachment Way More Than Democrats | FiveThirtyEight

Trump didn't disclose full payments to Cohen in official paperwork



Trump underreported payments to Cohen in disclosures, a potential violation from CNBC.

Trump didn't disclose full payments to Cohen in official paperwork

Can a sitting President be indicted? Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997)

Can a sitting President be indicted? Apparently yes given Clinton V Jones.

"Moreover, the potential burdens on the President posed by this litigation are appropriate matters for that court to evaluate in its management of the case, and the high respect owed the Presidency is a matter that should inform the conduct of the entire proceeding. Nevertheless, the District Court's stay decision was an abuse of discretion because it took no account of the importance of respondent's interest in bringing the case to trial, and because it was premature in that there was nothing in the record to enable a judge to assess whether postponement of trial after the completion of discovery would be warranted. Pp. 25-27.
(d) The Court is not persuaded of the seriousness of the alleged risks that this decision will generate a large volume of politically motivated harassing and frivolous litigation and that national security concerns might prevent the President from explaining a legitimate need for a continuance, and has confidence in the ability of federal judges to deal with both concerns. If Congress deems it appropriate to afford the President stronger protection, it may respond with legislation. Pp. 27-28.72 F. 3d 1354, affirmed."


Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997)

"Political Corruption from the White House to Georgia". Political Corruption from the White House to Georgia" Tamara Johnson Shealey with David Slavin and John Armwood.

There's no safe amount of alcohol, study says. There's no amount of liquor, wine or beer that is safe for your overall health, according to a new analysis of 2016 global alcohol consumption and disease risk. Dr. Richard Haring shares his thoughts on the latest findings.

Jake Tapper fact-checks the 2016 Trump Tower meeting

Thursday, August 23, 2018

AP: National Enquirer hid damaging Trump stories in a safe





"WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press.



The detail came as several media outlets reported on Thursday that federal prosecutors had granted immunity to National Enquirer chief David Pecker, potentially laying bare his efforts to protect his longtime friend Trump."



AP: National Enquirer hid damaging Trump stories in a safe

“Holy Shit, I Thought Pecker Would Be the Last One to Turn”: Trump’s National Enquirer Allies Are the Latest to Defect | Vanity Fair

David Pecker in New York on April 8, 2015.

"As Robert Mueller’s siege closes in on Donald Trump, the president has been left to wonder which of his staff and closest allies will, after all, stay loyal. On Tuesday, Michael Cohen completed his operatic turn against his former boss when he stood in federal court and pleaded guilty to eight felonies that included making hush-money payments at Trump’s direction to women Trump allegedly had sex with. The admission effectively made Trump an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal crime.

Cohen’s stunning admission came just days after The New York Times reported that White House counsel Don McGahn provided 30 hours of testimony to Mueller’s investigators. McGahn’s extensive cooperation with Mueller rattled the West Wing to the core at a time when aides were struggling to contain the fallout from former Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman’s scathing White House memoir.

And now Trump’s most powerful media ally next to Fox News has broken with him. According to two sources briefed on the Cohen investigation, prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, chairman of The National Enquirer publisher, American Media Inc., and A.M.I.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, so they would describe Trump’s involvement in Cohen’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign. The Wall Street Journal first reported Pecker’s cooperation on Wednesday night. (Pecker and Howard did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.)

“Holy Shit, I Thought Pecker Would Be the Last One to Turn”: Trump’s National Enquirer Allies Are the Latest to Defect | Vanity Fair

Time Magazine's latest Trump cover shows president drowning in Oval Office

trump triptych



Time Magazine's latest Trump cover shows president drowning in Oval Office

Effect of Trump's SA land expropriation tweet unpacked

US President Donald Trump may have deleted his tweet about land expropriation, but the fallout continues in South Africa. Last evening US time he said he asked the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to study farm seizure and the large-scale killing of farmers.

Trump tweets false white supremacist talking point

Major prison strike spreads across US and Canada as inmates refuse food | US news | The Guardian

An inmate at San Quentin in California. The strike was symbolically timed to mark the death of a Black Panther held at the prison.

"Prisoners stand against forced labor and other indignities amid reports of action in California, Washington state and Nova Scotia

"A prison strike has begun to take hold in custodial institutions across North America, with reports of sporadic protest action from California and Washington state to the eastern seaboard as far south as Florida and up to Nova Scotia in Canada.
Details remain sketchy as information dribbles out through the porous walls of the country’s penitentiaries. Prison reform advocacy groups liaising with strike organisers said Wednesday that protests had been confirmed in three states, with further unconfirmed reports emerging from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
The confirmed cases related to a hunger strike in Folsom state prison in California. A 26-year-old inmate called Heriberto Garcia managed to dispatch to the outside world a smartphone recording of himself refusing food. The video was then posted on Twitter.

When he was told the contents of the meal, Garcia could be heard replying: “Burritos or not, not eating today. Protest. I’m hunger striking right now.”

The second confirmed action was in the Northwest detention center in Tacoma, Washington, where as many as 200 detained immigrants joined the nationwide protest. The Canadian unrest occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where prisoners at Burnside jail put out a statement in solidarity with their striking US equivalents complaining that they were being “warehoused as inmates, not treated as human beings”.

The 19-day strike is the first such nationwide action in the US in two years and was triggered by April’s rioting in Lee correctional institution in South Carolina in which seven inmates were killed. The start of the strike on Monday was symbolically timed to mark the 47th anniversary of the death of the Black Panther leader George Jackson in San Quentin prison in California."

Major prison strike spreads across US and Canada as inmates refuse food | US news | The Guardian

David Pecker: Trump confidant and National Enquirer boss was given immunity in Cohen case | Media | The Guardian

David Pecker reportedly described the involvement of Cohen and Trump in pay-offs to women who alleged affairs in the past with the president.



"David Pecker, chief executive of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, the tabloid magazine involved in hush-money deals to women ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors as part of the investigation into Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, it emerged on Thursday.



Pecker met with prosecutors to describe the involvement of Cohen and Trump in payoffs to women who alleged affairs in the past with the president, the Wall Street Journal reported. Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump, was initially subpoenaed by federal investigators four months ago.



News of the media figure’s help in an investigation that is likely to prove damaging to Trump’s presidency came in the week that also saw Cohen turn on his former boss, as other former acolytes continue to assist the special counsel’s parallel Russia inquiry in Washington, further embattling the White House.



The Enquirer, the often lurid tabloid that reportedly played a key role in shielding Trump from negative stories, has become deeply embroiled in the legal storm engulfing the White House. Experts predicted on Thursday that it could have its press protections stripped away..."




David Pecker: Trump confidant and National Enquirer boss was given immunity in Cohen case | Media | The Guardian

The New Phase Of President Donald Trump’s Presidency | Deadline | MSNBC

Giuliani: People would revolt against Trump impeachment. ... The conversation as finally moved to impeachment. Maxine Waters has led the way. LOL.

Cuomo fact-checks Trump’s claim about Obama. #LiarInChief

Opinion | Search Your Souls (What’s Left of Them), Republicans - The New York Times

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"How many people from Donald Trump’s campaign and inner circle have to confess to crimes or be convicted of them before it is clear to everyone — Republicans especially — that the campaign was guided by criminals, if not was a criminal enterprise itself?

Tuesday’s conviction of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and guilty plea by the president’s former lawyer Michael Cohen provided the utmost amplification of this reality. But it was Cohen’s implication of Trump in a felonious conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws that kicks the national crisis through which we are suffering up another level.
This accusation cries out for a congressional inquiry, and not the sham, partisan, joke investigation that the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee conducted into Russian meddling. We need to know if the president broke the law and did so for his own benefit to influence the election.

But that would require some sense of courage and patriotism among Republicans in Congress, and those qualities have been severely lacking.

They sat quiet for so long — refusing to stand up to this president — that they allowed his narrative to subsume their party. He unleashed among Republicans the ugliness that mainstream Republicans always knew was there — indeed, they exploited it — but always thought they were smart enough and strong enough to control.

Now, Republicanism is Trumpism, with no daylight between them. Traditional Republicans are now afraid to stand on principle because they do so at great peril of being drummed out of politics. The voters are now Trump’s noxious base, ergo Trump holds each of their fates in his hands.

Viewed that way, Trump’s base itself becomes the enemy of the Republic. It is its enthusiasm for Trump that is the greatest impediment to a genuine search for truth and an honoring of it.

Every time Trump’s followers turn a blind eye to his corruption, dishonesty or hatred, they say to the Republicans they sent to Washington, “If you are my representative, you will follow my lead and promote my desires.”
In effect, that means that if the base loves Trump, the base’s senators and congressmen and women are obligated to also love Trump — or at least fake it.

These mainstream Republican politicians seem to be making a different calculation: Trump will be gone soon, and as long as he doesn’t literally destroy the country, they will be able to wrestle back a post-Trump party and restore things to some sense of normalcy.

But I have a message for these Republicans: The party you romanticize in your heads, the one that exists in exile waiting to one day make its valorous return, is gone, gobbled up by the beastly base.

Mainstream Republicanism is an artifact of another age, its adherent now skirting the margins, homeless, looking on from the other sides of burning bridges.

Republicans in Congress, those of you who know full well that Trump is aberrant and dangerous, you have a very real choice to make here, one that is more about history than today’s Republican hysteria.

Will you stand up for what is right? Will you stand up for the health of the country and be on the right side of history? Will you at least initiate an investigation into Cohen’s accusation?

I hold out no real hope that the answer is yes, but questions must be asked so that history can record the answers. It must be noted forever that Republicans had a chance to choose courage, but they chose cowardice. They had a chance to prioritize national interest, but they chose personal interest.

It can’t be pleasant to fall on a sword, but that is now the only honorable way out for these Republicans and, by extension, for the rest of us.

For many, their entire life’s work has led them to the halls of Congress. Their political lives and their personal lives are indistinguishable. They are political creatures. They can’t imagine their lives apart from the offices they hold.

But in a life there often comes a moment when life asks of you the ultimate ask. And it is only through submitting to what is right, even if at great cost, that the rest of one’s life can be judged as respectable.

This is one of those moments for Republicans. In this moment they have to separate career goals and personal ambitions for the high requirement to properly serve the country and protect its Constitution.

Up to this point, these Republicans have failed miserably. In a few months, many will likely be shown the door in the midterms. Democrats will likely take control of the House and thus will likely conduct investigations. But Republicans now have a window to stand up before they are voted down — to say to history that they may have failed so far, but they came around in the end.

They have this moment to snatch a bit of honor from the ashes of what was their party. Republicans, won’t you seize this moment?

Opinion | Search Your Souls (What’s Left of Them), Republicans - The New York Times: ""

(Via.)

How Trump's Pit Bull Turned on him.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Cuomo tax department subpoenas Michael Cohen as part of probe into Trump foundation--the former Trump lawyer immediately responds - NY Daily News

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"ALBANY — The state Tax Department, which has been investigating President Trump’s charitable foundation, on Wednesday issued a subpoena to his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen—and received an immediate response, a source said. The subpoena, according to Tax Department spokesman James Gazzale, seeks ‘relevant information’ from Cohen, who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to eight federal felony charges, including one that he was directed by Trump to pay off two women who say they had sex with him a decade ago. ‘In light of the public disclosures made yesterday, we’ll be working with the New York State Attorney General and the Manhattan district attorney as appropriate,’ Gazzale said. ‘We can’t comment further on this investigation.’ Shortly after the subpoena went out, Cohen personally contacted the tax department to talk, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said. The source wouldn’t say what the response was.

But typically in such cases where someone has a lawyer, investigators deal with their counsel and not directly with the person. While the tax department is leading the probe, a source said other state agencies could get involved. Gov. Cuomo earlier Wednesday noted that Cohen’s lawyer ‘went out of his way to say Cohen would be forthcoming on both federal and state investigations.’ Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis said on CNN Tuesday that ‘I do believe he has information about Mr. Trump that would be of interest both in Washington as well as in New York State.’ State Attorney General Barbara Underwood recently filed a civil lawsuit accusing the commander-in-chief and his three oldest children of operating a bogus namesake charity ‘in persistent violation’ of federal and state laws for more than a decade. In addition, the state Tax Department opened an investigation into whether Trump and his charitable foundation violated state law by transferring assets or making certain misrepresentations to the state with respect to tax liability and tax assignment. Asked what impact Cohen’s guilty plea and potential cooperation might have on the case, Underwood spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said: ‘We cannot comment on potential or ongoing investigations.’ ‘As our lawsuit against the Trump Foundation illustrates, we will hold Donald Trump and his associates accountable for violations of state law, and will seek a criminal referral from the appropriate state agency as necessary,’ Spitalnick said. She also said the current situation proves further that the state Legislature needs to act on legislation designed to close a loophole in New York’s double jeopardy law that would ‘ensure anyone pardoned by the President does not evade justice for related state crimes.’ A source with knowledge of the investigation said that the state Tax Department would have to refer the case for prosecution if it finds any wrongdoing. The source said the attorney general’s office, which has an active review of the Trump Foundation, is coordinating with the tax department. Underwood’s office recently secured a plea agreement with Cohen’s taxi industry business partner, Gene Friedman, after receiving a referral from the tax department. ‘Given (the attorney general office’s) prosecution of Friedman, and its ongoing (Trump Foundation) lawsuit & investigation, the office is in touch with (the tax deparment) and other law enforcement authorities regarding Cohen’s plea,’ a source familiar with the AG’s investigation said. "

(Via.).  Cuomo tax department subpoenas Michael Cohen as part of probe into Trump foundation--the former Trump lawyer immediately responds - NY Daily News:

Cohen's lawyer says Cohen more than happy to tell Mueller all that he knows: attorney



Cohen more than happy to tell Mueller all that he knows: attorney

There’s only one cure for the cancer of Trump’s presidency | Jill Abramson | Opinion | The Guardian

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"One of Cohen’s lawyers, Lanny Davis, revealed before Tuesday’s plea deal that he had contacted Dean in order to help Cohen. ‘I reached out to my old friend John Dean because of what he went through with Watergate, and I saw some parallels to what Michael Cohen is experiencing,’ Davis told Politico. ‘I wanted to gain from John’s wisdom.’

Dean’s testimony was so significant because of his detailed knowledge, as White House counsel, of Nixon’s direct involvement in the criminal Watergate cover-up and his lies about it. In White House conversations with Nixon, which were taped, Dean had direct knowledge of the president’s crimes.
The parallels with Cohen are clear. He said in court on Tuesday that he committed crimes, including making payoffs that constituted illegal campaign gifts, ‘in coordination with and direction of a candidate for federal office’. In July, Cohen released to CNN a tape he’d made of Trump discussing a cash payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels. He has other tapes, too. And on MSNBC Tuesday night, Davis made clear that Cohen was ready to share all that he knows with Mueller, including that Trump had advance knowledge of Russia’s illegal hacking of the communications of Democratic officials...

“… The cancer in Trump’s presidency began during his 2016 campaign, as Cohen and Manafort may help to prove. It has metastasized to his White House. The cure, as was true in Nixon’s time, may involve impeachment.
• Jill Abramson is a political columnist for the Guardian." 
(Via.). There’s only one cure for the cancer of Trump’s presidency | Jill Abramson | Opinion | The Guardian:

This mafia style of government makes Trump a role model for all autocrats | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian

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"More than 18 months into his presidency, Donald Trump’s modus operandi – and the danger it represents – is clear. His working method is that of the mafia boss and gangland chieftain, daily wielding his power to settle scores, teach lessons and crush dissent. Anyone who’s seen will know the routine: the casual intimidation, the obsession with loyalty, the brutal ostracism meted out to those who dare defy the man at the top.
This week’s demonstration came at the expense of John Brennan, the former head of the CIA who spent a quarter-century in intelligence and counter-terrorism. He’s no dove: his record includes rendition, drone strikes and illegal spying on the US Senate. But he has become one of the most trenchant critics of Trump – he accuses him of treason – and the president exacted his punishment, stripping Brennan of the security clearance that had given him access, even in retirement, to some of his nation’s secrets.
You can speculate as to why Trump did it and why he did it now. The answer to the first question was provided by the president himself. He contradicted the official line supplied by his own press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders – that Brennan was punished for “erratic conduct and behaviour” – to tell the Wall Street Journal that what really bothered him was Brennan’s early role in the “sham” Russia inquiry that is driving him to increasing fury. As for why now, this has been a wretched week for Trump, as former aide and Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman published a book alleging, among other things, that tapes exist of Trump using the N-word. Casting out Brennan served as a useful distraction.
On the face of it, this might not look like such a hardship for the former CIA boss. An estimated 4 million Americans have security clearances of one form or another. Losing his might diminish Brennan’s value as a consultant in the private sector; on the other hand, it boosts his stock as a media pundit. But that’s hardly the point. Determining access to classified information has, until now, been a non-partisan, administrative matter. Trump has used it a political tool, which is why on Thursday no fewer than six former CIA chiefs signed a statement denouncing the move. In the words of ex-CIA officer David Priess, this “is something that happens more in a banana republic than the United States of America”.
To be fair, the US is not wholly a stranger to such behaviour. When Sanders named eight other former public servants now similarly threatened with losing their security clearance – all of them connected with the Russia probe, funnily enough – she evoked memories of Richard Nixon’s notorious “enemies list”, a place on which fast became a badge of honour. The parallel is not fatuous: Nixon’s great offence was abuse of power, and this is becoming Trump’s hallmark.
Consider his ongoing war on what he brands the fake news media. That goes beyond “enemy of the people” rhetoric, or denying access to those whose coverage he dislikes. Instead Trump seeks to use federal powers to whip a dissenting press into line. Note his repeated threats to increase the postal rates paid by Amazon: you don’t have to be a fan of that company to see that what Trump really seeks is to punish Amazon’s boss Jeff Bezos for the hostile coverage dished out by the Washington Post, which Bezos also owns. Trump has similarly mused about denying a broadcast licence to NBC, and tried in vain to thwart a merger of AT&T and Time Warner, infuriated by the latter’s ownership of CNN, which he loathes. In each case, Trump took what had previously been regarded as a neutral function of government and abused it to punish those he deems political enemies.
Trump won't recognise there are spheres of administration that are meant to operate free of executive interference
Trump flatly refuses to recognise that there are spheres of administration that are meant to operate free of executive interference. He believes instead that everyone who works for the US government works for him and his family. Recall his reported demand that former FBI director James Comey declare his loyalty not to the constitution but to Trump. Or his shock that the attorney general did not act as his personal lawyer, making the Russia probe go away, but instead recused himself from it. How telling that even his tribute to Aretha Franklin included the tactless and apparently groundless claim that “she worked for me”.
The picture of Trump as president is now crystal clear. His instincts and methods are those of the autocrat. He respects no separation of powers, no zones of authority from which the constitution very deliberately excludes him and his office. He may be called Donald, but he wants to rule like a don.
The danger of all this to Americans is obvious. The US system of government, cherished and nurtured over two centuries, is being eroded by a president who tramples over every convention and custom that ensures its survival – and, crucially, by his Republican enablers in Congress who could stop him but won’t. (In a chorus, they supported his act of revenge against Brennan.)
Americans need to guard against an authoritarian impulse whose existence in their body politic is now demonstrably real. A survey this month found that 43% of Republicans were willing to give Trump the power to close down media organisations, while a separate poll a year ago found 52% would support “postponing” the 2020 election if Trump proposed it. Among all Americans, support for rule by the army – as opposed to elected politicians – is unusually high, with nearly one in five in favour.
But there is a threat here to the rest of us too. For Trump is forging a template for the 21st-century autocrat. Of course, there are already plenty of models to work from – Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, Xi Jinping, Rodrigo Duterte – all of whom have received lavish, fawning praise from Trump. But an American president stands on a uniquely influential platform, observed the world over. Where once the US presidency offered an example of executive power restrained by the “co-equal” judicial and legislative branches, today Trump stands as an inspiration to every would-be strongman and abuser of authority, ready to bellow the line from his 2016 convention speech that could serve as a governing credo for tyrants everywhere: “I alone can fix this”.
Every time he steps over a once taboo boundary, thereby erasing it, Trump acts to normalise autocracy in the US and beyond. Rulers in Budapest and Warsaw, as well as Ankara and Moscow, see what Trump gets away with and they take note and take heart. He is a role model for the international strongman set. Which is why all those who care about global democracy should be praying for Trump’s Republicans to take a thorough beating in November’s midterm elections. As any mafia boss will tell you, the surest way to defeat a would-be strongman is to make him look weak.
• Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistB
This mafia style of government makes Trump a role model for all autocrats | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian
More than 18 months into his presidency, Donald Trump’s modus operandi – and the danger it represents – is clear. His working method is that of the mafia boss and gangland chieftain, daily wielding his power to settle scores, teach lessons and crush dissent. Anyone who’s seen will know the routine: the casual intimidation, the obsession with loyalty, the brutal ostracism meted out to those who dare defy the man at the top.
This week’s demonstration came at the expense of John Brennan, the former head of the CIA who spent a quarter-century in intelligence and counter-terrorism. He’s no dove: his record includes rendition, drone strikes and illegal spying on the US Senate. But he has become one of the most trenchant critics of Trump – he accuses him of treason – and the president exacted his punishment, stripping Brennan of the security clearance that had given him access, even in retirement, to some of his nation’s secrets.
You can speculate as to why Trump did it and why he did it now. The answer to the first question was provided by the president himself. He contradicted the official line supplied by his own press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders – that Brennan was punished for “erratic conduct and behaviour” – to tell the Wall Street Journal that what really bothered him was Brennan’s early role in the “sham” Russia inquiry that is driving him to increasing fury. As for why now, this has been a wretched week for Trump, as former aide and Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman published a book alleging, among other things, that tapes exist of Trump using the N-word. Casting out Brennan served as a useful distraction.
On the face of it, this might not look like such a hardship for the former CIA boss. An estimated 4 million Americans have security clearances of one form or another. Losing his might diminish Brennan’s value as a consultant in the private sector; on the other hand, it boosts his stock as a media pundit. But that’s hardly the point. Determining access to classified information has, until now, been a non-partisan, administrative matter. Trump has used it a political tool, which is why on Thursday no fewer than six former CIA chiefs signed a statement denouncing the move. In the words of ex-CIA officer David Priess, this “is something that happens more in a banana republic than the United States of America”.
To be fair, the US is not wholly a stranger to such behaviour. When Sanders named eight other former public servants now similarly threatened with losing their security clearance – all of them connected with the Russia probe, funnily enough – she evoked memories of Richard Nixon’s notorious “enemies list”, a place on which fast became a badge of honour. The parallel is not fatuous: Nixon’s great offence was abuse of power, and this is becoming Trump’s hallmark.
Consider his ongoing war on what he brands the fake news media. That goes beyond “enemy of the people” rhetoric, or denying access to those whose coverage he dislikes. Instead Trump seeks to use federal powers to whip a dissenting press into line. Note his repeated threats to increase the postal rates paid by Amazon: you don’t have to be a fan of that company to see that what Trump really seeks is to punish Amazon’s boss Jeff Bezos for the hostile coverage dished out by the Washington Post, which Bezos also owns. Trump has similarly mused about denying a broadcast licence to NBC, and tried in vain to thwart a merger of AT&T and Time Warner, infuriated by the latter’s ownership of CNN, which he loathes. In each case, Trump took what had previously been regarded as a neutral function of government and abused it to punish those he deems political enemies.
Trump won't recognise there are spheres of administration that are meant to operate free of executive interferenceTrump flatly refuses to recognise that there are spheres of administration that are meant to operate free of executive interference. He believes instead that everyone who works for the US government works for him and his family. Recall his reported demand that former FBI director James Comey declare his loyalty not to the constitution but to Trump. Or his shock that the attorney general did not act as his personal lawyer, making the Russia probe go away, but instead recused himself from it. How telling that even his tribute to Aretha Franklin included the tactless and apparently groundless claim that “she worked for me”.
The picture of Trump as president is now crystal clear. His instincts and methods are those of the autocrat. He respects no separation of powers, no zones of authority from which the constitution very deliberately excludes him and his office. He may be called Donald, but he wants to rule like a don.
The danger of all this to Americans is obvious. The US system of government, cherished and nurtured over two centuries, is being eroded by a president who tramples over every convention and custom that ensures its survival – and, crucially, by his Republican enablers in Congress who could stop him but won’t. (In a chorus, they supported his act of revenge against Brennan.)
Americans need to guard against an authoritarian impulse whose existence in their body politic is now demonstrably real. A survey this month found that 43% of Republicans were willing to give Trump the power to close down media organisations, while a separate poll a year ago found 52% would support “postponing” the 2020 election if Trump proposed it. Among all Americans, support for rule by the army – as opposed to elected politicians – is unusually high, with nearly one in five in favour.
But there is a threat here to the rest of us too. For Trump is forging a template for the 21st-century autocrat. Of course, there are already plenty of models to work from – Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, Xi Jinping, Rodrigo Duterte – all of whom have received lavish, fawning praise from Trump. But an American president stands on a uniquely influential platform, observed the world over. Where once the US presidency offered an example of executive power restrained by the “co-equal” judicial and legislative branches, today Trump stands as an inspiration to every would-be strongman and abuser of authority, ready to bellow the line from his 2016 convention speech that could serve as a governing credo for tyrants everywhere: “I alone can fix this”.
Every time he steps over a once taboo boundary, thereby erasing it, Trump acts to normalise autocracy in the US and beyond. Rulers in Budapest and Warsaw, as well as Ankara and Moscow, see what Trump gets away with and they take note and take heart. He is a role model for the international strongman set. Which is why all those who care about global democracy should be praying for Trump’s Republicans to take a thorough beating in November’s midterm elections. As any mafia boss will tell you, the surest way to defeat a would-be strongman is to make him look weak.
• Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist