The Conversation -- December 1, 2024
All in the Family. Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: :... Donald Trump said Sunday that he would nominate Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman and the father-in-law of his daughter Tiffany, as a senior adviser covering Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.... The advisory White House post doesn't require Senate confirmation.: CNN's report is here. So far, I haven't seen any information that Boulos is a criminal, but he's a billionaire international businessman with ties to Hezbollah, so we'll see what journalists develop.
Holly Bailey, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's announcement that he wants to replace FBI Director Christopher A. Wray with Kash Patel, a staunch loyalist who has vowed to fire the agency's leadership and dramatically reshape its mission, was met with bipartisan concern that his appointment could undermine the agency's independence.... FBI directors typically have 10-year tenures, unique among appointments in the executive branch. That span ... was imposed in 1976 as a post-Watergate government reform effort after it became clear that Richard M. Nixon's pick to serve as FBI director, L. Patrick Gray, destroyed documents related to the bureau's investigation of the Watergate scandal and gave Nixon's administration briefings on the investigation. The term limit is meant to assert the independence of FBI directors from any political leader or party." MB: The Republicans cited who supposedly expressed "concern" about Patel sound a lot less "concerned" than Susan Collins does about the lowlifes she ultimately votes to seat. Indeed, the Senators' "concerns" strike me as performance art: "Look at me! I'm a Senator! I'm doing my very senatorish thing." In fact, ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Several Republican lawmakers fell in line on Sunday behind ... Donald J. Trump's plan to choose Kash Patel to lead the F.B.I., defending the incoming president's right to install a loyalist who has vowed to use the position to exact revenge on Mr. Trump's adversaries. Mr. Trump's announcement on Saturday that he intends to replace Christopher A. Wray ... who still has three years left on his 10-year term, with Mr. Patel has stunned Democrats and many in the national security establishment. Mr. Patel has said he would launch a sweeping campaign of retribution against F.B.I. agents, journalists and others."
New York Times Notices the Most Obvious Dangers Trump Poses: Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's determination to crash over traditional governmental guardrails will present a fundamental test of whether the Republican-controlled Senate can maintain its constitutional role as an independent institution and a check on presidential power. With Mr. Trump putting forward a raft of contentious prospective nominees and threatening to challenge congressional authority in other ways, Republicans who will hold the majority come January could find themselves in the precarious position of having to choose between standing up for their institution or bowing to a president dismissive of government norms. The clearest and most immediate point of tension is likely to be Mr. Trump's efforts to skip the Senate's traditional confirmation process to install loyalists, including some with checkered backgrounds, in his cabinet. But the president-elect has also signaled he expects Republicans on Capitol Hill to accede to his wishes on policy, even if that means ceding Congress's control over federal spending. Both are powers explicitly given to the legislative branch in the Constitution."
Adam Rasgon, et al., of the New York Times: "A former Israeli defense minister has accused Israel of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, a rare critique from a member of the security establishment at a time of war. The comments by Moshe Yaalon came amid mounting criticism of the Israeli military's conduct in Gaza. They were swiftly denied and condemned by allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, saying that they would hurt the country and help its enemies. Mr. Yaalon served as the Israeli military's chief of staff during the second intifada and as Mr. Netanyahu's defense minister during the 2014 war in Gaza, the longest conflict between Israel and Hamas before the current war. But he broke with Mr. Netanyahu in 2016 and has since become a critic of the Israeli leader.... 'The path they're dragging us down is to occupy, annex, and ethnically cleanse -- look at the northern strip,' he said. He also said Israel was being pulled in the direction of building settlements in Gaza, a notion that is supported by far-right politicians in Mr. Netanyahu's government."
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⭐Trump Nominates Crazy Man to Head FBI. Devlin Barrett & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: :... Donald J. Trump said on Saturday that he wants to replace Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, with Kash Patel, a hard-line critic of the bureau who has called for shutting down the agency's Washington headquarters, firing its leadership and bringing the nation's law enforcement agencies 'to heel.' Mr. Trump's planned nomination of Mr. Patel ... could run into hurdles in the Senate, which will be called on to confirm him, and is sure to send shock waves through the F.B.I., which Mr. Trump and his allies have come to view as part of a 'deep state' conspiracy against him. Mr. Patel has been closely aligned with Mr. Trump's belief that much of the nation's law enforcement and national security establishment needs to be purged of bias and held accountable for what they see as unjustified investigations and prosecutions of Mr. Trump and his allies. Mr. Patel 'played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability and the Constitution,' Mr. Trump said in announcing his choice in a social media post....
"Before leaving office in early 2021, Mr. Trump floated the idea of making Mr. Patel deputy director of either the C.I.A. or the F.B.I. William P. Barr, the attorney general at the time, wrote in his memoir that Mr. Patel would have become deputy F.B.I. director only 'over my dead body.'... [Mr. Patel] has vowed to investigate and possibly prosecute journalists once he is back in government.... 'Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections -- we're going to come after you,' he said last year." ~~~
~~~ Eric Tucker & Alan Suderman of the AP: "... Donald Trump says he will nominate Kash Patel to serve as FBI director, turning to a fierce ally to upend America's premier law enforcement agency and rid the government of perceived 'conspirators.' It's the latest bombshell Trump has thrown at the Washington establishment and a test for how far Senate Republicans will go in confirming his nominees. The selection is in keeping with Trump's view that the government's law enforcement and intelligence agencies require a radical transformation and his stated desire for retribution against supposed adversaries. It shows how Trump, still fuming over years of federal investigations that shadowed his first administration and later led to his indictment, is moving to place atop the FBI and Justice Department close allies he believes will protect rather than scrutinize him."
~~~ Elaina Calabro in the Atlantic (August 26, 2024): "This was what seemed to disturb many of [Patel's] colleagues the most: Patel was dangerous, several of them told me, not because of a certain plan he would be poised to carry out if given control of the CIA or FBI, but because he appeared to have no plan at all -- his priorities today always subject to a mercurial president's wishes tomorrow.... But in the officials' warnings about the various catastrophic ways the rise of an inexperienced lackey to the highest levels of government might end, all Patel seemed to detect was the panic of a 'deep state' about to be exposed.... 'A lot of people say he's crazy,' Trump once said of Patel, according to the longtime adviser. 'I think he;s kind of crazy. But sometimes you need a little crazy.'" Thanks to laura h. for this gift link.
How to Insult France: Name a Sleazy Ex-con as Ambassador. Zach Montague of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump announced on Saturday that he would name Charles Kushner, the wealthy real estate executive and father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France.... Mr. Kushner received a pardon from Mr. Trump in the final days of his first term for a variety of violations and then emerged as a major donor to Mr. Trump's 2024 campaign.... Mr. Kushner, 70, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 16 counts of tax evasion, a single count of retaliating against a federal witness and one of lying to the Federal Election Commission in a case that became a lasting source of embarrassment for the family. As part of the plea, Mr. Kushner admitted to hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, a witness in a federal campaign finance investigation, and sending a videotape of the encounter to his sister.... Mr. Kushner served two years in prison before his release in 2006." MB: The post requires Senate confirmation. The Guardian's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'd say Trump couldn't stand the positive attention Emmanuel Macron received for the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral, so he decided to poke the French President in the eye. Macron should refuse to accept Kushner's credentials, but he won't. The great news for Charles Kushner is that he can crime with impunity while he's in France because he'll have diplomatic immunity. More on France linked below.
David Ovalle & Anumita Kaur of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Saturday tapped Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, replacing Anne Milgram. In picking the Florida sheriff to lead the DEA, Trump has selected a law enforcement professional with three decades of experience working for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office but seemingly little time in the national spotlight." The ABC News report is here.
Only One President at a Time? -- What a Quaint Idea. Maegan Vazquez, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Saturday demanded that the BRICS nations, a group of nine countries..., commit to not creating a new currency or back any other currency to replace the U.S. dollar, threatening to impose punitive duties on their imports if they do not comply. 'We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,' Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform.... 'They can go find another "sucker!" There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America.' The forum includes Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Russia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. The group has a stated purpose of building up an international finance system that is less dependent on the United States and the European Union." An AP story is here.
Trump Sends Trudeau Packing. Rob Gillies & Fatima Hussein of the AP: "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned home Saturday after his meeting with Donald Trump without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks 'productive' but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. After the leaders' hastily arranged dinner Friday night at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trudeau spoke of 'an excellent conversation' and said in a post later Saturday on X, accompanied by a photo of the two men seated a table and smiling, that he looked forward to 'the work we can do together, again.' Trump said earlier on Truth Social that they discussed 'many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: I told Justin not to go there. An obvious element of Trump's retribution program is humiliation, and the bigger the world leader he can humiliate (and insult) the better. So Trudeau, Macron -- Good Lord! they both speak French! And English! Trump hates the well-educated.
Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Hunter Biden's legal team is launching an assertive public defense of the president's son just weeks before federal judges in Delaware and California prepare to sentence him..., and as his father faces a diminishing window to pardon him if he chooses to do so despite previously ruling it out. In a 52-page paper titled 'The political prosecutions of Hunter Biden' released Saturday, Hunter Biden's lawyers criticize the foundation of the investigations into their client, arguing that he was prosecuted for crimes that an ordinary citizen would not have been. Hunter Biden is likely to face further unfair threats when ... Donald Trump takes office, the lawyers contend. The document at times seems aimed directly at President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly said that he will not pardon or commute the sentences of his son.... [The report] cites comments that Trump has made about targeting his opponents, along with remarks from congressional Republicans who for years have investigated Hunter and other Biden family members."
Bluesky, Nothin' But Bluesky From Now On. Kat Tenbarge of NBC News: "Journalists are finding more readers and less hate on Bluesky than on the platform they used to know as Twitter.... Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, [he] has turned the platform into an increasingly difficult place for journalists, and many had come to suspect that the platform had begun to suppress the reach of posts that include links to external websites. On Sunday, Musk confirmed the platform has deprioritized posts including links, which was how journalists and other creators historically shared their work. But four journalists told NBC News that after millions of users migrated to Bluesky, an alternative that resembles a pared-back version of X, after the election, they are rebuilding their audiences there, too.... Numerous studies and analyses have found that after Musk took over the platform, use of hate speech increased. Over time, the platform became a bastion of the right-wing internet.
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China. Edward Wong of the New York Times: "The State Department has denounced a Chinese court's sentencing of a prominent journalist, Dong Yuyu, to seven years in prison and said it stood with his family in calling for his 'immediate and unconditional release.' A court in Beijing announced the sentence on Friday for his conviction on charges of espionage. Mr. Dong, 62, a former Harvard Nieman fellow, has been held since February 2022, when officers from the Ministry of State Security, China's main intelligence agency, detained him and a Japanese diplomat while they ate lunch in a restaurant. The officers released the diplomat after an interrogation, but prosecutors put Mr. Dong on trial behind closed doors in July 2023. He is the most prominent journalist imprisoned in mainland China.
"Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement on Friday that Mr. Dong's 'arrest and today's sentencing highlight the P.R.C.'s failure to live up to its commitments under international law and its own constitutional guarantees to all its citizens.' He used the initials of the formal name of the country, the People's Republic of China.... Senator Marco Rubio, Mr. Trump's pick for secretary of state, has crafted legislation that would punish China for its human rights abuses. Mr. Rubio is a former co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which lists Mr. Dong as a prisoner 'of priority concern' and urges action on his case by the White House."
France. Adam Nessiter of the New York Times: The political life of France's Prime Minister Michel Barnier "could even be over this week, or possibly before Christmas, a prospect prompting ghoulish speculation about financial chaos, American-style government shutdown and unpaid salaries for the fifth of France's work force on the public payrolls. That the country might soon be without a government is adding to the French malaise -- a soup of industrial layoffs, strikes, demonstrating farmers, anemic growth and a yawning deficit.... The woman in control of the [government's fate] is Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right populist National Rally, which has more seats in the lower house of the French Parliament than any other party.... That the Donald J. Trump-friendly National Rally calls the shots in France, which has so far resisted the pull of crony populism, is only half-acknowledged by the news media and by a political class that greeted the American election largely with alarm. Ms. Le Pen is currently on trial with her associates for misusing European Parliament money, and risks being convicted and barred from running for office."
~~~ Zach Montague of the Times wrote in the story linked above, "As president, Mr. Trump also expressed support for Mr. Macron's far-right challenger in the 2017 French presidential election, Marine Le Pen, whose hard-line stance against immigration Mr. Trump praised"
Syria. The Washington Post's live-updates of developments Sunday in Syria's civil war are here: "Syrian rebel fighters are advancing southward toward Hama after seizing control of most of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, posing the most serious challenge to President Bashar al-Assad in years amid the country's civil war, which began in 2011. The rapid assault over the weekend is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist rebel group based in northwestern Syria's Idlib province. Government forces, supported by Russia and Iran, appeared to have withdrawn from some areas. Images from Aleppo and a military base in Idlib showed several captured Syrian army soldiers."
Muhammad Kadour & Raja Abdulrahim of the New York Times: "Rebels had seized most of Syria's largest city, Aleppo, as of Saturday, according to a war monitoring group and to fighters who were combing the streets in search of any remaining pockets of government forces. The antigovernment rebels said they had faced little resistance on the ground in Aleppo. But Syrian government warplanes responded with airstrikes on the city for the first time since 2016, according to the war monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Aleppo came to a near standstill on Saturday, with many residents staying indoors..., witnesses said. Others did venture out into the streets, welcoming the fighters and hugging them. Some rebels tried to reassure city residents and sent out at least one van to distribute bread. The rapid advance on Aleppo came just days into a surprise rebel offensive launched on Wednesday against the autocratic regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The developments are both the most serious challenge to Mr. al-Assad's rule and the most intense escalation in years in a civil war that had been mostly dormant."
News Lede
New York Times: "More than two feet of snow blanketed western New York and Pennsylvania on Saturday, with some parts getting more than three feet, as a lake-effect snowstorm disrupted post-Thanksgiving travel and stranded dozens of vehicles on highways. The storm threatened to bring up to six feet of snow to some areas by Tuesday morning. More than five million residents across eight states -- Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia -- were under winter weather advisories as of 2 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.... The Weather Service said snowfall on Saturday was heaviest along Interstate 90, which hugs Lake Erie from Buffalo through Pennsylvania and on to Cleveland. Erie and parts of northern Michigan, eastern Ohio and western New York received around 30 inches of snow or more, the agency said. National Guard troops were dispatched in New York and Pennsylvania."
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It's Sunday....so a sermon, which appeared yesterday in the weekend edition our local county newspaper.
I called it "Ball Gazing."
At coffee the other day a Republican friend proposed a challenge to those of us concerned about the results of the recent presidential election.
I had criticized Trump’s nomination of Dr. Oz to head the Department of Health and Human Services because the medicine he practiced on TV so often smacked of quackery. His recommendation of anti-malarial drugs to treat Covid -19 was particularly unforgivable (nytimes.com), and his suggestion that offering Medicare Advantage to everyone would cure the nation’s health insurance woes made no more sense.
As any fiscal conservative knows, Medicare Advantage creates more problems than it solves. It costs taxpayers nearly $2000 more per person than does standard Medicare, the difference going to insurance companies’ profits (healthcarefinancenews.com). Enrolling the 25 million Americans who remain uninsured in Medicare Advantage programs would cost an extra 50 billion dollars. As head of Health and Human Services, Dr. Oz would dose the country with bad medicine and bad management.
After listening to others who also questioned Trump’s initial list of nominees, my Republican friend proposed an experiment: Write down three predictions of what will happen in the next year or two, he said, and we’ll check them later to see if you were right. He was betting our dire predictions would be way off the mark and that the country’s future would not be nearly as bad as we feared.
He might be right. Predicting the future is, after all, a mug’s game. That’s why I didn’t take him up on his challenge. But thinking about it later (my friend did make me think), I will make one prediction.
I will predict the unparalleled corruption of Trump’s first administration will continue. Trump himself has told us that it will. He has so far refused to comply with the Presidential Transition Act, which was inspired by the blatant self-dealing that marked his first term, and which requires that presidents and their staffs avoid conflicts of interest. (campaign legal.org). But for Trump, conflicts of interests and ethical considerations more generally have always been mere annoyances to be brushed aside.
He proved that in his first term. The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington cited 3,737 conflicts of interest (crew.org) in the first Trump administration, many of them involving his properties rented by foreign governments. When the cases asserting Trump was violating the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause by taking money from foreign countries reached the Supreme Court, it vacated lower courts’ rulings because he had but a few months left to serve. The Supremes didn’t rule on the cases’ merits. They ducked, instead, making a mockery of the Constitution they swore to uphold.
But Trump was hardly the only bad actor. Five of his cabinet members were forced to resign because the corruption in which they engaged was too obvious to ignore (huffpost.com), and conflicts of interest were more the rule than the exception (apmreports.org) up and down his administration. All this under the watchful eye of a man eventually convicted of felonies himself and who left the White House with boxes of public property, some of it classified.
This time around the latest spate of corruption is already under way. Trump is now pressuring the Senate to adjourn following his inauguration so he can make recess appointments of his proposed cabinet, avoiding any public discussion of their qualifications (cbsnews.com). He also wants to bypass the standard FBI’s investigations of nominees that might uncover either conflicts of interest or national security concerns.
Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to the post of Director of National Intelligence has already raised more than a few eyebrows. A former Democratic Representative who has since moved so far to the Right that she regularly espouses Kremlin talking points, Gabbard might have a hard time enduring FBI scrutiny…if she’s ever subjected to it. As president the first time around, Trump ignored the FBI on at least twenty-five occasions and granted security clearances to people whom the FBI recommended against. Because he’s not yet president and can’t wave his magic presidential wand, his staff is now attempting another end-run around the FBI, contracting with private security firms to do “independent” investigations (the-independent.com) of Trump’s nominees.
So yes, many of us had questions about where the country was heading, though the exact shape the future will take is hard to foresee.
But of this I am sure: In Trump’s second term both blatant and devious corruption will again dominate our political landscape.
That’s my prediction, but I hope I’m wrong.
Ken,
How could you be wrong?
The word Trump has long been a synonym for “corruption”.
I haven't read Mein Kampf, trump's favorite book, at least the one
that was reportedly always on his nightstand.
What he's doing sounds so Hitlerish; get rid of all those agencies
that could check on his corruption, grifting, lying, etc. and bring in
his favorite crooks who will look the other way because they're all
in it together.
Akhilleus,
Yeah, I might hope to will the lottery, but I'd never put down a penny to bet on it.
"[Trump] is moving to place atop the FBI and Justice Department close allies he believes will protect rather than scrutinize him.”
He already has plenty of people who protect him, like the Supremes and Congress. The biggest danger with Patel is the weaponizing the FBI to go after his "enemies". That could easily include normal people who are critics who do not have the resources or platform to fight back. We have seen Trump attack many unknown people over the years only because someone right-wing troll decided to highlight a social media posts and send it viral. Trump and his friends can threaten to ruin people financially even without actually sending them to prison. And Kash is the kind of person who will abuse the FBI resources to go after their biggest to smallest perceived enemies. It has been well known that law enforcement is full of right-wing guys many of whom would probably follow his orders. For years the right has been complaining about the idea that the Left has been holding them back with all their rules and rights. If only they would be allowed to crack some skulls they would be able to magically solve immigration or crime or the drug problem. Trump's day(s) of unfettered violence to put society back in line would be closer to reality with Patel at the helm. The guard rails that protect against abuses of FBI resources will be twisted and broken under a Trump administration. And Kash would be one of Trump's lackies that pushes those guard rails as far and as quickly as possible. His confirmation would be another show of subservience and complicity to Trump that he will find little resistance from his Congress.
@Marie: To see Onion video "reports" go to YouTube and in
"search" enter 'the onion news network'
@Forrest Morris: Thank you. After I tried your system -- which works -- I noodled around YouTube and found that it is probably easiest to get the Onion's latest videos by entering into your search box: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOnion
Propaganda
"How the hell could Americans hire that guy as chief executive of the United States of America? A second time?
The answer, says Andrea Pitzer of the new Next Comes What podcast, is simple: propaganda works."
It is going to be a weird four years.
The link above from RAS "weird four years"
I'm wondering if that's a platter of deplorables being served to his
master, or a platter of liberals.
If it's a platter of liberals, I want it to be a silver platter. We deserve
better than cheap ceramic.