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This morning on Morning Joe, the entire panel expressed terror that progressives, “socialists” and AOC were going to be to blame for getting Trump re-elected. This is from people who gave Trump billions of dollars of free air time in 2015 and 2016. Uniformly, they condemned AOC and others for ruining Amazon’s sweetheart deal with New York. This article will give you another view, one that evidently you are not likely to see on the corporate controlled media.
Someone leaked Trump’s work schedule. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t.
“Multiple intelligence officers” told Time Magazine that when Trump is briefed with intelligence, he displays “willful ignorance” and even though they try to hold his attention with “visual aids,” try to confine briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeat his name and title as frequently as possible, he still goes into a rage if presented with anything that disagrees with his public comments. http://time.com/5518947/donald-trump-intelligence-briefings-national-security/
Mueller isn’t going to save us. Barr has already set the stage in his testimony before Congress to bury the “report.”
Congress continues to refuse to do its job and begin impeachment proceedings. Congress does not have to wait for the Mueller report, which may well not be released and even if released may well not produce the “smoking gun” people expect.
Remember Iran/Contra, especially since some of the players in Iran/Contra are already on board. (Robert MacFarlane, Elliott Abrams)
This morning, Walter Shaub expressed some of the disgust I am feeling over the Barr confirmation hearing and the media coverage of the hearing. First of all, the performance of the Democrats, their utter failure to confront Barr with his unsuitability for the position of Attorney General, left me little hope that there will ever be a just response to the crimes of the Trump Administration.
The appointment of Barr will be a disaster for the country and spells the end of any attempt to bring justice to the people occupying and colluding with the White House. But, there was no moral outrage from the Democrats, no attempt to educate the public about the importance of the Attorney General’s position with regard to the Mueller case. The Democrats behaved like this was just business as usual, joking with Barr, making (what they believed were) cute little asides about his family and his grandson. It was revolting. Democracy, what little we have left, is at stake and they make jokes.
Second, Barr’s shameless auditioning for the position in a memo advertising his contempt for the Mueller probe, should have disqualified him. Every Democrat on that committee should have set their hair on fire protesting this confirmation and telling the American public why. Instead, they asked questions about immigration and drug sentencing as if this were a legitimate nominee.
Third, the media went on and on and on and on about what Barr said in the confirmation hearing. What universe are they living in that they think what Barr said makes one goddamn bit of difference in terms of what he will do. These people will do anything to get and stay in power, anything. Anybody who believes that they can be taken at their word, or held to their positions is a baby.
William Barr was nominated for the position of Attorney General because he had already signaled to Trump that he would protect him and subvert any attempt to bring this loathsome administration to justice. William Barr was nominated because of his reactionary legal opinions about the unitary executive and the fact that he supported the pardon of seven of the people implicated in the Iran/Contra scandal. He has already demonstrated himself to be complicit in absolving those in power for their criminality.
This is a quote from Morning Edition (Johnson, Carrie, 1/14/19, William Barr supported pardons in an earlier “Witch Hunt’” Iran/Contra. Morning Edition)
“Then-Attorney General Barr supported the president’s (HWBush’s) decision (to issue pardons) in the Iran-Contra case, which gave clemency to people who had been officials in the administration of President Ronald Reagan, including former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. He had been set to go on trial to face charges about lying to Congress.
To the man who led the Iran-Contra investigation, however, the pardons represented a miscarriage of justice.
“It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office, deliberately abusing the public trust without consequences,” said Lawrence Walsh, the independent prosecutor in the case, at the time of the pardons.
Barr said later that he believed Bush had made the right decision and that he felt people in the case had been treated unfairly.
Reporting in the New York Times today:
I still don’t understand why Rod Rosenstein is quitting. I still don’t understand why he wrote the letter used to fire Comey.
These are conversations that you won’t hear any where else.
I know everybody is desperate to feel good about somebody, anybody in public life, but George H W Bush is not the one. The Republicans have been on the road to authoritarian rule for decades. Trump is not the cause of all our problems. He’s the result.
Morning Notes:
Catherine Rampell reports that this year the United States is on track to prosecute the fewest white-collar and public corruption crimes on record. And, it’s not because there aren’t crimes out there to be prosecuted as everyone who reads the news knows. Syracuse University has published data cited by Rampell indicating that this fiscal year the fewest white-collar prosecutions on record will be persued (1986 is the first year available). The prosecution of official corruption is almost as bad. This is rivaled by prosecutions of tax-related frauds. The charts below don’t even account for population increase. If they did, the decline would look worse.
Bibliography
Catherine Rampell (8/8/18) How America stopped prosecuting White-Collar crime and public corruption. Washington Post.
Rudy Valdez at first thought the 15-year prison sentence given to his sister Cindy Shank was a clerical error. The judge had probably meant to give her 15 months, he reasoned. Shank, whose sentence was later commuted, had been found guilty of conspiracy on drug charges, related to the crimes of an ex-boyfriend who had died years ago. Valdez says he thought he’d be able to fix it.
But, Valdez says, a quick Google search showed there hadn’t been a mistake. Shank was one of thousands of people in the U.S. sent to prison under mandatory minimum sentences — automatic prison terms mandated by the government. Roughly six years before her conviction, Shank lived in Lansing, Mich., with a boyfriend who dealt drugs and was later killed. She initially faced state charges in 2002 for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, but the case was dropped. In 2007, Shank was married and had two children, with a third on the way, when she was arrested on revived charges of conspiracy in the federal government’s investigation into her boyfriend’s drug enterprise. After a trial that same year, Shank was sentenced to 15 years, the mandatory minimum for her charge, and sent to federal prison after the birth of her third daughter.
NBC (Winter, 11/16/18) is reporting that Mariia Butina is negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors. Lawyers for Butina and prosecutors asked the judge for two more weeks before going ahead with scheduled hearings because they were negotiating “a potential resolution.” Butina is facing charges of conspiracy and failing to register as a foreign agent.
On Thursday, Butina’s lawyers asked the court to dismiss the charges against her. They argued that one of the statutes under which Butina is charged is unconstitutionally vague. They also argued that she was being charged with two crimes for the same act. They say the charge of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government is duplicating the failure to register charge (Hsu, 11/15/18).
Butina is being charged with helping her ex-boss, Alexander Torshin, “infiltrate politically powerful US. Organizations, including the NRA…” It is thought that she served as a special assistant to Torshin, a “former Russian senator and deputy head of Russia’s central bank…” Torshin was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in April of 2018 for having links to organized crimes (Winter, 11/16/18).
Her colleague and domestic partner, Paul Erickson, introduced Butina to influencital people in the Republican Party. He also sought to organize a meeting between Trump and Alexander Torshin at a May 2016 NRA convention. Troshin and Butina briefly chatted with Donald Trump Jr. during a dinner at the convention (Hsu, 11/15/18).
The Russian government has been active in trying to get Butina released. There have been six consular visits to her in jail, four diplomatic notes, two personal complaints by Sergey Lavrov to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and the official Kremlin Twitter account made Butina’s face its avatar (Hsu, 11/15/18).
Hsu, Spencer S. (11/15/18) Maria Butina, alleged Russian agent, asks U.S. court to dismiss charges as unconstitutional.” The Washington Post.
Winter, Tom (11//16/18) “Alleged Russian operative Mariia Butina negotiating with prosecutors. Washington Post.
Law, Power, and Justice 