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:

• John Bolton requested military options to strike Iran from the Pentagon last year. This is at a time when the President needs a distraction from his growing problems with the Mueller investigation and leaks that he was 1) being investigated early on in the administration over ties to Russia, and 2) destroyed the translator notes from the private meeting with Putin in Helsinki.  Bolton’s request reportedly “alarmed” Mattis.  Anyone who thinks this is a good idea should read  “Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone”  https://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Life-Emerald-City-Inside/dp/0307278832.    One of the most disturbing thing about this article is the reporting that Bolton has virtually eliminated “the internal policy debates that could air high-level disagreements.”  Bolton wants only his arguments before Trump, and Bolton wants a war.
• The Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, went to Turkey last week and asked Erdogan for an agreement that Turkey would not attack the Kurds if the U.S. withdrew from Syria. Erdogan refused to even see Pompeo and ridiculed the proposition.
• Schumer (I don’t know how) is supposed to force some kind of vote on the lifting of the Deripaska sanctions in exchange for Deripaska relinquishing some shares of his companies.
• Trump is openly threatening Michael Cohen’s father-in-law with government investigation.  Intimidating a witness is a felony.
• The VA is planning to shift “billions of dollars from government-run veterans’ hospitals to private health care providers.” The Koch brothers have long funded efforts to privatize veteran’s health care.  I don’t think the Koch brothers have any humanitarian interest in veterans.
• Within hours of being elected, California’s new governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order proposing a plan which would allow California to negotiate with drug manufacturers.
• Confirmation hearings for William Barr will begin tomorrow. Barr has a long history of “advancing an aggressive, expansive conception of presidential power.”   Barr has also advertised his opinion that Trump virtually cannot obstruct justice and certainly did not do so when he fired Jim Comey.   The question here is whether Democrats can muster the cajones to ask Barr the tough questions that are necessary.
• Barr needs to recuse himself. Whitaker needs to recuse himself.  So the question is who will make him?  Whitaker has just refused to recuse himself and ignore demands that he do so.
• Barr recommended that HW Bush pardon Reagan administration officials convicted in or implicated in the Iran/Contra scandal. Bush did so.
• A lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel resigned last week because she could no longer give cover to the President’s behavior.

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.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gaslit-nation-with-andrea-chalupa-and-sarah-kendzior/id1400926647?mt=2

https://thecorrespondent.com/7106/how-trump-fulfilled-a-30-year-fantasy-of-becoming-president-with-a-little-help-from-the-kremlin/2009932931402-52e375f5

• Reporting that Turkey is massing troops to wipe out the Kurds.
• The new Secretary of Defense chosen by Trump. He has no military or political experience.  He worked for Boeing one of the two most important military contractors.  Who’s draining the swamp?
• Jane Mayer’s book “Strange Justice” about Clarence Thomas. What a piece of scum this man is.  People who wanted to lament the demise of George H.W. Bush should remember that Bush gave us not only Willie Horton, but Clarence Thomas.
• Arm sales and military support to Saudi Arabia to continue the war in Yemen.
• The lax enforcement of laws against white collar crime. This weak enforcement has given us Trump, Manafort, Cohen, Wilbur Ross, Epstein and a host of others.  If these laws were enforced, these guys would be in jail.
• In a related thought, the Justice Department’s decisions to settle a number of cases involving big pharma over pushing opioids. In the NYT, Barry Meier (12/26/18) reports the difficulty holding big Pharma accountable.
• “A Gutted I.R.S. makes the Rich Richer,” article about lack of enforcement by the IRS on big violators.

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.

George H.W. Bush: The Inconvenient Truth

Morning Notes:

• Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison.  He is likely to serve about 85% of that.  It is still possible for him to agree to cooperate with prosecutors.  It appears that he was willing to provide information about other people’s crimes, but not willing to talk about his own.  The Southern District of New York requires cooperators to reveal all crimes, not just those selected by the defendant.
• Mariia Butina has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.  I have no idea what that means since they are evidently planning to deport her back to Russia.  I can’t imagine that she would provide useful information and then go back to Russia.  The Russians, including Putin, tried to claim that they didn’t have any idea who Butina was, but the Russian embassy had a lot of contact with her while she has been incarcerated.
• Robert Reich is warning that the Republicans are going to try to force through privatization of more government services before they leave office.
• If Teresa May is rejected by her party, there will be a new prime minister.
• A non-prosecution agreement has been reached with David Pecker, the National Enquirer guy who agreed to hide Trump’s affairs by buying and burying the stories.
• The incoming New York Attorney General has announced that she plans to launch investigations about Trump and his activities. 

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.

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.

Commentators on the podcast, Trump, Inc., are saying that high level Democrats feel that it is necessary to take it slowly and carefully when they start investigating Trump.  Evidently, they are afraid of looking like the Republicans conducting Bengazi.  What is the matter with Democrats?  How did they become so gutless?  Doesn’t anybody care anymore what’s right?

As I said days ago, I didn’t vote for the Democrats so they could be nice.  I didn’t vote for them so they could compromise with the Republicans.  There is no way to compromise with the Republicans.  I want Trump et. al. investigated.

Podcast: Trump, Inc. “The Emolument Suit Against Trump That is Moving Ahead.”

This is an essential podcast.

Podcast: Intercepted.  Chris Hedges on elections, “Christian Fascists” and the Rot Within the American System.”  November 7, 2018.

I just recently made a yearly contribution supporting the Intercept.  If you’re tired of listening to the same old rehash of stories on Cable News, try the Intercept.  Always interesting, always challenging, always a different take.

The Washington Post is reporting that hate crimes rose 17% last year.

The New York Times is reporting that shortly after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, one of the kill team phoned and instructed his superior to “tell your boss.”  They are not certain that this was Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but it is likely.

One of the suspects identified by Turkey in the murder, has been closely identified with bin Salman, three others are linked by witnesses to bin Salman’s security detail.  A fifth man, the doctor, “holds senior positions in the Saudi Interior Ministry and medical establishment.” (NYT, 10/17/18)

CNN has filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court to reinstate the White House credentials of Jim Acosta (NYT 11/13/18).

Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist and associate of Roger Stone, and said that he expects to be indicted by Mueller for lying to investigators.  In a UTube live stream, he whined about his age and asked listeners for money to cover his legal fees.  Corsi has said that he believes he committed no crime.

Voter Suppression.  We wouldn’t have all these voter suppression efforts had the Supreme Court not eviscerated the Voting Rights Act.  The situation in Florida is turning out to look very much like the phony “riot” that took place when the Republican Party sent their operatives into Florida in 2000 to intimidate people out of continuing to count votes.

Joe Scarborough in a typical delusional rant last week, argued that in 2000 Republicans sent people to Florida to make sure all the votes were counted.  Sorry, but that’s just a lie.  This lie rivals Scarborough’s refusal to admit that he and the dreadful Mika helped Trump get elected.

Please remember that people like Elise Jordan who tries to pass herself off as a moderate supported Kavanaugh and during the hearings, retweeted a tweet asserting that the Ford accusation was a matter of mistaken identity.

Matt Whitaker should have never been anywhere near the Justice Department in an official capacity.  He should have never been Sessions’ Chief of Staff much less Acting Attorney General.  This man is a political operative (like Kavanaugh), a scam artist,  someone who feels (like Trump) he is above the law.  Whitaker was part of a company that was closed down and fined millions for defrauding people (including vets who they targeted).  He also ignored a ruling that he return profits from this company.

The Trump Administration is a daily example of the bias in the criminal justice system.  Scam artists and thieves like Matt Whitaker, Donald Trump and Paul Manafort  violated the law for years without being prosecuted.   They think they can get away with it because they have all their adult lives.  We cannot continue to have a country where white collar and corporate criminals are allowed to operate without consequences or are given slap-on-the-wrist sentences.

Mike Pence, Matt Whitaker and others in the Trump Administration are dangerous right wing religious zealots.   They do not believe in the separation of church and state, one of the foundations of the constitutional system in this country.  They must be removed from office.

Rep. Brian Higgins of New York, soon to be a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, is soft peddling (as is Nancy Pelosi) the resolve of the Democrats to investigate Trump.  Pundits on Cable News are all saying that the American people don’t want the congress to spend their time investigating, they want compromise, bi-partisanship.  I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s correct.  I did not vote for, work for, contribute to the campaigns of Democrats for them to cave in to an out-of-control right-wing set of Republicans.  I didn’t vote for them to compromise.  I voted for them to fight for us, to fight for regular people.

Donald Trump needs to be indicted.  We cannot have a criminal running the country.

Well, that’s not it, but it’s enough for one afternoon.  I’m going to walk my cat.