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“I’ll give carte blanche for the police to kill.”  Event in Deerfield Beach, FL, October 8, 2017

 

The Washington Post is reporting that according to individuals “familiar with the matter,” the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General has referred to the Justice Department allegations that Ryan Zinke, head of the Interior Department, used his position for private gain.  The referral was evidently of only one of the several probes being conducted by the IG’s office into Zinke’s affairs and how he has conducted himself in office.  The IG’s office only refers cases of this type to the Justice Department if they have determined that there is a possibility of criminal charges.

Zinke has been trying to replace the acting Inspector General at Interior with a political appointee.  In this context, the referral to the Justice Department makes perfect sense.   According to Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the advocacy group Center for Western Priorities.   “If Interior’s inspector general is unable to hold Secretary Zinke accountable without political interference, it’s time for career prosecutors at the Justice Department to take over,” she said.

There are at least three probes into Zinke’s behavior.  It is unclear which of these was referred to the Justice Department.    One set of allegations involves Zinke’s involvement in a Montana land deal.  The land deal, backed by the chairman of the oil services firm Halliburton, involves the development of two parcels of land owned by Zinke and his wife.  A number of Halliburton’s operations are affected by decisions and policies made by the Department of the Interior, “…including rules on how oil and gas drilling must be conducted, and which public lands and federal waters are open to energy exploration and development.”  Zinke has no business being involved in any way with a company which is affected by Interior policies much less involved in a way that might involve personal gain.

In addition, the Inspector General’s office is looking at Zinke’s involvement in a decision by Interior not to approve a casino deal in Connecticut.  Career staffers had approved the application of Native America tribes to run a casino which would have competed with an MGM Resorts International casino.  After MGM and two Nevada Senators lobbied against the deal, Zinke refused to sign off on it.

Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) urged Zinke in a letter “to immediately cease any efforts to use the office of the Secretary of the Interior for personal gain and fully reimburse the public for your private use of public resources.”   In the letter, Democratic Senators asked why Zinke had invited former donors as official guests last year on a trip to California’s Channel Islands and questioned Zinke’s request that staffers look into designating his wife as a department volunteer.

Conveniently, Zinke may leave office after the midterm elections.

See Eilperin, Jiliet and Josh Dawsey  (10/30/18) “Zinke’s own agency watchdog just referred him to the Justice Department.”  The Washington Post.

The Washington Post is reporting that according to individuals “familiar with the matter,” the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General has referred to the Justice Department allegations that Ryan Zinke, head of the Interior Department, used his position for private gain.  The referral was evidently of only one of the probes being conducted by the IG’s office into Zinke’s affairs and how he has conducted himself in office.  The IG’s office only refers cases of this type to the Justice Department if they have determined that there is a possibility of criminal charges.  Zinke is looking to replace the current acting IG, who is investigating him, with a political appointee.

If this is the kind of government you want, vote Republican.

 

Angela Merkel of Germany announced that she is going to step down as German chancellor.

Brazil has elected a right wing President, Jair Bolsonaro.  The coverage of the election on NPR’s Morning Edition, concentrated on voter frustration with violent crime and corruption.  Bolsonaro was considered too extreme by the traditional parties, having made offensive statements about women, gays, Brazilians of color and democracy itself.  Once, as a Congressman, he proposed: “Let’s go straight to the dictatorship.”  Bolsonaro spent seven terms in the Brazilian Congress.  “Elections won’t change anything in this country,” he once said.  “…it will only change the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do, killing 30,000.  If some innocent people die, that’s fine.”  Bolsonaro has a military background and is supported by the military.  In 1993, he delivered a speech before a Congress he was part of.  “I am in favor of a dictatorship.”  He said.  “We will never resolve serious national problems with this irresponsible democracy.”  After spending so long in Congress, Bolsonaro has almost no legislative record.  He wasn’t concerned with passing legislation or even engaging in debate about policy.  He was a one-trick pony, concentrating on a supposed Communist threat.  Some have accused him of being a left-over from the Cold War.  He supports widespread gun ownership as an answer to violent crime.  He once told an opponent that she didn’t even deserve to be raped and said that he would rather die than find out his son was gay.  NYT (10/29/18)

Bolsonaro’s election is considered momentous for the fate of the Amazon.  He has promised to champion the powerful agribusiness sector in Brazil.  And, he has promised to set aside no land for indigenous people displaced by business interests.  See Somini Sengupta, 10/17/18  (NYT)

Jimmy Carter has written a letter to Secretary of State Brian Kemp asking him to step down and give over control of the oversight of the state’s election to someone else since he is running for office in the election.  Carter has also endorsed Kemp’s opponent, Stacey Abrams.  Kemp said recently that Abrams’ get out the vote campaign was a direct threat to Kemp’s election.

Good Reads:

How Saudi Arabia manages it’s image.  Bazzi, Mohamad (10/29/18) NYT.

While most of us struggle to keep up with the daily outrages of the Trump administration, Senate Republicans are confirming nominees for the federal judiciary at an assembly line pace.  And, the people they are confirming are far to the right of the conservative judicial mainstream.  They are people for whom conventional legal reasoning is irrelevant, for whom the desired political outcome overrides every consideration.  They will have an impact on our lives for years to come.

After refusing to confirm nominees during the Obama Administration, Republicans are now speeding them through the Congressional process so that they can pack the courts before the midterm elections.

Because of the past obstructionist tactics of the Republican Party there are still over 100 vacancies in the federal judiciary.  Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “departed from decades of Senate practice to expedite the hearing processes for circuit court appointees.”  Grassley put multiple nominees together in a single hearing, making it more difficult for staff to “properly vet and question any of them.” (Michaelson, 9/21/17)

And, Grassley limited the time for the questioning of nominees who are getting lifetime appointments to federal appellate courts.  These individuals will spend decades on the bench when Democratic senators were allowed only 15 minutes to question them (Michaelson, 9/21/17).   Anyone who has ever watched a Congressional hearing knows that nominees can easily filibuster for 15 minutes of questioning, easily refraining from answering any hard questions.

Grssley’s tactics have been called “unprecedented and consequential” by Kristine Lucius, from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.  In the past nominees have been lumped together or “stacked” only when the minority agreed to do so.  This is being done over the objection of the minority party (Michaelson, 9/21/17).

In October of 2018, Grassley, also over the objections of Democrats, pushed ahead with hearings for judicial nominees during the Congressional recess.  That way, Democrats won’t get to question the nominees at all.  Grassley’s response to the objections of Democratic Senators was: “As a result of Democratic delay tactics, there are now 154 current and future judicial vacancies, 63 of which are classified as judicial emergencies. The judiciary simply cannot afford further obstruction from your side”  (LeBlanc, 10/15/18).

The tactic of first obstructing nominations and then rushing them is not an accident.  Republicans have been working since the Reagan administration to pack the courts with “right-leaning” judges.  They have become emboldened during the Trump administration to appoint not only “right-leaning” judges, but people who are far to the right and utilizing judicial interpretation based far beyond anything most people would recognize as conventional legal reasoning.

The court packing comes at a time when the courts have become “the last bastion of civil rights.”  The courts stood in the way of Trump’s travel ban and slowed EPA rollbacks of environmental regulations, to name just two areas.  The courts have also in the past limited executive power (Michaelson, 9/21/17).  With the appointment of Bret Kavanaugh, that may all come to an end.

The recent Republican nominees have been chosen by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation and are therefore “extreme right-wing nominees.”  One sitting circuit court judge compared abortion to slavery and another nominee called Justice Anthony Kennedy a “prostitute” (Michaelson, 9/21/17).

Leonard Leo, Trump’s adviser on the judiciary who is managing what Michaelson (9/21/17) calls “the think-tank-to-court pipeline,” said in May of 2017: “I would love to see the courts unrecognizable” (Michaelson, 9/21/17).

Leonard Leo may well get his wish.  I dread the day.

_____

LeBlanc, Paul (10/15/18) Grassley rejects Democrats plea to delay judicial hearings until after recess.  CNN.

Michaelson, Jay (09/21/17) While you weren’t looking, the Senate has been rubber-stamping Trump’s Extreme Judicial Picks.  Daily Beast.

What’s the Matter With Kansas: How conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank

The Wrecking Crew: How conservatives Ruined Government, Enriched Themselves, and Beggared the Nation

Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency by Joshua Green.

Why Trump Won: And Why He Will Win Again in 2020 by Mitchell Steven Morrison.  Author and former FBI employee.  Talks about how corruption in mainstream media outlets will help Trump win 2020.

Unbelievable by Katy Tur.

Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump win the White House by luke Harding.

Creeping Fascism: Brexit, Trump and the Rise of the Far Right by Neil Faulkner.

Proof of collusion: How Trump Betrayed America by Seth Abramson.

Fear: Trump in the white House by Bob Woodward

Imperial Life in the merald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Blind Ambition by John W. Dean

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas by jane Mayer

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the  War on Terror Turned into a war on American Ideals by Jane Meyer

The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies are Undermining America and Dismantling the West.

The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and Wikileaks Tried to steal the 2016 Election by Malcolm nance

Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a Presient What We Don’t, Can’t, and Do Know by Kathleen Hall Jamieson

Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America by John Nichols

The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols

Messengers from Saudi Arabia contact a Saudi living in Canada

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/secret-recordings-give-insight-into-saudi-attempt-to-silence-critics/2018/10/17/fb333378-ce49-11e8-ad0a-0e01efba3cc1_story.html?utm_term=.2264ff1cf5e9

Voting Rights

Brennan Center article about the Voting Rights Act

https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/the-voting-rights-act

Another blow to the voting Rights Act

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/supreme-court-voting-rights-735696/

 

• Republicans are trying to depress the Democratic vote all over the country. They are trying to make it as hard as possible to vote by closing polling stations, long lines, long waits, a difficult process, a vaguely threatening atmosphere – all designed to keep people from voting, especially minorities and the poor.
• In North Dakota, Republicans are targeting Native Americans. The State Legislature passed a law saying that voter IDs had to have a street address.  Native Americans who live on reservations don’t have street addresses.  When Republicans passed this law clearly targeting Native Americans, they knew that a small number of Native Americans helped elect Democrat Heidi Heidkamp to the Senate in 2013.
• There are various lawsuits in Georgia about voter suppression.
• In Texas, a conservative organization is trying to raise money by sending out direct mail flyers saying that Democrats are trying to unfairly influence the voting system by registering far too many people and swamping the system. (Rachael Maddow)
• In Cobb County, Georgia there was a three hour wait to vote on the first day of early voting (Rachael Maddow). In Jefferson County, Georgia, when elderly African Americans left a Senior Center in a bus to vote, County authorities were notified.  County officials called the senior center to stop the senior citizens from voting.  I don’t even understand how that was possible, but it happened.  The group was told to get off the bus that was transporting them to the polls.  The Senior Center is run by the county.
• Brian Kemp, the Secretary of State in Georgia has been asked to investigate the Jefferson County incident.  That’s a joke.
• Brian Kemp is running for office as a Republican in the same election he’s supervising as Secretary of State.
• If you phone his campaign office to complain about Kemp’s public lies about his opponent, you are likely to get an abusive argument, as I did yesterday.  When you phone Kemp’s state office, you are told (rudely) that the State of Georgia has no control over Kemp’s behavior or that of his campaign.  He’s not employed by the Secretary of State’s Office, I was told.  HE IS THE SECRETARY OF STATE I responded.
• Oh, and please don’t forget, the Supreme Court (before Kavanaugh) gutted the Voting Rights Act which freed states to engage in this kind of voter suppression.
• People died for your right to vote.  Please, please use it.  Use your vote, your body to protest, your voice to agitate and phone and ask questions.  What I fear most is that by the time people in this country are walking around saying: “They can’t do this can they” it will be too late.

 

Quotes from a Salon interview with Craig Unger, author of “House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia.”

“…Donald Trump has for decades laundered billions of dollars for Russian organized crime figures and other oligarchs.  This fits a larger pattern in which Trump and his inner circle have shown a great comfort with financial crimes and other forms of unethical or illegal behavior to personally enrich themselves at the expense of the American people.”

Unger:

“Donald Trump has had contacts with the Russian mafia for 35 years.  His properties have laundered money for them.  The Russian mafia are connected to Russian intelligence.  They’re living and have been working in Trump’s building.  Trump has even partnered with them.  There are so many ways in which he’s compromised…The Republicans are also implicated….the Russians didn’t just go after Donald Trump: They went after the entire Republican Party.  There is Russian money going into the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the N.R.A., and then to Republicans officials and candidates directly.”

 

Unger, Craig (2018) House of Trump.  House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia.

Filkins, Dexter (2018) “Was there a connection between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?” October 15, 2018 Issue of the New Yorker.

Jamieson, Kathleen Hall  (2018)  Cyberwar: How Russian hackers and trolls helped elect a president – What we don’t, can’t and do know.”

Mayer, Jane (2018) “How Russia helped swing the election for Trump.”  October 1, 2018 Issue of the New Yorker.  Review of the Jamieson book by the wonderful Jane Mayer.   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/how-russia-helped-to-swing-the-election-for-trump

Sanger, David (2018) The perfect weapon.  Book on cyber sabotage.

 

 

Jennifer Rubin is one of the former Republicans who are now all over Cable TV, criticizing Trump.  They come in various colors.  There’s Elise Jordan, who is a critic of everything Trump, but  who supported Bret (Frat Boy) Kavanaugh and who retweeted a tweet lending credence to the idea that the Dr. Ford attempted rape was a case of mistaken identity.  There’s Charlie Sykes, Steve Schmidt (who helped confirm Alito), and others.  I find Jennifer Rubin, along with Steve Schmidt, the most likable of the crew.  But evidently, they have learned nothing from the Trump presidency.  Rubin drives me crazy by repeatedly suggesting that Nikki Haley would be a good alternative to Trump in 2020.  I think this partly is due to the fact that Haley is at least on the surface sane and a woman.  But…

• Nikki Haley is a frequent critic of the UN’s stance on Israel which has the most right wing government in its history. She called Jared Kushner a “hidden genius,” and questions have been raised by her use of a private jet paid for by taxpayers (The Independent). In addition,
• CREW requested that Haley be investigated for accepting “seven free flights for herself and her husband on luxury private aircraft from three South Carolina businessmen.” “By accepting gifts of luxury private flights, Ambassador Haley seems to be falling in line with other Trump administration officials who are reaping personal benefits from their public positions,” said CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder. “Our ethics laws are clearly written to prevent even the appearance of corruption and improper influence. We’re calling on the State Department’s inspector general to further investigate the nature of these gifts, determine whether they are in line with ethics rules, and ensure that employees like Ambassador Haley are fully trained on the application and importance of ethical standards.” (CREW)

 

 

 

I had to stop watching the news when, after Bret Kavanaugh pitched a white privileged male temper tantrum on national television, MSNBC switched back to Nicolle Wallace and she started talking about how sorry she felt for him.

I don’t feel sorry for him.  I feel sorry for those of us living with a population that cares so little about the rule of law, or even understands what it means, that a dishonest, lawless, frat boy can be put on the Supreme Court.  It makes me sick, just sick.

 

Call me cynical, but I don’t trust this agreement to spend a week conducting an FBI investigation of the charges against Bret Kavanaugh.

• This move is designed to provide cover for Republicans who realize just how bad they look railroading this lying, torture enabling (see closed files on Kavanaugh’s Bush era work) frat boy onto the Supreme Court.
• Everyone in the media and almost everybody in Congress is oozing touchy/feely sentiments about “bipartisanship.” Sen. Flake is one senator, making one move on one issue, (and Flake is a Senator who was publicly shamed by survivors in a Senate elevator).  This is not a sudden turnaround by the Republicans to be reasonable and start participating in the democratic process.  All you have to do is look at the footage from the Kavanaugh hearings, listen to Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and the unutterably horrid Chuck Grassley to see that the Republicans are committed to gaslighting the entire country.
• There is no guarantee that an FBI investigation (supervised by another frat boy, Christopher Wray) will uncover anything. The more likely outcome is that it will come up with nothing because it will be constrained and basically defined out of existence or potency before it begins.  Sen. Blumenthal tried, but was cut off by Grassley, to state that any investigation had to be a real investigation not just a show.  If the Republicans have anything to do with it, it will be a show.
• The investigators evidently have no subpoena power. Witnesses will talk only voluntarily.
• Mark Judge has already stated that he will talk only “confidentially.” What the hell does that mean?
• The FBI is only allowed to investigate “credible” accusations. And, who do you think will define which are “credible” accusations?

I have little faith that this will be anything but a checking off of a box by the Republicans.  Democrats, however, will bend over backward to be “reasonable” and shut up after the investigation.

Finally, even if Democrats do manage to get this disgusting nomination stopped, they will bend over backward to approve the next nomination in order to prove that they are not “partisan.”  And we will wind up with a partisan right-wing, anti-democratic, corporate loving Supreme Court that will help crown Donald Trump, eviscerate environmental protections and erode civil liberties.

Diane Feinstein said today that this was not a political issue.  It is probably one of the most important political issues of our generation.  It is a political question about whether we are going to have a democracy based on the rule of law, or an autocracy, a kleptocracy, an authoritarian state.  It is a political issue about whether women are going to be allowed to control their own bodies or be vessels controlled by men.

Sen. Coons may think it makes him sound like an honorable person to quote Joe Biden (part of the reason we’re in the Kavanaugh mess in the first place) by saying that it is proper to question the Republican’s positions, but not their motivations.  To me, that sounds like something off the back of a cereal box.  If the Democrats don’t start questioning the Republican’s motivations, we are all going to wind up in an authoritarian country.  The nice guy stance is just not going to work.  It’s really like saying: We have to understand the Nazis, understand their perspective, listen to them and maintain a civil, respectful relationship.  NO WE DON’T.  WE CAN’T.

The Republicans are right about one thing – this is a war, a war they started and it is a war for everything decent and honorable and good that this country represents.  I know which side I’m on and I know who the enemy is.

If Democrats can’t find it in themselves to choose sides, call out the enemy as an enemy and fight for us, they should get out of the way.  The Republicans are implementing one-party rule and they are getting away with it.  I call on the Democrats to either fight or get out of the way.

And, if I can add just one more thing…the very fact that the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee allowed Bret Kavanaugh to talk to them the way he did is a disgrace.  They are United States Senators.  When he interrupts them and talks over them and treats them with contempt, he is doing so to the American people.  Stand up for yourself and for us.