Join me in trying to make sense of a complicated world.
The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh is as Robert Reich just tweeted a “huge win for corporations and the GOP’s donor class – the culmination of decades of corporate efforts to stack the courts in their favor. We must make a ruckus to block his nomination.” Tweet 7/9/18
I would argue that we have to make more than a “ruckus.”
Scott Pruitt is out at the EPA, but he may well show up somewhere else. There have even been rumblings that he has campaigned to be made Attorney General.
And, Pruitt’s replacement is actually worse than Pruitt. 
He will continue the work of dismantling environmental regulations easily and quickly since he won’t attract the attention and scrutiny Pruitt did. The people Trump picks to head agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency are there to cater to industry and destroy the agency itself.
A year ago, a year ago, Andrew Wheeler was a coal industry lobbyist. He is a climate change denier and he will in the words of Alexander Kaufman, writing in Huffpost, continue the “radical plan to dismantle the nation’s leading public health agency at the behest of the industries it regulates…” (Kaufman, 7/518).
Wheeler is sure to continue Pruitt’s work reshaping the agency’s science advisory boards to make them less scientific. His tenure will most likely spark the continued exodus of talented professionals who refuse to help cripple the EPA and “put the environment on an ever accelerating train of destruction” (Kaufman, 7/5/18). Pruitt’s efforts to gut auto emissions standards and limit the use of public health studies in writing regulations will not stop just because Pruitt is gone. Pruitt’s proposed regulation “to replace a landmark Obama-era rule protecting drinking water for 117 million Americans” (Kaufman, 7/5/18) will be pursued. And these measures are only a sample of the path of destruction Pruitt has started.
The Sierra Club called for Wheeler’s confirmation to be delayed and an investigation opened after The Intercept reported on irregularities in his fund raising activities. But, the Republicans ignored the request. Wheeler dodged questions at his confirmation hearing about climate change and critical environmental policies (Kaufman, 7/5/18).
Once again, I’d like to point out that SUSAN COLLINS voted to confirm this coal industry lobbyist as deputy administrator of the EPA. Pruitt’s scandalous and criminal behavior as head of the EPA had already hit the press, so Collins knew damn well that she was voting for somebody who was likely to become the administrator. SUSAN COLLINS IS A SHAM. And Scott Pruitt’s work is ongoing.
What happened in Flint, Michigan can happen in any town, any city in the country. We must act now, we must mobilize, we must resist. We must not let this country become the site for a free-for-all among big business interests.
So refreshing. So forceful. Chris Coons is on Morning Joe with the new Democratic strategy for preventing the Supreme Court from being taken over completely by Right-wing ideologues. What is it?
“There’s very little we can do.” “Elections have consequences.”
And the Democrats wonder why people don’t turn out to vote for them. They fight like hell to prevent anybody like Bernie Sanders from bringing integrity, democracy and backbone to the party. “There’s very little we can do.” It’s pathetic.
Lawrence B. Wilkerson
is a retired U.S. Army Colonel. He is also the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Wilkerson was part of the preparation of Colin Powell for his February 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council which helped pave the way for the invasion of Iraq.
Subsequently, Wilkerson has stated that the information on which this presentation was based was false. Powel, he has said, was not made aware of doubts about the source of the information at the time. Wilkerson has also publicly spoken out about the poor planning and execution of the Iraq War. He is a strong critic of the decision-making process of the Bush Administration largely taken over by Vice President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
Wilkerson has appeared on Bill Mahrer several times, most recently in June 2018 with Jennifer Rubin. On that show, Wilkerson pointed out that the Intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement is in danger of collapse. We should, he argued, be talking with the Russians.
As the Guardian (Borger, 4/17/2018) has pointed out: “the 2010 New Start treaty limiting the deployed strategic warheads and delivery systems of the US and Russia, will expire in February 2021, unless urgent steps are taken to extend it.”
Wilkerson, however, has very little confidence that this president at this time could cope with these issues.
Wilkerson and Powell were profoundly disillusioned by their experiences within the Bush Administration. Wilkerson can always be counted on to speak his mind and speak truth to power.
See:
Borger, Julian (4/17/18) “US and Russian nuclear arsenals set to be uchecked for first time since 1972.” The Guardian.
Mayer, Jane (2008) The Dark Side. Doubleday.
New York Times Op-Ed 2018 by Lawrence Wilkerson
Susan Collins made this statement yesterday:
“I’ve done a lot of work on the list and, I have told the White House counsel individuals that to me appear to meet the criteria of accepting that Row v. wade is settled law and who have extraordinarily good backgrounds.”
In 2016, she wrote in the Washington Post that Trump was “unworthy of being our president.” Now, she’s willing to allow him to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court.
Susan Collins is not a moderate and she’s not an ally.
Jennifer Rubin was once accused of being such a fawning supporter of Mitt Romney even the right thought she was trying to get a job in a future Romney administration. Nevertheless, she has become a forceful voice against the Trump administration and all it stands for.
Jennifer Rubin, former Republican writer for the Washington Post :
On the Democrats: “Don’t play defense, play offense.”
On the White House Press Corps: “They sit there, they take it, they record it…” “Get up and leave.” “Your lives are in danger.” “That’s incitement to violence too.”
On Sarah Huckleberry Sanders: “These people should be made uncomfortable.” And it should be a “life sentence.”
(Joy Reid Show, 71/18)
On the Republican Party, it “has become the caricature the left always said it was…” (Politico, 4/17/2018)
Malcolm Nance: “The United States is now a partner in the destruction of Western democracy and the Atlantic Alliance.”
The headlines have given me yet another chance to point out that Susan Collins is not a reliable ally of anyone except herself. She was reported by CNN to be meeting in the White House with Donald Trump last night along with others who might be considered potential votes against Trump’s new Supreme Court Nominee. Don’t count on Susan Collins for anything even though she’s “nice.”
Susan Collins, Senate, Wealth of Congress, Rich Congresspersons, but she’s got a great smile…
Not all politicians come to congress wealthy, but many leave that way. Susan Collins is cited as one of the “Top 10 winners of the past decade.” Her average wealth is listed as 223,000 in 2005. By 2015, her average wealth had risen to $3,726,000. That is a 1570.9% increase. At openserets.org you can check out the financial interests of your congressperson.
Recently, I have been astounded by liberal women who casually toss into a conversation the statement that they “love” Susan Collins.
First of all, I would like to point out that Susan Collins is a Republican. She votes with the Republicans most of the time, and supports Republican policies. Second, she is not a moderate even though she has tried repeatedly over the years to portray herself as such.
There are two recent votes that tell you everything you need to know about Susan Collins. First, she provided what David Leonhardt of the New York Times (12/10/17) called a “crucial vote” for the criminal GOP tax bill which benefited the obscenely rich in this country at the expense of all the rest of us. The second was a yes vote on Gina Haspel, a woman who was complicit if not directly participated in the torture of other human beings. When Haspel was told to torture, she tortured, and when she was told to destroy the evidence of that immoral behavior, she sent out directions to do so. And, then, in her confirmation hearings she promised not to do it again. What kind of person tortures other human beings and what kind of person believes the promises of a person who destroys crucial and incriminating evidence on command. Various Democrats argued that Haspel would “stand up” to Trump. On what evidence? She tortured when told to and destroyed the evidence when she was told to. What makes anybody think that she will do any differently now?
Those two votes alone should tell anyone that Collins is not an acceptable candidate for anything or even someone whose positions should be taken seriously as anything other than part of this right-wing Republican take-over of democracy. Collins just tries to make herself appear friendly and reasonable and honorable.
If you want another example, there’s Jeff Sessions:
In an article in the Nation entitled “Susan Collins Just Disgraced Herself at Jeff Session’s Confirmation Hearing,” John Nichols pointed out that Collins had been not merely a neutral observer of the Sessions hearings, she was an “ardent partisan” for Sessions. She also did her “best to dismiss credible criticisms of the nominee.” She maintained, according to Nichols that people who opposed Sessions did so because they just didn’t know him. She described him as a “genuine, fair-minded person” and a “decent man.” She also maintained during the hearing that Sessions was “not motivated by racial animus.”
The Tax Bill
Collins’ behavior regarding the rip-off tax bill passed by Republicans is especially revealing of her propensity of conning her constituents and everybody else and trying to make herself seem free of the Republican crazy-taint. Collins voted for the GOP tax bill, after assuring her constituents that she had secured an “ironclad” agreement with Mitch McConnell and Vice President Pence, that legislation would be passed by the end of 2017 that would fill the gap that repealing the individual mandate in the ACA would leave. She expressed concern that the Tax Bill would mean devastating changes in existing health care plans. But, in her wisdom she had secured promises, promises, that this would all be fixed.
Not only were these promises on their face almost impossible to make (McConnell couldn’t assure anybody that a particular bill will pass), but according to the editorial board of the Washington Post (12/11/17) the bills in question would not have stabilized the obamaCare premiums even if passed.
So, Collins publicly weaseled about her vote saying that Republican leadership had promised to fix any problems.
Within days of the passage of the tax bill on the Senate floor, Republicans started saying that they didn’t give a damn about Collins’ deal (Leonhardt, 12/10/17). Then, when they didn’t fulfill their end of the bargain, Collins was said (Bolton, 12;21/17) to have been “disappointed.”
After the Congress refused to pass the bills in question (the ones Collins assured everybody would fix the problem) she didn’t even accuse Mitch McConnell of breaking his pledge. When journalists pointed out that nobody but an idiot would have believed McConnell and Pence and that she had been “duped,” Collins whined that the coverage was unfair and “unbelievably sexist.” As a woman, that particularly offends me.
One of the things Collins said she wanted in this “ironclad agreement” was for congressional leaders to promise “to undo Medicare cuts automatically triggered by the deficit from the tax cut.” Collins even said that the deal wasn’t for show (Leonhardt, 12/10/17). She promised that it would protect Medicaid and Medicare. On Meet the Press, Collins said: “I also got an ironclad commitment that we’re not going to see cuts in the Medicaid/Medicare program as a result of this bill.” (Leonardt, 12/10/17). But, Republicans, including Paul Ryan have repeatedly said that they intend to use the deficits created by the tax bill to justify cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. Ryan cited them as a top priority for 2018.
In an article in Splinter News (12/12/17) Emma Roller writes about the Collins promise scam:
“Any Senate Republican who has been semi-conscious for the past eight years should know there is zero to no reason to trust Mitch McConnell to follow through on his promises….”
“Further, it’s effectively impossible for McConnell to promise to pass any legislation that requires making it through the House, where Republican leadership has been clearly in thrall to its most extreme members for years. Did Collins really think McConnell could speak for the intentions of the House Freedom Caucus, a gang not even House Speaker Paul Ryan can get to fall in line?
“To assume that Collins was “duped” into voting for the tax bill requires thinking that she is profoundly stupid. She might be, but I don’t think she is. An alternate analysis is that Collins is not naive; that she knew all along that McConnell’s promises were worthless; and that she simply wanted a reason to justify (to constituents or to herself) voting for the tax bill. Vote for the bill, then perform disappointment when McConnell pulls the rug out from under you or the House refuses to even consider the “deal” you claim you were promised.”
“…McConnell and Ryan too — have moved sharply to the right. They are rushing through a bill without the normal procedures. They are making verifiably false claims about it. And they have decided that taking health insurance away from Americans is a core Republican principle.
Reporters like Leonhardt assume “…Collins is telling us her plans in good faith, and extrapolating from there. But maybe Occam’s Razor holds here. Maybe the simplest answer is the correct one. Maybe Collins didn’t make a mistake in voting for the tax bill on December 2. Maybe she voted for the tax bill because she wanted to vote for the tax bill.”
“Susan Collins is not an innocent bystander to the country’s destruction by her party, and it’s time for political commentators to stop treating her as such.”
Leonhardt, David (12/10/17) “Susan Collins’s Big Mistake,” New York Times.
Nichols, John (1/10/17) “Susan Collins Just Disgraced Herself at Jeff Session’s Cinformation Hearing. The Nation.
Roller, Emma (12/12/17) “Susan Collins Ins’t Being Duped Into Anything,” Splinter News.
Washington Post Editorial Board (12/11/17) “Susan Collins is Getting it Wrong.”
Tony Schwartz, writer of The Art of the Deal
“If Trump had the power that Kim Jong-Un does, the authoritarian power and the lack of consequences if he breaks the law, I believe…I believe he would be murdering as many enemies as Kim Jong-Un does.”
“…we are counting on the America people, our fellow Americans, to climb this learning curve to realize what a threat this is…”
One more…
In an article in the Atlantic, the wonderful reporter Natasha Bertrand quotes Caroline Polisi, a defense attorney in federal and white collar cases. Bertrand asked her why Manafort would contact potential witnesses in his case.
“They can’t get it through their heads that they are not above the law and that the government is constantly monitoring them. They also can’t come to terms with the fact that they are no longer in control.”
While everybody else is acting like this photo-op in Singapore is a serious negotiation, Bernie Sanders is tweeting:
“Since 1995, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and United Technologies have paid nearly $3 billion in fines or related settlements for fraud or misconduct. Yet, those three companies alone received about $800 billion in defense contracts over the past 18 years.”
This is why I supported Bernie Sanders.
That means we’re no better than anyone else! Cry, whine, bleat.
The Democratic Party is fighting over what to do with the hated superdelegates. Politico has reported an angry confrontation on Tuesday between Tom Perez and the House Democrats over plans to change the method of allowing the superdelegates to vote.
Infuriated over a plan that wouldn’t allow the “superdelegates” to vote on the first ballot, Tom Pascrell (D-N.J.) issued the quote of the day. If this goes into effect (eliminating the superdelegates until the second ballot) Pascrell wailed “We’re no better than anybody else…”
YES, IDIOT, THAT’S THE IDEA. IT’S ABOUT TIME YOU FIGURED IT OUT. That’s what democracy is and what the Democratic Party is supposed to stand for.
Politico Article: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/06/superdelegates-house-democrats-630357
This is another great podcast. The most recent interview is with journalist Jane Mayer who broke the story about the sexual abuse of Eric Schneiderman. She also wrote a must-read book about the Mercer family “Dark Money.” Years ago I read her book about the Clarence Thomas hearings “Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas” (1994).
While we’re on the subject of Clarence Thomas, Mayer mentions in this interview and we all need to remember that Joe Biden made a decision during the hearings to not allow several other women Clarence Thomas had abused to testify. This one decision could have gone a long way to changing the way women were treated and Biden is responsible for it. There are things you can’t apologize for. This is one of them. The thought of Biden running for president in 2020 makes me sick at my stomach.
The Ezra Klein Show:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1081584611?mt=2
