Skip to content

Month: January 2017

Mr Popularity

Published by digby on January 10, 2017

Mr Popularity

by digby

New Q Poll:

American voters approve 55 – 39 percent of the job President Barack Obama is doing, his best approval rating in seven years, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. These same voters disapprove 51 – 37 percent of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president-elect.

Some highlights:

Even his biggest fans:

Nobody really cares about this one, but it’s mildly interesting:

A lot of human beings love to hate, so this works out great. All successful demagogues understand this:

.

Trump’s twin Cheneys

Published by digby on January 10, 2017

Trump’s twin Cheneys


by digby
I wrote about them for Salon today:

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding the upcoming Donald Trump administration is how the man will govern. There are many presidential styles, including those of micromanaging types like Jimmy Carter, big-picture sorts like Ronald Reagan, the organized disciplined approach of Barack Obama and the chaotic, brainstorming ways of Bill Clinton.

Trump has run only a rather small privately owned family business, at least compared with the scope of a major corporation, a state government or a federal agency. So we don’t really know how he’ll handle the job of running a giant bureaucracy.

Luckily for Trump, at this moment the other branches are all in the hands of his party. So he can theoretically run the country like a CEO if he chooses. But the decisions he has to make are a bit more complicated than whether the hostesses at his golf courses are pretty enough or the label on his Trump-branded cologne Empire looks sufficiently regal. And since he has no serious understanding of policy and believes he can run the country based solely on instinct, curiosity about his governing style is more acute than usual.

One of the most famous anecdotes from the campaign, which I’ve referenced before, is this New York Times story about what Donald Trump Jr. allegedly told one of Gov. John Kasich’s aides when trying to persuade him to join the ticket:

Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?

When Kasich’s adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father’s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.

Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of?

“Making America great again” was the casual reply.

That’s a cute line, but according to an article in Politico Trump is giving wide latitude to all his Cabinet members with an order to radically change everything in the first six months. He does not want to be bothered with the details unless “he sees something as a problem or an issue involves significant publicity or money.”

In other words, they can do anything they want. If it works out, he’ll take credit. If not, they’re on the hook. He will have to sign off on expenditures, which he seems to think is just like signing the weekly check run for the Trump Organization.

Trump believes he’s gotten this far by the seat of his pants and that he can run the country the same way. He has no intention of changing. But the likely reality is that the executive branch is going to be run by committee. And from the looks of it, the committee’s responsibilities will be divided into two areas: Vice President Mike Pence will be in charge of the domestic agenda, which Trump cares about only in terms of his parochial personal interests and how the cable news networks cover it. Politico has reported:

In the two months since he won the presidency, Trump has underscored his arm’s-length approach. He’s left most of the congressional wrangling to Vice President-elect Mike Pence and other top aides. He doesn’t jump on weekly calls to discuss strategy, members of the transition team say. And he’s told top aides he doesn’t need to know about every problem, according to people who have spoken with them.

This tracks with how he sees the role of members of Congress in governance. They should do their little jobs and shut up about it. Recall this statement by Trump from the campaign:

If people, and especially, you know, where people endorse me, Republican leaders, I think that honestly they should go about their business and they should do a wonderful job and work on budgets and get the budgets down and get the military the types of money they need and lots of other things. And they shouldn’t be talking so much. They should go out and do their job. Let me do my job.

The promised repeal of Obamacare will be the first test of this arrangement. So far, it isn’t going so well, what with the Republicans never having bothered to come up with a replacement — one Trump has guaranteed will be the greatest health care plan the world has ever seen. So far, all we’ve seen is a promise from Sen. Rand Paul, which is best described as “freedom” to buy expensive insurance — if you’re lucky enough to qualify.

Meanwhile, all the talk about letting members of the Cabinet run with their wish lists doesn’t seem to apply to the national security team, which will be handled by former general Michael Flynn, who has already been reported as butting heads with the incoming secretary of defense, James Mattis, over personnel appointments. Mattis is unhappy with the people the transition team is sending and was none too pleased to find out from the media that it had chosen the secretary of the Army without consulting him. Things have been going downhill from there. Mattis outranked Flynn in the military, but Flynn is the top dog in the Trump administration. This should make for an interesting rivalry.

Former CIA director James Woolsey, who had been advising the transition team and speaking on its behalf, separated himself from it publicly, saying that Flynn and company had excluded him from discussions and he didn’t want to be identified with the administration under the circumstances. Woolsey is a hard-core hawk so perhaps that’s not such a bad thing. But it does suggest that Flynn’s somewhat of a control freak, which isn’t such a good thing since he’s nutty as a fruitcake.

We don’t know exactly where Trump’s “counselors,” Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, fit in, but they seem to have their own portfolios and special access to the president. So far, all the evidence points to Trump being a leader who tells everyone what they want to hear in private, believes whatever the last person told him and basically vamps his way through the day until he can plop down with his phone in front of CNN to perform what he clearly believes is the most vital part of his job: tweeting. What could go wrong?

.

Best Buy national repair techs routinely search customer devices, act as “paid informers” for the FBI, by @Gaius_Publius

Published by digby on January 10, 2017

Best Buy national repair techs routinely search customer devices, act as “paid informers” for the FBI

by Gaius Publius

The Stasi was the “secret police” of communist East Germany. In 1989, about 1% of the population was used as “informers” (source).

(Note that the headline is in the present tense. We have no indication that this longstanding practice has stopped.)

Did you know that Best Buy’s central computer repair facility — their so-called “Geek Squad” — contains at least three employees who are also regular informers for the FBI? And that these employees routinely search through computers and other devices that Best Buy customers send in for repair? And when they find something they think the FBI would be interested in, they turn over the information for rewards of up to $500?

That’s a sideline business you probably didn’t imagine existed — outside of the old Soviet Union or communist East Germany.

I want to look briefly at two aspects of this — first, the story itself (it’s chilling) and second, its implications.

The Story — Best Buy Repair Techs Routinely Inform on Their Computer Repair Customers to the FBI

Let’s look first at the story via the OC Weekly in Orange County, California. Note, as you read, the use of phrases like “FBI informant” and “paid FBI informant.” We’ll also look at other versions of this story. In all versions, Best Buy repair employees routinely search customers’ computers for information they can sell to the FBI, and get paid if the FBI wants the info.

In the FBI-centered versions, the Best Buy employees act on their own and get paid as “honest citizens,” as it were, merely offering tips, even though this practice seems to be routine. For the FBI, the fact that the same employees frequently offer tips for which they get paid doesn’t make them “paid informers” in the sense that a regular street snitch regularly sells tips to cops.

For the Best Buy customer in question, that’s a distinction without a difference. But you’ll see that distinction made in articles about this incident, depending on whose side the writer seems to favor.

Now to the OC Weekly‘s write-up by R. Scott Moxley (h/t reddit user Spacewoman3, posting in the valuable link source r/WayOfTheBern; emphasis mine):

[Dr. Mark A.] Rettenmaier is a prominent Orange County physician and surgeon who had no idea that a Nov. 1, 2011, trip to a Mission Viejo Best Buy would jeopardize his freedom and eventually raise concerns about, at a minimum, FBI competency or, at worst, corruption. Unable to boot his HP Pavilion desktop computer, he sought the assistance of the store’s Geek Squad. At the time, nobody knew the company’s repair technicians routinely searched customers’ devices for files that could earn them $500 windfalls as FBI informants. This case produced that national revelation.

According to court records, Geek Squad technician John “Trey” Westphal, an FBI informant, reported he accidentally [sic] located on Rettenmaier’s computer an image of “a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck.” Westphal notified his boss, Justin Meade, also an FBI informant, who alerted colleague Randall Ratliff, another FBI informant at Best Buy, as well as the FBI. Claiming the image met the definition of child pornography and was tied to a series of illicit pictures known as the “Jenny” shots, agent Tracey Riley seized the hard drive.

The story goes on to detail rights violations committed by the FBI on its own, such as these:

Setting aside the issue of whether the search of Rettenmaier’s computer constituted an illegal search by private individuals acting as government agents, the FBI undertook a series of dishonest measures in hopes of building a case, according to James D. Riddet, Rettenmaier’s San Clemente-based defense attorney. Riddet says agents conducted two additional searches of the computer without obtaining necessary warrants, lied to trick a federal magistrate judge into authorizing a search warrant, then tried to cover up their misdeeds by initially hiding records.

To convict someone of child-pornography charges, the government must prove the suspect knowingly possessed the image. But in Rettenmaier’s case, the alleged “Jenny” image was found on unallocated “trash” space, meaning it could only be retrieved by “carving” with costly, highly sophisticated forensics tools. In other words, it’s arguable a computer’s owner wouldn’t know of its existence. (For example, malware can secretly implant files.) Worse for the FBI, a federal appellate court unequivocally declared in February 2011 (USA v. Andrew Flyer) that pictures found on unallocated space did not constitute knowing possession because it is impossible to determine when, why or who downloaded them.

The doctor’s lawyer, of course, is contesting all of this, and the article’s main point is that these discoveries have the FBI on the defensive. From the article’s lead paragraph:

[A]n unusual child-pornography-possession case has placed officials on the defensive for nearly 26 months. Questions linger about law-enforcement honesty, unconstitutional searches, underhanded use of informants and twisted logic. Given that a judge recently ruled against government demands to derail a defense lawyer’s dogged inquiry into the mess, United States of America v. Mark A. Rettenmaier is likely to produce additional courthouse embarrassments in 2017.

I want to ignore the wrangling between the court, the FBI and the attorneys for this piece and focus on the practices of Best Buy’s employees and the government’s defense of those practices. After discussing attempts to manipulate the court by withholding information in order to get authorization for a raid, the author notes:

Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Anthony Brown … believes the “Jenny” image shouldn’t be suppressed because it’s only “wild speculation” that the Geek Squad performed searches at FBI instigation. To him, the defense is pushing a “flawed” theory slyly shifting focus to innocent FBI agents; he maintains that Rettenmaier—who is smart enough to have taught medicine at USC and UCLA—was dumb enough to seek Best Buy recovery of all of his computer files after knowingly storing child porn there.

Reading this, it’s easy to see that the issue of what constitutes a “paid informant” is being obscured. After all, what counts as “FBI instigation”? If someone pays you regularly for something that she never directly asks for, is that “innocent” behavior or caused behavior (“instigation”)?

Yes, Best Buy Did This Regularly

The article answers the questions above:

But the biggest issue remains whether Geek Squad technicians acted as secret law-enforcement agents and, thus, violated Fourth Amendment prohibitions against warrantless government searches. Riddet [the defendant’s lawyer] claims records show “FBI and Best Buy made sure that during the period from 2007 to the present, there was always at least one supervisor who was an active informant.” He also said, “The FBI appears to be able to access data at [Best Buy’s main repair facility in Brooks, Kentucky] whenever they want.” Calling the relationship between the agency and the Geek Squad relevant to pretrial motions, [Judge] Carney approved Riddet’s request to question agents under oath.

The writer goes on to discuss the ins and outs of this particular case. But consider just what’s above:

  • Best Buy routinely takes in customer computers for repair.
  • Those computers are, at least frequently, sent to a Best Buy’s national repair facility in Kentucky.
  • Multiple people at that facility appear to be regular FBI informants.
  • From 2007 on, at least one supervisor on duty at any times was “an active informant” for the FBI.

And finally, from the article’s lead:

  • Informing like for the FBI pays at least $500 each incident.

The LA Times handles this question similarly in a piece when the case first broke (my emphasis):

An employee at Best Buy’s nationwide computer repair center served as a paid FBI informant who for years tipped off agents to illicit material found on customers’ hard drives, according to the lawyer for a Newport Beach doctor facing child pornography charges as a result of information from the employee.

Federal authorities deny they directed the man to actively look for illegal activity. But the attorney alleges the FBI essentially used the employee to perform warrantless searches on electronics that passed through the massive maintenance facility outside Louisville, Ky., where technicians known as Geek Squad agents work on devices from across the country.

And note:

The Geek Squad had to use specialized technical tools to recover the photos because they were either damaged or had been deleted, according to court papers.

This contrasts with the Best Buy assertion that “Geek Squad technician John “Trey” Westphal, an FBI informant, reported he accidentally located [the image] on Rettenmaier’s computer”.

The Times thinks this case could turn into a constitutional issue, regardless of whether the doctor is guilty or innocent. (For the record, I’ll note that the later (perhaps illegal as well) search of the doctor’s other devices turned up what is asserted to be more incriminating pictures, mere possession of which is a “sex crime” in the U.S.)

The Implications

First point — This is an eager prosecutorial society; we really are a punishing bunch, we Americans. We’ve never left the world of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. So we give our police great latitude, allowing them to shoot and kill almost anyone for almost any reason, so long as the stated reason is in the form “I was afraid for my safety.” Our prosecutors have great latitude in putting as many of our fellows in prison as possible. Our judges routinely clear their court calendars using plea-bargained guilty verdicts sans trial. This is the American judicial system, and it looks nothing like Law and Order, which is mainly propaganda.

And we, the spectators, are happy as clams to see the guilty (and the innocent) tortured and punished — witness our entertainment and the many popular programs that vilify the unworthy, from Judge Judy and her ilk, to Jerry Springer knockoffs, to all of those Lockup-type programs (extremely popular, by the way) on MSNBC. We love to see the “wicked” get it, in media and in life, much more so than people in many other first-world countries do. Witness our incarceration rate, the highest in the world.

Thus we give our “law enforcement” personnel — cops of all stripes, prosecutors, courts of all stripes (including the secret ones) — great latitude in finding people to punish and then making them truly miserable for as long as possible. We have been like this as a society for some time, all done with most people’s permission.

Second point — With a Democrat in the White House, we’re inclined to think this setup is mainly well-managed (even when it obviously isn’t). Thus it has our blessing, more or less — or at least it has the blessing of middle class and working class white people — the bulk of people who vote.

Third point — We therefore fail to ask the most obvious questions. For example, about this Best Buy case, we ought to be asking this:

How common is the practice of paid FBI informants spying on fellow citizens in the ordinary performance of their jobs?

Are other computer repair companies and facilities similarly infected (infiltrated) by government agents?

Are other businesses also infiltrated to this degree?

Are “sex crimes” the only activity paid FBI informers watch for?

Is political activity subject to this kind of spying?

How much will this practice widen under AG Beauregard Sessions and President Trump?

Much to think about. I don’t see the practice ending soon. I do see this as the tip of what could be a very large iceberg.

(A version of this piece appeared at Down With Tyranny. GP article archive here.)

GP

.

ACA repeal advancing to the rear by @BloggersRUs

Published by Tom Sullivan on January 10, 2017

ACA repeal advancing to the rear
by Tom Sullivan

How many times Republicans have voted to repeal Obamacare is a matter of dispute, but they have been vowing to and failing at it for seven years. Their streak may continue. Huffington Post:

Anxiety about repealing Obamacare without a replacement got a lot more visible in the U.S. Senate on Monday evening, as a half-dozen Republican senators called publicly for slowing down the process.

It’s not clear how strongly these senators feel about it, or whether they are willing to defy party leadership over how and when efforts to repeal Obamacare proceed.

But at least three other GOP senators have now expressed reservations about eliminating the Affordable Care Act without first settling on an alternative. That brings the total to nine ― well more than the three defections it would take to deprive Republicans of the majority they would likely need to get repeal through Congress. And the restlessness isn’t confined to the Senate. Members of the House Freedom Caucus on Monday evening issued their own call for slowing down the repeal process.

Uh-oh.

The “repeal” vote in whatever form that might take was supposed to occur before the end of January. Now it may be pushed out until March, Bloomberg reports:

Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee, Rob Portman of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska offered an amendment Monday to the budget resolution that would extend the target date for the committees to write an Obamacare repeal bill to March 3 from Jan. 27.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York appeared last night on MSNBC’s “All In.” The Hill reports:

“We’ve told our Republican colleagues, if you repeal it, you own it,” he told host Chris Hayes. “There are a lot of good things in the [Affordable Care Act]. They’re trying to find a way to repeal the ACA and keep all those good things.”

Schumer added, “They’re in real trouble and now they’re squirming and squirming.”

Over at Naked Capitalism, Yves Smith observes:

But it appears that regardless of what Trump is willing to do regarding Obamacare, he seems cognizant of the risk of creating disarray and being blamed for it…a concern he oddly does not have on other issues. It’s likely that this caution is purely cynical: that he understands how complicated implementing a replacement or even a stopgap would be, and he does not want Congress spending time on the Republican party bete noire of Obamacare to the detriment of pushing through Trump’s priority items, particularly early in his term when he has the best chance to take ground quickly.

On the other hand, maybe Trump’s really devoting lots of his non-tweeting time to crafting an Obamacare replacement that will be, as promised, “something terrific.”

Jonathan Chait writes that “if Republicans want to actually put a new system into place, and not just turn the health care market into a smoking crater, they need at least eight Senate Democrats to join them.” Schumer’s putting them on notice that that isn’t happening. Any other kind of “repeal” that nibbles around the edges to get Democratic support would be merely symbolic. Chait continues:

That’s why repeal and delay was the best chance to destroy Obamacare. The gamble was that, by blowing up the health care system on a fuse, Republicans could pressure Senate Democrats into going along with a Republican friendly replacement. The details might be unpopular, but coerced Democratic support might give it cover. But this plan only works if 50 Senate Republicans are willing to gamble that they can hold the one-seventh of the economy consumed by health care as a hostage and force a bunch of Democrats to go along. If that gamble fails, the ruin could easily trigger a backlash against the majority party. Apparently not enough Senate Republicans are willing to roll the dice. If this holds, Obamacare, or something substantially similar, is probably going to survive.

Then again, Democrats have caved before. If you have a Democratic senator where you live, show them a little encouragement. Maybe a supportive phone call or a Scooby snack. For Republicans, ask how many sick constituents have volunteered to die in support of the senator’s repeal vote.

Keeping all the conflicts straight is job one

Published by digby on January 10, 2017

Keeping all the conflicts straight is job one

by digby

This is a useful tool put together by the Sunlight Foundation. It’s hard to wrap your arms around the massive, monumental corrupt practices of the Trump empire as he enters the White House. But it’s got to be done.

Conflict of interest red flags 

  • Businesses registered during the campaign in Saudi Arabia
  • Businessmen from India meet with President-elect TrumpForeign diplomats at Trump Hotel in DC
  • Ivanka Trump sits in on meeting with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe
  • Ivanka Trump’s company hawks a bracelet after 60 minutes interviews
  • Trump children (who will run business) on transition team. Donald Trump Jr. reportedly is involved in Secretary of Interior selection process
  • Trump currently facing investigation by Department of Labor
  • Trump hotel lease with GSA (which he could be in violation of on day 1 of his administration.)
  • Trump currently under audit by IRS
  • Russian Foreign Minister saying they were in touch with Trump campaign
  • Debt with foreign banks some now facing federal fines
  • Ivanka Trump joined President Mauricio Macri congratulatory phone call with her father
  • Trump said to have told British politician Nigel Farage to oppose wind farm near his Scottish golf course (then lobbying in a tweet for Farage to become ambassador to the U.S.)
  • Philippines appoints man building Trump Tower (licensed under the Trump name) in Manila as “special envoy.” President Duterte has said Trump expressed support for his drug war which has been criticized as an abuse of human rights.
  • Self-dealing (Using nonprofit to help self, business or family) reported in Trump Foundation 2015 Tax return posted on Guidestar.
  • Turkish newspapers reporting that Trump praised his Turkish business partner in a call with Turkish President Erdogan. Erdogan hasreportedly arrested a businessman from Dogan, the company which works with Trump to possibly have leverage for the return of Gulen to Turkey.
  • Trump Foundation received $150,000 from a Ukrainian oligarch for a video speech Trump made in September 2015
  • Trump’s stock in oil pipeline company
  • Long-stalled Trump Tower project in resort town in former Soviet republic of Georgia moves forward
  • Bahrain to hold major event at Trump’s D.C. hotel
  • Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro involved in a criminal investigation in Brazil. (The Trump Organization announced it will pull the name off the hotel and will not operate it.)
  • Trademarks registered around the world
  • His stock portfolio (which reportedly includes shares in banks, pharma, and oil). The transition has stated the portfolio (which according to a Mayfinancial disclosure also includes Boeing) was sold in June, but has not presented evidence of that move.
  • Trump named properties could present global security risk (per former White House ethics lawyer)
  • Holds United Technologies Corp bonds (parent company of Carrier).
  • Ladder Capital, which owns at least $282 million in Trump debt, may beup for sale.
  • Trump has telephone call with Taiwan president where the Trump Organization reportedly is looking at building hotels. (“Beijing… regards the island as a renegade province.”)
  • NBC reportedly has ordered episodes of “The New Apprentice.” Variety reports Trump will retain his Executive Producer title for the show.
  • National Labor Relations Board
  • Sold tickets to Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve party
  • 2 Indonesian resort projects with billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibjo as Trump’s local partner. Eric Lipton reported a potential conflict: Tanoesoedibjo “ran for vice president of Indonesia in 2014 and is organizing a political party for another possible run at national office in 2019.”
  • More than 150 financial institutions hold debts connected to the President-elect, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis

Areas of potential conflicts needing more reporting 

  • Reports from Argentina newspaper La Nacion Trump asked President Mauricio Macri about a building project there.
  • Jared Kushner rumored to join the White House
  • Trump team denies they asked for security clearance for Trump children


Settled potential conflicts 

Other swampy behavior 

  • Huge perks for inauguration donors

There is no way for a President of United States to recuse himself from making domestic or foreign policy decisions which would have an impact upon his business holdings. If the transition does not take action, the potential for the most corrupt administration in history is clear. The President of the United States is not above the law, as former White House ethics counsels Norm Eisen and Richard Painter explain the serious conflicts of interest, appearance of conflicts, and Emoluments Clause problems that exist in the video embedded below.

Watch the first 2:30 of this video to see Trump pretty much tell these ethics people to bug off. He does not care.

I don’t know what it will take to deal with this because the Republicans are fine with it too. In fact, from their actions so far, they want in on the deal.

But you never know. Something like Watergate would obviously be laughed off today. And Trump isn’t vulnerable on some obscure land deal or an affair. In fact, he isn’t even vulnerable on sexual assault. So, I don’t know what it would take to shock the country enough for him to be impeached. What I do know is that Democrats need to be prepared to move if and when one of these conflicts bursts wide open. That’s why it’s important to keep track, one by one.

.

Horrible in every way

Published by digby on January 10, 2017

Horrible in every way

by digby

Guessing enforcement of the Violence Against Women Act won’t be a priority

Since it seems to be “Sessions the Nightmare” day here, I’ll finish up with this upbeat note:

Jeff Sessions has spent his career trying to push his anti-choice, anti-woman, and anti-equality agenda on women by:

Repeatedly voting to allow convicted perpetrators of anti-abortion violence and harassment to evade financial responsibility for their illegal activities by declaring bankruptcy

Voting for the unconstitutional 20-week ban on abortion

Supporting efforts to deny millions access to vital health care by voting to defund Planned Parenthood and against protections against anti-abortion clinic violence

Repeatedly voting against a resolution in support of Roe v. Wade and a woman’s constitutional right to safe and legal abortion services

Repeatedly voting for the Federal Abortion Ban, a law that criminalizes some abortion services, with no exception to protect a woman’s health, and carries up to a two-year prison sentence for doctors

Supporting the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which has greatly improved women’s access to basic health care by ensuring coverage and affordability of maternity care, family-planning services, and other reproductive-health services

Repeatedly voting to allow a broad range of individuals and institutions—including, hospitals, hospital employees, health-care providers, employers, and/or insurers—to refuse to provide or cover medical treatment, such as contraception or abortion care

Repeatedly voting to deny women in the military – who defend our freedom overseas – the right to use their own, private funds for abortion care at military hospitals

Voting to block low-income women from getting abortion services in most cases

Voting to make anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers,” many of which mislead, misinform, harass, and intimidate women, eligible for taxpayer funding.

Voting to eliminate the Title X family-planning program, which provides millions of women with health-care services ranging from birth control to breast cancer screenings.

He’s well within the GOP mainstream but that’s not saying anything. They are all antediluvian when it comes to women’s rights. The best of them are indifferent and will go along with whatever the wingnuts want and the worst are hardcore abusers like Trump who simply see women as whores, mothers or crones. Those in the middle just think women are birthing vessels who are fine as long as they don’t interfere with a man’s right to tell them what to do if he thinks it’s best.

But don’t worry Ivanka is going to champion a tepid voluntary parental leave law so you ladies will be taken care of, don’t worry your pretty little heads about it one bit.

.

Schumer the comedian

Published by digby on January 9, 2017

Schumer the comedian

by digby

His office just sent this to Mitch McConnell in response to McConnell’s declaration that there is no reason to delay hearings on appointees just because they haven’t been fully vetted:

Of course when McConnell sent that to Harry Reid it was completely different. It was a Tuesday. 
There’s no such thing as hypocrisy.  The Republicans killed it long ago.  But this is amusing for us old timers anyway.

.

The killing will continue

Published by digby on January 9, 2017

The killing will continue

by digby

For those of you who care about gun proliferation, this will not make your day:

Unlike his predecessors, Jeff Sessions knows that law-abiding gun owners are not the problem.

For the last eight years, Americans who care about the Second Amendment and our right to self-defense have faced an administration intent on dismantling those freedoms. The gun control lobby, funded by billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, tried to turn the 2016 election into a referendum on the Second Amendment — and they lost. Now, due in no small part to the efforts of the National Rifle Association and our members, law-abiding gun owners can look forward to a president who respects our rights. In that regard, we should all be happy about President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions to be the next attorney general. Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch’s politicization of the Department of Justice over the last eight years will not be reversed overnight. But in Jeff Sessions, we can look forward to an attorney general who will focus the Department’s attention on prosecuting violent criminals and getting them off our streets. He will make our cities and communities safer.

Unlike his predecessors, Sessions knows that law-abiding gun owners are not the problem. He strongly supports our Second Amendment freedoms and will work tirelessly to protect them. This is in marked contrast to Holder and Lynch, who constantly attacked America’s gun owners. Operation Choke Point, for example, was an organized effort to suffocate legitimate firearms retailers by denying them banking services. And who can forget Operation Fast and Furious, the gunrunning probe that allowed thousands of weapons to flow across the border into Mexico and end up in the hands of drug cartels?

The office of attorney general is of the utmost importance. This position is head of both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the agencies tasked with enforcing federal gun laws. Over the last 10 years, America saw a dramatic decline in the number of federal firearms convictions – by nearly 35%. What’s more, President Obama pardoned criminals imprisoned for gun crimes.

Sessions has repeatedly called out anti-gun lawmakers for this hypocrisy. For decades, he has focused on the need to enforce existing laws, rather than pushing for new regulations that only affect the law-abiding. He is a constitutional lawyer with a deep understanding of the law, who believes in a justice system that is fair and equitable to all Americans.

Throughout his time in the U.S. Senate, Jeff Sessions has been a strong leader for our rights. In 2005, for example, Sessions argued on the Senate floor for passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce of Arms Act, to protect firearms manufacturers from predatory lawsuits. In addition, he led the charge against the U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, both of whom had anti-Second Amendment records.

Sessions has voted to prohibit firearms confiscation during a declared state of emergency, and has opposed bans on America’s most popular firearms, calling them “the essence of gun ownership today.” He has also voted in favor of a national right-to-carry amendment, which would remove the confusing patchwork of state gun laws that often ensnare law abiding gun owners when they travel from state to state.

Finally, and importantly, Sessions supports programs such as Project Exile, which ensure that violent criminals who misuse firearms are sent to federal prison. When implemented in Richmond, Virginia back in the 1990’s, Project Exile caused the crime rate in that city to fall dramatically. Sessions knows what he is talking about. As a U.S. Attorney, Sessions prosecuted criminals who used guns.

And all the toddlers and kids and parents and random bystanders who get killed every year from stray bullets and accidents are just the price we have to pay for freedom. Tough luck kids. These macho dudes and dudettes need their lethal toys.

I am keeping a sharp eye on the Democrats on this issue. If past is prologue, we won’t be hearing as much about it going forward. These Real Americans love their big, swinging guns. Makes ’em feel important. There’s a very good chance the Dems won’t get in the way of their egos again any time soon. They’re very sensitive people.

.

Grim Reaper

Published by digby on January 9, 2017

Grim Reaper

by digby

Here’s a story to send chills down your spine:

When Jeff Sessions was Alabama’s attorney general, he supported the death sentence for a Ku Klux Klan member convicted of lynching a black teenager. Mr. Sessions, whose confirmation hearings for attorney general begin on Tuesday, points to this to rebut the charges of racism that have followed him for decades.

Yet we learn more about Mr. Sessions’ legal mind-set from a look at the 40-plus death sentences he fought to uphold as Alabama’s attorney general from 1995 to 1997. He worked to execute insane, mentally ill and intellectually disabled people, among others, who were convicted in trials riddled with instances of prosecutorial misconduct, racial discrimination and grossly inadequate defense lawyering. Mr. Sessions’ eager participation in an unjust Alabama capital system makes him a frightening prospective civil rights enforcer for the nation.

Mr. Sessions secured the execution of Varnall Weeks, who believed he was God and would “reign in heaven as a tortoise” after his death. After the Supreme Court banned executions of insane people, Mr. Sessions persuaded a federal court to defer to an Alabama court’s findings that Mr. Weeks was competent enough to be killed even though he met “the dictionary generic definition of insanity.”

Mr. Sessions also pushed for the death penalty for Samuel Ivery, a black man convicted of decapitating a black woman. At his trial, Mr. Ivery claimed insanity and presented evidence that he was a paranoid schizophrenic and believed himself a “ninja of God.” The prosecutor countered during closing arguments that “this is not another case of ni**eritous,” that is, racism. Mr. Ivery later argued that the slur tainted his conviction with racial bias, but the appellate court sided with Mr. Sessions in upholding his death sentence.

By contrast, a state appellate court ruled against Mr. Sessions when it reversed the conviction and death sentence of Levi Pace, a black man. His trial was tainted with racial discrimination during the selection of the grand jury foreman, and the trial court failed to strike two prospective jurors who “felt it was their duty to recommend a sentence of death, regardless of the circumstances.”

Many of the people Mr. Sessions worked to execute had received abysmal representation at trial. Holly Wood and Eugene Clemons, two black men, were both classified as “educable mentally retarded.” Yet their lawyers failed to present any proof of their intellectual disabilities, even though mitigating evidence of this type can be crucial to avoiding death sentences. At the time of their trials, Mr. Wood’s lawyer had practiced law for less than a year and Mr. Clemons’s jury didn’t have a single black member. In 1996, Mr. Sessions rebuffed both of their initial appeals. Alabama executed Mr. Wood in 2010, even after a federal court found that his I.Q. met “the definition of mental retardation.”

This is a newspaper article from Sessions’ first hearings for the federal judgeship in the 1980s

A lot of people had parents who thought like that. They didn’t carry on the tradition.

He is also one of the primary proponents of draconian immigration laws, even proposing to close immigration altogether. He’s a white supremacist. We’re going to have a white supremacist for Attorney General of the United States. He’s not the first. But it’s a been quite a while.

Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick wrote an emotional letter in opposition to Sessions, which you can read in full at this link:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick—who in 1985 worked on the defense team that represented three black civil rights leaders targeted by Sen. Jeff Sessions in the notorious voter fraud case from Alabama’s Perry County—has penned a scathing letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders urging them to reject his appointment as attorney general.

Describing the Perry County case as a “cautionary tale” when political objectives are favored over facts, Patrick wrote: “Thirty years ago, because it was widely understood and appreciated that his appointment to the bench would raise a questions about this Committee’s commitment to a just, fair and open justice system, Mr. Sessions’ nomination was withdrawn on a bi-partisan basis. I respectfully suggest to you that this moment requires similar consideration and a similar outcome.”

Patrick was among more than 1,100 practicing attorneys and legal scholars who wrote to Congress on Tuesday voicing similar opposition to Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general. “At a time when our nation is so divided, when so many people feel so deeply that their lived experienced is unjust, Mr. Sessions is the wrong person to place in charge of our justice system,” his letter continued.

Separately, multiple NAACP leaders who were protesting Sessions’ nomination inside his Alabama office were arrested.

The powerful denunciation on Tuesday marks the third time in nearly three decades Patrick, now the managing director at Bain Capital, has formally challenged Sessions. He first argued against Sessions in the 1985 Perry County voter fraud case, in which three civil rights leaders were wrongly accused of tampering with absentee ballots. The following year Sessions was nominated to become a federal judge, and Patrick testified against the appointment. Sessions was rejected to serve on the federal branch in large part because of the Perry County ruling and charges of racism that sprung from the case.

Sessions’ nomination has caused widespread alarm among civil rights leaders, many of whom have pointed out that his work as US Attorney in Mobile and as Alabama’s senator involved efforts to dismantle voters’ rights, allegations of racism, and staunch opposition to immigration. His hearing is schedule for January 10th—the same day Trump has announced he would be holding a rare press conference for reporters.

They must be worried to use up the occasion of Trump’s first press conference since July as cover.

The press shouldn’t let them get away with it. They ought to put Sessions at the top of the cycle.

.

Optimistic to a fault

Published by digby on January 9, 2017

Optimistic to a fault

by digby

Jamelle Bouie looks back at President Obama’s famous speech on race during campaign 2008 and comes to a profound conclusion:

Now, on the eve of his farewell address, 10 days before the inauguration of Donald Trump, the most celebrated speech of Obama’s career hits the ears a little differently, as does the sermon that necessitated it. What the Jeremiah Wright of “God Damn America” lacked in admiration for the country, he made up for in clarity about its nature and its sins. He refused to look away from the dark corners of American history, or treat them as mere “zags” on the road to progress. He was clear-eyed about racism as a motive force in American life. He knew we cannot escape our history.

Had Obama absorbed those lessons, he would have been better prepared for the backlash that will be the undoing of his legacy. Had Obama not been so quick to explain away Wright’s pessimism, he would have seen the dangers that lay ahead. But then he likely wouldn’t have been Barack Obama, president of the United States. This is the great irony of the moment: The optimism that helped Obama reach this office—the same faith in our ever-perfecting union—is wholly inadequate in the face of the revanchist rage that gave us President Trump.

Most Americans are, by nature, optimists. As a nation we’ve had a charmed existence, unsullied by foreign invasion and gifted with bounteous resources. Our original sins of native genocide and slavery are our enduring shame but we continue to believe that we are making progress. And we do,slowly and in fits and starts. The Obama election was one of the high points, a moment when even the more skeptical among us thought that maybe we’d definitively crossed into new territory. It felt liberating to those of who care about that. Apparently, it outraged many of us so deeply, and created such a burning cauldron of resentment, that the backlash is going to be very harsh this time. Black people and Latinos and Muslims and Jews along with uppity women and egg-headed liberals are going to be taught a lesson we won’t soon forget. Again.

For the time being it looks as though many of the targets of this rage will be re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic but hopefully, at some point, we’ll focus on what’s happened, and figure out a way to contain the damage and fight back.

Until then, all we can do is heed Lincoln’s sage words in 1860:

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.

.