Month: May 2018

Gates on Trump

by digby

This footage Chris Hayes dug up is something else:

President Donald Trump made “scary” observations about the appearance of Bill Gates’ daughter and asked if HPV and HIV were the same thing, the billionaire philanthropist said in video footage obtained by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

The Microsoft founder was recorded addressing staff at a recent meeting of his charitable Gates Foundation where he talked about meeting Trump.

In the video, which aired Thursday night on “All In With Chris Hayes,” Gates explained that he had never met the president before the election but that his 22-year-old daughter had previously encountered him at an event in Florida.

“There was a thing where he and I were at the same place before the election and I avoided him,” Gates told his co-workers. “Then he got elected. So then I went to see him in December.

“He knew my daughter, Jennifer, because Trump has this horse show thing down in Florida. He went up and talked to Jen and was being super nice. And then around 20 minutes later he flew in on a helicopter to the same place. So clearly he had been driven away and he wanted to make a grand entrance on a helicopter.

“Anyway, so when I first talked to him it was actually kind of scary how much he knew about my daughter’s appearance. [Gates’ wife] Melinda did not like that too well.”

Gates then described two meetings in Trump Tower in which he urged the president to become a leader in science and innovation, perhaps by accelerating progress toward an HIV vaccine.

“In both of those two meetings he asked me if vaccines weren’t a bad thing because he was considering a commission to look into ill-effects of vaccines,” Gates said. “And somebody, Robert Kennedy Jr., was advising him that vaccines were causing bad things and I said, ‘No, that is a dead end, that would be a bad thing, do not do that.’”

There were laughs and groans from the audience after Gates added: “Both times he wanted to know the difference between HIV and HPV and so I was able to explain that those are things that are rarely confused with each other.”

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection — affecting 79 million Americans, most in their late teens and early 20s —and can cause health problems including cancers. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) weakens the immune system destroying important cells that fight disease and infection and can lead to AIDS. There are vaccines for HPV but no known cure for HIV.

Gates also revealed that Trump spoke about himself in the third person.

He’s an f-ing moron. But you knew that.

I’m sure this will be seen as more elite snobbery. But Trump is an elite himself, born into money, educated at elite schools, lived in a golden tower all of which he bragged about incessantly. He is fair game for someone like Gates, who actually did make his own fortune.

At least Gates was able to talk him out of anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories.

Here’s Colbert’s take:

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Junior really got around

by digby

Boy, this Deep State conspiracy to make Trump look bad in case he won the election was really elaborate:

Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor.

The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.

Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the crown princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president. The social media specialist, Joel Zamel, extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump.

The company, which employed several Israeli former intelligence officers, specialized in collecting information and shaping opinion through social media.

It is unclear whether such a proposal was executed, and the details of who commissioned it remain in dispute. But Donald Trump Jr. responded approvingly, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting, and after those initial offers of help, Mr. Nader was quickly embraced as a close ally by Trump campaign advisers — meeting frequently with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and Michael T. Flynn, who became the president’s first national security adviser. At the time, Mr. Nader was also promoting a secret plan to use private contractors to destabilize Iran, the regional nemesis of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.

Donald Trump Jr. was said to respond approvingly to a proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect his father as president.CreditDamon Winter/The New York Times
After Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Nader paid Mr. Zamel a large sum of money, described by one associate as up to $2 million. There are conflicting accounts of the reason for the payment, but among other things, a company linked to Mr. Zamel provided Mr. Nader with an elaborate presentation about the significance of social media campaigning to Mr. Trump’s victory.

The meetings, which have not been reported previously, are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election. The interactions are a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, who was originally tasked with examining possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia in the election.

Mr. Nader is cooperating with the inquiry, and investigators have questioned numerous witnesses in Washington, New York, Atlanta, Tel Aviv and elsewhere about what foreign help may have been pledged or accepted, and about whether any such assistance was coordinated with Russia, according to witnesses and others with knowledge of the interviews.

The interviews, some in recent weeks, are further evidence that special counsel’s investigation remains in an intense phase even as Mr. Trump’s lawyers are publicly calling for Mr. Mueller to bring it to a close.

It is illegal for foreign governments or individuals to be involved in American elections, and it is unclear what — if any — direct assistance Saudi Arabia and the Emirates may have provided. But two people familiar with the meetings said that Trump campaign officials did not appear bothered by the idea of cooperation with foreigners.

But this is all fine. Nothing to see here except it’s clear that the United States government and the media have gone to incredible lengths to set up that poor patriot Donald Trump who is just trying to make America great again. What a plot.

Trump’s buddies blow it all up

by digby

This is the Freedom Caucus making it clear that they will get their way or they’ll blow the place up. Again:

“Republicans claw at each other over farm bill implosion”: “House Republicans are at each other’s throats after the Freedom Caucus delivered a shock to party leaders on Friday by killing a key GOP bill over an unrelated simmering feud over immigration. Speaker Paul Ryan and his leadership team were sure the group of three dozen rabble-rousers would cave. The partisan farm bill, after all, includes historic new work requirements for food stamp beneficiaries that conservatives have demanded for years. Plus, President Donald Trump leaned in, tweeting his support for the bill Thursday night to up the pressure on the far right.

“But Ryan’s team sorely miscalculated. In an embarrassing show of weakness, the bill went down on the floor after a last-minute leadership scramble to flip votes.

“Almost immediately, Republicans pointed fingers at each other. Freedom Caucus members said GOP leaders brought the matter on themselves by failing to pass a conservative immigration solution for Dreamers sooner. GOP leaders blamed the conservatives for upending a core Trump priority. And some Republicans even blamed Ryan, arguing they’re stuck with an outgoing speaker who couldn’t get the job done.”

— QUICK TAKE … It’s easy to blame the lame-duck Ryan here — and there might be some truth to the fact that Republicans are willing to screw him because he’s on his way out the door. That said, there is ample evidence that the Freedom Caucus would’ve done the same thing had he not been on his way out. Blame who you’d like. This is a House Republican Conference that is limping toward Election Day, unable to do something as simple as pass an all-Republican farm bill.

These are the same people who are acting as Donald Trump’s henchmen on the hill covering up all his crimes. They aren’t “principled.” They’re something else.

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Laying on the “deep state” thick
by Tom Sullivan

Champagne at 7 a.m. EDT (2018 Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida Conference)

Sean Hannity’s show popped up on the car radio in the red counties along the Flordia/Georgia border. They are still trying to make something of the “spy” story circulating in the fever swamps, evidence the “deep state” is conspiring against Donald Trump.

In August 2017, Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson told the Senate Intelligence Committee something he had heard from the “dossier” author Christopher Steele:

Essentially what [Steele] told me was [the FBI] had other intelligence about this matter from an internal Trump campaign source and that — that they — my understanding was that they believed Chris at this point — that they believed Chris’ information might be credible because they had other intelligence that indicated the same thing and one of those pieces of intelligence was a human source from inside the Trump organization. [Glenn Simpson, page 175]

Revealed when the testimony transcript became public back in January, that “source” this week morphed into an “FBI spy” at the hands of National Review‘s Andrew McCarthy. In the fever swamps, outrage ensued. Fainting couches filled. Pearls are in full clutch. Rudy Giuliani is in full Rudy.

CNN political analyst John Avalon told Chris Cuomo yesterday:

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It’s the attempt to create an “aha, truth” moment for people who are already part of the pro-Trump choir, looking for something to hang their hat on. The classic move for this crew is deflect and distract.

Andrew McCarthy is a former prosecutor, worked for Giuliani in the U.S. attorney’s office, been a writer for “National Review” for a while, conservative but often credible. That said, you’ve got to parse language carefully. Something tells me that’s not a case you make in a court of law. Now, if someone, and he’s got a source and he’s covering it up, that may be a different story. But this is based on testimony that Glenn Simpson gave that was released earlier, based on what he says Chris Steele told him. And as you know, as Mr. Zeldin just pointed out, there is a fundamental difference between an informant and a spy.

[06:10:03] CUOMO: That’s not a semantic difference?

AVLON: It is a semantic difference but an important one. It’s trying to cast an investigation as a conspiracy.

CUOMO: OK. So now we have another layer on this for you, Michael Zeldin. CNN had some reporting on this, which said that, OK, what Simpson is talking seems to be referring, according to CNN reporting and sources, to the ambassador from Australia who came forward about what he had heard from George Papadopoulos, who was on the satellite level of the Trump universe. And he had concerns. He went to the FBI.

What is your reckoning? Is this that Simpson revealed early on that there was a spy in the house, or that it is more akin to what CNN’s reporting was?

ZELDIN: Well, the “New York Times” reporting on this is that the informant is a U.S. citizen. So I don’t know if that can be the ambassador from Australia.

I expect that what we have here is a live counterintelligence investigation where the FBI and the intelligence agencies are receiving information from sources that they credit. Maybe the ambassador from Australia is one. This live informant seems to be another. The dossier from Steele is the third.

And so they are gathering information, as they are wont to do in these investigations, collating it and trying to form a, you know, response to it. All of this is normal.

What is abnormal is for the likes of Rudy Julie — Ruly — Rudy Giuliani — he’s confusing me. Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes to somehow make this into something that it is not, which is a spy in the Trump Organization, a deep-state effort to undermine the Trump campaign, all political fodder but not related in any way, shape or form to the way law enforcement and the intelligence agencies work in matters of counterintelligence.

That hasn’t stopped Trump and Hannity from insisting it is the FBI that’s doing something nefarious.

The New York Times reported last night:

In fact, F.B.I. agents sent an informant to talk to two campaign advisers only after they received evidence that the pair had suspicious contacts linked to Russia during the campaign. The informant, an American academic who teaches in Britain, made contact late that summer with one campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, according to people familiar with the matter. He also met repeatedly in the ensuing months with the other aide, Carter Page, who was also under F.B.I. scrutiny for his ties to Russia.

The informant is “well known in Washington circles, having served in previous Republican administrations and as a source of information for the C.I.A.” in the past, the Times added, noting it knows the source’s identity but does not name sources for their safety.

Not that the Trump team won’t if it will give them cover for removing special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.

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For The Win 2018 is ready for download. Request a copy of my county-level election mechanics primer at tom.bluecentury at gmail.

Friday Night Soother: Great Apes edition

by digby

Denver Zoo’s six-week-old Sumatran Orangutan has been enjoying the warmer spring weather. Keepers have seen the little female several times in the outdoor exhibit, clinging tightly to mom.

The new baby was born March 25 to mom, Nias, and dad, Berani. The infant’s unique name, Cerah, means “bright” in Indonesian and is often used to refer to sunshine.

(ZooBorns shared news and pics of Cerah’s arrival in an article from April: “Denver Zoo Celebrates the ‘Sunshine’ of Spring”)

Mom, Nias, is 29-years-old and arrived at Denver Zoo in 2005. Berani is 25-years-old and arrived in 2017. The two were paired together under recommendation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) Species Survival Plan® Program, which oversees the population management of select species within AZA member institutions and enhances conservation of those species in the wild. The coupling proved to be a fast success, as Nias and Berani met in July of 2017 and conceived Cerah less than a month later.

The Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii) is one of the world’s most endangered great apes. It is among the many species being pushed to the brink of extinction in South East Asia by hunting, forest clearance and the planting of palm oil plantations, which are destroying vast areas of rainforest. There is intense demand for the oil, which features in all sorts of every day products, throughout the world, from food to cleaning materials and cosmetics.

The species currently has an official classification of “Critically Endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

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Behemoth companies are bad. This is worse.

by digby

I realize that Amazon is a hated behemoth that is distorting the market and disadvantaging companies in a dozen different ways. There should be an effort to address this problem.

Nonetheless, the president trying to use his power to destroy it because he doesn’t like what the owner’s newspaper writes about him is a threat to everything we care about including the very businesses we hope to protect from Amazon.

This is some real kleptocrat, oligarch shit. Nobody should cheer him on for this:

President Trump has personally pushed U.S. Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the Postal Service charges Amazon.com and other firms to ship packages, according to three people familiar with their conversations, a dramatic move that probably would cost these companies billions of dollars.

Brennan has so far resisted Trump’s demand, explaining in multiple conversations occurring this year and last that these arrangements are bound by contracts and must be reviewed by a regulatory commission, the three people said. She has told the president that the Amazon relationship is beneficial for the Postal Service and gave him a set of slides that showed the variety of companies, in addition to Amazon, that also partner for deliveries.

Despite these presentations, Trump has continued to level criticism at Amazon. And last month, his critiques culminated in the signing of an executive order mandating a government review of the financially strapped Postal Service that could lead to major changes in the way it charges Amazon and others for package delivery.

Few U.S. companies have drawn Trump’s ire as much as Amazon, which has rapidly grown to be the second-largest U.S. company in terms of market capitalization. For more than three years, Trump has fumed publicly and privately about the giant commerce and services company and its founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, who is also the owner of The Washington Post.

Trump alleges that Amazon is being subsidized by the Postal Service. He has also accused The Post as being Amazon’s “chief lobbyist” as well as a tax shelter — false charges. He says Amazon uses these advantages to push bricks-and-mortar companies out of business. Some administration officials say several of Trump’s attacks aimed at Amazon have come in response to articles in The Post that he didn’t like.

The three people familiar with these exchanges spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the White House’s internal deliberations.

You know very well that he’s trying to intimidate Bezos into muzzling the Post. That is his one and only motivation. If Bezos would agree to kiss his ass and tell his newspaper to go easy, Trump would be Amazon’s biggest fan.

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It’s totally unfair to show Giuliani’s own words

by digby

…. because of Michael Avenatti, or something:

[D]uring a live interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo Friday, Giuliani was forced to confront remarks he made in 1998 that appear to undercut that very assertion. “You’ve got to do it,” Giuliani told Charlie Rose when asked about a presidential subpoena in 1998. “I mean, you don’t have a choice. There is a procedure for handling that.”

“That’s extremely unfair what you’re doing right now,” Giuliani complained as the clip played on a split screen. “This is the reason people don’t come on this show.” He later called the network “disgusting.”

The tense moment came during a nearly 45-minute segment that included multiple attacks against the Russia investigation and the FBI. Giuliani told Cuomo that Robert Mueller has agreed to limit the scope of potential questions for Trump down to two to five subjects. (He claimed that Trump would agree to an interview “tomorrow” if he believed Mueller’s investigation was dealing with the truth and not a potential perjury trap. He used Martha Stewart as an example, suggesting that she “never would have gone to jail if she hadn’t gone and testified.”)

He was always an asshole but he’s become a real whiny little twit in his dotage. Here’s the clip of him in 98:

If the President is subpoenaed to testify, “he’s gotta do it. He has no choice.”
– Rudy Guiliani, 1998 pic.twitter.com/vpCzKYFvgJ— Rogue Melania🍸 (@RogueFirstLady) May 9, 2018

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Nothing more to say, completely out of words

by digby

Another horrific gun massacre by a fucked up kid who appears to have been interested in fascist iconography and twisted gun culture.

I can’t write another one of those posts that I’ve written a thousand times so Tom Tomorrow speaks for me:

The kids are talking now and I hope they don’t get cynical and tired before their time. I’m not hopeful:

Get ready for two weeks of media coverage of politicians acting like they give a shit when in reality they just want to boost their approval ratings before midterms.— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) May 18, 2018

Some politicians do give a shit. But they are outnumbered by those who don’t and a president who is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NRA. Change that and we can change the laws.

But the big challenge is changing the culture and that will take their lifetime and beyond.

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Trump will go with his gut on North Korea

by digby

What could go wrong?

With just one month until a scheduled sit-down with North Korea’s leader, President Donald Trump hasn’t set aside much time to prepare for meeting with Kim Jong Un, a stark contrast to the approach of past presidents.

“He doesn’t think he needs to,” said a senior administration official familiar with the President’s preparation. Aides plan to squeeze in time for Trump to learn more about Kim’s psychology and strategize on ways to respond to offers Kim may make in person, but so far a detailed plan hasn’t been laid out for getting Trump ready for the summit

Well at least John Bolton’s there … oh wait.

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It must be very strange to be a very stable genius…

by digby

Does everyone remember this bit of fatuous nonsense from the right wing Powerline blog back in 2005?

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

That notoriously idiotic post made the rounds in the blogosphere for many years as an example of the Bush worship that characterized the era.

Now we have a president who declares himself a genius and his supporters are naturally following his lead:

Brett Baier, who has carved out a profitable sideline moonlighting as a Presidential historian, reeled off what he sees as striking parallels between Trump and Reagan, and his book makes much of everything from their “similar rhetoric in big speeches” to tough media coverage and a shared penchant for being “underestimated.” Decades after many of the details about precisely what happened in Reagan’s eight-year Presidency, in the twilight of the Cold War, have faded from public memory, he remains an exalted figure in the Republican pantheon. Most significantly, Baier argues, Reagan met with the Soviets, but only after years of talking tough about the “evil empire.” A generation later, Trump may be poised for his own expectation-scrambling summitry with the North Korean leader, an example Baier and some Trump partisans portray as a modern-day equivalent of Reagan’s policy of “peace through strength.” “Heads were exploding back when Reagan was elected, and heads are exploding now,” Baier said, as we talked about the twin challenges of covering Trump, a President “unlike any we’ve ever seen…”

Yeah, Reagan and Bush weren’t geniuses and neither is Trump. But Trump isn’t just similarly simple minded, he’s also got serious personality problems, is corrupt to his core and completely unprepared for political leadership.

But that won’t stop them from creating a completely unbelievable hagiorgraphy. It’s already started. Oh god.

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