Month: November 2018

“Confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger,racism, mommy issues”

by digby

That’s how President Obama described our country at the moment:

Obama, speaking at the Obama Foundation Summit on Monday night, said the answers already exist to solve many of the problems facing both the U.S. and the world, but that the nation was not making progress “because we are still confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism, mommy issues.”

The crowd laughed following Obama’s remark, which came as he was explaining why he thought less was being done to combat climate change.

“We are fraught with stuff, and so if that is the case, then the single most important thing we have to invest in is … people,” Obama continued. “We have got to get people to figure out how they work together in a cooperative, thoughtful, constructive way.”

I think he’s right, don’t you? I have no ideas about how to fix this, however. Racism and misogyny are pretty primal and clearly difficult to change. I think we assumed we were a lot further along on those things than it turns out we are. And it’s not just us. This is a global problem. But his diagnosis is clearly correct.

And can I just say how much I appreciate his noting the “mommy issues” part of it? I don’t hear too many people willing to point out just how much hostility toward older women there is in this society. I always understood the issues surrounding younger women and sexual harassment and discrimination. I lived it. But the mommy issues thing is new to me and not just because I’m older. It’s because it took women like Pelosi and Clinton until they were later in life to achieve power that it’s become obvious. There’s something visceral and primitive about the burning anger some people feel toward older powerful women and Obama’s description of it is as good as any.

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Ivanka couldn’t have known

by digby

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Democracy: for better and for worse
by Tom Sullivan

Rick Hasen had a particularly blue Monday: “I believe I’ve never been called a Nazi before today.” Twitter users piled on over a Slate headline Hasen did not write atop an article many did not read. So it goes with social media.

Hasen argues against Democrats calling the Georgia governor’s race “stolen” (Sen. Sherrod Brown) or “illegitimate” (Stacey Abrams) for three reasons. One, “rhetoric about stolen elections feeds a growing cycle of mistrust and delegitimization of the election process.” Two, former Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s blatant efforts to suppress the vote in Georgia, while odious, have not been proven illegal. Hasen believes, “making charges of a stolen election when it cannot be proved undermines Democrats’ complaints about suppressive tactics.” And three, “stolen election” rhetoric diverts attention from how erecting bogus obstacles to voting violates the “dignity and respect” due each voter and onto election outcomes instead.

One reader counters that a fine distinction between voter suppression and stolen elections does not exist for the disenfranchised. Fair point, Hasen replied, “I guess that I’m desperately worried about both voter suppression and about delegitimization of our electoral system and democratic processes.”

On points one and two, calling the election stolen is inflammatory in the same way for Democrats as it is for GOP voters. But concern for their credibility has never stopped GOP operatives from making unproven allegations of widespread voter fraud that led us to this point.*

An argument Hasen doesn’t quite make is that after so many months of inflammatory and baldfaced Trumpish lies, Democrats trading in similar talk, even if justified, reduces the argument over voting rights to he-said/she-said. So it will be portrayed in the press: overheated rhetoric.

Concern about delegitimization of the election process is valid, of course. But that horse has left the barn. The GOP spent decades purposefully undermining the public’s confidence in elections. Kris Kobach, Hans von Spakovsky, Brian Kemp and other GOP hucksters spun the legend of voter fraud to create public demand for voter ID and other vote-suppressing regulations that would tilt game the system in their favor. They personalized their pitch, arguing that a single illegitimate ballot “steals your vote.” Promoting “election integrity,” they mug, is oh, so vital for rebuilding public trust they themselves worked so assiduously to undermine to their benefit.

That they have done so through “bureaucratic legerdemain and malfeasance in office” is beside the point, argues Charlie Pierce: “Is there an exemption by which theft is not theft if it is done under the color of law?”

In similar fashion, red-leaning states starve efforts to replace aging and vulnerable voting equipment as well as improvements to the process Hasen wants to see. When machines break down, when clerks turn away purged voters, when standing in line to vote takes hours, those too undermine voter confidence in democratic government. Just as planned. Hasen’s point about calling it theft is well-taken, but the experience of having your voice stolen by a sabotaged process is far more potent than the rhetoric.

Rachel Maddow last night provided graphics to illustrate how rigged the system is, albeit legally.

In state after state, Republicans have tilted the playing field, perverting democracy to their advantage. pic.twitter.com/xmF6vFfhrn— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) November 20, 2018

On Hasen’s third point, attention does indeed need to remain fixed on how rigging the election process degrades the dignity and respect of voters who out of respect for and in service to our hard-fought democracy stand for hours to have their voices heard, only to have doors slammed in their faces by patriotic poseurs.

But nobody is fooled by flag-hugging that what is left of the Republican Party has any scruples left to shed. Nor has the party faith in any form of democracy that does not guarantee its rule. The sitting president is not the source of that royalist sentiment, but a product of it. The GOP has spent decades and innumerable dollars undermining the public’s confidence in elections to lock in its power. In the process of repairing what is broken, will bluntly pointing that out make it worse?

* I just re-reviewed the Heritage Foundation’s updated bundle of 1,088 “voter fraud” cases used to bolster the case for voting restrictions. To pad out their count, the archive includes cases going back to 1948. Any and all varieties of election rigging, registration fraud, vote-buying, even ballot petition fraud are lumped together under the rubric of voter fraud (which they use interchangeably with election fraud). Counts are approximate because some crimes overlap. A sampling:

Impersonation Fraud at the Polls: 13. A couple of those involve election judges and one by a man wanting to demonstrate how easy it is to impersonate someone at the polls.

Duplicate voting: 54. Many of the duplicate voting cases involve 2-state voting; 7 cases were attempted & thwarted by election judges.

Ineligible Voting: 201. Most of the ineligible voting cases involve felons and non-citizens improperly registered, many already possessing IDs.

Altering the Vote Count: 5. One dates from 1948.

Ballot Petition Fraud: 72

Charlie Pierce FTW

Chuck Todd was appropriately dismayed. But Senator Brown wasn’t playing that, either.

TODD: I guess I would ask this. Couldn’t you bring up all of those, all of those issues, lay all of that out, without using the word, stolen? And I throw that out there, because we have enough distrust in our institutions as it is…Does that add to it?

BROWN: Okay, Chuck. Don’t do the false equivalency of, of, of, the, you know, the lack of respect in institutions. I mean, we have a president that attacks your profession day after day after day. You, if you saw the earlier part of my election-night speech, you would’ve heard me thank the media. And you would’ve seen hundreds of people in Ohio, on the Democratic — at this election-night gathering, turn around and clap for the media. We see a president that goes after the courts, that goes after the judicial system, a president that says, as the votes were counted, that something’s been wrong with the elections. He criticizes the elections that way. So don’t play this false equivalency. Because a former secretary of state, like me, said that about this election, which clearly is an effort to suppress the vote, not of people that look like you and me, Chuck–

CHUCK TODD: Right.

BROWN: –but people of color especially. And it’s happened. Now spend your air time– I don’t mean to lecture–

TODD: No, no, no, I, look —

BROWN: — but spend your airtime critical of those people who are trying to suppress the vote.

This is not to single out Chuck Todd. His interplay with Brown was merely the most obvious public manifestation of dismay over the senator’s quite accurate assessment of what happened in Georgia. More than a few pearls were clutched over Brown’s choice of language.

Rick Hasen, the election-law guru, writing in Slate, made the same argument at greater length. I confess I don’t follow Hasen’s line of thought at all. He seems to be arguing that calling the election in Georgia “stolen,” as Brown clearly did, undermines the fight against suppressing the vote, as Kemp clearly did.

I’m unclear how this is the case.

First, rhetoric about stolen elections feeds a growing cycle of mistrust and delegitimization of the election process, an attack pushed by President Donald Trump and other Republicans who have been yelling “voter fraud” every time they are behind in the count. I’ve already set out my fear that Trump could refuse to concede the 2020 presidential election if he is ahead in the count on election night and then ballot counts inevitably shift toward Democrats as the counting continues. A democratic polity depends on losers accepting election results, even if the election was not conducted perfectly. I would hold “stolen” election rhetoric for conduct even more outrageous than Kemp’s decisions, which, while odious, either have not been found to be illegal or that courts allowed to remain in place for this election.

I mean, holy hell. Because Kemp used the power of the office he held to help himself gain the office to which he was aspiring, this means that he could not be said to have “stolen” the election, even as a shorthand designation for his clearly corrupt conduct? If a state legislature in, say, Nebraska, were to use its eminent domain power to appropriate a farmer’s land in order to help a foreign corporation build, say, an oil-sands pipeline, is it really not permissible for people to say that the legislature “stole” the farmer’s land, even though it used its power corruptly to benefit a private interest? Is there an exemption by which theft is not theft if it is done under the color of law? A lot of local sheriffs who got rich behind civil forfeiture laws are going to be happy to hear that.

And as for the growing cycle of distrust and delegitimization, that’s already been underway for some time, as Rick Hasen’s previous work has demonstrated. In our current historical moment, it began with the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore. Do the people making the tone-police argument on this issue really believe that the Georgia voters who showed up at their polling place only to find that it had been closed, and who then went out of their way to the nearest one only to find that they couldn’t vote because the hyphen in their last name really was a dash, wouldn’t say their votes were “stolen,” and that, therefore, the election was, too? They don’t need Sherrod Brown to believe that, I assure you.

Hasen also seems to misunderstand the nature of El Caudillo Del Mar-A-Lago, too. If the Democratic Party tries to temper its rhetoric based on whatever the most recent egregious lie has emerged from the presidential* gob, the Democratic Party is going to have a nervous breakdown. The president, because he is both corrupt and something of a dunce, will say what he’s going to say regardless of how temperate the Democratic response is. Sometimes, blunt instruments have to be met with blunt instruments.

Much of the most loyal portions of the Democratic Party’s political base already believe from their own experience, and not because of anything Sherrod Brown and Stacey Abrams have said, that their elections are being stolen out from under them. It’s up to the opposition to speak for those whose right to choose their own leaders was, yes, stolen from them through bureaucratic legerdemain and malfeasance in office. Which is a long way around to point out that the run-off election for Secretary of State in Georgia is the most important election of many lifetimes.

Furthermore, we are in a time in which the very concept of the truth is at issue. It’s vitally important that everyone who cares about that just keep it simple and stick with the facts and the truth. If they steal an election, use the clear words to describe it, don’t hedge, don’t be “nuanced.” At this moment we need all the clarity we can get.

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Russia, if you’re listening and you have Ivanka’s emails…

by digby

Oh, Trey Gowdy? This is your jurisdiction. Surely you must be extremely concerned. This is actually current:

Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails last year to White House aides, Cabinet officials and her assistants using a personal account, many of them in violation of federal records rules, according to people familiar with a White House examination of her correspondence.

White House ethics officials learned of Trump’s repeated use of personal email when reviewing emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit. That review revealed that throughout much of 2017, she often discussed or relayed official White House business using a private email account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner.

The discovery alarmed some advisers to President Trump, who feared that his daughter’s practices bore similarities to the personal email use of Hillary Clinton, an issue he made a focus of his 2016 campaign. Trump attacked his Democratic challenger as untrustworthy and dubbed her “Crooked Hillary” for using a personal email account as secretary of state.

Some aides were startled by the volume of Ivanka Trump’s personal emails — and taken aback by her response when questioned about the practice. Trump said she was not familiar with some details of the rules, according to people with knowledge of her reaction.

She’s playing dumb, of course. But the fact is that when she was alerted to this she had her lawyers forward only what the determined were government emails to the White House server for record retention. Just like Clinton. With her, however, there is every reason to wonder if she did that to hide the fact that she was doing Trump organization business while in the White House. After all, she didn’t resign from the company right away.

She’s cute so it probably won’t matter. Still, you couldn’t make this up. After all that bullshit in the campaign she didn’t know that she shouldn’t use her personal email? Please.

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More trouble in wingnut paradise?

by digby

George Conway isn’t just going up against his wife KellyAnn over Trump, he’s also making moves against the Grand Duke of the rightwing legal community:

Via Axios:

Leonard Leo attacks George Conway’s “Checks and Balances” group

In a rare public rebuke of an old friend, Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo is sharply criticizing a group of conservative lawyers called “Checks and Balances,” helmed by George Conway, who argue President Trump is breaking legal norms.

“I find the underlying premise of the group rather offensive,” Leo told me. “The idea that somehow they need to have this voice because conservatives are somehow afraid to talk about the rule of law during the Trump administration.” 

“And my response to that is, no, people aren’t afraid, many people just don’t agree that there’s a constitutional crisis and don’t agree with the people who have signed up with this group.” 

Leo spoke in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the Federalist Society.

Why it matters: Leo, who has known Conway for more than two decades, is one of the most influential figures in the conservative legal world. He is a key outside adviser to Trump on judicial nominations.

Behind the scenes: Conway’s actions have irritated Trump, according to two sources with direct knowledge. Conway’s wife, Kellyanne Conway, is a top White House adviser.
I asked Leo if he saw any merit in Conway’s criticism. For example, Conway told Yahoo News he was “appalled” that Trump attacked Jeff Sessions because the Justice Department indicted two Republican congressmen ahead of the midterms.

Leo’s response:

“I measure a president’s sensitivity to the rule of law by his actions, not his off-the-cuff comments, tweets or statements. And the president has obviously had lots of criticisms about former Attorney General Sessions and about the department, but at the end of the day, he hasn’t acted upon those criticisms. 

“He’s allowed the department to have an awful lot of freedom and independence. … He can say what he wants to say, but at the end of the day, words don’t threaten the rule of law, actions do. I’ve been to 48 countries around the world. I know a constitutional crisis, and I know what a rule of law crisis is. Lots of countries have them. This country doesn’t right now.” 

This is nonsense. The President of the United States’ words are important in themselves. It matters what he says. People listen and they take signals from it.

And let’s be serious here. Long before he installed his stooge Whittaker he’s tried to impede the Mueller investigation. If the likes of Rosenstein and Mueller were people with less integrity he would have gotten the job done just with his tweets. For all we know they have had some effect.  To the extent he hasn’t been successful, it’s simply a matter of incompetence and cowardice not intentions.

And in any case, he does use his twitter feed to fire people and announce directives that nobody has vetted and the White House staff has to scramble to make them happen. And his henchmen in Congress certainly hear what he’s saying and have commonly taken action. Devin Nunes and the boys have done their jobs admirably. I don’t think I have to mention that he fired the FBI director and his own Attorney General because they didn’t adequately protect him from a counter-intelligence investigation based on evidence that he may have conspired with a foreign government and then covered it up.

This is happening. It’s not just about Trump acting stupid on twitter.

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Will Trump protect those he loves?

by digby

I’m not talking about his family or even Kim Jon Un and Vladimir Putin. I’m talking about Wikileaks, which Trump said many, many times that he “loved.”

I am reserving judgment over this Wikileaks sealed charges stuff. I no longer have respect for the organization or Assange because of his biased meddling in the election, which I think destroyed his credibility as an honest broker. And anyone who consciously worked to help Donald Trump become president, as Assange’s correspondence proved he did, is not someone for whom I can offer a blanket defense anymore.

Having said that, if the government is planning to indict him simply on the basis of publishing information that was given to him, even by the Russians, I will do it, as unpleasant as that may be. There are some other reasons to justify prosecution, as Marcy Wheeler points out, that may make more sense. But as much as I loathe him, I hope they only go after him if they have some incontrovertible proof that he committed a real crime. You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, especially with this anti-press, First Amendment degrading president.

Trump may end up protecting Assange because he “loves Wikileaks” as he said literally hundreds of time during the campaign. And I would imagine he’ll do it by making a thoroughly insincere defense of the “free press” even as he degrades that freedom in every other way. It’s a truly unpleasant thought but it could happen.

Marcy has a new post up today about the difference between the Wikileaks of 2011, for which I had admiration, and the Wikileaks of 2018. It’s not the same organization:

Since DOJ confirmed last week that it does have at least one sealed criminal complaint against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks has adopted a notable defense strategy. In most of their responses, WikiLeaks has claimed a continuity between what it has done in the last two years and what it was doing in 2010, when the US government first took aggressive action against WikiLeaks. For example, this timeline claims vindication of persistent claims among WikiLeaks supporters that Assange had already been indicted, even while linking to reports that make it clear DOJ has changed its approach recently (and ignoring, entirely, the NYT report that says the charge dates to this summer and which WikiLeaks’ Twitter feed attacks elsewhere).

November: US prosecutors inadvertently reveal that Julian has been charged under seal (i.e., confidentially) in the US – something which WikiLeaks and others have long said but which has been denied by some US officials. The document making the admission was written by Assistant US Attorney Kellen S Dwyer. The Wall Street Journal reports that “over the past year, US prosecutors have discussed several types of charges they could potentially bring against Mr. Assange”. It notes that charges against Julian could include violating the US Espionage Act, which criminalizes releasing information regarding US national defence.

Assange’s UK lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, did the same in an appearance with MSNBC. She claimed that the charge came out of the investigation started in 2010 in response to WikiLeaks’ publication of US Diplomatic cables, the Iraq war logs, the Afghan war logs, which she argues (correctly, I’d agree) was demonstrated to be in the public interest and had been published by other media outlets, including the NYT. She says this criminal charge proves it was correct for Assange to have sought asylum from Ecuador. And she emphasized that Assange would be extradited “for publishing truthful information.” She repeated “public interest” over and over.
[…]
In other words, WikiLeaks is working public opinion by pretending it is being prosecuted for the stuff it did in 2011, even to the point of claiming that news of a recent complaint proves that Assange has been indicted all this time. It is true that the prosecutor who made the cut-and-paste error that revealed the existence of a complaint, Kellen Dwyer, has reportedly been on the WikiLeaks investigative team for years. But that doesn’t mean, at all, that the US prosecution is in any way related to those earlier actions.

The reports of both the WSJ and NYT seem to prove the opposite. Whether because the Trump Administration that WikiLeaks worked so hard to elect turned out to be far less respectful of freedom of the press than the Obama Administration, or because the US started collecting more aggressively on WikiLeaks and therefore learned more about its operations, or because the nature of Assange’s more recent actions are fundamentally different from what he did in 2011, DOJ came to charging Assange this summer when Eric Holder refused to do so. Indeed, while no one has confirmed this one way or another, the assumption has been that Assange’s charges relate either to his involvement in the 2016 Russian hack-and-leak (though that would presumably be charged in DC) or his involvement in the 2017 Vault 7 and Vault 8 files as well as his exploitation of them.

The possible crimes may have expanded, too. Espionage is definitely still a possibility, particularly given how DOJ charged accused Vault 7 leaker Joshua Schulte, including possibly suggesting his leaks were designed to help another nation (presumably Russia). If Assange had advance knowledge of any of the Russian hacks (or the Peter Smith negotiated efforts to obtain Hillary’s server emails), he might be exposed to CFAA as well. And if he is charged by Mueller, he will surely be charged with at least one conspiracy charge as well; WikiLeaks was already described as an unindicted co-conspirator in the GRU indictment.

But there may well be other charges, starting with extortion or something akin to it for the way Assange tried to use the threat of the release of the Vault 7 documents to obtain a pardon. Some of his actions might also amount to obstruction. Yochai Benkler’s latest post also imagines Assange may have coordinated more closely with Russian intelligence, which might lead to different charges.

WikiLeaks’ attempts to rest on its earlier laurels is telling, for several reasons. It suggests they and their supporters don’t seem to want to defend Assange’s more recent actions. I find it remarkable, for example, that Robinson didn’t mention how many stories the NYT and WaPo wrote based on the 2016 files, which would support her argument that the files were newsworthy.

The attempt to pretend Assange is being prosecuted for his earlier actions seems to serve another purpose — to defend his years of asylum claims, which are also the basis for his claims to be a victim of US political targeting (and the premise for his demands for immunity on threat of releasing the Vault 7 files). Don’t get me wrong. I think some of the things DOJ is known or suspected to have done in 2010 and 2011 are problematic. But those did not directly merit an asylum claim (and in fact they preceded Assange’s asylum claim by over a year).

That may, in turn, serve to obscure what Assange wanted immunity for in coercive negotiations that started in 2017: Was it 2011, his role in publishing the State cables? Or was it 2016, as his offers to explain what (he claims) really happened in 2016 would suggest?

Whichever it is, WikiLeaks seems to have a lot staked on making a defense of Assange’s 2011 activities. Which suggests they’re a lot less confident they can defend his 2016 and 2017 activities.

The fact that this famous radical transparency activist supports the authoritarian, anti-press zealot Donald Trump is all you really need to know about where Assange is today. He is siding with the autocrats. It makes no sense but that’s the reality of it.

However, once again it’s important that the principles be maintained. If they go after Assange for his earlier releases it will set a very bad precedent. His recent activities may add up to something more. We’ll have to see.

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A young fascist declares, “to be quite honest? I like to be offensive. It’s fun.”

by digby

This article about “California Conservatives” or rather, the “intellectual” basis for Trumpism that’s being fleshed out by certain academics and media stars centered in California, is very interesting. It boils down to the fact that the conservative movement no longer has any interest in ideas or ideology and basically is just about racism and owning the libs. And they are vastly enjoying the freedom of just being themselves.

I’m not sure how groundbreaking it really is, however. This is just the right being boiled down to its essence, a project that started a long time ago and which was evident in California when the OG Trumpist, the obnoxious Andrew Breitbart from LA, became their biggest star well over a decade ago.

They are simply right wing assholes and are well-represented by people like this young fascist who demonstrated in Charlottesville:

“To be quite honest? I like to be offensive. It’s fun.”

These California Conservatives are exactly like him. No difference at all. Its what the Republican Party has become all over the country.

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“Afghanistan takes from the US and gives nothing in return”

by digby

If you want to see someone with zero understanding of how the world works look no further than the leader of the free world:

Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2018

….We no longer pay Pakistan the $Billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ENDING!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2018

The simpleton can only see the world in one way: Other countries aren’t paying enough protection money to the US coffers and their trade policies are all unfair, no matter what they are.

That’s all he knows. He even admits he’s believed those things for decades.

It’s fine with me if the US military leaves Afghanistan and re-thinks its relationship with Pakistan (for entirely different reasons.) But there will be consequences, none of which Trump is capable of dealing with because of his simplistic view of the world and his top adviser, John Bolton, will use as an excuse to start another war.

Trump’s desperately clinging to the high wire but he thinks he’s flying

by digby

My Salon column today:

We knew politics was going to be tumultuous in the post-election period, and that’s certainly been true. The days of dealing with some boring last-minute business in the lame-duck Congress, followed by a long holiday break after midterm elections are long over. With Donald Trump in the White House, it’s obviously crazier than ever.

The president visited California on Saturday and mercifully didn’t throw any paper towels at the victims of the horrific wildfires that have left more than 70 people confirmed dead, with more than 1,000 still missing. He screwed it up anyway, of course:

Trump either doesn’t prepare, isn’t up to the task, or a combination thereof. This is a bad mistake. https://t.co/bbyiwdYxsh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 19, 2018

TRUMP on lessons from the California wildfires: “A lot of things have been learned, and we’ll be working very hard. And I think you’re going to see something spectacular over the next number of years.” https://t.co/9WbIjzIklE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 17, 2018

This assurance that forest fires will soon be fixed “spectacularly” is reminiscent of his other recent assurance that the nuclear threat had been eliminated because of his love affair with Kim Jong-un. It was reported last week that the U.S. intelligence community has determined that Kim is actually building 16 new missile facilities. In an interview with Chris Wallace which aired on Sunday, Trump dismissed that finding, saying that he simply doesn’t believe it’s true.

Trump also told Wallace that despite the CIA’s “high confidence” that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last month, the prince told him he didn’t do it, so what can you do? You’ll recall that he used the same excuse for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s apparent interference in the 2016 election. If an authoritarian lies to him he just shrugs his shoulders and says, well, that’s it then. If the prime minister of Canada or a European ally even whispers a complaint he immediately starts threatening them. This pattern is now firmly established and can no longer be ignored. His most valued allies are what we used to think of as adversaries, and vice versa.

The Wallace interview featured a number of interesting exchanges, including one shocking response to a long line of questions by Wallace about Trump and the media. Responding to some comments that the president’s attacks on the press are the greatest threat to our democracy, Trump insulted retired Adm. Bill McRaven, a Navy SEAL and former head of special operations, by suggesting that he dropped the ball by not getting Osama bin Laden sooner. Then he went on a weird rant about how he’d seen better compounds than the one in Pakistan where bin Laden had been living.

Trump just can’t seem to stop showing his contempt for the military and its leaders lately. Indeed, one of the more important bits of news in the interview was his tepid show of support for White House chief of staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly. Wallace asked Trump if he planned to keep Kelly on.

Trump: We — I wouldn’t — look, we get along well. There are certain things I love what he does. And there are certain things that I don’t like that he does — that aren’t his strength. It’s not that he doesn’t do — you know, he works so hard. He’s doing an excellent job in many ways. There are a couple of things where it’s just not his strength. It’s not his fault, it’s not his strength …

Wallace: So 2020 is no longer written in stone?

Trump: It could happen. Yeah, it could — I mean, it could be. But let’s see what happens. I have not — look, I have three or four or five positions that I’m thinking about. Of that, maybe it’s going to end up being two. Maybe, but I want to — I need flexibility.

It’s also pretty clear that the rumors about Homeland Security director Kirstjen Nielsen being on the chopping block are true. Trump told Wallace that she just isn’t “tough” enough on the border. It’s hard to imagine what being tougher than putting babies is cages will look like, but it appears we’re going to find out. As for the other three cabinet members likely to get the ax, the ones most often discussed are yet another military man, Defense Secretary James Mattis, along with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose corruption charges are starting to pile up to a level that can’t be ignored. But who knows? With the exception of the family, it could be anybody.

One person who is actually solidifying his relationship with the president (and who may be the ultimate catalyst for Kelly being fired) is National Security Adviser John Bolton. Despite recently having his second-in-command exiled to a different department by the first lady, according to the Wall Street Journal, Bolton is consolidating his power and consolidating his authority in the White House. Eschewing the adviser’s traditional role as an honest, impartial broker for the various departments, he is imposing his worldview. This isn’t really too difficult as long as he pays lip service to Trump’s policy of ranting incoherently about trade, whining childishly about “fairness” and making foreign countries stop “laughing at us.” He seems to have figured out how to flatter the boss while still advancing his own agenda, which is best described as good old-fashioned right-wing hawkishness.

The Wall Street Journal article points out one possible pitfall, however:

Mr. Bolton’s ability to shape Mr. Trump’s priorities and pursue his own causes have given rise to a new nickname among some critics: President Bolton. His allies know the term could earn him the ire of Mr. Trump, who has been known to turn on others seen as stealing his spotlight.

“If John ever behaved in a way that led people in the administration to refer to him as ‘President Bolton,’ his effectiveness would be destroyed,” said Elliott Abrams, a longtime Bolton friend and one-time member of President George W. Bush’s National Security Council. “It’s critical that the president never think that, and no one understands that better than John.”

That’s something he really can’t control. Trump will hear about it eventually. He’s got a lot of “executive time” to fill.

Toward the end of their interview, Wallace asked Trump where he ranked himself in the pantheon of great presidents. He said, “There’s Lincoln and Washington, there’s FDR and Reagan, do you make the top 10?” Trump doesn’t have the capacity to do such an analysis so he just said he’s doing a great job and that we’d be at war with North Korea if Obama were still president. And then he added:

I would give myself, I would – look, I hate to do it, but I will do it, I would give myself an A+, is that enough? Can I go higher than that?

I think he actually believes that, which may be the most alarming thing about him. It’s one thing to survive each day, barely balancing on the high-wire act of this crazy presidency. It’s quite another to imagine you’re actually flying.

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