Author: tristero

Orban and Anti-Semitism 

by tristero

Yes, as Digby writes, Orban traffics in anti-Semitic tropes and is doing whatever he can to re-write Hungarian history in order to: (1) minimize Hungarian actions against Jews during World War II; (2) minimize the atrocities that the right wing have perpetrated in the past; and (3) imply that the Communists were Jews. An excerpt from William Echikson’s excellent article:

In the 2017 parliamentary election, Orbán promoted anti-Semitic imagery of powerful Jewish financiers scheming to control the world. Thousands of posters of a grinning Soros with the slogan “Let’s not allow Soros to have the last laugh!” were posted around the country on billboards, on the metro, and on the floors of Budapest’s trams. Just this year, a new media campaign featured Soros and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker with the caption: “You also have the right to know what Brussels is preparing for!” 

The Hungarian government’s anti-migrant rhetoric endangers all minorities, including Jews, and its comparisons with the 1930s are unmistakable. 

Szabolcs hesitated and struggled a minute for an effective response. He ended up answering that the ads were needed to prevent Soros from flooding Europe with Muslim migrants. That does not make things better. 

The Hungarian government’s anti-migrant rhetoric endangers all minorities, including Jews, and its comparisons with the 1930s are unmistakable. Not by chance, the Hungarian leader is rewriting his country’s history of that period. In the Holocaust Remembrance Project that I recently edited, we showed how the country’s right-wing government has rehabilitated wartime figures as anti-communist icons.

It has inflated Hungary’s role in “saving” the Jews of Budapest and minimized discourse on their own complicity in deporting and killing Jews. State-appointed “historians” have relativized the horrors of the Holocaust, and often depict their own people as victims of what they say was Jewish-supported communism. 

After Orbán came to power in 2010, he appointed András Levente Gál to direct the Holocaust Memorial and Documentation Center in Budapest. According to Paul Shapiro of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Gal’s first proposal was to eliminate mention of [wartime Hungarian leader] Miklós Horthy’s alliance with Adolf Hitler and participation in the dismemberment of three neighboring states — Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia — as ‘irrelevant’ to the Holocaust.” 

Gal’s second proposal, Shapiro recounted, “was to sanitize the record of Hungarian participation in the ghettoization and deportation of the country’s Jews and place full blame for the destruction of Hungarian Jewry on Germany.” Even though the resulting international outcry led to Gál’s dismissal, Orbán’s government went ahead anyhow and built a “Memorial to the Victims of German Occupation” with the same message. 

Orbán has persisted in rewriting history. He has praised Horthy for reconquering lost territories. Several towns have erected statues or placed plaques on buildings in the wartime leader’s honor. Busts of Horthy still stand across the country, despite his record of virulent anti-Semitism. According to Shapiro, Horthy wrote “with pride to his Prime Minister in 1940, ‘I have been an anti-Semite my whole life.’”

Orban should be an international pariah. But nooooooo…

Trump To Government: Don’t Publish the Truth If It Makes Me Look Bad

by tristero

Call it the ostrich strategy:

It’s easy to reach for metaphors to describe the war in Afghanistan — quagmire, money pit, a boulder that must be rolled up the Hindu Kush for eternity. 

John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, told The Times this month that a recent decision by the Trump administration to stop releasing important metrics about the war — the size of the Taliban, for instance, or how many provinces they control — is akin to “turning off the scoreboard at a football game and saying scoring a touchdown or field goal isn’t important.” 

Put another way, the American people are being kept more in the dark about the dismal state of the United States’ longest-running war, now in its 18th year…

In the latest report, in addition to the updates not provided to the inspector general on the number of districts and people living under Taliban control, the following metrics were classified or otherwise kept from the public eye: the number of casualties suffered by Afghan security forces; performance assessments of the Afghan Army, police and other security organizations; all but general information about the operational readiness of the security forces; the number and readiness of the elite Special Mission Wing of the Afghan Air Force; and reports on the progress of anticorruption efforts by the Ministry of the Interior. 

My guess is the same stunt is being done with at least some economics statistics, too.

We Could Have All This. We Really Could.

by tristero

Josh Voorhees gives nice short summaries of the programs Elizabeth Warren is proposing. Maybe the details could change but the identification of most of the important issues this country is facing – including but hardly limited to the critical first step of removing Trump as quickly as possible from the presidency — could not be more spot on. And the thoughtfulness of the approach always puts the American people first.

We could have all this. We really could. It will take a lot of hard work and a far less gullible, distracted press. But it’s possible.

As for electability, are you kidding? Just read the proposals. Warren believes that the American people are smart and caring enough to do just that. And believing we’re that intelligent and committed, that  is genuinely appealing to the base instead of pandering or groveling.

Like Digby, I’m endorsing no one. Others also have great ideas. But damn, it’s so great to realize that one of our major politicians has really taken the time to propose something far beyond vacuous slogans. And Warren’s proposed a lot of somethings.

Again, read all about it.

Alabama Is Our New Future 

by tristero

If you know anyone who thinks elections don’t matter (and I know a few), tell ’em to read this:

The Alabama Senate on Thursday postponed debate on a proposal to outlaw most abortions in the state, delaying a measure that is intended to serve as a direct challenge to the Supreme Court’s holding that a woman has a constitutional right to end a pregnancy.

Faced with a procedural dispute and open divisions among Republicans over how far the abortion ban should go, the Senate abruptly adjourned until Tuesday. As the chaos played out on the Senate floor, where lawmakers clashed over whether the state should allow abortions in cases of rape or incest, supporters and critics alike acknowledged that the bill, the most far-reaching effort in the nation this year to curb abortion, was still likely to become law.

This law wouldn’t stand a chance if a President Clinton was filling SCOTUS vacancies. Now, it’s all but foregone.

Reading a little further, this is really, really sad:

“I know you all are for this bill, and I know this bill is going to pass,” Senator Vivian Davis Figures, a Democrat and one of the few women in the Alabama Legislature, told Republicans on the floor on Thursday. “You all are going to get your way, but at least treat us fairly and do it the right way.”

Begging Republicans to treat Democrats fairly is like begging a turtle to become a Ferrari. Highly unlikely doesn’t begin to describe it.

Please, Please Wake UP, Ye Talking Heads 

by tristero

On Rachel Maddow right now, I just heard Neal Katyal, the author of the Special Counsel regulations, claim that when the claims of executive privilege over the full Mueller report reach the Supreme Court, that they will turn Trump down just like Nixon was turned down during Watergate.

Not. Likely. To. Happen.

Katyal seems decent, he obviously knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the law and clearly believes Trump has to be removed from office. But despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he, like a lot of people, still believes the Republican-controled federal and judicial branches will continue to abide by 70 year-old plus norms.

Sad to say, those rules, always poorly observed, completely disappeared some time in the summer of ’16. This is a whole new political world we’re living in and assuming that a Supreme Court packed with the likes of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Alito and Roberts has any interest in adjudicating by any standard except rank partisanship is frankly antiquated thinking.

Once SCOTUS rules on Trump’s bogus claim of executive privilege after the horse has left the barn, I’ll reference this post. We’ll see whether my cynicism was warranted. I would so love to be proven wrong.

The Crux of the Biscuit 

by tristero

Here’s your problem, right in a nutshell:

In a 2004 law review article, “The Limits on Congress’s Authority to Investigate the President,” Professor Marshall, who served in the Clinton White House, wrote that congressional investigations “provide a president’s opponents with considerable opportunity to engage in political mischief.” 

In an interview, Professor Marshall said House Democrats should act cautiously.

“Congressional investigations obviously can be used purely as a tactic to harass or to divert a presidency from pursuing its agenda,” he said. “There has to be some sort of measured responsibility from the investigators. The Democrats have to make sure that what they’re doing really is soundly based in legitimate government reasons and not just a desire to inflict distraction on the presidency.” 

Mr. Trump’s lawyers, in seeking to block a subpoena to his accounting firm, describe House Democrats as engaged in a “political war.” 

“Instead of working with the president to pass bipartisan legislation that would actually benefit Americans,” the lawyers wrote in a lawsuit filed last month, “House Democrats are singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the president politically. They have issued more than 100 subpoenas and requests to anyone with even the most tangential connection to the president.”

You read that right. Democrats are being urged to proceed “cautiously.” But Republicans have no such compunction. They’re blunt, direct, and bullying.

Let’s be clear: acting cautiously against Trump is a strategy bound to fail. By forcefully and intelligently, Democrats might actually be able to save at least a part of our democracy.

Adam Liptak is a great, knowledgeable, and intelligent reporter, all rarities, and I mean to cast no aspersions on him. But once, just once, in one of of these judicious mainstream analyses, it would nice if a reporter would dig up a mainstream Republican strategist urging caution when dealing with Democrats.

And a mainstream Democratic strategist who’s telling Democrats to take the gloves off.

The New Consensus: It’s All Trump’s Fault 

by tristero

Maureen Dowd:

Sorry, James Comey. You’re wrong again. 

Donald Trump does not eat “your soul in small bites,” as you wrote in a Times Op-Ed. He devours the entire thing in one big gulp. 

The transformation of William Barr from respected establishment lawyer to evil genius outplaying and undermining his old friend Robert Mueller is a Grand Guignol spectacle.

Anyone remotely familiar with Barr’s history knows that Dowd is delusional. Barr has always behaved as a cynical GOP hatchet man. It’s just now he’s swinging that axe on behalf of a vulgar someone that none of Dowd’s friends want to pinky-sup with. No, Barr never bent over backwards to be equitable towards Trump and then got swallowed up. He’s one of the avid swallowers.

The rest of the column is pretty good, but really, it’s high time the chatterers recognize that so-called Establishment Republicans may make classier dinner guests than Trump, but that does not mean anything when it comes to policies or actual behavior. The GOP rotted out a long time ago.

Time for Them All to Step Up 

by tristero

I think Digby’s right. We can’t be sure that Mueller fully understands what the Trump administration is capable of doing. He should have seen Barr’s tactics coming. And apparently, he didn’t. And it’s unclear that Mueller fully understands that he must step up and sound the alarm clearly as soon as possible — no “going to paper,” but a clear direct unequivocal discourse on how much Trump and his cronies are damaging this country.

Another point: It is unlikely that Mueller —who managed an wide-ranging investigation — is fully conversant with all the nuances and complexities of every aspect of what his team found. About all the cases in which Trump obstructed justice, for example.

That is why it is critical that all investigators at the Office of the Special Counsel be called to testify to Congress. For many reasons, it is also critical that they all be called immediately. There is no reason why Mueller couldn’t testify on, say, a Monday, and that each attorney involved testify in the days after for a week or more.

Let all the Special Counsel’s attorneys speak publicly.

A Question

by tristero

The Dems — the very same Dems who are dithering over whether to impeach a president who has so clearly obstructed justice, if not far worse — are threatening “incarceration” if Trump officials don’t show up for questioning.

Here’s a question to ponder for this Saturday: Assuming Dems are not actually bluffing and did try to arrest people (say, Don McGahn or the head of the IRS and Mnuchin for not turning over Trump’s tax returns), how do you think Trump will respond?

I think I know the answer. Suffice it to say it won’t be pretty.

What If They Don’t Impeach…And He Wins? 

by tristero

Stephen Collinson of CNN summarizes Pelosi’s political dilemma:

If she chooses to avoid impeachment and Democrats put a new president in the White House, she will be vindicated. But if Trump wins reelection despite the choking cloud of scandal around his White House, Democrats may question why they didn’t try to mortally wound him politically when they had the chance. 

Again, this is the political dilemma Pelosi finds herself in. But this is a dilemma of her own making because she is placing political calculation above the facts of his obstruction of justice; his campaign of active collusion with Russia by providing, among other things, polling information to them; his manifest incompetence; and his corruption.

And that is what we already know. If the Mueller report is ever completely released — it hasn’t been and arguments that “we have seen enough to know what the rest says” are absurdly easy to refute — this list will be both deepened and added to.

And the facts lead to one conclusion. Trump must be impeached. Warren is right:

To ignore a President’s repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country, and it would suggest that both the current and future Presidents would be free to abuse their power in similar ways.

It is that simple. Congress has to do its job:

But what if he wins despite impeachment? What if he uses the fact that the Senate did not vote to impeach as an excuse to make political hay and claim he was “acquitted of all charges?”

So what? He’s already claiming that and he will do so regardless of what they say. Even if he gets impeached by both houses of Congress, he’d claim he was acquitted. That is a fact.

What is also a fact is that Trump will do literally anything — anything — to get re-elected. Cheat? Collude with Russia? Of course, and it will be terrible. That will have a far greater impact on the 2020 results than whatever the Congress does.

Politically, the Democrats have nothing to lose if they impeach and everything to gain. Impeachment will not mitigate Trump’s behavior, change the Republicans’ insane devotion to him, or substantially influence the presidential election’s outcome. Regarding individual races, each candidate can support impeachment and craft messages of support for locally important issues. “Yes, I agree, I support a quick impeachment so we can get around to the far more important issue of protecting your healthcare from the Republicans’  obsession with eliminating pre-existing conditions. “

But if they impeach, Democrats will have done what’s right, both in the eyes of the country today and in history. And it will likely lead to uncovering much worse.

PS Until fairly recently, I did not think it was a wise idea to impeach mostly because a Pence presidency was just as unthinkable as a Trump presidency. I was wrong. Congress has to do its job and we will have to take our chances.

UPDATE: Joe Lockhart makes the case that if Democrats leave Trump in office, that could wreck the modern Republican party:

Trumpism equals Republicanism as long as Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket. And a real shift to progressivism in America will be delivered by a devastating rebuke of the president and his party, a rebuke that will return control of the Senate and state houses across the nation. Politics is always a gamble — and this is the best bet we’ve had in a long time.

First, Trump (and his team) committed multiple felonies while in office and to get into office. It is both un-American and extremely dangerous to let him get away with it because he will commit more crimes – and worse.

Secondly, Lockhart assumes that the election will be reasonably fair. That is a wildly generous assumption. Letting Trump get away with this will embolden him (and give him the time) to work hard to suborn 2020.

Third, even if Trump loses but he is not impeached, this will, as Digby has pointed out, create a catastrophic precedent. It is more than likely that future (and far more competent) presidents can and will collude with foreign powers to enrich themselves and do so in a completely rigged election system. The American people will permanently lose representation.

No, Joe, we must impeach.