WTF Community

šŸ“ Must Read Op-Ed and Profiles

How to run a business that supports your employees:

This CEO raised the minimum salary of his employees to $70k and now heā€™s doing it again

4 Likes

:pushpin: from May. Must read, even if itā€™s just a pipe dream. Iā€™d really enjoy seeing the return of the Sargent at Arms to a more prominent public position, as intended by our constitution. :smirk:

4 Likes

___________________________________________________________________
Bloomberg

A Special Counsel Must Investigate Rudy Giuliani and Bill Barr

The whistle-blowerā€™s complaint raises serious allegations about the presidentā€™s personal lawyer and his attorney general.

By
Noah Feldman

September 27, 2019, 4:00 AM PDT
___________________________________________________________________

Believe it or not, itā€™s time for a new special counsel investigation.

Not targeting Donald Trump himself: Congress can and will investigate the president in the course of its impeachment inquiry.

But as a result of the whistle-blower complaint, a separate investigation does need to get underway immediately. The Department of Justice must investigate Rudy Giulianiā€™s potential crimes in trying to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election. It also needs to investigate whether White House officials criminally covered up evidence of Trumpā€™s call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

And because the whistleblower complaint alleges that the top law enforcement official in the federal government, Attorney General William Barr, ā€œappears to be involvedā€ in these events, a special counsel must be appointed. Barr obviously must recuse himself: He has a conflict of interest and, more to the point, he is a potential target of the criminal investigation.

To be clear, Congress should not wait on the results of this special counsel investigation to continue its own inquiries. Thatā€™s unnecessary, because Congress is appropriately focused on whether Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors, not on whether anyone else may have committed a federal crime. It would also obviously be absurd to put a hold on the congressional inquiry to wait for a Department of Justice investigation to conclude.

But a special investigation is needed because Congress does not have the expertise or the jurisdiction to go after criminal conduct by Giuliani, a private citizen. Nor could it investigate Barrā€™s conduct in any context other than the separate impeachment inquiry into Trump.

These investigations need federal prosecutors and FBI agents. And they need them right now.

Begin with Giuliani. The whistleblower complaint alleges that in January and February of 2019, Giuliani met with Yuriy Lutsenko, who was then Ukraineā€™s prosecutor general. These meetings preceded Lutsenkoā€™s initiative in March to publish articles in The Hill in which he aired the allegations that Trump eventually asked Zelensky to investigate ā€” allegations about Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as about the supposed origins of the allegation of the Trump campaignā€™s collusion with Russia in 2016.

A special counsel investigation is needed to determine first whether Giuliani suggested the topic of these articles to Lutsenko, or whether Lutsenko pitched the ideas to Giuliani. Regardless, it seems likely that Giuliani, who was already representing Trump in a personal capacity, was engaged in some form of coordination with Lutsenko. That could easily give rise to a criminal charge of conspiracy to influence the outcome of the 2020 election.

Subsequently, Giuliani had many further contacts with Lutsenko and other Ukrainian officials, according to the whistleblower complaint. All of these need to be investigated, too.
ā€¦
As for the cover-up investigation, I explained yesterday that the whistleblower complaint includes at least three separate acts taken by unnamed White House officials to suppress information about the Trump-Zelenskiy call. Those must be investigated by a special counsel to determine if they constituted criminal obstruction of justice.

Barr cannot be involved in this investigation, nor can any special counsel be answerable to him. The whistleblower complaint suggests that Barr ā€œappearsā€ to have been involved in the whole affair. On its own, that allegation would be enough to require recusal.

But thereā€™s much more to it than that. We know that Trump himself invoked Barr repeatedly in his call with Zelenskiy, linking Giulianiā€™s efforts to an investigation he claimed Barr was undertaking. When the president of the United States tells the president of a foreign government that the attorney general is involved something, in the course of a phone call in which he appears to abuse the public trust, the attorney general canā€™t be involved in the investigation.

It isnā€™t sufficient for Barr to say that he wasnā€™t engaged in any investigation on Trumpā€™s behalf. Nor would it suffice for Barr to say that he was conducting a perfectly lawful investigation into the origins of the allegation that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. A prosecutor who is implicated in a crime canā€™t refuse to recuse himself by simply asserting that heā€™s innocent. Thatā€™s not how recusal works. Even if Barr were completely innocent, he would have to recuse himself to preserve the appearance of impartiality.

Even though the target of this special investigation would not be Trump, itā€™s entirely possible that such an investigation might find evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the president. Under current Justice Department guidelines, no prosecution could take place while Trump was in office. Nevertheless, Trump will eventually no longer be president, whether by impeachment and removal, losing an election, or finishing a second term in office. Any then, any criminal findings by the special counsel with respect to Trump would be very much open for prosecution.

Barr has had plenty of time to recuse himself from this matter, but has not done so. That is shameful and, IMO, makes him look guilty of being part of an ongoing cover up. Or as Pelosi put it, ā€œA cover up of the cover up.ā€

2 Likes

Holy moly. Alabama needs to get its act together. Wow.
https://youtu.be/lzOFoNMiJY4

2 Likes

John Solomon, who started the false Biden accusations, exits The Hill - Colleagues ashamed of him

The one ā€œjournalistā€ that Trump and Giuliani keep referencing to prop up their lies about the Bidens has resigned in disgrace from his post at The Hill.

The takeaway from this article is that Solomonā€™s resignation was forced by management. In other words, he was allowed to save face by not being fired, but he had no choice except to leave. There was a virtual revolt in the newsroom ā€“ anger directed at him for his shoddy reporting combined with shame for being associated with him.

Beltway-centric newspaper The Hill employs a team of dozens of journalists from a variety of backgrounds. But only one has managed to alienate many of his colleagues, fuel the paranoia of Fox News viewers, and inadvertently play a key role in the whistleblower complaint and President Donald Trumpā€™s potential impeachment.

Over the past several years, John Solomon, a long-time journalist with bylines at the Washington Post , the Associated Press, and Newsweek/The Daily Beast, has pivoted to becoming the Trumpian rightā€™s favorite ā€œinvestigative reporter.ā€

And now, thanks to several mentions in the whistleblowerā€™s complaint, his work has come under intense scrutiny following the revelation that a series of his stories about Ukraine, along with his Fox News appearances promoting them, may have led to the president asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to team up with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate the Biden family.

Over the past several months, and with the benefit of substantial airtime from Fox News primetime host Sean Hannity, Solomon has peddled a series of Ukraine-based conspiracy theories and allegations that have primarily taken aim at two of Trumpworldā€™s biggest targets: Biden and Hillary Clinton.

In the process, his questionable reporting, which often seems specifically tailored to stoke the flames of right-wing paranoia, has enraged many of his colleagues at The Hill who have for years seen his tactics and reporting as overtly ideological, convoluted, and often lacking in crucial context.
ā€¦
The Washington Post reported that more than a dozen staffers wrote a memo specifically criticizing Solomonā€™s handling of the story about Trumpā€™s alleged harassment victims, which they said omitted the important context that seeking donor support is neither a new practice nor is it unique to one political party. The staffers also expressed dismay about other stories, including the Uranium One deal, and noted that Solomonā€™s work often negatively colored the way some important sources viewed engaging with The Hill .
ā€¦
Earlier this month, Solomon announced that he will leave The Hill to create his own start-up media firm. ā€¦

5 Likes

Americaā€™s Real Divide Isnā€™t Left vs. Right. Itā€™s Democracy vs. Oligarchy

When oligarchs fill the coffers of political candidates, they neuter democracy

3 Likes

Spot on commentary by Robert Reich, Clintonā€™s Secretary of Labor. Heā€™s one of my ā€œheroes of democracy.ā€ He always speaks sensibly, thinking through issues and using facts to back up logic. I wish in future he could reprise his role as a Cabinet member.

3 Likes

Trump canā€™t name a single corruption investigation heā€™s requested that isnā€™t about a political rival

To hear President Donald Trump tell it, his desire to get foreign governments like Ukraine and China to open investigations into the Biden family is all about principled corruption concerns, not politics.

ā€œI donā€™t care about Bidenā€™s campaign, but I do care about corruption,ā€ Trump told reporters outside the White House Friday. ā€œI believe there was tremendous corruption with Biden ā€¦ we are looking at corruption, we are not looking at politics.ā€

Trump went as far as to insist ā€œthis is about corruptionā€ or a close variant of that statement six times in less than 40 seconds.

But all it took was one question from CNBCā€™s Eamon Javers to destroy his talking point.

ā€œHave you asked foreign leaders for any corruption investigations that donā€™t involve your political opponents?ā€ Javers asked.

The answer, it quickly became apparent, was no ā€” even if Trump didnā€™t want to admit it.

ā€œYou know, we would have to look, but I tell you ā€” what I ask for, and what I always will ask for, is anything having to do with corruption with respect to our country,ā€ Trump said, dissembling. ā€œIf a foreign country can help us with respect to corruption, and corruption probes ā€” I donā€™t care if itā€™s Biden or anybody else.ā€

Bottom Line: Trump claims heā€™s pushing foreign governments to dig up corruption everywhere, not just on his political rivals. Yet he canā€™t name one case, not even one, where he is investigating corruption that does NOT involve the Bidens.

And, BTW, there is absolutely no evidence that the Bidens did anything wrong ā€“ itā€™s much more likely that Trump wants foreign governments to fabricate corruption charges against the Bidens ā€“ in exchange for favors from U.S. taxpayers.

Watch Trump reveal his ā€œIā€™m-investigating-corruption-everywhereā€ lie in the first 30 seconds of this CNN panel:

3 Likes

The title says it all. Last week, we found out Trump was assisting Putin by delaying military aid to Ukraine, a country that Russia has placed under siege. This week Trump hands Syria to Russia, while betraying the Kurds who have made untold sacrifices in the fight against ISIS.

President Trump has clearly been itching to leave Syria for months, once dubbing it nothing but ā€œsand and death.ā€ As Trump himself was at pains to point out, he was elected on a promise to get out of ā€œthese ridiculous endless wars.ā€

But the speed of his decision to withdraw US forces from northern Syria threatens to wreck almost every goal the US has in the Middle East just now.

Firstly, the sudden withdrawal of US forces ā€“ designed to leave their erstwhile allies the Syrian Kurds as exposed to a Turkish advance as possible ā€“ comes just as a regrouping by ISIS was taking shape.

ISIS was founded in a vacuum ā€“ the turmoil of Syriaā€™s civil war ā€“ and in a vacuum it will return.
ā€¦
Secondly, Trumpā€™s decision will be a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Before joining the US coalition against ISIS, the Syrian Kurds have long had an easy accommodation with Damascus. As Trump has long telegraphed his desire to leave the region, they presumably have regime officials in Damascus on speed-dial, knowing this moment would someday come.

Indeed, US officials have recently noticed Russian-backed patrols around Manbij, a city to the west, perhaps testing the waters.

The Syrian regime has long sought to recapture Deir Ezzor, a former ISIS bastion in northeast Syria held by Kurdish-led forces. The departure of US forces, and the concurrent loss of essential air cover they provided, will leave Damascus and Moscow with a gentle choice between striking a political deal with the Syrian Kurds, or just wearing them down with military pressure until they fall in the face of superior Russian firepower.

Thirdly, Iran will also benefit.

The tiny US presence in northern Syria, and the aerial surveillance that came with it, acted as a block to one of Tehranā€™s most useful acquisitions in past years ā€“ an almost clear run of friendly territory from its borders to its allies in Lebanon.

That gap will now fill with Iranian backed militia, friendly Syrian regime forces, and Russian mercenaries. This outcome may not have occurred to Trump in his late-night chat with Erdogan, but it may be the longer term consequence of his decision.

4 Likes





2 Likes

This article talks about the mental bias by which we tend to weigh things that are secret, or that weā€™re told are secret, more heavily than things that are widespread or public knowledge, and how it relates to Trumpā€™s recent public cries for China to investigate the Bidens.

The Two Psychological Tricks Trump Is Using to Get Away With Everything

His brazen attempts to redefine the norms of acceptable conduct work for a reason.

3 Likes

Study: U.S. Gun Deaths Surge, Except for Two States With Restrictive Gun Laws

A thread:






2 Likes

The NYT Editorial Board strikes again with a full condemnation of ā€œMr. Trumpā€™s administration continues to make decisions that are bad for most Americansā€
Every single Obama-ruling (with the exception of ACA-Obamacare) T has tried and in effect eliminated demonstrating again a ruthless disregard for some common welfare of this nation.

Enoughā€¦

Opinion piece in fullā€¦

Opinion

Making America Worse

As impeachment commands the spotlight, the Trump administration continues to gut the rule book to hurt millions.

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

On the campaign trail in 2015, Donald Trump said it was ā€œdisgustingā€ that a big corporation could escape taxation by using bookkeeping tricks to shift profits out of the United States.

Now the Trump administration is thinking about making it easier to play those tricks. Bloomberg reported this week that the Treasury Department, in a development sure to gladden the hearts of the corporate class, was considering a rollback of rules written by the Obama administration to prevent the very kinds of shenanigans Mr. Trump once condemned.

While Congress focuses on the question of whether to impeach Mr. Trump, the potential change in tax policy is a reminder that the wheels of the government grind on ā€” and that Mr. Trumpā€™s administration continues to make decisions that are bad for most Americans.

In recent months, the Agriculture Department has decided to reduce inspections at the slaughterhouses that process the nationā€™s pork; the Environmental Protection Agency has decided to let farmers and factories dump toxic chemicals into thousands of acres of previously protected wetlands; and the Labor Department has ruled that states can perform drug tests on applicants for unemployment benefits, allowing Texas, Mississippi and Wisconsin to begin efforts to curtail aid for people who need help.

These changes in regulatory policy are part of a clear pattern. The Trump administration has worked assiduously to reduce federal protections for consumers, workers and the environment, making the United States a dirtier and more dangerous place in which to live.

The Trump administration also continues to flout its obligation to comply with existing law.

A federal judge said this week that the Education Department, under the leadership of Betsy DeVos, had committed 16,000 violations of a court order by improperly seeking to collect student loan payments, including docking paychecks and confiscating tax refunds.

Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim of the United States District Court in San Francisco described the departmentā€™s behavior as ā€œdeeply disturbing,ā€ adding, ā€œIā€™m not sending anyone to jail yet, but itā€™s good to know I have that ability.ā€

The Obama administration erased the debts of thousands of former students of Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit company that went out of business in 2015, under a policy that forgives the loans of students who are the victims of a fraud. Under Ms. DeVos, however, the department began to grant only partial debt relief to Corinthian students, prompting a lawsuit. Judge Kim ordered the government to suspend its collection efforts while the case winds through the courts. She said she was ā€œastoundedā€ by the failure to comply.

Meanwhile, the department has finalized a new rule making it much harder for future student loan recipients to get relief from the government even if they are victims of fraud.

The Trump administrationā€™s regulatory policy can generally be summarized as marching to the orders of the businesses it regulates. Indeed, the administration has pushed so hard to reduce regulation that even companies have sometimes expressed reservations: Four major automobile manufacturers have refused to embrace Mr. Trumpā€™s campaign to prevent California from reducing air pollution, instead striking a deal with California to meet stricter emissions standards.

Mr. Trump also has an obsession with erasing rules written under President Barack Obama.

The potential rewrite of the tax rules governing corporate profits is an example of both tendencies. Corporations dislike the Obama-era rules, which cracked down on the practice of sending profits to a foreign branch, lending the money back to the home office and then writing off the interest expense. Under the rules, the government can prevent companies from treating those transfers as loans, and thus from claiming the resulting tax benefits.

Corporations argue that the current rule is broad, burdensome, and no longer necessary because the 2017 tax law limited the incentive for profit-shifting by reducing the tax rate on corporate income. But that overstates the effect of the law, which still leaves room for companies to hide profits in other jurisdictions. There is simply no good reason to weaken the Obama-era rule.

The administrationā€™s penchant for this kind of petty vandalism does not add one whit to the case for Mr. Trumpā€™s impeachment. It is instead a reminder that if Mr. Trump does stand for re-election in 2020, Americans can improve their lives by voting for someone else.

5 Likes

Another powerful NYT Opinion piece on the Environment and Climate Change.

Today, we act surprised as the climate emergency descends upon us in all its ferocity.

The scientists knew long ago, and told us, that the sea would invade the coasts. They knew a hotter atmosphere would send heavier rains to inundate our cities and farms. They knew the landscape of California, which always becomes desiccated in the late summer and early fall, would dry out more in a hotter climate.

But even the scientists did not quite foresee the way that bone-dry vegetation would turn into a firebomb waiting for a spark. California is the state that has done the most to battle the climate crisis, but that has not saved it from recent fires so ferocious they burned people alive.

3 Likes

What Happened When 2.2 Million People Were Automatically Registered To Vote

Games blamed for moral decline and addiction throughout history

1 Like

Shame. Shame. Shame on Trump and on the Republicans for bringing him to power and keeping him there. The President is sworn to protect us, but now, virtually overnight, we are in far more danger of terrorist attacks and itā€™s just going to get worse.

5 Likes

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-common-genius-of-lincoln-and-einstein?utm_source=pocket-newtab

A very solid article about how the baby boomer grip on our media has polarized us.

4 Likes

It seems the Impeachment Inquiry is at a crossroads. Itā€™s time for the Democrats to decide: will they ā€œGo Focusedā€ or ā€œGo Bigā€? Like this editorial, I say ā€œGo Bigā€!

Itā€™s almost certain that the House will impeach Trump and then send the matter to the Senate for a trial. But I feel thereā€™s no way, at this point, that the Senate Republicans will vote to remove Trump ā€“ and if theyā€™re not going to do that, then I feel itā€™s important to keep piling on charges ā€“ this op-ed is a blueprint for that.

Iā€™ll bet dollars to doughnuts that Trump leaned on China to investigate the Bidens just like he did with Ukraine (his China trade negotiator is not denying it) ā€“ and turning over other rocks is inevitably going to uncover more impeachable acts.

How does everyone else feel? Should we ā€œGo Focusedā€ or ā€œGo Bigā€?

4 Likes