I took a look at the entire Russia portion of Jake Tapper’s interview with Scaramucci today, and it’s even more alarming than the excepts I’d seen earlier. To his credit, Tapper gets to the heart of the matter. He notes that Trump is virtually the only U.S. government official who refuses to acknowledge that the Russians interfered in the U.S. election. He points out that congressional Republicans and loyalists appointed by Trump to lead the intelligence agencies all agree with the consensus view that Russia meddled in the election.
Tapper made it clear that Trump’s refusal to acknowledge this and take action poses a huge, ongoing danger since Russia will continue to interfere in our elections. Scaramucci’s response was somehow both lame and enraging. Check it out — the relevant portion starts around the five minute mark:
To summarize, Scaramucci says Trump views the focus on Russian interference as an attempt to delegitimize his glorious victory. He basically acknowledges that this is why Trump refuses to take Russian meddling seriously. That’s a pretty stunning admission.
Scaramucci assured Tapper that once he, Scaramucci, obtains security clearance, he’ll review the intelligence himself, and if it convinces him that Russia interfered, he’ll say so to Trump. Uh, okay. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to make a difference when Trump’s own IC appointees haven’t been able to convince Trump to get off his ass and do something to address this urgent issue.
But in the meantime, Scaramucci claims “there’s no harm in letting him [Trump] do it [his fucking job, which is to protect and defend the United States against a foreign foe] at his own time and pace,” and that “he’s not hurting anybody” by pouting and refusing to take action six months and counting into his presidency.
It’s just fucking surreal that this is the argument. Even if you buy the theory that Trump was the unwitting beneficiary of Russian interference (and I don’t, not for a fucking second), it’s amazing that his new spokes-rat would go on TV and so blithely downplay an unprecedented assault on our national sovereignty.
Last thought: It’s easy to see from that clip why Trump pulled Scaramucci into the White House. He (Scaramucci) turns virtually any remark into an opportunity to kiss Trump’s ass. If there were an Obsequious Olympics, he’d have more gold medals than Michael Phelps.
Baud
Pasted from prior thread.
Via Vox. He doesn’t want his veto to be overridden because that would make him a loser.
Adam L Silverman
Highly unlikely. This is need to know, compartmented special access information. While the President himself could authorize Scaramucci’s access, in the normal course of things the White House Communication Director does not have a need to know that would allow him access to this information.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh, you….
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: It is also, given his financial connections – he just sold his hedge fund to a PRC run company that is financed through Deutsche Bank, not clear as to whether he’ll be eligible for a clearance. Secret yes. Top Secret maybe. Sensitive Compartmented Information? Probably not. Moreover, it is unclear if the White House Comms Director position requires that level of clearance.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: He’s boxed in but good. If he signs it (and the rationale you cite is 100% in character), won’t the Russian ambassador make a big stink about the fact that Trump himself said repeatedly there’s no evidence it was Russia that interfered? And what if they decide to dump a bucket of shit (or PEE!) on Trump’s head? Are we sure that bill won’t get hung up on a technicality again?
Frank Wilhoit
@Baud: Well, yes, but still less so in this particular abnormal course of things. Now, what is the over/under on the number of times Scaramouche will have to “revise” his application for clearance? I’ll say…oh…five.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Nothing’s done until it’s done. But if it goes through, it’s a big victory for Schumer and Pelosi.
Frank Wilhoit
@Betty Cracker: The sanctions bill that resulted from the hondel in the House is not about Russia; it is about Iran. (Remember, nothing is ever about what it says it is about.)
Jean
But Kushner has clearance and he’s probably leaking, and probably others, so they can just, you know, pass it on to Scarface.
Frank Wilhoit
@Baud: False; see my reply to Betty @ #8 . The revised bill is about setting up a pretext for war against Iran.
Gemina13
I’ve never seen such a shameless tongue-bath delivery. This guy makes Newt Gingrich look bull-headed and blunt.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Hi, Adam. What do you think about this?
Baud
@Frank Wilhoit: It’s not. It’s a good bill. I’m grateful for Dems pushing it.
Jeffro
It’s enraging because it’s so lame. “We’re going to change the nonsensical(?!?) narrative for him” – WTF?
“Let him pursue the Russia thing at his own pace” – WTF??
Not even going to waste energy on this, and media figures ought to just pass on trying to get through to this guy. He’s there to completely and utterly bullshit America about everything Trumpov does (and is refusing to do, like keep our country safe from Russian hacking)
You know, someone ought to put up two countdowns (count-ups?): one marking the days since Don Jr. met with the Russians – that would note the number of days we’ve been at war with Russia. The other counter would note the number of days since Trumpov took the oath of office – that’s how long our constitutional crisis has been going on. Helluva a thing to be going through both with an addled, ‘narcissistic maniac’ (h/t Ralph Northam) at the wheel.
MazeDancer
Scaramucci has plenty money – a Billion after the sale of his company, plus the tax breaks of divesting to take a Fed job.
He wants power. His only audience today was Donald Trump. Who had to love the performance. Scaramucci can “I love Donald Trump” his way to Chief of Staff. And either find a way to get rid of Jared or collude with him against Bannon.
The scariest theme Scaramucci kept pushing was The President is King. Everything was: the President gets to decide. Trump gets to do whatever he wants, the way he wants. That is Donald’s dream. Implanting that notion as actual “I got an A- in Con Law from Tribe” US law is now, clearly, an admin goal.
Anthony was at Harvard Law while Mr. Obama was there, too. Bet Scaramucci has told some whoppers about that time and Mr. Obama to Trump already.
Adam L Silverman
@Jean: Kushner has an interim Top Secret (TS) clearance. There are no interim Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearances. He can’t get the SCI until the TS is finalized. Every time he amends his forms the whole process starts over. Moreover, once the TS is complete a review is conducted to award the SCI. They are not automatically linked. And once the SCI is awarded then the Special Security Officer will review everything to determine just what information, regardless of the clearance, he can be read on to.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
huh, I did not know about those
the same Deutsche Bank that Robert Meuller is in all likelihood going to be looking at very closely? Interesting…
sdhays
@Betty Cracker: That was my thought too. If Trump can’t block sanctions and remove existing ones, I think Putin will feel it’s necessary to put the puppet “in the box”, and what better way to punish and humiliate Trump than to release the “pee pee tape”?
Baud
@sdhays: Putin strikes me as someone who only does things if they serve a purpose. I’m not sure what advantage he gains by releasing the tape if this legislation passes.
Betty Cracker
Whoa looks like Sanders contradicted Scaramucci on the bill, and Scaramucci contradicted Sekulow on the pardon question — all this morning! Well. Oiled. Machine.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: I think that:
1) He has no idea that those norms exist or that he just gave an order to every officer that was in attendance and/or listening to his remarks. As in no one probably has ever explained them to him because no one in his inner circle has any experience with this stuff either. And those just outside that inner circle, like LTG McMaster or Secretary Mattis, have probably never in their combined 60 plus years of service to the US ever considered that we might have elected a President that didn’t know these things or who couldn’t stay on script and on message.
2) That said this is not good. Hopefully someone will tactfully, but forcefully, explain to the President what he did, why it is unacceptable, and why it cannot be repeated. I have only limited hope. And hope is not a strategy.
3) The good news is we do a very good job of teaching civ-mil relations and acculturating service members to it during Professional Military Education (PME). I fully expect that as soon as the President left the Ford’s skipper, via his senior enlisted officer and his XO, had the word put out that the President’s remarks were not a formal order and that the crew should just forget they heard them.
sdhays
@Baud: All this talk of “Russian adoption” demonstrates just how much Putin hates these sanctions. He’s got a puppet installed as President of the US, but that puppet is an incompetent moron. I think he’ll want to yank Trump’s strings to remind him who’s boss, but the tape may be too nuclear for this stage.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The PR adds write themselves.
BMW commercial narrator’s voice:
Adam L Silverman
Holy crap! Dreher actually wrote something that makes sense, is internally logically coherent, and is also factually based. I’m pretty sure this is the 6th seal of the apocalypse!
Bruuuuce
@Gemina13: We already knew what he was, given his prior employment. Now we know that El Jefe has met (or, more likely given his typical MO, promised to meet) his price. $5, same as in town?
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: No, that’s just a slight crack in the seal. It won’t truly break until Dreher comes out as gay.
Hoodie
@Adam L Silverman: mooch clearly doesn’t understand that he’s just a pr flack, or else he thinks he’s going to take priebus’ job. The way he’s talking, mooch has already created multiple enemies within the admin. If he sticks around and Gingrich is added, the mix will be even more toxic.
debbie
@Baud:
Trump won’t sign without making a big stink about it for the next 3.5 years.
pamelabrown53
@Betty Cracker: @5.
Betty, your comment sounds particularly astute. trump’s box is getting tighter and smaller. Regardless of which tact he takes; he’s screwed. I wonder if he’d come out swinging for the American people by promising he would get to the bottom of Russian interference (damn the torpedoes) to prevent it from happening again, he’d be in a less precarious position.
The fact that he didn’t: does it point to his narcissism or is he really a puppet, a la Manchurian Candidate?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
From everything I’ve read about Mattis and his scholarly ways, I would hope he was very disturbed by this.
debbie
@Gemina13:
Remember his first remarks about how he was going to work to see that the media loved Trump just as much as he did? Eeew.
MazeDancer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Divesting to avoid conflict of interest gets a tax break. According to this WaPo explainer Hank Paulson saved $200 million.
Baud
@debbie: He makes a big stink about everything. If this passes, it’ll be the first tangible thing we’ve done to stand up to Russiagate.
GregB
Of course poor Donald feelings are hurt that so many people think he’s illigitmate because he needed help from the Russians.
Soneone should point out he continuosly questions Clinton’s legitimacy by declaring with no evidence that three million voters were fraudulent.
Adam L Silverman
@Hoodie: I’m pretty sure he’s angling for Chief of Staff.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
can you imagine the jobs that man could create if he weren’t suffering these ancien regime levels of unfair taxation…
that said, makes sense and is probably a good government policy in a non-trump world
ETA @GregB: to say nothing of bringing birtherism from the fringes to the Today Show et al, and keeping it there for years
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
As ex-Navy, wouldn’t Spicer have known?
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks for your insights. The third point is a good one. I hate that we have to count on so many other people and institutions to hold our norms because the president is so outside all our norms.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Adam L Silverman:
I have a feeling that this kind of attitude is why the military won’t be much help in really fighting back against a genuine authoritarian government being established in this country. Its just too far outside the realm of experience. Officers will still be agonizing what to do and contacting their lawyer and academic friends when the boxcars will be sending people to concentration camps.
Betty Cracker
@dmsilev: I read an article on Dreher fairly recently, maybe in the New Yorker? Anyway, I felt profound pity for the man, and I can’t stand him and loathe all he stands for — it’s just so obvious he craves his family’s approval and will never have it, and that just blights his life.
Amanda in the South Bay
@debbie: Mr Navy Reserve POG? Isn’t he still in?
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m sure he was. He is also a huge proponent of Civ-Mil relations and of civilian control of the military. The (unintentional) order was clearly unlawful and can be disregarded without fear.
Redshift
@sdhays:
I don’t think it would have that effect at all. Trump’s supporters would cheer it as a show of dominance, and would love Putin even more for arranging it. Republican “leadership” would tsk tsk about how it’s just a distraction, and they’re not going to dignify it with a response.
The real way he has to punish and humiliate Trump is to release documents showing he’s not remotely a billionaire, and in fact is so deeply in hock to the Russians that he has negative net worth.
Amanda in the South Bay
@dmsilev: My money is that he comes out as trans. I don’t normally do the whole “this person must really be a closeted LGBT person because they are super obsessed with queer bashing” thing, but Dreher is really an exception.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It is a good government policy. It is intended to serve as an incentive to ethical behavior by elected and appointed officials who divest upon entering government service.
debbie
@Baud:
I don’t watch the Sunday shows, but last night I read that the bill was expected to pass in the House, but not the Senate. I hope that changes.
Baud
@debbie: That’s strange. The bill originally passed the Senate by a 98-2 vote.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t disagree with your reservations about whether Smooch can get the proper clearances, but even if this happened,
there is no reason to believe that he is qualified in any way to understand the intelligence or the issues. Plus his incessant protestations of love for the Great Leader.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Spicer is still serving in the US Navy Reserve (USNR). I doubt Spicer ever contemplated that a President of the United States, including this one, would need to be told not to do this. Should he have anticipated it given who this President is? Yes. But it is something so far outside of what anyone with experience in these things would ordinarily contemplate. Moreover, given this President’s penchant for going off script, ad libbing, and speaking off the cuff he is always all over the map when he speaks.
Eric U.
I don’t think Trump has ever listened to Spicer, so that’s no good. Spicer is a loser.
OT: I found my shot record, MMR was the last shot I got in the military. Wife is off to work to look for her shot record. I don’t know how serious the health department is about controlling the measles outbreak, but you’d think that anyone in the household of an exposed person that can’t produce proof of immunization should be subject to quarantine. Thanks anti-vaxxers.
amygdala
@pamelabrown53:
Not mutually exclusive, unfortunately.
Adam L Silverman
@Amanda in the South Bay: I think you’ll be surprised. The problem, if there is one, is going to be whether their are breaks between the officer and enlisted/non-commissioned officer cohorts and, potentially, within the officer cohorts.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: The bill has to be reconciled. They’ve added material dealing with the DPRK and Iran to the House version.
Redshift
@GregB:
Yes, but that’s not him, so how is it relevant? It’s not that he thinks questioning legitimacy is inappropriate, it’s that hurting his fee-fees is inappropriate.
TriassicSands
Based on the video, one would have to conclude that Scaramucci has never met Trump or even seen him in action.
What an embarrassing performance by the latest groveling Trump appointee. Ewww. Creepy.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: I figured those go without saying! Moreover, they’re not going to give him the raw intel. He’s going to get the TS/SCI version of the Unclassified report that ODNI released in January.
Adam L Silverman
@Eric U.: What did you do?
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: And that makes a Senate vote harder?
debbie
@Baud:
Yes, what Adam said. I’d post a link, but I know you’d bitch about the source. ?
I first heard this during an interview with Cardin on NPR.
debbie
@Baud:
The House bill is more direct than the Senate’s mealy mouthed version.
Baud
@debbie:
The latest from AP.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Yeah, it’s not like there’s a complete dearth of military folk with access to Trump. Not that he’d pay any attention to them if it suited him not to.
El Caganer
I don’t get the reason for sanctions on Iran. I thought that they were complying with the agreement. Is Congress just trying to goad them into breaking it? What purpose would that serve? Or is this just another way to piss on one of Obama’s major achievements?
El Caganer
I don’t get the reason for sanctions on Iran. I thought that they were complying with the agreement. Is Congress just trying to goad them into breaking it? What purpose would that serve? Or is this just another way to piss on one of Obama’s major achievements?
Baud
@El Caganer:
There are sanctions on Iran for a variety of reasons even after the nuclear deal. I don’t know what these are for.
Betty Cracker
@Cheryl Rofer: It was such a weird thing to say! As if Trump doesn’t have the resources of thousands of trained professionals, among the very best in the world, at his disposal for that purpose. I got the feeling Smooch was just BSing to get Tapper to move on from a damaging point.
debbie
@Baud:
Hold your nose and read this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/us/politics/congress-sanctions-russia.html
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh, yeah, him too. I guess I’ve pied Bannon from my brain.
Baud
@debbie:
Good, no?
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh, good, someone here has been keeping track of it. What happened to the provision Democrats were blocking that would have let Trump keep the authority to unilaterally drop sanctions?
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck: According to the news reports, it’s now difficult but not impossible for him to act unilaterally. I don’t know what that means.
Major Major Major Major
Morning. I’m sleepy, but I slept so much, too! No conference for me today! Or ever, until… when’s the next one, February? Blech.
I think instead of “A Better Deal”, Dems should be calling their new policy package “The Real Deal”.
Major Major Major Major
@El Caganer: Republicans hate the Iran deal, and Iran, and apparently the Iranian people, and since they can’t dismantle the Iran deal and still get Dem help on the bill, it’s my understanding that they’re using the leverage of the Russia sanctions to get some Dem concessions on some Iranian sanctions, just because it gives them a boner. But I’d hardly call it a ‘pretext for war’ as one did upthread.
Gelfling 545
@Hoodie: Actually, I’m getting a horrible premonition that Scaramucci sees himself running for president in future.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gelfling 545:
This. The identical thought has been nagging at me since Friday.
NickM
I’ve been terribly wrong before, but I think The Mooch will wear out his welcome in the public eye quickly. Whether he sticks around long after that is another question.
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Where do you think Deutsche Bank got the money
to payto buy off numb nuts? Haven’t they been in trouble and not exactly flush recently? And why would they buy him off?Jay Noble
A slightly OT question – If Trump pardons everyone, do they all go back to work the next day like nothing happened? Or are they considered to be felons and are out the door because felons are barred from those jobs?
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: Yes. For two reasons. The first is substance. The Senate was pretty adamant about making this about Russia and pushing back. Not that adding equally valid stuff on the DPRK or Iran would change the substance, but it changes the messaging. For the Senate this was about sending Putin a message.
The second is process/procedure. If the bill the House passes is substantively different from that in the Senate, then three things can happen:
1) The Senate takes up the House version and passes it without change.
2) The Senate takes up the House version, amends it to their linking.
3) The Senate refuses to take up the House version.
If 2 or 3 happen then an attempt can be made to send the two bills to a interchamber committee for reconciliation. If the reconciliation committee process is effective then a compromise bill will emerge. This then requires a majority vote in each chamber for it to pass.
The other possibility with 2 is that what the Senate sends back to the House the House then amends to its liking and sends it back to the Senate.
The other possibility with 3 is that the Senate tries to jam the House, which, in this case, is likely to effectively kill the bill.
Finally, all of this is subject to the tyranny of the calendar. Specifically the Senate calendar. And more specifically because of the various rules that the Senate is supposed to follow once a bill is calendared for debate and/or a vote. As we’ve seen over the past month, even when the Senate majority wants to move quickly, and has procedure on its side to do so, it still can’t. The Senate is running out of time to accomplish anything before the end of the fiscal year. And it has to do two things regardless of anything else. 1) Pass a bill to fund the government. This could be a proper set of appropriations bills, but I doubt this will happen. Most likely it will be another omnibus, year on year continuing resolution. And given that they’re heading into the 2018 election season as soon as the Fall rolls around, I’d estimate that a full fiscal year omnibus CR is done rather than a two to four month job that kicks the can down the road. They want their plates cleared to campaign, not to be haggling about funding the government during the midterm election cycle. 2) Raise the debt limit. Here too I expect an attempt to do this for all of FY 18 to get out from under having to deal without during the midterm election cycle.
Given the politics within the GOP caucuses in each chamber, even doing a clean, omnibus CR and debt ceiling that are good for all of FY 18 is going to take a lot of time and be ugly.
ArchTeryx
And of course the guy who wrote Hillbilly Elegy is out shilling the idea that government giving people access to lifesaving care is worse then dying because of lack of access to care – the same basic morally monstrous argument that Holocaust deniers routinely use. What a piece of work this guy is.
Yeah, I still consider all the Russian stuff to be more or less chaff compared with the healthcare issue, but then, I’ve got the grandaddy of all silos when it comes to health insurance. I do hope that it eventually gets Trump and Pence deposed, but that leaves us with Paul Ryan running the country. The rot runs deep.
BBA
@Jay Noble: A pardon erases the felony from your record.
stibbert
@Adam L Silverman: Interesting to read that Scaramucci assumes he’s cleared for intel, just b/c he’s been appointed as WH Comm Dir.
Given recent reports of substantial lacunae in other appointees’ financials/SF86s, is it reasonable to assume that any new appointee will receive Very Careful Scrutiny?
I could easily see Mr. S having to wait 4-6 months before receiving only basic-level security clearance.
TriassicSands
@Adam L Silverman:
Trump ordering service personnel to vote for him (or support him politically) would surely constitute an illegal order, no?
Adam L Silverman
@El Caganer: There’s a subset of GOP members of Congress, in both chambers, that want the US to abrogate the JCPOA. They are being led by Senator Cotton. The President himself wants to abrogate the JCPOA and has tasked the Iran hawks on the NSC to work with Bannon and Gorka to give him options/reasons/justification to do so.
From a technical standpoint my understanding is that Iran is in compliance. The other parties to the JCPOA are not going to abrogate the agreement. So if the US does so, as opposed to sanctioning Iran for other reasons, then it is going to go it alone.
Finally, and ironically, for all his criticism of how bad the decision to invade Iraq was and how all the people that supported it, planned it, cheered it on were wrong, part of the decision to do so was as a prelude to invading Iran and changing the regime there. The plan was one war per term (the folks behind this didn’t really view Afghanistan as a war and 16 years later it shows): Iraq during GW Bush term 1, Iran during GW Bush term 2. This was part of the plan to establish a permanent GOP majority running the Federal government. So a combination of Rove’s terrible at strategy strategic genius and that of Feith, Wermser, Addington, etc. Fomenting a war with Iran in pursuit of regime change is about the most neo-Conservative thing that the Iran Hawks around the President could actually do. It would also be a strategically bad idea and galactically disastrous from a tactical and operational standpoint.
Amanda in the South Bay
@TriassicSands: IOKIYAR
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: I think you’re underestimating the willingness of the freedumb caucus to preen over ongoing fundraising battles, but if the CR’s and debt ceiling are clean then they won’t matter since Dems will vote for it…
ArchTeryx
@TriassicSands: Technically, no, AFAIK. Their officers doing it is another thing altogether. The ultimate protection is the secret ballot – maintain that and they can order all they like, but they can’t enforce them. And violating the secret ballot to enforce such orders is flatly illegal.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
Also, nothing like having an open political battle among 5000 people living in relatively closed quarters, who depend upon each other, in a lot of jobs, for their lives, let alone the operational success of the ship. Any navy ship has to work as one crew to make the thing work. A minor hiccup here or there can be smoothed out, a major one is a huge issue. It’s bad enough when, say the XO countermands the Captain (I was standing there when it happened, this is first person. It was a small thing. It had some pretty big repercussions) but if you have a lot of people openly arguing about presidential politics………..
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: The Iran hawks in Congress and at the White House believe Iran is in violation of the JCPOA. There is no evidence of this. But they disbelieve the reports from the international monitors and assert, with a lot of vehemence, that Iran is in violation and it is being covered up.
Adam L Silverman
@Frankensteinbeck: I don’t know.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: It means that Congress has constrained his power to act without Congressional approval on this matter.
debbie
@Baud:
If he’s right, absolutely good.
mai naem mobile
Tapper has really impressed me during the Dolt 45 presidency . He’s not perfect but he really ses to have woken up,unlike Chuck Todd or Stephamopoulos.
WaterGirl
It’s pretty clear to me that this new moocher guy and Trump think/hope/believe that Trump can reset the clock on the so-called honeymoon period now that they have this guy (the moocher) to stand up for Donald Trump with the meanies at the MSM.
It would be hard for someone to convince me at this point that as of this week, the moocher isn’t the only guy that Trump will listen to besides his family. He defends Trump, he uses language similar to Trump (says okay a lot, uses lots of adjectives and adverbs and superlatives) not to mention that he sucks Trumps dick (sorry) with no shame at all on national TV.
For the moocher to be the new savior, he would have to be smart enough to tell Trump that the absolute worse thing Trump could do is to bring him in behind the backs of Trumps key people. They are stupid and terrifying at the same time.
Adam L Silverman
@Jay Noble: Accepting a pardon requires admission of/acceptance of guilt. This would be disqualifying in regard to clearances. Of course the President has the authority to override the Special Security Officer and order access regardless.
Adam L Silverman
@stibbert: It is going to take a while. My understanding is that he didn’t get the job he was originally up for because of concerns about his various business holdings and relations. Even though he’s divested from his hedge fund, he’s still going to have the same problems with this position.
Adam L Silverman
@TriassicSands: It is an unlawful order. Though I really doubt whether he understood he was giving an order. I’ve seen the quote and the clip and I think he was just off script and working the crowd like he does at a rally. I doubt there was any forethought to what he said.
lurker dean
damn, capito flipped.
Shelley Moore Capito @SenCapito
Repealing, replacing Obamacare is the best solution for West Virginia. Read more in my weekly newsletter: http://bit.ly/2gQVOnT
https://twitter.com/SenCapito/status/889134355674693632
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: I’m not. I fully expect the Freedom Caucus in the House and the usual suspects in the Senate GOP caucus to bring this to the brink. And then both McConnell and Ryan will pass clean CRs and debt ceiling increases on the backs of the Democratic caucuses in each chamber. Effectively ceding the majority on these issues to the Democrats. Which is appropriate given that the current omnibus CR is an extension of Obama Administration funding priorities. So any new CR that just extends it for another year just locks in another fiscal year’s worth of Obama Administration spending priorities.
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t see this at all. Sure a person may have to divest (boy do I crack myself up sometimes) to work in government but why should someone gain a 200 mil tax break for it? So that they will do it? As a reward for being a good citizen? (where’s my reward for that and losing everything while the MOU got paid in full? Where is my tax credit for serving in the military? Not everyone does that. I paid taxes on my shitty navy wages, which were less than 1/4 of my civilian pay) Fuck his tax credit that no one in the real world would ever get an opportunity to use. You want to work in the highest level of government, or even close to it, this is the cost. The full fucking cost. Fork it over or keep walking.
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: Exactly.
hueyplong
@lurker dean: Capito with another example of J Marshall’s Iron Rule of Republican Moderates: They. Always. Cave.
JPL
@lurker dean: Of course she did. Except for Collins, they all will. McCain’s out, and they can afford to lose one.
trollhattan
@lurker dean:
Have they released his family and dog yet?
lurker dean
@hueyplong: i was hoping that with a bill this awful, rejected by every since medical organization, the rule might not hold. i guess that’s why it’s iron. :o(
WaterGirl
@Baud: I would add … under Trump. Seems to me that President Obama made some moves, though in my opinion, too little, too late.
Major Major Major Major
@JPL: why can they afford to lose one?
WaterGirl
@Adam L Silverman:
I’ll see that and raise you “I’m pretty sure Trump has already said that if Trump likes what he sees over the next few weeks, the Chief of Staff job is already his.”
Jay Noble
@Adam L Silverman: That’s kind of what I thought. A pardoned felon who in a normal job that required security clearance, would be gone but would be back the next day under Trump. Sort of a double pardon.
Ruckus
@Amanda in the South Bay:
As you well know (I hope I’m remembering correctly), in the military you don’t and aren’t supposed to follow an illegal order. But how do you know which is which? What if you are a racist and drumpf is your leader politically, how will you know? What will the political strife in the military do for our country? I ask this as someone who served under Nixon. A crook but one who fucked with the entire military as a unit, at the upper levels, not on a personal basis. His publicly stated goals aligned with most of the people I served with, get out of Vietnam. It was only later we learned that he was a lying sack of shit. At least with this one many of us can see it now. But what about the true believers? There is no way I will ever be convinced that there are not some drumpf true believers in the military, some of which may be at the highest levels.
Like everything else he’s ever done, it turns to rabid, rancid shit when he so much as looks at it.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Right.
Adam L Silverman
@lurker dean: There are other problems with the bill that may derail things this coming week. The Senate parliamentarian has ruled five or six key elements as violations of the Byrd Rule, meaning if the bill includes them it cannot come up under reconciliation rules. This includes defunding Planned Parenthood, another section dealing with abortion, and Cruz’s amendment about continuous coverage and the six month penalty, which are (supposed to be) the alternative fix for the individual mandate’s forcing function to cause people to have and maintain insurance.
McConnell is now faced with stripping all of that out of the bill so he can proceed to try to ram it through under the reconciliation rules, leaving them in knowing full well he’ll never make the 60 vote threshold on the motion to proceed, or overruling/ignoring the Senate parliamentarian (who he handpicked). The first option risks splintering the caucus. The second kills the bill. The third destroys the legislative filibuster, breaks the Senate parliamentarian’s office and authority, and breaks one of the last standing norms and traditions of the Senate.
Buy more popcorn!
Mike G
blithely downplay an unprecedented assault on our national sovereignty
But in this “L’etat, c’est moi” administration, it wasn’t an attack on sovereignty.
The Russians helped them win, so they have no problem with it at all.
WaterGirl
@Gelfling 545:
I had a similar, but slightly different thought.
I am getting the feeling that Scaramucci seems himself being the real president behind the scenes, pulling the strings on Trump, the puppet president. If Trump already trusts no one but him, he’s most of the way there.
stibbert
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks for hanging out here, & responding to our ?s.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Or vide president, right after Trump dumps Dense.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: What @stibbert Said.
Johnnybuck
@Adam L Silverman: In other words, it’s easy to come out for a bill that won’t pass. That’s what I take from her announcement.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Ruckus: Yeah, you remember correctly :)
I guess I have a much more jaundiced view of the military (and I don’t have remotely the experience Adam has had either). I just have a low expectation of people in authority really doing anything about Trump turning us into Turkey/Russia-lite when push comes to shove. I don’t think its something that anyone really thought too much about prior to Trump, and I have a gut feeling that for almost everyone whose served in the military since Vietnam and *has* thought about this stuff, it was implicitly assumed that some sort of ultra left wing government would take over the country (Empress Janet Reno confiscating everyone’s guns, etc).
Amanda in the South Bay
@Ruckus: At least when you were in the Army was much more demographically balanced. I certainly don’t trust southern/rural ROTC grads.
TriassicSands
@Adam L Silverman:
Although I had no legal support for my opinion, I couldn’t imagine that it would be legal for a superior officer (of any rank) to ever order a person of lower rank to vote for the superior or support the superior politically. That seems like such a basic violation of a citizen’s rights — in the military or not. Your point about it not being enforceable was something that I had considered and it didn’t eliminate my concern because there are many people in the military who might take such an order at face value without questioning it.
What source made you clarify your response?
The number of things Trump doesn’t understand is pressing on the outer reaches of the universe. It’s becoming a frequently repeated excuse for outrageous behavior. “Uh, the president didn’t understand that he couldn’t simply confiscate the gold in Fort Knox and deposit in is own vault.”
The man is an idiot. Listening to the Mooch reel off all of Trump’s incredible skills was nauseating. Not only is there no evidence that Trump is a great judge of people, there is voluminous evidence that he is an absolutely terrible judge of people.
Thanks again for the clarification. I feel better.
JPL
@Major Major Major Major: Supposedly they are going to vote on repeal only, and then the replace bill. That’s the last I read.
With McCain out, if two come out against it, it won’t pass.
The replace would have to have significant changes in order to garner fifty votes. McConnell could put up the bill as is though. Then it would be filibustered and they would blame the dems.
McConnell might decide to just ignore the parliamentarian.
hueyplong
@JPL: At this point we should be willing to take our chances on political blame. Job 1 is to keep the current law in place.
TriassicSands
@Adam L Silverman:
Laughing uproariously. Stop, Alan, you’re killing me. I can’t take it. No forethought? Donald Trump? This must be part of your stand-up routine. If so, you’re going to knock ’em dead.
I’m sorry, I appreciate your serious answer, but the idea of Trump speaking with actual forethought is an alien concept. The brain bone is definitely not connected to the mouth bone. (But the mouth bone and the foot bone are BFFs.)
WaterGirl
@JPL: We can’t consider McCain out. McCain will come in to vote for the bill, whether he can walk in on his own two feet or has to be wheeled in and someone has to assist him with the vote.
Adam L Silverman
@stibbert: You’re welcome and thanks for the kind words. My understanding is that for Presidential appointments, they try to fast track these things and have the final, adjudicated clearance in place within 90 days. This is, actually, the official Federal regs for all clearances, but because of the shortage of investigators and the lack of funds, it can take anywhere from 9 months to 2 years or more. When I was first put up for my TS it was by a defense contractor, working on a priority project, that wanted me as a consultant. I had just accepted my term appointment, under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA), at USAWC. That clearance was completed 5 months. This was, of course, presequester and before everyone’s budgets got hammered.
My renewal was done last year. Took 12 months start to finish. Would have actually been closer to 9 or 10, but the adjudicator didn’t understand what an IPA term appointment was, and I had to put the investigator in touch with the managing director of the not for profit that handled my paperwork for the government. That added a couple of months. Regardless, I was lucky – I know of civil servants, uniformed personnel, and contractors that are all in year 2 or 3 of their renewals being conducted. They’re waiting on the investigators or the adjudicators or both.
The point here is that the longer it takes for Scaramucci or Kushner or any of these other folks to get their paperwork done and done correctly, the slower the process goes. Every time they have to amend the paperwork, despite what their reps are stating publicly, it raises a red flag for additional scrutiny by the investigators and adjudicators. And the more complicated the relationships listed on the forms, the longer it takes for the investigators to work through them. They can have Scaramucci’s interim clearance in place within 72 hours after completion and submission of his SF 86 if they rush it, but he has to get that done and in first. And just having the interim doesn’t get one access to everything or anything. That is up to the Special Security Officer.
Adam L Silverman
@Johnnybuck: I actually read the press release. It says nothing about voting on the motion to proceed. Honestly, with the CBO scores, the Parliamentarian’s ruling on reconciliation, Senator McCain’s absence and his coming out against, several others coming out against, I really am not sure anyone knows with any certainty what is going to happen this week. And anyone who tells you they do is probably deluding him or herself.
JPL
@WaterGirl: Rand Paul has already said he’ll vote to proceed, and it appears that they offered Murkowski enough money to flip also. They might not need him.
We’ll see though.
Adam L Silverman
@Amanda in the South Bay: My understanding is that the general officers/flag officers have really internalized the neutral on politics stuff. I know a number who don’t register to and do not vote so as to set an example of apoliticalness. I expect that unlawful orders will be ignored or disobeyed. I do not expect the US military will support or participate in a coup from any direction. Whether they’ll actively act to stop one, especially if it is being undertaken by the national command authority himself, I cannot say. I think that may be outside the scope of what has ever been considered for contingency planning purposes.
Frank Wilhoit
@Adam L Silverman: The answer to Dreher’s question has been clear since the beginning of politics. He ought not be permitted to pretend that he wants our answer; he doesn’t.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: Susan Collins said there will be a vote next week, but she is not sure what the vote will be. Sounds like you’re correct.
Adam L Silverman
@TriassicSands: I clarified the response because my understanding of the President based on biographies/biographical articles and observation is that he is approaching the presidency as if he’s still CEO – of a family controlled company. That there are new rules to learn about what one can and cannot do, or should or should not do, does not seem to me something he’s concerned with. If he was the former would not be quite so disconcerting.
Ruckus
@Amanda in the South Bay:
@Amanda in the South Bay:
Navy, but still applies.
There were racists in then, never think there weren’t. There were southern/rural ROTC grads, good ole boys, all of it. Most everyone just wanted to get along and get out.
I too have conflicting views of the military. I served a long time ago, in a world far, far away from the one we now live in. I don’t know how different the military is today, from outward appearances and 68 yrs of human relations experience I’d bet not all that much. The equipment is different, but I’d bet not a lot of the attitudes.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: It is going to be weird.
Villago Delenda Est
@Adam L Silverman: My initial TS, applied for in January, 1980, wasn’t approved until December, 1980. By then I had been reassigned to another unit and the duty for which I needed the TS didn’t fall onto my new unit, so I never had reason to see anything TS.
It seems like the clearance process has always been backlogged.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
What since Nov 8 of last year hasn’t been? That list is a dramatically shorter list, if it could even exist, than the opposite.
TriassicSands
@Adam L Silverman:
I second the sentiment expressing appreciation for your consistent involvement in your threads. It makes them more interesting. Thanks.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
In 1971 my TS clearance took 2 weeks. I filled out no paperwork, signed nothing. Of course it was requested by command on my ship and I didn’t even know about it until informed that I had been approved.
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshift:
This. So much of Donald’s self image is tied up in the “I’m rich!” meme. If it’s shown that he’s essentially a debt peon, it will cause the break that is not very far from the surface already.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Villago Delenda Est: I assume we’ll eventually get both a pee tape and a true accounting of his finances. I’m still more eager to get the former honestly.
Bess
I suspect Mooch is Donald’s latest Hail Mary.
When Mooch can’t deliver Trump will turn on him as well. It’s always someone else’s fault.
Karen
Did anyone else catch the fact that he threw his “boss” under the bus this morning, admitting that the president was his anonymous source?
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-anonymous-source-14bd69d07db6
Aleta
>It’s just fucking surreal that this is the argument.<
Yeah. And If they had any better argument they'd be making it…but they don't. Unless the lawyers do want a different argument, but that would touch on other secrets. Plus, he probably has secrets they don't know, or are gradually figuring out by themselves, since he's not completely honest with anyone. He thinks of it as keeping the upper hand, which is compulsive instinct for him I think.
This kind of arguing (really, you could get a 4 year degree in conversational and political diversion, manipulation and truth-skirting out of all these videos) shakes up the ground under everyone. People can lose a little stability at the instinctive level, the sense of reality that supports our actions. Socially dangerous.
Aleta
@Karen: He sure tossed Huckabee onto the railroad track. I bet he’ll do whatever it takes to get rid of her as fast as he can. She’s a warm, genuine person. I took the little office. I told her, take the bigger office. Because generals in the field eat last. He’s a guy who enjoys knifing people in public, even on TV. Loathsome.
WaterGirl
@Aleta: I am not understanding what this is in reference to: