I know the entire world is burning down but I spent a considerable amount of time worrying about when I need to get a fern hanging on my front porch just in case ma and pa bird from last year come back. It would be very upsetting if they came back and their condo was gone and the neighborhood had been gentrified, and I found them to be quite lovely tenants so I would like them to come back. The problem is that it is too early to stick a fern out there because it is still freezing and I will NEVER remember to bring the damned thing in every night. I think what I have decided to do is to just hang a pot of dirt there, and then when the weather becomes fernworthy, I will put a fern in if they have not come and laid any eggs yet.
Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: Busy Days At Marred-A-Lago
kinda weird to fire your Secret Service director mere days after the Secret Service caught a probable spy at your private bribery mill!
Kinda weird.
— Zeddediah Springfield (@Zeddary) April 8, 2019
So the Secret Service stuck Zhang's thumbdrive into their computer. https://t.co/0T6LAfOtEl pic.twitter.com/RSfUgw4I4n
— Chris Wysopal (@WeldPond) April 8, 2019
Not a cybersecurity expert, but seems like that’s hardly best practice?
A federal prosecutor argued in court Monday that Yujing Zhang, the Chinese woman arrested trying to enter President Donald Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach last month, “lies to everyone she encounters” and said a search of her hotel room uncovered more than $8,000 in cash, as well as a “signal-detector” device used to reveal hidden cameras.
Also uncovered in the search: $7,500 in U.S. hundred-dollar bills and $663 in Chinese currency, in addition to nine USB drives, five SIM cards and other electronics, according to federal prosecutor Rolando Garcia. Signal detectors are portable devices that can detect radio waves, magnetic fields and hidden-camera equipment.
Prosecutors are treating the case as a national-security matter and an FBI counterintelligence squad is investigating, sources familiar with the inquiry told the Miami Herald.
Zhang gave conflicting accounts of why she came to Mar-a-Lago on March 30, at one point saying she had been invited to attend a social event, according to an affidavit filed by a U.S. Secret Service agent. But she was found to be carrying several electronic devices, including a thumb-drive containing “malicious malware,” the Secret Service said. That raised suspicions among federal investigators already probing possible Chinese intelligence operations in South Florida that she could be engaged in espionage…
Investigators are still trying to determine the nature of the malware Zhang allegedly brought into the club, sources told the Herald. It is not clear how much of a threat the malware posed and whether it was intended to gather information at the president’s club or possibly to destroy an existing network or program, they said.
Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: Busy Days At Marred-A-LagoPost + Comments (153)
Monday Evening Respite Open Thread
This is possibly my most important cat disco tweet so far. ? pic.twitter.com/r7Yq8Bck8r
— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) April 7, 2019
Regarding today’s news cycle: I could handle the stupid, or the evil, but the combination is really grinding me down.
KITTEN DISCO!
Quadrupling Down on Cruelty
Some additional reporting support’s Cheryl’s point downstairs that Trump is flailing, specifically on immigration. According to NBC News, it was Nielsen’s refusal to reinstate the family separation policy that led to her ouster:
President Donald Trump has for months urged his administration to reinstate large-scale separation of migrant families crossing the border, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of meetings at the White House.
Trump’s outgoing Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, resisted — setting her at odds with the president.
Trump has been pushing this policy since January, the sources said, when the numbers of undocumented immigrants crossing the border began to rise.
A senior administration official said it seems Trump is convinced that family separation has been the most effective policy at deterring large numbers of asylum-seekers.
The acting secretary, Kevin McAleenan, hasn’t ruled out reinstating the policy, which is why he’s in and Nielsen is out. As for Nielsen, it will really piss me off if the Beltway bozos try to make a martyr of her. I hope Jeffrey Toobin will set the tone:
.@JeffreyToobin calls Trump “the great reputation killer.”
Kirstjen Nielsen “was a reasonably admired bureaucrat. For the rest of her life people will look at her and think, ‘Oh, that’s the woman who put children in cages.’” https://t.co/LSkSsWzjTF pic.twitter.com/rCKeMObkzZ
— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) April 8, 2019
He said she deserves the lousy reputation she’ll have for the rest of her life, and he’s correct. Nobody made her take that job, implement horrendous policies and lie to defend her shitty boss.
If Nielsen could have done more to circumvent the legal protections asylum-seekers are afforded and/or hide the cruel practices of the agency she led, she would have done so. Trump will likely install another toady who will also fail.
The real problem is that Trump’s own rhetoric created a crisis at the southern border where none existed. People in desperate circumstances hear rumors of a wall going up, remittances (frequently the difference between having food or not) being shut down, etc., and they think, “Now or never.”
The New Yorker has a great three-part piece on factors driving immigration from Guatemala. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating in a thousand ways but well worth a read. The first part of the series is here.
Let’s hope our 2020 contenders are prepared for the coming shitstorm around immigration. Julián Castro was on Pod Save America last week and outlined his vision for a sane approach to immigration, as well as other issues. Even if he’s not the nominee, Castro’s ideas on immigration deserve a wider hearing within the party (and Warren’s on fighting corruption, etc.).
Buckle up, folks. It’s going to get even uglier.
Greg Sargent: Trump Is Flailing
Greg Sargent does something I was thinking of doing – listing all the ways Trump is flailing. Trump has always been protected from his own incompetence and sadism by layers of lackeys – Javanka, Michael Cohen, and even when he first became President, his generals, Javanka (still), and a minimally competent but toadying cabinet. He thought that being President means having unlimited power.
He had done what he wanted – or thought he did – as the head of the Trump organization. He never cared to see the people who were steering away from the rocks he found so alluring or who actually did the work to make things happen.
It turns out that there are many things that a President can’t do. That’s why we have a Constitution. The Founding Parents were quite explicit about that. People like John Kelly and Jim Mattis reminded him of that, so they had to go.
Now we have Trump unbound. Kirstjen Nielsen was one of the last to tell him no, if some of the reports are to be believed.
The handlers also steered Trump away from the places where they would have to tell him no. Without them, he is getting more noes.
Here’s Sargent’s list:
- “Total exoneration” and Attorney General William Barr’s attempt to keep the Mueller report away from the public
- Throwing in with the suit against the ACA and promising a new Republican health plan
- The immigration clusterf**k
Trump is clearly becoming desperate on immigration. His emotions are getting out of control. He seems to believe that there is some physical way – his wall, the brutality of what he would like to be his Gestapo – to stop immigration from the south. That is simply not going to happen for both logistical and humanitarian reasons.
Trump knows only bullying and brute force. It’s hard to predict what he will do next in his flailing. But it’s better to note it than to pretend it’s some n-dimensional strategy for his base.
Open thread.
Congratulations, Speaker Pelosi!
It is a great personal and official honor to receive the Profile in Courage Award, which stands as a powerful testament to the extraordinary legacy and leadership of President Kennedy. #ProfileInCourage pic.twitter.com/npd15vRtOj
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 7, 2019
Barely three months into her second turn in charge, Nancy Pelosi has already mapped out a plan to overwhelm Republicans in the 2020 elections.
"I'm going to have our races won by this November," Pelosi said. https://t.co/2PqfiuwlhS
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 6, 2019
… Yes, the House speaker predicted that she will have locked down the majority a full year ahead of schedule, leaving the political battlefield to what she considers an intense presidential race all the way up to November 2020.
It’s a remarkably bold guarantee for Pelosi, who will celebrate this new majority’s 100-day mark at a Democratic retreat next week outside Leesburg. Her caucus has had its share of growing pains in the first quarter of the year, with younger, more-liberal Democrats trying to push Pelosi’s leadership team as far to the left as possible…
In a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post, Pelosi acknowledged that the job now is different from her first go-round, most notably because President Trump is such a different personality than Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. But, she also notes, the rise of social media has transformed politics since her last tenure, allowing newcomers to become instant stars in a way that she could not imagine when she arrived in the Capitol 32 years ago…
… Pelosi believes her endangered incumbents are shoring themselves up through a steady diet of town halls. And leadership is particularly pushing the freshmen running their first reelection to raise as much money as possible.
By Thanksgiving, if all goes according to her plan, potential GOP challengers will “think twice” about running against Democrats. And then she will deliver a stern warning to Republicans who remain in swing seats.
“We fully intend to win this election, and some of you are vulnerable. It’s going to cost you millions of dollars, to win or lose. And if you win — say you win — you’re in the minority, probably want to teach at the university,” Pelosi said, drawing out every syllable like the daughter of a Baltimore mayor who watched her father stare down rivals. “So we get the A-team, and they get the retirements. That’s my plan.”…
NEW: Speaker Pelosi issues statement on resignation of Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen: "It is deeply alarming that the Trump Administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White House’s liking.” https://t.co/NjQ1E9EIPZ pic.twitter.com/YEPZOwxarc
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 8, 2019
On the Road and In Your Backyard
Good Morning All,
On The Road and In Your Backyard is a weekday feature spotlighting reader submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, please share your part of the world, whether you’re traveling or just in your locality. Share some photos and a narrative, let us see through your pictures and words. We’re so lucky each and every day to see and appreciate the world around us!
Submissions from commenters are welcome at tools.balloon-juice.com
A glorious tradition in DC – thank you Japan! – it’s often a magical, sensuous entreaty from Spring. I am so thankful for this submission, it really is a wonderful, glorious thing. I wish all of you could smell those fragrant blossoms as they drop and scatter on the wind.
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!