Libertarian In Name Only

The other GOP senator from Kentucky- the one not running theUnited States Senate- has endorsed libertarian Gary Johnson  for the US Senate seat in New Mexico in which incumbent Martin Heinrich is opposed by Republican Mark Rich. Unsurprisingly, the Democratic chairperson in New Mexico is unimpressed and stated

Rand Paul is the least surprising DC endorsement Gary Johnson could get. Both put on a big show about their so-called independence, but at the end of the day, both are rubber stamps for the extreme agenda of today’s Republican Party. We know both would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and both want to gut the types of programs that help New Mexico families thrive.

To be fair, Senator Paul was one of only ten senators who recently voted against the gargantuan, wasteful $717 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019.

But that Democratic chairwoman is correct: Paul will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh for a pivotal seat on the US Supreme Court, just as he voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and in favor of the GOP's Corporate Tax Scam of 2017.

On Thursday, a leaked email confirmed suspicions that Kavanaugh does not believe Roe v. Wade is "settled law," and on the same day he referred during his Judiciary Committee hearing to contraception as "abortion-inducing drugs." That should please Senator Paul, who on July 2, 2018 was asked

whether he wants President Donald Trump to nominate a judge who thinks "an unborn child with a beating heart is a 'person' entitled to equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment." Fetuses generally develop beating hearts roughly three weeks after fertilization.

"I think we do need a pro-life justice, and I've always been in favor of that," Paul responded.

"Equal protection of the law" is code for abortion should be flatly prohibited, no questions asked.

Once posing as a fighter for freedom against government, Paul never believed in liberty for the half of the population composed of women. This week he exploded any pretense to being a libertarian as

In the wake of the anonymous op-ed essay published in The New York Times on Wednesday written by a senior administration official who claimed to be part of a “quiet resistance” against the president, Republican Senator Rand Paul recycled the idea of administering lie detector tests. The Kentucky senator said anyone with a security clearance who works in the White House should be subjected to one, according to multiple media reports that were confirmed to Newsweek by Paul’s press office. 

“It’s not unprecedented for people with security clearances to be asked whether or not they’re revealing things against the law under oath and also by lie detector,” Paul said. “We use the lie-detector test routinely for CIA agents and FBI agents. If you have a security clearance in the White House, I think it would be acceptable to use a lie detector test and ask people whether or not they’re taking to the media against the policy of the White House.”

That argument might carry weight if this had anything to do with national security, rather than the right of Donald J. Trump to be shielded from criticism.

The President of the USA can fire the individual found to be responsible for the controversial op-ed. He can fire the individual he suspects. He can fire any individual he wants to fire by claiming that he or she wrote the piece. He can fire any appointee he wishes.

But a lie detector test- except possibly to eliminate someone not seriously suspected of being the culprit anyway- makes little sense. In the video below, Jason Miller, chief spokesman of Trump's 2016 campaign, criticizes the op-ed (beginning at 19:15 of the video below) as "effectively a soft coup" but adds (at 20:09)  "now, I think the whole idea of a lie detector is silly and a non-starter."

Silly, and ineffective. Liars, such as the consummate one in the Oval Office, know how to beat a lie detector while innocent individuals may inadvertently implicate themselves when strapped to a polygraph machine.

Whatever the dangers or even merits of a lie detector test, it is not administered (or ordered) by an executive branch with any interest in the individual liberty libertarians are allegedly obsessed with. It is time to do away with the idea that Rand Paul is anything but a right-wing Republican, turned toady to President Donald Trump.

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Mistaking Pilate For Jesus

The author of the now-famous New York Times editorial blasting President Trump is a dangerous enabler and right-wing libertarian.  It's the dime store libertarian (but I repeat myself): excited about "free minds (and) effective deregulation, historic tax reform," yet giddy about "a more robust military."

At least he took a swipe at Trump's "mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the 'enemy of the people.'"

It would have been a glaring omission.  Early Wednesday morning, President Trump tweeted

Isn’t it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost. Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws?

Washington Post syndicated columnist Ruth Marcus responded "Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws? Let me help you out here. It’s called the First Amendment."

Wednesday evening, Trump regaled us with

Does the so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018

To paraphrase Ruth Marcus: "Don't know why a media outlet won't turn someone over for prosecution for expressing an opinion about operation of the federal government? It's called the First Amendment." Six days earlier in Evansville, Indiana, Trump had told exuberant rally goers

All I can say is our Justice Department and our FBI, at the top of each because inside they have incredible people, our Justice Department and our FBI have to start doing their job and doing it right. What's happening is a disgrace and at some point — I wanted to stay out — but at some point if it doesn’t straighten out properly ... I will get involved.

He is not talking about offering someone up to the Department of Justice or the local county prosecutor. He's referring to himself as judge, jury, and executioner, less president than, say, a governor in ancient Rome.

A week earlier, evangelical Paula White had presented President and Mrs. Trump with a Bible "signed by over a hundred Christian evangelicals" and noted that the inscription read

First Lady and President, you are in our prayers always. Thank you for your courageous and bold stand for religious liberty, and for your timeless service to all Americans. We appreciate the price that you have paid to walk in the high high calling. History will reward the greatness that you have brought for generations. We pray this prayer. And if all of you agree with that, say "Amen."

signed by over a hundred Christian evangelicals (who) 

Those evangelicals might want to read that book themselves, and can start with Matthew 4:8-9 (hat tip to Suzanne Witzen):

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

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Wrong And Weak

Steve M. is characteristically cynical and correct when he says, in the wake of revelations from "Fear: Trump in the White House," "Trumpers will see (Bob) Woodward himself as a saboteur." Trump "will skate," he recognizes, even though he reportedly labeled Attorney General Jeff Sessions as "mentally retarded" and a "dumb southerner."

But he writes also

more confirmation that Trump is nasty, ill-informed, reckless, and dishonest. Terrible policy changes are prevented by aides who secretly remove papers from his desk. The president's aides and lawyers think he's a simpleton and a congenital liar. It's not a pretty picture.

Similarly, Rob Reiner tweets

We’re in the midst of a Constitutional crisis. Our government is rudderless. The President of the United States is ignorant and mentally unstable and  Republicans in Congress are cowards. Let’s pray the Ship of State doesn’t run aground before Nov.6.

Certainly, congressional Republicans are cowards. However, this is no "constitutional crisis," nor is our government (as Reiner probably would acknowledge in another context) is not rudderless but dedicated to extreme right-wing policy.

Additionally, Trump's support will remain at a decent level even if voters understand- as they already do- that Trump is ignorant, nasty, ill-informed, reckless, and dishonest.   (Most people, including some who charge it, don't know what constitutes "mentally unstable.")

What voters would not tolerate is if they realize that the President is... well, allow him to explain:

Almost everyone agrees that my Administration has done more in less than two years than any other Administration in the history of our Country. I’m tough as hell on people & if I weren’t, nothing would get done. Also, I question everybody & everything-which is why I got elected!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018

It's not that his "Administration has done more in less than two years" etc., etc., etc. The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court isn't popular, nor is the Corporate Tax Scam the President signed.

It is instead "I'm tough as hell on people & if I weren't, nothing would get done" with the accompanying- and reinforcing- "I question everybody & everything." 

Woodward quotes Defense Secretary James Mattis, after hearing from the President on Korea, as contending Trump "had the understanding of a fifth- or sixth- grader."   Trump allegedly told attorney Rudy Giuliani "Rudy, you're a baby. I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?"

Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly stated "We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had."

Mattis already known to be at odds with the President on policy. Kelly says Trump is the mayor of Crazytown. Trump is being represented in the media by a little baby. Trump believes the Attorney General of the United States of America is a "traitor."

They are still employed at the White House, and will be tomorrow, because Donald Trump is the antithesis of his image.

Trump said of Kim Jong-un "At a very young age, he was able to assume power. A lot of people, I'm sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else. And he was able to do it." Following his news conference with Vladimir Putin, Trump praised Putin, remarking "I thought President Putin was very, very strong." He has called the USA "a very powerful company" before correcting himself with "We're a very strong, very strong country."

"When people are insecure," a savvy Bill Clinton once warned, "they'd rather have somebody who's strong and wrong than someone who's weak and right." Donald Trump recognizes insecure voters when he sees them.

Republicans were fond of accusing President Obama of conducting an "apology tour." Two years after slapping Obama's party in mid-term elections, the country decided in 2016 that it was finally done with the Party of Apology. Paradoxically, it expressed its frustration by electing what Bill Maher has identified as "a whiny, little bitch." It's a good characterization, but through all his whines fed by a phony sense of victimization, Donald Trump emphasizes that he's not little, but big; not soft, but tough. It's a con even Joseph Goebbels would have been impressed with.

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In Plain View, Then And Now

Here I am. Come and get me.

The President has been predictably and justifiably assailed for one of his Labor Day tweets:

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

This was too much even for a Fox News' legal analyst. and therefore

“When the president says these things—basically, ‘I want you to use the Justice Department to help the Republican Party’—that is fodder for the cannon of Bob Mueller and the never-Trumpers,” said Napolitano. “It’s his using his own words out of his own mouth to help put him in a box of the use of government for political purposes.”

But after the first 731 counts of impeachment, #732 really doesn't matter.  And while the Special Counsel will find several criminal matters for which Mr. Trump can be charged, there is serious doubt whether a sitting President can be indicted, and the President expects to be addressed as "Mr. President" for several more years, perhaps until death.

Republican members of Congress will of course do little more than wring their hands- and most of them will not do even that. As if a child, the President continues to test limits, which has served him extremely well so far.

In January, 2016- before evangelical leaders drummed warned him about saying offensive and bizarre things about Christianity- Trump was interviewed by CNN's Jake Tapper and maintained

he now enjoys a "very great relationship with God" and "a very great relationship" with the evangelical Christian voters so important to candidates in Iowa.

"I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think," Trump said. "I'm talking about over the last number of years, I'm leading a very good life. I try to lead a good life and I have. And frankly, (it's) the reason I'm doing so well in Iowa."

No Bible-believing Protestant or even observant Catholic would ever say "I live a very different life" than it appears. At least the former would claim to be "a new creation" or "a new being."  Believing "we all sin and fall short of the glory of God," she would never brag about "leading a very good life," especially in light of Psalm 14:2/Romans 3:10-12 and Mark 10:18.

Nor would many dedicated Catholics, nor any dedicated Protestants, brag that they have a "very great relationship with God." Very few, especially among the latter, would boast of "a great relationship" with the Almighty. Many would claim a "personal relationship" with God, which they would attribute not to themselves but to Jesus Christ.

 Even a "personal relationship" is somewhat controversial in Christianity. A Protestant minister in New York City has written

The Gospel is not about you per se.  It’s about a new creation, an entire world that is remade with God at the center.  The good news is that God is creating a brand new state of affairs, completely toppling the existing world order. Amazingly, in this new domain, outcasts, sinners, fringe-dwellers and those crying out for God’s mercy are brought in and honored through forgiveness awarded them by faith because of Christ’s sacrifice.  God does indeed care about them - but they are not the focus.  The focus is God’s glory and mercy.

At least rhetorically, Christians put the emphasis on God and his mercy, not on themselves.  Trump early on reversed that focus. Some evangelicals have claimed that the President has changed- but if so, it is apparently the only change that has occurred in a long, long while. Donald Trump is the Donald Trump he has been for decades.

And that was enough for evangelical voters in the fall of 2018,   There was seemingly no end to the ways in which Trump, by words and action, past and present, would say something which would normally offend believing Christians.  He brazenly made it quite obvious, and dared those voters to cast a ballot for his opponent.

They did not, obviously. And now President Trump breaks nearly every norm, openly flouts the rule of law, and obstructs justice in plain sight.  Here I am; come and get me.

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Uncharacteristically Circumspect

Ryan Lizza undertands. And so does President Trump.

But President Trump has largely held his fire. Politico reported that as McCain's funeral was being held Saturday morning, Trump tweeted about the "tainted and corrupt" news media and Canada; FBI and Justice Department "corruption"; and the "police state" behind the Special Counsel investigation. Then he hit the links.

The hard right, however, took a break from taking itself too seriously in order to take the funeral too seriously. Or rather, it took what was said at the funeral too seriously, because relatively few people take funerals seriously these days. 

Slamming a daughter of a recently deceased US Senator as "a sad and petty woman," Christina Lailla at conservative website Gateway Pundit maintained

Americans were outraged Saturday after John McCain’s funeral turned into a Trump bashing session.

Speaker after speaker, from Meghan McCain, to George W. Bush, to Barack Obama took turns to rip President Trump in words of anger.

 Lailla pointed to several tweets criticizing the funeral of Senator McCain, the first here from a conservative black activist, the next from an alt-right leader, and the last her own:

This new trend of using funerals and eulogies to deliver political messages is really quite disgusting.

Sympathy from death as means to sway public opinion is next level corrupt.

Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) September 1, 2018

If today’s McCain funeral feels good to you, then know that’s how MAGA feels when Trump insults McCain.

Two Americas.

— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) September 1, 2018Another grotesque stunt by the D.C. elites--bashing President Trump at another funeral.

And they wonder why Americans have contempt for them... #McCainMemorial

— Cristina Laila (@cristinalaila1) September 1, 2018

But Donald Trump understands. If the word "Trump" had been uttered at the services,the occasion and those speaking at it would have been far more vulnerable. However, condemning mourners- especially a daughter visually distraught by her father's death- at a funeral is usually not a good look, and clearly not so when the deceased is known as a decorated war hero.

Trump probably realized it was better to let the moment pass. He realizes it's wise to leave bad enough alone when, observing absence of the President's name, journalist Ryan Lizza would remark

I re-read all the speeches from McCain’s funeral. Nobody attacked Trump. They *praised* honor, decency, character, bipartisanship, and placing country over party. What does it say about Trump that so many people interpreted this as an assault on him personally?

                                                 HAPPY LABOR DAY

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Clarence Thomas- Really?

Jonathan Turley is joking, right?

Celebrity law professor Jonathan Turley writes in The Hill

The marketing of “RBG” moves justices closer to the status of reality television stars. It follows earlier programs, like the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” episode showing the host working out with the justice. In “RBG,” director Betsy West portrayed Ginsburg as nothing short of a global phenomenon, declaring that the movie would show how Ginsburg “changed the world.” Entertainment Weekly declared, “Forget movie stars. The hottest celebrity at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend was Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” That is precisely the problem. When justices become our new celebrities, the separation of law and politics is eroded as justices seek to maintain their popular iconic positions with their respective bases. In other words, celebrity justices can become celebrity justice.

Turley makes a case that sounds reasonable until he adds

This trend is no better for journalism than it is for the law. CNN never did a program on the “hero” Scalia when he was alive, with weeks of adoring promos. Likewise, just as Ginsburg is the second woman on the Supreme Court, Thomas is the second African American. His story is one of the most inspirational in American history, of a man born in Georgia, speaking Gullah, a Creole dialect, in a shack with dirt floors and no plumbing. He grew up without his father, who left him at age two. He used his Catholic education to overcome segregation and prejudice to eventually go to Holy Cross, and then gained admission to Yale, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania law schools. He is unlikely to be declared a “hero” by CNN because the network does not agree with his judicial philosophy.

Unfortunately, Clarence Thomas could be a poster child for corruption, the judicial equivalent of Donald Trump. In February 2017, the Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff revealed

In an email sent to a conservative listserv on Feb. 13 and obtained by The Daily Beast, Ginni Thomas asked an interesting question: How could she organize activists to push for Trump’s policies?

“What is the best way to, with minimal costs, set up a daily text capacity for a ground up-grassroots army for pro-Trump daily action items to push back against the left’s resistance efforts who are trying to make America ungovernable?” she wrote.

“I see the left has Daily Action @YourDailyAction and their Facebook likes are up to 61K,” she continued.

She then linked to a Washington Post story about the group.

“But there are some grassroots activists, who seem beyond the Republican party or the conservative movement, who wish to join the fray on social media for Trump and link shields and build momentum,” she wrote. “I met with a house load of them yesterday and we want a daily textable tool to start… Suggestions?”

Neither Ginni nor Clarence Thomas returned requests for comment.

Justice Thomas recused himself when the travel ban came up before the court.

Just kidding, of course. You may recall reading in late June of this year

The Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, delivering to the president on Tuesday a political victory and an endorsement of his power to control immigration at a time of political upheaval about the treatment of migrants at the Mexican border.

In a 5-to-4 vote, the court’s conservatives said that the president’s power to secure the country’s borders, delegated by Congress over decades of immigration lawmaking, was not undermined by Mr. Trump’s history of incendiary statements about the dangers he said Muslims pose to the United States.

This wasn't the first rodeo for Thomas & Thomas.   In June 2012 the US Supreme Court, with Justice Thomas in the minority, voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act (giving a critical boost to the re-election campaign of President Obama) but by 5-4 (with Thomas in the majority) struck down the ACA's Medicaid provision. A few days later US News & World Report found

...new financial forms show that Thomas's wife, Ginni, continued to rake in a profit from opposing healthcare reforms in 2011—even after she previously came under fire for doing so.

According to Thomas's 2011 financial disclosure report form, filed on May 15 and obtained Friday by Whispers, the Thomas’s invested up to $15,000 in the political lobbying firm Liberty Consulting, where Ginni Thomas continues to earn a salary and benefits. The firm lobbied actively against the healthcare law, according to liberal news magazine Mother Jones.

Ginni formed Liberty Consulting after she was criticized for her work at Liberty Central, a non-profit tea party organization that also lobbied against the health care law.

In March of this year, Liberty Central was the subject of a letter sent to the IRS by Common Cause, a nonprofit that works for government accountability. The letter argued that Liberty Central violated the proportionality rule for non-profits because the majority of its activities were designed to help Republican candidates.

Ginni later stepped down from Liberty Central, but her involvement in conservative politics extends beyond these two groups. Among Ginni's former employers is the Heritage Foundation, another vocal critic of the healthcare law. She also currently works as a “special correspondent” for the conservative website The Daily Caller.

In January 2011, Justice Thomas "inadvertently" left out information about his wife's employment, including earnings over the past 13 years that added up to as much as $1.6 milion.

Clarence Thomas was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate for a seat on the United States Supreme Court after lying repeatedly under oath about sexual harassment allegations.

Thomas committed perjury again and again to get put onto the Court and has since allied himself closely with the ideological interests of his wife as a lobbyist. Still, Jonathan Turley believes he should be treated as a celebrity because of his extraordinary accomplishments as a descendant of slaves.

The under-qualified Clarence Thomas testified before Judiciary that as a law student he had never discussed with anyone Roe v. Wade (!). He was nominated by George HW Bush for the Supreme Court precisely because he is black. Then confronted with the truth about his past, he attacked his accusers- who have since been vindicated- as committing "a high-tech lynching of an uppity Negro."

That remains a classic, and one of the most reprehensible, invocations of the race card, a remarkable case of deceit and arrogance.  If only Jonathan Turley were joking.

                                         HAPPY LABOR DAY

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Punch When Threatened

Even before Thug 45 was inaugurated, Politico's Josh Dawsey in an article entitled "Why Trump can't stop counter-punching" claimed "Trump romped through the presidential campaign as a counter-puncher and quoted former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer saying "sometimes he counter-punches too hard, and he hits himself."

Trump is approvingly referred to as a "counter-puncher" even in presence of evidence indicating the contrary. This past March, ABC News' Rick Klein wrote "when others get their own platform to respond- whether that's Stormy Daniels or David Shulkin- the counter-puncher may find himself pulling a punch or two."

But it now has become evident that he's not a counter-puncher.  On August 21, Vox explained

Before Trump started tweeting, Ohr, a former associate deputy attorney general (until December 2017), was largely anonymous to the general public. But within some conservative circles, his purported involvement in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign and possible Russian interference in the 2016 election has been the stuff of a great deal of theorizing over the past few months....

Now Ohr might lose his security clearance. He is facing a congressional hearing into what he knew about Christopher Steele and the dossier Steele helped to create. And Trump is repeatedly focusing attention on an employee within his own administration.

Ohr never tweeted about Donald Trump, never complained about the President, and had always maintained a low profile.  Consequently

Those who know Mr. Ohr seem perplexed that the president has singled him out. Co-workers and former associates describe him as a scrupulous government official who cares deeply about the Justice Department.

“He’s a small player in a bigger, broader stage here,” Mr. Swecker said. “I feel bad for him. I think he is well intentioned. I view him as someone who would never do anything malicious.”

Oona Hathaway, Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law at Yale Law School and Director of the Center for Global Legal Challenges at Yale Law School, acknowledges "Ohr has received so much unfortunate attention" in part because he is married to a Russian linguist who worked on opposition research on Trump for Fusion GPS. Moreover, when he was given "unverified, unflattering, and damaging information about" Trump, he relayed it to the FBI, which only in this Administration is considered a hanging offense.

However, in addition

For years, Ohr has made major contributions to U.S. government efforts to fight Russian organized crime. In 2006, he was one of several government officials who played a role in revoking the visa of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire and aluminum magnate, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin, and who has been tied to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.  Craig Unger, who has published a book on Trump’s ties to Russian organized crime, also recently claimed in a tweet on August 28 that Trump is punishing Ohr because he investigated Semion Mogilevich and “wld know abt RU Mafia laundering $$ thru Trump condos, RU Mafia ties w Kremlin, & Mafia operations run from Trump Tower.”

The President had no reason to counter-punch against someone who had not punched him. Rather, asHathaway recognizes, "anyone else who might hold information unflattering or inconvenient to the President" has been warned to "stay silent, keep it to yourself, don't do anything that might make the President look bad."

Ohr is quite familiar with Russian organized crime, which according to Craig Unger reports to the KGB.. Donald Trump comfortably played ball with La Cosa Nostra in the USA and with organized crime in Russia, which may have him "over a barrel."  While not a counter-puncher, Donald J. Trump is a puncher, and will do whatever possible to delegitimize Bruce Ohr.

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