… Read the restEuropean governments, preparing for a round of major summits with Donald Trump next week, are wary.
I spent much of the past week speaking with officials and cabinet ministers in Europe. All they wanted to talk about was Trump. Here, in summary, are the most frequent remarks I heard, in rough order of frequency:
1. Trump is unstable, and we’re not going to count on anything he says or commits to.
2. Trump doesn’t support NATO or European integration.
3. Trump is actively encouraging racist nationalists in our country.
4. Trump is allied with Putin to bring Europe down.
5. There’s no doubt Trump worked with Putin to win the U.S. presidential election.
6. If
All entries by this author
We remember fascism
May 19th, 2017 11:43 am | By Ophelia BensonCEU progress report
May 19th, 2017 11:38 am | By Ophelia BensonCEU PROGRESS REPORT FROM MICHAEL IGNATIEFF
Mixed progress. Hungarian government intransigent.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This has been a week of disappointment and promise. The chief disappointment was this week’s meeting with the Hungarian inter-ministerial working group, the first official face-to-face encounter with the government side since the passage of lex CEU. We came to the meeting hoping that the government would begin talks, but the government side made it clear that they will not negotiate with CEU. They also were unwilling to answer the simplest questions about the law’s operation following the first deadline for compliance on October 11. While we are always willing to talk to the government, further meetings of this kind are … Read the rest
Just conversations between friends
May 19th, 2017 10:49 am | By Ophelia BensonAnother Times piece that made a splash yesterday: Michael Schmidt on Comey’s uncomfortable relations with Trump.
President Trump called the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, weeks after he took office and asked him when federal authorities were going to put out word that Mr. Trump was not personally under investigation, according to two people briefed on the call.
Mr. Comey told the president that if he wanted to know details about the bureau’s investigations, he should not contact him directly but instead follow the proper procedures and have the White House counsel send any inquiries to the Justice Department, according to those people.
It’s Trump, so it’s not a surprise, but it is. How can he be dumb enough … Read the rest
One lol too many
May 19th, 2017 8:35 am | By Ophelia BensonUpdating to add a new batch:
https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/status/865599993716948992
Ah well as long as it’s only cishetero white people she’s calling cockroaches that’s fine.
No it isn’t. The Hutus saw the Tutsis as oppressors too; the Nazis saw the Jews as all-powerful and oppressive; othering dehumanizing language is not always aimed downward.
https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/status/865600185627426817
That’s a peculiarly dense question. Historically, “cockroach” has been a racist epithet, but the word isn’t inherently limited as such. It’s a fungible epithet; it works to dehumanize anyone.
______________________________________
Zoé Samudzi says it’s fine to call people cockroaches.
https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/status/865569692097724416
https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/status/865570989366575104
It’s not “fake” and it’s not “offended.” She sounds like Rush Limbaugh. It’s a principled criticism of using othering language like that, with a note of the way … Read the rest
O the disunity
May 18th, 2017 5:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonTrump thinks all this is just terrible, because it makes us look Not United.
“I believe it hurts our country terribly, because it shows we’re a divided, mixed-up, not-unified country,” Mr Trump told CNN and CNBC .
Huh. That’s funny, because his campaign was all about how divided and not-unified we are, and also all about making us more so. His whole shtick is Us versus Them. Drain the swamp; the people versus the experts; good people versus bad hombres; real Murkans versus scary immigrants; real voters versus fake voters; Trump versus women he dislikes. His inaugural address was about what a toilet the country is. His tweets are all about the press as enemies of the people … Read the rest
Flynn didn’t hesitate
May 18th, 2017 5:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonI missed this item in the torrent of news yesterday: Flynn sandbagged a military plan that Turkey didn’t like, having quietly banked the half million dollars Turkey had paid him.
… Read the restThe decision came 10 days before Donald Trump had been sworn in as president, in a conversation with President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, who had explained the Pentagon’s plan to retake the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa with Syrian Kurdish forces whom the Pentagon considered the U.S.’s most effective military partners. Obama’s national security team had decided to ask for Trump’s sign-off, since the plan would all but certainly be executed after Trump had become president.
Flynn didn’t hesitate. According to timelines distributed by
A stalwart ally
May 18th, 2017 4:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonWASHINGTON — Supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, including his government security forces and several armed individuals, violently charged a group of protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence here on Tuesday night in what the police characterized as “a brutal attack.”
Eleven people were injured, including a police officer, and nine were taken to a hospital, the Metropolitan Police chief, Peter Newsham, said at a news conference on Wednesday. Two Secret Service agents were also assaulted in the melee, according to a federal law enforcement official.
The State Department rebuked Turkey.
… Read the restPhotos and videos posted on social media by witnesses showed a chaotic scene of flying fists, feet and police batons — all
Like the cockroaches they are
May 18th, 2017 12:04 pm | By Ophelia BensonVia Brian Leiter – there’s this piece that Zoé Samudzi wrote a few days ago. I saw it and skimmed it at the time, but was too fed up with her to blog it, so I missed what Brian quotes:
… Read the restBoth Dolezal and Tuvel demonstrate the infallibility and virtuosity of cis white womanhood: despite the harm they enact, they are still always worthy of understanding, protection, kid-gloves…It is not enough to simply hope that Dolezal, or any other career appropriator, simply disappears. As long as there is a structural and systemic investment in discrediting gender non-conforming and Black identities and subordinating the understandings they possess, these gaslighting genealogies that define and regulate humanity will continue, and the Dolezals of
Hypatia’s statement
May 18th, 2017 11:30 am | By Ophelia BensonThe Board of Directors of Hypatia has issued a statement which is published at Daily Nous.
… Read the restThe Board of Directors of Hypatia would like to clarify the nature of the controversy, since there are misrepresentations in the press and on social media. Further, we would like to articulate the principles we are committed to as we move forward beyond this controversy.
1. The Board acknowledges the intensity of experience and convictions around matters of intersectionality, especially in the world of academic philosophy, which has an egregious history of treatment of women of color feminists and feminists from other marginalized social positions. To those unfamiliar with the issues, outrage about a particular academic publication is often dismissed as nothing more
He’s a human Failure to Read the User’s Manual
May 18th, 2017 10:09 am | By Ophelia BensonAlexandra Petri on what Trump is.
… Read the restThe Trump presidency is the discovery that what you thought was a man in a bear suit is just a bear. Suddenly the fact that he wouldn’t play by the rules makes total sense. It wasn’t that he refused to, that he was playing a long game. It was that he was a wild animal who eats fish and climbs trees, and English words were totally unintelligible to him. In retrospect, you should have suspected that after he just straight-up ate a guy. But at the time everyone cheered. It was good TV. Also, he was your bear.
…
Who can help? The people in there with him are the people who did
Sir yes sir
May 18th, 2017 9:50 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump knew Flynn was under investigation when he hired him. As his national security adviser.
Michael T. Flynn told President Trump’s transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign, according to two people familiar with the case.
Despite this warning, which came about a month after the Justice Department notified Mr. Flynn of the inquiry, Mr. Trump made Mr. Flynn his national security adviser. The job gave Mr. Flynn access to the president and nearly every secret held by American intelligence agencies.
So does that seem like a wise and responsible move? No it does not.
… Read the restMr. Flynn’s disclosure, on Jan. 4, was
What we say v what we do
May 18th, 2017 9:20 am | By Ophelia BensonThe Times a couple of days ago on Bashir’s invitation to the Saudi summit.
If President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan attends the meeting this weekend with Mr. Trump, human rights advocates said, it would be a destructive breach of longstanding American policy.
The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court but has long sought to ostracize defendants who defy the court’s arrest warrants, including Mr. Bashir, who has led Sudan for nearly three decades.
He was indicted in 2009 and 2010 on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur region. In refusing to honor the indictments, he has come to symbolize impunity toward the Hague-based court.
The White House … Read the rest
Road trip
May 18th, 2017 9:00 am | By Ophelia BensonSaudia Arabia still loves Donnie Twoscoops. They’re excited about his trip.
… Read the restThe Saudis have internationalized the event, organizing a sprawling “Arab Islamic American Summit” with leaders from dozens of Muslim countries, as well as talks with the king, the inauguration of a counterterrorism center, and public forums for business executives and young people.
Saudi Arabia, home to some of Islam’s holiest sites, will be pulling out all the stops for a man who has declared “Islam hates us” and said the United States is “losing a tremendous amount of money” defending the kingdom.
But Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies were so angry over former President Barack Obama’s policies toward the Middle East that they appear prepared to
Donnie Twoscoops is back
May 18th, 2017 7:55 am | By Ophelia BensonThey let Donnie have his phone back for a bit. He managed two tweets.
This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2017
Well no, because it’s not a witch hunt at all. It’s an investigation, authorized by the Acting Attorney General (because the compromised Attorney General had to recuse himself), and overseen by a former FBI head.
Is Donnie Twoscoops being unfairly singled out by mean bad people who are just jealous of how awesome and huge he is?
No. Donnie Twoscoops is corrupt and incompetent and reckless, and there is plenty to investigate.
… Read the restWith all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign
Trump’s Waco
May 17th, 2017 4:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Times reports a lot of fervent endorsement of the choice of Mueller as Special Counsel.
… Read the restMembers of both parties view Mr. Mueller as one of the most credible law enforcement officials in the country. He served both Democratic and Republican presidents, from 2001 to 2013, and was asked by President Barack Obama to stay on beyond the normal 10-year term until Mr. Comey was appointed.
…
“He’s an absolutely superb choice,” said Kathryn Ruemmler, a former prosecutor and White House counsel under Mr. Obama. “He will just do a completely thorough investigation without regard to public pressure or political pressure.”
She added: “I cannot think of a better choice.”
John S. Pistole, who served as the F.B.I.’s deputy director
As Kelly laughed
May 17th, 2017 4:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Post on some high points today:
… Read the restRep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House minority leader, praised the pick of Robert Mueller as a special prosecutor, calling him a “a respected public servant of the highest integrity.”
She said that did not go as far, however, as the creation of an independent commission. Pelosi said that would be more free of the Trump administration.
“The Trump Administration must make clear that Director Mueller will have the resources and independence he needs to execute this critical investigation,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was more positive, though [he] echoed Pelosi’s praise of Mueller.
“Former Director Mueller is exactly the right kind of individual for this
Meet the new special counsel
May 17th, 2017 3:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Justice Department on Wednesday appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to oversee the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including potential collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to the position in a letter obtained by CNN.
Sessions of course has recused himself, and occasionally remembers that he has.
As special counsel, Mueller is “authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters,” according to the Justice Department order Rosenstein signed.
Mueller was Bush Junior’s FBI Director and stayed on in the Obama admin until 2013, when Comey took over.… Read the rest
Things will work out just fine
May 17th, 2017 12:33 pm | By Ophelia BensonDon from the outer boroughs gave a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy just now. He talked about himself.
President Donald Trump, amid his own swirling controversies, advised United States Coast Guard Academy graduates that while things aren’t always fair, “you have to put your head down and fight, fight, fight.”
The comment was a clear reference to the fact that Trump’s White House is now besieged by bipartisan questions about his alleged request that former FBI Director James Comey to halt an investigation into his former top national security aide.
“Never, never, never give up. Things will work out just fine,” he said in New London, Connecticut, Wednesday.
Right. Good advice. Always assume you’re right, no matter … Read the rest
He keeps reading if he’s mentioned
May 17th, 2017 12:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonTrump has to go Abroad now. He’s not the most cosmopolitan head of state we’ve ever seen, so it may be difficult for him. His aides have been working hard to prepare him.
White House advisers insisted Trump was up to speed on the Middle East, having already hosted Arab, Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the White House.
“His way of doing diplomacy, which really contrasts with President Obama’s approach, is to … prioritize the personal relationship,” said Michael Singh, a foreign policy adviser to former Republican President George W. Bush.
In other words his way of doing diplomacy contrasts with the sane adult approach. The personal relationship is largely beside the point, even though a good one doubtless … Read the rest
