monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Have you ever, and I do mean ever, seen such a collection of lying dirtbags as this crowd?

Top Commerce Department aides orchestrated NOAA’s Hurricane Dorian statement, House Science Committee chair says

A letter sent Thursday from the chair of the House Science Committee to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross reveals that it was the Commerce Department, not the leadership of its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that drafted a controversial NOAA statement on Sept. 6 that backed President Trump’s false statement about the path of Hurricane Dorian. That statement contradicted NOAA’s own meteorologists at a weather forecast office in Birmingham, Ala.
The unsigned statement has generated at least three investigations, including one by the Science Committee, another by NOAA’s chief scientist, as well as the Commerce Department’s inspector general. The new letter, from Committee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), contains previously unknown information about how that statement — which may have violated NOAA’s scientific integrity policy — was written...

Hillary is not relevant in today's political world.

The most serious, practical, pressing problem with politics as tribal conflict is the inability to draw moral lines against offensive, unethical and dangerous behavior. If our public life is reduced to the binary choice between one side that we think will save the country and another that will surely destroy it, then leaders from our side are always preferable, no matter what norms they violate or institutions they wreck. If the victory of our cultural team is all that matters, then the methods our leaders employ become secondary to the point of insignificance. And objecting to objectionable methods is seen as giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

This is a far cry from the intention of America’s founders and the habits of a healthy republic. Civic health is best measured by the strength and legitimacy of institutions, even when they produce outcomes we don’t like, and by the vigor of norms, even when unenforced by laws and penalties. A healthy republic depends on respect for the rights and dignity of citizens on the losing side of an election; on the ability of legislators to make rational compromises without being accused of ideological treason; and on officials who honor traditional, self-imposed limits on the exercise of their power.

These unwritten rules of the U.S. system have proved to be walls of paper, easily ripped through by President Trump. The United States has found a chief executive who intuitively understands and exploits the weaknesses of our constitutional order. He practices what theologians call antinomianism — the belief that grace absolves people of having to obey all moral rules. In this case, Trump views the grant of power in the 2016 election as the release of all constraints to his will. He has embraced a radical kind of freedom, involving freedom from norms of civility, inclusion and self-restraint. He has systematically tested the limits of his power and found almost no resistance from within his political coalition. He has fed the belief of his followers that only outcomes matter. Not character. Not institutions. Not moral behavior. Only outcomes — measured in court appointments, economic growth and the defeat of the other tribe.

The presence of this chaotic influence at the center of U.S. politics is now forcing the other players in the system to determine what limits — if any — they will place on their own support.

Members of Congress are facing a president disdainful of the role of the legislature in balancing the power of the executive branch. The White House counsel’s written response to the impeachment inquiry had all the respect and deference of a Rush Limbaugh riff. It signaled a legal strategy that is the culture war conducted by other means. As the administration resists subpoenas and refuses oversight — acting like the Nixon administration with less shame — will any elected Republicans stand up for the institution they belong to?

The constitutional balance of power assumes that all of the branches will actually defend their own rights and honor. If a president’s admitted cooperation with a foreign government to influence a presidential election is not a fair subject for congressional examination, then Congress has become a gilded doormat. If Republicans — in the interests of their political tribe — merely endorse Trump’s approach, they will be the husks and shells of legislators.

Conservative Christian supporters of the president will also be tested. Many of them — having postulated that the victory of the other side would be the effective end of America — have entirely lost the capacity to make moral judgments. Would they support the president if he did actually murder someone on Fifth Avenue? They have established no standard, no limited principle, by which they wouldn’t. In the struggle of the children of light against the children of darkness, who cares whether the leader of “our” side is a misogynist, a racist, a liar, a demagogue or a murderer? By teaching that victory is the only morality, many evangelical leaders seem to be enjoying the wild, antinomian party. But they are also bringing discredit to their faith and are being discredited in the eyes of the next generation.

The complete triumph of outcomes over process, of outcomes over character, of outcomes over institutions will produce a degraded politics that is dangerous to democracy itself. Republican supporters of Trump are now faced with urgent, unavoidable moral questions: Are there no limits? Are there no lines?

Democrats launch new impeachment offensive after White House refuses to cooperate

WASHINGTON — To circumvent White House efforts to impede the House impeachment inquiry, Democrats have launched a fresh offensive to bury the White House with numerous subpoenas and interview requests.

Democrats on Thursday issued a subpoena to Energy Secretary Rick Perry to produce documents related to President Donald Trump and the Ukraine. Perry led the U.S. delegation in May to the inauguration of Ukraine's president whose phone conversation with Trump is at the center of the House impeachment inquiry.

The lawmakers also issued a subpoena for testimony and documents to two associates of Giuliani who helped him in Ukraine, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas. They were requested to appear for depositions Thursday and Friday before Congress, but they were arrested Wednesday night and face charges tied to campaign finance violations.

Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., formally announced the impeachment inquiry last month, Democrats have so far issued eight subpoenas and requested documents from Vice President Mike Pence.

Others who have been subpoenaed include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani; White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; Defense Secretary Mark Esper; Russell Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget; and U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.

A number of these officials had failed to comply with previous requests from Congress to either appear for testimony before lawmakers or share relevant documents and communications.

In an attempt to further block Democrats from seeking information, the White House said Tuesday that it would not turn over internal documents about Ukraine, arguing that they won’t comply with what they consider to be an invalid investigation.

Democrats plan, as a result of the White House’s stonewalling, to deploy a new strategy by requesting interviews with former administration officials whom they believe have pertinent information. Some of the requests will not be announced publicly, the sources said.

Committee chairmen plan to target these former officials because the administration has already tried to silence people who still work under it. Sondland, for example, did not show up for the deposition that was scheduled Tuesday for him to deliver closed-door testimony after the State Department directed him not to speak to Congress.

Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is scheduled to testify behind closed doors for her deposition Friday, but because she still works for the State Department, it's possible she may not show up either. Two congressional sources involved with the impeachment inquiry told NBC News that, as of now, they are still expecting Yovanovitch to appear for her deposition before the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees.

Following Sondland’s absence, Democrats sent him a subpoena that ordered him to appear for a deposition Oct. 16.

Democrats believe that former administration officials, however, who are now private citizens, would not fall under the White House claims of executive privilege. Kurt Volker, who recently resigned as U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, testified before Congress last week, several days after he left the administration.

On Monday, Trump’s former Russia adviser, Fiona Hill, volunteered to meet in a closed-door session with several congressional committees. A letter addressed to Hill, obtained by NBC, requested that she turn over several documents that date back to January 2017.

Congress returns next week from a two-week recess and Democrats are expected to speed up their investigation that could lead them to filing articles of impeachment against the president. Two sources told NBC News that Pelosi will hold another caucuswide conference call Friday afternoon so rank and file members can receive an update about the impeachment inquiry.

Trump's former Russia aide set to give revealing testimony on Giuliani, Sondland

Fiona Hill’s appearance next week before Congress has stoked fear among people close to the president.

WASHINGTON — Fiona Hill, who was until recently President Donald Trump’s top aide on Russia and Europe, plans to tell Congress that Rudy Giuliani and E.U. ambassador Gordon Sondland circumvented the National Security Council and the normal White House process to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine, a person familiar with her expected testimony told NBC News.

Hill’s appearance next week before Congress has stoked fear among people close to the president, said a former senior White House official, given her central role overseeing Russia and Ukraine policy throughout most of the Trump administration.

Her plans to testify also pose a key test for whether congressional committees pursuing an impeachment inquiry can obtain testimony from other former officials who have left the administration, given the possibility that the White House may try to assert executive privilege to stop them from testifying.

Hill plans to say that Giuliani and Sondland side-stepped the proper process for accessing Trump on Ukraine issues, the person familiar with her expected testimony said, including circumventing John Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser until September.

More broadly, current and former officials say, a large Turkish military incursion into northern Syria will have the effect of removing the single greatest source of counterterrorism pressure against ISIS — a Kurdish force that has been crucial to defeating and containing the terror group

Trump ain't the country.

An explosion has caused a fire on an Iranian tanker near the coast of Saudi Arabia, Iranian media say.

The vessel, from Iran's national oil company (NIOC), was 60 miles (97km) from the Saudi port city of Jeddah.

The ship's two main storage tanks are said to have been damaged, causing an oil spill in the Red Sea, but no-one was injured and the spill is said to have been contained.

Iranian authorities said the cause of the incident is being investigated.

Initial media reports said the vessel was hit by missiles. But Iran's national tanker company (NITC) denied the claims, and said the fire had been put out and the oil spillage reduced to a minimum.

Iranian state TV identified the ship as the oil tanker Sinopa, but the NIOC later said it was another vessel named Sabiti.

A source at maritime analytics firm Windward told the BBC it was common for such ships to turn off their automatic identification system (AIS) trackers to avoid detection - often to evade international sanctions or harassment from Saudi Arabia.

Because of regulations, such vessels must turn their AIS back on close the Suez Canal. The Windward source said Sabiti was behaving unusually because it switched its AIS back on hundreds of miles from the Suez, after being "dark" for two months.
The incident came amid heightened tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Last month, 18 drones and seven cruise missiles hit a major oil field and processing facility in Saudi Arabia, which blamed Iran for the attack.

And US officials said Iran was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf in June and July, as well as attacks on another four tankers in May.

Iran denied involvement in all the incidents.

"It's like hell. I am afraid for all my family and everyone I know."

Sevinaz is from a town near Syria's border with Turkey that immediately came under heavy bombardment when the Turkish military and allied Syrian rebels launched an assault on Kurdish-led forces there on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Kurdish filmmaker and activist said repeated air and artillery strikes on the town - called Sere Kaniye by Kurds, and Ras al-Ain by Arabs - had forced her to flee with several members of her family.

"I am outside the town with my sick mother. My brother is inside. I have been informed that my cousin might have been martyred. There is no safe place for anybody," she told the BBC on Thursday morning, hours before rebels said the town was surrounded.

"I'm concerned about it being the last time that I see my city," she said.

Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said the aim of the military operation is to create a 32km (20-mile) deep "safe zone" along the Syrian side of the border and to resettle up to two million Syrian refugees there.

He has said he wants to push back from the Turkish border members of a Syrian Kurdish militia called the People's Protection Units (YPG). He insists the YPG is an extension of a rebel group that has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey and is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and EU.

The YPG, which denies the claim, is the dominant force in an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It has been the critical partner on the ground in Syria for the US-led multinational coalition against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).

Sevinaz dismissed Mr Erdogan's assertion that he wants "to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border, and to bring peace to the area".

"He's a liar and he wants the Kurds to be finished. And not just Kurds, because in Sere Kaniye and all the other cities it's not just Kurds who are living here," she said.

Sevinaz said she believed the SDF and YPG's fighters would do all they could to repel the Turkish assault, and that ultimately they would be victorious.

"They are the children of this land. They are our brothers and sisters," she explained. "Even with all the things that are happening and the silence from the world, I still believe that the right people will win."

Azad Cudi, a British-Iranian Kurd who is a sniper for the YPG, told the BBC on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from the border area in anticipation of a Turkish offensive felt "like a stab in the back".

The US military had previously attempted to avert a Turkish offensive on its Kurdish allies by setting up with the Turkish military a "security mechanism" in the border area. The YPG co-operated by dismantling fortifications.

"In August, we came to this 'security mechanism' agreement," Mr Cudi said. "Based on that, we withdrew. We destroyed the fighting positions which were built to fight the Turkish in case of an invasion and we handed them over to the Americans."

Mr Cudi said SDF forces were not equipped with the heavy machine-guns and anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons that they would need to repel a Turkish assault.

"But if there is no choice, there is no choice. We will fight back at all costs."

"There's been many, many letting down and abandoning Kurds in the past. This is what we say: 'We have no friends but the mountains,'" he added. "The United States, like any other state or any other government, will do whatever serves their own best interests. We know that."

He said Mr Trump and other US politicians had been "lied to" about the war with IS, and he expressed concern about the risk of thousands of suspected IS militants being detained in SDF prisons escaping if their guards came under attack by Turkey.

"[The war] is not finished, it is not over. We wouldn't do such a thing as losing prisoners, but imagine when things get tough and there is a war and you are fighting on many fronts. It will be practically difficult to control and manage these prisoners."

He added: "The Kurds are the only people who have fought [IS]. The Iraqi government and the Syrian government couldn't stand their attacks. We were the only ones who could resist them. With us being threatened, their hope for a new caliphate may grow again."

Sevinaz said she believed Turkey was also in contact with IS sleeper cells inside north-eastern Syria and would ask them to target the Kurds. On Wednesday, several IS militants reportedly attacked SDF posts in the region.

"I'm worried and I think soon that there will be lots more movement from them. They already did one [attack] next to Sere Kaniye, and... in Raqqa, and I think there will be more soon."

Turkey says it has made its military move in northern Syria to fight terrorism and that it wants to take the lead in fighting IS.

She also held out little hope of Mr Trump carrying out his threat to "totally destroy and obliterate" Turkey's economy if it does anything he considers to be "off limits".

"What does 'off limits' mean? They're already attacking everywhere," she said. "They don't care about civilians. They don't care about the middle of the cities.

"Donald Trump is going to do nothing. He cares about money. He doesn't care about the 11,000 people who [died] while fighting and resisting against IS."

Sevinaz insisted that she would not flee to another part of Syria. "I will not move from Rojava. I will never move," she said, using the Kurdish name for the north-east of the country.

Instead, she called for people across the world to make clear to their governments their anger at the situation.

"The states do not care about us. The states didn't care about bringing their [foreign] IS prisoners back to their countries. The states didn't care about us being under threat for a long, long time," she added. "It is the time for the voices of the people, who believe in freedom, who believe in human rights."