You may have seen the obituaries today for the famed Israeli writer and activist Amos Oz. Read those for insights into his fiction, non-fiction writing, activism. There’s another part of this story that resonates with me. Amos Oz wasn’t born Amos Oz. The name change itself isn’t that strange for Israelis of his generation. Many were hebraizing their names. Ehud Barak was born Ehud Brog for instance. There are countless other examples. But for Oz this came with a deeper rebellion and transformation. Oz was born in Jerusalem in 1939 as Amos Klausner.
TPM is pleased to announce the winners of the 12th Annual Golden Dukes Awards, which honor the public figures who managed the most corruption, made the craziest comments, and carried out the most craven deeds, all in the spirit of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the father of the modern political scandal.
That story out of Alabama raises an important question. Once we have figured out just the scope of what Russia was doing in the 2016 election cycle (and going forward) we need to grapple with the fact that there are lots of entities offering and already providing these services to the highest bidder. The fact that Russia’s 2016 operation was mounted by a hostile foreign government coordinating with the beneficiary campaign is a huge, central issue. But it’s not the only issue.
A very interesting snippet from yesterday’s traveling press pool …
Response to question on how the U.S. withdrawal from Syria will impact Israel:
Trump: “I don’t see it that way. I spoke with Bibi. I told Bibi, you know we give Israel 4.5 billion dollars a year. And they are doing very well at defending themselves.”
“We’ll always be there for Israel.”
“I’m the one that moved the embassy to Jerusalem. I was the one who was willing to do that”
“So that’s the way it is we are going to take great care of Israel. Israel is going to be good. We give Israel 4.5 billion a year. And we give frankly a lot more than that if you look at the books. They’ve been doing a good job.”
Here’s a remarkable detail about the present government shutdown. The Department of Homeland Security prepared a “to whom it may concern” letter to employees to forward to their creditors. It essentially asks banks, credit card companies and any other creditors to take pity on their employees who can’t cover their debt obligations while they are not being paid. The letter concludes by thanking creditors “for your patience and compassion towards our employees during this time.”
This is a good article on Trump’s ties to Russia. It’s not about collusion per se or really anything that happened during the 2016 election. It’s about the backstory, things that happened as far back as the 1990s. If you’ve read up on this subject, a lot will be familiar. But Michael Hirsch has added some new reporting about the backstory and the what congressional investigators who get started next month are going to be interested in. More than anything he does a good job of weaving together all the disparate elements of the story.
Casting about for a last-minute gift idea for a news-obsessed friend or family member? Perhaps a TPM gift subscription — providing access to daily, members-only articles, and supporting the work we do — would brighten their holiday season.
Earlier this month, Tierney Sneed reported from Washington, D.C.’s federal courthouse that staff were “doing everything they could” to “make sure a secret case believed to be related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe stayed secret.”
We still don’t know much about that legal dispute, beyond that an unknown foreign company is fighting (and has been losing its attempts) to quash a subpoena which may come from Mueller.
But, Tierney Sneed reports this morning, the case has arrived at the Supreme Court. Read more here.
With Christmas and New Year’s upon us, I thought I would give some book recommendations. As always a few caveats and explanations about my criteria. I almost never read political books or any books about the contemporary world. I read history almost exclusively and usually at least a few centuries in the past. My criteria are deeply subjective. The books I recommend ones that held my attention to the end (most don’t), books I found engrossing and from which I learned new things. A number of the books below I’ve recommended before. Others are new.
North Carolina election officials asked feds to indict accused vote fraudster Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. more than a year ago. But nothing happened.
The Republican House candidate whose unofficial victory in a North Carolina race has been called into a question with an ongoing election fraud investigation won’t be seated with the new Congress next week, incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer confirmed to Charlotte’s WSOC-TV Friday.
A secret legal dispute over a grand jury subpoena believed to be linked to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has made its way to the Supreme Court, with Chief Justice John Roberts on Sunday night putting on pause a contempt order in the case.
Michael Cohen continued to claim that he has never been to Prague in a tweet on Thursday, hours after McClatchy reported that foreign intelligence services have data that places Cohen’s cellphone in the Czech capital in the summer of 2016:
I hear #Prague #CzechRepublic is beautiful in the summertime. I wouldn’t know as I have never been. #Mueller knows everything!
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) December 27, 2018
Based on the latest notice from House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) that there are no anticipated votes in the House this week, it seems that the shutdown will drag on until the Democrats take control of the chamber.
From a Washington Post reporter:
An acknowledgement of what was becoming clear: Barring a miracle, this shutdown won’t end until Dems take over the House pic.twitter.com/Bf10JN7F9z
— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) December 27, 2018
Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg would spend at least $100 million of his own money — the amount he spent on his last bid for NYC mayor — if he decides to run for president in 2020, according to a Thursday CNBC report.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attacked CNN on Thursday over a report that President Trump signing “Make America Great Again” hats may have violated a rule against troops participating in political activities. Sanders tweeted in response:
CNN will attack anyone who supports President Trump, including the brave men and women of our military who fight everyday to protect our freedom https://t.co/x6VjuUJFdF
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 27, 2018
AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq (AP) — President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Wednesday, leaving behind a partially shuttered U.S. government to greet American troops helping hold off extremists in a country where thousands of Americans died during the recent war.
President Trump and the First Lady traveled to Iraq late on Christmas night to visit with our troops and Senior Military leadership to thank them for their service, their success, and their sacrifice and to wish them a Merry Christmas. pic.twitter.com/s2hntnRwpw
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 26, 2018
It comes a week after Trump stunned his national security advisers by announcing that he would withdraw U.S. troops from neighboring Syria where they have been fighting Islamic State militants. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly resigned following the announcement, and Trump’s decision rattled allies around the world, including in Iraq.
Trump’s trip was shrouded in secrecy. Air Force One flew overnight from Washington, landing at an airbase west of Baghdad under the cover of darkness Wednesday evening. It is his first visit with troops stationed in a troubled region.
Fifteen years after the 2003 invasion, the U.S. still has more than 5,000 troops in Iraq supporting the government as it continues the fight against remaining pockets of resistance by the Islamic State group. IS has lost a significant amount of territory in Iraq and Syria but is still seen as a threat.
Trump, who speaks often about his support for the U.S. military, had faced criticism for not yet visiting U.S. troops stationed in harm’s way as he comes up on his two-year mark in office. He told The Associated Press in an interview in October that he “will do that at some point, but I don’t think it’s overly necessary.” He later began to signal that such a troop visit was in the offing.
Trump had planned to spend Christmas at his private club in Florida, but stayed behind in Washington due to the shutdown. It’s unclear whether his trip to Iraq was added after it became apparent that the government would be shut down indefinitely due to a stalemate between Trump and congressional Democrats over the president’s demand for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Adding to the tumult, the stock market has been experiencing heavy losses over concerns about a slowing global economy, Trump’s trade war with China and the president’s public slamming of the Federal Reserve and its chairman over interest rate hikes by the independent agency.
Trump’s visit comes at a time when his Middle East policy is in flux. He went against the views of his top national security advisers in announcing the Syria withdrawal, a decision that risks creating a vacuum for extremists to thrive.
There are dire implications in particular for neighboring Iraq. The Iraqi government now has control of all the country’s cities, towns and villages after fighting its last urban battles against IS in December 2017. But its political, military and economic situation remains uncertain, and the country continues to experience sporadic bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, which most people attribute to IS.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi recently said Iraqi troops could deploy into Syria to protect Iraq from threats across its borders. Iraq keeps reinforcements along its frontier to guard against infiltration by IS militants, who hold a pocket of territory along the Euphrates River.
Trump campaigned for office on a platform of ending U.S. involvement in foreign trouble spots, such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Syria decision will ultimately affect all of the approximately 2,000 troops deployed in the war-torn country. The Pentagon is also said to be developing plans to withdraw up to half of the 14,000 American troops still serving in Afghanistan.
During the presidential campaign, Trump blamed Democrat Hillary Clinton for the rise of IS, due to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 during her tenure as secretary of state.
President George W. Bush is the one who set the 2011 withdrawal date as part of an agreement with the Iraqi government to gradually shrink the U.S. footprint and slowly hand off security responsibilities to the government and Iraqi security forces.
His successor, President Barack Obama, wanted to leave a residual force in Iraq to help the government manage ongoing security challenges. But he ultimately went ahead with the scheduled pullout in 2011 after Iraqi’s political leaders rejected terms the U.S. sought for legal protections for the U.S. troops that would have remained.
Two of Trump’s recent predecessors visited Iraq early in their terms.
Bush visited Iraq in November 2003, about eight months after that conflict began. Due to security concerns, Bush waited until 2006 to make his first visit to Afghanistan.
Obama visited Iraq in April 2009, the first year of his eight years in office, as part of an overseas tour. He visited Afghanistan in 2010.
Vice President Mike Pence visited Afghanistan in December 2017, not long after Trump outlined a strategy to break the stalemate in America’s longest war. Pence met with Afghan leaders and visited with U.S. troops stationed in the country. Trump has not visited Afghanistan.
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Associated Press writer Philip Issa contributed to this report.
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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been discharged from the hospital after undergoing surgery to remove cancerous nodules from her lungs, according to a Wednesday CNN report.
She is reportedly recuperating at home.
Per multiple reports:
Now in Schumer’s office:
VP Pence
Mick Mulvaney
Jared Kushner— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) December 21, 2018
Drama City: Pence, Mulvaney and Kushner meeting with Schumer
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) December 21, 2018
This is interesting: Pence, Kushner & Mulvaney are now meeting with Schumer in the Capitol.
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) December 21, 2018
The Democrats now own the shutdown!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2018
Pelosi: "The President of the United States prefers to shut government down." pic.twitter.com/wHyhcTpcWH
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 20, 2018
Farm Bill signing in 15 minutes! #Emmys #TBT pic.twitter.com/KtSS17xvIn
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2018