Duck, Duck, Tape

Immigrant Update:  Yesterday Melania’s parents became US citizens, beneficiaries of the chain migration that Trump hates and has promised to eliminate.  While the Knavs were taking their citizenship oath, an El Salvadoran woman name Carmen and her child were being hustled onto a plane headed to El Salvador having just been deported even though Emmet Sullivan, the Federal judge hearing their immigration case, had stayed their deportation until midnight.  Sullivan, who is also hearing the cases of eight other women challenging a recent policy change put into place by Attorney General Session, one that removes credible fear of domestic violence from the list of acceptable reasons to be granted refugee status, became enraged upon learning that Carmen and her child had been deported despite his stay.  He demanded that their plane be turned around immediately and threatened to hold Attorney General Sessions in contempt for the government’s actions.  Although the plane wasn’t turned around, Carmen and her daughter were flown back to the US last night and are now in a US detention facility pending the judge’s decision on their status and Sessions policy change.  It’s also worth noting that 572 of the children separated by the administration under the “zero tolerance” policy remain in limbo, mostly because the location of their parents, many of whom have already been deported, remains unknown because no one in the Department of Homeland Security had given any thought to reunification procedures at the time that the families were separated.  None of that concerns Ingraham Angle’s Laura Ingraham who earlier this week used her Fox platform to complain about all kinds of immigration, or at least all kinds of non-white immigration by saying that the “American that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore” due to “massive demographic changes …. foisted upon the American people and they’re changes that none of us ever voted for and most of us don’t like. From Virginia to California, we see stark examples of how radically in some ways the country has changed. Now, much of this is related to both illegal and in some cases, legal immigration that, of course, progressives love.” Ingraham is right about one thing, America has changed, instead of welcoming immigrants, people like her are now getting paid millions to trash them, Trump is in office, and Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions are dictating immigration policy.  As to chain migration, apparently it’s still fine as long as the beneficiaries are white Europeans with very wealth daughters.

Lordy, More Tapes:  You’d think by now that politicians would realize that given the proliferation of smart phones with taping capabilities they ought to be a little more careful when they speak, especially when speaking to groups of people at fundraisers where the only criteria for entrance is a somewhat modest sized check.  That message hasn’t made it to House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, one of Trump’s favorites co-conspirators, who got caught speaking a little too frankly during a fundraiser for one of his colleagues, Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the fourth most senior member of Republican House leadership.  The now not so secret tape of his remarks made it to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s show on Wednesday night and then into the hands of virtually every other news outlet. Few are surprised that Nunes dissed the Mueller investigation into Russian meddling and Trump team collusion, he’s been doing that for quite a while.  However, it was alarming that he said that the only reason that the House isn’t moving forward with the impeachment of Mueller’s boss Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein now is to avoid getting in the way of the Senate’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.  He told the audience that despite reports to the contrary most of his Republican colleagues are on board for getting rid of Rosenstein and Mueller and then ditching the whole Russia investigation because they all realize that the investigation presents a clear and present danger to Trump’s presidency and their continued control of Congress. Although it’s not clear that Nunes speaks for all of his Republican colleagues, it is notable that McMorris Rodgers, a member of House leadership, didn’t contradict his assertions, but then again her reelection appears to be encountering headwinds and she can’t afford, or isn’t willing to risk her position by speaking out.  Nor did she say anything when Nunes rather candidly admitted that if he, a person of Portuguese descent, accepted information about a political opponent from Portugal he’d probably be violating the law, an odd comment to be made by the same guy who says that taking dirt from the Russians is not a bigly deal.  Separately, Republican Congressman Goodlatte, chairman of the  House Judiciary Committee, another man whose position depends on the Republicans keeping control of Congress, is preparing to issue some subpoenas of his own to the Justice Department, the FBI and anyone who had anything to do with the infamous Steele Dossier because he wants to prove that the dossier was just another one of those dark state efforts to unseat Trump. As to taping, it looks like another one of Trump’s one time loyalists has taped a few of their conversations.  This time the person with the tapes is Omarosa Manigault, the former Apprentice, long time Trump BFF and one time senior White House aide.  In her tell all book, which is due out momentarily, she asserts that Trump’s mental capacities have declined notably since she first met him.  Though her tapes aren’t likely to contain legally incriminating information, they may still be revealing and are probably quite embarrassing.  The White House says that Trump didn’t expect such a betrayal from Omarosa, which in itself may provide proof of her assertion about his deteriorating mental acuity because anyone who ever watched Omarosa’s performance on the Apprentice should have known that this was coming.   

Manafort’s Morass:  Yesterday, Judge Ellis, the ornery judge presiding over Manafort’s Virginia trial started the day by kind of apologizing for chastising the prosecution team for having one of their witnesses, an IRS official, sit in the audience for all of the Manafort trial. Ellis only apologized because prosecutors, rightfully disturbed by being called out in front of the jury, had “reminded” him overnight that he had previously granted permission for the IRS official to be in attendance for all of the trial sessions.  Ellis’s erratic behavior is reminiscent of a judge from an old episode of Law & Order, the one where actress Sherry Stringfield plays a clerk who gets into trouble for covering up for the advancing dementia of her boss.  Unfortunately this is real life, and other than discretely pointing out his inconsistencies, there is little that Mueller’s prosecution team can do about Ellis and his oddly “biased” behavior.  As to the case, yesterday prosecutors put Rick Gates’ testimony behind them and went back to showing evidence of Manafort’s illegal activities to the jury, calling an Airbnb representative in to relay that Manafort had rented out one of his luxurious properties on their site, a property that he had financed by fraudulently telling a bank that it was used only as a primary residence.  Later Judge Ellis continued with a few more inappropriate interjections, pushing prosecutors to rush through some more testimony and questioning why it mattered that Manafort had tried to get another one of those illegal loans if at the end of the day the loan in question was rejected.  Prosecutors are expected to rest their case today with more testimony about the Secretary of the Army position that was dangled in front of a Chicago bank CEO in exchange for $16 million in loans. Next week will be all about the defense’s case, it’s unlikely that Judge Ellis will be equally dismissive to defense counsel because unlike the prosecution, Manafort’s lawyers could turn mistreatment to their advantage, citing it as a basis for an appeal when or if Manafort is convicted.  In other Mueller related news, Randy Credico, an eccentric character, one with ties to both long time Trump associate Roger Stone and WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, who had refused to sit down for a voluntary conversation with Mueller’s team, is expected to be subpoenaed shortly.  And reports are that Kimba Wood, the special master who had been tasked with reviewing Michael Cohen’s files, has finally finished her work, and that the cleared files, which include most of the files, have been turned over to the Federal investigators looking into Cohen’s activities.  I don’t know about you, but it’s Friday, it’s August and I feel like it’s time for more indictments.