The Things We Knew We Knew

Trump's first comments to the media since the release
of the Mueller report came with the Easter Bunny nearby

In the days since the release of the redacted Special Counsel's report drafted by Robert Mueller and his hand-picked dream team of investigators and prosecutors, a remarkable trove of disturbing information about a dysfunctional and dangerously authoritarian White House has been revealed to the public.

Among other things Trump directed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to lie and say it was him, and not Trump's idea, to fire former FBI director James Comey - as if anyone else in Washington would even consider such a flagrant overreach of power.

Or the stunning revelation of the extent of to which Vladimir Putin, and the extensive network operating on his behalf, went to in order to interfere in the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential elections (in favor of Trump) using proxies such as the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and a host of Russian cyber criminals.

Speaking of which, if you didn't catch 60 Minutes on Sunday night, please be sure to take a few minutes to check out Lesley Stahl's segment on the "unholy alliance" between Russian intelligence and the elusive Russian cyber criminals who operate on their behalf - and under their protection.

And how American intelligence (with the help of Microsoft and other private internet security firms) finally discovered the massive global hacking criminal enterprise of prolific Russian hacker Evgeniy Bogachev - it's truly disturbing.   

In his first comments directly to members of the press since the release of the Mueller report last Thursday, Trump mostly avoided any tough questions about the content of the report as he strutted about the South Lawn of the White House with the Easter Bunny during the annual WH Easter Egg Roll on Monday.

As the New York Times reported, the embattled POTUS did find time to assure a young child that the Wall was indeed on track, assuring the attendee, "Oh, it's happening. It's being built now." 

Lying White House Press Sec. Sarah Sanders 

Like many people, I'm still in the process of trying to make sense of the 448-page Mueller report.

I'm absorbing the conclusions of journalists as they sift through it, and I'm also in the painstaking process of reading through it myself.

But it's going to take time.

(By the way you can download the PDF from the DOJ Website for free.)

If you're interested in a quick overview of some of the more interesting revelations from the Mueller report that haven't gotten a whole lot of media coverage as of yet (including Don Junior's interaction with Wikileaks and Trump ordering former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller and then lie about it to the press) take a few minutes to listen to the first segment from Monday morning's Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC.

Aside from all the things in the report that were't public, one of the things that struck me was the sheer volume of things in the report that we basically already knew we knew.

Like the fact that the widely-despised White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has habitually lied to the press and the American people in a pathetic effort to put some kind of "spin" on the almost unceasing torrent of lies, partisan half-truths and assorted hogwash that spew out of Boss Trump's mouth and Twitter feed on a daily basis.

Even though she admitted under oath to Mueller that she lied about "countless" employees of the FBI disliking former FBI director James Comey, she's embarked on this bizarre press campaign to insist that she is not, in fact, the lying sack of shit she's proven herself to be.

We didn't need the Mueller report to know that Sanders was a liar, but it's important that there's now irrevocable proof that she is one.

Equally disturbing were the revelations that many top White House advisers simply ignored Trump's most bat-shit-crazy requests, knowing that his childlike attention span is so short, that he'd eventually just forget about it, pick up his phone to Tweet something and simply wander off to watch TV and eventually move on the next nut-job idea or proposal that popped into his head.

Again, these were things we knew we knew, but the Mueller report just now confirms it for the world (and history) to see - all these "known knowns" and efforts by a White House to manipulate the truth for nefarious reasons reminded me of the heady days of George W. Bush; when things that we knew we knew had far more deadly consequences.

Let's take a quick look back.

Ex-Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld's now-infamous
Pentagon press briefing February 12, 2002

By February 12, 2002 when the eclectic former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stepped to the Pentagon podium for a press briefing, it was just about five months to the day since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

There were many still-traumatized Americans anxious to see the U.S. government unleash its military to deliver righteous retribution to the terrorist networks responsible for the murder of innocent people on 9/11.

By the time Rumsfeld gave his now-infamous press briefing on February 12, 2002, the U.S. and a coalition of its allies including the United Kingdom had been engaged in combat operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan since October, 2001 - but the Bush White House had grander designs.

As we now know, an alignment of hawkish Neo-conservatives (Neo-Cons), reactionary politicians, murky think-tanks and corporations with ties to the defense industry complex and the oil industry were building a movement to support an invasion of Iraq under the false pretense that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a supporter of radical Islamic terrorists and possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) which (supposedly) posed a dire threat to security in the Mid-East and to the United States and its allies.

The White House and the Pentagon continued to push the false narrative that Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to the 9/11 attacks even though 11 of the 19 attackers were from Saudi Arabia.

But some members of Congress, intelligence agencies (both in the U.S. and in other nations), the press, members of the American public and people around the globe were highly skeptical about the existence of proof that tied Iraq to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

So on February 12, 2002, in response to a reporter questioning the lack of evidence proving that Hussein had, or would provide WMD's to terrorists, Donald Rumsfeld gave the following answer:

In 2003 ex-Sec. of State Colin Powell gave evidence of
WMD's CIA Dir. George Tenet (left) knew was false 

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. 

But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones." 

Rumsfeld wasn't alone in peddling false or unprovable "facts" to try and justify a military invasion of Iraq - on February 5, 2003 former Secretary of State Colin Powell famously took to the floor of the United Nations to present "evidence" that Iraq possessed WMD's.

As journalist Seymour Hersh detailed in a March 23, 2003 New Yorker article, former-CIA Director George Tenet knew that the widely-circulated claim about Iraq trying to buy 500 tons of Uranium Oxide from Niger to enrich for use in a nuclear weapon was not true - and not supported by fact.

Powell made that claim in front of the UN with Tenet sitting behind him (pictured above), a speech he has since called a "blot" on his lengthy public service record.

Sadly, after an estimated 655,000 casualties and trillions of American tax dollars spent on the Iraq War, we know all too well the devastating consequences of those lies.

Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman high-fives Russian
President Vladimir Putin at the 2018 G-20 summit

At the time Rumsfeld said that now-infamous quote above, many people mocked him for engaging in what some saw as a murky kind of double-speak - a slippery attempt to evade the growing criticism that there was no link between the 9/11 attacks and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

But the quote is paraphrased from engineers and scientists who'd used the term "known unknowns" decades before to describe inherent structural or system risks in aircraft.

Unforeseen dangers or catastrophic accidents which couldn't be mathematically predicted because they were unknown problems which had never appeared before.

Or, like the 9/11 terrorist attack, simply couldn't be imagined.

Personally I think Rumsfeld's quote helps to offer valuable perspective on the complex layers of the Mueller report - and what it reveals about the Trump campaign's murky connections with foreign governments including Russia, the Ukraine and Saudi Arabia. 

Unquestionably there are more layers yet to be revealed from the Mueller report, especially if the Democratic-controlled House is able to subpoena an un-redacted version.

The things we knew we knew about the Trump White House are certainly disturbing enough, but as Rumsfeld's quote suggests, it's the "unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know" that could prove to be the biggest threat to America's imperfect democracy.

And may just prove to be the undoing of the Trump presidency as well.

Lowering the Conservative Barr

Illustration of the human Adenovirus, one of several
causes of viral conjunctivitis, or pink eye

Saturday morning marked the first time in three weeks that I could swallow without grimacing in agony.

Now that might not register as significant in the eyes of the casual observer, but after battling one of the most persistent throat viruses I've ever been infected with, it feels like nothing short of a welcome milestone to me.

As if that unpleasant throat business wasn't enough, a nasty, viral pink eye infection decided to set up shop in my right eye too.

These unwelcome visitors made for some long and restless nights over the past three weeks.

It also made for more than a few missed days of work too; during which I went through boxes of tissues, took copious amounts of Ibuprofen and gargled with salt water so frequently my throat is still a little raw.

Even though my throat is better and the Polymyxin B Sulfate + Trimethoprim antibiotic eye drops have dispatched most of the pink eye, in the interest of recovery I decided to lay low this past weekend.

So my Saturday and Sunday mostly consisted of watching coverage of The Masters, a trip to the gym, cleaning my apartment, doing laundry and rewatching past seasons of Game of Thrones on HBO in preparation for the long awaited final season premiere on Sunday night.

Battling the aforementioned virus made me really recognize just how fortunate I am to have comprehensive health coverage through work - when you're healthy it's easy to look at one's paycheck and raise an eyebrow at the bi-monthly health insurance deductions.

But when I felt sick, I was able to pick up the phone and go see my primary care physician to find out what was going on - and know that my co-pay and prescription prices would be relatively cheap.

Attorney General Bob Barr testifying before a
House Appropriations subcommittee last week

Just knowing that put my mind at ease.

Aside from the obvious fact that pink eye (or conjunctivitis) is highly contagious and the most sensible thing from both a personal and public health standpoint was to start treating it as quickly as possible to minimize the chance of my spreading it to others.

As the Affordable Care Act stipulates, the ability to see a physician or qualified nurse to get a health issue evaluated and treated should be a basic, affordable right - because it's good for the health of the larger society as a whole.

That's part of what confuses me about the bizarre, politically partisan testimony of Attorney General Bob Barr last week in front of a House Appropriations subcommittee.

As part of the barrage of questions Trump's controversial AG pick faced on Capitol Hill last Tuesday during almost three hours of hearings on the budget of the Department of Justice for the coming fiscal year, Barr sent yet another signal that he intends to use the power of his office as a platform to promote the policy agenda of the Trump administration.

He basically testified that he thinks it's his job to attack the Affordable Care Act in court.

As David Lurie observed in his April 12th Slate article, last month the Department of Justice announced that it would no longer go to court to defend the ACA against the slew of mostly frivolous and legally-shaky lawsuits brought by a consortium of conservative special interest groups and at least 20 Republican attorneys general of "Red" states where Republicans control the legislatures and occupy the governor's mansions.

That decision came a year after the DOJ announced it would no longer defend whether the ACA's protections for those with preexisting medical conditions are constitutionally protected.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, one of 20
Republican AG's filing lawsuits against the ACA

Lurie's Slate piece notes that Barr's insistence on the DOJ now taking the unprecedented step of joining those lawsuits against the ACA, legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama, represents a dangerous and radical reinterpretation of the role of attorney general.

By definition, the attorney general of the United States is the head of the Department of Justice and the chief lawyer for the federal government.

In essence, he or she is charged with acting as the people's lawyer.

But because of Trump's (and other Republicans) obsession with dismantling the ACA, Bob Barr is now open about using the power of his office to attack a federal law (ACA) in court - with the help of Republican state attorneys general like the Obama-hating, right-wing Tea Party shill, Texas AG Ken Paxton (pictured above). *

* Texas Fun Fact! In 2015 Ken Paxton was criminally charged with working as an investment advisor without properly registering with the Texas State Securities Board - he violated Texas law by taking fees for soliciting clients for Mowery Capital Management - and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought civil charges against him as well. 

As Emma Platoff reported for the Texas Tribune, In January, 2019 Paxton's wife, Republican Texas State Senator Angela Paxton filed Senate Bill 860 which would empower the state AG's office to exempt certain individuals who market "innovative financial products or services" from having to register with the state board - meaning Paxton would be able to exempt himself and whoever he sees fit from a law he violated. 

It's as if Bob Barr is acting as a de facto attorney for Trump, eager to strip healthcare from millions of Americans to please his erratic new boss' vindictive impulses - rather than acting as the chief lawyer for the federal government to protect American's healthcare.

Trump greeting his new Attorney General slash
personal lawyer Bob Barr in the Oval Office 

It's not like Barr's political loyalty to the Republican Party and the Trump White House was some kind of state secret or anything.

After all this is the guy who wrote and sent an unsolicited 20-page memo to the DOJ back in June, 2018 criticizing the scope of the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections.

A peculiar document in which he also floated a constitutionally-shaky and remarkably broad few of Trump's executive privilege.

As ACLU staff attorneys Jonathan Hafetz and Brett Max Kaufman observed back in January,
Former Obama administration lawyer Marty Lederman critiqued Barr's unsolicited memo for "the notion that the president has 'absolute' and 'all-encompassing' constitutional authority over actions by executive branch officers in carrying out law enforcement powers given to them by Congress, including decisions about criminal investigation and prosecution."

Given such lofty views of presidential power, which essentially portray the president as some kind of untouchable wizard-king incapable of committing a crime by virtue of his office, is it any wonder Barr shot straight to the top of the short-list of candidates to replace the oft-maligned former AG Jeff Sessions?

Considering that Barr wrote his memo to the DOJ in June, 2018, and Trump fired Jeff Sessions four months later in November, 2018, the memo reads less like a rambling meditation on the scope of presidential power and more like a 20-page essay which could be subtitled, "Why Donald Trump Should Pick Me As the Next U.S. Attorney General."

In the wake of Barr's intentional slow-walking of the release of the Mueller report and his release of a wimpy 4-page summary of what he claimed were his own "principle conclusions" of the Mueller report, his confrontational views on using his office to try and dismantle the ACA could arguably be considered a brazen attempt at a distraction, or a two-pronged attack on the American people.

Perhaps it's both considering his brief, shifty tenure as AG.

The week before last Barr made vague assurances about releasing a redacted version of the report "next week" when he knew most members of Congress would be away from Washington on their annual 2-week Easter break.   

Today multiple media outlets claim a redacted version of the Mueller report will be released to both Congress and the public this Thursday - I'll believe that when I can read it.

In the meantime I'm just thankful that someone like Bob Barr can't take my healthcare away, as I lament the lowering of the bar at the Department of Justice.