There’s little to learn from the weekend’s flood of Charlottesville anniversary stories, except for this one, which has gotten almost no coverage: Rep. Tom Garrett, the Republican who represents Charlottesville in Congress, told CNN the FBI told him the Russians helped promote last year’s deadly Unite the Right rally.
“I sat in a closed session briefing — probably two months ago — about Charlottesville, with the director of the FBI amongst others, and asked if Russian intermeddling had do with fomenting the flames of what happened in Charlottesville,” he said. “I was told, ‘Yes, it did.’ I was asked if this was classified, they said, ‘No, it is not.’”
Pundits love to write columns speculating whether America’s institutions will prove capable of stopping Trump. Anne Applebaum, no liberal, points out that all kinds of institutions — banks, regulatory boards, prosecutors and courts —failed to deter his criminality during his business career of serial bankruptcies, so why wouldn’t he get the idea he’s invulnerable — and why do we think institutions will stop him now?
One of America’s institutions loves Trump — the poorly trained brownshirtsfolks at ICE. Long seen as the red-headed stepchild of law enforcement, the agency has embraced Trump’s agenda with a vengeance. Read Franklin Foer’s Atlantic story about ICE’s radicalization and see if you don’t think repeal and replace is the right solution.
I wouldn’t have seen this story if I hadn’t checked the weather radar maps yesterday. Flooding in central Pennsylvania has washed all sorts of debris down the Susquehanna River and into the Chesapeake Bay, which prompted a Maryland politician to complain about those filthy Pennsylvanians, which prompted Pennsylvania officials to chastise him for showing no sympathy for the people whose homes and belongings are now clogging up the bay. E pluribus unum, y’all.