The Commentariat -- November 10, 2019

Afternoon Update:

GOP Prepares Looney-Tunes Trump Defense. Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Saturday offered the latest glimpse of their strategy to fight against impeachment by demanding testimony from figures at the center of President Trump's favorite unsubstantiated theories: the son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a researcher loosely connected to an anti-Trump dossier, a Democratic official and a board member of a Ukrainian energy company. Rather than shy away from conspiracies that Mr. Trump's own government has repeatedly disavowed or played down, the Republicans' requests suggest their willingness to conduct a scorched-earth strategy as they respond to nearly a month of blockbuster revelations about pressure campaigns involving military aid, diplomatic shakedowns and rogue actions by the president's personal lawyer.... At the same time, the party is preparing to vigorously contest the Democratic case for impeachment on its own terms, people familiar with the plans said."

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Two of President Trump's senior advisers undermined and ignored him in what they claimed was an effort to 'save the country,' former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley claims in a new memoir. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly sought to recruit her to work around and subvert Trump, but she refused, Haley writes in a new book, 'With All Due Respect.'... 'Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren't being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,' Haley wrote. 'It was their decisions, not the president's, that were in the best interests of America, they said. The president didn't know what he was doing,' Haley wrote of the views the two men held.... In the book, which was obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its release Tuesday, Haley offers only glancing critiques of her former boss, saying she and others who worked for Trump had an obligation to carry out his wishes since he was the one elected by voters."

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "National security adviser Robert O'Brien on Sunday defended the U.S. response to Turkey's incursion into northern Syria, adding that the Trump administration is 'very upset' about Ankara's purchase of Russian missiles.... O'Brien said on CBS's 'Face the Nation,' ... that 'there will likely be sanctions' if Turkey does not 'get rid of' the weapons.' 'There's no place in NATO for the S-400 [missile defense system], there's no place in NATO for significant Russian military purchases, and that's a message that the president will deliver to [President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] very clearly when he's here in Washington,' O'Brien added. O'Brien similarly said the U.S. remains 'very concerned' about possible Turkish war crimes in northern Syria, insisting 'we're not rewarding the behavior, the president put on sanctions.' Host Margaret Brennan noted, however, that the sanctions were lifted after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Turkey and Kurdish forces." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump talks turkey to Erdogan this week, it will be a first. More likely, Trump with slobber all over Erdogan, who is on Trump's top-ten list of favorite autocratic world leaders.

Rishika Dugyala of Politico: "The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doesn't see a clear end to the American presence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria -- nations facing down the threat of the Islamic State and other dangerous groups. Gen. Mark Milley on Sunday said the mission to ensure Afghanistan isn't a terrorist haven is 'not yet complete.' That mission won't be complete until the country's government and security forces are able to sustain their own internal security, he added.... Milley said Sunday that around 500 to 600 troops remain in the area and acknowledged the possibility of an ISIS reemergence without maintaining pressure."

Stephanie Taylor of the Tuscaloosa News: "A Donald Trump supporter slashed the Baby Trump balloon on display at Monnish Park Saturday that protesters were using to protest the president's visit to Tuscaloosa. Hoyt Hutchinson, 32, was charged with felony first-degree criminal mischief Saturday after Tuscaloosa Police officers witnessed him use a knife to cut an eight-foot gash in the 20-foot-high, 13-foot-wide inflatable. The Tuscaloosa County man posted a Facebook Live video, announcing his plans to damage the inflatable that depicts Trump as a crying baby wearing a diaper and holding a cellphone. He had bonded out and was watching the game by the third quarter, asking for people to contribute to one of the many GoFundMe accounts set up for anticipated legal fees."

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Manu Raju, Jeremy Herb & Marshall Cohen of CNN read all 2,677 pages of witness deposition transcripts released so far, and here's what they learned from them. A pretty good summary, and when you think of the sifting & winnowing it took, a hefty effort. "Trump has continued to rail on Twitter and in public on his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling it a 'perfect' call. But the Democrats' case now goes far beyond that conversation. The officials who have testified explained how the push for Ukraine to investigate the President's political opponents was already underway well before the call occurred and for weeks after the President urged Zelensky to investigate the Bidens.... One witness after another knocked down some of the core arguments that Trump and his allies have been making." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: A major complication is that all of the main guys -- Trump & those who spoke directly to him about Ukraine -- are liars and/or aren't talking. Trump of course lies more often than the sun rises; Pompeo, Mulvaney & Sondland all have been caught in lies, and Pompeo, Mulvaney & Bolton have not testified. Neither have Pence & Perry. So far, the best sources of "Trump's thinking" on the matter are Trump, Mulvaney & Sondland, and all of them have changed their stories somewhere along the line. Bolton has not told his. But then, that's what happens with conspiracies: everybody lies.

** Looks as if Trump Never Released Ukraine Aid; State Did. Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "The State Department released military aid to Ukraine before President Trump announced that he had stopped withholding it on Sept. 11, Bloomberg reported reported Saturday, citing five people familiar with the matter. State Department lawyers had found earlier this year that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and therefore Trump could not legally block the aid, Bloomberg reported, noting that this determination resulted in the release of the $141 million. OMB spokeswoman Rachel Semmel challenged this narrative in a statement to The Hill.... Bloomberg reported that then-national security adviser John Bolton on Sept. 9 told the State Department that the funding could go ahead. It is reportedly unclear whether President Trump had approved this move. One person familiar with the matter told the news outlet that White House officials viewed the move as a protocol violation and that it had surprised acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney." ~~~

~~~ Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "'The State Department decision, which hasn't been reported previously, stemmed from a legal finding made earlier in the year, and conveyed in a classified memorandum to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. State Department lawyers found the White House Office of Management and Budget, and thus the president, had no legal standing to block spending of the Ukraine aid,' Bloomberg explained. The report highlights how the administration was divided over the funding, with acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney -- who is also the director of the Office of Management and budget supporting Trump's decision to block the aid, while others, including then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, reportedly wanted the funds released." More on Bolton linked under "Trump Lit Corner." Trump Lit being an oxymoron. ~~~

~~~ Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Trump has claimed he released the aid September 11 ... after a plea from GOP Ohio Sen. Rob Portman. 'He called up, "Please let the money go,"' Trump said. But five sources told Bloomberg that $141 million of the money was actually authorized to be released several days earlier after lawyers determined that the White House Office of Management and Budget and, therefore, the president, had no legal standing to block the funds. The decision was outlined in a classified memo to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to Bloomberg. Other details of the memo were not revealed. The information severely undercuts Trump's insistence that there was no military aid quid pro quo when he pressed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July phone call to launch a groundless investigation into his political rival Joe Biden and his son. Trump has pointed to the fact that he released the aid before a probe was begun. But Bloomberg now reports that he was no longer in control of disbursement when the money was released.... Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor testified that it was the legal offices at ... both the State and Defense departments that decided they were 'going to move forward with this assistance -- OMB notwithstanding.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Bloomberg story is something of a blockbuster in that it gets us closer to understanding what Politico reporters Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio described as the "unsolved mystery" (also linked yesterday) of the Ukraine matter: how the freezing of the aid package was handled. We now have a better idea of how the aid was "defrosted": Bolton & some State Department lawyers just did it, in much the same way Trump officials often resolve critical matters: they defied Trump's illegal order.

Mulvaney v. Trump. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Even in a White House of never-befores, this may be one of the more head-spinning: The president's chief of staff is trying to join a lawsuit against the president. Mick Mulvaney works only about 50 steps from the Oval Office as he runs the White House staff but rather than simply obey President Trump's order to not cooperate with House impeachment investigators, he sent his lawyers to court late Friday night asking a judge whether he should or not. To obtain such a ruling, the lawyers asked to join a lawsuit already filed by a former White House official -- a lawsuit that names 'the Honorable Donald J. Trump' as a defendant along with congressional leaders.... In effect, Mr. Mulvaney hopes the court will tell him whether to listen to his own boss, who wants him to remain silent, or to comply with a subpoena from the House, which wants his testimony. That put Mr. Mulvaney at odds with some other current White House and administration officials who had simply defied the House, citing the president's order not to cooperate with what he called an illegitimate 'witch hunt.'"

Revolt of the "Deep State." Michael Crowley, et al., of the New York Times: "State Department Foreign Service officers usually express their views in formal diplomatic cables, but these days they are using closed Facebook groups and encrypted apps to convey their pride in Marie L. Yovanovitch, the ousted ambassador to Ukraine, whose House testimony opened the floodgates on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. #GoMasha is their rallying cry. In private conversations, they trade admiring notes about career State Department officials like William B. Taylor Jr. and George P. Kent, who delivered damning testimony about a shadow Ukraine policy infected by partisan politics and presidential conspiracy theories, and William V. Roebuck, a senior diplomat in Syria who wrote a searing memo on how Mr. Trump abandoned the Kurds and upended American influence. And they are opening their wallets to help raise money -- including nearly $10,000 last Monday alone -- to offset the legal bills of department officials called to testify before Congress.... As a parade of department officials has recounted to lawmakers how policy was hijacked by partisan politics, many career diplomats say they have been inspired by their colleagues' willingness to stand up to far more powerful voices after nearly three years of being ignored or disparaged by Mr. Trump and those he has chosen to lead the department."

Daniel Dale of CNN: "... Donald Trump has made a systematic and highly dishonest attempt to discredit the whistleblower who filed the complaint about his July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump kept it up at his campaign rally in Louisiana on Wednesday night. Appearing to break from his script, he delivered such a rapid series of false, misleading and bizarre claims about the whistleblower that we couldn't type quickly enough to keep up in real time. His barrage was in keeping with his general strategy toward the whistleblower: muddy the waters by saying such inaccurate and confusing things with such frequency that the public can't keep track of what's true and what's false." --s

Marty Johnson of The Hill: "FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday appeared in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where he was questioned by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). One of the first questions the 2020 White House hopeful asked Wray was whether he knew if President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani 'holds any security clearance of any kind.' 'I don't know the answer to that,' Wray replied.... Giuliani ... isn't an official employee of the federal government, which is why Harris and other congressional Democrats are interested in what level of security clearance Giuliani has or previously had." --s

Kara Scannell, et al. of CNN: "The story of [Lev] Parnas' and [Igor] Fruman's unlikely path to becoming subjects of interest in the impeachment inquiry is traced through shell companies, ballooning debts, fraud allegations and interviews with more than a dozen people. There are still unanswered questions about how they bankrolled their journey.... [Rudy] Giuliani has also publicly acknowledged being paid $500,000 by Parnas' company for legal work, but has declined to provide details about the precise services for which he was being paid. An attorney for a wealthy Republican donor named Charles Gucciardo told CNN this week that Gucciardo actually paid Giuliani's firm on behalf of Parnas' company." --s

Republicans to Subpoena Bearded Lady, Tom Thumb; Sell Secret Elixer; But Ditch Ringmaster. Rachel Bade, et al., of the Washington Post: "House Republicans on Saturday pressed ahead with their efforts to move the impeachment inquiry away from President Trump, calling on Democrats to add witnesses to the probe including former vice president Joe Biden's son and the whistleblower whose initial complaint kicked off the investigation. The GOP demands were met with immediate skepticism from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who warned against 'sham investigations' of the Bidens and other issues in a clear signal that many of the witnesses were unlikely to be called.... Schiff said Democrats would evaluate the requests but added in a statement that the inquiry 'will not serve ... as a vehicle to undertake the same sham investigations into the Bidens or 2016 that the President pressed Ukraine to conduct for his personal political benefit, or to facilitate the President's effort to threaten, intimidate, and retaliate against the whistleblower who courageously raised the initial alarm.'... More than 2,500 pages of interview transcripts released over the past week ... show the extent to which GOP lawmakers ... have focused on unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, Democratic political targets and other subjects favored by Trump allies -- much of it ancillary to the probe at hand...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to House Republicans, Democrats plan to call (non-)conjoined twins -- Alexander & Yevgeny Vindman -- and, if they can snag a booking, the Amazing Mustachioed Man. ~~~

~~~ Justin Wise of the Hill: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Saturday effectively denied Republican lawmakers' request for a government whistleblower to testify in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Schiff, who has helped lead the impeachment hearings of Trump and his dealings with Ukraine, said in a letter to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the Intelligence panel, that whistleblower's testimony would be 'redundant' and 'unnecessary,' according to multiple reports. 'The impeachment inquiry, moreover, has gathered an ever-growing body of evidence -- from witnesses and documents, including the President's own words in his July 25 call record -- that not only confirms, but far exceeds, the initial information in the whistleblower's complaint,' Schiff said. 'The whistleblower's testimony is therefore redundant and unnecessary.['] Schiff added that "the individual's appearance before us would only place their personal safety at grave risk' because of Trump's repeated threats." ~~~

~~~ In case you think Schiff is exaggerating: ~~~

~~~ Will Sommer of The Daily Beast: "Former Obama White House staffer R. David Edelman woke up Thursday to a bizarre new reality: Many people on the pro-Trump internet were convinced that he was the anonymous whistleblower at the heart of the impeachment proceedings. And then the death threats started.... But Edelman ... left the White House in January 2017..., meaning that he was more than two years removed from Trump's July phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky." --s

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha. Justin Baragona & Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "Impeachment witness transcripts released Friday revealed that right-wing journalist John Solomon's outsized role in jumpstarting Trumpworld's Ukraine narrative was based on lies and false information.... National Security Council's top Ukraine expert, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman ... said that Solomon's article [in The Hill] was a 'false narrative' and that he based that assertion on 'authoritative sources.' When asked to elaborate, the NSC official said he talked to 'interagency colleagues from State and the Intelligence Community,' adding they found the claims against [Amb. to Ukraine Masha] Yovanovitch to be 'preposterous.'" --s

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "President Trump>'s personal attorneys told a federal judge on Friday that they intend to petition the Supreme Court next week to review an appeals court decision that said the Manhattan district attorney can subpoena the president's tax returns. Trump's lawyers and the district attorney's office said in a joint letter to a federal judge that the decision will be appealed to the high court by Nov. 14. The two sides had announced their agreement to fast track the case to the Supreme Court last month, before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump does not have the power to block the subpoena issued to his accountants."

Florida Man Is Cheered at 'Bama Game. Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "... Donald Trump received a mostly cheerful welcome from the crowd attending Saturday's major college football game between the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University. Before the game's kickoff, the President and first lady Melania Trump received a big cheer as they waved to the crowd at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The crowd broke out in a 'USA' chant and cheers of 'Trump 2020' shortly after the Trumps were introduced.... During the game's first timeout, when the President and first lady were more formally introduced, there appeared to be some boos mixed in with the overwhelming cheers. Before kickoff, Trump mingled with the guests seated with him in the suite. The Trumps were joined in their guest box for the game by Republican politicians from Louisiana and Alabama, including GOP congressman Bradley Byrne. Byrne is running in the Alabama Republican primary for US Senate against Trump's former Attorney General Jeff Sessions." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sadly, JeffBo's suck-up video (see yesterday's Commentariat) just wasn't enough. ~~~

Yesterday, contributor Bobby Lee was looking forward to seeing Baby Trump floating over Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alas, ~~~

~~~ AP: "A towering Baby Trump protest balloon was knifed and deflated by someone unhappy with its appearance during ... Donald Trump's Saturday trip to Alabama, organizers said.The incident occurred during Trump's visit to watch the University of Alabama football game. The balloon, which is over 20 feet tall, was set up in a nearby park. Jim Girvan, the organizer of a group that 'adopts' out Baby Trump balloons for protests, said a man charged the balloon with a knife and cut an 8-foot-long gash in the back. Girvan said the unidentified man was arrested." Mrs. McC: C'mon, Bill Barr: full investigation, please.

Asawin Suebsaeng & Sam Stein of The Daily Beast: "In early September, as Hurricane Dorian battered the East Coast..., Donald Trump didn't want to admit he was wrong about the storm's impact in a tweet he had sent, so he instead dug in, dragged senior government officials into his charade, and even hosted reporters in the Oval Office to show them a days-old forecast map that he'd personally altered to prove that Alabama was in danger when it really wasn't. It was yet another bizarre, protracted episode of the Trump presidency and one that, as emails released under the Freedom of Information Act show, created massive internal headaches for personnel at various agencies." --s

Michelle Martin of Reuters: "When Mike Pompeo was posted to Europe as a U.S. soldier in the late 1980s, he patrolled the border that marked the 'Iron Curtain' dividing East and West.... Back in Berlin on Friday as U.S. secretary of state..., Pompeo ... warned that there was still authoritarianism in the world.... In a speech in which he criticized Russia and China, he cautioned that freedom was never guaranteed in the world. 'Today authoritarianism is just a stone's throw away, it's rising and if we're honest, it never really went away completely,' he said." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently at West Point, they don't teach the cadets about irony. Either that, or some "deep-state" subversive wrote Pompeo's speech for him, and he didn't bother to read it before delivery.

Welcome Back, Erdogan! Laura Kelly of the Hill: "Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdoğan's planned visit to Washington this week is raising concerns about a repeat of violent protests from his 2017 trip, as recent court documents provide new details about the clashes between U.S. and Turkish security personnel. Over a dozen Turkish security officials were first identified by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) two years ago as instigating violence against protesters who were demonstrating outside the Turkish ambassador's residence during Erdoğan's last visit to Washington, D.C., though charges were dropped against most of them. The security officials left the country before they could be arrested. They were delivered to a waiting flight at Joint Base Andrews by State Department diplomatic security and Secret Service. One agent described it as the fastest 'joint move and departure I've ever seen in my 16 years on the job,' according to a memo sent to the State Department the day after the clashes. The memo was included in court documents in a lawsuit against Turkey on behalf of the victims of the attacks and details violent outbursts against both civilians and U.S. security personnel who are charged with coordinating protection for foreign dignitaries with visiting security officers.... Two Diplomatic Security special agents, six U.S. Secret Service officers and one MPD officer sustained multiple injuries, with at least one taken to the hospital." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Violent protests"? It isn't the protests that were violent; it was Erdogan's goons. Of course the more shocking aspect of Erdogan's visit is his attack on U.S./NATO-allied Kurds. But never mind all that: "President Trump tweeted on Wednesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodğan has accepted his invitation to visit the White House on Nov. 13." That's the first day of public testimony in the impeachment inquiry, so I suppose Trump thinks Erdogan will provide him cover.

Trump Lit Corner

Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "A fake jacket placed on the cover of Donald Trump Jr.'s new book in a New York City bookstore swapped the title to 'Daddy, Please Love Me: How Everything I Do Is Try To Earn My Father's Love.' The duo of artists and comedians known as T.G.L., which stands for 'The Good Liars,' took credit for the stunt days after the president's eldest son released the conservative book called 'Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.' The group said they placed a book jacket on copies at a New York Barnes and Noble location 'to make it a little more honest.'... The book was also seen in photographs placed in the Young Adult fiction section of the bookstore." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. ~~~

~~~ Reis Thebault of the Washington Post (Nov. 7), republished in Stars & Stripes: "... the day before his father was inaugurated president of the United States..., [Donald Trump, Jr. traveled with Donald Trump Sr. & other members of the family to] ... Arlington National Cemetery, where Trump [Sr.] was to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 'I rarely get emotional, if ever,' Trump Jr. wrote in his new book.... 'Yet, as we drove past the rows of white grave markers, in the gravity of the moment, I had a deep sense of the importance of the presidency and a love of our country.' He also had another revelation as he watched his father standing in front of the tomb, surrounded by more than 400,000 graves, listening to the Army Band bugler playing taps: The Trump family had already suffered, he recalled thinking, and this was only the beginning. 'In that moment, I also thought of all the attacks we'd already suffered as a family, and about all the sacrifices we'd have to make to help my father succeed -- voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals to avoid the appearance that we were "profiting off the office,'" Trump Jr. wrote." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sadly, Junior says the mainstream media give the family & him no credit for their "sacrifice," and Thebault reports that some people are actually criticizing Junior for comparing his fake "sacrifices" to soldiers who died fighting for their country.

Hillel Italie of the AP: "Former national security adviser John Bolton has a book deal.... The hawkish Bolton departed in September because of numerous foreign policy disagreements with ... Donald Trump. He reached a deal over the past few weeks with Simon & Schuster, according to three publishing officials with knowledge of negotiations.... Two ... officials said the deal was worth about $2 million. Bolton was represented by the Javelin literary agency, whose clients include former FBI Director James Comey and the anonymous Trump administration official whose book, 'A Warning,' comes out Nov. 19." ~~~

~~~ Bolton's Revenge? The AP sources did not know the planned publication date of Bolton's book, but Brian Stelter & Jeremy Diamond of CNN report, "One of the sources said the book will come out sometime in 2020 before the presidential election."

Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: "Last week, two of the Supreme Court's most ardent Catholic justices, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, met at the court with an odd trio of visitors: Brian S. Brown, who runs several anti-gay advocacy groups; German Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, once known as a 1980s party girl; and Gerhard Ludwig Müller, a right-wing German cardinal who has said publicly that a 'homosexual network' inside the church is responsible for the clergy sexual abuse scandals.... While the trio may have a vested interest in the court's LGBT-rights jurisprudence..., their visit is notable for another, unexpected, reason: All three are in the vanguard of a political, right-wing movement that's been pushing to topple Pope Francis. By posing for a photo op, the powerful Catholic justices provided an all but official expression of support for their work." --s

Beyond the Beltway

** Texas. Billy Corriher of Facing South: "Voters in Houston, Texas, elected 19 black women to local judgeships last year. The new judges, all Democrats, have instituted wide-ranging reforms to the county's bail system. Voters also sent Democratic judges to the state appeals court. A few months later, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott -- a former Texas Supreme Court justice -- suggested that he wanted to change his state's system of choosing judges in partisan elections, citing concern about the courts' independence. Abbott has also appointed several judges that voters rejected last year to seats on higher courts.... This year Republican legislators introduced a bill, supported by Abbott, that would have replaced judicial elections with a system in which the governor appoints judges, subject to Senate confirmation.... However, the bill would have ended elections only in counties with more than 500,000 people, targeting urban areas like Houston. That would mean the governor would choose judges in the state's larger, more diverse counties, while rural, conservative counties could keep choosing their own judges." --s ~~~

~~~ Jordan Smith of The Intercept: Officer "Deke Pierce ... [made] an extraordinary announcement [at the state capitol last month]: He and 12 other members of law enforcement with more than 250 years of combined experience had filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of a Texas death row prisoner named Rodney Reed, slated for execution on November 20.... Pierce and his fellow officers join an increasing number of high-profile voices calling for a stay of execution and a thorough review of Reed's case as a stream of new witnesses continue to come forward with revelations that cast doubt on Reed's conviction; there is one who now says another suspect confessed to the crime that put Reed on death row." --s

The New Virginia. Kate Sullivan & Ryan Nobles of CNN: "For the first time in Virginia's 400-year legislative history, a woman will become speaker of the House. Del. Eileen Filler-Corn, the current Democratic House leader, won a competitive race for the top spot after Democrats flipped both the House and Senate in Tuesday's election. For the first time in Virginia's 400-year legislative history, a woman will become speaker of the House. Filler-Corn, who will make history as the first Jewish speaker of the House, beat out three other candidates for the position. She is the first woman to serve in her current role as minority leader.... Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement: "Virginia made history again today." He congratulated Filler-Corn and Del. Charniele Herring, who was elected the first woman and African American majority leader."

Way Beyond

Brazil. Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "The biggest hydroelectric project in the Amazon rainforest has a design flaw that poses a 'very serious' threat to human life and globally important ecosystems, according to documents and expert testimony received by the Guardian.... After decades of resistance and 40bn reais (£8bn) of investment, the world's fourth biggest hydropower plant is due to have the last of its 18 turbines installed this month, but lower-than-forecast water levels in the dam's reservoirs have created an unforeseen structural problem in addition to longstanding environmental, social and economic concerns." --s

Iraq. Juan Cole: "Some 17 katyusha rockets targeted a military base south of Mosul Saturday morning where US troops are based. There are no reports of casualties. In that strong Sunni area of Iraq, the attack was unlikely to be the work of Iran-backed Shiite militias, but ISIL remnants are more likely. This could be revenge for the US attack on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Idlib, Syria, which led to his death when he detonated a suicide bomb vest.... The turmoil in Iraq, which has seen the largest protests in modern history in the past month, may also have detracted from the readiness of its security personnel. Huge rallies have been held for the past month, demanding services and an end to corruption, as well as an end to foreign (US and Iranian) interference in the country. In fact, Iraq has become so unstable that you have to wonder if the 5,000 US troops there are really safe. Force protection is viewed as the responsibility of the host government, but Iraq barely has a functioning government." --s

The Commentariat -- November 9, 2019

Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump tore into the House's impeachment investigation in an early Saturday morning tweetstorm as the inquiry is set to enter a new, public phase next week. He retweeted 17 messages in roughly an hour hammering Democrats over the probe, including a handful specifically going after some witnesses who have already testified behind closed doors."

Bolton Knows Many Things. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "John R. Bolton, President Trump's former national security adviser, knows about 'many relevant meetings and conversations' connected to the Ukraine pressure campaign that House impeachment investigators have not yet been informed about, his lawyer told lawmakers on Friday. The lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, made that tantalizing point in a letter to the chief House lawyer in response to House committee chairmen who have sought Mr. Bolton's testimony in their impeachment proceedings, arguing that his client would be willing to talk but only if a court rules that he should ignore White House objections.... Mr. Bolton did not show up for a deposition scheduled on Thursday because, his lawyer said, he wants a judge to determine whether he and his former deputy, Charles M. Kupperman, should testify in defiance of the White House.... The lawmakers have withdrawn a subpoena for Mr. Kupperman and indicated they would not seek one for Mr. Bolton because they said they did not want to get dragged into lengthy court proceedings.... Mr. Bolton presumably could take investigators into the Oval Office as none of their witnesses have." CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It sure looks as if Bolton wants to testify, but Cooper seems to be in a pissing contest with House Democrats. Cooper is insisting not just on judicial cover for his clients, but on court rulings that cover his clients specifically, at the same time he's claiming he's not running a stall. Nonetheless, Democrats seem to be bearing in mind that the "many relevant meetings & conversations" to which Bolton was privy might not support the case for impeachment. Remember that Fiona Hill testified that Bolton told her to tell White House lawyers, "I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up." This suggests to me that Bolton -- just as other Republicans are claiming now (see also Chait's post, linked below) -- might testify that Trump was an innocent ignoramus who didn't understand what Giuliani, Sondland, Mulvaney, et al., were up to. That is, Bolton could exonerate Trump, presenting him as only a mark of ambitious underlings, and not as the con-man engineering the Ukraine extortion scheme. ~~~

~~~ Mulvaney Wants to Play, Too. Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Friday asked to join a federal lawsuit seeking a judicial ruling on whether Congress can compel President Trump's senior advisers to testify in the impeachment inquiry. The lawsuit was originally filed late last month by Charles Kupperman, a former top national security aide to Trump, who said he faced conflicting orders from House Democrats and the White House over whether he must participate in the investigation.... Attorneys for Mulvaney said the acting chief of staff was facing the same dilemma. Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Mulvaney earlier this week and threatened to hold him in contempt if he refused to comply. In response, White House counsel Pat Cipollone instructed him not to testify, saying Mulvaney, who skipped his scheduled deposition Friday morning, was protected by 'constitutional immunity' that extended to all of Trump's current and former senior advisers." ~~~

~~~ Mulvaney's move to jump into the Bolton-Kupperman sandbox is a little odd given what we know about the Bolton-Mulvaney relationship: ~~~

     ~~~ Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: Attorney Charles Cooper's "hints about what Mr. Bolton might be able to add came as new details emerged from the impeachment inquiry about how an effort by Mr. Trump's allies to use the United States' relationship with Ukraine to accomplish the president's political goals opened a bitter rift inside the White House. According to testimony made public on Friday, the push, spearheaded in large part by Rudolph W. Giuliani..., pitted Mr. Bolton, who sought repeatedly to resist it, against Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff who senior officials said may have played a central role in carrying it out.... [Fiona] Hill and Colonel [Alexander] Vindman said, Mr. Mulvaney appeared to be pushing to use a coveted White House meeting for Ukraine's leader as leverage to secure investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden, as well as possible Democratic collusion with Ukraine in 2016. Ms. Hill testified that Gordon D. Sondland ... told the Ukrainian officials in July during a meeting at the White House 'about how he had an agreement with Chief of Staff Mulvaney for a meeting with the Ukrainians if they were going to go forward with investigations.' Colonel Vindman told investigators he heard Mr. Sondland say his offer had been 'coordinated' with Mr. Mulvaney."

Vindman Stood up to Republicans. Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "In vivid and at times contentious testimony before House impeachment investigators, the senior White House official responsible for Ukraine described what he believed was an unambiguous effort by President Trump to pressure the president of Ukraine to open investigations targeting American politicians in exchange for a coveted Oval Office meeting. Under questioning from Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and other Democrats, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman said 'there was no doubt' about what Trump wanted when he spoke by phone on July 25 to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky -- particularly in contrast with an April call between the two shortly after Zelensky's election.... Vindman, explaining what he called the vast 'power disparity' between Trump and Zelensky, told Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.) that Trump's request for a 'favor' from Zelensky was fairly interpreted as a demand.... [Fiona] Hill, whose deposition testimony also was released Friday, testified that Trump's personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and his business associates, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, were trying to use the powers of the presidency to further their own personal interests." ~~~

     ~~~ Natasha Bertrand & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: “During a July 21 meeting in the Ward Room at the White House, U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland began discussing how a White House meeting between Trump and Zelensky was contingent upon Zelensky launching the investigations Trump demanded, [Alexander] Vindman testified. That 'deliverable' had been coordinated with acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, he said. Vindman is the third witness to tie Sondland directly to Mulvaney, who defied a subpoena seeking his testimony on Friday.... Vindman described a subsequent meeting in the Ward Room of the White House during which Sondland detailed, with 'no ambiguity,' the so-called 'deliverable' that was required in order for the Ukrainians to secure a White House meeting.... When asked what Sondland specifically said, Vindman replied: 'That the Ukrainians would have to deliver an investigation into the Bidens.'... Several officials have testified that they learned about the aid holdup on July 18. But Vindman said he learned about it more than two weeks earlier, on July 3 [when he received a notice from the State Department that OMB was holding up the funding], shifting the known timeline of when the aid was held up. The aid holdup may have been in the works as early as June, Vindman testified, because he was getting indications from the relevant departments that OMB was asking 'abnormal questions' about the aid.... It's revealed for the first time in Vindman's testimony that Michael Ellis, a White House lawyer and John Eisenberg's deputy, was the first to suggest placing the record of Trump's July 25 call with Zelensky into a top-secret codeword system...." ~~~

     ~~~ Axios: "Vindman testified that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney 'coordinated' a plan to condition a White House meeting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on an investigation into the Biden family's business dealings in Ukraine, especially the gas company Burisma. '[EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland] just said that he had had a conversation with Mr. Mulvaney, and this is what was required in order to get a meeting.... So he was talking about the 2016 elections and an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma.' Later in his testimony, Vindland confirmed that -- to the best of his recollection -- Sondland explicitly used the word 'Bidens' when describing the investigation." ~~~

     ~~~ ** Matthew Daly of the AP: "Transcripts released Friday in the impeachment inquiry show Republicans and Democrats repeatedly skirmishing over GOP questions that appeared aimed at drawing out the identity of the whistleblower who filed the initial complaint against ... Donald Trump. Trump himself speculated that the whistleblower 'should be sued. And maybe for treason.' During questioning last month of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman..., Republicans repeatedly asked questions that could reveal the whistleblower's identity -- leading to sharp exchanges with Democrats and Vindman's lawyer." Daly reports some of the "sharp exchanges." And yeah, they're sharp. ~~~

     ~~~ The full transcript of Vindman's deposition testimony is here, via Politico. Democrats have highlighted portions of his testimony here.

Nahal Toosi & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "House impeachment investigators on Friday released the deposition transcript of Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official whose testimony has been among the most damaging so far to ... Donald Trump. Hill on Oct. 14 testified before lawmakers on how the Trump aide grew alarmed about the role Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, and others were playing in Ukraine policy -- especially their efforts to pressure the government in Kyiv to investigate Trump's political rivals. She said then-national security adviser John Bolton at one point instructed her to report the concerns to the NSC's lawyers." The reporters highlight parts of Hill's testimony. ~~~

     ~~~ Jane Timm of NBC News: "Fiona Hill..., Donald Trump's former top adviser on Russia and Europe, told House investigators that her time in the Trump administration was marked by death threats, 'hateful calls' and 'conspiracy theories,' a harassment campaign she said was revived after it was learned she would cooperate with the impeachment inquiry, according to a transcript of her deposition released Friday. 'I received, I just have to tell you, death threats, calls at my home. My neighbors reported somebody coming and hammering on my door,' she told investigators in closed-door testimony of her time in the White House. 'Now, I'm not easily intimidated, but that made me mad.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Anthony Adragna, et al., of Politico: "A former National Security Council official testified last month that Energy Secretary Rick Perry didn't discuss anything inappropriate during a July 10 White House meeting with Ukrainians, though remarks from U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland raised alarm bells among other senior officials. Perry stuck to the 'usual talking points' on broadly addressing corruption in Ukraine's energy sector at the meeting in former national security adviser John Bolton's office, until Sondland interrupted to mention conditions that Ukraine would have to meet to win a White House meeting between the two presidents, according to the Oct. 14 testimony of former NSC official Fiona Hill that was made public on Friday." ~~~

     ~~~ The full transcript of Fiona Hill's testimony is here. House Democrats have highlighted parts of her testimony here.

Jessica Campisi of the Hill: "Two associates of President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani reportedly urged Ukraine's previous leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son in exchange for a state visit to Washington. The request came months before Trump's highly publicized July 25 phone call with the country's current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met in late February at the offices of Ukrainian general prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko in Kiev, the Journal reported. Lutsenko reportedly said in March that he was investigating Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, but found in May that there was no evidence of wrongdoing.... The meeting with Giuliani's associates reported by the Journal also shows efforts of those close to Trump, as early as February, to urge Ukraine to look into the U.S. president's political rivals." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Matt Zapotosky & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post have the story now: "Two associates of Rudolph W. Giuliani pressed the then-president of Ukraine in February to announce investigations into former vice president Joe Biden's son and purported Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election in exchange for a state visit, and a lawyer for one of the associates said Friday that they were doing so because Giuliani -- acting on President Trump's behalf -- asked them to. The Giuliani associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, met with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv, said Edward B. MacMahon Jr., a lawyer for Parnas. He said they were working on behalf of Giuliani..., who was operating on orders from Trump. 'There isn't anything that Parnas did in the Ukraine relative to the Bidens or the 2016 election that he wasn't asked to do by Giuliani, who was acting on the direction of the president,' MacMahon said."

He kept saying that over and over. 'They tried to take me down. They tried to take me down.' -- Gordon Sondland, Congressional testimony, on the only example of Ukraine "corruption" Trump offered

He didn't want to hear about it. -- Gordon Sondland, Congressional testimony, when he & other officials tried to tell Trump in a May 23 meeting about Zelensky's anti-corruption initiatives

It wasn't about just fighting corruption. It was about who are my enemies and who are my friends. -- Kurt Volker, Congressional testimony, on Trump's view of Ukraine "corruption"

(Trump publicly [and accidentally] backed up Sondland's & Volker's testimony during Chopper Talk on October 4: Trump insisted "'this is about corruption' or a close variant of that statement six times in less than 40 seconds.... 'Have you asked foreign leaders for any corruption investigations that don't involve your political opponents?' [CNBC reporter Eamon] Javers asked.... 'You know, we would have to look....'" Trump replied. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ~~~)

~~~ William Saletan of Slate: "Republicans say the president wanted to clean up [corruption in] Ukraine. Witness testimony shows he didn't.... [Gordon] Sondland couldn't recall any attempt by Trump to withhold aid from Ukraine last year, when the Kyiv government was plagued by corruption. By contrast, [Bill] Taylor testified that Volodymyr Zelensky, who took office as Ukraine's president this year, 'appointed reformist ministers' ... and 'supported long-stalled anti-corruption legislation.'... Trump and [Rudy] Giuliani have attacked or defended various figures in the Ukraine story based on whether they were useful to Trump, not on whether they were corrupt.... When Ukraine offered a statement pledging to crack down on corruption, Giuliani said that wasn't enough. [Ambassador Kurt] Volker testified that Giuliani, in a phone call, explicitly 'said that [the statement] needs to mention Burisma [a company connected to Biden's son] and 2016. And if it doesn't do that, it's not credible.' Sondland, who was also on the call with Giuliani, corroborated this account.... In private, Trump made clear that when he spoke of Ukraine's corruption, he meant behavior that threatened him personally.... When the intelligence committee's director of investigations asked Volker whether Trump gave 'any specific examples other than the fact that they tried to "take him down,"' Volker said no. Sondland told the same story."

BUT What About the Money? Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Despite a mountain of evidence supplied by cooperative diplomats -- and a public admission and hasty retraction by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney -- the uncertainty surrounding the hold on the aid [to Ukraine] has only deepened over time.... Only a small cadre of budget officials -- and Trump himself -- has the answers. And they have fought harder than anyone to spurn Democrats' demands for testimony.... In the absence of cooperation from OMB, impeachment investigators have so far been unable to showcase evidence directly linking Trump's hold on aid and his demand that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and other Democrats.... 'The overwhelming weight of evidence we have received tells us the president ordered that aid to be held up,' [Rep. Jamie] Raskin [D-Md.] [said]. 'However, the president has succeeded in obstructing the witnesses who would tell us the exact mechanics.'"

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The National Security Council's top lawyer John Eisenberg has emerged as a central figure in the impeachment inquiry, appearing frequently in the new transcripts. House investigators want to question him, but he skipped a scheduled deposition this week." In early July, two senior NSC aides told Eisenberg that they feared Gordon Sondland "was improperly pressuring Ukrainian officials to help the president's political fortunes." Eisenberg consulted with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who advised him to bring the complaints to President* Trump. Instead, "Eisenberg and his deputy decided that ... [Sondland's] efforts ... were unorthodox, [but] they were not criminal.... Mr. Eisenberg would come to the same conclusion again and again when confronted with revelations that Mr. Trump had ordered up a shadow Ukraine policy to advance his personal interests: However disturbing the facts, no one involved violated the law.... Officials have also blamed Mr. Eisenberg for the decision to store on the White House's most secure server a reconstructed transcript of the July 25 call in which Mr. Trump pressed Ukraine's president to announce investigations that could benefit him politically. White House lawyers are conducting an internal review on the handling of the call record. But Mr. Eisenberg denies that he ordered the transcript placed in the system.... The Trump transition team selected Mr. Eisenberg over many prominent Republican national security lawyers who had signed 'Never Trump' statements." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you have access to the NYT, the Eisenberg story is worth reading, especially the part where he tried unsuccessfully to save Michael Flynn from incriminating himself to a couple of friendly FBI agents. The reporters, in looking around for Eisenberg defenders, lit on John Yoo the Torture Guy, who recently suggested Alexander Vindman might be guilty of "espionage."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday said there should be no public hearings in the impeachment inquiry as he railed against the process unfolding in the House. 'They shouldn’t be having public hearings. This is a hoax,' Trump said as he left the White House for events in Georgia. The comments mark a sharp break from Trump's allies, who have spent recent weeks complaining about the lack of transparency in the ongoing impeachment inquiry. The first public hearings in the process are set to take place next week.... Trump on Friday downplayed the potentially damaging effects of [witness] transcripts [which the House has released], claiming he was unfamiliar with many of the witnesses and that none of them had first-hand information. 'I'm not concerned about anything,' Trump said. 'The testimony has all been fine. I mean for the most part, I've never even heard of these people. There are some very fine people. You have some Never Trumpers. It seems that nobody has any first-hand knowledge.' The president asserted that all that counts are the call notes from his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky." ~~~

I hardly knew the gentleman. -- Donald Trump, on Gordon Sondland, November 8 ~~~

Ambassador Sondland [is] a really good man and great American.... Importantly, Ambassador Sondland's tweet,* which few report, stated, 'I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear: no quid pro quo's of any kind.' That says it ALL! -- Donald Trump, in two tweets, October 8

*Note: Not a tweet, but a texted response to Amb. Bill Taylor -- after a 4-1/2-hour delay during which Sondland spoke to Trump (and perhaps White House staff). BTW, note that Trump is now speaking of Sondland in the past tense. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday said he would turn over the transcript of a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky which preceded the July conversation between the two leaders that ignited House Democrats' impeachment inquiry. 'I had a second call with the president which actually, I believe, came before this one, and now they all want that one. And if they want it, I'll give it to them,' Trump told reporters outside the White House, presumably referring to congressional impeachment investigators. 'I haven't seen it recently, but I'll give it to them.'... [Trump phoned] Zelensky in the hours after his election on April 21, and although various reporting has stated that Trump raised the issue of Ukrainian corruption, little is publicly known about the details of the discussion." ~~~

~~~ John Haltiwanger of Business Insider: "... Donald Trump on Friday he's 'certainly' considering accepting Russian President Vladimir Putin's invitation to attend Russia's Victory Day parade in 2020. Doing so would offer a major public relations victory to Putin at a time of historic animosity between Moscow and Washington. 'It's a very big deal, celebrating the end of the war,' Trump said to reporters on the annual military parade in Moscow, which commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.... The president said he's 'thinking about' joining for the parade, but signaled it could be difficult because it occurs in the midst of the 2020 presidential campaign season. 'I would love to go if I could,' Trump said.... Steven Hall, a retired CIA chief of Russian operations, on Friday tweeted: 'For Putin, this would basically serve as Trump's approval of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, military actions in Syria, and paramilitary work in Libya. All wrapped up in one nice package.'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I heard Trump's chopper talk Friday morning. It was pathetic. He repeated himself; then he repeated himself; then he said the same thing again. Frightening.

Not the Best-laid Plan. Jonathan Chait: House Republicans "plan to make the case that [Trump's] deputies 'could have acted on their own to influence Ukraine policy.' So the whole scheme was going on right under Trump's nose, without his knowledge or participation?... The president has developed a lifelong aversion, honed through years of directing shady and outright criminal schemes, to any of his advisers taking notes in a meeting with him.... And so, while European Union envoy Gordon Sondland has testified that Trump directed him to withhold diplomatic favors from Ukraine to compel investigations of Trump's domestic enemies, he has no physical evidence.... Yet the emerging plan to present Sondland as the true mastermind of the Trump administration's Ukraine scheme, and Trump as an ignorant bystander, is going to run into several massive problems.... It relies on the assumption not only that Sondland was acting alone, but so too were several other Trump officials, all in pursuit of the same extortion plot[:] Mick Mulvaney, who has publicly admitted a quid pro quo..., Mike Pence ... when he publicly affirmed that the aid was tied to Ukraine investigating the Bidens.... [Rudy] Giuliani has stated repeatedly that his work was undertaken at Trump's direction ('I don't do anything that involves my client without speaking with my client.')... Then there is the wee fact that Trump actually has revealed his own involvement."

Olivia Gazis, et al., of CBS News: "House Republicans plan to announce Congressman Jim Jordan as an >addition to the House Intelligence Committee, replacing Congressman Rick Crawford. The pugilistic Jordan, a former wrestling coach known for his avoidance of suit jackets, has been a strong defender of President Trump as the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee and a prominent member of the House Judiciary Committee. Republican leaders in the House are hoping that Jordan can bring his combative questioning style to the first open hearings in the impeachment inquiry held by the Intelligence Committee next week. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has sole discretion over Intelligence Committee assignments. A spokesman for Crawford did not return a request for comment." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Jordan may be muscling his way into a more prominent role in the impeachment doings, but he has other problems:

~~~ Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "A professional referee says in a lawsuit filed Thursday that disgraced doctor Richard Strauss masturbated in front of him in a shower after a wrestling match at Ohio State University, and that he reported the encounter directly to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who was then the assistant coach. 'Yeah, that's Strauss,' Jordan and then-head coach Russ Hellickson replied, according to the lawsuit, when the referee, identified in court papers as John Doe 42, told them about the incident. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Ohio implies that Jordan's response to the incident, which the referee said happened in 1994, was essentially a shrug. John Doe 42 is the second person to say he told Jordan directly about either being approached or molested by Strauss, who was found by independent investigators to have sexually abused 177 male students over two decades." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently Republicans are bringing in Jordan because they're not satisfied that Devin Nunes, the ranking member of House Intel, is defending Trump vigorously enough. So ~~~

~~~ Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has formally requested that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chair of the panel, privately testify as part of the House's impeachment investigation into President Trump. In a letter to Schiff, which was obtained and released by Fox News, Nunes wrote that the Intelligence Committee should not be conducting the 'show trial' impeachment inquiry.... 'Although you publicly claim nothing inappropriate was discussed, the three committees deserve to hear directly from you the substance and circumstances surrounding any discussions conducted with the whistleblower, and any instructions you issued regarding those discussions,' Nunes wrote. 'Given that you have reneged on your public commitment to let the committees interview the whistleblower directly, you are the only individual who can provide clarity as to these conversations.'" Mrs. McC: Nunes letter would appear to jibe with Trump's remark Friday that "They shouldn't be having public hearings."

Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon testified against political consultant Roger Stone on Friday, telling a federal jury that he thought of Stone as the Trump campaign's liaison to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. Bannon ... told the jury he was appearing only because he had been subpoenaed.... '[Stone] had a relationship, or told me he had a relationship with WikiLeaks,' Bannon said. 'It was something I think he would frequently mention.'... Bannon said he discussed WikiLeaks with Stone as Stone was trying to learn more about hacked emails that might tank Clinton's election run. The emails were stolen by Russian agents and shared with WikiLeaks.... '...When you're this far behind, you're going to have to use every tool in the tool box ... opposition research, dirty tricks..., [Bannon testified].... Earlier in the day, former radio show host Randy Credico described on the witness stand how Stone urged him not to talk to Congress about their election year conversations. Credico said Stone threatened to damage the career of a close friend and even take away his dog." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Ali Velshi pointed out on MSNBC, this is the first time anyone on the Trump campaign has publicly admitted the campaign was seeking help from WikiLeaks. ~~~

~~~ Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Stone [denied] in a September 2017 appearance before the House Intelligence Committee that he'd discussed with the Trump campaign information he'd received from an intermediary relating to WikiLeaks. But Stone's comments to the panel have been undercut by testimony from people like Bannon and a trail of emails and phone records. One message from Aug. 16, 2016, shows Stone telling Bannon on the day he took over as campaign CEO about the prospect that WikiLeaks would drop more damaging documents for the Clinton campaign. 'I have an idea ... to save Trump's ass,' Stone wrote. Bannon testified Friday that he heard repeatedly from Stone -- before he even took over as Trump campaign chief -- about his access to WikiLeaks. And Stone kept on talking about the potential of more detrimental materials through the late summer and early fall, at a time when Clinton had the lead in the polls." An AP story is here.

Haroon Siddique of the Guardian: A spokesman for "the family of a 19-year-old motorcyclist killed outside a Northamptonshire RAF base in a crash involving the wife of a US diplomat [said] ... that their meeting at the White House on 15 October ended with the president saying the secretary of the treasury, Steven Mnuchin, was 'standing by ready to write a cheque'.... [Spokesman Radd] Seiger added: 'It was almost as if he let it slip out. When he said: 'We've got the driver here', he basically meant we're all going to have a big hug and a kiss and I'll get my treasury guy to write a cheque. That's how it was.... The more I think about those words, the more shocking it is.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Somebody please show me the Article II clause that provides that the president* "may disburse federal monies to persons or entities he from time to time may deem deserving of certain compensation." In the meantime, I'm wondering if it was really Mnuchin standing by with a check or if Trump had recruited Mnuchin's lovely wife Louise Linton, dressed in a skimpy costume, to hand the Dunns a giant foamboard check. Congress might want to ask Steve Mnuchin about this & about any occasions he might have handed out Treasury checks to other lucky winners of the Trump Game Show.

Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "In an unusually critical speech that lamented the public's flagging confidence in the independence of the judicial branch, a federal judge slammed President Trump for 'feeding right into this destructive narrative' with repeated attacks and personal insults toward judges he dislikes. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman of the District of Columbia said Trump's rhetoric 'violates all recognized democratic norms' during a speech at the annual Judge Thomas A. Flannery Lecture in Washington on Wednesday. 'We are in unchartered territory,' said Friedman, 75, an appointee of President Bill Clinton. 'We are witnessing a chief executive who criticizes virtually every judicial decision that doesn't go his way and denigrates judges who rule against him, sometimes in very personal terms. He seems to view the courts and the justice system as obstacles to be attacked and undermined, not as a coequal branch to be respected even when he disagrees with its decisions.'"

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor People with a Few Thousand Bucks to Drop on Fees. Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Friday proposed hiking a range of fees assessed on those pursuing legal immigration and citizenship, as well as for the first time charging those fleeing persecution for seeking protection in the United States. The rule, which will be published on Thursday and will have a monthlong comment period, would increase citizenship fees more than 60 percent, to $1,170 from $725, for most applicants. For some, the increase would reach 83 percent. The government would also begin charging asylum seekers $50 for applications and $490 for work permits, a move that would make the United States one of four countries* to charge people for asylum. It would also increase renewal fees for hundreds of thousands of participants of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The only three countries are reportedly Iran, Fiji, and Australia.

Presidential Race 2020

Normon Solomon in TruthDig: "The donations from billionaires to the current Democratic [presidential] candidates could be viewed as a kind of Oligarchy Confidence Index, based on data from the Federal Election Commission. As reported by Forbes, Pete Buttigieg leads all the candidates with 23 billionaire donors, followed by 18 for Cory Booker, and 17 for Kamala Harris. Among the other candidates who have qualified for the debate coming up later this month, Biden has 13 billionaire donors and Amy Klobuchar has 8, followed by 3 for Elizabeth Warren, 1 for Tulsi Gabbard, and 1 for Andrew Yang. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders has zero billionaire donors. (The tenth person who has qualified for the next debate, self-funding billionaire candidate Tom Steyer, is in a class by himself.) Meanwhile, relying on contributions from small donors, Sanders and Warren 'eagerly bait, troll and bash billionaires at every opportunity,' in the words of a recent Los Angeles Times news story." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the lead & Forrest M. for the link.

Senate Race 2020. Alabama. Mrs. McCrabbie: In his nutso Chopper Talk "press conference" Friday morning, Donald Trump responded to a question about Jeff Sessions' run for Senate by remarking that Sessions "has said nice things about me." Yes, yes, he has. Sessions is kicking off his Senate campaign with an appeal, not to Alabamians, but to a Florida man:

The Great White Hope

I know why the Trumpbots love him. Just look at the world for a moment from their point of view. Or from Trump's point of view.

You are Donald Trump. In just one news cycle ...

A judge fines you $2 million & makes you admit on paper you're a fraud who steals money from little old ladies and war heroes.

This guy you fired is thinking about dissing you & spilling your secrets on national teevee. It comes out that instead of doing your job, you were concentrating on a fool's errand, trying to buy a not-for-sale island in the North Atlantic. Some government do-gooder is investigating whether or not you broke another law. You find out your own lawyer lied to you repeatedly about a woman in Kiev; yeah, your own lawyer & some third-rate grifters he tied you to could bring you down. Another one of your employees is a big fat liar. There's still fall-out from the news that another of your employees refused to stand up for you when you needed him. Another guy who reports to you sent around a memo saying you really screwed up on the job. Then some employee, who hasn't got the guts to ID himself, writes a whole book outlining what a total fuck-up you are; the book is one cheap shot after another. These are people you hired, gave them top jobs and invited them to the Christmas party, and this is the way they treat you.

At the same time, one of the only friends you have in on trial for lying for you, and your friend is likely to go down. In fact, you're on trial, too. The prosecutors are comparing you to a notorious movie Mafioso.

More than half the country hates you, and yet another billionaire is after your job.

And yet, and yet. You get up, watch a little teevee (okay, a lot of teevee). And you keep on keepin' on.

Most people would have stayed in bed if any one of the things that happened to you in just one day had happened to them. Most people would have given up. And they know it. So if more than half the country hates you, millions of people love you. Like you, they're failures, or at least they think they are. And many of them, like you, are failures because of the mistakes they've made, because of their own ignorance and incompetence, not because of some unfair disadvantage imposed upon them. You give these ne'er-do-wells hope. You're a role model. If you can get up and blast the people who would bring you down – if you can misspell their names (Melanie) & their jobs (special council) and still vindicate yourself (at least in your own mind), well, hell, maybe they too can roust themselves from the bed and go forth anew.