The Commentariat -- July 28, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Sunday that Dan Coats will step down as director of national intelligence after a tenure in which the two were often at odds over Russia, North Korea an the president's own attacks on the intelligence community. 'I am pleased to announce that highly respected Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas will be nominated by me to be the Director of National Intelligence,' Mr. Trump tweeted. 'A former U.S. Attorney, John will lead and inspire greatness for the Country he loves. Dan Coats, the current Director, will be leaving office on August 15th. I would like to thank Dan for his great service to our Country....'... In a meeting last week, Mr. Coats told Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that he was ready to move on."

"No Human Being Would Want to Live" in Kushnerville. Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Jared Kushner's many Baltimore area housing projects -- which he continues to own even as he works as a senior White House adviser -- racked up hundreds of building-code violations creating the kind of conditions that Trump hints at [in his tweets knocking Baltimore & Rep. Elijah Cummings].... A scathing investigation in 2017 by ProPublica and co-published by The New York Times -- headlined 'The Beleaguered Tenants of Kushnerville' -- slammed the multiple projects purchased by Kushner Cos. when it was helmed by Jared Kushner and managed by a subsidiary.... None of the housing complexes are in Cummings' district but several are close enough to share a ZIP code, Bloomberg reports, and many house African-Americans.... One court case described a leaking bedroom ceiling, maggots in the living room carpet and raw sewage spewing [from] the kitchen sink.... Though Trump is bashing Cummings over his complaints about treatment of immigrants, he may be trying to undermine the congressman as he seeks records from Kushner."

Zachary Basu of Axios: "House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) declined to explicitly say on ABC's 'This Week' whether Democrats are pursuing an official impeachment inquiry, but repeated to George Stephanopoulos what he wrote in a court filing last week: 'We have impeachment resolutions before the committee.'"

Ewww! Kate Briquelet of the Daily Beast: "In July 1980, [Jeffrey] Epstein was featured as [Cosmopolitan] magazine's 'Bachelor of the Month,' a tiny section advertising successful single men across the country. At the time, the future sex-offender was a Bear Stearns trader and asked potential dates to write him at the investment bank's former headquarters in Lower Manhattan.... The personals ad, which included a photo of Epstein in a suit, portrayed him as a 'New York dynamo' seeking 'a cute Texas girl.'"

Warner Takes on Moscow Mitch & Putin's Puppet. Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that 'common-sense' election security measures would get a supermajority on the Senate floor if a vote was allowed. 'I think there's come common sense things that would get 75 votes if they could get to the floor of the Senate,' Warner said Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation.' They included an 'obligation ... to tell the FBI' about offers of dirt on political opponents by foreign governments and paper ballot backups for all polling stations, as well as 'some rules of the road for Facebook, Twitter, social media,' he told CBS' Margaret Brennan. However, he said, 'this administration has stopped every election security legislation coming to the floor and they've been supported in that effort by the Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.'"

David Cohen of Politico: "Having spent Saturday lashing out against Rep. Elijah Cummings and other Democratic opponents..., Donald Trump began Sunday by attacking the Maryland Democrat again. The president opened Sunday by tweeting: 'Someone please explain to Nancy Pelosi, who was recently called racist by those in her own party, that there is nothing wrong with bringing out the very obvious fact that Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore.' He added: 'Just take... ....a look, the facts speak far louder than words! The Democrats always play the Race Card, when in fact they have done so little for our Nation's great African American people. Now, lowest unemployment in U.S. history, and only getting better. Elijah Cummings has failed badly!'... [In the wake of Pelosi's defense of Cummings Saturday,] Trump followed ... with some vitriol aimed at Pelosi: 'Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi's district in San Francisco,' he tweeted Sunday. 'It is not even recognizeable lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!'"

Ian Swanson of the Hill: "White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney defended President Trump's remarks calling a black congressman's district a 'disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,' stating during an interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace that there was nothing racist about the president's comments.... Wallace said there was a 'clear pattern here,' stating that before Trump's inauguration, he had said that another black congressman, Rep. John Lewis (R-Ga.), should spend time in his 'crime-infested district.' He then noted the president's recent criticisms of four Democratic congresswomen, who are all members of minority groups. Trump also used the word 'infested' in criticizing those four lawmakers, stating that they should 'go back to the crime-infested countries' they came from.... 'Infested. It sounds like vermin, it sounds sub-human. And theses are all six members of Congress who are people of color,' Wallace said. Mulvaney responded by saying he thought Wallace was spending way too much time 'reading between the lines.' 'I'm not reading between the lines, I'm reading the lines,' Wallace interjected."

Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't know if Elijah Cummings ever hoped to be famous, but he is now, thanks to President Racist. Since a third of Americans can't ID Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, it's a safe bet that a majority never heard of Elijah Cummings before now. But today, even the Drumpfendopes know who the Congressman from Maryland is.

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"Not Normal." David Nather of Axios "looked through all of [Trump's] public comments and tweets for this week, and found an avalanche of personal attacks, complaints, and statements at odds with reality. One came close to setting off a diplomatic crisis.... The sheer volume of incidents -- and the distance they've created from a normal presidency -- are definitely worth your attention." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.)

... Nathan's list doesn't include Saturday's entry: ...

... Nicholas Wu of USA Today: "On Saturday morning..., Donald Trump vented on Twitter about a political adversary, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and assailed an American city, Baltimore. 'Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,' Trump wrote. Trump continued by saying conditions on the border were 'clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded,' whereas Cummings' district was 'a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.' Trump did not present evidence for this claim about the district.... Trump made similar comments in January 2017 when attacking another black congressman, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. Trump had called the civil rights icon's district 'in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested)' after Lewis said he would be skipping Trump's inauguration." Cummings' district includes part of Balto & part of the burbs. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... In a later tweet, Trump wrote of Baltimore, "No human being would want to live there." Mrs. McC No doubt Trump is assuming that everyone who lives in Balto is black (which of course isn't true: Baltimore city is 30% white & Cummings' district is 35% white). Thus, he is implying that black people are not human beings. He means that. ...

... Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Trump finished his attack by appearing to accuse Cummings of corruption. 'Where is all this money going?' he tweeted. 'How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!' The president did not offer any evidence to support the incendiary accusation." ...

... Trump's Rats. Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Trump has had his own problems with rodents. For example, in February, the Trump Tower Grille in the president's signature Manhattan property was reported for 'live mice' and other health code violations. New York City health inspectors visited the restaurant on 11 July 2018 and found 'evidence of mice or live mice' in and around the kitchen, a violation of sanitary standards that was deemed to be 'critical'... The New York Daily News reported that the Trump Tower restaurant has been cited for health code violations in each of the past five years, including sightings of 'live roaches' in 2016 and 'filth flies' in 2017." --s ...

... CNN's Victor Blackwell responds to Trump's attack. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link:

... David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun: "You cannot remain silent in the face of such hatred and racism coming from the White House, even as you know you are letting the president force you to focus on him, him, him.... Trump's Twitter blast at Cummings and Baltimore started during the 7 o’clock hour Saturday morning after a Republican strategist, Kimberly Klacik, on the Fox News show 'Fox & Friends,' called Cummings' district the 'most dangerous' in America.... Cummings' district, which includes a large part of Baltimore is not the 'most dangerous in America,' according to the FBI, which ranks the city as a whole as the third most dangerous in the nation. [Elijah] Cummings' district, which like the city is majority black, has more college graduates than the country overall and a median income above $50,000. But the claim of 'worst' is exactly the kind of disinformation Trump traffics in on a daily basis." ...

... Baltimore Sun Editors: "... Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremacists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don't to scream. President Trump bad-mouthed Baltimore in order to make a point that the border camps are 'clean, efficient & well run,' which, of course, they are not -- unless you are fine with all the overcrowding, squalor, cages and deprivation to be found in what the Department of Homeland Security's own inspector-general recently called 'a ticking time bomb.'... If there are problems here, rodents included, they are as much [Trump's] responsibility as anyone's, perhaps more because he holds the most powerful office in the land.... Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one." ...

... "Why Trump Spent His Summer Vacation Sending Racist Tweets." Jonathan Chait: "Trump's professional career began in his father's and his systematically discriminatory housing empire.... Trump's association of African-Americans with crime and filth, and the assumption they must be cordoned off from other Americans, is a conviction so deep it cannot be uprooted.... One of the many oddities of his term in office is that he never observed the traditional break between campaigning and governing, and as a result never adopted even the pose of representing the entire country.... This is surely unique in American history. American presidents simply do not call American cities filthy and dangerous. George W. Bush may not have enjoyed much support in places like Baltimore, but he wouldn't go around calling Democratic neighborhoods disgusting hellholes. It does not occur to Trump that the patriotic requirements of his office require representing the whole of it. It is not merely that Trump is unfit for his job. He refuses, almost literally, to be president of the United States." ...

... ** Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "... I cannot forget Trump's recent treatment of Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her campaign to end mass rape in war. The Islamic State, or ISIS, forced Murad into sexual slavery when it overran Yazidi villages in northern Iraq in 2014. Murad lost her mother and six brothers, slaughtered by ISIS.... Trump sits there at his desk, an uncomprehending, unsympathetic, uninterested cardboard dummy. He looks straight ahead for much of the time, not at her, his chin jutting in his best effort at a Mussolini pose.... He cannot look at her.... When Murad says, 'They killed my mom, my six brothers,' Trump responds: 'Where are they now?'... 'They are in the mass graves in Sinjar,' Murad says.... Murad is a woman, and she is brown, and he is incapable of empathy, and the Trump administration recently watered down a United Nations Security Council resolution on protecting victim of sexual violence in conflict.... [There's more, and it doesn't get better.] This president is inhuman. Something is missing. In his boundless self-absorption, he is capable of anything." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

On June 10, Laurence Tribe said that the House could both impeach Trump & effectively try him without sending an impeachment referral to the corrupt Senate:

     ... Tribe also wrote an op-ed on this in the WashPo, dated June 5, titled "Impeach Trump. But don't necessarily try him in the Senate." If you have access to the WashPo, as I don't, you can Google it.

Jordan Weissmann of Slate: “This week, much of the story that the White House likes to tell about its economic record fell apart.... On Friday, the Commerce Department reported that the country's gross domestic product expanded at a middling 2. percent annual rate during the the second quarter.... This was only a preliminary estimate, a guesstimate really; the government will gather more data and revise that number in the coming months. But it was clearly worrisome to Donald Trump, who tried in vain to put a glass-half-full spin on the news while also placing blame for any weakness on his nemeses at the Federal Reserve.* Previously, the government believed that the economy grew by more than 3 percent in 2018, a mark it hadn't hit in more than a decade. This milestone led Trump ... to boast that he had 'accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions.' He was particularly jazzed that growth hit 4.1 percent for one quarter that year. It turns out we didn't reach 3 percent growth after all. In its annual data revisions, which also dropped Friday, the Commerce Department reported that the economy grew by just 2.5 percent or 2.9 percent in 2018...."

     ... * Mrs. McCrabbie: Actually, what Trump tweeted was this: "Q2 GDP Up 2.1% Not bad considering we have the very heavy weight of the Federal Reserve anchor wrapped around our neck. Almost no inflation. USA is set to Zoom!" There is a punctuational sleight-of-hand here: "GDP Up 2.1%" implies the GDP rose 2.1 percent, not that it was at 2.1 percent. First of all, the GDP is not "up" at all; the Commerce Department's Q1 estimate was 3.1 percent, so a normal person who can count to 4 would know the GDP fell. Second, in Trump's telling, a reader who knew the previous quarter's GDP was an estimated 3.1 percent, would assume GDP was now at an astounding 5.2 percent. Wowza! Even Trump's punctuation -- or the blank spaces where there is supposed to be punctuation -- are lies. Now that's astounding.

"We Are All Executioners Now." Matt Ford of the New Republic: "Attorney General Bill Barr announced that he will order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to schedule execution dates for five federal death-row prisoners, ending a 16-year de facto moratorium at the federal level. 'Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people's representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,' Barr said in a statement.... Barr's decision to frame the move in democratic terms is appropriate.... Federal and state laws are still written by elected legislators and enforced on the people's behalf. As a result, Americans continue to bear a certain responsibility for whatever the government does in their name.... The federal courts have long acted as a check on capital punishment's worst excesses, but that role is fading fast. The Supreme Court made it virtually impossible to challenge the constitutionality of execution methods when it heard the midazolam case in 2015.... While a majority of Americans still favor capital punishment..., Donald Trump seems to relish it."

There's nobody that has more respect for women than I do. -- Donald Trump, October 2016 ...

... Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: "... new Trump administration regulations, part of the administration's broader war on family planning and women's health, curb access to birth control and are causing chaos in family planning clinics across America.... The Trump regulations limit Title X, a landmark federal program meant to support women's health for low-income Americans. The regulations bar Title X money from going to clinics that refer women to places to get abortions.... A Pap test to check for cervical cancer previously was free for low-income patients at the [only Planned Parenthood] clinic [in West Virginia]; after the Trump regulations, it's $264. A clinical breast exam went from zero to $160. A contraceptive arm implant or I.U.D. soared from zero to more than $1,000 in some cases.... Title X is an odd target because it is the gold standard of cost-effectiveness. In 2010, one study found, publicly funded family planning averted 2.2 million unintended pregnancies, 99,100 cases of chlamydia and 3,680 cases of cervical cancer." Thanks to Hattie for the link.

Regulations Save Lives. Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "In the days after the first crash of Boeing's 737 Max, engineers at the Federal Aviation Administration came to a troubling realization: They didn't fully understand the automated system that helped send the plane into a nose-dive, killing everyone on board.... More than a dozen current and former employees at the F.A.A. and Boeing who spoke with The New York Times described a broken regulatory process that effectively neutered the oversight authority of the agency. The regulator had been passing off routine tasks to manufacturers for years, with the goal of freeing up specialists to focus on the most important safety concerns. But on the Max, the regulator handed nearly complete control to Boeing, leaving some key agency officials in the dark about important systems like MCAS, according to the current and former employees." Mrs. McC: What are the chances the Trump administration got right on it & beefed up the FAA's regulatory rules?

Jeremy Stahl of Slate (July 26): "One of the country's top border officers ... Chief of Law Enforcement Operations for Customs and Border Protection Brian S. Hastings ... cannot say whether a 3-year-old child might pose a 'criminal or national security threat.' This was one of a number of astonishing takeaways from Thursday's latest hearing into family separation.... During a lightning round of opening questions from Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, the CBP official confessed what many had long suspected but that the administration has repeatedly denied against all evidence: The Trump administration intended for family separation to be permanent.... The denouement came when Hastings confessed ... that there was no intent ever to reunite the families when the policy was first implemented.... This is the exact opposite of what ... [now Acting HHS Secretary Kevin] McAleenan told NBC's Lester Holt in April. 'They were always intended to be reunited.... Rep. Jamie Raskin asked [Hastings] if families were being separated because a parent is HIV-positive, as was reported earlier this month in Quartz.... [Hastings said yes:] 'It's a communicable disease under the guidance.' This is the exact opposite of what McAleenan said during his testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week in response to the same question from Raskin.... Update: On Friday, Hastings issued a statement changing his previous testimony that HIV is considered a communicable disease under the guidance." Mrs. McC: But it seems obvious Hastings' CBP is not following that guidance.

Paola Rosa-Aquino of Grist: "On Tuesday, a team of two dozen scientists co-signed an open letter to international lawmakers urging them to adopt a new addition to the Geneva Conventions.... The proposed new convention would add certain types of environmental destruction -- like the extinction of megafauna and poisoning of water sources -- to the list of unacceptable acts.... The idea dates back to the Vietnam War. In order to flush out guerilla fighters, Americans stripped the leafy jungle greens with defoliants including the infamous Agent Orange -- a forest-clearing herbicide that has been linked to severe birth defects decades after exposure.... Environmental war casualties are clearly nothing new, but the scientists' open letter to lawmakers is purposefully timed. The argument comes just ahead of a meeting of the United Nations' International La Commission, which will occur ... later this month." Thanks to Hattie for the link.

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "Unprecedented wildfires are currently raging across the Arctic Circle, with some the size of 100,000 football fields -- so big they can be seen from space. Arctic sea ice is moreover already running at a record low this year; scientists worry [the incoming] heat wave will only further exacerbate the area's problems." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Ohio. Ryan Grim & Akela Lacy of The Intercept: "On Tuesday, a dark-money effort linked primarily to the Ohio nuclear industry delivered an audacious payoff, as a newly elected state legislature overcame years of opposition to shower a $1.1 billion bailout on two state nuclear plants [owned by FirstEnergy, after spending only $30 million on campaigns].... Several dark-money groups spent millions to replace key Republican state legislators in the spring of 2018, followed by a furious lobbying campaign to make sure those new lawmakers elected a new House speaker -- one who was amenable to the subsidy.... [P]revious legislatures had objected to a bailout[.]... According to the Environmental Working Group..., five cash-strapped states across the country have foisted more than $15 billion in subsidies on failing nuclear power plants since 2016[.]" --s...

... David Roberts of Vox: "It is the most counterproductive and corrupt piece of state energy legislation I can recall in all my time covering this stuff -- the details must really be seen to be believed.... To summarize: the bill would subsidize four uncompetitive power plants, remove all incentive to build more renewable energy projects, and cancel efforts to help customers use less energy.... As bad as the bill looks on the surface, once you understand the context and details, you realize ... it's actually much worse than that." --s

Way Beyond

Russia. Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "Lines of riot police officers in body armor and helmets blocked the streets of central Moscow on Saturday, arresting more than 1,300 demonstrators -- chasing some of them down alleys -- to blunt a protest over the fairness of coming city elections.... The spark for Saturday's protest was a decision by election authorities to bar several opposition candidates from running for Moscow's City Council, asserting that they had falsified signatures on petitions to run -- a charge the candidates denied. An independent monitoring group said more than 1,300 people were arrested near City Hall, the intended site of the rally, although many never made it there. As in past protests, the authorities began making arrests blocks away so a large crowd could not form. The protest, which not authorized by the government, was the latest in a series of street demonstrations staged as President Vladimir V. Putin's approval ratings have dipped amid economic hardship."

Scotland. Juan Cole: "As The Independent put it in its headline, for the first six months of this year, Scotland generated enough electricity with wind turbines to power two Scotlands (with regard to household energy requirements). Of course, households are not the only consumers of electricity -- industry and retail are big in that regard, as well. But we are still at the beginning of Scotland's green energy revolution. Scottish Power, the major utility, has dropped gas and coal entirely, and will invest $5.79 billion in order to double its renewables capacity." Also notes progress of other countries. --s

News Lede

NBC News: "At least three people were killed in a shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California, authorities said Sunday night. There was no immediate indication that a suspect was in custody. Multiple law enforcement sources said at least 11 people were shot at one of the largest food festivals in the United States. Gilroy City Council member Dion Bracco and a a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told NBC News that three people had been pronounced dead. Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for Santa Clara County Medical Center, said the hospital was treating five patients, 'generally' with gunshot wounds. No conditions of the victims were immediately made public."

The Commentariat -- July 27, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

"Not Normal." David Nather of Axios "looked through all of [Trump's] public comments and tweets for this week, and found an avalanche of personal attacks, complaints, and statements at odds with reality. One came close to setting off a diplomatic crisis.... The sheer volume of incidents -- and the distance they've created from a normal presidency -- are definitely worth your attention." Read on.

... Nathan's list doesn't include today's entry: ...

... Nicholas Wu of USA Today: "On Saturday morning..., Donald Trump vented on Twitter about a political adversary, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and assailed an American city, Baltimore. 'Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,' Trump wrote. Trump continued by saying conditions on the border were 'clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded,' whereas Cummings' district was 'a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.' Trump did not present evidence for this claim about the district.... Trump made similar comments in January 2017 when attacking another black congressman, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. Trump had called the civil rights icon's district 'in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested)' after Lewis said he would be skipping Trump's inauguration." Cummings' district includes part of Balto & part of the burbs. ...

     ... In a later tweet, Trump wrote of Baltimore, "No human being would want to live there." Mrs. McC: No doubt Trump is assuming that everyone who lives in Balto is black (which of course isn't true: Baltimore city is 30% white & Cummings' district is 35% white). Thus, he is implying that black people are not human beings. He means that.

** Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "... I cannot forget Trump's recent treatment of Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her campaign to end mass rape in war. The Islamic State, or ISIS, forced Murad into sexual slavery when it overran Yazidi villages in northern Iraq in 2014. Murad lost her mother and six brothers, slaughtered by ISIS.... Trump sits there at his desk, an uncomprehending, unsympathetic, uninterested cardboard dummy. He looks straight ahead for much of the time, not at her, his chin jutting in his best effort at a Mussolini pose.... He cannot look at her.... When Murad says, 'They killed my mom, my six brothers,' Trump responds: 'Where are they now?'... 'They are in the mass graves in Sinjar,' Murad says.... Murad is a woman, and she is brown, and he is incapable of empathy, and the Trump administration recently watered down a United Nations Security Council resolution on protecting victims of sexual violence in conflict.... [There's more, and it doesn't get better.] This president is inhuman. Something is missing. In his boundless self-absorption, he is capable of anything.” Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link.

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Back in commission. Many thanks to safari, PD Pepe & Ken W. for linking to relevant stories & opinion pieces yesterday. BTW, if you watched the video of Stephen Colbert's monologue, which PD Pepe linked, you now know that during a speech introducing our brand-new Secretary of Defense this week, Trump also introduced two new words into the lexicon: "infantroopin" and "lawmurkers." Despite Colbert's best guess, I'd say "infantroopin" means "infantrymen" (which -- due to credit to Trump -- does sound pretty good in the original German), & "lawmurkers" means those elected officials whose place of business is the U.S. Capitol building (they do "murk," don't they?). -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

"Impeachment" Just Became Official. Nicholas Fandos & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee on Friday asked a federal judge to unseal grand jury secrets related to Robert S. Mueller III's investigation, using the court filing to declare that lawmakers have already in effect launched an impeachment investigation of President Trump. In a legal maneuver that carries significant political overtones, the committee told a judge that it needs access to the grand jury evidence collected by Mr. Mueller as special counsel -- such as witness testimony -- because it is 'investigating whether to recommend articles of impeachment' against the president.... By declaring that his committee was in effect conducting such an inquiry, [Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)] was heading off a politically difficult vote in the committee or the full house to pursue impeachment.... 'We're now crossing a threshold with this filing, and we are now officially entering into an examination of whether or not to recommend articles of impeachment,' Representative Veronica Escobar, Democrat of Texas, declared." ...

... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "The House Judiciary Committee is 'in effect' already conducting an impeachment inquiry, the panel's chairman, Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), said during a press conference, referring to hearings it has conducted regarding former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Nadler said that impeaching Trump is among the actions that Democrats are weighing to address the president's misconduct -- despite the fact that there has been no House vote to initiate an impeachment inquiry. Nearly 100 House Democrats have already said they support opening an impeachment inquiry...." ...

We are continuing an investigation of the president's malfeasances. And we will consider what we have to consider, including whether we should recommend articles of impeachment to the House. That's the job of our committee. -- House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Friday

We will proceed when we have what we need to proceed -- not one day sooner, the California Democrat said at her weekly press conference. -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Friday ...

... Sarah Ferris & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House Democrats on Friday took a major step forward in their legal fight against ... Donald Trump -- one that looks much like the beginning of impeachment, even as Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to resist a formal inquiry. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler's announcement on Friday that the House is formally seeking special counsel Robert Mueller's grand-jury information complicates the far more cautious message on impeachment coming from Pelosi and her top deputies.... Seven lawmakers have come out in favor since Mueller's testimony, including House Democratic Caucus vice-chair Katherine Clark (D-Mass.). Reps. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), a senior Democrat, and Mike Levin (D-Calif.), a freshman in a battleground district, both announced their support Friday afternoon." ...

... Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon, David Cicilline, Pramila Jayapal & Veronica Escobar in the Atlantic on "why we're moving forward with impeachment.... At this point, it is up to Congress to act on the evidence of multiple counts of obstruction of justice committed by the president, and to continue our investigation into whether he has committed other high crimes and misdemeanors.... We have now filed a petition in court to obtain the grand-jury documents referenced in the special counsel's report. In that filing, we have made clear that we will utilize our Article I powers to obtain the additional underlying evidence, as well as enforce subpoenas for key witness testimony, and broaden our investigations to include conflicts of interest and financial misconduct." ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox summarizes the debate within the House over impeachment.

I watched Bob Mueller, and they have nothing. There's no collusion there's no obstruction they have nothing. It's a disgrace. -- Donald Trump, Friday

More than one lie here. The smaller one: Trump said Tuesday he wouldn't be watching the hearings. Now he says he did. The bigger one: even if Trump watched only "a little bit," as he said he might, he could not have missed Mueller's repeated confirmations that the report did not give Trump a pass on either conspiracy or obstruction. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

We want to find out what happened with the last Democrat president. Let's look into Obama the way they looked at me from day one. They've looked into everything that we've done. They could look into the book deal that President Obama made. Let's subpoena all of his records. -- Donald Trump, Friday ...

... Air-Conditioning! Trump Goes off Deep End in Response to Impeachment Investigation. Bruce Haring of Deadline: "Frustrated by continued efforts by the Democratic congress to find a reason to impeach him, ... Donald Trump fought back [Friday], saying that an investigation should be mounted on the book deals signed by former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. The $65 million in multiple book deals spawned a best-seller for Michelle Obama, with Barack Obama's memoir scheduled for some time next year. Trump, speaking in the White House Oval Office on Friday, also called for an investigation into the Clinton Foundation, and put in a jab against Obama for ruining the White House air conditioning system, which he says can't maintain a comfortable temperature." Mrs. McC: If you can't take the heat, Donnie, get the hell out of the kitchen. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Like many criminals, Trump believes that everybody is a crook and views demands that he follow the law as mere hypocrisy. Here he pivots immediately from his rage that he is being asked to comply with basic ethical norms -- in this same interview Trump threatened to raise tariffs on French wine, a move that would benefit Trump's own winery -- to insinuations that President Obama probably committed financial crimes, too. Trump's claim that Republicans never investigated Obama is especially bizarre.... Trump, reaching for evidence that Obama probably did something just as unethical as Trump did, comes up with ... Obama's book. You can almost see the wheels turning in Trump's brain as he tries to summon some damning piece of evidence about his predecessor.... 'Writing books' has to be some kind of scam, right?"

Josh Kovensky of TPM: "... Calling [former White House counsel Don] McGahn 'the main fact witness' of former special counsel Robert Mueller's report, [Rep. Jerry] Nadler told CNN's Anderson Cooper that a lawsuit to enforce a subpoena for McGahn's testimony would be filed early next week."

Ted Hesson of Politico: "... Donald Trump said Friday that the United States had struck an asylum agreement with Guatemala. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump told reporters he had reached a safe third country deal with the Central American nation.... Trump has railed at Guatemala in recent days for allegedly backing out of asylum negotiations with the U.S. The Guatemalan government earlier this month called off a meeting between Trump and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales amid litigation in that country's top court challenging the asylum discussions. In a tweet this week, Trump said his administration was weighing retaliation against Guatemala that included a possible travel ban, tariffs, and a fee on remittances -- a significant source of economic activity in that country.... Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, ripped the pact as 'cruel and immoral' in a written statement. 'Simply put, Guatemala is not a safe country for refugees and asylum seekers,' he said, adding that he expected the move to be challenged in court.... Pro-migrant groups have blasted the idea that asylum seekers will be protected in Guatemala, which had a murder rate more than five times that of the U.S. in 2016." ...

... Liar, Liar. Obed Manuel of the Dallas Morning News (July 25): "A U.S. Border Patrol chief on Thursday testified before the House Judiciary Committee that 18-year-old Francisco Erwin Galicia never claimed to be a U.S. citizen when he was in Border Patrol custody for 23 days. But that contradicts a notice to appear in immigration court served to Galicia in which the Department of Homeland Security accused him of falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen while in custody.... During the oversight hearing on family separations and short-term custody, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-California, asked [Brian Hastings, Chief of Law Enforcement at the U.S. Border Patrol,] why Galicia was held in custody for more than three weeks. Galicia was released less than 24 hours after The News broke the story. Lieu, citing The News' reporting in which Galicia said that he lost 26 pounds in 23 days and wasn't allowed a shower during that time, asked Hastings if he could explain why Galicia was detained. Hastings replied that at the Falfurrias checkpoint where Galicia and his younger brother Marlon Galicia were taken into custody, Francisco 'claimed to be a Mexican National who was born in Reynosa, Mexico.' 'Throughout the process, and while he was with Border Patrol, he claimed to be a citizen of Mexico with no immigration documents to be in or remain in the U.S.,' Hastings told the members of Congress.... '[Hastings'] statement is incorrect,' [Claudia Galan, Galicia's attorney,] said Thursday. 'At the moment he was stopped, he showed them his documents and he kept saying he was a U.S. citizen.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The House should give Hastings an opportunity to "clarify" his testimony. If he declines, or "clarifies" with another lie, the House should cite him for perjury. BTW, it wasn't clear to me until today that the Galicia brothers were detained while minding their own business inside the U.S., not while they were trying to re-enter from Mexico. ...

... Dennis Romero of NBC News: Francisco Galicia describes "inhumane" conditions in the U.S. Customs & Border Patrol facility where he was held. One quote (translated from Spanish: ""We were about 60 people in one small room." Mrs. McC: So if 60 people were concentrated in one small room, isn't it accurate to call the facility a "concentration camp"? I suppose a Trumpie might argue that a facility comprised of what look like permanent or semi-permanent buildings are not literally "camps," in which case I would settle for "concentration facility."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday gave President Trump a victory in his fight for a wall along the Mexican border by allowing the administration to begin using $2.5 billion in Pentagon money for the construction. In a 5-to-4 ruling, the court overturned an appellate decision and said that the administration could tap the money while litigation over the matter proceeds. But that will most likely take many months or longer, allowing Mr. Trump to move ahead before the case returns to the Supreme Court after further proceedings in the appeals court. While the order was only one paragraph long and unsigned, the Supreme Court said the groups challenging the administration did not appear to have a legal right to do so. That was an indication that the court's conservative majority was likely to side with the administration in the end." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You'll have to read the whole report, but it appears Liptak is right. The Court's confederates seem to accept the argument that the litigants, who are environmental advocates, don't have standing. But the House also has filed a suit, & another lower court judge ruled in that case that the judiciary "should generally resolve disputes between the other two branches as only a last resort." This seems to give a president* the power of appropriation, despite the Constitution's unambiguous language conveying that responsibility to the Congress. So forget Article I; Trump does "have Article II," as he has said, an article which he has repeatedly interpreted to mean, "I can do whatever I want."

When "Executive Time" Means "Sexual Assault." Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "Col. Kathryn A. Spletstoser says ... Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, the commander of United States Strategic Command..., pulled her to him and kissed her on the lips while pressing himself against her, then ejaculated, getting semen on his sweatpants and on her yoga pants .... on the night of Dec. 2, 2017.... 'The two were attending the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California." According to Spletstoser, Hyden knocked on her hotel room door because "he wanted to speak to her.... The military’s itinerary of General Hyten's movements that day in Simi Valley, which was viewed by The New York Times, said he was having 'executive time.'... In April, President Trump nominated General Hyten to be the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. If confirmed, he would become the country's No. 2 military officer.... An Air Force official charged with investigating her complaint declined in June to refer General Hyten to a court-martial."

Shane Croucher of Newsweek: "The hashtag #MoscowMitch was trending on Twitter on Friday morning after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked two election bills designed to deter interference by Russia and other states, claiming it was 'partisan legislation' by the Democratic Party.... Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough used the moniker 'Moscow Mitch' in reference to McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, multiple times during his MSNBC show on Friday, and tore into the congressional leader for several minutes." ...

... Nicole Goodkind of Newsweek: "McConnell said he wouldn't allow a vote on the bills because they were 'so partisan,' but, as previously reported, earlier this year McConnell received a slew of donations from four of the top voting machine lobbyists in the country.... The plans would likely burden the two largest electronic voting machine vendors in the United States, Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems, with new regulations and financial burdens.... McConnell's actions seemed even more out of balance with his party, as the Senate Intelligence Committee -- led by Republicans⁠ -- released a report later on Thursday claiming Russians have targeted voting systems in all 50 states in 2016. Though there was no evidence votes were changed, in Illinois 'Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data.' In 2018, there were 14 states that used electronic voting systems in 2018 with no paper trail, that means that if votes were inaccurately tallied or machines malfunctioned, there would be no way to investigate or recover those votes. Voting machine companies are not currently subject to any federally-mandated security standards." ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "If the House bills are partisan, the question should be whether the majority leader is currently working on bipartisan efforts to secure our elections. We all know that the answer is 'no.' The fact that McConnell claims that mandating the use of paper ballots is an attempt 'to give Democrats the political upper hand' in 2020 is an outrageous assertion, demonstrating that the majority leader has no interest in fair elections, or even giving voters reason to believe that they are fair. It is also telling that McConnell assumes that having paper ballots that can be manually counted would give Democrats an advantage.... Just as we've seen with Trump, he is sending a message to Vladimir Putin that he welcomes another attack.... The invitation also goes out to other foreign adversaries.... You have to wonder why McConnell would be so confident that ... it would be to benefit Republicans. And if the only way for the GOP to survive politically is to invite foreign interference in our elections, the party of Lincoln has been completely corrupted."

... Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday after the GOP leader blocked two election security measures this week. In an op-ed published by The Post, Milbank accused McConnell of 'doing Russian President Vladimir Putin's bidding' and labeled the GOP leader 'a Russian asset.'... 'Russia attacked our country in 2016. It is attacking us today. Its attacks will intensify in 2020. Yet each time we try to raise our defenses to repel the attack, McConnell, the Senate majority leader, blocks us from defending ourselves,' Milbank continued. Let's call this what it is: unpatriotic. The Kentucky Republican is, arguably more than any other American, doing Russian President Vladimir Putin's bidding,' he wrote.... The columnist accused McConnell of 'aiding and abetting Putin's dismantling of Americans' self-governance,' adding, 'A leader who won't protect our country from attack is no patriot.'"

Presidential Race 2020

David Jackson of USA Today: "A day after praising a Fox News poll that reflected confidence in his economic record, Trump attacked another Fox News poll that shows him losing the 2020 race to former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden. '@FoxNews is at it again,' Trump said in a tweet.... He added another barb: 'Now new Fox Polls, which have always been terrible to me (they had me losing BIG to Crooked Hillary), have me down to Sleepy Joe.'" ...

... Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Fox News' Shepard Smith [Friday] afternoon fired back at ... Donald Trump after he blasted the network for their 'terrible' polls. The polling shows Joe Biden beating the president by 10%. As Smith put it, 'Same spread as last month and outside the margin of error.'... 'The Fox News poll did have President Trump losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton and the Fox News poll was accurate,' Smith said. 'The final survey was done November 3-6 of that year. Among both registered and likely voters, the poll predicted Hillary Clinton would beat Trump by 4 percentage points.... So Clinton would win the popular vote by a margin of between 1.5% and 6.5%. She did. Her margin of victory was 2.1%. Close to three million voters. The polls were accurate.'"

Big Setback for a Frivolous Lawsuit. Max Londberg & Cameron Knight of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "The $250 million lawsuit filed by Nick Sandmann against the Washington Post has been dismissed by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman, who heard oral arguments earlier this month, issued the ruling on Friday in the case that garnered national attention. Nick became embroiled in a divisive response to an encounter between him, his Covington Catholic High classmates and Native Americans on the National Mall.... The Sandmann family plans to appeal Bertelsman's ruling, according to a statement sent to The Enquirer by Nick's attorneys...."

Why Do We Need "Medicare for All" When Things Are Going So Well? Phil McCausland of NBC News: "More than 10,000 people in Appalachia will sigh with relief this month after two donors from the region helped nonprofit RIP Medical Debt purchase and forgive $10 million of medical debt. But it's just a drop in the bucket of the $88 billion of medical debt racked up in the United States over the past year.... Antico said the $100,000 donation, which buys the $10 million debt for pennies on the dollar, came from two individuals -- Jim Branscome, a former journalist who became the managing director of Standard & Poor's Financial Services, and author and journalist Bill Bishop. The two men approached RIP Medical Debt in May and said they wanted to focus on Central Appalachia with their personal donation. The 10,000 people affected are sprawled across 70 counties in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky. The nonprofit is unable to pinpoint individuals, but is able to purchase groups of people's debt in bulk from the debt market, which they did in this case."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Bridget Read of New York: "The battle over the outcome of last month's highly publicized Queens district attorney race between Tiffany Cabán and Melinda Katz is waging on.... Cabán ... declared victory, with their candidate ahead by 1,100 votes ... until Katz quietly pulled ahead by just 20 votes, as last-minute affidavit and absentee ballots were counted.... Since then, the razor-thin margin between contenders has remained too close to call, after Katz's narrow comeback prompted a manual recount. Volunteers from both camps had been counting roughly 91,000 paper ballots for two weeks before they finished yesterday, after which Katz was still ahead by only 60 votes. The Board of Elections plans to certify the results next week, and Cabán plans to challenge them in court."

The Commentariat -- July 26, 2019

I will be out of commission until late tomorrow afternoon. It's possible I'll be able to post a few links tonight, but after that, nada. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Juliegrace Brufke & Niv Elis of the Hill: "The House passed a two-year budget deal Thursday that lifts the debt ceiling and boosts government spending by $320 billion. The legislation would suspend the debt limit through July 2021 and increase spending caps for the next two years, putting the U.S. on track to add an estimated $1.7 trillion to the deficit over the next decade when compared with the billions in automatic spending cuts that would otherwise kick in. Lawmakers passed the package in a 284-149 vote. Sixty-five Republicans voted against the measure, as did 16 Democrats. The legislation now heads to the Senate, which is expected to pass it next week before senators leave town for the August recess. The bill's passage comes just days after President Trump signed off on a deal reached between administration officials, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other congressional leaders."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate will vote Monday evening to try to override President Trump's vetoes of resolutions blocking his arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Senators locked in the override votes Thursday as they wrapped up their work for the week.... The veto override attempts are widely expected to fall short after the initial resolutions of disapproval passed with 51 and 53 votes -- well short of the 67 votes needed to override a veto. Trump vetoed the three resolutions of disapproval on Wednesday." ...

... Dan De Luce & Robert Windrem of NBC News list 11 "favors" Trump has done for Saudi Arabia since he's becomes president*. Some are very consequential. Mrs. McC: Of course in the most quid-pro-quo, White-House-for-sale Trumpy tradition, the Saudis are doing & have done plenty of favors for Trump, too.

Senate Republicans Oppose Everything about Fair Elections. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader (R-Ky.) blocked two election security measures on Thursday, arguing Democrats are trying to give themselves a 'political benefit.' The move comes a day after former special counsel Robert Mueller warned about election meddling in 2020, saying Russia was laying the groundwork to interfere in the 2020 election 'as we sit here.' Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) had tried to get consent Thursday to pass a House bill that requires the use of paper ballots and includes funding for the Election Assistance Commission. It passed the House 225-184 with one Republican voting for it. But McConnell objected, saying Schumer was trying to pass 'partisan legislation.'... Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also asked for consent to pass legislation that would require candidates, campaign officials and their family members to notify the FBI of assistance offers from foreign governments. McConnell also objected to that bill." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I am beginning to think this is part of a GOP plot not only to erode voters' confidence in election results but also to give Republicans a fake "basis" to challenge results that go against them. There is no good reason to oppose ballot-box security. Therefore, Republicans' motivations must be self-serving & malevolent. Mitch's remark about the bills giving Democrats a "political benefit" certainly implies he sees election chaos to be a "political benefit" to Republicans. We live in dangerous times. ...

... Zachary Basu & Joe Uchill of Axios: "The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday released the first part of its redacted report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, focusing on 'Russian efforts against election infrastructure.'... The committee found that the Russian government, beginning in at least 2014 and continuing through at least 2017, directed 'extensive activity' targeting state and local election infrastructure. The committee did not find 'indications that votes were changed, vote tallying systems were manipulated, or that any voter registration data was altered or deleted.'... Michael Daniel, former cybersecurity coordinator for the White House, told the committee that by late August 2016, he had 'already personally concluded that the Russians had attempted to intrude in all 50 states, based on the extent of the activity and the apparent randomness of the attempts.'" ...

     ... The New York Times report, by David Sanger & Catie Edmondson, is here.

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted on Thursday to authorize subpoenas for senior White House officials' communications via private email accounts and messaging applications, a significant escalation in a years-long, bipartisan effort to learn more about potential violations of federal record-keeping laws. Thursday’s vote by the Democrat-led panel came after the White House refused to turn over the messages voluntarily earlier this month -- including senior adviser Jared Kushner's WhatsApp communications with foreign officials, senior adviser Ivanka Trump's use of a private email account to conduct official business, and former chief strategist Stephen Bannon's use of a personal mobile device for White House business." (Also linked yesterday.)

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's answers [to the special counsel's questions], submitted in writing and under oath, are receiving new scrutiny after Mr. Mueller agreed in his closely watched congressional testimony this week that some of the president's responses were untruthful.... Mr. Mueller's answer to [Val] Demings [(D-Fla.) regarding Trump's written answers were] a rare moment in which he went beyond his report.... Mr. Trump's answers are becoming additional fodder for the internal debate among House Democrats about whether to open an impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump, congressional aides said. Notably, one of the two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton accused him of lying under oath." Savage summarizes other matters Democrats are considering as areas of inquiry. Worth a read.

Jonathan Chait: In the last minutes of the Intelligence Committee hearing yesterday, "Mueller confirmed that Russia had blackmail leverage over Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign." Chait runs through the lines of questioning that establish Russia's ability to compromise Trump. Mrs. McC: I suspect Russia's got more on Trump than Schiff & Mueller highlighted. If so, I'll bet Trump knows it. (Also linked yesterday.)

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "With Republicans united behind the President, Democrats uncertain about how to proceed, and Mueller reluctant to the last to come straight out and say that the President committed impeachable offenses, it looks like Trump's blitzkrieg tactics of demonizing anyone who challenges him, terrorizing potential dissidents on his own side, and relentlessly spouting propaganda over social media may have worked. If so, he will have recorded a historic victory over the bedrock American principles of congressional oversight and equality before the law.... The wanton disrespect that these elected Republicans [on the House committees] showed Mueller was perhaps the most alarming testament yet to Trump's total conquest of the Party." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Tom Nichols in USA Today: "The Republicans once prided themselves on being the toughest opponents of America's enemies. They have now been reduced to inane babbling about conspiracy theories, excusing the Russians, whitewashing the hostile foreign intelligence service called WikiLeaks, and attacking a man of indisputable honor and probity -- a fellow Republican, no less -- all in the name of covering Donald Trump's tracks.... I have never been prouder to be an ex-Republican." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... ** David Corn of Mother Jones: "The former special counsel did not drop any new revelations about the Trump-Russia affair. Yet in a simple but important manner, he reiterated the basics of this scandal -- perhaps the most consequential political scandal in American history.... Russia attacked, and Trump denied the attack happened -- which provided cover for Moscow -- yet attempted to benefit from it. This is a profound act of betrayal. It is the essence of the scandal: A presidential candidate aiding and abetting an assault on the United States.... This is the narrative that Trump has desperately wanted to obstruct and smother since the campaign. He was elected president partly due to the Russian intervention he has refused to fully acknowledge and address.... Whether or not Trump engaged in active collusion with Vladimir Putin's regime, he gained the presidency with covert foreign assistance and then abandoned his most fundamental duty: to protect the United States. Arguably, this is more significant than the obstruction issue, for Trump has permitted a foreign power to get away with perverting the foundation of American democracy." --s

** Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The federal government will resume executions of death-row inmates after a nearly two-decade moratorium, Attorney General William P. Barr said Thursday. The announcement reverses what had been essentially a moratorium on the federal death penalty. The federal government has not executed an inmate since 2003, though prosecutors still seek the death penalty in some cases, including for Dylann S. Roof, an avowed white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers in 2015, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber.... Mr. Barr said that Hugh Hurwitz, the acting director of the Bureau of Prisons, has scheduled executions in December and January for five men convicted of murder. They will take place at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., and additional executions will be scheduled later, Mr. Barr said." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: How to divert attention from Mueller's denunciation of Barr & Trump: execute somebody.

Andrew Napolitano of Fox "News": "When [Trump] loudly called for four members of Congress ... to go back to the places from which they came, he unleashed a torrent of hatred.... Nativist hatred is an implication of moral or even legal superiority that has no constitutional justification in American government... [W]hen the president defies these moral and constitutional norms and tells women of color to 'Go back,' he raises a terrifying specter. The specter is hatred not for ideas he despises but for the people who embrace those ideas. The specter is also a dog whistle to groups around the country that hatred is back in fashion and is acceptable to articulate publicly.... Hatred is so volatile and destructive that, once unleashed, it takes on a life of its own. It is cover for our deepest and darkest instincts." --s

Andrew Kaczynski & Nathan McDermott of CNN: "... Donald Trump's pick for the top spokeswoman job at the Treasury Department repeatedly spread conspiracy theories that suggested then-President Barack Obama was secretly a Muslim who was sympathetic to America's enemies. Monica Crowley, who was appointed by Trump last week as assistant treasury secretary for public affairs, made multiple comments spreading these false claims on her personal blog and in at least one tweet between 2009 and 2015, according to a review by CNN's KFile team. Crowley also endorsed a story claiming Obama was an 'Islamic community organizer' trying to conform the United States to Sharia law and claimed conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate were 'legitimate concerns.'... Crowley, formerly a syndicated radio host, columnist and Fox News contributor, was originally chosen by Trump in December 2016 to be the senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council. She withdrew herself from consideration for that position after CNN's KFile team uncovered extensive plagiarism in her book and doctoral thesis." Mrs. McC: She seems perfect for Team Trump.

Juan Cole: "The House of Representatives on Thursday passed by a 398-17 margin a resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. In so doing, they weakened the US First Amendment of the Constitution, which forbids Congress to censor political speech.... Moreover, this attempt to ban or punish boycotts is a stance of the Far Right and has an ugly history in the white nationalist backlash against the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.... If Congress had its way and could outlaw boycotts of all the causes and businesses dear to their campaign donors, American democracy would be in peril...Economic boycotts have been part and parcel of American political striving for liberty from the beginning. I have three words for you: Boston Tea Party." --s

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham couldn't say on Wednesday whether the citizenship data his agency is helping to collect will be used to drastically change the way political power is doled out across the country to favor the Republican Party...[Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)]... asked Dillingham several questions related to [President Trump's recent executive order directing the government to assemble citizenship data from existing records.]. Dillingham repeatedly struggled to respond and appeared altogether unprepared to answer basic questions about the Census Bureau's plans in following Trump's directive.... Dillingham agreed to respond in writing within 10 days to Pressley's question about apportionment." --s

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is now working for some of the same oil and mining companies he regulated while at the helm of the Department of Interior, according to Bloomberg.... He has dismissed accusations of corruption and conflict of interest, telling Bloomberg that probes into his actions as secretary are 'BS.'... Federal law blocks government officials from lobbying for a year after they leave their post, and an executive order from President Trump bars such actions for five years after leaving federal service. Zinke said he's abiding by the law because he is advising companies but not lobbying." --s

Tom Porter of Business Insider: "... Donald Trump took to the stage at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Washington, DC, on Tuesday to deliver a speech to thousands of young, cheering supporters at the Turning Point USA conference. But ... no one seemed to notice that there was something subtly different about the presidential seal that was being shown on the screen behind him. Instead of the bald eagle featured in the official seal of the president of the United States, the image featured a double-headed eagle, which bears a striking resemblance to the one on the official coat of arms of the Russian Federation.... And instead of clutching arrows in its left claw, the eagle in the altered image held golf clubs...." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Betsy Klein of CNN: "An audiovisual aide for conservative student group Turning Point USA was fired this week after ... Donald Trump appeared on a stage in front of a parody image of the presidential seal at its Teen Student Action Summit.... TPUSA had event branding on the screens, but during a run through ahead of Trump's remarks a few hours before the event, the team was told they had to change the branding to a presidential seal...." Mrs. McC: "was told?" By whom? I'd guess it was some crack advance person at the White House. And instead of sending over a high-res image of the seal, the White House guy (I'm guessing) left it to a TPUSA AV aide to punt. He did. And he got fired for his trouble. (Also linked yesterday.)

Congressional Race 2020. This Is Going Well. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "A pro-Trump Republican candidate for Congress who is aiming to unseat Ilhan Omar in Minnesota has been charged with a felony after allegedly stealing from stores. Danielle Stella was arrested twice this year in Minneapolis suburbs over allegations that she shoplifted items worth more than $2,300 from a Target and goods valued at $40 from a grocery store. She said she denied the allegations. Stella, a 31-year-old special education teacher, was reported this week to be a supporter of the baseless 'QAnon' conspiracy theory about Donald Trump battling a global cabal of elite liberal paedophiles.... In a series of text messages, Stella said:'I am not guilty of these crimes....'"

GOP Embraces Socialism. Reuters: "The US government will pay American farmers hurt by the trade war with China between $15 and $150 per acre in an aid package totaling $16bn with farmers in the South poised to see higher rates than in the midwest.... The assistance, starting in mid-to-late August, follows the president's $12bn package last year that was aimed at making up for lower farm good prices and lost sales." --s

Coral Davenport & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Four of the world's largest automakers have struck a deal with California to reduce automobile emissions, siding with the state in its fight with President Trump over one of his most consequential regulatory rollbacks. In coming weeks, the Trump administration is expected to all but eliminate an Obama-era regulation designed to reduce vehicle emissions that contribute to global warming. California and 13 other states have vowed to keep enforcing the stricter rules, potentially splitting the United States auto market in two. With car companies facing the prospect of having to build two separate lineups of vehicles, they opened secretive talks with California regulators in which the automakers -- Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen of America, Honda and BMW -- won slightly less restrictive rules that they can apply to vehicles sold nationwide."

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Thomas Colson of Business Insider: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson's opponents have accused him of creating a 'Cabinet from hell' after he appointed a home secretary with a history of supporting the death penalty, a deputy who has called feminists 'obnoxious bigots,' and multiple ministers who voted against legislation for same-sex marriage. Johnson, who became prime minister on Wednesday, conducted the most brutal cabinet purge in modern UK political history, as ministers who backed his rival Jeremy Hunt were thrown out of Cabinet.... Pledging to deliver Britain's exit from the European Union by October 31, with 'no ifs or buts,' Johnson fired 17 Cabinet ministers and gave many top jobs to members of Parliament who had been involved in the Vote Leave [pro-Brexit campaign]." ...

... Heather Stewart, et al., of the Guardian: "Brussels has roundly rebuffed Boris Johnson after he laid down tough conditions for the new Brexit deal he hopes to strike over the summer.... The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, signalled the EU27's determination to stick with the deal negotiated with Theresa May's government.... In a speech [before Parliament] that was loudly cheered by many Conservative MPs, [Johnson] said all members of his new cabinet were committed to leaving the EU on 31 October 'whatever the circumstances -- and to do otherwise would cause a catastrophic loss of confidence in our political system'."

News Lede

USA Today: "A large asteroid 'narrowly' missed the Earth overnight Wednesday, astronomers announced. According to NASA, the space rock was an estimated 187 to 427 feet wide. 'The closest it came to Earth was just under 45,000 miles, a safe distance, but still much less than the distance between the Earth and moon,' Astronomy magazine said. The moon is about 239,000 miles from the Earth. The rock was a shock: 'It snuck up on us pretty quickly,' Michael Brown, an associate professor in Australia..., told the Washington Post. 'People are only sort of realizing what happened pretty much after it's already flung past us.'"