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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Constant Comments

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Tuesday
Dec182018

The Commentariat -- December 19, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve announced a widely expected quarter-point increase in its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday, and signaled that it plans to continue raising rates next year. The Fed emphasized the strength of economic growth in a statement released after a two-day meeting of its policymaking committee. It said firms keep adding jobs and consumers keep spending money. The statement made no mention of recent turbulence in financial markets."

Mitch and Donnie Blink. Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "Mitch McConnell moved to bail out Congress and ... Donald Trump from an intractable shutdown impasse, preparing on Wednesday to fund the government into early February and avoid a funding lapse right before the holidays. The Senate majority leader will introduce a bill that funds the government through Feb. 8 after a longer-term offer was rejected by congressional Democrats on Tuesday amid a continuing battle between Trump and congressional Democrats over his border wall. With Trump softening his demands for $5 billion for the wall in the waning days of the GOP Congress, McConnell is working to avoid a political blunder four days before Christmas. It has been a week of about-faces for the White House that have induced whiplash on Capitol Hill. Though Trump declared he would be 'proud' to shut down the government if he doesn't get the wall funding he is demanding, it now appears he is willing to sign a short-term funding measure."

Chris Sommerfeldt & Theresa Braine of the New York Daily News: "President Trump signed a "bulls[hi]t" letter of intent to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 campaign, Rudy Giuliani conceded Tuesday -- just two days after the former New York mayor claimed the missive had not been signed. Giuliani refused to acknowledge he told CNN's Dana Bash on camera Sunday that Trump didn't put his John Hancock on the Oct. 28, 2015 letter. 'I don't think I said nobody signed it,' Giuliani told the Daily News, even though he literally told Bash 'no one signed' the letter. In a stunning contradiction, Giuliani told The News that 'of course' Trump signed it. 'How could you send it but nobody signed it?' he said.... Giuliani claimed the letter was 'bulls[hi]t' because it didn't go anywhere. 'That was the end of it,' Giuliani said. 'It means nothing but an expression of interest that means very little unless it goes to a contract and it never did.'"

Samatha Vinograd, a member of President Obama's National Security Council, writes an op-ed in Politico Magazine about the extent of Michael Flynn's criminality. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: What caught my attention in Vinograd's essay was this: "National security advisers are supposed to have one customer: the president of the United States. It's disturbing that President Trump doesn't seem bothered that his top aide on foreign policy was serving other [foreign] clients." Actually, I find it quite likely that Flynn -- at least in regard to Russia -- was serving one customer: Donald Trump. Flynn may have lied about & and omitted disclosing his relationship with Turkey to cover his own ass, but his lies to the FBI about his contacts with Russia were surely on orders from Trump. One day Bob Mueller will let us know.

Tangled Web, Ctd. Carrie Levine of the Center for Public Integrity: "An aide to National Security Adviser John Bolton sought to schedule a meeting for him with a Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk during Bolton's official trip to Ukraine last August, according to new disclosure filings.... The August meeting ultimately did not take place, and it's unclear why Bolton's aide sought it. But Bolton and Pinchuk have financial ties dating to before Bolton joined the Trump administration: Pinchuk's foundation had paid Bolton a combined $115,000 for his participation in two panel discussions -- one during September 2017 and the other in February 2018, according to Bolton's federal personal financial disclosure.... A steel magnate, Pinchuk has also drawn notice in the U.S. for his relationship with Trump. The New York Times reported in April that the ... Special Counsel's Office ... was investigating a $150,000 donation Pinchuk made in September 2015 to Trump's foundation. Early in his presidential campaign, Trump deemed Pinchuk a 'very, very special man, a special entrepreneur.' The payment was in exchange for a 20-minute appearance Trump made via video to a conference in Kiev, according to the Times, which reported scrutiny of the payment was part of a broader examination of foreign money flowing to Trump and his associates."

There's a New Day Dawning, but It Will Be a Nightmare for Trump. Rachel Bade & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Incoming House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings on Wednesday sent more than 50 letters to multiple agencies and departments as well as the Trump Organization and Trump's personal attorneys requesting documents on a series of scandals that have plagued the White House. The Maryland Democrat is asking for more information on the administration's handling of hurricanes Irma and Maria, Trump's controversial family separation policy at the border, the White House decision to revoke the security clearances of high ranking former officials who became Trump critics, and more. While the documents are not subpoenas, Cummings' letters lay the groundwork for a much more aggressive oversight of the executive branch in the next two years."

Kate Riga of TPM: "When the Kansas state government reconvenes in January, three of its formerly Republican members will report as freshly minted Democrats. The two state senators and one state representative, all women, cited varying sources of their discontent within the GOP. State Sen. Barbara Bollier started the trend last week, as first reported by the Kansas City Star.... Her fellow state Sen. Dinah Sykes followed her lead Wednesday, also citing complaints with being a moderate trying to operate in an increasingly partisan Republican party.... State Rep. Stephanie Clayton jumped on the bandwagon too, citing a specific issue: education."

Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump is considering pulling 2,000 United States ground troops out of Syria in a move that would seek to describe the four-year American-led war against the Islamic State as largely won, officials said Wednesday. 'We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,' the president said in a Twitter post on Wednesday morning. He offered no details on his plans for the military mission in Syria.... A formal withdrawal announcement could come as early as Wednesday, administration officials said. But Pentagon officials were still trying to talk the president out of it, arguing that such a move would betray Kurdish allies who have fought alongside American troops in Syria and who could find themselves under attack in a military offensive now threatened by Turkey." ...

     ... Update. New Lede: "President Trump has ordered a rapid withdrawal of all 2,000 United States ground troops from Syria within 30 days, declaring the four-year American-led war against the Islamic State as largely won, officials said Wednesday."

*****

Trumpty-Dumpty Blinks, Likely to Fall off Wall. Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday retreated from his demand that Congress give him $5 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, backing down amid acrimonious GOP infighting that left him with few options four days ahead of a partial government shutdown. The news, delivered by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders in an interview on Fox News, represented a major shift from Trump's declaration last week that he would be 'proud' to shut down the government to get the money he wanted for his border wall. Democrats, who will reclaim the majority in the House just weeks from now, have consistently refused to give Trump anywhere near the $5 billion he wants." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... The story has been updated with new developments: "But Democrats immediately rejected Republicans' follow-up offer.... The new border funding offer from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) calls on Congress to pass a $1.6 billion homeland security spending bill that was crafted earlier this year in a bipartisan Senate compromise.... Congress would also reprogram $1 billion in unspent funds that Trump could use on his immigration policies. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who oversees the panel in charge of homeland security funding, said the reprogrammed money would not be able to be used for a physical wall but could be spent on other border security measures. Sen. Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) told McConnell Tuesday that Democrats would not accept the deal, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized the plan to reprogram the funds. 'Leader Schumer and I have said that we cannot support the offer they made of a billion-dollar slush fund for the president to implement his very wrong immigration policies,' Pelosi said. 'So that won't happen.'"

This Russia Thing, Etc. Ctd.

Axios: "During ... Michael Flynn's sentencing hearing in D.C. on Tuesday, Judge Emmet Sullivan blasted Flynn from the bench after he confirmed his guilty plea to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. before Trump's inauguration, telling him, 'Arguably, this undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out.'" ...

... Update. Spencer Hsu, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Tuesday postponed the sentencing for Michael Flynn after he lambasted President Trump's former national security adviser for trying to undermine his own country and said he could not guarantee he would spare Flynn from prison. The stunning development means that Flynn will have to be sentenced at a later date, when he can possibly convince a judge more thoroughly of how his cooperation has benefited law enforcement. Flynn's attorneys asked for the delay after U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan accused Flynn of acting as 'an unregistered agent of a foreign country, while serving as the national security adviser to the president of the United States' -- an allegation he later walked back. Sullivan granted the request and asked for a status report in 90 days, though he said he was 'not making any promises' that he would view the matter differently in three months." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "'I'm not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense,' U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington told [Michael] Flynn.... Sullivan had Flynn admit, once again, that he had lied to the FBI and was pleading guilty because he was guilty. He gave Flynn ample opportunity to back out of his guilty plea, discussed with the prosecution the variety of other crimes Flynn could have faced, and said Flynn's criminal exposure would have been 'significant' had be been charged with the other offenses.... He then asked the government whether undermining U.S. sanctions against Russia for their interference in the 2016 election could be considered treason, a suggestion the government didn't want to weigh in on. (Soon after, the judge said he did not mean to suggest Flynn committed treason.) ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump and his allies have spent two years spinning elaborate conspiracy theories about an alleged deep state conspiracy to frame the president and his campaign for imagined crimes revolving around cooperation with Russia. The most recent iteration of these theories have centered around Michael Flynn..., who has already pleaded guilty to federal charges. Flynn, Trump's supporters claim, had done nothing wrong and was trapped into telling an inconsequential lie to FBI agents desperate to use him against Trump. Flynn's sentencing hearing today showed that this theory, like every previous exculpatory theory devised on Trump's behalf, is an absurd fantasy.... What makes [Judge Emmet Sullivan's tongue-lashing] so devastating is that conservatives have held out Sullivan as the judicial hero who would vindicate their theories.... Flynn was not set up. He was charged for committing serious crimes. And he is probably going to escape prison because the crimes committed by the people he worked with and for are even more serious." ...

... Ken White in the Atlantic: "Flynn and his lawyers faced the same problem that has bedeviled Trump and Michael Cohen and Michael Avenatti and Paul Manafort and several other figures in this circus we call life after 2016: a muscular public relations strategy is often a terrible litigation strategy. Time and again, these players have heard their public statements quoted back at them in court to undermine their legal positions. But Flynn's error was even more grievous -- he incorporated media spin into a sentencing brief.... The Flynn-as-Deep-State-victim narrative was pleasing to Trump partisans and Mueller foes, but suicidally provocative to a federal judge at sentencing.... Flynn's sentencing arguments effectively told Sullivan that Flynn saw himself as a victim, rather than a contrite wrongdoer."

John Wagner & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "President Trump lashed out Tuesday morning at threats from many directions, taking aim at the special counsel's Russia inquiry, the Federal Reserve, social media companies and undocumented immigrants in tweets that spanned more than two hours. Trump's Twitter tirade -- which included some false and questionable claims -- comes as he faces increasing peril from the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and remains in a standoff with Democrats in Congress over funding for his long-promised southern border wall that could prompt a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday. Trump touched on both battles in his tweets -- writing at one point that 'the whole Russian Witch Hunt is a Fraud and a Hoax which should be ended immediately' -- as well as several other events from recent days. He also took a shot at 'Crooked Hillary,' a reference to Hillary Clinton...."

Another Giuliani "Misstatement." Kate Sullivan of CNN: "A newly obtained document shows ... Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia, despite his attorney Rudy Giuliani claiming on Sunday the document was never signed.... The letter is dated October 28, 2015, and bears the President's signature.... '... There was a letter of intent to go forward, but no one signed it,' Giuliani told [CNN's Dana] Bash. The non-binding document is also signed by Andrey Rozov, owner of I.C. Expert Investment Co., the Russian firm that would have been responsible for developing the property.... The project, which was ultimately scrapped, would've given Trump's company a $4 million upfront fee, no upfront costs, a percentage of the sales and control over marketing and design. The deal also included an opportunity to name the hotel spa after Trump's daughter Ivanka.... While the potential Trump Tower Moscow deal was on the table, then-candidate Trump was speaking positively about working with Russian President Vladimir Putin and minimizing Russia's aggressive military moves around the world.... In 2017, [Michael] Cohen told congressional committees ... that Trump had signed the letter. Donald Trump Jr. also testified to Congress that his father signed the letter of intent."

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered a mystery corporation owned by a foreign country to comply with a subpoena that appears to be from special counsel Robert Mueller. The three-page opinion released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is the latest twist in an opaque dispute that Politico and other media outlets have tied to Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The ruling offers the intriguing detail that the entity fighting the Mueller subpoena is a foreign government-owned company, not a specific individual, as many experts had speculated."

The von Trump Family Grifters, Ctd.

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "The Donald J. Trump Foundation will close and give away all its remaining funds amid a lawsuit accusing the charity and the Trump family of using it illegally for self-dealing and political gain, the New York attorney general's office announced Tuesday. The attorney general, Barbara Underwood, accused the foundation of 'a shocking pattern of illegality' that was 'willful and repeated' and included unlawfully coordinating with Mr. Trump's 2016 presidential campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The shuttering comes after The Washington Post documented apparent lapses at the foundation. Trump used the charity's money to pay legal settlements for his private business, to purchase art for one of his clubs and to make a prohibited political donation.... In a court filing in New York, [New York AG Barbara] Underwood said that the foundation's remaining $1.75 million will be distributed to other charities approved by her office and a state judge.... The attorney general's investigation turned up evidence that Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump -- all listed as officers of the charity -- had never held a board meeting.... Trump gave away oversize checks from the foundation at campaign events in the key early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, pausing his campaign rallies to donate to local veterans' groups. Federal law prohibits charities from participating in political campaigns. As president, Trump has called repeatedly for that law to be repealed. Underwood has asked the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether the Trump charity broke tax laws." ...

... Tim O'Brien of Bloomberg adds more examples of Trump's egregious misuse of funds that were supposed to be donated to worthy causes.

... Matt Ford of the New Republic: Underwood's "office is still pursuing more than $2 million in restitution from Trump and restrictions on his family's involvement in non-profit organizations in the state.... You'd be hard-pressed to find an aspect of the president's life that isn't marked by grifting.... Ironically, some of these schemes likely would have gone unnoticed if Trump had never run for president." ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "While I don't usually pay a lot of attention to what Donny Deutsch has to say, he is exactly the kind of person who knows the world Trump traveled in with his business dealings. So it might be worth hearing him out on this one: 'What is going to put him in jail eventually ... destroy anything he's ever built, and his children, is a 30 year dishonest criminal enterprise. One thing will take him out of the presidency, the other will ruin him forever.... The political incentive for every U.S. Attorney in New York or Virginia to do this ... this guy showed up and tried to undo what 250 years of people have been dying for in this country -- who we are, what we stand for. So there is a moral imperative, rule of law, what our grandfathers died for -- democracy -- he single-handedly is the first guy in our lifetime to try to undo that. He's going to pay for that for the rest of his life as they pick apart his criminal enterprise. This is the very, very beginning of the story.'"

Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Donald Trump plans to head to Mar-a-Lago for a 16-day Christmas vacation starting Friday -- and West Wing officials, remembering previous sojourns, are on edge at the prospect of the president spending two weeks unsupervised. As the Robert Mueller loop tightens around the president, his erratic behavior is causing alarm among his most senior staff. 'The staff is fed up he's acting like a nut. They can't get him to stop tweeting,' a former official said."

Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "A newly discovered blind and burrowing amphibian is to be officially named Dermophis donaldtrumpi,in recognition of the US president's climate change denial. The name was chosen by the boss of EnviroBuild, a sustainable building materials company, who paid $25,000 (£19,800) at an auction for the right. The small legless creature was found in Panama and EnviroBuild's Aidan Bell said its ability to bury its head in the ground matched Donald Trump's approach to global warming." --s


Charlie Savage
of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Tuesday issued a new rule banning bump stocks, the attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire in sustained, rapid bursts and that a gunman used to massacre 58 people and wound hundreds of others at a Las Vegas concert in October 2017. The new regulation, which had been expected, would ban the sale or possession of the devices under a new interpretation of existing law. Americans who own bump stocks would have 90 days to destroy their devices or to turn them in to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Justice Department said A.T.F. would post destruction instructions on its website." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Stuart Leavenworth & Franco Ordoñez of McClatchy DC: "... Donald Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to keep federal lands in federal hands, is now considering candidates for Interior secretary who have advocated transferring vast swaths of federal property to states, and even to private interests. These include U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho, who met with White House officials Saturday about the job, and U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, who has left open the possibility he'd take a Cabinet position with Trump." --s

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Democratic lawmakers who came to the Border Patrol station [in Lordsburg, N.M.,] Tuesday vowing to investigate the death of a 7-year-old migrant girl emerged from their tour with a litany of accusations but few solutions for helping the agency manage the surge of families that has left agents overwhelmed. The congressional delegation, led by members of the House Hispanic Caucus, described a facility jam-packed with families, lacking sufficient medical care and poorly equipped to care for children. 'The only reason this facility is still open as it is now is because these cameras can't get in,' Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.) told reporters who had to wait outside the station, nearly 90 miles north of the border along Interstate 10. Green said he saw scores of children 'stacked' in holding cells and huddled in foil blankets on concrete floors, alongside toilets lacking privacy screens." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Lordsburg is a forlorn little town 135 miles from El Paso as the crow (or helicopter) flies. That's at least an hour by medevac helicopter, assuming a medevac pilot, team & bird are immediately available in Lordsburg. Housing migrants -- some of whom certainly will have severe medical problems after a long journey -- in a locale more than a 100 miles away from a general-services hospital seems downright stupid. ...

... John Stanton of BuzzFeed News: "A young girl who was in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection went into cardiac arrest in November at a hospital in El Paso where she was resuscitated, a US Customs and Border Protection official told members of Congress on Tuesday. The incident occurred in the same CBP sector where a 7-year-old Guatemalan asylum seeker, Jakelin Caal, fell ill earlier this month. Caal was airlifted to El Paso, but died in the early hours of Dec. 8.

Annie Rose Ramos & Dennis Romero of NBC: "Two teenagers who were staying at a migrant center in central Tijuana, Mexico, were killed in an attempted robbery, a law enforcement official said late Tuesday. Jorge Alberto Álvarez Mendoza, deputy attorney general in the state of Baja California, said the two boys, estimated to be ages 16 and 17, were stabbed and strangled Saturday. Their bodies were found shortly after 7 p.m., he said.... Tijuana saw a record number of homicides, 1,744, last year and was seeing a similarly bloody one this year, experts say."

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Senate overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday the most substantial changes in a generation to the tough-on-crime prison and sentencing laws that ballooned the federal prison population and created a criminal justice system that many conservatives and liberals view as costly and unfair. The First Step Act would expand job training and other programming aimed at reducing recidivism rates among federal prisoners. It also expands early-release programs and modifies sentencing laws, including mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, to more equitably punish drug offenders. But the legislation falls short of benchmarks set by a more expansive overhaul proposed in Congress during Barack Obama's presidency and of the kinds of changes sought by some liberal and conservative activists targeting mass incarceration. House leaders have pledged to pass the measure this week, and President Trump, whose support resuscitated a yearslong overhaul effort last month, said he would sign the bill."

David Dayen of The Intercept: "[Elizabeth] Warren introduced legislation on Tuesday with Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., that would create an Office of Drug Manufacturing within the Department of Health and Human Services. That office would have the authority to manufacture generic versions of any drug for which the U.S. government has licensed a patent, whenever there is little or no competition, critical shortages, or exorbitant prices.... Last month, [Bernie] Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., released their own bill to tackle high drug prices, which would require the government to identify any excessively priced drugs (relative to an international index of list prices) and grant a license to private companies to provide competition with a generic version. The two bills from Warren and Sanders ... are actually complementary efforts.... And they reflect a broader attack on the industry from multiple angles." --s

Alex Isenstadt & James Arkin of Politico: "Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has appointed GOP Rep. Martha McSally to the Senate seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Jon Kyl -- tapping McSally as the Republican contender in a 2020 special election that will be among the most competitive Senate races in the country that year. McSally, who lost a race for Arizona's other Senate seat to Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in 2018, will be competing to serve out the rest of the term won by the late Sen. John McCain, who passed away earlier this year. Kyl was originally appointed to fill McCain's seat, but he will be stepping down at the end of the year to return to the private sector." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brett Kavanaugh's Amazing Get-out-of-Jail Card. Ann Marimow & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The judicial council reviewing dozens of claims against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh has dismissed the complaints that coincided with his contentious nomination battle. 'The allegations contained in the complaints are serious,' said the order from a Colorado-based appeals court, but must be dropped because ethics rules for the judiciary do not extend as high as the Supreme Court. The 83 claims filed by lawyers, doctors, professors and other concerned citizens accuse Kavanaugh of making false statements during his Senate confirmation hearings, displaying a lack of judicial temperament, making inappropriate partisan statements and treating members of the Senate Judiciary Committee with disrespect, according to the 10-page order from the Judicial Council of the 10th Circuit. The judiciary has the authority to investigate and discipline federal judges, the order says, but 'the power only to resolve complaints concerning the conduct of covered judges.'" ...

... Serial Liar Gets Supreme Whitewash. Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "Federal judges reviewing complaints lodged against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said Tuesday that the allegations against the former federal appeals court judge are 'serious' but that they must dismiss them without determining their merits because of Kavanaugh's October confirmation by the U.S. Senate.... In the order [Timothy] Tymkovich said that most of the complaints include allegations of false statements under oath during Kavanaugh's D.C. Circuit confirmation hearings in 2004 and 2006 as well as during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings earlier this year.... Tymkovich, a George W. Bush appointee, declined to recuse himself from the probe into Kavanaugh after a complaint was filed requesting that he do so. The complaint, Tymkovich said in a separate order, alleged that Kavanaugh advocated for Tymkovich's confirmation." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now we know how to avoid the consequences of our bad acts: become a Supreme Court justice. Anyhow, thanks, Susan Collins & all you immoral GOP Senators! Let's add here that the 10th Circuit ruling doesn't make a lot of sense. Kavanaugh committed these bad acts before he became a justice; that is, while he did not enjoy Supreme Immunity. Furthermore, he committed them during the course of "applying for Supreme Immunity." A South Dakota man travels to North Dakota -- where the age of consent is 18 -- & while in North Dakota commits statutory rape by having sex with a 17-year-old girl. Then the man goes home to South Dakota where the age of consent is 16. North Dakota can still find him guilty of violating its law; there's no South Dakota immunity.

Election 2020. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "President Donald Trump is planning to roll out an unprecedented structure for his 2020 reelection, a streamlined organization that incorporates the Republican National Committee and the president's campaign into a single entity. It's a stark expression of Trump's stranglehold over the Republican Party: Traditionally, a presidential reelection committee has worked in tandem with the national party committee, not subsumed it. Under the plan ... the Trump reelection campaign and the RNC will merge their field and fundraising programs into a joint outfit dubbed Trump Victory. The two teams will also share office space rather than operate out of separate buildings, as has been custom.... RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called it 'the biggest, most efficient and unified campaign operation in American history.'" --safari: I assume they'll all be on a strict diet of Trump steaks and Trump water in the basement of Trump tower.

Gabriel Dance, et al., of the New York Times: "For years, Facebook gave some of the world's largest technology companies more intrusive access to users' personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records and interviews.... The records ... underscore how personal data has become the most prized commodity of the digital age, traded on a vast scale by some of the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley and beyond.... The documents, as well as interviews with about 50 former employees of Facebook and its corporate partners, reveal that Facebook allowed certain companies access to data despite [its claims it provided its users with privacy] protections. They also raise questions about whether Facebook ran afoul of a 2011 consent agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that barred the social network from sharing user data without explicit permission."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha

Adam Raymond of New York: "Fox News host Tucker Carlson has lost at least six advertisers in the five days since he disparaged immigrants by saying they're making the U.S. 'poor and dirtier,' but on Monday's show, he showed no contrition for his bigotry.... He went on to explain what he meant when he said immigrants make the U.S. 'dirtier': They litter and Carlson is, apparently, an environmentalist now.... Fox News is defending Carlson in his time of need. In statement, a spokesperson said: 'It is a shame that left-wing advocacy groups, under the guise of being supposed "media watchdogs," weaponize social media against companies in an effort to stifle free speech.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps we should tell Fox "News" that U.S. courts have never interpreted the First Amendment guarantee of "free speech" to mean "advertisers must pay for it." ...

     ... Update. Sapna Maheshwari of the New York Times: "By Tuesday, 11 companies -- including IHOP and TD Ameritrade -- said they would stop advertising on his prime-time show, 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'"

Jason Schwartz of Politico: "One was ousted from NPR amid allegations of sexual harassment. The other left Fox News shortly after writing a column widely panned as racist and anti-gay. Now they've been recruited to help launch a digital news startup with the stated goal of restoring faith in media. Another former Fox News executive, Ken LaCorte, has enlisted former NPR news boss Michael Oreskes and former Fox News executive editor John Moody to join him in creating LaCorte News, which he said will be a truly 'fair and balanced' alternative in these polarized times." Mrs. McCrabbie: They should call the new site "RASH," for Racist, Anti-gay, Sexual Harassers.

Beyond the Beltway

Nevada. Olivia Exstrum of Mother Jones: "Nevada is officially the first state in US history with a majority-female legislature.... Only 38 percent of Nevada seats were held by women before the midterm election." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The 2008 election put women in the majority in New Hampshire's state Senate.

Ohio. Cashing a Paycheck While Black. Shannon Houser of WOIO-TV Cleveland: "A Cleveland man says he was racially profiled at a local branch [of Huntington bank] when they called the cops on him for trying to cash a [pay]check.... He was asked for two forms of ID, which both he and bank employees confirm he provided. The bank says McCowns also provided a fingerprint, per bank policy for non-Huntington customers who wish to cash checks.... Tellers told him they couldn't cash [the check].... As he was leaving the bank, employees called 911 on him. McCowns was handcuffed and put in the back of a Brooklyn Police cruiser. Minutes after being arrested, police were able to get in contact with McCowns employer who confirmed the check was real and that McCowns is an employee."

Way Beyond

David Sanger & Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "Hackers infiltrated the European Union's diplomatic communications network for years, downloading thousands of cables that reveal concerns about an unpredictable Trump administration and struggles to deal with Russia and China and the risk that Iran would revive its nuclear program.... The techniques that the hackers deployed over a three-year period resembled those long used by an elite unit of China's People's Liberation Army. The cables were copied from the secure network and posted to an open internet site that the hackers set up in the course of their attack, according to Area 1, the firm that discovered the breach.... The cyberintruders also infiltrated the networks of the United Nations, the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and ministries of foreign affairs and finance worldwide."

Hungary. Bannon-style "Populism". Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "Hungary's beleaguered political opposition has vowed to keep up the pressure on the country's far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, after a week of protests in which thousands came on to the streets of Budapest.... The protests were triggered by a so-called 'slave law', passed amid chaotic scenes in the Hungarian parliament last Wednesday, which allows employers to force employees to work overtime, and lets them delay payment for up to three years. It was passed together with legislation that provides for greater government control over the court system, the latest move by Orbán's Fidesz party to capture independent state institutions." --s

Philippines. Hannah Ellis-Peterson of the Guardian: "The official death toll from Rodrigo Duterte's violent war on drugs in the Philippines has risen above 5,000 people, authorities have said.... A spokesman for the Philippine drug enforcement agency (PDEA), said that, according to official figures, between July 2016 and the end of November this year, 5,050 lives were lost, mostly at the hands of the police.... Last week, Chito Gascon, the chairman of the Philippine commission on human rights, said the toll could be as high as 27,000, though he emphasised that investigating the deaths was complex because police withheld records on anti-drug operations." --s

Syria. Reuters: "The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that Islamic State militants had executed nearly 700 prisoners in nearly two months in eastern Syria.... The jihadists control a shrinking strip of land east of the Syria's Euphrates River around the town of Hajin, which U.S.-backed forces entered this month.... [A]t least 5,000 IS fighters remain holed up in the enclave, including many foreigners who appear ready to fight to the death." --s

Monday
Dec172018

The Commentariat -- December 18, 2018

Afternoon Update:

The Flynn sentencing is in recess till 12:30 pm ET. Pete Williams of NBC News is reporting that Judge Sullivan is conveying that he is not buying the recommendations for no jail time for Flynn. ...

... Axios: "During ... Michael Flynn's sentencing hearing in D.C. on Tuesday, Judge Emmet Sullivan blasted Flynn from the bench after he confirmed his guilty plea to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. before Trump's inauguration, telling him, 'Arguably, this undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out.'" ...

... Update. Spencer Hsu, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Tuesday postponed the sentencing for Michael Flynn after he lambasted President Trump's former national security adviser for trying to undermine his own country and said he could not guarantee he would spare Flynn from prison. The stunning development means that Flynn will have to be sentenced at a later date, when he can possibly convince a judge more thoroughly of how his cooperation has benefited law enforcement. Flynn's attorneys asked for the delay after U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan accused Flynn of acting as 'an unregistered agent of a foreign country, while serving as the national security adviser to the president of the United States' -- an allegation he later walked back. Sullivan granted the request and asked for a status report in 90 days, though he said he was 'not making any promises' that he would view the matter differently in three months."

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "The Donald J. Trump Foundation will close and give away all its remaining funds amid a lawsuit accusing the charity and the Trump family of using it illegally for self-dealing and political gain, the New York attorney general's office announced Tuesday. The attorney general, Barbara Underwood, accused the foundation of 'a shocking pattern of illegality' that was 'willful and repeated' and included unlawfully coordinating with Mr. Trump's 2016 presidential campaign."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Tuesday issued a new rule banning bump stocks, the attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire in sustained, rapid bursts and that a gunman used to massacre 58 people and wound hundreds of others at a Las Vegas concert in October 2017. The new regulation, which had been expected, would ban the sale or possession of the devices under a new interpretation of existing law. Americans who own bump stocks would have 90 days to destroy their devices or to turn them in to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Justice Department said A.T.F. would post destruction instructions on its website."

Alex Isenstadt & James Arkin of Politico: "Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has appointed GOP Rep. Martha McSally to the Senate seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Jon Kyl -- tapping McSally as the Republican contender in a 2020 special election that will be among the most competitive Senate races in the country that year. McSally, who lost a race for Arizona's other Senate seat to Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in 2018, will be competing to serve out the rest of the term won by the late Sen. John McCain, who passed away earlier this year. Kyl was originally appointed to fill McCain's seat, but he will be stepping down at the end of the year to return to the private sector."

Trumpty-Dumpty Blinks, Likely to Fall off Wall. Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday retreated from his demand that Congress give him $5 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, backing down amid acrimonious GOP infighting that left him with few options four days ahead of a partial government shutdown. The news, delivered by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders in an interview on Fox News, represented a major shift from Trump's declaration last week that he would be 'proud' to shut down the government to get the money he wanted for his border wall. Democrats, who will reclaim the majority in the House just weeks from now, have consistently refused to give Trump anywhere near the $5 billion he wants."

*****

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Garrett Graff of Wired compiles what he calls "A Complete Guide to All 17 (Known) Trump & Russia Investigations.... After three weeks of back-to-back-to-back-to-back bombshells by federal prosecutors and special counsel Robert Mueller, it's increasingly clear that, as 2018 winds down, Donald Trump faces a legal assault unlike anything previously seen by any president-- at least 17 distinct court cases stemming from at least seven different sets of prosecutors and investigators. (That total does not count any congressional inquiries, nor does it include any other inquiries into other administration officials unrelated to Russia.)... More than two years in, the constellation of current investigations involves questions about foreign money and influence targeting the Trump campaign, transition, and White House from ... as many as a half-dozen countries. Prosecutors are studying nearly every aspect of how money flowed both in and out of Trump's interconnected enterprises, from his hotels to his company to his campaign to his inauguration. While President Trump once said that he'd see investigations into his business dealings as crossing a 'red line,' it appears that Trump himself obliterated that line, intermingling his business and campaign until it was impossible for prosecutors to untangle one without forensically examining the other." ...

... Timothy O'Brien of Bloomberg: "The breadth of investigations is so sweeping ... that few of the worlds Trump inhabits have escaped prosecutors' attention. The Trump Organization, the Trump Foundation, the Trump family, the Trump campaign, the Trump transition, the Trump inauguration, and the Trump White House are all being probed for wrongdoing.... Trump may emerge as a brazen grifter who, by aspiring to the White House like a wizened, soiled version of Icarus, flew beyond the boundaries of his own luck and abilities and delivered his business, children and well-being into the hands of prosecutors.... Trump ... had seen his previous presidential bids as free marketing opportunities and he likely was drawn to the 2016 campaign for the same reason." ...

... "The Grand Narrative." Steve Denning in Forbes: "Just over a week ago, on Friday December 7, the Special Counsel's Office ... for the first time outlined in a court filing the grand narrative of the Russia Probe. The court filing revealed what many had long suspected, that Trump and his family had used, or tried to use, his presidential candidacy, and then his presidency, to enhance their own wealth. We also learned finally what hold Russian President Vladimir Putin has over Trump.... Trump himself repeatedly stated since entering the presidential race in June 2015 that he had no business in Russia and no interactions with representatives of Russia. It now turns out that Putin knew what the American people didn't, namely that Donald Trump was throughout the 2016 presidential primary campaign secretly negotiating to build a huge and lucrative hotel in Moscow which required the personal support of Vladimir Putin. The fact that Putin knew about Trump's secret dealings, while the American people didn't, meant that if Trump didn't do what Russia wanted, Russia could expose Trump's lies and so bring him down. The filing revealed that Mueller's Office is now investigating the hypothesis that Donald Trump, his campaign, his organization and his associates participated in a massive election fraud, through five interlocking conspiracies -- arguably the worst set of crimes against the United States in its history." ...

... Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "... three sources familiar with Mueller's probe told The Daily Beast that his team is now zeroing in on Trumpworld figures who may have attempted to shape the administration's foreign policy by offering to ease U.S. sanctions on Russia. The Special Counsel's Office is preparing court filings that are expected to detail Trump associates' conversations about sanctions relief -- and spell out how those offers and counter-proposals were characterized to top figures on the campaign and in the administration, those same sources said."

Giuliani Stumbles into Admitting Trump's Hush-Money Payments Were Illegal. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Speaking with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Giuliani sought to argue that Michael Cohen's hush-money payments made on President Trump's behalf can't be campaign finance violations if they served any kind of personal purpose. 'It has to be for the sole purpose,' Giuliani said. 'If there's another purpose, it's no longer a campaign contribution -- if there's a personal purpose.' He then suggested that the failed prosecution of John Edwards for a campaign finance violation bolstered his point[.]... In fact, the Edwards case itself disproves Giuliani's point.... The Trump team's denials on this have been steadily watered down over time. Eventually, Giuliani and Co. admitted to the payments but said they were personal.... But ... implicit in his comments [Sunday] ... is the idea that this wasn't solely personal but ... served a dual purpose that included the campaign. 'It's not a contribution if it's intended for a purpose in addition to the campaign purpose,' he said. 'In addition to the campaign purpose' means there was a campaign purpose. And when you look at actual federal election law, it suggests that Giuliani just conceded that this was a campaign finance violation that Trump has been implicated in." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Giuliani's argument doesn't make sense. Any time a politician pays hush money, there are bound to be people other than voters whom he wants to keep in the dark. Maybe his family & friends, maybe law enforcement, maybe the general public. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "In an interview yesterday, George Stephanopoulos asked ... Rudy Giuliani if Roger Stone ever gave Trump a 'heads-up' about forthcoming WikiLeaks email publications. 'No, he didn't, no,' he replied. But then Giuliani ... softened his denial -- 'I don't believe so' -- before immediately transitioning into a conditional defense of the very charge he had been asked to deny: 'But again, if Roger Stone gave anybody a heads-up about WikiLeaks' leaks, that's not a crime.... One the -- the crime, this is why this thing is so weird, strange. The crime is conspiracy to hack; collusion is not a crime; it doesn't exist.' If you understand the facts and the law in this case, this much should be clear: Trump is almost certainly guilty of both collusion and a crime. And Giuliani's backpedalling defense reveals that he is no longer confident Trump's denials will hold.... Giuliani's comments seem to indicate that he knows that Trump did have a heads-up from Stone, but does not know if Mueller will be able to prove it. Hence his competing impulses to deny the accusation but to prepare a fallback defense in case that denial becomes inoperable.... Giuliani's defense has retreated right up to the line where it crosses into a confession of guilt." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Craig Timberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "Months after President Trump took office, Russia's disinformation teams trained their sights on ... special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there. The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram -- which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal -- claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with 'radical Islamic groups.'"

Scott Shane & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of activity on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its posts on Facebook, according to a report produced for the Senate Intelligence Committee.... Using Gmail accounts with American-sounding names, the Russians recruited and sometimes paid unwitting American activists of all races to stage rallies and spread content, but there was a disproportionate pursuit of African-Americans, it concludes.... The most popular of the Russian Instagram accounts was @blackstagram, with 303,663 followers. The Internet Research Agency also created a dozen websites disguised as African-American in origin, with names like blackmattersus.com, blacktivist.info, blacktolive.org and blacksoul.us. On YouTube, the largest share of Russian material covered the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality, with channels called 'Don't Shoot' and 'BlackToLive.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Michelle Goldberg: "Even after controlling for variables like ideology, education, party identification and dislike of [Hillary] Clinton, [Ohio State researchers] found that believing a fake news story made people who voted for President Barack Obama in 2012 significantly less likely to vote for Clinton in 2016.... In an election decided by a rounding error -- fewer than 80,000 voters spread over three states -- Russian trolling easily could have made the difference." ...

... Steve M.: "Now, perhaps it would be rash to conclude that the Trump campaign colluded in this effort, but as Jennifer Palmieri reminds us, the campaign bragged about extremely similar vote suppression efforts in a Bloomberg story published in October 2016[.]... Funny how the Russians and the folks in the Trump campaign -- who, I'll remind you again, never colluded -- had precisely the same idea. Great minds think alike!" Mrs. McC: This is exactly what I was thinking when I read the stories about the Senate reports. I was imagining Donnie & Vlad's text message threads -- all lovey-dovey & conspiratorial, like two teenagers planning a tryst while the folks are away. (In fact, of course, Donnie & Vlad had cutouts doing the conspiring.)

Remember, Michael Cohen only became a 'Rat' after the FBI did something which was absolutely unthinkable & unheard of until the Witch Hunt was illegally started. They BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY'S OFFICE! Why didn't they break into the DNC to get the Server, or Crooked's office? -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2018

... Mob Boss in the White House. Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "They 'BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY'S OFFICE!' Trump raged over the weekend, even though law enforcement obtained a warrant to do so. Trump then suggested that authorities should instead have infiltrated Democratic headquarters to expose his opponent -- in an apparent endorsement of the sort of tactics employed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972. No shortage of ink has been spilled on the president's bizarre Twitter locutions, from 'Smocking Gun' to 'very legal & very cool.' Typos, excessive capitalization, misnomers and dubious terminology have become occasions for the president's detractors to have a laugh at his expense. Yet, some saw in his language on Sunday something darker -- a window into his legal worldview, even perhaps an unwitting acknowledgment of the highly consequential role his former fixer is now playing in assembling possible evidence against him." ...

... Matt Zapotosky & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "... Michael Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for lying to the FBI about his dealings with the Russian ambassador to the United States, a court proceeding that could become complicated by his attorneys' recent suggestion that he was duped by law enforcement.... In a Tuesday morning tweet, Trump wished Flynn 'good luck today in court.' 'Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure being put on him, about Russian Collusion in our great and, obviously, highly successful political campaign,' Trump wrote. 'There was no Collusion!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, this is how the POTUS* treats a retired general who betrayed the country multiple times for profit. The Don must be daft to think Flynn didn't "rat" on him, as Trump characterized cooperating with the government Sunday, or "sing," as Trump's consigliere Rudy put it the same day.

... Katelyn Polantz & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Two former business associates of former national security adviser Michael Flynn were charged with trying to influence American politicians to seek the extradition of a Turkish cleric, according to an indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia. Bijan Rafiekian, also known as Bijan Kian, and a Dutch-Turkish businessman Kamil Alptekin, who also uses the first name Ekim, were charged with conspiracy and acting as an agent of a foreign government. Alptekin was also charged with making four false statements in a May 2017 FBI interview.... US authorities said the goal of the lobbying project was to press for the extradition of the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.... The alleged plot, the Justice Department said in a news release, involved using a company founded by Kian and Flynn to 'delegitimize the Turkish citizen in the eyes of the American public and United States politicians' to pave the way for his extradition. US authorities allege that high-level members of Turkey's government approved financing for the gambit...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Marcy Wheeler: "While not explicitly stated, the reference to Mike Flynn throughout the indictment as Person A -- the only unindicted co-conspirator so identified -- makes it clear that the government believes that's what Flynn was doing, acting as an agent of Turkey. And the timeline for the conspiracy goes up to March 2017. One of Trump's top foreign policy advisors and, for almost a month, his National Security Advisor, was an agent of Turkey." Wheeler outlines why she thinks Mueller's prosecutors "were able to move towards sentencing without his testimony in court: because he may not need to give testimony in court. The government has secured other, more reliable witnesses for that testimony." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Aaron Blake: "Trump backers last week found their (latest) smoking gun in a supposedly vast law-enforcement conspiracy to take down President Trump: A judge asked for more information about Michael Flynn's guilty plea after Flynn's attorney implied his client had been tricked into lying.... Just two days later, the Flynn-as-innocent-dupe narrative suffered a major setback [with the indictment of Flynn's business partner].... The indictment ... implicates his own eponymous business in an illegal lobbying operation. The Flynn Intel Group is referred to as 'Company A' in the filing, and Flynn is referred to as 'Person A.'... In Flynn's plea, the government said his lies and omissions included 'falsely stating that [Flynn Intel Group] did not know whether or the extent to which the Republic of Turkey was involved in the Turkey project....' ... This isn't just about Flynn having lied about his contacts with Russia's ambassador; there is a pattern of behavior that suggests he wasn't just some heroic general who misspoke once or twice and has been railroaded. At the worst, it suggests someone who was doing quite a bit of double-dealing and saw the need to cover it up by lying repeatedly." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CBS News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller released the January 2017 FBI memo that described the interview where former national security adviser Michael Flynn described his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for lying to the FBI about a conversation with Kislayk during the transition. After reviewing the filing, Judge Emmet Sullivan has ruled that the material is 'relevant' to Flynn's sentencing and has ordered the government to publish the interview, known as a '302,' to be publicly available." ...

... The New York Times story, by Sharon LaFraniere & Adam Goldman, is here. ...

... Alex Johnson of NBC News has reproduced the 302 here. ...

... ** Marcy Wheeler: "Last week, I suggested that Mike Flynn's cute trick of publicly releasing information from Andy McCabe's memo and Peter Strzok's 302 might backfire.... Boy oh boy was I right." Judge Sullivan ordered the government to release a redacted version of the FBI's report on the meeting with Flynn "it is unbelievably damning, in part because it shows the degree to which Flynn's lies served to protect Trump.... Flynn lied to hide Trump's involvement in all this (and, to an extent, the degree to which it involved specifically ignoring a heads up from Obama). Flynn lied to hide Trump's personal involvement in telling the Russians to hold off on responding to Obama's sanctions. And when the FBI investigated those lies, Trump fired the FBI Director to try to end that investigation.... This 302 also reveals that [Flynn] was quoting directly from the instructions KT McFarland had given him, relaying Trump's orders."

Most Sanctimonious Man in Washington Testifies Again. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Former FBI director James B. Comey accused President Trump on Monday of trying 'to burn down the entire FBI' and charged that congressional Republicans were willing accomplices for failing to challenge him. 'The FBI's reputation has taken a big hit because the president with his acolytes has lied about it constantly,' Comey told reporters, following his second closed-door interview this month with House lawmakers running a politically divisive investigation into how federal law enforcement officials handled probes of the Trump campaign's alleged Russia ties and Hillary Clinton's emails. But Comey directed his vitriol not just at the GOP members of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees, but at all Republicans.... 'At some point, someone has to stand up and face the fear of Fox News, fear of their base, fear of mean tweets, stand up for the values of this country and not slink away into retirement but stand up and speak the truth,' Comey said, without naming names. Comey ... flatly [refused] to take any personal responsibility for the reputation of the FBI having suffered under his stewardship." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Right message; wrong messenger.

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump has long tried to explain away his legal troubles as the work of a 'deep state' of Obama supporters entrenched in the law-enforcement and national-security bureaucracies who are just out to get him. Now junior officials and others accused of wrongdoing are making the case that the same purported forces are illegitimately targeting them, too.... Alleging misconduct by law enforcement has long been a standard defense tactic, especially in white-collar cases, but the political cast of deep-state-style claims is new, said Samuel Buell, a Duke law professor and former federal prosecutor. He said it seemed to be aimed at getting conservative media attention in the hope that Mr. Trump will come across their case and intervene."


Carlos Tejada & Matt Phillips
of the New York Times: "Stocks on Wall Street fell on Monday to a new 2018 low, as investors braced for a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates this week and health care stocks were roiled by a court decision about the Affordable Care Act.The S&P 500-stock index ended down 2.1 percent, sinking below levels reached during a steep decline in February. The index is now down 4.8 percent for the year. Should the market fail to rebound, the losses for 2018 could represent Wall Street's worst year since the financial crisis a decade ago. The selling spared few sectors, with tech companies, the health care industry, small businesses and blue-chip corporations all falling after survey data suggested some softening in the United States' outlook for growth." ...

... Craig Torres & Christopher Condon of Bloomberg: "President Donald Trump slammed the Federal Reserve on the eve of a pivotal policy meeting for 'even considering' another interest-rate increase, laying out arguments against a hike to savor the achievement of a strong U.S. economy.... The Federal Open Market Committee begins a two-day meeting in Washington on Tuesday and trading in interest rate futures indicate a greater than 70 percent chance of the panel's fourth hike this year. Analysts said that his latest attack make it extremely hard for Chairman Jerome Powell to pause this week, even if he wanted to." --s

Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Incoming White House acting-chief of staff Mick Mulvaney once said Donald Trump's past words and actions would disqualify him from becoming president in an 'ordinary universe.'... The Daily Beast on Friday reported that Mulvaney, then a congressman, called Trump 'a terrible human being' at a November 2016 congressional debate.In a 2016 Facebook post, Mulvaney similarly said he had learned throughout the 2016 campaign that Trump 'is not a very good person.' In all instances, Mulvaney said he was supporting Trump, but only because he believed Hillary Clinton would be a worse president."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "... it’s more important than ever [for the media] not to give falsehoods a megaphone.... Which brings us to Chris Cuomo's 39-minute interview on Thursday with Kellyanne Conway, President Trump's top dissembler. It should have been no surprise that Conway -- who coined the immortal phrase 'alternative facts' in early 2017 -- blithely spun her way through the interview.... Cuomo's CNN colleagues smacked him around, with Don Lemon leading the way.... So it's time (actually, well past time) for the mainstream media to enter the No Kellyanne Zone. And that goes far beyond banning her, or any particular adviser, from cable interview shows." Sullivan, as did Akhilleus last week, hammers the mainstream media for posting headlines that repeat Trump's lies without context.

... Monday morning, Katie Rogers of the New York Times tweeted that "... Miller came to work with regular hair today." Some responses to Rogers' tweet are pretty hilarious.

Nick Schwellenback of The Daily Beast: "In April 2018, Tracey Valerio, the top official in charge of 'all agency contracting' at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, resigned. Within months, she was recruited as a paid expert witness in a lawsuit to defend ICE's biggest contractor -- a large, private prison and immigrant detention company known as the GEO Group. The lawsuit charged Florida-based GEO with violating minimum wage laws by paying the same immigrants now being locked up in record numbers by the Trump administration as little as $1 a day for menial work such as cleaning toilets.... Valerio ... not only went spinning through her agency's revolving door, she was accused of violating the law and an agency rule in the process.... Last year, as The Daily Beast first reported, Valerio's former boss Daniel Ragsdale left as ICE's deputy director to work as a GEO executive. In 2012, David Venturella -- formerly head of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations -- joined GEO as an executive vice president...[and so on.]" --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "The Senate’s sweeping overhaul of the criminal justice system cleared a major hurdle Monday, with an overwhelming majority helping to advance what probably will be one of President Trump's final bipartisan accomplishments from his first two years in office. Senators voted 82 to 12 to end debate on the First Step Act and steer the legislation to a final vote, probably scheduled for Tuesday. The bill would revise several sentencing laws, such as reducing the 'three strikes' penalty for drug felonies from life behind bars to 25 years and retroactively limiting the disparity in sentencing guidelines between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The latter would affect about 2,000 current federal inmates.... Before a final Senate vote, dozens of the bill's proponents will have to defeat 'legislative poison pills' that they say are designed to kill the bipartisan compromise that has been carefully negotiated among Democratic and GOP lawmakers, as well as the Trump administration."

** Clive Irving in The Daily Beast: "Even if Russia didn't succeed in swinging the election to Trump (and we can't be sure that it didn't), [mitch mcconnell] blocking a protest [by Obama and Joe Biden] at that critical moment [before the election] on partisan grounds approaches 9/11 levels of dereliction, and you have to wonder if all of this had not been shrewdly anticipated in Putin's playbook, the fruit of long and careful study of Republican tactics.... Over several decades the Republicans have partly created and expertly exploited a broken system that regularly gives them a majority in the Electoral College.... Now it is McConnell who, more than any other Republican, is the supreme technician of the system, quietly loading the courts with judges who pass his smell test. If there is a model for the McConnell method, it is the apparatchiks of the Soviet machine.... It's a form of power that doesn't advertise its power, and McConnell thrives at it. There is no ethical foundation. It is barren of moral underpinnings. Sooner or later a president would arrive who was as barren. Trump is that, with bells on." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Paul Krugman: Nancy "Pelosi was right about [Judge] Reed O'Connor's ruling [that the whole Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional] being a symptom of a 'monstrous endgame,' but the game in question isn't just about perpetuating the assault on health care, it's about assaulting democracy in general. And the current state of the endgame is probably just the beginning; the worst, I fear, is yet to come."

Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "When he takes control of the House Natural Resources Committee next month, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) will have significantly greater powers to investigate the Trump administration's controversial decision to decimate the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments [and] ... the committee intends to continue oversight of [outgoing Ryan] Zinke's policy decisions.... And even though Zinke is resigning, environmental and public interest groups are urging the inspector general and Justice Department to stay the course with their investigations into his alleged misconduct.... Sen. Lisa Murkowsi (R-AK), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is unlikely to order investigations into Zinke. The Republican senator has not conducted oversight of Zinke's conduct since he was sworn in as Interior secretary in March 2017. In fact, Murkowski said she was 'disappointed' to learn Zinke is stepping down." --s

Anna North of Vox: "Conservative Sen. Mike Lee is taking a lone stand against a Trump nominee, blocking her from joining the office that takes workplace complaints because of her support for LGBTQ rights.... Feldblum, who currently serves as one of the EEOC's five commissioners, was appointed to the commission by President Barack Obama in 2010 and nominated for another term this year by Trump.... [I]f the Senate doesn't confirm ... Feldblum and two others, by December 31, the EEOC will no longer have the quorum required to make major decisions.... [W]hat happens with her confirmation in the coming days could affect whether millions of Americans have the protections they need from harassment and discrimination in 2019." --s

Ian MIllhiser of ThinkProgress: "Four years ago, President Obama was in the White House and Democrats controlled a solid majority in the United States Senate.... Yet then-Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) insisted on giving Republicans the power to veto many of Obama's nominees.... Three years later, in a move that pretty much everyone on the planet who is not named 'Patrick Leahy' knew would inevitably play out, now-Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has decided that Democrats who object to a Trump judicial nominee can go beat eggs.... Thanks to Leahy's refusal to see his Republican colleagues with open eyes, several federal judgeships remained open for years under President Obama, only to be swiftly filled by Trump. And two of those seats are on a court that will soon weigh in on the fate of Obamacare." --s

Joel Ebert of the Tennessean: "After roughly a quarter century in elected office, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander will retire. The former Republican governor, who has served in the Senate since first being elected in 2002, said Monday that he will not seek a fourth term in the upper chamber." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alexandra Stevenson & Sharon Tan of the New York Times: "Malaysia filed criminal charges against Goldman Sachs on Monday, accusing the giant Wall Street bank of making false and misleading statements. The charges are a rare international rebuke of an institution that has long represented the pinnacle of money and power. The 149-year-old investment bank already faces mounting pressure in the United States, where two former bankers face charges of bribery and money laundering related to its business in Malaysia. The Malaysian authorities also charged several individuals in connection with the multibillion-dollar international fraud scandal that ensnared Goldman and that led to the ouster of Malaysia's former prime minister, Najib Razak. The government said it would seek criminal fines in excess of $2.7 billion related to the charges.

Edmund Lee & Rachel Abrams of the New York Times: "The CBS Corporation, battered by scandal and facing a leadership vacuum,said its former chief executive, Leslie Moonves, misled the company about multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and tried to hide evidence as he made a frenzied attempt to save his legacy and reap a lucrative severance. He will be fired for cause and, as a result, not receive his $120 million exit payout."

Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "The epidemic of U.S. gun violence has reached another gruesome milestone. 2017 was the deadliest year on record for firearms, as nearly 40,000 Americans were killed by a gun last year -- an average of 109 per day -- according to a CNN analysis that was confirmed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The totals for 2017 were a three percent increase over 2016, and mark a 38 percent rise over the past two decades." --s ...

... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Marisa Fernandez of Axios: "For the first time, the United States is one of the world's deadliest countries for journalists after six reporters were killed in the line of duty in 2018, according to Reporters Without Borders' annual report.... The report states there is an 'unprecedented' level of worldwide hostility against members of the media, highlighting that the number of journalists killed while doing their jobs spiked 8% to 80 in 2018. In addition, 348 journalists are currently in prison across the globe, and 60 are being held hostage.... From the report: 'Amplified by social networks, which bear heavy responsibility in this regard, these expressions of hatred legitimize violence, thereby undermining journalism, and democracy itself, a bit more every day.'"

Andrew Wasley & Natalie Jones of the Guardian: "The Guardian's findings [of unethical chicken processing in the U.S.] have fuelled concerns that a post-Brexit trade deal with the US could see the UK flooded with chicken produced to lower welfare standards. This follows last year's transatlantic row over chlorinated chicken, which prompted political interventions in both countries. The records include hundreds of instances in which groups of chickens and turkeys were bludgeoned, suffocated, scalded, frozen or heated to death.... The USDA dictates rules for humane slaughter, but these only apply to 'livestock', which the US government considers separate from 'poultry'. There are 'good commercial practice' guidelines, but they are largely voluntary and not enforced. The USDA is not obliged to take any action against plants that violate these practices, other than writing up a report." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

** Georgia. Alan Judd of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution details how days for the November election, Governor-Elect Brian Kemp (R), who as Georgia's secretary of state had for more than a year (after having been warned) left personal voter information exposed online, falsely accused the Democratic Party of Georgia of trying to hack into the voter database in a failed attempt to steal the election." ...

... Charles Pierce has something to say about this.

Way Beyond

** Joanna Berendt & Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Backing down from a showdown with Brussels, Poland's government reversed its purge of the country's Supreme Court, as the president signed a law on Monday that will reinstate the judges who had been forced out of their jobs. It was a remarkable turnaround after months of Poland's top officials saying they would resist pressure to stop the overhaul of the judiciary. The ruling party, Law and Justice, had put tightening its grip on the courts at the center of its agenda, claiming that it was vital to rid the courts of corrupt judges and Communist-era vestiges. The European Union sees the changes Poland has made to its judiciary in the last three years as a violation of the bloc's core values, a threat to the rule of law and the end of judges acting as a check on political power. Last year, the union chastised Poland and took the first steps toward stripping the country of its voting rights in Brussels -- a penalty that has never been used against a member nation. Poland's concession on the Supreme Court is by no means the end of that conflict between the right-wing, nationalist Polish government and Brussels, but it represented a striking change in tone."

Juan Cole: "The decision of the Australian government of PM Scott Morrison to recognize 'West Jerusalem' as the capital of Israel but to hold off moving its embassy there until there is a peace settlement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might look on the face of it like a victory for Israel. It is quite the opposite, a sign of how even strong allies of Israel are increasingly constrained by rising Muslim powers.... Australia badly wants a free trade deal with its neighbor across the waters, Indonesia, which is the most populous Muslim country in the world, and where conservative Muslims are strong supporters of Palestinian rights.... That even an anti-immigrant, pro-Trump right winger like Scott Morrison felt he could not risk absolutely alienating Jakarta, and so was forced to craft a Jerusalem policy that satisfied no one but definitely disappointed the Likud, is a sign of the future." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Ammar Kalia, et al. of the Guardian: "The domination of Facebook by Italy's two populist political leaders, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, is revealed in previously unseen data that shows how they exploited video and live broadcasts to bypass the mainstream media and foment discord during the country's general election. The data, reviewed by the Guardian, reveals how the leaders massively expanded their reach with inflammatory and visually arresting posts earlier this year, eclipsing their main rival, the centre-left former prime minister Matteo Renzi, on Facebook.... There is growing academic interest in the relationship between social media and populist movements on both the left and right. Facebook and Twitter have transformed western democracies, enabling politicians to bypass traditional gatekeepers and communicate directly with their base." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Penny Marshall, the nasal-voiced co-star of the slapstick sitcom 'Laverne & Shirley' and later the chronically self-deprecating director of hit films like 'Big' and 'A League of Their Own,' died on Monday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 76."

Sunday
Dec162018

The Commentariat -- December 17, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Scott Shane & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of activity on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its posts on Facebook, according to a report produced for the Senate Intelligence Committee.... Using Gmail accounts with American-sounding names, the Russians recruited and sometimes paid unwitting American activists of all races to stage rallies and spread content, but there was a disproportionate pursuit of African-Americans, it concludes.... The most popular of the Russian Instagram accounts was @blackstagram, with 303,663 followers. The Internet Research Agency also created a dozen websites disguised as African-American in origin, with names like blackmattersus.com, lacktivist.info, blacktolive.org and blacksoul.us. On YouTube, the largest share of Russian material covered the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality...."

Katelyn Polantz & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Two former business associates of former national security adviser Michael Flynn were charged with trying to influence American politicians to seek the extradition of a Turkish cleric, according to an indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia. Bijan Rafiekian, also known as Bijan Kian, and a Dutch-Turkish businessman Kamil Alptekin, who also uses the first name Ekim, were charged with conspiracy and acting as an agent of a foreign government. Alptekin was also charged with making four false statements in a May 2017 FBI interview.... US authorities said the goal of the lobbying project was to press for the extradition of the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.... The alleged plot, the Justice Department said in a news release, involved using a company founded by Kian and Flynn to 'delegitimize the Turkish citizen in the eyes of the American public and United States politicians' to pave the way for his extradition. US authorities allege that high-level members of Turkey's government approved financing for the gambit...." ...

... Marcy Wheeler: "While not explicitly stated, the reference to Mike Flynn throughout the indictment as Person A -- the only unindicted co-conspirator so identified -- makes it clear that the government believes that's what Flynn was doing, acting as an agent of Turkey. And the timeline for the conspiracy goes up to March 2017. One of Trump's top foreign policy advisors and, for almost a month, his National Security Advisor, was an agent of Turkey." Wheeler outlines why she thinks Mueller's prosecutors "were able to move towards sentencing without his testimony in court: because he may not need to give testimony in court. The government has secured other, more reliable witnesses for that testimony." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump backers last week found their (latest) smoking gun in a supposedly vast law-enforcement conspiracy to take down President Trump: A judge asked for more information about Michael Flynn's guilty plea after Flynn's attorney implied his client had been tricked into lying.... Just two days later, the Flynn-as-innocent-dupe narrative suffered a major setback [with the indictment of Flynn's business partner].... The indictment ... implicates his own eponymous business in an illegal lobbying operation. The Flynn Intel Group is referred to as 'Company A' in the filing, and Flynn is referred to as 'Person A.'... In Flynn's plea, the government said his lies and omissions included 'falsely stating that [Flynn Intel Group] did not know whether or the extent to which the Republic of Turkey was involved in the Turkey project....' ... This isn't just about Flynn having lied about his contacts with Russia's ambassador; there is a pattern of behavior that suggests he wasn't just some heroic general who misspoke once or twice and has been railroaded. At the worst, it suggests someone who was doing quite a bit of double-dealing and saw the need to cover it up by lying repeatedly."

Jonathan Chait: "In an interview yesterday, George Stephanopoulos asked ... Rudy Giuliani if Roger Stone ever gave Trump a 'heads-up' about forthcoming WikiLeaks email publications. 'No, he didn't, no,' he replied. But then Giuliani ... softened his denial -- 'I don't believe so' -- before immediately transitioning into a conditional defense of the very charge he had been asked to deny: 'But again, if Roger Stone gave anybody a heads-up about WikiLeaks' leaks, that's not a crime.... One the -- the crime, this is why this thing is so weird, strange. The crime is conspiracy to hack; collusion is not a crime; it doesn't exist.' If you understand the facts and the law in this case, this much should be clear: Trump is almost certainly guilty of both collusion and a crime. And Giuliani's backpedalling defense reveals that he is no longer confident Trump's denials will hold.... Giuliani's comments seem to indicate that he knows that Trump did have a heads-up from Stone, but does not know if Mueller will be able to prove it. Hence his competing impulses to deny the accusation but to prepare a fallback defense in case that denial becomes inoperable.... Giuliani's defense has retreated right up to the line where it crosses into a confession of guilt."

Nick Schwellenback of The Daily Beast: "In April 2018, Tracey Valerio, the top official in charge of 'all agency contracting' at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, resigned. Within months, she was recruited as a paid expert witness in a lawsuit to defend ICE's biggest contractor -- a large, private prison and immigrant detention company known as the GEO Group. The lawsuit charged Florida-based GEO with violating minimum wage laws by paying the same immigrants now being locked up in record numbers by the Trump administration as little as $1 a day for menial work such as cleaning toilets.... Valerio, the top ICE contracting official who became GEO's paid witness, not only went spinning through her agency's revolving door, she was accused of violating the law and an agency rule in the process.... Last year, as The Daily Beast first reported, Valerio's former boss Daniel Ragsdale left as ICE's deputy director to work as a GEO executive. In 2012, David Venturella -- formerly head of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations -- joined GEO as an executive vice president...[and so on.]" --s

** Clive Irving in The Daily Beast: "Even if Russia didn't succeed in swinging the election to Trump (and we can't be sure that it didn't), [mitch mcconnell] blocking a protest [by Obama and Joe Biden] at that critical moment [before the election] on partisan grounds approaches 9/11 levels of dereliction, and you have to wonder if all of this had not been shrewdly anticipated in Putin's playbook, the fruit of long and careful study of Republican tactics.... Over several decades the Republicans have partly created and expertly exploited a broken system that regularly gives them a majority in the Electoral College.... Now it is McConnell who, more than any other Republican, is the supreme technician of the system, quietly loading the courts with judges who pass his smell test. If there is a model for the McConnell method, it is the apparatchiks of the Soviet machine.... It's a form of power that doesn't advertise its power, and McConnell thrives at it. There is no ethical foundation. It is barren of moral underpinnings. Sooner or later a president would arrive who was as barren. Trump is that, with bells on." --s

Joel Ebert of the Tennessean: "After roughly a quarter century in elected office, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander will retire. The former Republican governor, who has served in the Senate since first being elected in 2002, said Monday that he will not seek a fourth term in the upper chamber."

Andrew Wasley & Natalie Jones of the Guardian: "The Guardian's findings [of unethical chicken processing in the U.S.] have fuelled concerns that a post-Brexit trade deal with the US could see the UK flooded with chicken produced to lower welfare standards. This follows last year's transatlantic row over chlorinated chicken, which prompted political interventions in both countries. The records include hundreds of instances in which groups of chickens and turkeys were bludgeoned, suffocated, scalded, frozen or heated to death.... The USDA dictates rules for humane slaughter, but these only apply to 'livestock', which the US government considers separate from 'poultry'. There are 'good commercial practice' guidelines, but they are largely voluntary and not enforced. The USDA is not obliged to take any action against plants that violate these practices, other than writing up a report." --s

Juan Cole: "The decision of the Australian government of PM Scott Morrison to recognize 'West Jerusalem' as the capital of Israel but to hold off moving its embassy there until there is a peace settlement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might look on the face of it like a victory for Israel. It is quite the opposite, a sign of how even strong allies of Israel are increasingly constrained by rising Muslim powers.... Australia badly wants a free trade deal with its neighbor across the waters, Indonesia, which is the most populous Muslim country in the world, and where conservative Muslims are strong supporters of Palestinian rights.... That even an anti-immigrant, pro-Trump right winger like Scott Morrison felt he could not risk absolutely alienating Jakarta, and so was forced to craft a Jerusalem policy that satisfied no one but definitely disappointed the Likud, is a sign of the future." --s

Ammar Kalia, et al. of the Guardian: "The domination of Facebook by Italy's two populist political leaders, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, is revealed in previously unseen data that shows how they exploited video and live broadcasts to bypass the mainstream media and foment discord during the country's general election. The data, reviewed by the Guardian, reveals how the leaders massively expanded their reach with inflammatory and visually arresting posts earlier this year, eclipsing their main rival, the centre-left former prime minister Matteo Renzi, on Facebook.... There is growing academic interest in the relationship between social media and populist movements on both the left and right. Facebook and Twitter have transformed western democracies, enabling politicians to bypass traditional gatekeepers and communicate directly with their base." --s

*****

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

** Craig Timberg & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "A report prepared for the Senate that provides the most sweeping analysis yet of Russia's disinformation campaign around the 2016 election found the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters' interests to help elect President Trump -- and worked even harder to support him while in office. The report, a draft of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the first to study the millions of posts provided by major technology firms to the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), its chairman, and Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), its ranking Democrat. The bipartisan panel ... plans to release [the report] publicly along with another study later this week.... 'What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party -- and specifically Donald Trump,' the report says.... The Russians aimed particular energy at activating conservatives on issues such as gun rights and immigration, while sapping the political clout of left-leaning African American voters by undermining their faith in elections and spreading misleading information about how to vote." ...

... Donie O'Sullivan & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "The Senate Intelligence Committee has been advised that social media companies might have provided the 'bare minimum' amount of data to aid the panel's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to a person familiar with a report commissioned by the committee. The committee hired an online intelligence firm to review data on Russian social media accounts that posed as American accounts. The data, much of which has not yet been made public, was provided to lawmakers by Facebook, Twitter and Google, which owns YouTube. New Knowledge, the firm hired by the committee, tracks online disinformation. In its report to lawmakers, the firm said that the social media companies could have provided more valuable data to the committee and also could have presented it in a more accessible format. The firm advised lawmakers that there are likely more Russian accounts that the social media companies failed to identify, according to person familiar with the report." The New Knowledge report is separate from the Senate report covered the WashPo story linked above. ...

... ** Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. More Powerful Than a Russian Loco Motive. Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "The most powerful print publication in America might just be The National Enquirer. It functioned as a dirty-tricks shop for Donald J. Trump in 2016, which would have been the stuff of farce -- the ultimate tabloid backs the ultimate tabloid candidate -- if it hadn't accomplished its goal. The Enquirer's power was fueled by its covers. For the better part of the campaign season, Enquirer front pages blared sensational headlines about Mr. Trump's rivals from eye-level racks at supermarket checkout lanes across America.... The Enquirer's racks, under the current chief, David J. Pecker, were given over to the Trump campaign. This was a political gift even more valuable than the $150,000 that The Enquirer paid in a 'catch-and-kill' deal with the former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story of an affair with Mr. Trump.... The Enquirer spread false stories about Hillary Clinton -- illnesses concealed, child prostitution, bribery, treason.... It refused to unlock its vault of Trump tips and stories as it promoted him as America's savior.... As the campaign wore on, The Enquirer's covers favored stories similar to those coursing through Infowars, Russian trolldom and, increasingly, your uncle's Facebook feed."

Rudy Implicates Trump Again. Daily Beast: "Rudy Giuliani claimed in an ABC interview that ... Donald Trump knew that his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was working on the Trump Tower Moscow deal 'all the way up to ... November of 2016.' Cohen ... told a federal judge that the discussions stopped in June 2016.... Giuliani [said,] 'according to the answer that he gave, it would have covered all the way up to ... November of 2016' apparently in reference to Trump's written answers to Robert Mueller's questions about potential Russian collusion in the election.... The President's personal lawyer, who also just said that President Trump would be interviewed in person by the Special Counsel's Office 'over his dead body,' made the statement during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on This Week ABC." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is remarkable. It's what happens to a client whose spokesperson-lawyer is over the hill. So now we know that Trump was working on a deal with Russia throughout the campaign. During this period, he publicly claimed numerous times he had "nothing to do with Russia." ...

... digby highlights "more of Rudy's trainwreck of an appearance[.]... It's very ironic that Trump now says Cohen was just a PR guy and a lousy lawyer. That might be true but if so, Giuliani proves that Trump is continuing the practice." ...

... AND A Noun, a Verb, and 9/11.

[Michael Cohen has] changed his story four or five times. -- Rudy Giuliani

So has the president. -- George Stephanopoulos

The president's not under oath. And the president tried to do the best he can to remember what happened back at a time when he was the busiest man in the world. And I can't -- I was with him most of that time, I can't remember a lot of the stuff that goes on there. But ... But boy, if it's -- same way, if I go under oath, then I really think about it and I really say -- you know, I can't remember that. I -- I was wrong about who was with me on September 11th. I always thought the Fire Commissioner was with me in the building we were trapped in. Turns out later, he tells me, I met you after. That happens when you're in the middle of difficult events; you know that from experiencing it. -- Rudy 9/11 Giuliani

New Rule. It's okay for the President* to lie to the American people when he's not under oath. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

** That Time a Black Man Arrested a Sitting President. Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "In 1872, while president, [Ulysses S.] Grant was arrested at the corner of 13th and M streets in Washington. This was not a high crime, but it was -- at least theoretically speaking -- a misdemeanor. The man who led the North to victory in the Civil War was busted for speeding in his horse-drawn carriage. The story of his arrest -- confirmed a few years ago by Cathy L. Lanier, who was then the District's police chief -- was told in a remarkable but obviously forgotten story in the Sept. 27, 1908, edition of the Washington Evening Star under the headline: 'Only Policeman Who Ever Arrested a President.' That policeman was William H. West, a black man who had fought in the Civil War." ...

     ... Dear Bob Mueller, When you send FBI agents in to the White House to arrest Trump, please make sure the officer who cuffs him is a Black Muslim woman. And, for once, do alert the press. We all want to see that epic perp walk.


Erica Werner
, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House and a number of federal agencies have started advanced preparations for a partial government shutdown, as President Trump and congressional Democrats appear unlikely to resolve their fight over a border wall before some government funding lapses at week's end. GOP leaders are scrambling to find a short-term alternative that could stave off a shutdown, which would start on Dec. 22 absent a deal. But White House officials signaled to lawmakers Friday that they would probably not support a one- or two-week stopgap measure. Some congressional Republicans support such a 'continuing resolution,' but the White House rejection has dramatically increased the odds of a spending lapse." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Ben Kamisar of NBC News: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Sunday said ... Donald Trump is preventing a deal to avert a partial government shutdown because of a 'temper tantrum' over his demand for more funding to build a border wall. Appearing on NBC's 'Meet the Press' just five days before funding deadline to keep several key federal agencies open, Schumer, D-N.Y., said that he and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are standing firm in their offers to Trump and that it's up to the president to come to the table." ...

... Dereliction of Duty. Julie Davis & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "... House Republican leaders are also confronting a more mundane and awkward problem: Their vanquished and retiring members are sick and tired of Washington and don't want to show up anymore to vote. Call it the revenge of the lame ducks. Many lawmakers, relegated to cubicles as incoming members take their offices, have been skipping votes in the weeks since House Republicans were swept from power in the midterm elections, and Republican leaders are unsure whether they will ever return.... While Mr. Trump insisted that he had the votes to push $5 billion in wall spending through the House, Republican leaders in the chamber are keenly aware that their rank-and-file members are in no mood to return to Washington days before Christmas to battle over his long-unfulfilled signature campaign promise.... Mr. Trump and top Republicans appear to have no definite plan to keep the doors open. In the absence of any road map, House leaders shuttered the chamber Thursday for a six-day weekend, putting lawmakers in standby mode and [tentatively] scheduling the next votes for Wednesday evening, two days before the shutdown deadline."

Reuters: "... Donald Trump has told his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan that Washington is working on extraditing a U.S.-based Muslim cleric [Fethullah Gulen] accused of orchestrating a failed Turkish coup in 2016, Turkey's foreign minister said on Sunday.... Trump said last month he was not considering extraditing the preacher[.]" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

He Is Not Amused. Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "The day after a 'Saturday Night Live' sketch depicted what life might be like had Donald Trump never been elected [video embedded in yesterday's Commentariat], the president criticized what he called the show's 'one sided coverage' and suggested without any basis that it was defamation. 'A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live,' Trump wrote Sunday on Twitter. 'It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can't be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?'..." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: As we all know, He Trvmpvs wants to ditch the First Amendment, especially as it applies to criticism of He Trvmpvs. Never mind he swore an oath (see Rudy Giuliani's new rule) to uphold the Constitution. Trvmpvs also fails to understand that people are apt to ridicule, spurn & excoriate an asshole, particularly an asshole who does great damage to them, their friends & their country. In fact, he fails to understand reality, some of which parody ironically exposes. Rather than "test in courts," Trump would do well to take criticism to heart. As if he had one. A heart, that is. He's the Tinman, if the Tinman were fat, cruel, narcissistic & wholly unsympathetic.

The von Trump Family Grifters, Ctd. Legalized Corruption. Jeff Horwitz & Stephen Braun of the AP: "A real estate investment firm co-founded by President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, is betting big on the administration's Opportunity Zone tax breaks but isn't that interested in steering its investors to the poorest, most-downtrodden areas that the program seeks to revitalize. New York-based Cadre, in which Kushner still holds at least a $25 million passive stake, made it clear to potential investors in recent marketing materials that it doesn't plan to look for development deals in most of those zones because of their 'unfavorable growth prospects.'... Anthony Scaramucci ... is trying to raise as much as $3 billion for Opportunity Zone projects.... One measure of how much the zones overlap with developers' pre-existing interests is how much they overlap with their current holdings. An AP review of Kushner's holdings found that he holds stakes in 13 Opportunity Zone properties, all in locations deemed by the Urban Institute to be showing indications of rapid change or full-out gentrification.... Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, both helped push for the program and as a couple stand to benefit financially from it." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

A Very Grifter's Christmas. Kate Riga of TPM: "The White House has been pushing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to quit for weeks.... Zinke's counter-request? To host his Christmas party, graced by lobbyists and conservative bigwigs, before being booted. Per the Post, he donned a Santa hat and posed with a stuffed polar bear at the event." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: "When [Ryan] Zinke was forced to resign as interior secretary on Saturday, he joined a line of officials who have left the Trump administration under a cloud of ethics inquiries. But the investigations into Mr. Zinke's actions are likely to continue, according to Delaney Marsco, the ethics counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group. And if those inquiries turn out badly for him, Mr. Zinke still faces the threat of criminal penalties that could hobble his political future. 'It's not a Get Out of Jail Free card to just quit,' Ms. Marsco said. The most damaging could be a Justice Department examination of a real estate deal in Montana involving Mr. Zinke's family and a development group backed by David J. Lesar, the chairman of Halliburton, the giant energy services company. If the department finds that Mr. Zinke willfully used his official position to influence the deal and benefit himself, he could be prosecuted under a federal conflict of interest law and, if convicted, face a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine for each violation. The attorney general has discretion over whether to bring the charges."