;)
The Commentariat -- December 4, 2018
Afternoon Update:
PSA. Nathalie Sczublewski of NBC Washington: "... Donald Trump declared Wednesday, Dec. 5 a National Day of Mourning in remembrance of former President George H.W. Bush.... President Trump released a statement proclaiming that out of respect for the 41st president of the United States, the United States Postal Service will suspend regular mail deliveries, retail and administrative activities on Wednesday, Dec. 5." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you were planning a trip to the post office tomorrow, as I was, better change your plans.
Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration seems to have edited out LGBTQ protections in the new North American trade agreement with Canada and Mexico (known as the USMCA). The change, an apparent gesture to a group of the most anti-LGBTQ members of Congress, ensures the administration's own anti-LGBTQ efforts can continue without undermining the agreement. Originally, the drafted trade agreement called on all three countries to establish 'policies that protect workers against employment discrimination on the basis of sex, including with regard to pregnancy, sexual harassment, sexual orientation, gender identity.' In the final version, however, a new footnote was added that significantly undermines the United States' obligation to uphold these protections." --s
E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration is planning to revise its estimates for its fuel efficiency standards rollback, admitting that fewer lives would be saved than previously touted. That concession is a blow to efforts to walk back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards imposed to combat pollution..., At issue is the [Trump] administration's methodology, which critics say failed to properly account for the length of time owners keep their cars, in addition to possible mileage on newer cars with better fuel efficiency." --s
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The incoming House majority leader said Democrats might refuse to seat a North Carolina Republican next year unless and until 'substantial' questions about the integrity of his election are resolved. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), the current minority whip, made the comments to reporters Tuesday as North Carolina election officials investigate whether an operative hired by Republican candidate Mark Harris illegally collected incomplete ballots from voters. The probe has delayed the certification of Harris's narrow victory in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, and the state officials could decide to call for a new election. Harris and Democrat Dan McCready are separated by 905 votes, according to unofficial returns. But Hoyer's comments throw into doubt whether, if Harris's win is ultimately certified, he would be sworn in as a member."
Alex Isenstadt & John Bresnahan of Politico: "The House GOP campaign arm suffered a major hack during the 2018 election, exposing thousands of sensitive emails to an outside intruder, according to three senior party officials. The email accounts of four senior aides at the National Republican Congressional Committee were surveilled for several months, the party officials said. The intrusion was detected in April by an NRCC vendor, who alerted the committee and its cybersecurity contractor. An internal investigation was initiated and the FBI was alerted to the attack, said the officials.... However, senior House Republicans -- including Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) -- were not informed of the hack until Politico contacted the NRCC on Monday with questions about the episode. Rank-and-file House Republicans were not told, either. Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), who served as NRCC chairman this past election cycle, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.... Party officials would not say when the hack began or who was behind it, although they privately believe it was a foreign agent due to the nature of the attack." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not the hacker but I know what the "sensitive" e-mails said: "Let's cheat this guy. Let's steal some ballots. Let's not let "those people" vote in Georgia." And so forth.
**Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "A quarter century ago, America was approaching a consensus regarding how our Constitution should be read.... All of that changed after the late President George H.W. Bush placed Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court. Justice Thomas may be the most underestimated person in American law. As I wrote last June, 'no justice did more to shape a political movement's sense of what it can achieve through litigation.'... His plans to dismantle the federal administrative state now dominate both the Federalist Society and the Trump administration. His opinions suggesting that much of the New Deal and the Great Society are unconstitutional taught a generation of conservative law students to dream of a world where every law they disagree with is struck down by the Supreme Court... No one could win a presidential election running on these policies.... But what Clarence Thomas taught the conservative movement is that it doesn't need to campaign openly on its most radical ideas. Presidents can run on much more popular ideas and even govern with relative moderation, and allow their judicial nominees to do the heavy lifting for them. They may even be remembered as moderates despite the actions of their nominees. Just look at George H.W. Bush." --s
Mike Memoli of NBC News: "Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday said his decision on whether to enter the 2020 presidential race will rest on a whether he and his family are 'ready,' even as he argued that his strengths as a potential candidate far outweigh any perceived liabilities. Biden's comments came during a brief tour promoting the paperback release of his 2017 memoir, 'Promise Me, Dad,' in which he details how the death of his eldest son, Beau, from brain cancer kept him out of the 2016 presidential race. 'I think I'm the most qualified person in the country to be president. The issues that we face as a country today are the issues that I've worked on my whole life -- the plight of the middle class and foreign policy,' Biden told an audience in Montana, according to The Missoula Current. 'But my family and I need to decide as a unit whether we're ready -- we do everything as a family.'"
Justin Wise of the Hill: "Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, announced Tuesday that he will not run for president in 2020, ending speculation that he could challenge President Trump. 'After consultation with my family and at their request, I have decided not to seek the presidency of the U.S. in 2020,' Avenatti said in a statement shared on Twitter. 'I do not make this decision lightly -- I make it out of respect for my family. But for their concerns, I would run.'"
William March of The Tampa Bay Times: "Newly elected [Republican] congressman Ross Spano has acknowledged that his campaign financing 'may have been in violation' of federal law. In a filing with the Federal Elections Commission..., he acknowledged borrowing $180,000 from two people he has described as personal friends from June through October this year, and then lending his campaign $167,000 in roughly the same time period.... When he made the loans to his campaign, Spano said on campaign finance reports that the money came from his 'personal funds.'... Several election law experts have said that if Spano's loans to his campaign came ... from money borrowed from friends, it appears to violate campaign finance law." --s
"Banana Republic Dictators." Allan Smith of NBC News: "Democrats fought back Monday as Republican legislators in Wisconsin and Michigan moved to strip power from them after the GOP lost a series of crucial races last month. In Wisconsin, Republicans pressed ahead with a lame-duck session -- the first held in eight years -- to give GOP Gov. Scott Walker the opportunity to limit the power of his successor, Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers. The Republican measures would also change the date of the 2020 presidential primary to benefit a conservative state Supreme Court justice and limit early voting. If passed, the state Senate and Assembly could vote on the measures on Tuesday.... In Michigan, meanwhile, Republicans introduced bills late last week to diminish the powers of the incoming Democratic governor, secretary of state and attorney general as well.... The efforts are likely to be met with legal challenges should they pass.... 'These Republican legislatures are acting like banana republic dictators, not leaders in a democracy,' Jared Leopold, communications director for the Democratic Governors Association, told NBC News in a statement. 'These proposals are an insult to the voters of Wisconsin and Michigan,' he said."
Justin Miller of the Texas Observer: "At the Texas Republican Party's 2018 convention, Ray Myers was a part of a select group of activists charged with crafting the platform for the biggest and most influential state party in the country. Myers is also a white nationalist, a fact that he declared last week. 'Damn Right, I'm a WHITE NATIONALIST and very Proud of it,' Myers wrote in a Facebook post last Tuesday. Myers is a 74-year-old activist who has been involved in GOP politics for decades. But 'the pivotal political moment came when Obama came on the scene. I knew immediately that America was in trouble,' he said in an Empower Texans profile. Soon after, he founded a tea party chapter in Kaufman County, just east of Dallas. More recently, Myers was a member of Ted Cruz's 'Texas Leadership Team' during his presidential campaign, served as a Cruz delegate at the RNC convention and went on to become a Trump volunteer, according to his Facebook profile."
Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "A black man killed by the police in an Alabama mall in November was shot three times from behind, according to a forensic examination commissioned by the man's family. The finding, announced in a news conference on Monday, was seen by the man's family and lawyers as evidence he was running away and posed no threat to the officer who shot him. Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., 21, was fatally shot in the middle of a panicked crowd at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Ala., on Nov. 22, as officers responded to reports of gunshots on Thanksgiving night. Witnesses said Mr. Bradford, who was legally carrying a handgun, was directing shoppers to safety. But the authorities publicly identified him as the gunman, an initial misidentification they retracted a day later."
Sausage Fest. Gillian Tan & Katia Porzecanski of Bloomberg: "Call it the Pence Effect, after ... Mike Pence, who has said he avoids dining alone with any woman other than his wife. In finance, the overarching impact can be, in essence, gender segregation. Interviews with more than 30 senior executives [on Wall Street] suggest many are spooked by #MeToo and struggling to cope. 'It's creating a sense of walking on eggshells,' said David Bahnsen, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley.... Now, more than a year into the #MeToo movement ... Wall Street risks becoming more of a boy's club, rather than less of one." --s
Julie Brown of the Miami Herald: "A trial that could have allowed the victims of serial molester Jeffrey Epstein to finally tell their stories from a witness stand was aborted Tuesday when it was announced in court that the case had been settled. It ended with an apology -- not to the dozens of women who were sexually abused by Epstein as underage girls, but to the lawyer who represented them. There is also a monetary settlement, which is undisclosed."
*****
Shawn Donnan of Bloomberg News: "... Donald Trump left his top advisers scrambling on Monday to explain a trade deal he claimed he'd struck with China to reduce tariffs on U.S. cars exported to the country -- an agreement that doesn't exist on paper and hasn't been confirmed in Beijing. In the day after Trump announced the deal in a two-sentence Twitter post, the White House provided no additional information. At a briefing in Beijing, a spokesman for the foreign ministry declined to comment on any changes to car tariffs. [Steve Mnuchin said 'Homina homina.' Larry Kudlow said, 'Blah, blah, blah.']... Asked why the auto tariffs weren't mentioned in statements the U.S. and China issued after the dinner, Kudlow inexplicably insisted that they were.... Trump nevertheless praised himself for the dinner, and abandoned nuance in claiming on Twitter that China had agreed to immediately buy more U.S. farm products, in addition to dropping car tariffs." ...
... Jim Puzzanghera of the Los Angeles Times puts it like this: "President Trump's top economic advisors pushed back Monday on his claim that China has agreed to eliminate tariffs on U.S. auto imports, saying no such agreement had been struck. The unusual dispute was the latest to suggest that Trump's handshake agreement on trade during a working dinner Saturday night in Argentina with Chinese President Xi Jinping remains open to divergent interpretation, even in the White House." ...
... Heather Long of the Washington Post: "President Trump claims he secured an 'incredible' trade deal between the United States and China over the weekend. In reality, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping struck a truce to pause the tariff blows, which is far from a sweeping trade pact. Trump claims there were real breakthroughs on agriculture and cars, as well as Chinese theft of American intellectual property. In tweets Monday, Trump called the meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires 'extraordinary' and promised 'big and fast' benefits for farmers. But China's readout of what happened in Argentina is different. China seems to believe that the only real movement was an agreement to halt additional tariffs and a mutual commitment to reduce the ones Trump and Xi put into effect this year. In other words, Trump makes it sound like China is starting to cave to his demands. Top Chinese officials make it sound like the only thing that's about to change is that U.S.-China trade relations would go back to where they were in January -- before Trump unleashed his tariff war." ...
... Alex Ward of Vox: Trump & his crew "claim Beijing agreed to lower tariffs on American cars entering the Chinese market from 40 percent to zero.... [But] if Beijing lowers the tariff rate on US autos to zero, it must also do that for all other countries [of the World Trade Organization] that want to sell their vehicles in the Chinese market.... [And] experts said that most cars sold in China are produced there. That means there are already few American cars taxed at the Chinese border. Reducing the tariffs to zero would therefore have very little impact on America's export industry to China." Since the Chinese are not much interested in purchasing American gas-guzzlers, the bigger beneficiaries of Trump's "deal" would be automakers in Japan, South Korea & Germany. Mrs. McC: According to Heather Long, in the article linked above, it's likely that the Chinese would reduce the auto tariff not to zero but to 15 percent, which was where it was before Trump started his trade war. ...
... Thanks to Ken W. for the link. As Ken asks & answers, "When is a deal not a deal? When the Pretender tweets its." ...
... FAKE DEALS! Alex Shephard of the New Republic: Trump's "highly successful" "trade deal" with Xi "fits a familiar pattern. Trump ratchets up hostilities with foreign governments in an attempt to negotiate (or renegotiate) deals that are more favorable to the U.S. But then he agrees only to superficial changes, which he nonetheless presents as historic wins that only he could accomplish. It's a reminder that his real skill as a businessman -- and now a politician -- was never in making deals, but in marketing himself as a dealmaker. While that proved effective on the campaign trail in 2016, it may come back to haunt him in 2020." ...
... Amie Tsang & Matthew Phillips of the New York Times: "Stocks rose on Wall Street Monday after President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China reached a truce in the countries' trade war.Shares of industrial stocks rose, as exporting giants such as Boeing, Caterpillar and Deere pulled the export-reliant S&P 500 industrial sector higher. Semiconductor makers, which have been hurt by the potential for the trade war to disrupt their widespread production networks in Asia, rose as well. Those early gains, however, were tempered by doubts that the fragile cease-fire -- essentially a 90-day postponement of planned additional American tariffs on Chinese imports -- would put the dispute between the world's two largest economies to rest permanently. After gaining nearly 1.4 percent in early trading Monday, the S&P 500 was up by less than 1 percent by late morning." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Congressional leaders and White House officials agreed Monday to extend a government funding deadline by two weeks, until Dec. 21, setting up the possibility of a shutdown showdown just ahead of Christmas. The decision, confirmed by aides involved in the talks, was made because of the observances surrounding the death of former President George H.W. Bush. The former president will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda ahead of a service at the National Cathedral on Wednesday. The House has canceled all votes for this week. The current deadline is midnight on Friday, Dec. 7. The House and Senate are expected to approve the new deadline at some point this week. That could be done in the House by unanimous consent, without lawmakers present to vote."
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "... Robert Mueller's prosecutors have told defense lawyers in recent weeks that they are 'tying up loose ends' in their investigation, providing the clearest clues yet that the long-running probe into Russia's interference in the 2016 election may be coming to its climax, potentially in the next few weeks, according to multiple sources close to the matter. The new information about the state of Mueller's investigation comes during a pivotal week when the special counsel's prosecutors are planning to file memos about three of their most high profile defendants -- former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen. A Flynn sentencing memo is due Tuesday, and memos about Manafort and Cohen are slated for Friday. All three documents are expected to yield significant new details on what cooperation the three of them provided to the Russia investigation." Mrs. McC: Which explains Trump's self-incriminating rage tweets yesterday. ...
... When a Mob Boss Tweets. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday said Michael Cohen does not deserve leniency for cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, arguing that his former personal lawyer should serve a 'full and complete' prison sentence. 'He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free [sic],' Trump wrote on Twitter of Cohen. 'He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.' Trump sought to further distance himself from his onetime ally by incorrectly claiming that Cohen's crimes were 'unrelated to Trump.'... While he blasted Cohen for turning against him, the president encouraged other people tied up in the Mueller probe to show loyalty. Trump praised his on-again, off-again adviser, Roger Stone, for refusing to cooperate with investigators. 'He will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about "President Trump." Nice to know that some people still have "guts!"' Trump wrote of Stone." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Deanna Paul of the Washington Post: "... legal experts are calling Monday's missives a newsworthy development that amounts to evidence of obstructing justice.... After the overt attack on [Michael] Cohen came a tweet encouraging Roger Stone ... not to become a witness against him[.]... Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that the most striking thing about Monday was that there were two statements in proximity. 'It comes very close to the statutory definition of witness tampering,' he said. 'It's a mirror image of the first tweet, only he's praising a witness for not cooperating with the implication of reward,' he said.... Tampering with a witness is obstruction of justice. It's a federal crime for an individual to intimidate, threaten or 'corruptly persuade' another person with the goal of influencing or preventing his or her testimony.... 'When you look at the tweets about Stone and Cohen, Trump is sending a very strong message to others that those who cooperate will be punished, and those who keep his secrets will be rewarded,' white-collar defense attorney Barry Berke said."
Peter Zeidenberg in a USA Today op-ed: "Defenders of the president have, despite the obvious progress of the Mueller investigation -- more than 30 indictments or guilty pleas, including Trump's campaign chairman, personal lawyer, national security adviser, deputy campaign manager and foreign policy adviser -- consistently argued that 'no collusion' has been proved. While it is true that the charges made public have not alleged conspiracy (there is no crime of 'collusion') it should be clear to all but the most obtuse by now that the endgame is drawing near. Mueller is laying out the predicate for a wide-ranging conspiracy case that will likely ensnare the president's family and, quite likely, Trump himself."
A Guy in a Leopard Jacket Never Changes His Spots. Ken Vogel & Nicholas Casey of the New York Times: "In mid-May 2017, Paul Manafort ... flew to Ecuador to offer his services to a potentially lucrative new client -- the country's incoming president, Lenín Moreno. Mr. Manafort made the trip mainly to see if he could broker a deal under which China would invest in Ecuador's power system, possibly yielding a fat commission for Mr. Manafort. But the talks turned to a diplomatic sticking point between the United States and Ecuador: the fate of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. In at least two meetings with Mr. Manafort, Mr. Moreno and his aides discussed their desire to rid themselves of Mr. Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012, in exchange for concessions like debt relief from the United States, according to three people familiar with the talks, the details of which have not been previously reported. They said Mr. Manafort suggested he could help negotiate a deal for the handover of Mr. Assange to the United States, which has long investigated Mr. Assange for the disclosure of secret documents and which later filed charges against him that have not yet been made public. Within a couple of days of Mr. Manafort's final meeting in Quito, Robert S. Mueller III was appointed as the special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters, and it quickly became clear that Mr. Manafort was a primary target. His talks with Ecuador ended without any deals."
Brian Melley of the AP: "Lawyers for ... Donald Trump asked a court Monday for nearly $800,000 in lawyers' fees and penalties from porn actress Stormy Daniels for a failed defamation lawsuit against him. Attorney Charles Harder defended ringing up a nearly $390,000 legal bill for the president and asked for an equal amount in sanctions as a deterrent against a 'repeat filer of frivolous defamation cases.' Judge S. James Otero didn't immediately rule. He noted that fees by Harder';s firm -- as high as $840 an hour -- were reasonable but the 580 hours spent on the case appeared to be excessive and might be trimmed in his eventual award."
"Trump Handles Bush's Death with Abnormal Normality." Eliana Johnson of Politico: George H.W. "Bush's death has at least temporarily displaced Trump's public disdain for the Bush family and, for the moment, he is even borrowing from his late predecessor's celebrated sense of etiquette. On Monday night, Trump visited Capitol Hill to pay personal respects to the 41st president, whose casket arrived earlier in the day and is lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda. The display of respect even extended to the late president's son, former President George W. Bush, whom Trump has derided as 'the worst president ever.' Trump offered Bush the use of his official guest residence, Blair House, while the younger Bush is in Washington for the events surrounding his father' funeral.... In short, the president is behaving normally...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What with Absolutely Everything being All About Trump, my guess is that Trump is thinking ahead to the kind of send-off he wants & is providing a blueprint of how he should be respected.
Jonathan Chait on how confederates misremember George H.W. Bush: "Today's Republican Party reflects the lessons it has taught itself from the Bush era.... The Wall Street Journal editorial memorializing the elder Bush is a useful summary of the prevailing Republican interpretation of the 41st president. It memorializes Bush's 1988 campaign, led by Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes, as a triumph for which the 'left never forgave him." On the flip side, in addition to dwelling on the hated tax hike, the Journal scolds Bush for failing to invade and occupy Iraq after the Gulf War -- 'The blot on that victory was that he let Saddam Hussein stay in power' -- as if nobody has tried that and we have no idea how it would work." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The fact is that Republicans & confederates deplore any show of decency but take pride instead in winning by subterfuge, sabotage & suppression.
Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: "CIA Director Gina Haspel will reportedly brief Senate leaders on the death of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after senators criticized her absence from a briefing last week. Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported the briefing will happen Tuesday.... Last week, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefed the whole Senate on U.S.-Saudi relations and the Yemen civil war in an effort to head off a resolution that would end U.S. military support for the Saudis in the war. The briefing, though, backfired for the administration, as senators found the presentation unconvincing and voted 63-37 to advance the resolution. Lawmakers were also upset at Haspel's absence, as they wanted to hear the CIA's assessment on the death of Khashoggi directly from her."
Julie Barnes & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The C.I.A. has evidence that Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, communicated repeatedly with a key aide around the time that a team believed to have been under the aide's command assassinated Jamal Khashoggi, according to former officials familiar with the intelligence.The adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, topped the list of Saudis who were targeted by American sanctions last month over their suspected involvement in the killing of Mr. Khashoggi. American intelligence agencies have evidence that Prince Salman and Mr. Qahtani had 11 exchanges that roughly coincided with the hit team's advance into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where Mr. Khashoggi was murdered. The exchanges are a key piece of information that helped solidify the C.I.A.'s assessment that the crown prince ordered the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Virginia resident who had been critical of the Saudi government. 'This is the smoking gun, or at least the smoking phone call,' said Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A. official now at the Brookings Institution. 'There is only one thing they could possibly be talking about. This shows that the crown prince was witting of premeditated murder.'" Mrs. McC: This is a reiteration of news we linked over the weekend, but it's a stronger statement about the strength of the evidence. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
All the Best People, Ctd. Michelle Goldberg: "It is the perverse good fortune of Alexander Acosta, Donald Trump's secretary of labor, to be part of an administration so spectacularly corrupt that it's simply impossible to give all its scandals the attention they deserve. Last Wednesday, The Miami Herald published a blockbuster multipart exposé about how the justice system failed the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, a rich, politically connected financier who appears to have abused underage girls on a near-industrial scale. The investigation, more than a year in the making, described Epstein as running a sort of child molestation pyramid scheme, in which girls -- some in middle school -- would be recruited to give Epstein 'massages' at his Palm Beach mansion, pressured into sex acts, then coerced into bringing him yet more girls. The Herald reported that Epstein was also suspected of trafficking girls from overseas.... For reasons that are not entirely clear, Acosta took extraordinary measures to let Epstein -- and, crucially, other unnamed people -- off the hook.... While Acosta's record covering up for a depraved plutocrat makes him a good fit for the Trump administration, it should disqualify him from public service." Read on. Perhaps Alan Dershowitz wasn't just Epstein's lawyer.
Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: Congressional Republicans are responding to their midterm losses among women voters by -- letting the Violence Against Women Act expire. Mrs. McC: Is this revenge, misogyny, or just cruel & stupid? ...
... Update. Just Stupid. Jennifer Shutt of Roll Call: "Despite indications earlier Monday that the Violence Against Women Act would not be extended as part of the two-week continuing resolution, the stopgap funding measure would indeed extend VAWA until at least Dec. 21."
** Cheating Democracy Every Way They Can. Eric Levitz of New York: "The Republican Party entered this year's battle for House control with 22 seats to spare, a map gerrymandered in its favor to a historic (and arguably unconstitutional) degree, and the benefit of presiding over decades-low unemployment, and robust economic growth. It left with (at least) 40 fewer members in the lower chamber, a popular vote loss of more than 8 percent, and the ignominious achievement of having forfeited more House seats in a single midterm than it had at any point since 1974's post-Watergate bloodbath. The party has responded to this historic rebuke by rethinking ... approximately nothing.... In Wisconsin and Michigan, the [Republican] party is doing everything in its power to muzzle that electorate, and nullify its verdict.... Republicans' dominance in rural areas has allowed them to retain significant power in statehouses and the Senate."
Crazy People. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: Kevin Doherty, "a man who worked as an investigator for conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman, will serve nine years in prison for shooting and wounding his ex-boss in a complicated plot involving a fake FBI exposé.... Burkman told The Washington Post in March that he hired Doherty, a onetime Marine, to investigate the death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Burkman, a Republican lobbyist, has enmeshed himself in a conspiracy theory that Rich was killed for handing Democratic emails over to WikiLeaks.... In March, Burkman said his interest in Rich's death and conspiracy theories generally remained strong. Last month, Burkman held a news conference at which he claimed he had spoken to a woman who had been the victim of inappropriate behavior by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. No such woman ever appeared."
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Jerry Ianelli of the Miami New Times: "This past Friday, Broward Sheriff's Office SWAT member Matt Patten wore a QAnon conspiracy-theory patch while greeting Vice President Mike Pence at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. [Monday] Patten was reprimanded and demoted from the SWAT team and ;BSO's Office of Homeland Security."
It's Okay. It's New Jersey! Claude Brodesser-Akner of NJ.com: "FBI agents raided the home of Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam just before 8 a.m. Monday morning, the agency confirmed to NJ Advance Media.... At least a dozen agents were seen going in and out of the Ohio Avenue home Monday morning, removing more than 10 boxes. An FBI spokeswoman at the scene said both FBI and IRS agents were involved in the search of home.... Gilliam, a Democrat elected in November 2017, was also recently served with municipal criminal summons from a mid-November brawl at the Haven nightclub. Gilliam and Councilman Jeffree Fauntleroy II were involved in a fight outside the Haven Nightclub at Golden Nugget Nov. 11 around 2:22 a.m. People involved allege the elected officials assaulted them and chased them with a car." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
North Carolina. Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "L. McCrae Dowless Jr...., a bit player in North Carolina's incessant battles over voting rules and alleged fraud, is at the center of a spiraling battle over whether deceit and misconduct corrupted the campaign for Congress in the Ninth District. State regulators have refused to certify the preliminary results, which showed the Republican nominee, Mark Harris, with a 905-vote edge over Dan McCready, his Democratic opponent. If state officials ultimately find that the balloting was tainted enough to 'cast doubt' on the results, they would have the power to order a new election.... The alleged and acknowledged machinations of Mr. Dowless, who has a felony record and a history of financial fraud, have produced yet another bitter electoral impasse in a state that seems perpetually engulfed by them. State officials are particularly concerned that people working on behalf of Mr. Harris's campaign picked up, or 'harvested,' absentee ballots, a crime under North Carolina law." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's a twist I forgot about: "The dispute ... may not be settled for weeks, and it may ultimately be resolved by the House of Representatives itself, which has the constitutional authority to be 'the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members.'"
Tennessee. Stavros Agorakis of Vox: "David Earl Miller will face the death penalty in Tennessee later this week, and like a growing number of inmates, he's asking for electrocution over lethal injection. Miller sent a handwritten note marked 'URGENT' to the warden over at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, mere weeks before his sentence is to carried out on December 6. The 61-year-old man was found guilty of the 1981 murder of Lee Standifer in Knoxville, according to the Tennessean. Miller is the second death row inmate this year who chose the electric chair over lethal injection, and his wish appears to play out amid two big factors: Botched executions have gotten national attention, and challenges either to the death penalty itself or to specific forms of execution are on the rise."
Wisconsin. Sore Losers. Mitch Smith & Monica Davey of the New York Times: "Facing the prospect of sharing political power for the first time in almost a decade, Republicans in Wisconsin are racing to set new limits on the authority of Democrats who will soon take over the offices of governor and attorney general. It was the latest effort by leaders of a state to try to shift authority in the face of an election loss, and it set off furious protests from Wisconsin Democrats, who said they would not stand for the moves and called on residents to raise loud objections. Republicans called lawmakers to the state capital this week to weigh a sweeping plan that could diminish the power of Tony Evers, the Democrat who beat Gov. Scott Walker last month, by restricting his ability to shift how public benefits programs are run and limiting his authority to set rules for carrying out state laws."
Way Beyond
Denmark. Get Out! Martin Sorensen of the New York Times: "Denmark plans to house the country’s most unwelcome foreigners in a most unwelcoming place: a tiny, hard-to-reach island that now holds the laboratories, stables and crematory of a center for researching contagious animal diseases. As if to make the message clearer, one of the two ferries that serve the island is called the Virus. 'They are unwanted in Denmark, and they will feel that,' the immigration minister, Inger Stojberg, wrote on Facebook. On Friday, the center-right government and the right-wing Danish People's Party announced an agreement to house as many as 100 people on Lindholm Island -- foreigners who have been convicted of crimes and rejected asylum seekers who cannot be returned to their home countries."
France. Adam Nossiter of the New York Times: "In a major concession by President Emmanuel Macron, France will suspend for six months a tax increase on gasoline and diesel fuel that had been slated for January, in an attempt to quell weeks of protests and rioting by the so-called Yellow Vests movement.... It was not immediately clear whether the government's announcement, which also delayed new vehicle inspection measures and increases in gas and electricity rates, would be enough to calm the demonstrations. Initial reaction from spokesmen for Yellow Vest protesters was negative."
Hungary. Griff Witte of the Washington Post: Prime Minister Viktor Orban drove Central European University into exile. The school, established [by George Soros] a quarter-century ago to educate a new generation of leaders and scholars after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, became on Monday the first university to be forced out of a European Union nation. The ejection marked one of the surest signals to date of autocracy's return to Hungary.... In an interview with The Washington Post last week, U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David B. Cornstein confirmed that he had never tried to use either incentives or threats to sway Orban, despite proclaiming upon arrival in Budapest in June that his top mission was to keep CEU in the country. With that effort having failed, he blamed ... George Soros for CEU's departure and refused to criticize Orban. Cornstein also minimized the university's importance.... Last week..., Cornstein ... described Orban as his 'friend' and accused Soros of being insufficiently acquiescent to the government. [Here's the kicker:] Cornstein [is] an 80-year-old New Yorker who made his fortune in the jewelry, gambling and telemarketing businesses and is a close friend of President Trump's." Mrs. McC: You expect this guy to have principles or give a rat's ass about academic freedom?
Nigeria. Weird News. Guardian & agencies: "Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has denied claims that he had died and was replaced by a Sudanese impostor, breaking his silence on a rumour that has circulated on social media for months. Buhari, who is running for re-election in February, spent five months in Britain last year being treated for an undisclosed illness. One theory widely aired on social media -- and by some political opponents -- was that he had been replaced by a lookalike from Sudan called Jubril. No evidence has been presented, but videos making the claim have been viewed thousands of times on YouTube and Facebook." Mrs. McC: If Trump is replaced by a body double, we'll know when the guy accidentally says something kindly in a complete, comprehensible sentence.
Qatar. Ben Hubbard & Stanley Reed of the New York Times: "The tiny, wealthy Persian Gulf state of Qatar will withdraw from OPEC in January, the country's energy minister said on Monday, hinting that it wanted freedom from an oil cartel dominated by Saudi Arabia, one of its regional rivals. The minister, Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, said Qatar would focus on its gas industry and dismissed the idea that the withdrawal was connected to politics, but not without taking a jab at Saudi Arabia and its clout in the organization. Qatar is one of the smallest producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and its modest contributions to the oil market will most likely dampen the effect of its move on prices, which have been battered in recent weeks by fears of a glut." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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