The Ledes

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Washington Post: “ John Amos, a running back turned actor who appeared in scores of TV shows — including groundbreaking 1970s programs such as the sitcom 'Good Times' and the epic miniseries 'Roots' — and risked his career to protest demeaning portrayals of Black characters, died Aug. 21 in Los Angeles. He was 84.” Amos's New York Times obituary is here.

New York Times: “Pete Rose, one of baseball’s greatest players and most confounding characters, who earned glory as the game’s hit king and shame as a gambler and dissembler, died on Monday. He was 83.”

The Ledes

Monday, September 30, 2024

New York Times: “Kris Kristofferson, the singer and songwriter whose literary yet plain-spoken compositions infused country music with rarely heard candor and depth, and who later had a successful second career in movies, died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday. He was 88.”

~~~ The New York Times highlights “twelve essential Kristofferson songs.”

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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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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Sunday
Aug122018

The Commentariat -- August 13, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

It's all a scam. Everything. -- Akhilleus, on the Trump presidency*

Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Peter Strzok, the F.B.I. senior counterintelligence agent who disparaged President Trump in inflammatory text messages and helped oversee the Hillary Clinton email and Russia investigations, has been fired for violating bureau policies, Mr. Strzok's lawyer said Monday. Mr. Trump and his allies seized on the text messages -- exchanged during the 2016 campaign with a former F.B.I. lawyer, Lisa Page -- in assailing the Russia investigation as an illegitimate 'witch hunt.' Mr. Strzok, who rose over 20 years at the F.B.I. to become one of its most experienced counterintelligence agents, was a key figure in the early months of the inquiry. Along with sending the text messages, Mr. Strzok was accused of sending a highly sensitive search warrant to his personal email account. It is not clear why Mr. Strzok, who was formally fired on Friday, was dismissed at this time.... Aitan Goelman, his lawyer, said that the deputy director of the F.B.I., David Bowdich, had overruled the bureau's Office of Professional Responsibility, which said Mr. Strzok should be suspended for 60 days and demoted." ...

Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI - finally. The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer. Based on the fact that Strzok was in charge of the Witch Hunt, will it be dropped? It is a total Hoax. No Collusion, No Obstruction - I just fight back! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Omarosa Manigault Newman ... said Monday that she believes Trump was lying when he claimed in a phone call in December that he knew nothing about her dismissal by White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.... Trump fired back at Manigault Newman with a Monday morning tweet in which he attacked his former aide as 'vicious, but not smart' and claimed that 'people in the White House hated her.' 'Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time,' Trump said. 'She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok.' Trump said he would 'rarely see' Manigault Newman in the White House, a claim that contradicts reports that she enjoyed a close relationship with the president. In two follow-up tweets, Trump continued to disparage his former aide, saying he had 'heard really bad things' about her and claiming that she 'would constantly miss meetings & work.'... He added that while it was 'not presidential' to attack her, he was doing so because he believes the media will be trying to make her 'look as legitimate as possible.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, it's the media who force Trump to act "not presidential."

Cristian Farias of New York: "... for all the flashy testimony to come out of the [Manafort] trial..., jurors have already seen reams of documentary evidence -- emails, invoices, and business records that paint a picture of the scheme Manafort is accused of orchestrating. In significant ways, the oral testimony simply corroborates or adds to the foundation prosecutors have already laid with the documents entered into evidence. As for [Judge T.S.] Ellis, whose ornery treatment of prosecutors has gotten him undue attention for all the wrong reasons, it's best to not read too much into it.... Because the defense is likely to catch fire from him too, but also because benchslapping is something that trial lawyers have to live with -- and it's not a good barometer of how jurors will ultimately decide a case.... Ellis, more than just about anyone else in America, knows a wealth of extremely sensitive details about the Russia investigation, and his apparent drive to cut no slack for the prosecution also indicates that he wants their side to have a solid trial record in the event of an appeal."

Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Several times in the first year of his administration..., Donald Trump wanted to call Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the middle of the afternoon. But ... midafternoon in Washington is the middle of the night in Tokyo.... Trump's aides had to explain the issue, which one diplomatic source said came up on 'a constant basis,' but it wasn't easy.... Trump's desire to call world leaders at awkward hours is just one of many previously unreported diplomatic faux pas Trump has made since assuming the presidency, which go beyond telephone etiquette to include misconceptions, mispronunciations and awkward meetings." ...

... Jonathan Chait has a more amusing take on Lippman's reporting: "Running an effective foreign policy for a global hyperpower is always tricky when the president happens to be a personally corrupt authoritarian bigot who is concealing shady ties to a strategic adversary. The problem gets even harder when the president is unable to grasp some of the basic facts and principles of diplomacy.... It's like having Homer Simpson as president, but dumber:"

When Henry Met Jared. Caleb Melby, et al., of Bloomberg: Jared Kushner introduced himself to Henry Kissinger at a National Interest luncheon in March 2016, where Kissinger was the guest speaker. At the luncheon, Kushner "also met Dimitri Simes, the Russian-born president of the center.... Questions have recently been raised about the center for its ties to Russia, including its interactions with Maria Butina, a woman accused of conspiring to set up a back channel by infiltrating the National Rifle Organization and the National Prayer Breakfast.... In the weeks following [the luncheon, Kushner & Simes arranged] ... an event hosted by the center to give Trump a chance to lay out a cohesive foreign policy speech.... In his speech at the Mayflower, Trump called for easing tensions with Russia.... It was at [Trump's] Mayflower [event] that Kushner first met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, an encounter he left off disclosure forms when he initially joined the government." Via safari

Stephanie Murray of Politico: "A high-ranking Republican lawmaker's son donated the 'maximum amount' to a Democrat running to replace his father. Bobby Goodlatte, son of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), made the surprise announcement on Twitter Sunday night. Goodlatte is retiring after 13 terms in Congress. 'I just gave the maximum allowed donation to Jennifer Lewis, a democrat running for my father's congressional seat. I've also gotten 5 other folks to commit to donate the max. 2018 is the year to flip districts -- let's do this!' Bobby Goodlatte wrote on Twitter.... Donald Trump carried the central Virginia district with nearly 60 percent of the vote in 2016, and Mitt Romney did the same in the 2012 presidential election. Goodlatte received two-thirds of the vote that year."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The National Archives is doubling down on its refusal to respond to Democratic' requests for documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's White House tenure. Archivist David Ferriero wrote in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, that it is the agency's policy to only respond to requests from a committee chairman, who are all Republicans." Mrs. McC: Sounds to me like an unamerican, um, "rigged" policy.

*****

Trump and his crew of misfits & miscreants are such clowns, I feel as if I should begin every page with an apology for the news that follows. It's so humiliating to be an American right now. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Liar-in-Chief. Hope Yen & Christopher Rugaber of the AP: "... President Donald Trump is pulling numbers out of thin air when it comes to the economy, jobs and the deficit. He refers to a current record-breaking gross domestic product for the U.S. where none exists and predicts a blockbuster 5 percent annual growth rate in the current quarter that hardly any economist sees. Hailing his trade policies in spite of fears of damage from the escalating trade disputes he's provoked, Trump also falsely declares that his tariffs on foreign goods will help erase $21 trillion in national debt. The numbers don't even come close." (Also linked yesterday.)

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's anti-press rhetoric is 'very close to incitement to violence' that would lead to journalists censoring themselves or being attacked, the outgoing UN human rights commissioner has said. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, a Jordanian prince and diplomat, is stepping down this month as UN high commissioner for human rights ... in the face of a waning commitment among world powers to fighting abuses. Zeid said the Trump administration's lack of concern about human rights marked a distinct break with previous administrations, and that Trump's own rhetoric aimed at minorities and at the press was redolent of two of the worst eras of the 20th century, the run-up to the two world wars."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "When President Trump took to Twitter to complain about two women with connections to the Russia investigation, he affixed special descriptions to both. 'Beautiful,' he said of Nellie Ohr, the wife of a Justice Department official who worked for Fusion GPS, the research firm that commissioned a dossier that made salacious claims about Mr. Trump. In a separate tweet, Mr. Trump used the word 'lovely' to describe Lisa Page, the former F.B.I. lawyer who worked on both the Clinton email and Russia investigations and whose text exchanges with another bureau official, Peter Strzok, included repeated criticism of Mr. Trump during his candidacy. The descriptors Mr. Trump used for the two women reflected his intense interest in physical appearances and his clear disdain for both.... His commentary on their looks was in keeping with a long-running tendency by Mr. Trump."

Victoria Guida of Politico: "Rudy Giuliani on Sunday said ... Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey never discussed former national security adviser Mike Flynn, backtracking from July comments in which he indicated otherwise. 'There was no conversation about Michael Flynn,' Trump's personal attorney said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'That is what he will testify to if he's asked that question.' He also told CNN's Jake Tapper that he never said the president had asked Comey to give Flynn a break. 'I said that is what Comey is saying,' Giuliani said."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Comey wrote in his opening statement before a Congressional hearing in June 2017 that "Trump said: "'I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.'" In oral testimony, under oath, Comey said "that he understood the President to be requesting that he drop the investigation into Flynn." It isn't foolish to question Comey's veracity, but it is hard to believe he made up out of whole cloth Trump's remarks about Flynn. Making up stuff is Trump's modus operandi. See AP report above. BTW, I heard the old clip Sunday; Giuliani did say that Trump asked Comey to give Flynn a break. Matt Shuham of TPM found the transcript: "What he [Trump] said to him [Comey] was 'Can you give him [Flynn] a break?'" This is yet another instance where Giuliani has changed the substance of his claims about Trump's obstruction attempts. ...

... Defining Obstruction Down. If the President Doesn't, Say, Pull a Gun, It's Not Obstruction. Megan Keller of the Hill: "President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that it would take some sort of extreme action for the president to obstruct justice.... Giuliani said it would take some sort of extreme action for Trump to obstruct justice such as, if 'say the president put a gun to a person's head' in an investigation." Mrs. McC: But Rudy. Wouldn't putting a gun to Comey's head just be Trump's exercising his Second Amendment rights?

"The Rise & Fall of Paul Manafort." Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: "The whole trajectory of [Paul] Manafort's life -- from the son of a blue-collar, small-town mayor to a jet-setting international political consultant to Trump campaign chairman and now to prisoner in an Alexandria, Va., jail awaiting a jury verdict -- is a tale of greed, deception and ego. His trial on 18 charges of bank and tax fraud has ripped away the elaborate facade of a man who, the story went, had moved the swimming pool at one of his eight homes a few feet to catch the perfect combination of sun and shade, and who worked for the Trump campaign at no charge to intimate that for a man of his fabulous wealth, a salary was trivial [even though he was broke].... A subplot of the saga is the betrayal of Mr. Manafort by his longtime deputy Rick Gates.... Mr. Gates has testified that he helped execute Mr. Manafort's fraudulent schemes while simultaneously stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from him, apparently because he felt that Mr. Manafort was not dividing the riches from Ukraine fairly."


Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post: "Omarosa Manigault Newman, the fired White House aide seeking publicity for her new memoir about her time in the Trump administration, said in an interview Sunday that the way Chief of Staff John F. Kelly dismissed her involved a 'threat' and played an audio recording of Kelly that she said she made in the Situation Room. The recording was played on NBC News's 'Meet the Press,' where Manigault Newman was interviewed by Chuck Todd. In the purported recording, which would constitute a serious breach of White House security, Kelly is heard complaining about her 'significant integrity issues' and saying that he wants to make her departure 'friendly and without 'any difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Here's the recording:

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If this conversation was recorded in the Situation Room, as Manigault Newman claims, why was that? The Situation Room is a secure site "to monitor and deal with crises at home and abroad and to conduct secure communications with outside (often overseas) persons." Why a "secure conversation" with Omarosa? This is just weird. ...

     ... Update: Patrick explained in yesterday's Comments why holding a termination interview in the Situation Room isn't so "weird": '... the conference room is an internal space in the WH intell center.... The whole thing is called the Situation Room, but it contains more than one room. So I imagine that Kelly just found that conference room to be the most convenient empty conference room at the time." Later, Patrick wrote, in response to another comment, "... individuals who enter [the SitRoom must] hav[e] the required clearance level. Which means that they have been briefed (when they got that clearance) not to bring any electronic devices into that area. And there are BIG signs at the entrances reminding people of the prohibitions.... They have little lockers outside for your cellphones, laptops, bluetooth devices, etc.... What OM did is a jailable offense. I'm not sure how the Secret Service can avoid charging her." ...

     ... Update 2: Sarah Sanders seems to confirm that General Kelly did it in the Situation Room. This is like Clue, White House Edition. Wrong answers: President Trump did it in the Oval Office with a gun. Mizz Sanders did it in the Briefing Room with a homemade pumpkin pie. Mister Pruitt did it in the White House Mess with a used Trump Hotel mattress.

... Javiar David of CNBC: "The fact that Manigault Newman recorded a conversation in a classified area could create considerable legal problems that add to her existing credibility issues. On social media, political watchers from the left and right ripped into Manigault Newman for having made the recordings in the first place." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears Manigault Newman was truthful about that $15K/month "bribe" The White House offered her to keep her mouth shut. The Washington Post has reproduced a consulting agreement (between the Trump campaign & her) & a companion nondisclosure & nondisparagement agreement. The deal -- purportedly produced by Team Trump -- runs only till the end of this year, though. Kelly fired Omarosa in December, with an effective termination date of January 20, 2018. So that would make the "consulting" deal worth about $170K. Unless Omarosa mocked these up while she still had access to the White House watermark, like the GOP candidate in Florida who made her very own diploma (see yesterday's Beyond the Beltway), then these agreements were Omarosa's severance package. I expect she turned down the deal because it was so paltry. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The $15,000-per-month retainer has been confirmed by the Washington Post, which reviewed a copy of the offer. This lends veracity to her other charges; after all, nobody is going to pay her $15,000 a month to keep quiet unless they know she possesses some damaging information.... The recordings might be damning, or they might not. In the meantime, she seems to have maneuvered her former colleagues into a highly uncomfortable spot." Mrs. McC: As the linked Post story (Aug. 10) notes, "Throughout his career as a businessman and politician, Trump has repeatedly used nondisclosure agreements to quiet critics and accusers, including adult-film star Stormy Daniels." Apparently Trump calculated that Omarosa had slightly more damaging info on him than Daniels -- who was paid $135K -- did. Or inflation. ...

Meridith McGraw & Tara Palmeri of ABC News: "Omarosa Manigault Newman's former White House colleagues are looking into legal options to stop her from releasing more tapes and to punish her for secretly recording her conversation with Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, White House officials tell ABC News." ...

... Oops, Too Late. Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Omarosa Manigault Newman ... has provided an audio recording that she says is from 2017 and on which ... Donald Trump expresses surprise that she'd been fired from his administration. The tape, which was played exclusively Monday on 'Today,' appears to show Trump having no idea that Newman had been dismissed by his Chief of Staff John Kelly. 'Omarosa? Omarosa what's going on? I just saw on the news that you're thinking about leaving? What happened?' Trump is heard saying on the tape, which Newman said was made one day after her termination in December 2017 when Trump called her. Newman responds, 'General Kelly -- General Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave.' 'No...I, I, Nobody even told me about it,' Trump replies. Newman then says, 'Wow'... 'You know they run a big operation, but I didn't know it,' Trump is heard saying on the tape. 'I didn't know that. Goddamn it. I don't love you leaving at all.'" Includes video & audio.


Liz Robbins of the New York Times: "... a new rule in the works from the Trump administration would make it difficult, if not impossible, for immigrants who use [government programs for low-income residents] to obtain green cards. New York City officials estimated that at least a million people here could be hurt by this plan, warning that the children of immigrants seeking green cards would be most vulnerable." Mrs. McC: This is one of the anti-immigrant plans Stephen Miller has pushed. ...

... David Glosser, who is an uncle of Stephen Miller, in a Politico op-ed, recounts how their shared ancestors, who were the victims of violent Russian pogroms, immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s with no money &, in some cases, via "chain migration." "I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, who is an educated man and well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family's life in this country." Thanks to unwashed for the link. Mrs. McC: Glosser is a neuropsychologist. He should know that a logical appeal can have no effect on his nephew. Glosser might know whether Miller's problems are the result of self-loathing (Hitler had Jewish & African roots), extreme selfishnish (I got mine), or simply bad wiring that bypasses normal empathy impulses & an ability to relate to others (see Trump). Whatever the cause, it has produced an evil person on whom appeals to reason are useless. In slightly different circumstances, Miller would be the "troubled loner" who took an AK-15 to Santa Monica Place & mowed down dozens of shoppers. ...

... Masha Gessen of the New Yorker: "The new rules appear to use the broadest possible definition of public assistance -- one that includes Obamacare and children's health insurance -- meaning that most potential new citizens will be ineligible for naturalization.... The key difference between a legal permanent resident and a citizen lies in the realm of political rights: the non-citizen doesn't have them. She can't vote. She can't run for office. She can't engage in civil disobedience -- any legal violation may make her deportable -- and, in effect, she can't protest. The new rules will mean that this category of disenfranchised immigrants will grow by millions in the next few years.... The new naturalization rules provide perhaps the clearest example yet that Trump's war on immigrants is a war on democracy." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Congress, of course, could quash Stephen Miller's new rule by passing a veto-proof bill. But it won't. Republicans see every new citizen as a potential new Democratic voter. Most Republican legislators consistently place their own interests over those of expanding (or in this case, maintaining) democratic ideals. ...

... Today's American History Lesson. Diane Bernard of the Washington Post: "... at the height of the Great Depression..., President Herbert Hoover's [announced] a national program of 'American jobs for real Americans' -- code words for '"getting rid of Mexicans," who weren't considered "real" Americans,' said [Joseph] Dunn, whose staff spent three years delving into federal, state and local records ... to document this little-known tragedy of the Latino experience in the United States. The program, implemented by Hoover's secretary of labor, William Doak, included passing local laws forbidding government employment of anyone of Mexican descent, even legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens. Major companies, including Ford, U.S. Steel and the Southern Pacific Railroad, colluded with the government ... laying off thousands.... Hoover's approach is echoed in the Trump administration's immigration policies.'"

Sarah Ellison & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The revolving door between Fox News and Republican political figures has turned steadily for years, with failed GOP candidates finding a home at the network. But since Donald Trump was elected president, the door has provided a number of former Fox personnel with entree into a government now infused with the cable channel's fiery sensibility. And with Bill Shine's appointment this summer to a top job in the White House, the door may finally come to rest. The two worlds have merged into one universe: the Fox News White House. If Donald Trump is running his own touch-and-go reality show from Pennsylvania Avenue, he has finally found in Shine his executive producer.... 'Bill Shine has made an entire career of subordinating himself to a big personality...,' a Shine confidante said. 'So when they're in the East Room, he wants the lighting to look the best it possibly can so that Trump can look the best he possibly can.'"

Chris Cillizza of CNN: "As a candidate, Donald Trump would famously boast that if elected, he'd 'surround myself only with the best and most serious people' -- adding: 'We want top-of-the-line professionals.' The first 18 months of his presidency have repeatedly revealed the fallacy of that pledge, as myriad members of Trump's Cabinet and senior staff have departed -- often under suspicious circumstances -- even as the President himself has railed against the ineptitude of people who still work for him.... The result, like so much of Trump's wildly unpredictable management style, is disorder, disarray and disorganization.... And because of Trump's tendency to openly discuss and deride both those who have left his side and those who continue to work within his administration, he launches a series of storylines that not only highlight the pandemonium within his ranks but also crowd out other, more positive stories for his White House." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's mismanagement style was obvious before November 8, 2016. Trump fired his first campaign manager Corey Lewandowski & his second campaign manager Paul Manafort. His third campaign manager, Steve Bannon, had no professional experience running a political campaign. The so-called "foreign policy advisors" he named mystified actual foreign policy pros, who -- for good reasons -- had never heard of them.

Noah Weiland & Andy Parsons of the New York Times: "A year after the race-fueled violence in Charlottesville, Va., a small group of white nationalists marched through downtown Washington on Sunday on their way to a rally in front of the White House. It was over almost as soon as it began. The white supremacists were met along their march route and at the rally site by thousands of counterdemonstrators denouncing racism and white supremacy. The white nationalists, who numbered about two dozen, stayed in Lafayette Square, a park just north of the White House, for a short time and left before 6 p.m.... Counterprotesters who had been shouting 'Go home, Nazis, go home!' suddenly started booing when the white nationalists did just that. A new song then broke out, 'Na na na na, na na na na! Hey, hey, goodbye!' With the white nationalists gone, the mood among the counterprotestors grew mildly celebratory, although rain led many to leave. Before they made their exit, the white nationalists were separated from the counterprotesters by metal fences and dozens of law enforcement officers guarding against any outbreaks of violence." ...

... Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post reports on the demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia: "There were more than 100 mostly young protesters, some who had come from other states, calling for an end to white supremacist groups. There was an overwhelming police presence that some demonstrators called symptomatic of an over-policing of minority communities in America.... There was less a feeling of reconciliation than anger, as protesters screamed at police officers, whom some demonstrators had all weekend tried to associate with racism and fascism." ...

... AP: "Officers kept the peace at this weekend's protests and counter-protests a year after a deadly far-right rally. Authorities made several arrests in Charlottesville and in northern Virginia, where a small group of right-wing demonstrators took the Metro to their rally outside the White House. Authorities said a man heading to the 'Unite the Right 2' rally in Washington was arrested Sunday for assaulting two Virginia police officers ... outside the Vienna/Fairfax/George Mason University Metro station.... Meanwhile, in Charlottesville, police made several arrests as hundreds marched Saturday in a demonstration against the far-right "Unite the Right" rally that left one dead and others injured a year ago. That march was overwhelmingly peaceful as well, but Charlottesville Police say they're investigating an alleged assault of an officer who approached a man whose face was covered. Police say the officer and the man fell to the ground. Others pulled them apart, enabling the masked man to get away. No one was injured, and the march continued."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Cathy O'Neil in Bloomberg: "Jack Dorsey from Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, all those Google nerds: They're monumentally screwed, because they have no idea how to tame the monsters they have created. The way I see it, these guys -- and they are mostly guys -- were arbitrarily chosen. They started with some good ideas, some luck, great timing, got lots of people to believe in their rosy vision, and they won the unicorn lottery. Little did they know or care what problems they were creating. And now, they're being asked to solve -- or acknowledge, or something --- some really big issues, such as what to do about people who use their platforms to meddle in elections or spread lies, paranoia, bigotry and straight-up hate. The world expects great things of them, because they're supposed to be geniuses. Problem is, they're not.... They're manufacturing baloney explanations about how they'll use more technology, or maybe more people, to handle the civic duties they had hoped to avoid.... I'd like to offer some advice.... Ask someone smarter and more educated, thoughtful, and civic-minded to decide on the future of your companies."

How Dollar General Creates New "Food Deserts." Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "Dollar General is opening stores at the rate of three a day across the US. It moves into places not even Walmart will go, targeting rural towns and damaged inner-city neighbourhoods with basic goods at basic prices.... The chain now has more outlets across the country than McDonald's has restaurants, and its profits have surged past some of the grand old names of American retail. The company estimates that three-quarters of the population lives within five miles of one of its stores, which stock everything from groceries and household cleaners to clothes and tools.... But there is a cost. Dollar General's aggressive pricing drives locally-owned grocery stores out of business, replacing shelves stocked with fresh fruit, vegetables and meat with the kinds of processed foods underpinning the country's obesity and diabetes crisis."

Beyond the Beltway

Minnesota Attorney General Race. Briana Bierschbach of Minnesota Public Radio: "Keith Ellison, one of the leading candidates to be Minnesota's next attorney general, confronted allegations Sunday of domestic abuse of a former girlfriend that surfaced days before the election that will decide the party's nominee. The allegation that the physical abuse was caught on video was posted to Facebook late Saturday night by the woman's son, four days before Minnesota's primary election, where Ellison is facing off against four other Democrats for the open attorney general's seat. Ellison is a six-term 5th District congressman and the perceived front-runner in the race. In a written statement Sunday, Ellison denied the incident.... State Rep. Debra Hilstrom, who also is running for the Democratic nomination for attorney general, recirculated the Facebook post and called on Ellison to answer the allegation.... Hilstrom was later joined by Democratic candidates Matt Pelikan Tom Foley, who separately called for Ellison to address the allegation." ...

... Kyle Potter of the AP: "Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison on Sunday denied an allegation from an ex-girlfriend that he had once dragged her off a bed while screaming obscenities at her -- an allegation that came just days before a Tuesday primary in which the congressman is among several Democrats running for state attorney general.... Karen Monahan['s] ... son alleged in a Facebook post that he had seen hundreds of angry text messages from Ellison, some threatening his mother. He also wrote he had viewed a video in which Ellison dragged Monahan off the bed by her feet. Monahan, a Minneapolis political organizer, said via Twitter that what her son posted was 'true.'... Monahan had sent Twitter messages for several months referencing an unidentified, powerful man who had abused her."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bierschbach said she reviewed "more than 100 text and Twitter messages between Ellison and Karen Monahan," which Monahan had given her. "There is no evidence in the messages reviewed by MPR News of the alleged physical abuse." Ellison is also deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee.

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Saturday
Aug112018

The Commentariat -- August 12, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Liar-in-Chief. Hope Yen & Christopher Rugaber of the AP: "... President Donald Trump is pulling numbers out of thin air when it comes to the economy, jobs and the deficit. He refers to a current record-breaking gross domestic product for the U.S. where none exists and predicts a blockbuster 5 percent annual growth rate in the current quarter that hardly any economist sees. Hailing his trade policies in spite of fears of damage from the escalating trade disputes he's provoked, Trump also falsely declares that his tariffs on foreign goods will help erase $21 trillion in national debt. The numbers don't even come close."

Victoria Guida of Politico: "Rudy Giuliani on Sunday said ... Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey never discussed former national security adviser Mike Flynn, backtracking from July comments in which he indicated otherwise. 'There was no conversation about Michael Flynn,' Trump's personal attorney said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'That is what he will testify to if he's asked that question.' He also told CNN's Jake Tapper that he never said the president had asked Comey to give Flynn a break. 'I said that is what Comey is saying,' Giuliani said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Comey wrote in his opening statement before a Congressional hearing in June 2017 that "Trump said: "'I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.'" In oral testimony, under oath, Comey said "that he understood the President to be requesting that he drop the investigation into Flynn." It isn't foolish to question Comey's veracity, but it is hard to believe he made up out of whole cloth Trump's remarks about Flynn. Making up stuff is Trump's modus operandi. See AP report above.

Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post: "Omarosa Manigault Newman, the fired White House aide seeking publicity for her new memoir about her time in the Trump administration, said in an interview Sunday that the way Chief of Staff John F. Kelly dismissed her involved a 'threat' and played an audio recording of Kelly that she said she made in the Situation Room. The recording was played on NBC News's 'Meet the Press,' where Manigault Newman was interviewed by Chuck Todd. In the purported recording, which would constitute a serious breach of White House security, Kelly is heard complaining about her 'significant integrity issues' and saying that he wants to make her departure 'friendly and without 'any difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.'" ...

... Here's the recording:

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If this conversation was recorded in the Situation Room, as Manigault Newman claims, why was that? The Situation Room is a secure site "to monitor and deal with crises at home and abroad and to conduct secure communications with outside (often overseas) persons." Why a "secure conversation" with Omarosa? This is just weird. ...

     ... Update: See Patrick's response in today's Comments. He explains why holding a termination interview in the Situation Room isn't so "weird."

... Javiar David of CNBC: "The fact that Manigault Newman recorded a conversation in a classified area could create considerable legal problems that add to her existing credibility issues. On social media, political watchers from the left and right ripped into Manigault Newman for having made the recordings in the first place."

*****

Election 2018

The New York Times posts Hawaii's primary election results, only half-tallied at 4:20 am ET. ...

... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Hawaii Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, survived a primary challenge from Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, as voters favored incumbents for the November midterms in one of the country's bluest states. Down the ballot, former congressman Ed Case, a centrist Democrat who supported the Iraq War, took a big step closer to returning to the House with a primary victory in the state's 1st Congressional District. In the 2nd Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard won renomination by a wide margin. Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono, meanwhile, was unopposed. The Democrats are widely favored to win all three congressional races and the contest for governor in the midterms."

Nothing to Worry About, Folks. Kevin Collier of BuzzFeed News: "This weekend saw the 26th annual DEFCON gathering. It was the second time the convention had featured a Voting Village, where organizers set up decommissioned election equipment and watch hackers find creative and alarming ways to break in.... In a room set aside for kid hackers, an 11-year-old girl hacked a replica of the Florida secretary of state's website within 10 minutes -- and changed the results." Emphasis added.


More Twitter Massages for a Rainy Afternoon. Deirdre Shesgreen of USA Today: "... Donald Trump blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Saturday.... Trump's sideswipe at his own chief law enforcement officer came in a pair of afternoon tweets that seemed to allege unspecified malfeasance the Department of Justice in its handling of the Russia investigation. Trump has criticized Sessions before but Saturday's missive was particularly pointed. 'Our A.G. is scared stiff and Missing in Action. It is all starting to be revealed - not pretty. IG Report soon? Witch Hunt!,' the president tweeted from his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey." The story puts the remark in the context of a broader attack." Mrs. McC BTW: Trump's description of Nelly Ohr as "beautiful" is a potshot. She's a perfectly ordinary-looking woman, so the Misogynist-in-Chief naturally uses her appearance to demean her. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "I' have never seen anything so Rigged in my life,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to reports about meetings between a Justice Department official and a former British spy who helped compile a dossier that contained unverified but potentially damaging allegations about Mr. Trump.... The reports, featured mostly in conservative news outlets, suggest that even after the Justice Department stopped using the former spy, Christopher Steele, as an informant, he continued to meet with a top official at the agency, Bruce Ohr. For months, Republicans have attacked Mr. Ohr because his wife, Nellie Ohr, worked as a contractor for FusionGPS, the opposition research firm that hired Mr. Steele. The two men had known each other before Mr. Steele began working for Fusion. But Mr. Ohr worked on counternarcotics at the Justice Department, not counterintelligence, and he is not known to have played any role in the Russia investigation."

Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "As white nationalists planned to gather in front of the White House on Sunday to mark the anniversary of last year’s violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., President Trump denounced 'all types of racism,' but did not specifically condemn the supremacists.... Mr. Trump's general call for unity, as Washington braced for the possibility of violence between the white nationalists and counterdemonstrators, echoed his reluctance a year ago after the deadly Charlottesville rally to single out the supremacists for condemnation. In what is seen as a defining mark of his presidency, he blamed 'both sides' for the violence, eliciting widespread criticism for what was seen as drawing a moral equivalence between hate groups -- some of whom supported his candidacy -- and those who protested them." ...

... Likely a Ghostwritten Trump Tweet. Brent Griffiths: "... Donald Trump on Saturday called for the nation to 'come together' ahead of the one-year anniversary of a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 'The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division,' Trump [Mrs. McC: or somebody] wrote on Twitter. 'We must come together as a nation.'... On Saturday, Trump [Mrs. McC: or somebody] wrote that he condemns 'all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!'... The president ... earlier Saturday returned to his criticism of current and former FBI officials, echoing calls from his congressional allies that the Justice Department had not turned over documents related to officials like former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe in a timely manner. 'Why isn't the FBI giving Andrew McCabe text messages* to Judicial Watch or appropriate governmental authorities,' the president wrote. 'FBI said they won't give up even one (I may have to get involved, DO NOT DESTROY). What are they hiding?'" Mrs. McC: Okay, he wrote the earlier tweets. He was probably on the golf course by the time a staffer tweeted the unity stuff. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     * Update: What Trump or his ghosttweeter actually typed was "text massages." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker on the conveniently-timed tease of Omarosa Manigault's memoir thing in which she discovers that Donald Trump is a racist, after all. "The issue of whether Trump used the word in question is almost completely inconsequential, yet the fact that it does not matter is itself of great consequence. The elastic tolerance of the otherwise intolerable is the looming context in which Robert Mueller will deliver his expected reports on whether Trump obstructed justice as President or colluded with Russia in 2016. In matters of race, as well as competence, decency, character, and fitness, the public either already knows what it needs to know or intractably believes what it wishes to believe. Omarosa Manigault’s book is unlikely to change the balance of either." Mrs. McC: This the sort of book review worthy of its subject: Cobb doesn't pretend to have read the book. And why would he?

Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "First lady Melania Trump's immigration attorney is criticizing the president's hostility toward 'chain migration' -- a process by which U.S. citizens or permanent residents can sponsor family members to come to the country -- and said the attacks are 'unconscionable.' 'This is a tradition that happens in all rank and all files of life, whether you're president of the United States -- and this is the first naturalized first lady that we have -- or people who eventually navigate through the waters into America,' Michael Wildes told CNN on Friday. Wildes, a high-profile attorney who has worked for numerous celebrities on immigration cases, represented the first lady's parents, who became naturalized citizens Thursday.... Responding to the president's comments, clips of which were played in succession during the [CNN] interview, Wildes denounced claims that chain migration allows people to simply bring in any relative to the United States."

David Von Drehle of the Washington Post reminds us, "Trump's résumé is rife with mob connections." Von Drehle names a few. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sad! Kyle Cheney & Jimmy Vielkind of Politico: "Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who was charged this week as part of an insider trading scheme, is suspending his re-election campaign and will attempt to remove his name from the ballot. The third-term congressman announced the decision Saturday morning on Twitter, just days after he vowed to clear his name and remain on the ballot. Collins is facing multiple counts of securities fraud, as well as charges of wire fraud and lying to investigators. His son and another associate were charged in the scheme as well.... Under New York law, Collins' name can be supplanted on the ballot at this stage of the cycle only if he dies, moves out of state or is nominated for another office.... According to Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy, the exact mechanisms are still being worked out, but he noted Collins owns houses in Florida and Washington, D.C." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Katie Thomas & Sheila Kaplan of the New York Times: Sen. Christopher Collins' (R-NY) "stock scandal has rippled through Congress, where his favorite stock tip had enticed at least seven former or current House Republicans into investing along with him, his two grown children and other friends. I provided new ammunition for Democrats seeking to take back the House, and forced Mr. Collins to announce on Saturday that he would not seek re-election to a fourth term. While the other congressmen who invested in Innate were not implicated in the indictment, the allegations against Mr. Collins have revived calls for stricter rules about financial investments or corporate board seats held by members of Congress while they are sitting on committees with oversight into those businesses.... One-third of its members [of the House Energy & Commerce Committee] also bought and sold biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device stocks.... Beyond Innate Immunotherapeutics, Mr. Collins, among the wealthiest members of Congress, has held leadership roles in other biotech companies that were little known or mentioned on Capitol Hill.... Mr. Collins did not disclose these ties in committee hearings when topics overlapped with his business interests...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Collins is a bad joke. Between the incredible amount of work he had to devote to his business interests & the ridiculous amount of time members of Congress spend fundraising, this guy did not have a minute left to "represent the people," a notion he probably considers downright quaint. Why are we not surprised he was the first MoC to endorse the Scammer-in-Chief?

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. The Fourth Estate Fights Back. Cleve Wootsen of the Washington Post: "Trump labeled the news media 'the enemy of the American people' a month after taking the oath of office. In the year that followed, a CNN analysis concluded, he used the word 'fake' -- as in 'fake news,' 'fake stories,' 'fake media' or 'fake polls' -- more than 400 times. He once fumed, the New York Times reported, because a TV on Air Force One was tuned to CNN. And last week, at a political rally in Pennsylvania, Trump told his audience that the media was 'fake, fake disgusting news.'... He pointed to a group of journalists covering the event. 'They don't report it. They only make up stories.' Now, the editorial board of the Boston Globe is proposing that ... opinion writers that staff newspaper editorial boards ... produce independent opinion pieces about Trump's attacks on the media [to be published August 16]. So far, according to the Associated Press, 70 news organizations have agreed -- from large metropolitan daily newspapers such as the Miami Herald and Denver Post to small weekly newspapers with four-digit circulation numbers." ...

... Brian Stelter of CNN: "As of Saturday, 'we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days,' Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy editorial page editor, told CNN. The American Society of News Editors, the New England Newspaper and Press Association and other groups have helped her spread the word. 'The response has been overwhelming,' Pritchard said. 'We have some big newspapers, but the majority are from smaller markets, all enthusiastic about standing up to Trump's assault on journalism.'"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Karen Attiah of the Washington Post: "Ahead of the one-year anniversary of Charlottesville, NPR decided to give an on-air lesson on the proper care and feeding of white nationalists and neo-Nazi ideology. On Friday's Morning Edition, NPR's Noel King interviewed Jason Kessler, the organizer of Sunday's Unite the Right 2 rally in Washington." Attiah goes on to demolish NPR for this & for the interview that followed: "Black Lives Matter of Greater New York official Hawk Newsome, who was asked why he declined an invitation to Kessler's rally. This was a poor choice to contextualize the interview. For starters, it is extremely tone-deaf to put the onus on a person of color to defend why they would want no part in participating in a rally with white nationalists. More insidiously, such framing effectively positions Black Lives Matter as the ideological counterpart to white supremacists." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Aaron Rupar made a number of the same points as does Attiah, in a post linked here yesterday, but it never hurts to pile on to this type of "journalism," especially when exercised by a news outlet of such broad appeal.

Beyond the Beltway

Totally Trumpish. Tim Swift of WPLG Miami: "A Republican candidate for the Florida House lied about having a college degree and posed with a fake diploma after a news outlet questioned her credentials. Melissa Howard, who is running in Florida's 73rd House District near Sarasota, had claimed she graduated with a bachelor's degree from Miami University in Ohio.... FLA News Online, a political news website, citing the National Student Clearinghouse, reported Howard did not graduate from the Ohio college. Howard said the story was false and posted a picture of her and her mother on Facebook with a framed diploma. The news site apologized to Howard and briefly retracted the story. However, a closer look at the diploma found several inconsistencies.... Miami University General Counsel Robin Parker later confirmed to FLA News that Howard attended the university, but did not graduate from the school.... 'Melissa is focused on her family -- not fake news this morning,' Anthony Pedicini, a campaign consultant, told FloridaPolitics.com."

Way Beyond

Brexit Regrets. Michael Savage of the Guardian: "More than 100 Westminster constituencies that voted to leave the EU have now switched their support to Remain, according to a stark new analysis seen by the Observer. In findings that could have a significant impact on the parliamentary battle of Brexit later this year, the study concludes that most seats in Britain now contain a majority of voters who want to stay in the EU. The analysis, one of the most comprehensive assessments of Brexit sentiment since the referendum, suggests the shift has been driven by doubts among Labour voters who backed Leave." Emphasis added.

News Lede

Space.com: "NASA's Parker Solar Probe lifted off this morning (Aug. 12) at 3:31 a.m. EDT (0731 GMT) from a pad here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, its powerful United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carving an arc of orange flame into the predawn sky. If all goes according to plan, the Parker Solar Probe will end up traveling faster than any craft ever has, and getting unprecedentedly close to the sun; indeed, it will fly through our star's outer atmosphere, known as the corona. And the measurements the probe makes there will reveal key insights about our star's inner workings that have eluded scientists for decades."

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Friday
Aug102018

The Commentariat -- August 11, 2018

Afternoon Update: 

David Von Drehle of the Washington Post reminds us, "Trump's résumé is rife with mob connections." Von Drehle names a few.

More Twitter Massages for a Rainy Afternoon. Deirdre Shesgreen of USA Today: "... Donald Trump blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Saturday.... Trump's sideswipe at his own chief law enforcement officer came in a pair of afternoon tweets that seemed to allege unspecified malfeasance the Department of Justice in its handling of the Russia investigation. Trump has criticized Sessions before but Saturday's missive was particularly pointed. 'Our A.G. is scared stiff and Missing in Action. It is all starting to be revealed - not pretty. IG Report soon? Witch Hunt!,' the president tweeted from his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey." The story puts the remark in the context of a broader attack." Mrs. McC BTW: Trump's description of Nelly Ohr as "beautiful" is a potshot. She's a perfectly ordinary-looking woman, so the Misogynist-in-Chief naturally uses her appearance to demean her.

 

 

... See related stories linked below. Thanks to MAG for the link to this HuffPost piece.

Likely a Ghostwritten Trump Tweet. Brent Griffiths: "... Donald Trump on Saturday called for the nation to 'come together' ahead of the one-year anniversary of a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 'The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division,' Trump [Mrs. McC: or somebody] wrote on Twitter. 'We must come together as a nation.'... On Saturday, Trump [Mrs. McC: or somebody] wrote that he condemns 'all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!'... The president ... earlier Saturday returned to his criticism of current and former FBI officials, echoing calls from his congressional allies that the Justice Department had not turned over documents related to officials like former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe in a timely manner. 'Why isn't the FBI giving Andrew McCabe text messages* to Judicial Watch or appropriate governmental authorities,' the president wrote. 'FBI said they won't give up even one (I may have to get involved, DO NOT DESTROY). What are they hiding?'" Mrs. McC: Okay, he wrote the earlier tweets. He was probably on the golf course by the time a staffer tweeted the unity stuff.

     * Update: What Trump or his ghosttweeter actually typed was "text massages."

Sad! Kyle Cheney & Jimmy Vielkind of Politico: "Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who was charged this week as part of an insider trading scheme, is suspending his re-election campaign and will attempt to remove his name from the ballot. The third-term congressman announced the decision Saturday morning on Twitter, just days after he vowed to clear his name and remain on the ballot. Collins is facing multiple counts of securities fraud, as well as charges of wire fraud and lying to investigators. His son and another associate were charged in the scheme as well.... Under New York law, Collins' name can be supplanted on the ballot at this stage of the cycle only if he dies, moves out of state or is nominated for another office.... Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy ... he noted Collins owns houses in Florida and Washington, D.C."

*****

Trump Is Pretending He's Not on Vacation. Jill Colvin & Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "... Donald Trump is spending his summer vacation at his golf club in New Jersey.... Trump ... has spent his week away mixing downtime and golf rounds with meetings and dinners, intent on projecting the image that he's been hard at work.... Not that it was his idea to leave Washington anyway, he contends. 'We're renovating the White House, a long-term project and they approved it years ago. And I said, "Well, I guess this would be a good place to be in the meantime,"' Trump told reporters invited to the property to document a roundtable discussion ... Thursday.... No staffers had publicly mentioned the need for any rehabilitation work before Trump's departure, and the explanation effort underscores the president's concern about public perceptions as he approaches having spent 150 days of his presidency at his golf properties." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suppose a president could cede his presidential duties to the veep, 25th Amendment-style, when s/he goes on vacation, but so far no presidents have done that. Thus, the demands of the job require every presidential vacation to be a "working vacation." It's hilarious that this President*, who hates to do the actual work of governing & does as little of it as possible, is so intent on pretending he's working -- when in fact he's mostly goofing off in a manner consistent with his everyday practice.

Rubio Resets Trump Bar. Well, he's had the nuclear codes for a year and a half, and we've been all right. -- Sen. Marco Rubio, in a Weekly Standard interview

It's been a year and a half, and no nuclear war yet. Success! -- Jonathan Chait

I suspect that one day we'll learn that Kelly, McMaster or Mattis has wrested the "football" from Trump's tiny hands more than once. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Carlotta Gall & Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "A worsening dispute between the United States and Turkey reverberated through the global economy on Friday, hastening a broad flight of money from emerging markets and sowing instability throughout the Middle East as relations between the NATO allies neared a breaking point. The immediate crisis -- accelerated by a hostile tweet from President Trump -- flared over Turkey's continued detention of an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, who was jailed 21 months ago in a widespread crackdown after a failed coup in Turkey. But the outsize effect reflected deepening concerns over Turkey's economic management by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was re-elected in June with near-authoritarian powers. It also increased the risk that the problems in Turkey, which borders Iran, Iraq and Syria, could destabilize economies well beyond the region." ...

... Trump No Longer Able to Get Along with Dictators. Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump announced on Friday that he is doubling tariffs on Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asked citizens to convert foreign currencies, including U.S. dollars into local lira -- leading to a dramatic drop in the Turkish currency. 'I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!' Trump tweeted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Cabinet Job for Sale! Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "A bank CEO who helped President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort obtain $16 million in loans hoped for a Cabinet-level position in the administration, a bank employee testified in federal court Friday. The bank employee, Dennis Raico, was called as a witness after a confusing morning at Manafort’s trial in Alexandria, Va., during which U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III huddled privately with prosecutors and defense attorneys, delaying the start of testimony until midafternoon. A transcript of those discussions was sealed. No reason was offered for the delay, but when Raico finally took the stand, he described how the CEO, Steve Calk, was willing to depart from bank policies to approve loans for a friendly and well-connected political operative."

Spencer Hsu & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "A federal judge has found a witness in contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Robert S. Mueller II's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell made the ruling Friday after a sealed hearing to discuss Andrew Miller's refusal to appear before the grand jury. Miller is a former aide to longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. Miller's lawyer Paul Kamenar said after the hearing that Miller was 'held in contempt, which we asked him to be in order for us to appeal the judge's decision to the court of appeals.' Howell stayed her order while Miller';s legal team appeals the judge's decision." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jason Leopold & Anthony Cormier of BuzzFeed News: "Just a day after he finished a report suggesting he was working with Trump campaign officials [to obtain Hillary Clinton's emails]..., [Peter Smith] transferred $9,500 from an account he had set up to fund the email project to his personal account, later taking out more than $4,900 in cash. According to a person with direct knowledge of Smith's project, the Republican operative stated that he was prepared to pay hackers 'many thousands of dollars' for Clinton's emails -- and ultimately did so.... The money trail, made public here for the first time, sheds new light on Smith's effort, in which he told people he was in touch with both Russians on the dark web and Trump campaign officials -- particularly Michael Flynn, who was then a top adviser to the Trump campaign...."


Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: "A new report by the Government Accountability Office [on the costs of building a border wall] raises serious issues about poor Trump administration planning that could lead to increased costs. This comes in the wake of repeated Trump threats to shut down the government if Congress does not provide the wall funding he wants.... The GAO found that the strategy of the Department of Homeland Security ... did not fully analyze projected costs or properly follow the acquisition process.... Though his administration has not fully done its job in preparing for the wall, Trump is willing to shut down the government if his Republican-controlled Congress doesn't fund it, while blaming Democrats."

Donnie Junior Unaware of Photoshop. Also, Can't Spell "America." Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "Donald Trump Jr. took to Instagram on Thursday to tout his father's approval rating. 'Amazing,' Don Jr. wrote. 'I guess there is a magic wand to make things happen and @realdonaldtrump seems to have it. #maga #amreicafirst [sic]' Don Jr. included a cable news screencap showing President Trump's approval rating at 50 percent.... There was just one problem -- the screengrab Don Jr. posted was clearly and sloppily photoshopped. '50%' was just pasted over '40%' to make President Trump's approval rating 10 points higher than it really is.... Despite many commenters pointing out to Don Jr. that he was spreading fake news..., the post remains live more than 12 hours after it was initially posted. (UPDATE: Sometime between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday, the post was deleted.)"

Omarosa's Brilliant Literary Career, Ctd.

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Omarosa Manigault Newman was offered a $15,000-a-month contract from President Trump's campaign to stay silent after being fired from her job as a White House aide by Chief of Staff John F. Kelly last December, according to a forthcoming book by Manigault Newman and a document viewed by The Washington Post. But she refused, according to the incendiary new book, 'Unhinged: An Insider Account of the Trump White House,' which also depicts Trump as unqualified, narcissistic and racist. Excerpts of the book were obtained by The Post.... Manigault Newman does not offer evidence for some of her most explosive charges but extensively recorded her conversations in the White House. The Post has listened to several of the recordings made by Manigault Newman, which match quotations recounted in the book excerpts.... The original [White House] plan was to ignore the book, but Trump grew angry, the officials said, prompting [a] statement from [Sarah] Sanders." ...

     ... Here's the full White House statement, via TPM. ...

... Stef Kight of Axios lists what he calls "the juiciest claims" from Omarosa's book. Mrs. McC: I admit I didn't exactly read them. And, no, it's not because I'm awaiting my very own copy of the book. ...

... David Smith of the Guardian: "Donald Trump is a 'racist' who has used the 'N-word' repeatedly, Omarosa Manigault Newman, once the most prominent African American in the White House, claims in a searing memoir. The future US president was caught on mic uttering the taboo racial slur 'multiple times' during the making of his reality TV show The Apprentice and there is a tape to prove it, according to Manigault Newman, citing three unnamed sources.... She also claims that she personally witnessed Trump use racial epithets about the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway's husband George Conway, who is half Filipino. 'Would you look at this George Conway article? she quotes the president as saying. 'F**ing FLIP! Disloyal! Fucking Goo-goo.' Both flip and goo-goo are terms of racial abuse for Filipinos. Critics have previously questioned Manigault Newman's credibility...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps I should give Trump more credit that I have done. If Omarosa's story is true -- and I would be one to "question Manigault Newman's credibility" -- Trump knows at least two more racial slurs than I did. P.S. Omarosa's "tell-all" sounds like a Trump set-up to me. He would much rather we talk about his racism -- as it gives him creds with his base -- than with his tax cuts for himself or "this Rusher thing" or Wilbur the Walking Thief or, or, or. ...

     ... Update. Tamara Keith of NPR: Omarosa Manigault Newman told NPR's Rachel Martin Friday that she had heard a tape in which Trump used the N-word on the set of his old TV show "The Apprentice." "But that's not what it says in her tell-all book, Unhinged, due out on Tuesday. When asked by Martin about the discrepancy during the interview, Manigault Newman insisted Martin must not have read the book (she had) and pointed to a section at the very end of it. But in that section, Manigault Newman doesn't actually describe hearing the tape. During the interview with Martin, Manigault Newman read the section aloud, then insisted it described her hearing the tape rather than what the words on the page state, which is that she heard an account of what was on the tape. 'I heard the tape,' she said when pressed." Mrs. McC: Yeah, Omarosa is totally credible. ...

... Annie Karni & Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Manigault Newman has lately been telling people that ... she has given copies of her taped conversations with Trump to family members for safekeeping in the event that she is murdered, said a person familiar with the conversations. She has also said she is taking meetings in disguise -- dressed in a baseball hat, sunglasses and baggy clothes -- out of a growing paranoia that the president will come after her." Mrs. McC Note to Omarosa: Do not walk down Fifth Avenue if Trump is in town.


"Space Force All the Way!" Rebecca Morin of Politico: "The Russian Embassy in the United States early Friday morning seemingly mocked ... Donald Trump's campaign for a logo for the administration's newly announced 'Space Force.'... Trump in an email asked supporters to vote on six proposed logos.... Using Trump's favorite mode of communicating, the embassy tweeted 'Good Morning, Space Forces!' along with a graphic of a rocket being launched and features the Russian flag. The tweet also links to a Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation's Space Forces website.... Vice President Mike Pence said during the revealing at the Pentagon that weapons being developed by Russia and China...." ...

     ... As David Graham notes (linked next), "Once people have voted in [Trump's Space Force logo] poll, naturally, they are invited to donate to Trump's reelection.... The Trump campaign appears to be selling the logo rights to the Space Force in exchange for campaign donations, turning the government into a tool for Trump's own political enrichment."

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "The Space Force and the White House's rollout for it are the most focused exercises in Trumpian branding the nation has seen since the president took office, a project reminiscent of Trump University. Trump is selling the public one idea -- a glitzy, pathbreaking new wing of government -- and giving it instead a potentially kludgy reorganization of existing government functions.... Overpromising and underdelivering were staples of Trump's business career -- see all the allegedly sold-out luxury buildings that turned out to be undersubscribed or dubiously constructed. Those have become signature moves during his presidency, too. Take his summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, which produced tremendous fanfare but, as becomes clearer each day, little in the way of concrete agreements, despite the president's claims. The same goes for Trump's border wall, which is the subject of repeated announcements of new construction, even though none has started." Thanks to Patrick for the link. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not certain who's being scammed here: (1) Just the public or (2) Trump and the public. It seems quite plausible -- as I think Ken W. suggested the other day -- that Secretary Mattis, et al., have fooled Trump into thinking he got his way & is the progenitor of a grand new Star-Warzy branch of the military while in fact the Pentagon is just moving around the deck chairs to appease the Ignoramus-in-Chief. Anyway, I'm glad Star Wars Space Force! is a sham.

Erica Green of the New York Times: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos formally moved Friday to scrap a regulation that would have forced for-profit colleges to prove that the students they enroll are able to attain decent-paying jobs, the most drastic in a series of policy shifts that will free the scandal-scarred, for-profit sector from safeguards put in effect during the Obama era. In a written announcement posted on its website, the Education Department laid out its plans to eliminate the so-called gainful employment rule, which sought to hold for-profit and career college programs accountable for graduating students with poor job prospects and overwhelming debt. The Obama-era rule would have revoked federal funding and access to financial aid for poor-performing schools.... Ms. DeVos has brought into her administration former for-profit leaders who are known for their strong opposition to the industry's regulation."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "On Christmas Eve 1998, five days after the House impeached President Bill Clinton, Brett Kavanaugh urged his boss -- Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel -- not to pursue a criminal indictment of Mr. Clinton until after he left office. Judge Kavanaugh ... delivered the advice in a private memorandum made public on Friday by the National Archives in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. It shows that Judge Kavanaugh believed -- rightly, it turned out -- that the Senate would fail to convict the president for the 'high crimes and misdemeanors' that Mr. Starr and Mr. Kavanaugh had enumerated for Congress after Mr. Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. 'After the Senate has concluded, I would send a letter to the attorney general explaining that we believe an indictment should not be pursued while the president is in office,' Judge Kavanaugh wrote. He urged Mr. Starr to close the independent counsel's office, which had spent four years pursuing Mr. Clinton, so 'the next president can decide what to do.'"

Florida Senate Race. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "Cryptic comments from Senator Bill Nelson of Florida this week alluded to a secret Russian plot to tap into Florida's election systems. 'They have already penetrated certain counties in the state, and they now have free rein to move about,' the Democratic senator told The Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday. He declined to elaborate or offer any proof. A day earlier, he had described details as 'classified.' But the suggestion that Russian hackers might have breached voter systems, vague as it was, has set off a political maelstrom in Florida less than three weeks before the state's Aug. 28 primary election. On Friday, Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who is running against Mr. Nelson for the Senate, accused his opponent of scaremongering and demanded that he back up his claims with evidence."

Kansas Gubernatorial Race. John Hanna of the AP: "Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach stepped aside from his duties as the state's top elections official Friday until his hotly contested Republican primary challenge to Gov. Jeff Colyer is resolved, but Colyer argued that Kobach still has a conflict of interest because Kobach is handing his responsibilities to his top deputy.... Kobach's duties will go to Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rucker. Colyer was pressing Kobach to have state Attorney General Derek Schmidt advise county election officials -- something Kobach argued isn't allowed by law.... Colyer has accused Kobach of giving county election officials guidance 'not consistent with Kansas law,' and said Friday on Fox News that he was worried that some mail-in ballots were not being counted as required."

Meet Your Democratic Congressional Candidates

Andrew Seidman of philly.com: "Michael Soliman is a longtime aide and confidant to Sen. Bob Menendez [D].... Since 2015, Soliman has also lobbied Menendez and other members of Congress on behalf of the government of Qatar, arranging meetings for the country's ambassador to the U.S. and raising issues important to Qatar's relationship with Washington. Should Menendez defeat Republican Bob Hugin in November and Democrats take control of the Senate, the senator would be poised to chair the Foreign Relations Committee -- potentially boosting Soliman's value as a lobbyist, government watchdogs say." Mrs. McC: Hey, it's not a revolving door if you can stand in the threshold with one foot on one side and one foot on the other. Bob Menendez is what you would call a "New Jersey politician." That would be a pejorative. (Also linked yesterday.)

Congressional Race. Greg Bluestone of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A Democratic candidate for Congress in a conservative north Georgia district who was convicted this week of drunken driving challenged the officers who stopped him to a fight and repeatedly insulted the county he was running to represent.... Steven Lamar Foster boasted about how many times he's been arrested and called the officers who arrested him 'Barneys' in dash-cam footage of the September arrest obtained by The Dalton Daily Citizen-News. 'Eleven years I served this county,' Foster told police in the dash-cam video. 'I hate this county. I prayed to God that he would curse it. And guess what? He did. Man, I saw it hit and cursed, and I saw people laid off right and left -- white people. I hate this county...'" Mrs. McC: Seems like an excellent candidate. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... But, hey, Foster seems better than this former Georgia Democratic Congressional candidate:

... Noah Feit of the (South Carolina) State: "A woman who recently ran for a congressional seat was arrested for murder among other charges Wednesday, according to the Aiken County Sheriff's Office. Curt Cain, the man that Kellie Lynn Collins is charged with shooting to death, worked on her failed congressional campaign in Georgia, the Augusta Chronicle reported. He also might have been her husband, according to Captain Eric Abdullah.... Collins was previously a Democratic congressional candidate in Georgia's 10th district..., but she dropped out of the race before the primary, 'for personal reasons.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Carl Campanile of the New York Post: "Actor Richard Gere's name is being floated as a potential [Democratic] candidate for Congress in the northern suburbs [of New York City], The Post has learned." Mrs. McC: Well, that's nice. I can tell you from second-hand gossip that Gere is not the candidate for the #MeToo era. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Heather Long of the Washington Post: "Rising prices have erased U.S. workers' meager wage gains, the latest sign strong economic growth has not translated into greater prosperity for the middle class and working class. Cost of living was up 2.9 percent from July 2017 to July 2018, the Labor Department reported Friday, an inflation rate that outstripped a 2.7 percent increase in wages over the same period. The average U.S. 'real wage,' a federal measure of pay that takes inflation into account, fell to $10.76 an hour last month, 2 cents down from where it was a year ago. The stagnant pay comes despite accelerating U.S. growth, which has increased in the past year and topped 4 percent in the second quarter of 2018 -- the highest rate since mid-2014."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "Two days ahead of what is expected to be a small white supremacist rally in Washington, D.C., NPR gave rally organizer Jason Kessler a national platform to peddle junk 'race science.'... [During the interview with Kessler] -- who also organized last year's Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in which a counter-protester named Heather Heyer was murdered when a neo-Nazi drove a car into a crowd -- host Noel King earnestly asked him, 'Do you think that white people are smarter than black people?' Kessler proceeded to rank the races by intelligence.... King served up a number of softball questions to Kessler throughout the interview.... King didn't mention Heyer's name.... After the nearly 7-minute interview ended, NPR transitioned to an interview with a Black Lives Matter activist, a setup implying that white supremacists and people advocating for racial justice are two sides of the same coin." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Millions of nice Americans think NPR is actually "fair and balanced." It isn't. Rupar's report is exemplary. ...

... ** "The White Nationalists Are Winning." Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "Despite the controversy over the [Charlottesville] rally and its bloody aftermath, the white nationalists’ ideological goals remain a core part of the Trump agenda. As long as that agenda finds a home in one of the two major American political parties, a significant portion of the country will fervently support it. And as an ideological vanguard, the alt-right fulfilled its own purpose in pulling the Republican Party in its direction. A year after white nationalists in Charlottesville chanted, 'You will not replace us!' their message has been taken up and amplified by Fox News personalities." Mrs. McC: And on NPR.

Katie Shepherd of Willamette Week: "A federal jury [Friday] acquitted an FBI agent who had been accused of lying to investigators looking into the events leading up to the fatal shooting of anti-government militant Robert 'LeVoy' Finicum. Prosecutors alleged that W. Joseph Astarita, who was a member of the FBI's hostage rescue team, had lied about firing his gun at Finicum during an encounter that accelerated the end of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation. Finicum was fatally shot by an Oregon State Police officer. Astarita's trial lasted three weeks, but the federal jury cleared him of all charges. He testified that although two bullets from his gun were found in Finicum's truck, he had not realized on that day that he had fired." Mrs. McC: One way to "realize" he had fired his gun might have been to check its chamber to see how many bullets were left before making an untrue statement to investigators. I wonder if prosecutors questions him on that point.

Beyond the Beltway

Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: Authorities have arrested a suspected arsonist for starting a huge fire in Southern California. "On Wednesday, local officials arrested 51-year-old Forrest Gordon Clark, charging him with two counts of felony arson, as well as another felony charge of threatening to terrorize.... The Washington Post reported that Clark had texted a local firefighter before the fire that the area was 'going to burn just like we planned.' (It was unclear who else Clark may have been referring to).... A quick skim [of Clark's Facebook page] reveals just how many conspiracy theories Clark promulgated — and why he may have allegedly started the fire in the first place. Indeed, it appears there was no conspiracy theory too ludicrous for Clark to buy into.... Clark appeared to be a fan of Alex Jones and InfoWars...."

Free Speech for Me but Not for Thee. Erin Logan of the Washington Post: A white Brooklyn immigrant woman & virulent Trump backer called police on black Democratic state legislator Jesse Hamilton who was passing out campaign literature on a sidewalk near a subway entrance. When the police wouldn't do something about a political candidate exercising his rights, the woman continued to harass him. 'It's a disturbing trend of people calling 911 for situations that have no criminal activity,' Hamilton said. While Hamilton may be right, I have an idea the Trumpbot lady would have called the cops on anyone who was passing out anti-Trump literature.

News Ledes

New York Times: "V.S. Naipaul, the Nobel laureate who documented the migrations of peoples, the unraveling of the British Empire, the ironies of exile and the clash between belief and unbelief in more than a dozen unsparing novels and as many works of nonfiction, died on Saturday at his home in London. He was 85."

New York Times: "An airline employee took off in a stolen plane at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday night in an episode that frustrated stranded travelers, riveted witnesses and ended with the plane crashing about 30 miles from the airport, the authorities said. The man, a 29-year-old who acted alone, was thought to be suicidal, said officials in Pierce County, where the plane crashed. No one else was believed to be on the 76-seat plane or injured on the ground." ...

     ... Update. BuzzFeed News: "An airline employee stole a plane from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Friday night, attempted to perform stunts in the air, then crashed after being chased by two fighter jets, killing himself." Includes home videos & Air Traffic Control audio. ...

     ... Update 2. New York Times: "The man who stole a plane and flew it for about an hour on Friday evening over Puget Sound in Washington State before crashing on an island has been identified as Richard B. Russell, according to a law enforcement official. Mr. Russell, a ground service agent at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, took off around 8 p.m. local time in an unauthorized flight.... He flew around the Seattle-Tacoma area, chatting sometimes calmly and sometimes in a frenzied stream of consciousness with air traffic controllers who tried to guide him to a safe landing. But the plane came down in a fiery crash on Ketron Island in the Puget Sound, about 30 miles from the airport. Alaska Airlines said in a statement that the person who took the plane was employed by Horizon Air, a subsidiary."

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