The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Washington Post: “Towns throughout western North Carolina ... were transformed overnight by ... [Hurricane Helene]. Muddy floodwaters lifted homes from their foundations. Landslides and overflowing rivers severed the only way in and out of small mountain communities. Rescuers said they were struggling to respond to the high number of emergency calls.... The death toll grew throughout the Southeast as the scope of Helene’s devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths.”

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The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'” An AP report is here.

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.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Friday
Mar092018

The Commentariat -- March 10, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Kelly Takes Cabinet Members to the Woodshed. Cristina Alesci of CNN: "The White House held private meetings with four Cabinet-level officials last month to scold them for embarrassing stories about questionable ethical behavior at their respective agencies, sources familiar with the sessions tell CNN.... Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt all met with officials from the White House counsel's office and the Cabinet liaison. The meetings, held at chief of staff John Kelly's request, were intended to provide 'a clear message that optics matter,' the sources said. The White House gave the agencies a set of guidelines in a document titled 'creating a culture of compliance,' according to portions of the document obtained by CNN." ...

... Lisa Friedman & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has killed an effort by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency [Scott Pruitt] to stage public debates challenging climate change science, according to three people familiar with the deliberations, thwarting a plan that had intrigued President Trump even as it set off alarm bells among his top advisers.... At a mid-December meeting set up by Mr. Kelly's deputy, Rick Dearborn, to discuss the plan, Mr. Dearborn made it clear that his boss considered the idea 'dead,' and not to be discussed further.... 'The chief doesn't want it,' Mr. Dearborn said, referring to the White House chief of staff, according to one person who attended. E.P.A. officials were taken aback, the person said. While the words 'climate change' have been removed from many federal websites, and Mr. Trump has mocked global warming in tweets, the administration has stopped short of using the power of the federal government to attack the science."

*****

He can't even make a deal with a porn star. -- Mika Brzezinski, on Trump's negotiating skills, yesterday ...

... Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The White House on Friday sent confusing messages about the prospects for a historic meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, raising questions about a summit announced less than 24 hours earlier. White House officials insisted that nothing had changed since Trump said he had accepted an invitation from Kim. But White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared to lay out new conditions, demanding 'concrete, verifiable'' actions from Pyongyang.... The remarks left it unclear whether the White House was restating the terms of the meeting, with even the timing of talks appearing to be up in the air. The White House insistence on concrete actions appeared to be a response to criticism that Trump accepted Kim's invitation too quickly, without extracting enough concessions beforehand." Mrs. McC: This report was posted at about 7:30 pm Friday. ...

... "Muddled Message." Mark Landler of the New York Times: "A day after President Trump accepted an invitation to meet Kim Jong-un of North Korea, the White House began planning on Friday a high-level diplomatic encounter so risky and seemingly far-fetched that some of Mr. Trump's aides believe it will never happen. The administration is already deliberating over the logistics and location of the meeting.... Administration officials later clarified that Ms. Sanders was not adding new preconditions to the meeting.... The White House's muddled message underscored the confusion sowed by Mr. Trump's on-the-spot decision on Thursday to meet Mr. Kim." Mrs. McC: This report was posted in the early evening. ...

... Moving the Goal Posts. Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump will insist on 'concrete, verifiable actions' from North Korea before holding a promised summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the White House said Friday, adding conditions and a note of skepticism to the buoyant mood that surrounded the surprise announcement the night before. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated the insistence on 'concrete, verifiable' steps several times, and asserted that the United States had given up no leverage in agreeing to hold the unprecedented meeting." Mrs. McC: This report was posted in the late afternoon Friday. ...

... Winging It. Paul Sonne & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "President Trump's high-wire gambit to accept a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sets off a scramble among U.S. officials to assemble a team capable of supporting a historic summit of longtime adversaries and determine a viable engagement strategy. State Department officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, were playing down the immediacy of talks in the hours before the White House rolled out the South Korean national security adviser, who made the surprise announcement that Trump would meet with Kim. The apparent lack of coordination marked a pattern of mixed messaging that has characterized the Trump administration's North Korea diplomacy since Pyongyang launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile last year, sparking the Trump White House's biggest national security crisis to date. Now the White House has committed to an unprecedented meeting at a time when the administration lacks a fully staffed cadre of diplomats and advisers." ...

... Michael Gordon, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: "Inside the Oval Office late Thursday..., Donald Trump interrupted a trio of South Korean officials as they analyzed an offer to meet from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and outlined possible diplomatic options. 'OK, OK,' Mr. Trump said, cutting short the discussion. 'Tell them I'll do it.' The South Korean officials looked at each other as if in disbelief, according to a White House official with knowledge of the meeting...." Mrs. McC: The link above is useless unless you have a WSJ subscription, but I was able to read the entire article by Googling a portion of the lede between quotation marks. This works sometimes. ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So the bottom line is that, for all the research the South Koreans might have done on Trump, they didn't read the news reports that Donald Trump can't sit through a briefing. And that is why he changed decades of U.S. policy. Feeling safer? ...

... Trumpity-Doo-Dah. "I Alone Can Fix It." Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Shocking and yet somehow not surprising, Mr. Trump's decision to do what no other sitting president has done and meet in person with a North Korean leader reflects an audacious and supremely self-confident approach to international affairs. Whether it is Middle East peace or trade agreements, Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he can achieve what has eluded every other occupant of his office through the force of his own personality. So far, he has little to show for that." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Yesterday, some of us posted predictions in the Comments section on how a Trump-Kim meeting might go. (Periscrope posted one that's actually plausible.) Here's digby's prediction: "Trump will normalize Kim as another one of his favorite strongmen because he 'wants to meet him' and he'll go around talking about how he's a good guy at heart with whom we can deal. Just like Xi. Just like Putin. Just like Duterte. He is telling people everywhere that the strongmen are the good guys --- because they play him like a fiddle. The right wing Daily Caller is now running apologias by Russian oligarchs with strong ties to Vladimir Putin. [Mrs. McC: Yeah, the Daily Crapper published an opinion piece yesterday by Paul Manafort creditor & oligarch Oleg Deripaska.] They are being portrayed as good guys who are being persecuted by the left.... Saddam and Khaddafi both gave up their [nuclear programs] and look what happened. He can hear that Trump and the Republicans want to tear up the Iran deal. So, why would he trust any US president, much less Donald Trump not to overthrow him if he gives up his leverage?"

"I Alone." Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Even before he decided to launch a trade war and roll the nuclear dice by agreeing in the course of a West Wing afternoon to a risky sit-down with Kim Jong Un, Donald Trump was telling friends he was tired of being reined in. 'I'm doing great, but I'm getting all these bad headlines,' Trump told a friend recently. A Republican in frequent contact with the White House told me Trump is 'frustrated by all these people telling him what to do.'... Trump has diagnosed the problem as having the wrong team around him and is looking to replace his senior staff in the coming weeks.... Sources said that the first officials to go will be Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom Trump has clashed with for months. On Tuesday, Trump met with John Bolton in the Oval Office. When he plans to visit Mar-a-Lago next weekend, Trump is expected to interview more candidates for both positions, according to two sources.... Next on the departure list are Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Both have been sidelined without top-secret security clearances by Kelly, and sources expect them to be leaving at some point in the near future." ...

     ... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "I am still undecided about how much weight to give Gabriel Sherman's reporting. He relies so much on unnamed sources that I find myself doubting that all his quotes are real. On the other hand, he does seem to have a gift for cultivating sources in right-wing circles.... The basic gist of [Sherman's report linked above] is that Trump has become convinced that he needs to stop listening to moderating and controlling voices and get back to the rhetoric and policies he was advocating on the campaign.... Say what you want about [Trump's] record so far, it would be far worse if people had simply followed his instincts and directives." ...

... David Smith of the Guardian: "There has never been such a rapid turnover of personnel in a US administration in modern times. If anything, the stampede to the exits appears to be accelerating, raising fears of a 'brain drain' that will leave key jobs unfilled and make it ever harder to recruit new talent. 'One of the problems here is the White House is getting hollowed out and the number of people capable of doing things, of doing real things whether you agree or disagree ideologically, is getting smaller and smaller,' Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, told reporters. 'So the mess-ups we've seen this past week, I think we're going to see over and over and over again.' Trump, who spent a decade as host of The Apprentice, has enjoyed pulling back the curtain to allow White House meetings to be televised. But he also appears to be copying the reality TV format of eliminating a member of his administration or cabinet on a weekly basis, leaving the audience in suspense: who's next?"

... Yes, But Trump Is Consulting with All the Right People. Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "On Monday night..., Donald Trump ... was joined for dinner in the White House residence by Fox News personalities, including host Jesse Watters and [Sebastian] Gorka.... According to a White House official and two other sources familiar with the meeting, President Trump invited Gorka and Watters because 'he couldn't get enough of them on TV,' as one source put it, and wanted to confab with them about what he'd seen on Fox News, politics, gossip, and his administration." ...

MEANWHILE, Everything Is Going So Smoothly. Annie Karni & Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "... the search to take over [Hope Hicks'] job has become something an internal free-for-all, with aides campaigning for the job, Trump soliciting advice directly from Hicks about who should take over when she's gone, and chief of staff John Kelly trying to broaden the search to include some outside candidates. The top candidates emerging from inside the White House, multiple officials said, are director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp, a veteran of the George W. Bush administration who has become a Kelly ally in his battle against ... Jared Kushner; and Tony Sayegh, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department."

The President & the Porn Star

Matthew Mosk & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "... Donald Trump has added yet another lawyer in his outside legal team -- New York attorney Lawrence S. Rosen, multiple sources tell ABC News. Rosen has been brought in by Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to handle the legal issues surrounding the so-called 'hush' agreement that Cohen negotiated with the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels.... Rosen, a partner in the firm LaRocca, Hornick, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha, is a 'pit bull' who will 'aggressively fight and use his rhetorical and writing skills to get you a win,' according to the firm's website." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Tom Llamas, et al., of ABC News: "When asked where the $130,000 sent to Daniels' attorney came from, Cohen told ABC News 'the funds were taken from my home equity line and transferred internally to my LLC account in the same bank.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say what? Would you jeopardize ownership of your own home to make a secret hush-money payment for a guy who notoriously defaults on his known debts? I didn't think so.

... The E-Mails! Sarah Fitzgerald & Tracy Connor of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney used his Trump Organization email while arranging to transfer money into an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence. The lawyer, Michael Cohen, also regularly used the same email account during 2016 negotiations with the actress -- whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford -- before she signed a nondisclosure agreement, a source familiar with the discussions told NBC News. And Clifford's attorney at the time addressed correspondence to Cohen in his capacity at the Trump Organization and as 'Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump,' the source said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "That means that federal election law was almost certainly violated.... [According to an assertion in Daniel's lawsuit against Trump,] hearing that she might tell her story, too, Trump 'sought to silence' her, 'thus helping to ensure he won the Presidential Election.' Those two things together -- that a Trump Organization email address was used to facilitate the payment and that the payment was linked to the campaign -- would constitute a legal violation.... Paying someone to be quiet so they do not damage a political effort is an in-kind contribution to that campaign, covering a cost meant to aid efforts to win the election."

... It's the Cover-up. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... the Daniels story is germane to the overriding scandal of the Trump administration, the one involving Trump's relationship with Russia. Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy who compiled an infamous dossier of opposition research on Trump, wrote that Russia could blackmail Trump with evidence of his 'sexual perversion.' Nothing we know of Daniels confirms the dossier's outré claims about what such perversion entailed. The [nondiscloser agreement] does, however, show that Trump was susceptible to blackmail.... The scandal will lie less in the details of Trump's degeneracy than in the steps he and his lawyers took to cover it up." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing, Ctd.

Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "Lawyers representing ... Donald Trump are seeking a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller to end his investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and obstruction of justice for the firing of ex-FBI director James Comey. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Trump's lawyers may negotiate a meeting between the president and the special counsel 'as leverage to spur a conclusion to the Russia investigation.' According to a source close to the investigation who spoke with the Journal, the president's legal team is considering potentially using a sit-down meeting with Mueller in exchange for a number of factors, 'including that the special counsel commit to a date for concluding at least the Trump-related portion of the investigation.' One deadline they floated was 60 days after said meeting, the source told the Journal." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As you might suspect, several teevee pundits have explained that this is not the kind of deal a special counsel is likely to make with the principal target of his investigation.

Josh Gerstein & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, who threatened earlier this week to defy a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller, showed up Friday morning at the federal courthouse in Washington, where he appeared set to answer prosecutors' questions in the ongoing probe of alleged collusion between Trump aides and Russia." (Also linked yesterday.)

Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump was so eager to have Vladimir Putin attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow that he wrote a personal letter to the Russian president inviting him to the event, according to multiple people familiar with the document. At the bottom of the typed letter, Trump scrawled a postscript adding that he looked forward to seeing 'beautiful' women during his trip.... The letter, the first known attempt at direct outreach by Trump to Putin, has been turned over to investigators probing Russia's interference in the 2016 campaign."

Mother Jones publishes "the second of two excerpts adapted from Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump..., by Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, and David Corn, Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones. The book will be released on March 13." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Ben Protess & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Travelers trying to book a stay at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama on Thursday found no rooms available on TrumpHotels.com. But the website for the Bahia Grand Panama had several luxurious options, at the very same oceanfront hotel. The dueling websites ... are the latest twist in the oft-bizarre battle between President Trump's family business and the majority owner of the Panama City property, who has spent months trying to oust the Trumps as both the managers and the branders of the hotel.... By Thursday, a statement was released that said the hotel had a new name, Bahia Grand Panama; a new website; and even new social media accounts. The statement ... declared, 'As of today, the former Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama is no longer managed by or affiliated with Trump brand.' Don't tell that to the Trumps, who continue to make their case in various legal venues. In a statement, the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, Alan Garten, noted that the management contract 'mandates that all disputes be resolved through binding arbitration' and that 'Trump Hotels has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Mr. Fintiklis,' [the majority owner.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, maybe the U.S. ambassador to Panama could step in & clear all this up. You know, try some diplomacy. Oh, wait ...

... Joshua Partlow & Carol Morello of the Washington Post: John Feeley, the (now former) U.S. Ambassador to Panama, "flew home from Panama on Friday, capping almost three decades as a diplomat under Republican and Democratic administrations. In the past year, he said, he realized he was working for a president whose policies and tone he could no longer promote or even explain.... With Feeley's departure, however, the department loses one of its leading Latin Americanists. And because of the leaked resignation letter, he has come to symbolize a string of diplomats who have left their posts saying they feel marginalized and unwilling to represent an administration whose values they reject." ...

... John Feeley in a Washington Post op-ed: "Shortly after the Charlottesville riots last August, I made the private decision to step down as President Trump's personal representative and ambassador to the government of Panama. I resigned because the traditional core values of the United States, as manifested in the president's National Security Strategy and his foreign policies, have been warped and betrayed. I could no longer represent him personally and remain faithful to my beliefs about what makes America truly great. The amateurish promulgation of a country-specific travel ban, the push to build a 'big, beautiful wall' and to expel the 'dreamers' beyond it, the withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the belligerent renegotiating of the North American Free Trade Agreement and counterproductive steel and aluminum tariffs are all making the United States weaker and less prosperous. America is undoubtedly less welcome in the world today, as the president pursues a unilateral and isolationist path."

Dana Milbank: "The steel industry, shedding workers, shutting plants and bleeding red ink, pleaded with the federal government for tariffs on imports. As the government obliged, a young reporter on the steel beat for the Wall Street Journal cautioned that tariffs could 'ultimately do the industry more harm than good' because the real threat to big steel wasn't foreign competition but changing technology. That was 1992. The administration that imposed the trade barriers was George H.W. Bush's. And the young steel reporter was me. Twenty-six years later, what's old is new again. The industry's fortunes have waxed and waned with the economy and the price of steel. Trade protections came and went. But steel jobs continue to vanish. That's because the job loss has almost nothing to do with imports."

How to Get a Presidential Pardon. Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "A former Navy sailor who pleaded guilty to a felony count of unauthorized possession and retention of national defense information for snapping photos on a nuclear attack submarine has received a pardon from ... Donald Trump -- and his attorney says Fox News deserves the credit. The legal team for Kristian Saucier compared his case to the handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. That grabbed Trump's interest, and it's now paid off in the form of a presidential pardon, announced Friday. Last week, Saucier appeared on 'Fox & Friends,' a program that the president records and watches during his morning 'executive time.'... In 2016, shortly after then-FBI Director James Comey announced the results of the Clinton email investigation, Saucier's legal team began comparing the submariner's case to Clinton's. The Justice Department responded that Saucier was 'grasping at highly imaginative and speculative straws.'..." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: So, (1) commit a potentially treasonous act. (2) Get convicted. (3) Appear on "Fox & Friends." (4) Contrast your "unfair" conviction with Hillary Clinton's exoneration. (5) Check mailbox for letter stamped with presidential seal. Piece o' cake.

Trump Loves a Parade. Ryan Browne of CNN: "... Donald Trump will get his military parade, but it is unlikely to mirror the Paris Bastille Day event which inspired him as it will not involve any heavy military vehicles like tanks to avoid doing damage to the streets of Washington, according to a Pentagon planning memo shown to CNN.... The memo says the parade will integrate with the annual DC Veterans Day parade and focus on the contributions of US veterans from the Revolutionary War to today 'with an emphasis on the price of freedom.'... It will, however, involve 'a heavy air component' with military aircraft flying overhead at the end of parade, including older aircraft 'as available,' the memo said.... The parade route will run from the White House to the Capitol, with the memo saying that veterans and Medal of Honor recipients will surround Trump in the reviewing area of the Capitol during the event."

John Bowden of the Hill: "Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) joined several other Democrats on Friday demanding information from two companies on their business dealings with President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In two letters obtained by Politico, the Massachusetts Democrat, alongside Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), called for Citigroup and Apollo Global Management to release details of loans they provided Kushner Companies after meeting with Kushner in the White House." ...

... Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "Luckily for Kushner, the requests will probably go as far as those sent last summer by Representative Maxine Waters to Deutsche Bank asking for information about the president's finances -- which is to say, nowhere. While a subpoena would likely get people talking, Warren would need to have the cooperation of her Republican colleagues, who apparently believe it's Kushner (and the Trump family)'s God-given right to profit off the presidency." Mrs. McC: Here's Levin's intro graf, which is mighty fine:

Earlier this month, we learned that Jared Kushner's family just happened to receive a pair of nine-figure loans shortly after the First Son-in-Law met with the lenders' executives at the White House. It wasn't a great look, particularly as it came on the heels of news that Ivanka's husband had supported a blockade of Qatar just weeks after his father unsuccessfully attempted to get the country's finance minister to invest in Kushner Cos' doomed Midtown tower, and that at least four countries had discussed ways to take advantage of Kushner's massive financial debts and political inexperience. In fact, one might get the sense that young Jared, who has held few jobs that were not given to him by his father or his father-in-law, has no business working in the White House, where he's accomplished approximately none of the goals he set out to tick off last year. And while we would never suggest the only thing Kushner appears qualified to do in the West Wing is use his position to improve his family's financial situation, Senator Elizabeth Warren isn't so sure!

"Inadequate." Cameron Joseph of TPM: The White House blew off Rep. Trey Gowdy's (R-S.C.) request for info from the White House on the reason Rob Porter was allowed to stay on the job without any chance he would receive a permanent security clearance. Gowdy's staff on the House Intelligence Committee replied, "The Chairman finds the White House's response inadequate, and we have communicated to the White House that we expect full compliance." Gowdy's follow-up "falls far short of Democrats’ demands that he subpoena the information the White House is refusing to provide, as well as call in White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House Counsel Don McGahn to explain what they knew and when."

In this segment, Rachel Maddow demonstrates just how corrupt the Republican party is, from Trump on down:

Congressional Race. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "If Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone wins an unexpectedly close special election [in Pittsburgh] next Tuesday, it will be onDonald Trump's coattails.... This race should be a gimme for the GOP. Democrats didn't even bother to field a candidate in 2016 or 2014. But public and private polls show the contest in the 18th district is now a toss-up, even after Republicans have poured in more than $10 million -- about five times what Democrats have spent.... The White House is sending the cavalry.... White House officials have said over the past week that they think the new tariffs could help tip the race their way." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Capt Russ! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Gail Collins: "Last week, as the [Pennsylvania] race got tighter and tighter, Trump suddenly announced he was imposing a ginormous tariff on imported steel and aluminum, triggering the resignation of his chief economic adviser and something as close to a rebellion as you could imagine among the little weenies who make up the Republican members of Congress. Do you think it could possibly have all been for western Pennsylvania? Duh." Mrs. McC: If you'd like to know something about the candidates, Collins does a better job than do "real reporters." ...

... BUT Collins doesn't mention this. Benjamin Haas & Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "A television advertisement features moody shots of a missile launch and goose-stepping North Korean soldiers -- and [GOP candidate Rick] Saccone's claim that his career as 'a diplomat in North Korea' makes him uniquely placed to deal with the looming crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear programme. Saccone's campaign website says that he 'spent one year on a diplomatic mission in North Korea' and describes him as 'the only United States citizen living in North Korea that negotiated with the North Korean regime on a daily basis'. But the four-term state legislator may be overstating his role. According to former colleagues, although Saccone is one of the few Americans to have dealt with North Korean officials, he was not a diplomat, and was not engaged in traditional diplomacy."

Paul LaMonica of CNN: "Bankrupt retailer Toys 'R' Us may shut all its US stores as soon as next week, according to several reports. That's terrible news for the two biggest publicly traded toy companies. Investors are clearly preparing for the worst. Shares of Hasbro ... fell 3.5% Friday morning while Mattel ... plunged 7%.... Toys 'R' Us is the last megastore dedicated to toys. Without it, toymakers will struggle to promote anything but their most popular items." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McC: LaMonica lists several reasons for the Toys 'R' Us failure, but he didn't think of this one: the U.S. has an aging population & low birth rate: the market for toys is shrinking. (Also, too, as inequality increases under GOP tax policies, people can't afford to buy so many toys for the kiddies.) However could we get some more kids into the population? Say, how about young immigrants??? So thanks, GOP!

Stephanie Clifford (no, not likely that Stephanie Clifford) of the New York Times: "Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical executive notorious for sharply increasing drug prices, mounting sneering defenses of his actions and even issuing a bounty for one of Hillary Clinton's hairs, was sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison after being convicted of fraud last year.... Mr. Shkreli, 34, is best known for raising the price of a drug, Daraprim, by 5,000 percent in a move that was widely condemned by the public and politicians. His fraud convictions were unrelated to that episode, stemming instead from his involvement with Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company he founded in 2011, and two hedge funds he ran. In August, a jury convicted Mr. Shkreli, nicknamed Pharma Bro, on three of eight counts, concluding that he had lied to investors about, among other things, how the hedge funds were managed, what they invested in and how much money they had. The jury found that he had also secretly controlled a huge number of Retrophin shares."

Beyond the Beltway

Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "On Friday, in a dramatic turnaround in one of the most gun-friendly states in America, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law an array of gun limits that included raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21 and extending the waiting period to three days. It was the most aggressive action on gun control taken in the state in decades and the first time Mr. Scott, who had an A-plus rating from the National Rifle Association, had broken so significantly from the group." ...

... Jeffrey Schweers of the Tallahassee Democrat: "The National Rifle Association sued in federal court Friday to block a new Florida law, just signed by Gov. Rick Scott, that prohibits gun sales to anyone under 21. 'We filed a lawsuit against the state for violating the constitutional rights of 18- to 21-year-olds,' said Marion Hammer, lobbyist for the NRA in Florida."

I think weapons are too easy to get. Is the price worth it? -- Michael Berg of Yountville ...

... Napa Valley Register: "The all-day standoff between a lone gunman with three hostages at the Veterans Home of California [in Yountville, California,] wrapped up Friday evening, with Bay Area news media reporting shortly before 7:30 p.m. that all are dead. Shortly after 6 p.m., police, fire and medical units began withdrawing from the scene and a robot sent into the building holding the gunman was also pulled out.... A task force of law enforcement agencies descended on the Yountville facility after an armed man with a rifle burst into a farewell party at The Pathway Home, a nonprofit on the Vets Home grounds, and took three staff members hostage while releasing others, law enforcement said. The suspect, who exchanged gunfire with the first Napa County Sheriff's deputies to arrive, is believed to have been a former member of The Pathway Home, a privately run program for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with emotional traumas.... Early reports said the man, 36 years old, had been discharged from the treatment program two weeks ago."

Way Beyond

Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "British authorities investigating the poisoning of a former Russian spy, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter visited the graves of Mr. Skripal's wife and son in the cathedral town of Salisbury, England, on Friday. Mr. Skripal's wife, Lyudmila, 59, died in 2012 of uterine cancer, according to records from the National Health Service. His son Alexander, 43, died last year. The authorities did not provide details, saying only that they had not exhumed any bodies, but the forensic activities at the London Road Cemetery intensified speculation about the poisonings."

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Thursday
Mar082018

The Commentariat -- March 9, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trumpity-Doo-Dah. "I Alone Can Fix It." Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Shocking and yet somehow not surprising, Mr. Trump's decision to do what no other sitting president has done and meet in person with a North Korean leader reflects an audacious and supremely self-confident approach to international affairs. Whether it is Middle East peace or trade agreements, Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he can achieve what has eluded every other occupant of his office through the force of his own personality. So far, he has little to show for that."

Matthew Mosk & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "... Donald Trump has added yet another lawyer in his outside legal team -- New York attorney Lawrence S. Rosen, multiple sources tell ABC News. Rosen has been brought in by Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to handle the legal issues surrounding the so-called 'hush' agreement that Cohen negotiated with the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels.... Rosen, a partner in the firm LaRocca, Hornick, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha, is a 'pit bull' who will 'aggressively fight and use his rhetorical and writing skills to get you a win,' according to the firm's website." ...

... The E-Mails! Sarah Fitzgerald & Tracy Connor of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney used his Trump Organization email while arranging to transfer money into an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence. The lawyer, Michael Cohen, also regularly used the same email account during 2016 negotiations with the actress -- whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford -- before she signed a nondisclosure agreement, a source familiar with the discussions told NBC News. And Clifford's attorney at the time addressed correspondence to Cohen in his capacity at the Trump Organization and as 'Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump,' the source said." ...

... It's the Cover-up. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... the Daniels story is germane to the overriding scandal of the Trump administration, the one involving Trump's relationship with Russia. Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy who compiled an infamous dossier of opposition research on Trump, wrote that Russia could blackmail Trump with evidence of his 'sexual perversion.' Nothing we know of Daniels confirms the dossier's outré claims about what such perversion entailed. The [NDA] does, however, show that Trump was susceptible to blackmail.... The scandal will lie less in the details of Trump's degeneracy than in the steps he and his lawyers took to cover it up."

Ben Protess & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Travelers trying to book a stay at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama on Thursday found no rooms available on TrumpHotels.com. But the website for the Bahia Grand Panama had several luxurious options, at the very same oceanfront hotel. The dueling websites ... are the latest twist in the oft-bizarre battle between President Trump's family business and the majority owner of the Panama City property, who has spent months trying to oust the Trumps as both the managers and the branders of the hotel.... By Thursday, a statement was released that said the hotel had a new name, Bahia Grand Panama; a new website; and even new social media accounts. The statement ... declared, 'As of today, the former Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama is no longer managed by or affiliated with Trump brand.' Don't tell that to the Trumps, who continue to make their case in various legal venues. In a statement, the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, Alan Garten, noted that the management contract 'mandates that all disputes be resolved through binding arbitration' and that 'Trump Hotels has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Mr. Fintiklis,' [the majority owner.]"

Josh Gerstein & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, who threatened earlier this week to defy a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller, showed up Friday morning at the federal courthouse in Washington, where he appeared set to answer prosecutors' questions in the ongoing probe of alleged collusion between Trump aides and Russia."

Mother Jones publishes "the second of two excerpts adapted from Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump..., by Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, and David Corn, Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones. The book will be released on March 13."

Congressional Race. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "If Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone wins an unexpectedly close special election [in Pittsburgh] next Tuesday, it will be on Donald Trump's coattails.... This race should be a gimme for the GOP. Democrats didn't even bother to field a candidate in 2016 or 2014. But public and private polls show the contest in the 18th district is now a toss-up, even after Republicans have poured in more than $10 million -- about five times what Democrats have spent.... The White House is sending the cavalry.... White House officials have said over the past week that they think the new tariffs could help tip the race their way." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Capt Russ!

Paul LaMonica of CNN: "Bankrupt retailer Toys 'R' Us may shut all its US stores as soon as next week, according to several reports. That's terrible news for the two biggest publicly traded toy companies. Investors are clearly preparing for the worst. Shares of Hasbro ... fell 3.5% Friday morning while Mattel ... plunged 7%.... Toys 'R' Us is the last megastore dedicated to toys. Without it, toymakers will struggle to promote anything but their most popular items." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: LaMonica lists several reasons for the Toys 'R' Us failure, but he didn't think of this one: the U.S. has an aging population & low birth rate: the market for toys is shrinking. (Also, too, as inequality increases under GOP tax policies, people can't afford to buy so many toys for the kiddies.) However could we get some more kids into the population? Say, how about young immigrants??? So thanks, GOP!

*****

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, has invited President Trump to meet for negotiations over its nuclear program, an audacious diplomatic overture that would bring together two strong-willed, idiosyncratic leaders who have traded threats of war. The South Korean official, Chung Eui-yong, who conveyed the invitation told reporters that Mr. Trump had accepted it and would meet with Mr. Kim by May." ...

... "Beep Beep." David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Trump Is Wile E. Coyote.... When it comes to global diplomacy, America under President Trump has become something of a hapless cartoon villain, detonating bombs on itself and running into walls -- while our nimbler adversaries dart away in a blur of dust.... His strategy, if you can call it that, has been to disrupt America's traditional economic and security relationships and commitments. He must imagine that this gives him new leverage, but mostly the result has been a series of self-inflicted wounds." Mrs. McC: Kinda unfair to Wile E. ...

... Ankit Panda of the Daily Beast: "For more than two decades, successive North Korean leaders -- first Kim Il Sung, then Kim Jong Il, and now Kim Jong Un -- have sought to meet a sitting U.S. president as equals and enter comprehensive talks on the future of the Korean Peninsula. No sitting president has accepted.... There was a good reason for this U.S. refusal to meet with any North Korean leader.... A one-on-one meeting with a U.S. president would serve as a major propaganda coup for the North.... It’s not clear that the Trump administration has internalized this.... The United States is woefully lacking in subject matter expertise on the Korean Peninsula at the highest levels of government, with the State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, Joseph Yun, having just stepped down last week and the post of ambassador to Seoul still vacant. Trump has the intelligence community behind him, but it's doubtful that he's capable of being successfully briefed." ...

... Oh, AND This, Shortly Before South Korea's Announcement. Nick Wadhams of Bloomberg: "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson played down hopes for a breakthrough on North Korea's nuclear program, saying the U.S. is a 'long way' from negotiations after the country's leader offered to give up his weapons in exchange for security guarantees." Ole Rex was in Ethiopia & clearly had no idea what Trump was cooking up in his absence.

Trumpy Trade Terrorism. Peter Baker & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump defied opposition from his own party and protests from overseas on Thursday as he signed an order imposing stiff and sweeping new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. But he sought to soften the impact on America's closest allies with a more flexible plan than originally envisioned. After a week of furious lobbying and a burst of last-minute internal debates and confusion, Mr. Trump agreed to exempt, for now, Canada and Mexico and held out the possibility of later excluding allies such as Australia. But the order, which would go into effect in 15 days, could hit South Korea, China, Japan, Germany, Turkey and Brazil and foreign leaders warned of a trade war that could escalate to other industries and be aimed at American goods.... Mr. Trump said that his tariff order would be tailored to exclude some countries and would give him the authority to raise or lower levies on a country-by-country basis and add or take countries off the list as he deems fit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McC: So it's a game in which President* Bullyboy will throw his weight around, constantly threatening and/or raising tariffs on other nations, & in the process alienate every country & many domestic industries. What a colossal jerk. ...

... Anna Fifield & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "... bewilderment, along with anger and frustration, has rippled across the capitals of U.S. allies -- countries that figured, no matter the bumps in relations with Washington, they would wind up on the same side against China in any dispute over steel or unfair trade practices. And yet suddenly there is talk of a trade war between the United States and its supposed friends.... The frustration is compounded by Trump's national security rationale. In fact, say U.S. allies, there is no national security risk to importing steel and aluminum from one's closest military partners.... The tariffs could soon put citizens in ally nations out of work, and if a trade war escalates, all sides could feel the pain, officials from Brasília to Brussels to Seoul say.... Trump's order came hours after Japan and 10 other countries formalized a new Pacific free-trade agreement, notably without the participation of the United States, which dropped out of those talks early in the Trump administration." ...

... ** Paul Krugman: "... the tariffs are arguably the Trumpiest thing Trump has done so far. After all, trade (like racism) is an issue on which Trump has been utterly consistent over the years. He has spent decades railing at other countries that, he claims, hurt America by taking advantage of our relatively open markets. And if his views are based on zero understanding of the issues or even of basic facts, well, Trumpism is all about belligerent ignorance, across the board.... The world trading system is, in large part, specifically designed to prevent people like Trump from having too much influence. Of course he wants to wreck it." Read on. this is our Econ 101 lesson for the day.

... Trump's Protection Racket. Eric Levitz: "During a signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room, the president explained that: The United States will impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports, and a 10 percent one on aluminum imports, in 15 days -- or in no sooner than 15 days, anyway. Canada and Mexico will be indefinitely exempted from these tariffs -- unless they refuse to concede to his administration's (radical) demands in NAFTA negotiations. America's other core allies can 'negotiate' for an exemption from the tariffs.... The United States will ... enact 'reciprocal tariffs' on Chinese imports in the near future, even if that means slapping a '50 percent' tariff on some Chinese products. This cacophony of contradictions reflected divisions within Trump's administration and, by all appearances, his own mind. Throughout Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, White House aides whispered to reporters that unresolved 'debates and complications' might force the signing ceremony to be postponed. But, just as he had one week earlier, the president forced his administration to take a 'fake it 'till you make it' approach to global economic policy, by unilaterally tweeting a confirmation of the event.... Nonetheless, even in the most pessimistic reading, Trump appears to be scaling back his ambitions from 'win a global trade war' to 'extort some policy concessions and/or Mar-a-Lago memberships' from core allies in exchange for tariff relief.' Which is to say: He appears to be less interested in pursuing protectionism than a protection racket." ...

... Oops! Again. Jonathan Chait: "Earlier this week, President Trump raised eyebrows when he told reporters of a phone call he had held with North Korea, in which he warned the dangerous rogue state it must de-nuclearize. (His administration later admitted quietly Trump had actually spoken with South Korea, not North Korea.) This week, Trump ventured another strange foreign policy pronouncement. He had asked China to produce a plan to reduce its trade deficit by One Billion Dollars.... This demand was incredibly puzzling to trade economists, and regular economists, and anybody who had ever read a couple paragraphs in a random business story. China runs a trade surplus of $375 billion with the United States. Trump was demanding a reduction of 0.3 percent, or less than a single day's worth of imports. The Wall Street Journal's Lingling Wei reports that the demand was actually supposed to be $100 billion.... This is not the kind of deft maneuvering Americans expected when they elected a famed negotiator to the presidency to make the Best Deals." ...

... Elana Schor & Burgess Everett of Politico: "A bloc of Senate Republicans is readying legislation to halt Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, in the most provocative step yet taken to thwart the president on trade. GOP leaders have spent this week urging Trump to reconsider his tariff plan, warning of a snowballing trade war that could choke off the economic benefits of the tax cuts they are touting on the campaign trail.... Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) [told] reporters that he will introduce legislation to block the tariffs.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan both issued statements expressing concern with Trump's decision, but neither mentioned the prospect of a legislative response."

Jim Rutenberg & Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "... the lawsuit [Stephanie Clifford a/k/a Stormy Daniels] filed this week, seeking to break a 2016 agreement to keep silent in return for a $130,000 payout, opens what could be a precarious new legal front for a White House already beset by the investigation by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.... If her court case proceeds, Mr. Trump and his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, may have to testify in depositions.... Ms. Clifford's suit could possibly also provide evidence of campaign spending violations...." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "President Trump might be facing a period of stormy news coverage over allegations he paid to cover up an affair with a porn star, but it's mostly clear skies in the conservative media universe.... There was not one article about the latest Stormy Daniels developments featured prominently on the Fox News homepage. A search in TV Eyes, a media monitoring search engine, returned only two segments in which the unfolding drama was discussed on the network Thursday morning. On the web, there was a similar blackout."

This Russia Thing, Ctd.

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "President Trump's former campaign manager pleaded not guilty to tax and fraud charges in federal court in Virginia Thursday, as he appeared before a judge in the second criminal case brought against him by the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Paul J. Manafort last week also pleaded not guilty in a related case in Washington, D.C., where he is set to go to trial Sept. 17. Manafort lives in Virginia and was indicted there in February. During the Thursday hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Judge T.S. Ellis III put Manafort on home confinement, requiring him to wear a GPS bracelet, and set a trial date for July 10. It is expected to last eight to 10 days."

Jeremy Herb & Manu Raju of CNN: "The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee says another former senior aide to ... Donald Trump should be subpoenaed for refusing to answer questions -- this time former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Lewandowski returned to the intelligence panel Thursday to answer more questions in a second interview as part of the committee's Russia probe, but Rep. Adam Schiff said Lewandowski still would not discuss questions about numerous topics, including conversations he may have had about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and the possible firing of special counsel Robert Mueller. The California Democrat said he had requested a subpoena to compel Lewandowski's testimony, and the Republicans were 'taking it under consideration.' 'Witnesses don't get to pick and choose when it comes to very relevant testimony to our investigation,' Schiff said. Lewandowski disagreed with Schiff's assessment of the interview, telling reporters as he left the closed-door meeting that he had answered all 'relevant' questions."

Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is questioning whether Blackwater founder Erik Prince potentially misled lawmakers during his testimony last fall about the purpose of his 2016 meeting with a Russian official with ties to the Kremlin. Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into efforts by Prince to establish a 'back channel' between the Trump administration and the Kremlin during a meeting in Seychelles that took place before President Trump took office, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. 'That allegation if true would be very disturbing, considering that using Russian diplomatic facilities for a back channel would only be designed to hide those communications -- not from the Russian government but from our own government,' Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "If there was 'no collusion' why did the Trump transition team work so hard to set up a back channel with Russia?... Robert Mueller ... is apparently particularly interested in a meeting that [Erik] Prince had with a Kremlin-connected Russian official in the Seychelles during the Trump transition, in which they reportedly discussed setting up a back channel between Trump and Moscow.... If true, this would be at least the third known attempt to set up a back channel between Trump and Russia. In December of 2016, Jared Kushner, Michael Flynn, and then -- Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak secretly met in Trump Tower, and Kushner later testified before Congress that Kislyak had suggested they set up a back channel. Two weeks later, Kushner and Flynn secretly met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, and discussed setting up a back channel between Russia and the United States. Zayed's office then reportedly set up the meeting between Erik Prince and the Russian official in the Seychelles.... These discussions were happening only a few days before Trump was inaugurated. If the topic of conversation really only centered on foreign policy, that surely could have waited a week and a half."

Yahoo! News publishes an excerpt of a book by Michael Isikoff & David Corn titled Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. (Also linked yesterday.)


Stocking the Swamp. Michael Biesecker, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump and his appointees have stocked federal agencies with ex-lobbyists and corporate lawyers who now help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks, despite promising as a candidate to drain the swamp in Washington. A week after his January 2017 inauguration, Trump signed an executive order that bars former lobbyists, lawyers and others from participating in any matter they lobbied or otherwise worked on for private clients within two years before going to work for the government. But records reviewed by The Associated Press show Trump's top lawyer, White House counsel Don McGahn, has issued at least 24 ethics waivers to key administration officials at the White House and executive branch agencies.... An analysis by the AP shows that nearly half of the political appointees hired at the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump have strong industry ties." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Watch What Trump Does, Not What He Says. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "It's always suspicious when a federal agency quietly makes a major policy change and does not put out a news release about it. That's what the Interior Department did last week. Handing another win to the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew a ban related to importing elephant trophies from Africa. A March 1 memorandum, written in dense legalese, said the government will now allow hunters to receive permits on 'a case-by-case basis' to bring tusks and other body parts back to this country. This is notable because Trump chastised and then overruled his own political appointees at the department, led by Secretary Ryan Zinke, when they unveiled plans last November to lift restrictions put in place by Barack Obama. The president called the hunting of elephants for sport a 'horror show.'... The NRA has been aggressively challenging the 2014 ban on elephant trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia in court, and the D.C. Circuit ruled in December that the Obama administration didn't follow proper procedures related to soliciting public comments when implementing it. The Trump administration cites this finding as the justification for its policy change. But The Hill notes that Fish and Wildlife is simultaneously withdrawing other findings related to trophy hunting that stretch back to 1995. So that spin doesn't necessarily pass the smell test." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Imperial Presiduncy. Cameron Joseph of TPM: "The White House is refusing to comply with a request from House Oversight Committee's Republican chairman for information on how top staffer Rob Porter was allowed to work with an interim security clearance in spite of accusations of domestic abuse." Committee Chair Trey Gowdy could subpoena the info.

Zinke Gets Some Very Nice Doors. Michael Biesecker & Matthew Daly of the AP: "The Interior Department is spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in the office of Secretary Ryan Zinke. Zinke was not aware of the contract for the work prior to a request about it from The Associated Press, spokeswoman Heather Swift said. The project was planned by career facilities and security officials as part of the decade-long modernization of the historic building erected in 1936 a few blocks from the White House, she said.... Records show the Maryland contractor hired to do the work, Conquest Solutions LLC, has done several renovation projects at federal buildings. A man who answered the phone at the company Thursday hung up when a reporter asked about Zinke's office."

2018 Elections

Do-Nothing FEC Reluctant to Do Anything. Michelle Lee & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Proposed Federal Election Commission rules aimed at preventing foreign influence on U.S. elections through better disclosure of online political ad sponsors may not take effect before the 2018 midterms, the panel's Republican chairwoman said Thursday. 'The commission has been reluctant to change the rules of the game in the middle of the election season, so that would be something we would want to seriously consider,' Chairwoman Caroline Hunter told reporters. A delay by the FEC would probably leave the task of providing more transparency about who is seeking to shape public opinion online in the hands of tech companies."

Senate Races. Alexi McCammond of Axios: "Five Senate Democrats would lose to Republican candidates if the elections were held today and three have approval ratings under 50%, according to new Axios/SurveyMonkey polls.... The most vulnerable senators are Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester in Montana and Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Each of their approval ratings is either under 50% or just above it, while Trump's is well above that in all three states. The least vulnerable senators are Bill Nelson of Florida, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Trump's approval is at just 46% in Florida and Pennsylvania and 54% in Ohio. But, but, but... With the election many months away and final Republican opponents not set, these numbers are likely to change as real GOP challengers get involved in the race. The approval ratings of each senator may give a better idea of where they stand with voters in their states."

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Wednesday
Mar072018

The Commentariat -- March 8, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trumpy Terrorism. Peter Baker & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump defied opposition from his own party and protests from overseas on Thursday as he signed an order imposing stiff and sweeping new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. But he sought to soften the impact on America's closest allies with a more flexible plan than originally envisioned. After a week of furious lobbying and a burst of last-minute internal debates and confusion, Mr. Trump agreed to exempt, for now, Canada and Mexico and held out the possibility of later excluding allies such as Australia. But the order, which would go into effect in 15 days, could hit South Korea, China, Japan, Germany, Turkey and Brazil and foreign leaders warned of a trade war that could escalate to other industries and be aimed at American goods.... Mr. Trump said that his tariff order would be tailored to exclude some countries and would give him the authority to raise or lower levies on a country-by-country basis and add or take countries off the list as he deems fit." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: It's a game in which President* Bullyboy will throw his weight around, constantly threatening and/or raising tariffs on other nations, & in the process alienate every country & many domestic industries. What a colossal jerk.

Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is questioning whether Blackwater founder Erik Prince potentially misled lawmakers during his testimony last fall about the purpose of his 2016 meeting with a Russian official with ties to the Kremlin. Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into efforts by Prince to establish a 'back channel' between the Trump administration and the Kremlin during a meeting in Seychelles that took place before President Trump took office, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. 'That allegation if true would be very disturbing, considering that using Russian diplomatic facilities for a back channel would only be designed to hide those communications not from the Russian government but from our own government,' Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters on Thursday."

Stocking the Swamp. Michael Biesecker, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump and his appointees have stocked federal agencies with ex-lobbyists and corporate lawyers who now help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks, despite promising as a candidate to drain the swamp in Washington. A week after his January 2017 inauguration, Trump signed an executive order that bars former lobbyists, lawyers and others from participating in any matter they lobbied or otherwise worked on for private clients within two years before going to work for the government. But records reviewed by The Associated Press show Trump's top lawyer, White House counsel Don McGahn, has issued at least 24 ethics waivers to key administration officials at the White House and executive branch agencies.... An analysis by the AP shows that nearly half of the political appointees hired at the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump have strong industry ties."

Watch What Trump Does, Not What He Says. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "It's always suspicious when a federal agency quietly makes a major policy change and does not put out a news release about it. That's what the Interior Department did last week. Handing another win to the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew a ban related to importing elephant trophies from Africa. A March 1 memorandum, written in dense legalese, said the government will now allow hunters to receive permits on 'a case-by-case basis' to bring tusks and other body parts back to this country. This is notable because Trump chastised and then overruled his own political appointees at the department, led by Secretary Ryan Zinke, when they unveiled plans last November to lift restrictions put in place by Barack Obama. The president called the hunting of elephants for sport a 'horror show.'... The NRA has been aggressively challenging the 2014 ban on elephant trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia in court, and the D.C. Circuit ruled in December that the Obama administration didn't follow proper procedures related to soliciting public comments when implementing it. The Trump administration cites this finding as the justification for its policy change. But The Hill notes that Fish and Wildlife is simultaneously withdrawing other findings related to trophy hunting that stretch back to 1995. So that spin doesn't necessarily pass the smell test."

Yahoo! News publishes an excerpt of a book by Michael Isikoff & David Corn titled Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump.

*****

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. "Women We Overlooked." Amisha Padnani & Jessica Bennett of the New York Times: "Since 1851, The New York Times has published thousands of obituaries: of heads of state, opera singers, the inventor of Stove Top stuffing and the namer of the Slinky. The vast majority chronicled the lives of men, mostly white ones; even in the last two years, just over one in five of our subjects were female. Charlotte Brontë wrote 'Jane Eyre'; Emily Warren Roebling oversaw construction of the Brooklyn Bridge when her husband fell ill; Madhubala transfixed Bollywood; Ida B. Wells campaigned against lynching. Yet all of their deaths went unremarked in our pages, until now. Below you'll find obituaries for these and others who left indelible marks but were nonetheless overlooked. We'll be adding to this collection each week, as Overlooked becomes a regular feature in the obituaries section, and expanding our lens beyond women." ...

     ... One woman the Times did remember with an obituary: Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. ...

... AND an inspirational reading for the ladies women:

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I guess we should check to see how the White House is celebrating International Women's Day:

... NEW. Ha Ha. Trump Starts Women's Day Angry with Woman Staffer. Jim Acosta & Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "... Donald Trump is upset with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders over her responses Wednesday regarding his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, a source close to the White House tells CNN.... On Wednesday, Sanders told reporters that the arbitration was won 'in the President's favor.' The statement is an admission that the nondisclosure agreement exists, and that it directly involves the President. It is the first time the White House has admitted the President was involved in any way with Daniels. 'POTUS is very unhappy,' the source said. 'Sarah gave the Stormy Daniels storyline steroids yesterday.'" ...

... Peter Baker & Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "President Trump's lawyer secretly obtained a restraining order last week to prevent a pornographic film star from speaking out about her alleged affair with Mr. Trump. The White House's spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Wednesday that President Trump's lawyer won an arbitration proceeding against the actress, Stephanie Clifford. She had been paid $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election in what she calls a 'hush agreement.' But in recent weeks, she had prepared to speak publicly about Mr. Trump, claiming his lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, had broken the agreement. Ms. Sanders's statement put the White House in the middle of a story that Mr. Trump and his lawyer had been trying to keep quiet for well over a year. The turn of events created the spectacle of a sitting president using legal maneuvers to avoid further scrutiny of particularly salacious accusations of an affair and a payoff involving the porn star, who goes by the name of Stormy Daniels." ...

... Sarah Fitzpatrick of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's lawyer is trying to silence adult-film star Stormy Daniels, obtaining a secret restraining order in a private arbitration proceeding and warning that she will face penalties if she publicly discusses a relationship with the president.... The new pressure on Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, comes a day after she filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court alleging that a nondisclosure agreement she made to keep quiet about an 'intimate' relationship with Trump is invalid because he never signed it. Tuesday's lawsuit says that Trump attorney Michael Cohen -- who brokered the agreement with Clifford during the presidential campaign -- attempted to 'intimidate' Clifford and 'shut her up' by initiating what it calls a 'bogus arbitration proceeding' against her in Los Angeles on Feb. 27. On that day, Cohen obtained a temporary restraining order against Clifford from the private arbitrator, a retired judge, which bars her from disclosing 'confidential information' related to the nondisclosure agreement signed in October 2016, according to a copy of the order obtained by NBC News." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "For the second time this week, the White House was asked whether President Trump knew about that $130,000 hush-money payment his lawyer made to porn star Stormy Daniels. And for the second time this week, it offered a weird non-denial denial. 'Not that I'm aware of,' press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday, repeating what she had said before. But the answer this time was especially bizarre. Why? Because Sanders would later say that she had spoken to Trump about the matter -- and yet she offered the kind of answer you'd expect if she hadn't.... She also alluded to Trump having already won his dispute with Daniels 'in arbitration.' Asked for details of that arbitration, she again referred comment to [Trump attorney Michael] Cohen." ...

... Presidunce's Sexts. Josh Marshall: "[A]n attorney for Stormy Daniels posted a legal filing in which she asks a court to declare the 'hush agreement' between her and Donald Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to be null and void. But this rather sterile description doesn't do justice to what is contained in the filing.... [I]t focuses not so much on Stormy Daniels staying mum about a sexual relationship with Donald Trump but on 'certain still images and/or text messages which were authored by or relate to' Donald Trump. Let's put this baldly: Stormy appears to be saying she's got or had sexts and maybe even 'dick pics' from President Trump." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Stormy releases the dick pix, I promise not to post any of them here. But I will provide a link.

Trump Chaos Results in Yet Another Stupid Cliffhanger. David Jackson of USA Today: "As aides race to complete the necessary paperwork, President Trump said he will meet with industry executives Thursday afternoon to discuss formally imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. 'Looking forward to 3:30 P.M. meeting today at the White House,' Trump tweeted in the morning. 'We have to protect & build our Steel and Aluminum Industries while at the same time showing great flexibility and cooperation toward those that are real friends and treat us fairly on both trade and the military.'... Late Wednesday, two administration officials said the event would take place Thursday afternoon, but it was not put on the official White House schedule released Wednesday night. There has been no official announcement other than the president's tweet." ...

... trade wars are good, and easy to win. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet last Friday

Motoko Rich & Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "A trade pact originally conceived by the United States to counter China’s growing economic might in Asia now has a new target: President Trump's embrace of protectionism. A group of 11 nations -- including major United States allies like Japan, Canada and Australia -- is set to sign a broad trade deal on Thursday that challenges Mr. Trump's view of trade as a zero-sum game filled with winners and losers. Covering 500 million people on either side of the Pacific Ocean, the pact will represent a new vision for global trade as the United States threatens to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on even its closest friends and neighbors." ...

... Martin Farrer of the Guardian: "The prospect of a trade war between China and the United States has increased after Beijing's foreign minister said it would make a 'necessary response' in the event of Donald Trump introducing punitive tariffs on steel and aluminium imports." ...

... Milan Schreuer of the New York Times: "European Union officials unveiled an array of tariffs on Wednesday that they would place on American-made goods if the United States followed through on President Trump's plan to impose penalties on imported steel and aluminum, raising the specter of a trade war. The announcement in Brussels was the latest rebuke to Mr. Trump's proposed tariffs, which have met with consternation domestically and with threats of retaliation abroad." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump is expected to formally sign off on stiff and sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports at noon on Thursday, according to people familiar with the deliberations, capitalizing on the pending departure of his top economic adviser, Gary D. Cohn, who was the plan's primary opponent. But as advisers readied for an announcement, the White House appeared to open the door to making the policy less draconian, saying Wednesday that close allies could be exempted. 'We expect that the president will sign something by the end of the week,' Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... said. 'And there are potential carve-outs for Mexico and Canada based on national security and possibly other countries as well based on that process.' Mr. Trump has said the tariffs would apply to all countries across the board and that any exemptions could open a Pandora's box of requests. But he and other administration officials continue to say that there will be exceptions for countries that meet certain tests." ...

     ... Update. David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is planning to offer Canada and Mexico a temporary exemption from new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, reversing his original insistence that the measures apply to U.S. allies as well as nations like China, administration officials said Wednesday. The proposal, which is expected to be unveiled Thursday, would give Canada and Mexico a 30-day exemption from the tariffs, the officials said. The exemptions could be extended based on progress in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.... The White House shift came after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a last-minute appeal for flexibility, saying that overly broad tariffs would damage key security ties with U.S. allies. On Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers accelerated their efforts to pull the president back from a potentially costly trade war that he has insisted would be 'easy to win.'" Mrs. McC Translation: Hey, you Mexicans & Canucks, if you bow low enough & give me everything I demand, I might be nice to you for a few months. ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Capt Russ, in yesterday's Comments thread posed a cynical -- and plausible -- theory of Trump Tariffs. In part: "Trump's threats to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum will be short-lived because they are just that, threats. The last-minute announcement of the tariffs is aimed at one audience - steelworkers - with aluminum thrown in as a distraction. More specifically, the target audience is steelworkers in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, where a special election is scheduled for March 13th." ...

     ... Update: Cable news report this morning suggest the actual rollout of the Policy of the Day is not yet finalized, & the President* is off to cleaned up." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Presiduncy of One. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump once said 'I alone can fix it.' Looks like he may have to. No one else seems to be sticking around. The record-high turnover at the White House has now reached 43 percent with the pending departure of Gary D. Cohn, the national economic adviser, as the team that arrived with Mr. Trump 13 months ago heads for the doors in increasing numbers and the president increasingly relies on his own judgment for key decisions. The head-spinning pace of departures has contributed to the sense of disarray in the West Wing, but it reflects the way Mr. Trump has operated since he announced that he was running for president. He ... burns through staff as he quickly loses faith in the people around him, leaving him with a dearth of advisers on whom he genuinely depends. In effect, it can feel like a presidency of one." ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "As dysfunctional as the White House is today, it likely will get worse because Trump is trapped in a vicious circle. His management style makes it difficult for him to hire and retain qualified people. This leads to an understaffed and relatively inexperienced White House, one prone to burnout and poor decision-making. And as more staffers leave, the fewer people remain to advise Trump responsibly and rein in his excesses. If this pattern continues, a trade war might seem tame compared to the wars an 'isolated and angry' Trump is willing to wage." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kaitlan Collins & Dan Merica of CNN: President Trump "has emboldened Anthony Scaramucci, the boisterous former communications director who was fired after just 10 days, to continue attacking White House chief of staff John Kelly during his cable news appearances, a source familiar with the situation told CNN. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing, Ctd.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Robert "Mueller is often described as having been appointed to investigate possible collusion between the campaign of President Trump and Russian actors, but it's clearly broader than that. And, as time has passed, some specifics have emerged about what Mueller and his team are investigating.... Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.... Possible efforts by the Trump campaign to aid the Russian interference.... Obstruction of Mueller's investigation.... Financial crimes uncovered through the investigation.... Other foreign money used to influence the election or administration policy.... Lying to federal officials." Bump goes into detail on each of these points, providing a helpful overview of what we've learned so far about the investigation.

** Mr. Big Mouth. Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The special counsel in the Russia investigation has learned of two conversations in recent months in which President Trump asked key witnesses about matters they discussed with investigators, according to hree people familiar with the encounters. In one episode, the president told an aide that the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, should issue a statement denying a New York Times article in January. The article said Mr. McGahn told investigators that the president once asked him to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. McGahn never released a statement and later had to remind the president that he had indeed asked Mr. McGahn to see that Mr. Mueller was dismissed, the people said. In the other episode, Mr. Trump asked his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, how his interview had gone with the special counsel's investigators and whether they had been 'nice,' according to two people familiar with the discussion. The episodes demonstrate that ... the president has ignored his lawyers' advice to avoid doing anything publicly or privately that could create the appearance of interfering with it." ...

     ... Aaron Blake: "That's right: Trump's response to a story about him possibly obstructing the investigation by trying to fire Mueller was to ... try to do something else that might be construed as obstruction -- manufacturing a false denial. And not only that, but Trump actually mused about possibly firing McGahn if he didn't comply. The report states that now-former White House staff secretary Rob Porter 'told Mr. McGahn the president had suggested he might "get rid of" Mr. McGahn if he chose not to challenge the article.' So Trump's response to a story about McGahn possibly quitting over Trump's effort to fire Mueller was to threaten to fire McGahn?" ...

     ... Margaret Hartmann points out that eithe Trump is a liar who was trying to force the White House counsel to lie, too, OR he's demented: "Trump might have threatened to fire McGahn if he didn't publicly lie about his failed attempt at a Saturday Night Massacre. But there's another possibility: Trump thought he was demanding that McGahn release a truthful statement, because he didn't recall ordering Mueller's firing."

** Sari Horwitz & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin -- apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter. In January 2017, Erik Prince, the founder of the private security company Blackwater, met with a Russian official close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of U.S.-Russia relations. A witness cooperating with Mueller has told investigators the meeting was set up in advance so that a representative of the Trump transition could meet with an emissary from Moscow to discuss future relations between the countries, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... George Nader, a Lebanese American businessman who helped organize and attended the Seychelles meeting, has testified on the matter before a grand jury...." ...

... Josh Marshall: "Here we have a familiar story. [Erik] Prince appears caught conducting clandestine business, which may not be criminal in itself (you can meet people in the Seychelles) but may or may not be part of a broader criminal conspiracy. But here he may be caught not only in a lie but a highly material lie and perhaps one that is so clear-cut and designed to impede a lawful investigation that he can be prosecuted for it. That gives investigators a key hook with which to pry open more of the story.... The Post article and other reports suggest this Seychelles meeting was part of the effort over the course of the transition to open a backchannel between Trump and the Kremlin. The meeting was 'around January 11' 2017. That is to say, 9 or 10 days prior to Trump's inauguration. Presidents don't need back-channels to conduct discussions with foreign governments...." ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "We don’t know at this point what the Trump team wanted to talk about over those back channels. But investments in the family businesses in exchange for sanctions relief and/or a foreign policy favorable to the investor seems to be an emerging theme."

Putin Puppet Makes "Very Good Impression." Vladimir Isachenkov of the AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin lavished praise on ... Donald Trump, but added that he was sorely disappointed with the U.S. political system, saying that it has been 'eating itself up.' Speaking in a series of interviews with Russian state television which were included in a documentary released Wednesday, Putin described Trump as a great communicator. 'I have no disappointment at all,' Putin said when asked about the U.S. president. 'Moreover, on a personal level he made a very good impression on me.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Plot Thickens. Suzanne Kianpour of BBC News: "The BBC has obtained leaked emails that show a lobbying effort to get US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sacked for failing to support the United Arab Emirates against regional rival Qatar. Major Trump fundraiser and UAE-linked businessman Elliott Broidy met US President Donald Trump in October 2017 and urged him to sack Mr Tillerson, the emails reveal.... Mr Broidy's defence company Circinus has hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts with the UAE.... He emailed a detailed account of his meeting with the president to George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman.... [Robert Mueller's] Investigators questioned Mr Nader and other witnesses on whether there were any efforts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to Mr Trump's presidential campaign.... Mr Broidy also detailed a separate sit-down with Mr Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, according to the emails." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "[W]hile [Rex] Tillerson's qualifications to be secretary of state were minimal at best, he is just the kind of guy the Kremlin would want to see in the job. So how did he get picked?.... [A]s Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between Trump officials and Russia moves forward, Tillerson's nomination is begging for a closer look." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jonathan Allen, et al., of NBC News: "A day before she resigned as White House communications director, Hope Hicks told the House Intelligence Committee last week that one of her email accounts was hacked, according to people who were present for her testimony in the panel's Russia probe."

Vikram Dodd, et al., of the Guardian: "The former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was deliberately poisoned with a nerve agent in a case that police are now treating as attempted murder, Scotland Yard's assistant chief commissioner has confirmed this afternoon. Mark Rowley said the police officer who was first to the spot where [Skripal & his daughter] were found in Salisbury on Sunday afternoon was now 'seriously ill' in hospital. His condition had deteriorated, Rowley said.... All three were suffering from 'exposure to a nerve agent'. Detectives now believed that Sergei and Yulia Skripal were specifically targeted, he added, in a deliberate act. The two victims are still critically ill in hospital." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Another Plot Thickens. Elizabeth Preza of the Raw Story: "A British security consultant close to the Russian agent who was poisoned last weekend worked for an investigative consultancy agency run by former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele, the Telegraph reports. According to the Telegraph, the consultant 'lived close' to Col. Sergei Skripal, the Russian double agent who was attacked by assassins Sunday." (The Telegraph story is subscriber-firewalled.)


John Santucci, et al., of ABC News: "Several White House staffers have been terminated or reassigned for issues related to their security clearances -- with at least one individual employed in the Office of the First Lady relieved of duty, sources with direct knowledge tell ABC News. There is a list of several other individuals with security clearance issues that are under consideration for possible termination or reassignment in the coming days, sources also tell ABC News. These individuals are likely lower level and could include people who work in the complex but not necessarily in the small confines of the West Wing. The full break down on the list of possible individuals that action could be taken against was not readily available on Wednesday." ...

... To the Victor.... Eric Lipton & Danielle Ivory of the New York Times: "... nearly 260 or so former Trump campaign and inauguration workers ... have gotten jobs reserved for political appointees in the administration, according to public records compiled by ProPublica and analyzed by The New York Times. In all, more than 2,475 political appointees have joined the federal government since President Trump took office, including at least 187 former lobbyists and also 125 people with ties to conservative think tanks..., the records show.... 'Overall, my reading is that the Trump political appointees have less expertise, in their respective areas, than any presidential administration dating back to at least the Reagan era,' said Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who reviewed the database."

This is not the way foreign policy normally is, or should be, conducted. The sending of the president's son-in-law -- someone with no experience in Mexican-U.S. relations -- is another example of the de-professionalization and personalization of diplomacy that will hurt U.S. interests and leverage in the region. -- Christopher Sabatini of Columbia University

I don't know if the new administration is just turning back the clock or just doesn't give a damn. -- Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico under Democratic and Republican presidents ...

... Azam Ahmed & Nicholas Casey of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner ... met with Mexico's president on Wednesday, arriving just weeks after a planned a meeting between the nations' leaders fell apart because of a bitter phone dispute over Mr. Trump's proposed border wall. Mr. Kushner's meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto was meant to soothe tensions. Plans for the two presidents to meet have been abruptly canceled at least twice since Mr. Trump took office, and the relationship between their countries is suffering its roughest patch in decades. But the encounter between Mexico's president and Mr. Kushner, a political newcomer whose top-secret security clearance was stripped last month, underscored the profound shift in approach that the Trump administration has taken with Mexico, and with the region more broadly. Officials announced the visit less than a day before it happened, offering no guidance on what would be discussed. Beyond that, Mr. Kushner, who also met with Mexico's foreign minister, did not invite the American ambassador -- Roberta S. Jacobson, a diplomat with more than 30 years of experience in the region -- to join him in the meetings.... Mrs. Jacobson ... will leave her post in May." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sending the kid to non-democratic countries -- where monarchs or other autocrats privilege their own offspring -- may work. But Mexico is a representative democracy, & it's downright embarrassing to have to send the son-in-law on a lonely mop-up mission because the head-of-state cannot behave himself.

There is no nullification. There is no secession. Federal law is 'the supreme law of the land.' I would invite any doubters to Gettysburg, and to the graves of John C. Calhoun and Abraham Lincoln. -- AG Jeff Sessions, in Sacramento yesterday, criticizing the California state government

Yes, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is still pissed off about the outcome of the Civil War, and he doesn't mind using his lifelong pique as an argument for curbing the human rights of another ethnic group. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Thomas Fuller & Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "... a visit by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to the California capital, Sacramento, on Wednesday produced an unfiltered shouting match that was remarkable even for the long-embattled antagonists, and seemed to be a culmination of fraying relations between the conservative administration and the country's deepest blue state. Mr. Sessions told a crowd of more than 200 law enforcement officials in a hotel ballroom that he would not stand for the insubordination of California lawmakers and what he called the dangerous obstruction of federal immigration laws.... A 10-minute walk away, in a briefing room of the State Capitol, Gov. Jerry Brown unleashed a tirade against Mr. Sessions and the Trump administration. He said that the administration was 'full of liars' and that Mr. Sessions was 'basically going to war against the state of California.'"

Students at Stoneman Douglas High panned Betsy DeVos's visit to the school. The kids are all right.

What a Mess! Lisa Rein & Emily Wax-Thibodeaux of the Washington Post: "Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin on Wednesday announced a sweeping overhaul of the senior leadership at troubled hospitals across the country following the release of a searing investigation into what the agency watchdog said were management failures that put patients at VA's flagship medical center in the District at risk. Shulkin said that one senior regional official has been reassigned and two others forced to retire to clean up the management of hospitals and clinics in the Washington area, New England, Phoenix and parts of California. And he said he is replacing leaders of about 20 medical centers across the country, including in Maryland and Virginia, after outside teams identified low-performing hospitals.... The personnel moves came as Shulkin tries to reassert control over the second-largest federal agency in the aftermath of a separate, critical report by Inspector General Michael J. Missal on a trip he took to Europe last summer. That report exposed deep factions in the agency's senior leadership ranks, with Shulkin claiming that political appointees on his staff are trying to oust him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Donovan Slack of USA Today: "Department of Veterans Affairs officials at nearly every level knew for years about sterilization lapses and equipment shortfalls at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center, but they were either unwilling or unable to fix the problems, an inspector general investigation found. The failures put patients at risk and squandered taxpayer dollars. Clinicians put patients under anesthesia before realizing they didn't have equipment to perform scheduled procedures. In some cases, they canceled and redid surgeries later. In others, they ran across the street to a private-sector hospital to borrow supplies midprocedure. Investigators found more than 1,000 boxes of unsecured documents that contained veterans' personal information -- including medical records -- in storage facilities, the basement and a dumpster. The hospital paid exorbitant amounts for supplies and equipment, including $300 per speculum it could have bought for $122 each, and $900 each for a special needle that was available for $250.... investigators did not find evidence that VA Secretary David Shulkin or his top deputies had been informed of the problems. Shulkin fired the Washington medical center director last year after the inspector general issued an emergency preliminary report concluding patients were in imminent danger at the facility." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is giving top officials permission to moonlight for private companies in their off-time, a practice that could conflict with their official duties at the federal agency. Two of the most prominent EPA officials currently under scrutiny are John Konkus, who serves as the EPA's deputy associate administrator for the Office of Public Affairs, and Patrick Davis, an EPA senior adviser.... Konkus received approval ... to work ... as a media consultant.... Th EPA is refusing to disclose Konkus's clients, raising more questions about potential conflicts of interest with his official and outside work.... Davis, a ... former director of Trump's presidential campaign in Colorado ... work[s] as the sales director for Telephone Town Hall Meeting, which does outreach for legislators and political campaigns.... Several current EPA political appointees have received approval ... to engage in outside activity for compensation." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ben Carson Hates Black People. Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post: "Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is changing the mission statement of his agency, removing promises of inclusive and discrimination-free communities." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

President Trump Hates Puppies. Steve Contorno of the Tampa Bay Times: "In May of last year, the Tampa Bay Times asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide the three most recent inspections of 15 puppy breeders who supply Tampa-area stores. It took nine months, but the reply arrived last week: 54 pages of total blackout. Every word of every inspection -- from the date to the violations -- were redacted from the documents provided. Providing 'personnel and medical files,' the agency said, would 'constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.' These records used to be available on the USDA website for anyone to search and find. But in the first month after ... Donald Trump took office, the information was scrubbed entirely from the website. Why does that matter to Floridians? Because state lawmakers are now considering legislation that would null any local ordinance that prohibits the sale of dogs from a USDA-licensed breeder."

The Best People, Ctd. Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News: "The chief of the country's forestry agency has stepped down amid an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed to ABC News in a statement on Wednesday night.... Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue confirmed that he accepted Tooke's resignation.... A PBS News investigation first reported allegations against Chief Tony Tooke related to relationships with subordinates prior to when he assumed his current role. The U.S. Forest Service confirmed last week that an independent investigator was looking into concerns about Tooke's behavior.... The agency has a history of problems related to sexual harassment and misconduct allegations.... Tooke was appointed as Forest Service chief by ... Perdue [-- a Trump appointee --] on August 21, 2017."

Presidential Race. Trump's Self-Dealing Candidacy, Ctd. S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump's re-election campaign last year spent over a half-million dollars for Trump Tower offices ― a choice that put donors' money into the president's pocket, but provided workspace for at most a handful of staff. According to a HuffPost analysis of Federal Election Commission filings, the monthly rent was more than what candidate Trump had been charging from June 2015 to March 2016, back when he was largely self-funding his campaign and when there were, on average, several dozen employees in the midtown Manhattan office. And while it is unclear why Trump's re-election campaign has rented so much room for so few people, its decision to do so has helped fill office space that appears to have become much more difficult to rent out since Trump won the presidency."

Senate Race. Sen. Rafael Edward Cruz (R-Texas) Attacks Opponent for Using Nickname. Eric Bradner of CNN: "As Tuesday's primaries were closing, [Ted] Cruz's campaign released a 60-second radio ad that was a country music jingle prodding [Democratic Rep. Beto] O'Rourke for going by 'Beto' rather than 'Robert.'... 'My parents have called me Beto from day one, and it's just -- it's kind of a nickname for Robert in El Paso. It just stuck,' he said in a brief phone interview Tuesday night. O'Rourke has previously posted a baby picture of himself in a hand-stitched 'Beto' sweater on Instagram.... He declined to comment on the Republican senator, whose given name is Rafael Edward Cruz, going by 'Ted.'"

Shahien Nasiripour, et al., of Bloomberg: "Wells Fargo & Co. has emerged as the preferred financier for the U.S. gun industry. The bank has helped two of the biggest U.S. firearm and ammunition companies access $431.1 million in loans and bonds since December 2012, when the gun control debate gained steam after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts it on the top of the list of banks arranging funding for gunmakers. Wells Fargo also has a long relationship with the National Rifle Association, inherited from banks that Wells took over. The San Francisco-based Wells Fargo created a $28 million line of credit for the NRA and operates the primary accounts for the pro-Second Amendment group, financial documents show." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I closed out my large account with Wells Fargo last year after publication of all those stories about WF's cheating its customers. I still have a small checking account. As soon as the snow melts from this latest Nor'easter, I'm closing that out, too.

Kate Taylor of Business Insider: "People driving by a McDonald's in Lynwood, California, might be baffled by an upside-down sign. The golden arches, typically standing as an M, have been flipped over to become a W.... The upside-down arches are in 'celebration of women everywhere," a McDonald's representative told Business Insider.... Patricia Williams, the location's franchisee, flipped her restaurant's sign in honor of International Women's Day on Thursday. McDonald's says it will turn its logo upside down on all its digital channels, such as Twitter and Instagram, on Thursday, while 100 restaurants will have special 'packaging, crew shirts and hats, and bag stuffers' to celebrate."

Beyond the Beltway

Steve Bousquet, et al., of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau: "Three weeks after the Parkland murders, a somber and divided House gave final passage Wednesday to Florida’s first gun restrictions in three decades and approved $400 million for mental health and school safety. The vote was 67-50. The gun and school safety bill (SB 7026), which earlier passed the Senate on a precarious 20-18 vote, goes to Gov. Rick Scott, who said he will consult with Parkland families but declined to say whether he will sign or veto it."

Martin Cizmar of RawStory: "Texas Republicans are not taking the Democratic surge in the Lone Star State lightly.... Record turnout has apparently sent chills through Republicans in the state.... Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is accusing local school districts of 'electioneering,' by encouraging students to vote and bussing them to polls. Paxton, who survived an indictment for securities fraud when a judge dismissed the case, has said that students cannot be bussed to the polls on election day and issued cease-and-desist letters to the school districts.... He' also tried to ferret out opponents in those schools by filing records requests for 'all emails between superintendents and principals pertaining to voting,'" --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

Weather Channel: "Winter Storm Quinn continues to pound the Northeast, where it has brought more than 2 feet of heavy, wet snow and wind gusts over 50 mph, causing more than 700,000 power outages just days after another nor'easter knocked out power to over 2 million. Into Thursday morning, snow will continue spreading northward across most of New England, although rain may stubbornly hang on in far southeastern New England. Winds will also intensify in portions of New England, with gusts over 50 mph at times. Widespread thundersnow was reported in the New York City area, parts of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and southern New England Wednesday afternoon and early-evening, along with snowfall rates up to 3 inches per hour."

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