The Commentariat -- February 23, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Mark Mazzetti & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A former top adviser to Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign indicted by the special counsel was expected to plead guilty as soon as Friday afternoon, according to two people familiar with his plea agreement, a move that signals he is cooperating with the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The adviser, Rick Gates, is a longtime political consultant who once served as Mr. Trump's deputy campaign chairman. The plea deal could be a significant development in the investigation -- a sign that Mr. Gates plans to offer incriminating information against his longtime associate and the former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, or other members of the Trump campaign in exchange for a lighter punishment.... Mr. Gates was present for the most significant periods of activity of the campaign, as Mr. Trump began developing policy positions and his digital operation engaged with millions of voters on platforms such as Facebook." ...

... Andrea Mitchell, et al., of NBC News: "Gates, who was indicted with former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort in October on conspiracy and other charges related to their lobbying work in Ukraine, will appear in federal court in Washington at 2 p.m. on Friday to enter the plea, according to court records." ...

... Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "The guilty plea ... caps a busy week for Mueller's investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and related issues. It also ends a tumultuous period for Gates, who found himself re-indicted, changing lawyers and agreeing to plead guilty all within 24 hours. According to a criminal information -- a document filed with the permission of the defendant which traditionally signals that person plans to plead guilty -- Gates conspired to defraud the United States regarding the money he and his business partner Paul Manafort earned and lied to the FBI in a Feb. 1, 2018 interview about a 2013 meeting he had had with Manafort and an unidentified lobbyist.... Gates could provide the special counsel with valuable information about the inner workings of Trump's operation: He served as a senior figure in the campaign and had access to the White House as an outside adviser in the early months of the administration." ...

... Nobody Wants to Talk to Devin Nunes. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "An associate of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) invoked the Fifth Amendment in order to not testify before the House Intelligence Committee on a dossier of opposition research that claims ties between President Trump and Russia, according to Fox News. The committee originally issued a subpoena for David Kramer -- a former State Department official and current senior director of the nonprofit McCain Institute -- in December. Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) had wanted to speak with Kramer about his visit to London in November 2016, during which he met with the author of the dossier..., Christopher Steele. According to court filings, he met with Steele at McCain's request, to view 'the pre-election memoranda on a confidential basis.' Kramer then traveled back to the U.S. and gave copies of the memos to McCain, who in turn handed the documents over to the FBI. The committee interviewed Kramer last month prior to issuing a subpoena for him."

Tierney McAfee of People: "In his speech Friday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference..., Donald Trump took aim [at] Sen. John McCain, knocking the Arizona Republican for voting against his party's bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Though Trump didn't mention McCain -- who is battling brain cancer -- by name, the reference was clear to the crowd, which responded by erupting into boos directed at the senator.... The moment added fuel to an already contentious relationship between McCain and Trump, who came under fire in July 2015 for saying the former Vietnam prisoner of war was not a 'hero' because he got captured. Axios also reported in September that Trump physically mocked McCain's war injuries while imitating his famous thumbs-up moment. But after McCain went public with his brain cancer diagnosis in July, the president called the senator's daughter Meghan in the fall and promised to back off." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, there was no need whatsoever to knock McCain today for something that happened months ago. Trump is just such a low form of slime himself that he can't help sliming everybody. ...

... Chris Cillizza of CNN: "Talking about the stakes of the 2018 election, Trump said that if Democrats win back control of Congress 'they'll take away your 2nd Amendment.' As he closed his speech, Trump again said Democrats want to repeal the 2nd Amendment: 'They will do that, they will do that,' he said. Which is, of course, not true. It is also hugely toxic to any attempt to find shared ground on the sort of 'common sense' changes to gun laws that Trump, um, trumpeted later in his CPAC speech.... Trump ... [is] banking on the fact that none of the CPAC crowd cheering for that line has any real sense of the logistical unlikelihood of Democrats [being able to repeal a Constitutional amendment]. What Trump is doing is trying to scare people into voting.... Trump's pivot from compromiser-in-chief to flamethrower-in-chief on guns should surprise exactly no one. He did a very similar about-face on immigration...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Cillizza of course presupposes that Trump knows how Constitutional provisions can be repealed or replaced. I don't believe a guy who thinks there are at least 12 Articles in the Constitution has the slightest idea of the provisions of Article V. All he knows is that yesterday Wayne LaPierre claimed that the Democrats' agenda was "stripping away Second Amendment rights away from law-abiding citizens." Our president* is a moron.

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump announced harsh new shipping sanctions against North Korea on Friday -- a clear signal, near the end of an Olympic Games marked by a rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, that his pressure campaign against Pyongyang will not let up.... The measures target 27 shipping companies and 28 vessels, registered in North Korea and six other countries, including China.... [Trump's order] did not blacklist ships or companies from Russia, even though Russia is suspected of supporting the illicit trade.... It was not clear how successfully the United States could enforce the new measures. Cutting off the illegal trade, analysts said, will require interdicting ships at sea, and North Korea could well regard a blockade or forced inspections of its vessels as an act of war.... The timing of Mr. Trump's announcement was notable, coming just hours after South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in, played host at dinner to Mr. Trump's daughter, Ivanka, who is leading the United States delegation to the closing ceremony of the games on Sunday."

John Walcott of Reuters: "Longstanding friction between ... Donald Trump and two top aides, the National Security Adviser and the Chief of Staff, has grown to a point that either or both might quit soon, four senior administration officials said. Both H.R. McMaster and John Kelly are military men considered by U.S. political observers as moderating influences on the president by imposing a routine on the White House." ...

     ... digby: "I have no particular respect for either one but it's likely that whoever he brings in next will be even worse. I keep seeing John Bolton's name bandied about on Fox News. And we know who Trump listens to don't we?" ...

... Shimon Prokupecz, et al., of CNN: "Jared Kushner has been unable to obtain a full security clearance in part because of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Kushner ... is unlikely to obtain the full clearance as long as the special counsel's probe is ongoing, one of the sources said.... During that time, Kushner has been able to access the government's most sensitive secrets thanks to an interim security clearance. But that access could soon be cut off -- unless Trump steps in with a waiver. There is no indication that Mueller is close to wrapping up his investigation, and an impending crackdown by White House chief of staff John Kelly aimed at restricting access to classified information for those with long-pending interim clearances is expected to nix or downgrade Kushner's interim security clearance. The combination of factors could leave Kushner without a security clearance for months to come, even as he tackles sensitive issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the United States' relationship with Mexico."

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that he is 'amazed' at how quickly President Trump bowed to the National Rifle Association (NRA) after he threw his support behind a proposal to arm trained teachers. 'Not surprised the NRA reeled President Trump back in,' Schumer said in a statement. 'Just amazed at how fast it happened.'" ...

... Brandon Carter of the Hill: "Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele slammed President Trump for suggesting some teachers should be armed in order to prevent future school shootings, calling the idea 'delusional.' 'The president and others promoting arming teachers are delusional. Wake the hell up people,' Steele, who has become an outspoken critic of Trump within the GOP, tweeted Friday. 'There was a uniformed, armed police officer on duty at Douglas H. S. and he did nothing. And you expect teachers to do his job?'" ...

... Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: Florida "Gov. Rick Scott proposed on Friday the most significant move toward gun control in Florida in decades, in defiance of the National Rifle Association, though some of his ideas fell short of what student advocates pleaded for after they lost 17 classmates and staff members last week in one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. The governor, a Republican, backed raising the minimum age to buy any firearm, including semiautomatic rifles, to 21 from 18, a restriction opposed by the N.R.A.... Mr. Scott also said he would push to ban 'bump stocks,' which enable semiautomatic rifles to fire faster, and would ask for $500 million for mental health and school safety programs, including requiring at least one armed police officer for every 1,000 students at public schools.... Mr. Scott, who is widely expected to run for a United States Senate seat this year, also broke with the president and the N.R.A. by not endorsing putting more armed personnel in schools, an idea fiercely opposed by the students from Stoneman Douglas High." ...

... Mary Klas of the Tampa Bay Times: "A majority of Floridians support a ban on the sale of assault weapons, including a majority of Florida gun owners, according to a poll conducted by this week by the Florida Senate Republican leaders. The measure is the latest sign that the bills drafted by the House and Senate and expected to be unveiled on Friday may fall short of what most Floridians want lawmakers to do after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 that killed 17 students and teachers."

AP: "State investigators have found a nude photo and partially nude photo of a woman that they believe were taken with the work cellphone of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry's former lead bodyguard, with whom she has admitted having an extramarital affair, according to court documents filed Thursday. In affidavits by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the agency says there's probable cause to show Sgt. Rob Forrest shot those two photos while his timesheet says he was working and that the two were engaging in their affair while he was on duty. The photos were discovered in Forrest's work email, the filings state. There were 260 deleted chats between Forrest's phone and Barry's phone number as well as 35 deleted call logs, the affidavit states. The bureau stopped short of identifying who was in the photos. But in the affidavit, an agent says he believes a black purse in one nude photo is the same purse found in a different photo of Barry found on Forrest's phone.... 'Nothing in the affidavits released today ... indicates that I have committed any actions that violate the law,' Barry said in a statement Thursday. 'If any violations of the law occurred, they were in violating my personal rights.'" Mrs. McC: Barry is a Democrat.

*****

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump bashed CNN [& MSNBC] in a tweet Thursday after [seeing] a [Fox 'News'] report that [CNN] allegedly tried to get a student to read a scripted question at a town hall on gun violence. [CNN] rejected Trump's assertion. 'School shooting survivor says he quit @CNN Town Hall after refusing scripted question.' @TuckerCarlson. Just like so much of CNN, Fake News. That's why their ratings are so bad! MSNBC may be worse,' the president wrote online." Mrs. McC: Trump knows it must be true if he sees it on Fox "News." Imbecile. Even if Tucker's report were true, a Real President would be above mentioning it.

Trump Proposes Teacher Bonuses -- If They Pack Heat. Julie Davis & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday intensified his calls for arming highly trained teachers as part of an effort to fortify schools against shooting massacres like the one that occurred in Parkland, Fla., last week, even as he denounced active shooter drills that try to prepare students to survive a rampage.... Teachers who were qualified to handle a weapon -- Mr. Trump estimated between 10 percent and 40 percent -- would receive 'a little bit of a bonus,' he said, adding that he would devote federal money to training them.... The president made his comments as he convened law enforcement, state and local officials at the White House to discuss a range of proposals that could prevent future school shooting massacres.... Arming teachers is not a new concept. The N.R.A. advocated for it in the wake of the 2012 mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children dead." ...

... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The head of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, leveled a searing indictment on Thursday against liberal Democrats, the news media and political opportunists he said were joined together in a socialist plot to 'eradicate all individual freedoms.' Mr. LaPierre's remarks, his first since a gunman took the lives of 17 people at a Florida high school last week, seemed aimed at blunting the rising public pressure for stricter gun control. Conservatives, he said, needed to push back even as liberals tried to smear them. 'The shameful politicization of tragedy -- it's a classic strategy, right out of the playbook of a poisonous movement,' he said to a friendly but largely restrained crowd at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. 'They hate the N.R.A. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom.'" ...

... John Wagner & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday doubled down on his idea of arming some teachers as a deterrent for school shootings and praised the top leadership of the National Rifle Association as 'Great American Patriots.' In morning tweets, the president claimed the strategy of arming teachers would be far less costly than hiring guards and that 'ATTACKS WOULD END!' The tweets echoed a solution that Trump pushed during a 'listening session' Wednesday at the White House, which included relatives of some of the 17 people killed by a gunman last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida. 'Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive,' Trump said in one tweet." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump claimed Thursday morning that he did not suggest the blanket arming of teachers at a White House listening session a day earlier, accusing CNN and NBC News of misinterpreting his proposal. 'I never said "give teachers guns" like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @nbc. What I said was to look at the possibility of giving concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience -- only the best. 20 percent of teachers, a lot, would now be able to immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions,' the president wrote on Twitter Thursday morning in a pair of posts.... Trump's online explanation of his proposal differs from the language he used Wednesday at a listening session with survivors and victims' family members from last week's high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Addressing the group, Trump suggested that teachers undergo firearm training and be allowed to carry concealed weapons inside schools." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The Week: "President Trump's plan to arm teachers to prevent school shootings like the one in Parkland, Florida, has an important opponent: actual teachers. In a statement Thursday, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said her union's position is firm, even among teachers who are gun owners: 'Teachers don't want to be armed, we want to teach. We don't want to be, and would never have the expertise needed to be, sharp shooters; no amount of training can prepare an armed teacher to go up against an AR-15.'" ...

... Moriah Balingit & Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "Educators still reeling from gun violence that left 17 dead at a Florida high school expressed frustration Thursday at President Trump's call for teachers to take up arms to defend their classrooms against school shooters, saying the thought of using lethal force in a crowded hallway or against one of their students was unimaginable." ...

... See also Akhilleus' comments in yesterday's thread on what a good idea arming teachers is. Mrs. McC: Another thing to look at is the way Trump came up with his brilliant "gun-control" ideas: he asked Junior & Eric & some dinner guests at Mar-a-Lago (update: and the NRA). A normal leader seeking to reduce gun violence would employ expert analyses to determine the most effective solutions. He would not try to talk kids into his dumb ideas at a session where he had to be reminded to listen. Should he hear from survivors? Of course. But those 16-year-olds are not experts, either, even if -- despite the trauma they had just experienced -- they are far more reasonable than Trump. Trump's reign of ignorance continues to amaze me, even though it's really all I expect. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND what if Sister Mary Elephant is too skeert to confront the killer? It could happen. For instance...,

     ... Lori Rozsa & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The armed school resource officer assigned to protect students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School took a defensive position outside the school and did not enter the building while the shooter was killing students and teachers inside with an AR-15 assault-style rifle, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Thursday. Israel said he suspended School Resource Deputy Scot Peterson on Thursday after seeing a video from the Parkland, Fla., school that showed Peterson outside the school building where the shooter was inside and attacking." ...

... Noor Al-Sibai of RawStory: "In the wake of the Valentine's Day mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, hundreds of schools have been the subject of threats in the interim. An uptick of copycat threats after mass shootings have been documented prior to the Parkland shooting. The Educator's School Safety Network reported 369 'total incidents and threats' since February 15, and they reported an average of 50 threats per day in the week since. That's five times more than the typical 10 per day they document." --safari ...

... Heather Sher, a Florida radiologist, in the Atlantic, describes the difference between the damage done by an AR-15 bullet (or bullets, since the AR-15 can shoot multiple bullets in rapid succession) & by a typical handgun. Mrs. McC: If you still think it might be a good idea for Sister Mary Elephant to tuck a nifty little silver .22 into her habit so she can gun down an AR-15-toting intruder, Dr. Sher might change your mind. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post looks at some of the economics of arming & training more than 700,000 teachers -- Trump's proposal -- a number of trained marksmen nearly the size of the Army & Navy combined. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Frank Rich: "However much 'listening' [Trump] purports to do, he will do absolutely nothing to remedy the epidemic of violence that is literally and figuratively consuming the country. Trump, who was endorsed by the NRA even before he won the presidential nomination and then benefited from $30 million of NRA campaign spending, is even now giving the gun lobby still more of what it paid for. Yesterday he called for more guns, not fewer, in schools, and he reiterated this nostrum with this incredible tweet [Thursday] morning: 'If a potential "sicko shooter" knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school. Cowards won't go there ... problem solved.' Let us repeat this: Problem solved!... He saluted Wayne LaPierre and his colleagues as 'Great American Patriots' in another tweet [Thursday] -- so he won't cross his base on this issue any more than he did on immigration. His sympathetic noises about the victims of gun violence are as empty as his repeated claims that he sympathized with Dreamers and wanted to help them." ...

... Trump Parrots NRA Jargon. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: "... in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre offered schools his organization's 'free' support and guidance to protect themselves, saying that communities 'must come together to implement the very best strategy to harden their schools.' President Trump echoed the sentiment Thursday saying 'we have to harden our sites' to protect schools from gun violence. Before schools start lining up to take advantage of LaPierre's generosity, it's worth revisiting exactly what the NRA means when it calls for measures to 'harden' a school. Here are a few recommendations from its 2013 task force report[.] Mrs. McC: Most of the recommendations are preposterous & would turn leafy, learning-friendly campuses into prison-like barrens. ...

... Say, Why Hasn't Anyone Thought of This Before? Gideon Resnick of the Daily Beast: "During a meeting Thursday with state lawmakers, President Trump suggested violent entertainment is to blame for mass shootings in the United States. His proposed solution? A ratings system for movies.... It was unclear whether Trump was aware that the Motion Picture Association of America already rates films based on graphic sexual or violent content; or if he was suggesting that ratings system needs to be overhauled." ...

     ... Adam Raymond of New York: "That the 'ratings system' Trump proposes already exists is only the most obvious problem with his comment. The other issue is that there is no connection between violent crime and violent media. 'All we can really say for sure is that there does not appear to be a link at this time between violent video games and school shootings'" Villanova psychologist Patrick Markey told USA Today last week after Kentucky governor Matt Bevin parroted the same stale talking point. 'And if there is a link, it goes in the opposite direction.' Markey's research suggests that school shooters are less likely to play violent video games than the average teenager."

... Florida House Finds Solution to School Shootings. Jeffrey Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times: "With the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting still looming large, its students in the Capitol to lobby for gun controls, the Florida House overwhelmingly passed a measure Wednesday its sponsor said aimed at bringing 'light' to the schools. The bill HB 839>) would require all public schools to post the state motto, 'In God We Trust,' in a 'conspicuous place.'" And this was a Democrat's idea. 'dossier' of unverified intelligence that contains claims about Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Luke Barnes of Think Progress: "A major car rental conglomerate which operates three prominent national brands is ending its corporate relationship with the National Rifle Association, as backlash grows in the wake of the Parkland mass shooting. Enterprise Holdings, which operates Enterprise, Alamo, and National, had a partnership with the NRA to provide discounts to members. The discounts are available to NRA members once they pay their $40 annual fee -- and were among the 22 corporations offering discounts and 'five star savings' to the gun lobby's members. On Thursday, however, all three brands announced that they would be ending the program within the next month.... On Tuesday, ThinkProgress detailed how 22 corporations were making membership to America's premier gun lobbying group more enticing by offering a range of discounts." ...

... Josh Israel & Kira Lerner of ThinkProgress: "For more than a decade, the First National Bank of Omaha has offered special branded Visa cards to National Rifle Association members to support the group. On Thursday, following two days of public pressure, the bank announced it 'will not renew its contract' with the NRA. The bank confirmed, in a tweet, that 'customer feedback caused' the decision[.] ...

... "Nasty, Brutish & Trump." Paul Krugman looks at the big picture: "... you might want to think of our madness over guns as just one aspect of the drive to turn us into what Thomas Hobbes described long ago: a society 'wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them.' And Hobbes famously told us what life in such a society is like: 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.' Yep, that sounds like Trump's America."

Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "President Trump said [casually] Thursday that he has become so frustrated with California's 'lousy management job' in cracking down on illegal immigration that he's thinking about removing federal immigration officials from the state. 'If we ever pulled our ICE out, if we ever said, "Hey, let California alone, let them figure it out for themselves," in two months they'd be begging for us to come back,' Trump said during a roundtable discussion about school shootings Thursday with state and local officials. 'They would be begging. And you know what, I'm thinking about doing it.'... [California Gov. Jerry] Brown responded with a statement Thursday afternoon that said: 'In California, we protect all of our people from criminals and gangs, as well as dangerous assault weapons. We do our job, Mr. President, you do yours.' Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that 'the president's attacks are not only mean-spirited, they're patently false.'"

This Russia Thing

Matt Apuzzo & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The special counsel unsealed new charges on Thursday against President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, accusing him of hiding income and defrauding banks. Many of the charges are similar to ones he was charged with in October. According to the new 32-count indictment, Mr. Manafort provided false information about his income to banks when he applied for mortgages. Seven of the counts relate to Mr. Manafort's failure to properly file reports on his foreign bank accounts. The indictment also revealed similar charges against Mr. Manafort's longtime business associate and campaign deputy, Rick Gates. He was indicted along with Mr. Manafort in October.... The original indictment did not explicitly bring tax charges, an omission that experts predicted that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, would ultimately correct.... The charges do not involve Mr. Trump or his campaign and involve accusations that predate either man's involvement with the president.... Court records paint an unflattering portrait of the man who ran the Trump campaign. Prosecutors say Mr. Manafort concealed years of lobbying for the pro-Russia government in Ukraine, laundered millions of dollars in proceeds and misled investigators about his foreign work." ...

     ... The new indictment against Manafort & Gates is here, via the Washington Post. ...

... Ali Dukakis of ABC News: "A Trump-appointed federal judge who donated to the Trump campaign and worked on his presidential transition team has rejected requests to recuse himself from overseeing a legal battle involving Fusion GPS, the research firm that commissioned the so-called 'dossier' of unverified intelligence that contains claims about Donald Trump-s alleged ties to Russia." (Also linked yesterday.)

Reuters: "The head of a federal commission who has helped U.S. states protect election systems from possible cyber attacks by Russia or others is being replaced at the behest of Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and the White House. Matthew Masterson, a member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission who currently serves as its chairman, has been passed over for a second four-year term as one of the agency's four commissioners.... Masterson has been a popular figure among state election officials, many of whom have praised his expertise and leadership on cyber security issues and expressed chagrin at his pending departure.... The action raises fresh questions over the degree to which Republican ... Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans who control Congress are taking steps to protect the security of American elections...."

Dan Lamothe, et al., of the Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to propose to President Trump that transgender members of the U.S. military be allowed to continue serving despite the president's call last summer for a ban on all transgender service members, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the issue.... Trump surprised many Pentagon officials on July 26 by issuing a string of tweets in which he said he was banning all transgender people from the military, despite not having a plan in place. Trump tweeted that he had reached his decision 'after consultation with my Generals and military experts,' citing the tremendous medical costs and disruption' he believed it would cause. Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, moved afterward to stop any changes from taking place until a new policy was adopted, and Mattis backed the move.... Since then, the Trump administration has been challenged in lawsuits, and federal judges required the Pentagon to open the military to transgender recruits beginning Jan. 1. The Pentagon indicated in December that it would not stand in the way of the court's ruling and issued new policy guidance to recruiters on how to enlist transgender men and women."

Vindu Goel of the New York Times: "After days of controversy over Donald Trump Jr.'s apparent mixing of his family's private business interests and American foreign policy during his trip this week to India, Mr. Trump and his hosts have signaled a change of direction. The original title of his planned 15-minute speech Friday evening was 'Reshaping Indo-Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation,' signaling that at least part of it would address American foreign policy and the relationship with India. Instead, Mr. Trump will now participate in a 'fireside chat' on an unspecified topic with an unspecified interviewer, according to the revised online agenda of the conference, which is hosted by India's leading business newspaper, The Economic Times. The audience will be 2,000 members of India's business and political elite, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other scheduled speakers include executives from Netflix and Uber." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: A fireside chat! How Rooseveltian. I wonder if Junior will wear a smoking jacket whilst fondling a pipe. Gas fireplace or logs? Whatever the topic, whatever the format, I'm sure we'll all want to know what Junior thinks.

Barbara Starr, et al., of CNN: "With tensions flaring between ... Donald Trump and national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the Pentagon is considering options that would allow the President to potentially move the three-star general out of his current role and back into the military, according to half a dozen defense and administration officials.... There was discussion in the West Wing about replacing him last fall, but he ultimately survived because officials, including the President himself, were skeptical about the optics of appointing a third national security adviser in less than a year.... The decision was also driven by the White House's challenge attracting top talent for jobs in the administration due to Trump's 'blacklist' of individuals who have criticized the President...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

All the Best People, Ctd. Yvette Cabrera of ThinkProgress: "Shortly after ... Donald Trump nominated Leandro Rizzuto Jr. as ambassador to Barbados, the Florida business executive promised to give thousands of dollars for an upcoming gala at the president's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, according to a Washington Post report published Thursday. Rizzuto and his wife pledged the donation, which may be as high as $25,000, in mid-January to the Trumpettes USA gala scheduled for 2019.... Most if not all of the money raised for the gala by the Trumpettes, a Palm Beach-based socialite group, is funneled to Mar-a-Lago, not for charity, according to the Post." --safari

We Are Not Talking about Stormy Daniels:

Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept: "The lead U.S. agency tasked with granting citizenship to would-be Americans is making a major change to its mission statement, removing a passage that describes the United States as a nation of immigrants." --safari...

...Micah Hauser of the Guardian tells the story about how immigrants are being blackmailed and extorted at our southern border: "Over the past five months, at least 11 families with relatives -- all asylum-seeking mothers and children -- detained at the facility have been extorted by impersonators who have demanded payment to stop their loved ones being deported.... The scammers have cited inexplicably specific details about their targets, making it very difficult not to trust what they say.... In other words, the perpetrators are likely in contact with, or themselves employees at, the federal agencies or private companies that oversee immigrant detainees." --safari

"A Golden Age for Corporate Crooks." Jonathan Chait: "The Republican Party's main legislative achievement was to facilitate the direct transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars into the hands of business owners. (The proceeds of the Trump tax cuts are mainly going into stock buybacks, a simple windfall for owners of capital.) But a second, less visible channel is the Trump administration's program of lax regulation. While the tax cuts spray money at business owners as a whole, weak enforcement of regulations confers a windfall targeted specifically at businesses that cheat their customers or break the law.... A massive shift in power and resources is underway, from consumers and workers to business owners. The natural confluence of interest between Trump's inclination as a proprietor of business scams, and the laissez-faire instincts of his partisan allies, is a golden age for corporate crime."

Beyond the Beltway

Gov. Greitens' mugshot.Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri was indicted on a felony invasion of privacy charge on Thursday by grand jurors in St. Louis. Mr. Greitens, a first-term Republican, photographed a nude or partially nude person without the person's knowledge or consent in 2015, according to charging documents released by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office. The indictment said Mr. Greitens then transmitted the photo in a way that allowed it to be seen on a computer, which prosecutors said made the crime a felony rather than a misdemeanor. The indictment comes weeks after Mr. Greitens acknowledged having an extramarital affair in 2015, before he took office, but denied claims that he blackmailed a woman or took a nude photo of her without permission. Mr. Greitens has resisted calls to resign, insisting that he had done nothing illegal...." Mrs. McC: Looks as if Greitens took that "Show-Me State" motto a bit too seriously. ...

... AND Right out of the Trusty GOP Handbook. Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) on Thursday accused the St. Louis Circuit attorney of being a 'reckless liberal prosecutor' out to 'score political points' after her office announced felony invasion of privacy charges against him." Mrs. McC: Right. Nothing "reckless" about your behavior, eh, Gov?

All the Best Candidates. Natasha Korecki of Politico: "A Republican candidate for the Illinois Legislature is under fire from his own party amid allegations that he asked a [Republican] African-American candidate for state attorney general whether she was a 'lesbo' and used a racial slur during a conversation with her. Now, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Republican floor leader of the Illinois House, Peter Breen, are calling for the candidate, Burt Minor, to drop out of a race for state representative."

Way Beyond

"Putin's Cook" Has Many Responsibilities Outside the Kitchen. Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Russian oligarch believed to control the Russian mercenaries who attacked U.S. troops and their allies in Syria this month was in close touch with Kremlin and Syrian officials in the days and weeks before and after the assault, according to U.S. intelligence reports. In intercepted communications in late January, the oligarch, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, told a senior Syrian official that he had 'secured permission' from an unspecified Russian minister to move forward with a 'fast and strong' initiative that would take place in early February. Prigozhin made front-page headlines last week when he was indicted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on charges of bankrolling and guiding a long-running Russian scheme to conduct 'information warfare' during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. He is known to have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, forged when he was a restaurateur in St. Petersburg and expanded through what became Prigozhin’s wide-ranging business empire, including extensive contracts with Russia's Defense Ministry.... The intercepted communications show not only that was Prigozhin personally involved in planning the attack but that he had discussed it with senior Syrian officials, including Minister of Presidential Affairs Mansour Fadlallah Azzam."

AFP: "Police have seized nearly 400 kilos of cocaine from the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires and arrested several members of a drug trafficking gang, Argentina's security minister announced Thursday." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie's Conspiracy Theory Special: What if it turns out Trump & Co. have been running drugs for their Russian mobster friends???

Sean Ingle of the Guardian: "Nadezha Sergeeva, who finished 12th in the two-woman bobsleigh, has become the second Russian to test positive for a banned substance at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.... The disclosure of another positive doping test comes just 24 hours after the Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky was stripped of an Olympic bronze medal.... The news will heap further pressure on the International Olympic Committee, who will meet on Saturday to decide whether the Russian team will be allowed to march under their own flag at Sunday's closing ceremony." --safari

The Commentariat -- February 22, 2018

Afternoon Update:

John Wagner & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday doubled down on his idea of arming some teachers as a deterrent for school shootings and praised the top leadership of the National Rifle Association as 'Great American Patriots.' In morning tweets, the president claimed the strategy of arming teachers would be far less costly than hiring guards and that 'ATTACKS WOULD END!' The tweets echoed a solution that Trump pushed during a 'listening session' Wednesday at the White House, which included relatives of some of the 17 people killed by a gunman last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida. 'Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive,' Trump said in one tweet." ...

     ... See Akhilleus' comment in today's thread on what a good idea this is. Mrs. McC: Another thing to look at is the way Trump came up with his brilliant "gun-control" ideas: he asked Junior & Eric & some dinner guests at Mar-a-Lago. A normal leader seeking to reduce gun violence would employ expert analyses to determine the most effective solutions. He would not try to talk kids into his dumb ideas at a session where he had to be reminded to listen. Should he hear from survivors? Of course. But those 16-year-olds are not experts, either, even if they are far more reasonable than Trump. Trump's reign of ignorance continues to amaze me, even though it's really all I expect. ...

... Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump claimed Thursday morning that he did not suggest the blanket arming of teachers at a White House listening session a day earlier, accusing CNN and NBC News of misinterpreting his proposal. 'I never said "give teachers guns" like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @nbc. What I said was to look at the possibility of giving concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience -- only the best. 20 percent of teachers, a lot, would now be able to immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions,' the president wrote on Twitter Thursday morning in a pair of posts.... Trump's online explanation of his proposal differs from the language he used Wednesday at a listening session with survivors and victims' family members from last week's high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Addressing the group, Trump suggested that teachers undergo firearm training and be allowed to carry concealed weapons inside schools." ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post looks at some of the economics of arming & training more than 700,000 teachers -- Trump's proposal -- a number of trained marksmen nearly the size of the Army & Navy combined.

Florida House Finds Solution to School Shootings. Jeffrey Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times: "With the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting still looming large, its students in the Capitol to lobby for gun controls, the Florida House overwhelmingly passed a measure Wednesday its sponsor said aimed at bringing 'light' to the schools. The bill (HB 839) would require all public schools to post the state motto, 'In God We Trust,' in a 'conspicuous place.'" And this was a Democrat's idea.

Barbara Starr, et al., of CNN: "With tensions flaring between ... Donald Trump and national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the Pentagon is considering options that would allow the President to potentially move the three-star general out of his current role and back into the military, according to half a dozen defense and administration officials.... There was discussion in the West Wing about replacing him last fall, but he ultimately survived because officials, including the President himself, were skeptical about the optics of appointing a third national security adviser in less than a year.... The decision was also driven by the White House's challenge attracting top talent for jobs in the administration due to Trump's 'blacklist' of individuals who have criticized the President...."

Ali Dukakis of ABC News: "A Trump-appointed federal judge who donated to the Trump campaign and worked on his presidential transition team has rejected requests to recuse himself from overseeing a legal battle involving Fusion GPS, the research firm that commissioned the so-called 'dossier' of unverified intelligence that contains claims about Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia."

*****

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "A week after a gunman opened fire with an AR-15-style assault rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., killing 17 people and prompting a rash of student-driven lobbying for new gun restrictions, Mr. Trump met for more than an hour with grieving people in search of solutions. News cameras captured the unusual listening session, revealing an emotional give-and-take between a president and private citizens that is typically shielded from public view.... One by one at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, survivors of school shootings and family members of victims shared their stories and their calls to action. The extraordinary public exchange with the president gave voice to an intensely emotional debate over how to respond to the latest gun massacre in an American school." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Because Trump has to make a show of everything -- including the raw grief of survivors & loved ones. If it bleeds, it leads. Right, Donaldo? Schmuck. ...

This is not a joke: This is a real photo of notes that Trump was holding to remind him how to talk to people:

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Washington Post photographer Ricky Carioti captured this image of Trump's notes[.]... At least two-fifths of this card is dedicated to making sure the president of the United States assured those assembled that he was interested in what they had to say. (And we don't know what Nos. 3 and 4 say.) That's at once pretty striking for a president and not at all striking for Trump. Through tragedy after tragedy, empathy has been the quality clearly missing from Trump's reactions." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Update: unwashed was wondering what-all was on the other side of Trump's cheatsheet; that is, the side he could see & refer to during his "listening session." I think I know: image to the right. See today's Comments for explanation.

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The very idea of Trump's holding a "listening session" is funny. One thing we know about him is that Trump only hears what he wants to hear, and when he's supposed to be listening, he's talking. Also, too, the "listening session" was a trademark Hillary Clinton campaign schtick. Of course Clinton is capable of listening. Also too, remember when everybody mocked Sarah Palin because she wrote crib notes on her hand to help her through an interview? Well, kudos to Palin because odds are she wrote those notes herself. The handwriting on Trump's "how to have a conversation" notes slants backward, suggesting the writer was left-handed. Trump is right-handed. On the plus side, there's now a paper to put into the presidential library. ...

... David Smith of the Guardian reports Trump's brilliant plan to arm teachers. Speaking of an (unnamed) coach who the Parkland gunman killed, Trump said, "... if he had a firearm, he wouldn't have had to run, he would have shot him, and that would have been the end of it." Right. A teacher with a handgun would just take down a shooter strafing the area with an automatic weapon. If Clint Eastwood can do it, why can't a school librarian? Or the nearsighted math teacher? "It emerged after the shooting at Parkland that there was an armed security guard on site but he did not get the chance to engage the gunman...." ...

... Steve Bousquet, et al., of the Miami Herald: "Florida became the epicenter of a historic debate over gun violence Wednesday as a growing #NeverAgain movement seized the national spotlight to demand action a week after the massacre in Parkland. At a raucous two-hour rally outside the state Capitol, thousands of people, many of them students, demanded action by legislators in the last two weeks of the session or risk being thrown out of office, as they mourned the deaths at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. 'They were students and teachers and coaches, and they died because you failed,' student Sheryl Acquaroli said of Florida's leaders, 'and they are bigger heroes than you will ever be.'... The largest demonstration at Florida's Capitol in nearly two decades came together in just a few days." ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio and a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association were repeatedly heckled at a nationally televised forum on Wednesday night in Florida after they refused to back new gun control measures. The spokeswoman for the N.R.A., Dana Loesch..., strongly defended the gun advocacy group's positions in front of students and teachers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. 'People who are crazy should not be able to get firearms,' she said, insisting that enforcement of mental health laws, not new gun restrictions, would prevent future massacres. Mr. Rubio ... also drew the ire of the crowd for refusing to support a ban on assault weapons and for saying that he intended to continue accepting money from the N.R.A. and other groups that support his pro-gun agenda." ...

     ... Marc Caputo & Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Jeered and booed by the crowd, buffeted by tough questions, Rubio stood alone as the only Republican onstage, in purple Florida's liberal bastion of Broward County. He broke with President Trump on whether to arm teachers. Rubio said it was a bad idea. He said he would favor raising the minimum age to purchase an assault rifle from 18 to 21. And he said he would consider restricting the size of magazines for firearms. It was a striking turnabout for Rubio, who never met a gun-rights bill he didn't vote for in the Florida Legislature and, later, in Congress. But Rubio said he wanted to prevent another massacre and said it was time for everyone to start rethinking their positions." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's see what you actually do, Marco. "Rethinking" is not an agenda item.

... Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Seven days after the killing of 17 people at the Broward County school, Republicans, who dominate government in the state, are facing pressure unlike any they have experienced before to pass legislation addressing gun violence. The State Legislature is in session for roughly two more weeks, and Republicans have concluded that it would be catastrophic to wrap up without doing something to address the mounting outcry. The debate now is over what counts as doing enough.... The students have called for a range of new restrictions, including expanded background checks for gun purchases and a ban on the sale of military-style firearms. Yet Republican officials, including Gov. Rick Scott and the leaders of the Florida House and Senate, appear set on pursuing a far narrower resolution -- a package of incremental measures that would improve certain background checks and bolster mental health services and school security.... That emerging disagreement could help define Florida politics in a critical election year, testing Republicans' decades-old grip on state government and handing proponents of gun control a potent issue to wield with moderate voters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Nicole Chavez of CNN: "David Hogg has become a strong voice among survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The attention has ... made him the subject of smear campaigns and demonstrably false conspiracy theories.Either he has been 'coached' by his father, a former FBI agent; or he is a 'pawn' for anti-gun campaigners; or, the most far-fetched, he is not a victim but a 'crisis actor,' paid to travel to disaster sites to argue against stricter gun laws. 'I'm not a crisis actor,' Hogg told CNN's Anderson Cooper ... Tuesday. 'I'm someone who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to be having to do that. I'm not acting on anybody's behalf,' the 17-year-old added.... On Tuesday, Hogg criticized those who amplified the claims and said it was disturbing that Trump Jr. liked the Twitter post." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AND Then There's Texas. Shelby Webb of the Houston Chronicle: "Needville ISD [Independent School District, near Houston,] Superintendent Curtis Rhodes on Tuesday threatened to suspend any student who disrupts schools or walks out to protest current gun laws. In a letter sent to families and published on schools' social media sites, Rhodes said students would face a three-day, out-of-school suspension if they joined in growing protests nationwide over the shooting at a Florida high school last week.... A National School Walkout is set for April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. The walkout is being organized by a Connecticut student who lives near Sandy Hook Elementary where 20 students and six staff members were gunned down in 2012." ...

... AND Then There's This Fine Congresswoman. Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "During an interview with an Albany radio station on Wednesday, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) reacted to calls for gun control ... by claiming that 'so many of these people that commit mass murders end up being Democrats.'"

This Russia Thing

Investigate Mitch! Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "Donald Trump wants to know why Obama didn't do more about Russian meddling. He should ask Mitch McConnell.... [President] Obama tried to do something about Russian meddling but was blocked by Mitch McConnell. Last year, The Washington Post reported that McConnell 'voiced skepticism' when presented with intelligence by the FBI suggesting that Russia was trying to undermine Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Because of McConnell's intransigence, the Obama administration decided not to go public with the information, fearing that it would just lead to a partisan squabble and accusations that it was trying to influence the election on Clinton's behalf.... The Obama administration could have done more to publicize Russian interference in the 2016 election, sure. But it failed to act because of partisan pressure from Republicans." (See also Louis Nelson's report in yesterday's Commentariat.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Tom Winter, et al., of NBC News: "Federal investigators are probing whether former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort promised a Chicago banker a job in the Trump White House in return for $16 million in home loans, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News. Manafort received three separate loans in December 2016 and January 2017 from Federal Savings Bank for homes in New York City, Virginia and the Hamptons. The banker, Stephen Calk, president of the Federal Savings Bank, was announced as a member of candidate Trump's Council of Economic Advisers in August 2016. Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is now investigating whether there was a quid pro quo agreement between Manafort and Calk.... The sources say the three loans were questioned by other officials at the bank, and one source said that at least one of the bank employees who felt pressured into approving the deals is cooperating with investigators. In court filings Friday related to Manafort's bail, federal prosecutors said they have 'substantial evidence' that a loan made from the bank to Manafort ... was secured through false representations made by Manafort, including misstatements of income." ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "New charges have been filed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's criminal case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates, but the charges were put under seal by the court, obscuring the nature and import of the development. The new charging document filed in federal court in Washington could be a superseding indictment, adding new charges or even new defendants to the charges filed last October, accusing Manafort and Gates of money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents for their work related to Ukraine, among other crimes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ryan Goodman, in Slate, on the downsides of accepting a presidential pardon. "The dilemma for ... Trump campaign affiliates is not simply that a presidential pardon would fail to erase the risk of a state prosecution but rather that their acceptance of such a pardon may significantly increase the prospect that state prosecutors will both pursue a case and secure a conviction.... Individuals run a significant risk that acceptance of a pardon would be used by state prosecutors as an admission of guilt.... In a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1915, Burdick v. United States, the justices stated that individuals have a right to refuse a pardon because 'acceptance' of one carries with it a 'confession of guilt.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One thing that strikes me is that a presidential pardon probably would not subject Michael Flynn to state prosecution. As far as I can tell, the laws he broke (or may have broken) all are federal laws. ...

... Jon Greenberg of PolitiFact: "Trump said that he 'never said that Russia did not meddle in the election.' In reality, he called the matter a 'made-up story,' and a 'hoax.' He has said that he believes Russian President Putin's denial of any Russian involvement. He told Time, 'I don't believe they (Russia) interfered.' Even when he has acknowledged the possibility that the Russians interfered, he has added that it could have been other countries or even individuals. Trump's denial doesn't match what he has actually said."

"Chain Migration" for Me But Not for Thee. Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "The parents of first lady Melania Trump have become legal permanent residents of the United States and are close to obtaining their citizenship, according to people familiar with their status, but their attorney declined to say how or when the couple gained their green cards. Immigration experts said Viktor and Amalija Knavs very likely relied on a family reunification process that President Trump has derided as 'chain migration' and proposed ending in such cases.... Questions over the Knavses' immigration status have escalated since Trump campaigned for the White House on a hard-line anti-immigration agenda.... Trump has repeatedly blasted the long-standing policy as 'chain migration.' In last month's State of the Union address, the president called that process a threat to Americans' security and quality of life. Under his plan, he said, only spouses and minor children could be sponsored for legal residency. But immigration experts said that such a path was the most likely method his in-laws would have used to obtain permits to live in the United States."

Gardner Selby of PolitiFact: mike "Pence said in Dallas that 'along the southern border of the U.S.,' the government apprehends 'seven individuals a day who are either known or suspected terrorists.' We found no facts that back up this border-specific tally. Nationally in 2017, the federal government says, Homeland Security stopped 2,554 individuals on its terrorist watch list from entering the country, which breaks out to seven people a day. Most of those individuals tried to enter by air, the government says."

Let's Send Ivanka! Mark Landler of the New York Times: "When the sister of Kim Jong-un made her historic visit to the Winter Olympics in South Korea two weeks ago, saying nothing but commanding noisy press coverage, the South Korean news media quickly called her 'North Korea's Ivanka.' Now, President Trump is sending the real Ivanka. The question is whether Ms. Trump, with her fashion industry glamour, can counter the news media narrative set by a mysterious North Korean woman, Kim Yo-jong, who is a director of her totalitarian government's propaganda and agitation department. White House officials recoil at any parallel between the dictator's sister and the president's daughter. But the comparison is obvious, if invidious, given their family pedigrees. And Ms. Trump may benefit by another comparison: to Vice President Mike Pence, who sat near Ms. Kim during the opening ceremony of the Olympics and seemed unable to strike the same chord as she did with South Koreans."

Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "... the [U.S.] embassy in New Delhi said Thursday that its staff did not advise or assist Donald Trump Jr. on a foreign policy address he is set to give Friday while on a private business trip to India. The embassy was responding to questions about a letter released Wednesday by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to the U.S. ambassador in India raising concerns about the embassy's engagement with Trump Jr., who is in India for the week to promote various Trump real estate projects around the country -- a trip that has already netted his company $15 million in sales on Monday alone, according to one of his local partners.... The president's eldest son is set to give a foreign policy speech at a global business summit in New Delhi on Friday titled 'Reshaping Indo-Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation' alongside India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, and other high-ranking Indian government officials." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Okay, but I'm sure brother-in-law Jared combed through the tippy-top-secret files on India & told Donnie what to say, including "Kushner Industries is great, too. Send money." ...

     ... In a video accompanying Gowen's story, Donnie is seen sporting a bindi -- the red dot between the brows commonly used to identify a Hindu woman as married. I consulted the Googles where I learned that the bindi also may be worn by men to facilitate bringing out their inner guru & to suppress the ego. Will. Not. Work.

Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "Within weeks of leaving his job as director of Oval Office operations, [Donald Trump's long-time bodyguard Keith] Schiller's private security firm, KS Global Group, began collecting $15,000 a month for 'security services' from the Republican National Committee. According to an RNC official, Schiller is being paid for security consulting on the site selection process for the 2020 Republican National Convention. Schiller's fee comes out of the RNC's convention fund, not its campaign fund, the official noted.... 'These sorts of party accounts are notorious for being operated as slush funds -- lightly regulated and ripe for abuse,' said Stephen Spaulding, former special counsel at the Federal Election Commission and now chief of strategy at ... Common Cause.... If the RNC continues paying Schiller at this rate until the 2020 Republican National Convention, his total fees will likely be north of $500,000."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "A must-pass, roughly $1.3 trillion spending bill may be the last chance before the midterm elections for the two parties to achieve their top immigration-related priorities: protecting Dreamers from deportation or build[ing] ... Donald Trump's border wall. Whether they can succeed after their repeated failures is anyone's guess, but they're expected to try." Mrs. McC BTW: I didn't think there could be a government shutdown over this bill, but contributor Forrest M. was right: it's a possibility. So possible federal government shutdown March 23. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Bresnahan & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Welcome to the Frat House of Representatives. The past year in Congress has been a lowlight reel of nonstop unethical -- and, in some cases, potentially illegal -- behavior. Three House members resigned over alleged misconduct. Four others announced they won't seek reelection, an option they took to head off party leaders forcing them out. Just last week, Politico reported that Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) is threatening to depose Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in his divorce case. Turner wants to know about Issa's relationship with Turner's estranged wife, though Issa has denied any improper behavior." the reporters list some of the lowlights. Mrs. McC: I would like to point out that this apparent run of bad behavior is nothing new. The #MeToo movement, which has encouraged the airing of sexual harassers, has led to the outing of most of these creeps.

Boo-Fucking-Hoo. Nancy Scola of Politico: "Twitter has pruned more suspected trolls and fake accounts from its platform, prompting several of its most outspoken conservative users to complain Wednesday that they had lost thousands of followers overnight. Conservatives quickly decried what they called the '#twitterlockout,' adding it to their list of grievances against what they see as an ideologically liberal tech industry. The topic also got heavy promotion among Twitter accounts that some researchers have linked to Russia's online influence campaigns." Among the whiners are James O'Keefe & Michael Flynn, Jr., along with Dan Bongino, "who appears as a frequent commentator on Fox News." Mrs. McC: This is, of course, a tacit admission by confederates that a portion of their "following" is bogus: Russiabots & trolls.

Sarah Jones of the New Republic: "While swathes of rural America are indeed mostly white, rural communities have always been home to black and Native Americans, and they also draw growing immigrant populations." Mrs. McC: Quite interesting: the part about TrumpFood boxes was an eyeopener for me.

Beyond the Beltway

John Boden of the Hill: "Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey (R) called for a 'conversation' about impeaching state Supreme Court justices over their new congressional map, which both parties say will benefit Democrats. At a press conference, Toomey said it was 'inevitable' that state lawmakers would consider impeachment over the redrawing of the state's new congressional maps, which he called a 'power grab' by state Democrats." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Just to be clear, Toomey is a U.S. senator, not a state senator. And, since election of U.S. senators is statewide, he is not directly affected by the court's ruling, a ruling that attempts to comply with the state's constitution by giving all voters more-or-less equal representation. Any normal person could see that the court's decision -- besides meeting constitutional requirements -- restores fundamental fairness. But sociopathy seems to be a GOP qualification for office, & concepts like fair play are anathema to them. They're all like the stock bratty rich kid who always demands a "do-over" in games she loses & throws a tantrum if she doesn't get the "biggest half."

The Commentariat -- February 21, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Seven days after the killing of 17 people at the Broward County school, Republicans, who dominate government in the state, are facing pressure unlike any they have experienced before to pass legislation addressing gun violence. The State Legislature is in session for roughly two more weeks, and Republicans have concluded that it would be catastrophic to wrap up without doing something to address the mounting outcry. The debate now is over what counts as doing enough.... The students have called for a range of new restrictions, including expanded background checks for gun purchases and a ban on the sale of military-style firearms. Yet Republican officials, including Gov. Rick Scott and the leaders of the Florida House and Senate, appear set on pursuing a far narrower resolution -- a package of incremental measures that would improve certain background checks and bolster mental health services and school security.... That emerging disagreement could help define Florida politics in a critical election year, testing Republicans' decades-old grip on state government and handing proponents of gun control a potent issue to wield with moderate voters." ...

... Nicole Chavez of CNN: "David Hogg has become a strong voice among survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The attention has ... made him the subject of smear campaigns and demonstrably false conspiracy theories.Either he has been 'coached' by his father, a former FBI agent; or he is a 'pawn' for anti-gun campaigners; or, the most far-fetched, he is not a victim but a 'crisis actor,' paid to travel to disaster sites to argue against stricter gun laws. 'I'm not a crisis actor,' Hogg told CNN's Anderson Cooper ... Tuesday. 'I'm someone who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to be having to do that. I'm not acting on anybody's behalf,' the 17-year-old added.... On Tuesday, Hogg criticized those who amplified the claims and said it was disturbing that Trump Jr. liked the Twitter post."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "New charges have been filed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's criminal case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates, but the charges were put under seal by the court, obscuring the nature and import of the development. The new charging document filed in federal court in Washington could be a superseding indictment, adding new charges or even new defendants to the charges filed last October, accusing Manafort and Gates of money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents for their work related to Ukraine, among other crimes."

Investigate Mitch! Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "... [President] Obama tried to do something about Russian meddling but was blocked by Mitch McConnell. Last year, The Washington Post reported that McConnell 'voiced skepticism' when presented with intelligence by the FBI suggesting that Russia was trying to undermine Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Because of McConnell's intransigence, the Obama administration decided not to go public with the information, fearing that it would just lead to a partisan squabble and accusations that it was trying to influence the election on Clinton's behalf.... The Obama administration could have done more to publicize Russian interference in the 2016 election, sure. But it failed to act because of partisan pressure from Republicans." (See also Louis Nelson's report below.)

Burgess Everett of Politico: "A must-pass, roughly $1.3 trillion spending bill may be the last chance before the midterm elections for the two parties to achieve their top immigration-related priorities: protecting Dreamers from deportation or build[ing] ... Donald Trump's border wall. Whether they can succeed after their repeated failures is anyone's guess, but they're expected to try." Mrs. McC BTW: I didn't think there could be a government shutdown over this bill, but contributor Forrest M. was right: it's a possibility. So possible federal government shutdown March 23.

*****

"We Validate Porking." At the top of the segment, Colbert covers a story I skipped, so good:

Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump suggested online Wednesday that the Obama administration should be subject to federal investigation for its failure to stop Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.... 'Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why aren't they the subject of the investigation? Why didn't Obama do something about the meddling? Why aren't Dem crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Session!' the president wrote on Twitter, misspelling the name of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Trump later reposted the tweet with the correct spelling of the attorney general's name...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Aside from the frantic nature of Trump's "question," aside from the twisted history, aside from the misspelling of his AG's name, is an essential nonsensical element to Trump's "defense": inasmuch as the Russian goal was to make sure Hillary Clinton did not become president, we will have to assume that President Obama didn't "do something about the meddling" (although, in a reality Trump doesn't recognize, he did) because he shared the Russians' goal. ...

... Whilst ruminating on the missing "s" in Sessions, Jonathan Chait adds this sober note: "Also, Trump is blatantly interfering in the independence of federal law enforcement in order to demand the prosecution of the opposing party for nonexistent crimes, a demand that, if successful, would bring on full banana-republic status." Mrs. McC: Well yeah, that too. (On another grammatical note, there's a sentence [fragment] where I coulda put a comma after every word: "Well, yeah, that, too.")

Five Months after the Las Vegas Massacre.... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump -- under pressure from angry, grieving students from a Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people last week -- ordered the Justice Department on Tuesday to issue regulations banning so-called bump stocks, which convert semiautomatic guns into automatic weapons like those used last year in the massacre of concertgoers in Las Vegas. A day earlier, Mr. Trump signaled that he was open to supporting legislation that would modestly improve the national gun background check system, and on Tuesday night, he posted on Twitter that Democrats and Republicans 'must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!'"

Julie Davis & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, is resisting giving up his access to highly classified information, prompting an internal struggle with John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff..., according to White House officials and others briefed on the matter. Mr. Kushner is one of dozens of White House officials operating under interim security clearances because of issues raised by the F.B.I. during their background checks.... The practice has drawn added scrutiny because of Rob Porter, the former staff secretary who resigned under pressure this month after domestic abuse allegations against him became public.... Mr. Kushner's ... background investigation is still pending after 13 months serving in Mr. Trump's inner circle. Now Mr. Kelly, his job at risk and his reputation as an enforcer of order and discipline tarnished by the scandal, is working to revamp the security clearance process, starting with an effort to strip officials who have interim clearances of their high-level access.... But Mr. Kelly, who has been privately dismissive of Mr. Kushner since taking the post of chief of staff but has rarely taken him on directly, has made no guarantees, saying only that the president's son-in-law will still have all the access he needs to do his job under the new system." ...

... Luis Sanchez of The Hill: "White House chief of staffJohn Kelly said Tuesday that he has 'full confidence' in the ability of President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner to continue in a senior role despite Kushner reportedly lacking a full security clearance.... Although Kushner has a temporary clearance that would expire in less than a week under the order issued by Kelly, the White House said Tuesday the memo won't impact Kushner's role as senior adviser to Trump." --safari ...

... ** Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Libby Watson of Splinter News is so pissed-off at the MSM & various pundits who spent six months lauding Serious Military Man John Kelly.

Trump's Preposterous Twisted History. Betsy Klein of CNN: "... Donald Trump is continuing to blame his predecessor for not doing enough to deter Russian interference in the 2016 election.... In one tweet, Trump quoted Obama saying toward the end of the 2016 race that there was no evidence America's elections were 'rigged,' suggesting the then-businessman should 'stop whining.' Obama, however, was referring to Trump's claims of a rigged election and calls at the time for supporters to monitor polling sites for potentially ineligible voters attempting to cast ballots. Tuesday's tweet came soon after 'Fox & Friends' highlighted the comment.... Trump also claimed on Tuesday he's 'been tougher on Russia than Obama.' The 44th president, however, personally warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against messing with the election, imposed sanctions on Russian individuals and entities, kicked out 35 Russian diplomats and closed two of the Kremlin's compounds in the United States. Trump ... still has not imposed sanctions designed to punish election meddling by Moscow." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Philip Rucker & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "To hear President Trump tell it, he is tougher than former president Barack Obama. He is smarter than Obama --; more shrewd, more effective, more respected. The 45th president is, by his own accounting, superlative to the 44th in almost every way. In private and in public, while devising policies and while crafting messages, Trump frequently draws flattering comparisons with his predecessor -- and he does not let the truth intrude, as was the case Tuesday. 'I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama, just look at the facts,' Trump tweeted. The facts suggest the opposite, as Trump has repeatedly doubted the conclusions of his own U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election and has sought to undermine the FBI's investigation of the matter.... His insistence on that score Tuesday was echoed a few hours later by ... Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who told reporters, 'He has been tougher on Russia in the first year than Obama was in eight years combined.'" ...

... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders began the question-and-answer part of Tuesday's press briefing by claiming that President Trump does now in fact acknowledge that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Minutes later, however, Sanders backtracked and criticized the FBI for wasting time and resources investigating a 'hoax.'... She then pivoted to trying to blame President Obama." --safari ...

... Stephen Collinson of CNN: "Wittingly or not..., Donald Trump spent the Presidents Day weekend doing the Kremlin's work. It may be months before Americans learn whether special counsel Robert Mueller will validate or reject allegations that Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Moscow's election meddling operation. But Trump's three days of Twitter venting against the FBI, his political opponents and the Russia investigation from his Mar-a-Lago resort are likely to further incite mistrust in the institutions of democracy and government, which the Russian intervention was designed to foment." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Having worked with a legendary polygraph operator, Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle observes, "Trump's furious claims of spotless innocence could be entirely consistent with the truth. But as Queen Gertrude observed to Hamlet, 'the lady doth protest too much, methinks.' Surprising as this is in a veteran of showbiz, Trump seems not to understand how a close-up magnifies every gesture. His jumpiness around the subject of Russia; his hand-wringing over ways to end the investigation; his rhetorical flop-sweat at the mention of the letters F, B and I -- all these and more have his audience thinking: Gee, for an innocent man he sure does act guilty." ...

... Katelyn Polantz & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "... Robert Mueller has filed a charge against a lawyer for lying to investigators about his interaction with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates in September 2016. The filing is further evidence of Mueller's investigation of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Gates and their work for Russian-allied clients. Alex Van Der Zwaan, who is expected to plead guilty Tuesday afternoon, is also accused of lying about the failure to turn over an email communication to the special counsel's office." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... The New York Times story, by Eileen Sullivan & Ken Vogel, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... It's a Small, Small World. Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed: " Van der Zwaan is the son-in-law of German Khan, a Russian bank owner who is suing BuzzFeed News over the publication of an unverified dossier of information concerning ... Donald Trump." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AND here's Josh Kovensky's lede in the Kyiv Post: "An attorney for international law firm Skadden, Arps, Meagher, & Flom who helped whitewash the prosecution and imprisonment of Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko was charged with perjury in U.S. federal court today." Mrs. McC: The "whitewash" is the "report" Van der Zwaan worked on for Manafort & Gates. More from the story: "The Yanukovych government hired Skadden partner and former Obama Administration White House Counsel Gregory Craig to write a report on the prosecution of Tymoshenko, assessing whether or not her imprisonment adhered to international legal standards. The Skadden report found that Yanukovych-era legal officials did not deprive Tymoshenko of her right to due process during the trial, in a report that [U.S.] State Department official Victoria Nuland criticized at the time as 'incomplete.'... Skadden returned $567,000 to the Ukrainian government in June 2017, amid allegations that the firm received $1.1 million in money laundered out of the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice as payment for the investigation." ...

... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones elaborates: "Van Der Zwaan, a Russian speaker, worked on a report that Skadden produced in 2012 that defended the government of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russia leader, over its prosecution and imprisonment of Yulia Tymoshenko, a political rival. The report by the top-tier law firm was supposedly independent, giving a veneer of legitimacy to Tymoshenko's prosecution, which was widely denounced in Europe and the United States. Skadden was brought on to produce the report by Paul Manafort, then a political adviser to Yanukovych. Rick Gates, Manafort's longtime business associate, oversaw the production of the report.... After Yanukovych's ouster by a popular revolution in 2014, Ukraine's new government began investigating the circumstances of the report.... The firm initially accepted a fee of about $12,000 for the report.... The following year, with no new work done, Ukraine paid Skadden about $1.1 million. After the Justice Department questioned Skadden about the payment, the firm refunded $567,000 to Ukraine, saying it had been overpaid." ...

... Nicholas Thompson of Wired: Facebook tries to deal with its ad exec Rob Goldman, whose tweets about Mueller's indictments last Friday were so stoopid that Donald Trump retweeted them. "On Sunday night, Joel Kaplan, the VP of Global Public Policy at Facebook, put out a statement saying 'Nothing we found contradicts the Special Counsel's indictments. Any suggestion otherwise is wrong.' Roughly translated, that meant, 'We asked Rob Goldman to throw his phone in a river.'" Later Goldman issued a sort-of internal apology to co-workers. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Dana Milbank: A century after Lenin coined the term "useful idiots," the Mueller investigation has revealed that Vladimir Putin "has turned Trump supporters into the useful idiots of the 21st century.... Mueller's indictment is full of nauseating detail about how Putin made fools of Americans.... Putin's meddling, now exposed, should shame us and unify us in a response. But that won't happen, because the most useful idiot of all happens to be the president, who is focused only on himself. In his fit of self-absolution over the holiday weekend, Trump pointed fingers in every direction except Moscow. 'Unwitting.' Trump and his defenders take that as exoneration, even though it is limited to just this aspect of the probe. But it]s another way of saying they were useful idiots." ...

... Donie O'Sullivan & others at CNN interview some of the "unwitting"/"useful idiots."

Pence Screws up Diplomatic Mission. Ashley Parker: "Vice President Pence departed for a five-day, two-country swing through Asia earlier this month having agreed to a secret meeting with North Korean officials while in South Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. But on Feb. 10, less than two hours before Pence and his team were to meet with Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yong Nam, North Korea's nominal head of state, the North Koreans pulled out of the scheduled meeting, according to Pence's office. The North Korean decision to withdraw from the meeting came after Pence used his trip to denounce the North's nuclear ambitions and announce the 'toughest and most aggressive' sanctions yet against the regime, while also taking steps to further solidify the U.S. alliance with Japan and South Korea."

Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, et al., of the Washington Post: "White House officials have told Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin that \his job is safe, according to people familiar with the matter who indicated Tuesday that President Trump decided to 'stomach the story' about Shulkin's alleged misuse of taxpayer money during a 10-day trip to Europe. The president's decision was communicated to Shulkin by White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, according to an administration official..... Trump 'personally likes Shulkin,' [an anonymous White House] official said, cautioning, however, that 'if other stuff comes out, this could change, but for now, he's safe.'... Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that she has 'no reason to believe' Trump had lost confidence in Shulkin. The White House had been silent on Shulkin's fate since the release last week of an inspector general's report accusing the secretary and his senior staff of misleading VA's ethics office about aspects of his travel. Shulkin has disputed the findings, alleging in response that he and those close to him are the target of a coordinated effort by other Trump appointees to force him from the agency."

"Sloppy & Careless." Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "The reversal of [President] Obama's environmental legacy has been spearheaded by Scott Pruitt, who heads the EPA, the agency he repeatedly sued as Oklahoma attorney general. Pruitt, who accused Obama of 'bending the rule of law' and federal overreach, has overseen the methodical delay or scrapping of dozens of rules curbing pollution from power plants, pesticides and vehicles. Ironically for Pruitt, who has touted a 'back to basics' approach rooted safely within the confines of the law, this rapidly executed agenda has run into a thicket of legal problems, causing the administration to admit defeat in several cases. In July, a federal court ruled that the EPA couldn't suspend rules designed to curb methane emissions from new oil and gas wells. This was followed by a hasty retreat in August when the EPA agreed to not delay new standards to reduce smog-causing air pollutants, the day after 15 states and environment groups sued. Then, in December, a federal court told the EPA it couldn't delay a new standard for dangerous levels of lead in paint and dust.... The EPA now faces a fresh wave of opposition as it looks to craft replacements for major Obama rules...."

All the Best People, Ctd. Andrew Kaczynski & Nathan McDermott of CNN: "A top official at the Department of Health and Human Services has been placed on administrative leave after a CNN KFile inquiry while the agency investigates social media postings in which he pushed unfounded smears on social media. Jon Cordova serves as the principal deputy assistant secretary for administration at HHS. A KFile review of Cordova's social media accounts found that he pushed stories filled with baseless claims and conspiracy theories, including stories that claimed Gold Star father Khizr Khan is a 'Muslim Brotherhood agent' and made baseless claims about Sen. Ted Cruz's personal life.... Cordova joined HHS in February of 2017, initially as part of the Office of the White House Liaison.... Prior to joining HHS, Cordova served as a Trump delegate from California to the Republican National Convention and worked in communications for Donald Trump's campaign in California. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Cordova routinely promoted stories on social media that pushed fringe claims about Trump's opponents that have no basis in fact." ...  

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, Cordova is a political appointee, one of the stooges the Trumpies put in place to "mind" career civil servants in the various administrative departments. Good choice.

Anna North of Vox: "Republicans in state legislatures have been trying for years to strip funding from Planned Parenthood. In January, the Trump administration gave them a gift, reversing Obama-era guidance regarding Medicaid funds.... According to documents provided to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) by a whistleblower and released earlier this month, the move by the Trump administration may have been inspired by a letter from the right-wing legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. Congressional Democrats now say they fear the Trump administration essentially let an anti-abortion group write its health care policy.... The January change appears to be part of a larger pattern in the Trump administration: policies on everything from birth control coverage to reproductive health access for unaccompanied minors are being forged by people with deep ties to anti-abortion groups, and sometimes, apparently, by those groups themselves." --safari

Our Far-Flung Amateur Diplomat Says India's Poor Accept Their Lot Gracefully. Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, is in India this week to promote his family's real estate empire and more than $1 billion worth of luxury Trump Tower projects in four cities, but he still had time to praise India's poor for their smiles. 'I don't want to be glib but you can see the poorest of the poor and there is still a smile on a face,' Trump said Tuesday in an interview with CNBC's Indian affiliate. For the interview, the Trump scion slicked back his hair and donned a dark suit and light blue silk tie. 'It is a different spirit than that which you see in other parts of the world, and I think there is something unique about that.'... Many of its 1.3 billion [Indian] people still live in grinding poverty. The country had a per capita income of $1,670 in 2016." Mrs. McC: Yes, but unlike the U.S.'s poor, who are always voting for ObamaPhones & food stamps, India's poor know their place.

Jeff Tavss of the AP: "With [Marjory Stoneman] Douglas students in the gallery Tuesday, the Florida House voted down a motion to take up a ban on assault weapons such as the AR-15 used by Nikolas Cruz when he killed 17 people at the school on Valentine's Day. The final motion vote was 36-71." Mrs. McC: That's right, kids. Your state representatives won't even discuss a ban. Take names. ...

... BUT Some Republicans Are Super-Sensitive to "Optics." Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Organizers of a fundraiser featuring Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) reversed course and pulled their plan to auction off an AR-15 rifle -- the style of weapon used to kill 17 in last week's school shooting in Parkland, Florida -- shortly after a Politico report on the event on Tuesday. After Politico contacted the committee on Tuesday afternoon, the Stevens County Republican Party removed mentions of the AR-15 and a plan to offer a Ruger 10-22 .22-caliber rifle as a door prize from the event's website. The organization was still considering how to proceed with the auction, its chair said. Then, after the Politico report was published on Tuesday evening, the committee made a final decision to nix the AR-15.... In September, a school shooter in Spokane, which is in McMorris Rodgers' district, tried using an AR-15, but it jammed. He killed one fellow student and injured three others using a handgun, according to local reports." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's not entirely clear to me from Debenedetti's report what Rodgers' supporters plan to do with the Ruger, but here's how Rebecca Savransky of the Hill interprets the Politico report: "The Stevens County Republican Party ... now plans to offer a Ruger 10-22 .22-caliber rifle as a door prize after Politico contacted the committee about the event...." So that's nice. ...

... Mike Fleming of Deadline Hollywood: Big-name Hollywood players are donating $500,000 each to the Parkland students' March for our Lives. They include George & Amal Clooney, Jeffrey & Marilyn Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg & Kate Capshaw, & Oprah Winfrey. ...

... Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military is awarding medals to three Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets who were killed in last week's high school shooting here, and one of them has received a rare posthumous admission to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The three students -- Peter Wang, 15, and Alaina Petty and Martin Duque, both 14 -- were members of the JROTC program at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.... Wang is credited with saving lives by holding open a door for other students to escape, and he was wearing his cadet uniform when he was killed." West Point offered him posthumous admission. "Cadet Command spokesman Michael Maddox said that just 48 JROTC heroism medals have been awarded in the past 20 years. Maddox said JROTC students who survived the shooting at Douglas also might receive medals for the help they gave to others as the attack was underway; Zackary Walls and Colton Haab helped to build a makeshift shield out of sheets of Kevlar for students who evacuated to the JROTC classroom, and Jude Lenamon helped panicked students to safely and quickly leave campus after he recognized the sound of gunshots and realized that the incident was not a fire drill." ...

... Our Far-flung Amateur Diplomat Weighs in on Parkland Student Activist. Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "Donald Trump Jr. expressed his approval on Tuesday morning for a far-right smear campaign against students who survived last week's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Since the shooting, which killed 17 people at their school, the students have become outspoken advocates for gun control and fierce critics of the NRA. On his Twitter account, Trump Jr. 'liked' a [false] story suggesting one of the surviving students, David Hogg, is 'running cover' for the FBI.... The underlying article liked by Trump Jr. is a cesspool of conspiracy theories.... Trump Jr. also liked a similar article on TruePundit.com." ...

... Uday & Qusay Lobby Dad. Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, has been assuring his dad that the right move was to stay strong on gun rights and draw a hard line on the issue that helped propel him in the 2016 election.... The president and Trump Jr. repeatedly discussed gun control over the long Presidents' Day weekend.... Trump Jr., according to these sources, reminded his father that inching toward gun control would be immediately taken by his conservative base -- as well as major donors and motivated activist networks, including the National Rifle Association -- as an unforgivable betrayal. Eric Trump, his middle son, readily agreed." ...

... Lachlan Markay & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "Immediately following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the National Rifle Association did what it always does: It shut up.... In the hours after Parkland, NRA TV, the television channel run by the gun rights lobby, continued producing content. At first, its anchors struck a conciliatory tone.... Then, it turned aggressive. Over the past two days, NRA TV has gone after both law enforcement for bungling the shooting and media outlets for calling for more expansive gun laws. Host Dan Bongino accused the New York Daily News of being both 'pure filth' and 'not worthy of collecting dog excrement' -- aka actual filth. Host Dana Loesch called for protesters to march 'to the FBI offices' for its failure to act on the numerous reports it received [about] the shooter.... Grant Stinchfield, another NRA TV host..., suggest[ed] reporters were eager for another shooting to push a gun control agenda." ...

... Melissa Ryan of Media Matters: "This week, even as the Parkland high school shooter was still at large, posters on 4chan and 8chan immediately went to work spreading false information about the shooter being a linked to a white supremacist militia, the most widely reported of the multiple hoaxes about the massacre found online. And in the aftermath of the tragedy, lies and hoaxes about the survivors who have been speaking out against school massacres have gained traction.... Parkland survivors are targets for fake news campaigns, conspiracy theories, harassment and doxxing. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has already suggested that the entire shooting is a false flag, which implies that all of the survivors are actors in an elaborate hoax. As survivors speak up, there are already attempts to attack and discredit them individually." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Judd Legum: "Former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) has joined a growing far-right smear campaign against the students who survived last week’s massacre in a Parkland, Florida high school.... Kingston attacked the students as mere stooges for 'left-wing groups who have an agenda' during an appearance on CNN Tuesday morning. Kingston added he believed George Soros was actually orchestrating the students' activism.... Kingston's comments follow multiple articles smearing the students on Gateway Pundit, a Trump-supporting website that has White House press credentials. Gateway Pundit has attacked one of the students, David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, because his father is a retired FBI agent." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Legum has more on the smear campaign here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Sam Levin of the Guardian: "An aide to a Florida lawmaker was fired after falsely suggesting that student survivors of the mass shooting in Parkland were 'actors', repeating a conspiracy theory that has been used to harass victims. Benjamin Kelly, an aide to Republican state representative Shawn Harrison, was terminated after a reporter published his email attacking the students who have become vocal advocates for stricter gun laws after surviving the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school massacre that killed 17 people last week. Kelly emailed a Tampa Bay Times reporter on Tuesday, saying two of the outspoken high schoolers 'are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis when they happen' When asked for evidence, Kelly sent a link to a YouTube conspiracy video targeting one of the students, the newspaper reported." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Libby Watson: "Remember last week, when the New York Times ran an op-ed from the gun 'researcher' John Lott, who has been thoroughly and consistently debunked by basically everyone else who researches gun violence? Apparently, the Times ... does not remember! The paper issued an editorial today on criminal justice reform, which included [a] paragraph dunking on Lott: '... John Lott, the disreputable economist best known for misusing statistics to suit his own ideological ends. In this case, it appears Mr. Lott misread his own data, which came from Arizona and in fact showed the opposite of what he claimed: Undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than citizens, as the vast majority of research on the topic has found.'... It is too perfect to see the Times editorial board -- ... the very people who have spent the last week defending James Bennet's decision to start running predictable bullshit from boring conservatives in the name of balance -- calling out as a fraud someone they deemed expert enough to write an opinion piece for them just one week ago."

Anything with Trump's Name on It Is Skanky. AP: "A North Carolina man with a felony conviction for indecent liberties with a child was one-half of the poster couple for a new 'Trump Dating' website. News outlets reported Monday that visitors to the dating site geared toward supporters of the president were greeted with the faces of Jodi and William Barrett Riddleberger, conservative activists involved in the Tea Party-inspired political action committee, Conservatives for Guilford County. The couple's exact role with the site is unclear. State records show [William] Riddleberger was convicted in 1995 on the charge stemming from filming sex with a 15-year-old girl. He was then 25." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... UPDATE. Avi Selk of the Washington Post has more on Trump Dating site, which Selk charitably describes as "odd." My favorite part (and there are more): "As of Tuesday, the Riddleberger's photo had undergone a retraction from Trump.dating's homepage. Instead, visitors are greeted by a stock photo of a middle-aged couple who can also be found advertising gum recession treatments." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you're feeling sad & lonely, I don't recommend Trump.dating as an antidote, but I would suggest reading Selk's article about it, because when you're feeling sad & lonely, a good laugh helps. Also too, the story gives you another confirmation that you're really, really superior to millions of Trump voters. You might be alone, but it's only because you are too fucking good for all those losers out there.

Senate Race. Mitt Throws Muslims, Mexicans & People with Disabilities under the Bus. Emily Stewart of Vox: "Mitt Romney happily accepted ... Donald Trump's endorsement of his run for a US Senate seat in Utah on Monday. Apparently, he's gotten past the president's comments about the KKK, Muslims, Mexicans, and people with disabilities from 2016 -- comments that two years ago he said would make him reject Trump’s endorsements." (Also linked yesterday.)

Congressional Race. All the Best Candidates. Brahm Resnik of KPNX-TV: "Republican congressional candidate Steve Montenegro is a married man and a church minister whose campaign emphasizes his 'virtue, honor and integrity.' A series of text messages between Montenegro and a female staff member at the Arizona Legislature may raise questions about that claim. The staffer sent Montenegro a topless photo via text message, according to a series of messages between Montenegro and the staffer that were reviewed by 12 News. Montenegro responded by encouraging her to use a messaging app where photos vanish after being viewed by the recipient.... The messages also reveal Montenegro expressing concern about the sexual harassment scandal that would lead to the resignation of his former boss, Republican Congressman Trent Franks. The staffer assured him: 'You would never have to worry about me.'"

Presidential Race? Mrs. McCrabbie: Medlar tells me that Jon Wertheim & Jessica Luther of Sports Illustrated have written a big report on the Dallas Mavericks' "hostile work environment -- ranging from sexual harassment to domestic violence — as an 'open secret.'" The reporters' sources, "To a person..., make clear that, to their knowledge, [Mavs' owner Mark] Cuban was never a perpetrator, never involved in sexual harassment himself. Yet, most also find it hard to imagine that Cuban is unaware of the corrosive culture in some corners of his organization." Cuban, who has often boasted about being a hands-on owner, acted all surprised by the allegations in the report. Let's hope this is the end of his presidential ambitions.

Beyond the Beltway

Daniel Desrochers of the Lexington Herald-Leader: "Democrat Linda Belcher ... easily defeated Republican Rebecca Johnson, the widow of a [member of the state House of Representatives] who killed himself in December following allegations that the molested a 17-year-old girl in 2012, in a special election held Tuesday. Belcher, a former state lawmaker who collected 68.45 percent of the vote, will represent Bullitt County's 49th House District for the remainder of the 2018 legislative session.... 'We just won this district by more than 30 percentage points, where Trump won 73 percent of the vote,' said Ben Self, chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party.... After her defeat, Johnson alleged voting fraud. 'I've heard from and about people all day long saying they went to vote for me at the correct polling place and were refused the opportunity to vote,' Johnson said. 'It's like we're in a third world country.'” Mrs. McC: No, no, Mrs. Johnson. We are in a third-world country, thanks to your party.

Way Beyond

Anne Barnard & Carlotta Gall of the New York Times: "The Syrian government, seizing on a chance to reclaim territory lost in its ever-escalating civil war, has loosed a devastating bombardment on a rebel-held Damascus suburb, killing at least 200 people, many of them children, aid workers said Tuesday. Syrian officials vowed to show no quarter as they moved to wipe out rebels in the suburb of eastern Ghouta, with the assault this week ranking as the deadliest there in years." Includes photos of children's corpses (because they're not American corpses -- see yesterday's Commentariat.) ...

... Juan Cole: "One of the most distressing take-aways of the Syria War since 2011 is that the United Nations does not work and all the hopes of the framers of its charter in 1945 have been dashed.... Among the biggest war criminals in the world is Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.... Turkey itself seems set on ethnically cleansing the canton of Afrin which has some 500,000 Kurds, sending in its own troops and armor but also fundamentalist Arab fighters.... The dark moral universe in which al-Assad is the best hope for avoiding the ethnic cleansing of 500,000 Afrin Kurds by a NATO member state, while he and his bloodthirsty military kill large numbers of children and other civilians in East Ghouta, is emblematic of our post-post WW II era, in which international law and international governance seem irremediably broken." --safari

David Halbfinger of the New York Times: "The mushrooming corruption scandal plaguing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took a surprising new turn on Tuesday, with an allegation that one of his closest advisers had sought to bribe a judge into dropping a criminal investigation involving the prime minister's wife. At the same time, the Israeli police said they had arrested several of Mr. Netanyahu's friends and confidants, as well as top executives of Bezeq, the country's biggest telecommunications company, in a widening inquiry into whether Mr. Netanyahu had traded official favors for favorable news coverage. The new allegations significantly raise the level of political and legal peril the prime minister faces, suggesting that he or some in his camp could be exposed to charges of obstructing justice." ...

     ... UPDATE: AP: "One of Benjamin Netanyahu's closest confidants has turned state witness and agreed to incriminate the prime minister in corruption allegations, Israeli media have reported. Police would not confirm whether Shlomo Filber would testify against Netanyahu, but all major Israeli media outlets said a deal to do so had been reached.... The reports came shortly after an allegation that a different longtime confidant tried to bribe a judge in exchange for dropping a corruption case against Netanyahu's wife." --safari

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The Rev. Billy Graham's ministry spanned more than six decades, and his evangelical 'crusades,' as he called them for most of his career, touched every corner of the world, making him one of the most influential and best-known religious figures of his time. Graham was found dead in his home in Montreat, N.C., according to spokesman Mark DeMoss. This is a developing story. It will be updated." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: No doubt the White House will see Graham's death as another "reprieve," & Mrs. Huckleberry may cancel her ever-illuminating press briefing out of "respect." ...

     ... Update: Here's the New York Times' obituary of Graham. ...

     ... Update: AND here's another remembrance, by Matthew Sutton, published in the Guardian. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.