The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

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

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The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Wednesday
Feb142018

The Commentariat -- February 15, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Anti-Defamation League: "A spokesperson for the white supremacist group Republic of Florida (ROF) told the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday, February 15, that Nikolas Cruz, the man charged with the previous day’s deadly shooting spree at a Parkland, Florida, high school, was associated with his group.... After self-described ROF members claimed on the discussion forum 4chan that Cruz had also been a member, the Anti-Defamation League called the ROF hotline and spoke with an ROF member who identified himself as Jordan Jereb. Jereb, based in Tallahassee, is believed to be the leader of ROF. " Mrs. McC: Trump's linkage to immigration legislation looks even more stupid now, doesn't it? (See David Nakamura's story, linked below.)

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate on Thursday rejected immigration legislation crafted by centrists in both parties after President Trump threatened to veto the bill if it made it to his desk. In a 54-45 vote, the Senate failed to advance the legislation from eight Republican, seven Democratic and one Independent senators. It needed 60 votes to overcome a procedural hurdle. A few Democrats, including Sens. Kamala Harris (Calif.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.) and Tom Udall (N.M.), withheld their votes until it was clear the measure could not get to 60, and then voted against it. The centrist deal, backed by Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and other Republicans, represented perhaps the best chance to advance legislation in the Senate, but was opposed by Trump and his allies...."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday called the suspect in the mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., 'mentally disturbed' and vowed to help local jurisdictions tackle mental health issues, but he made no mention of stricter gun control laws. In a televised address at the White House, Trump focused his response on the need for the nation to offer more support for young people who feel isolated a day after Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, was accused of the rampage that killed 17 people at his former school.... In a tweet earlier Thursday, Trump implored the public to report erratic behavior to authorities as a way to head off such rampages.... The president attached -- or 'threaded' -- his tweet to an unrelated one from two days earlier that dealt with the congressional negotiations on immigration. It was not clear why. 'So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!'... On Wednesday, he offered his 'prayers and condolences' to the families of the victims." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, I know why Trump "threaded" his tweet on immigration to the one on the Florida school shooting. The last name of the alleged shooter is "Cruz." Notice, too, how Trump's tweet seems to blame people acquainted with Cruz to adquately "report" his behavior. Nothing to do with most Americans' being able to purchase semi-automatic weapons. But then, as Akhilleus points out in today's comments, the NRA gave Trump $20MM & dropped another $57MM on other gun-loving' candidates. ...

... Brianna Sacks of BuzzFeed: "Last fall, a Mississippi bail bondsman and frequent YouTube vlogger noticed an alarming comment left on one of his videos. 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter,' said a user named Nikolas Cruz. The YouTuber, 36-year-old Ben Bennight, alerted the FBI, emailing a screenshot of the comment and calling the bureau's Mississippi field office. He also flagged the comment to YouTube, which removed it from the video. Agents with the bureau's Mississippi field office got back to him 'immediately,' Bennight said, and conducted an in-person interview the following day, on Sept. 25. 'They came to my office the next morning and asked me if I knew anything about the person,' Bennight told BuzzFeed News. 'I didn't. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them.'... Though his name matches the YouTube user flagged in September, FBI officials would not say whether they have confirmed that the account belonged to Cruz.... At a press conference Thursday morning, the FBI confirmed that it had received and looked into a tip about the 'professional school shooter' comment on Bennight's YouTube channel, but could not uncover any details from the account." ...

... Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "As Republicans begin heaping 'thoughts and prayers' on the families of the 17-plus people killed in Wednesday's deadly shooting at a high school outside Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, [Bess Kalb,] a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live! made sure to note how much each had taken from the National Rifle Association."

Maggie Haberman & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "President Trump's inaugural committee paid nearly $26 million to an event planning firm started by an adviser to the first lady, Melania Trump, while donating $5 million -- less than expected -- to charity, according to tax filings released on Thursday. [The committee's] chairman, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a longtime friend of Mr. Trump, had pledged that the committee would be thrifty with its spending, and would donate leftover funds to charity. But the mandatory tax return it filed with the Internal Revenue Service indicates that the group's charitable donations included only an already publicized $3 million for hurricane relief, plus a total of $1.75 million to groups involved in decorating and maintaining the White House and the vice president's residence."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The rule of thumb for crisis communications in any White House is to get a complete and accurate account of events out quickly, if for no other reason than to keep a negative story from lasting longer than it otherwise might. But President Trump's White House has thrown out the rule book in so many ways. The continuing questions about Rob Porter, the staff secretary who resigned after being accused of abusing two former wives, have provided a case study in how shifting stories can make matters worse.... Critics say the conflicting accounts stem from the top, from a president who has made so many false statements or given so many contradictory versions of the truth in so many instances that even his own advisers cannot trust him." Baker reports on a summary by Ari Fleischer, Dubya's press secretary, of the underlying problems in the Trump administration's scattershot responses to the Porter problem.

Feud of the Old Farts. Elana Schor of Politico: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley hit back hard at Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday after his former Senate colleague launched a pre-emptive strike on his criminal justice bill. The legislation, which Grassley has worked on for more than two years, is expected to win committee approval Thursday. But it faces a tough climb to the Senate floor amid reluctance from GOP leaders and conservative resistance. Sessions, who opposed the reform effort during his time on the Judiciary panel, piled on Wednesday with a letter warning that the bipartisan proposal 'risks putting the very worst criminals back into our communities.'... What Sessions' letter 'doesn't recognize here,' Grassley added, 'and why I'm incensed about it is, look at how hard it was for me to get him through committee in the United States Senate. And look at, when the president was going to fire him, I went to his defense.'"

*****

When a country is not protecting its children, it's lost its soul. -- P.D. Pepe, in today's Comments

Jugal Patel of the New York Times: "When a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults with an assault rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, it ... reverberated across the world. Since then, there have been at least 273 school shootings nationwide. In those incidents, 439 people were shot, 121 of whom were killed." ...

... Casey Templeton of the AP (Feb. 3): "Americans are 10 times more likely to be killed by guns than people in other developed countries, a new study finds. Compared to 22 other high-income nations, the United States' gun-related murder rate is 25 times higher. And, even though the United States' suicide rate is similar to other countries, the nation's gun-related suicide rate is eight times higher than other high-income countries, researchers said." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link. ...

... ** Margaret Hartmann: "Like many of his GOP colleagues, [Sen.] Marco Rubio [Fla.] has repeatedly tweeted that his thoughts are with the latest mass-shooting victims, yet somehow it's never the right time to dig in on the underlying causes. In the past year Democrats have introduced more than 30 pieces of legislation aimed at combatting gun violence, and only four have had GOP sponsors, according to the Washington Post. That isn't to say that Republicans has been inactive on gun-related issues. Since President Trump took office, he and other Republicans have launched several efforts to loosen gun-control laws. There are also a handful of GOP lawmakers who expressed interest in fixing the gaps in existing laws that appeared to play a role in recent mass shootings -- yet so far, nothing has come of those efforts. Here's what Washington has been up to." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In today's Comments, safari writes that the Republican party is a grave national security threat because of its willingness to allow practically any lunatic or zealot to get his hands on semi-automatic weapons (easily convertible to automatic weapons). I agree with that. But of course the GOP isn't going to finger itself. So I'd be happy, as a fallback measure, to see bills introduced in Congress & state legislatures declaring the National Rifle Association to be a terrorist front organization & a grave national security risk. These bills would go nowhere, but they would at least make a point, absent the possibility of passage of any meaningful gun-control legislation.


** Ed O'Keefe, et al., of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on immigration Wednesday as President Trump attempted to preemptively undercut the proposal by delivering an ultimatum: Pass my plan or risk a veto. The self-dubbed 'Common Sense Caucus' of bipartisan senators late Wednesday circulated legislation that would fulfill Trump&s calls to grant legal status to 1.8 million immigrants, and would authorize $25 billion for southern border security construction projects over the next decade -- not immediately, as Trump wants. The bill also would curb family-based immigration programs, but not to the extent Trump is seeking and does not end a diversity visa lottery program that he wants eliminated. Word of an agreement came as formal debate on immigration policy has mostly sputtered this week -- a stalemate that has underscored the politically fraught nature of the showdown that is further complicated by GOP leaders' insistence that the Senate act by week's end." ...

... Never Believe Anything Donald Trump Says. Michael Shear & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday called on lawmakers to oppose a series of bipartisan efforts to address immigration and resolve the fate of the so-called 'Dreamers,' demanding fealty to his hard-line approach and increasing the odds of political gridlock as the Senate debates the issue.... While the president's support of [Sen. Chuck Grassley's hard-line] bill is not surprising, his vague promise not to support other bills is notable, as Mr. Trump told lawmakers last month that he would sign any immigration bill that Congress sends him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... DACA Sabotage. Esther Yu Hsi Lee of ThinkProgress: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is giving the Senate the rest of this week only to consider permanent legislation to protect the nearly 800,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers before he moves on to 'other things.'... Allowing three days to debate the lives of millions of immigrants is absurd for a few reasons.... But there's also the issue of McConnell undercutting time by propping up measures that will go nowhere with Democrats." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "In a brief statement to reporters at the White House, Trump said, 'I'm totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that. And it almost wouldn't even have to be said. So, now you hear it, but you all know.' He declined to answer follow-up questions." Mrs. McC: Okay then, totally opposed, not just opposed. Good for Trump for having the guts to take this controversial position. Jerk. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Darren Samuelsohn, et al., of Politico: "Nine days into the Rob Porter scandal..., Sarah Huckabee Sanders is pushing for senior officials who made the decisions surrounding his security clearance to take over the task of explaining -- and defending -- those decisions to the public.... The issue remained unresolved at the time Wednesday's briefing was canceled, according to the person, and may wind up being decided by ... Donald Trump himself.... After huddling behind closed doors with her colleagues for much of Wednesday morning, Sanders delayed the regular press briefing twice and then canceled it altogether late Wednesday afternoon, citing a school shooting in Florida as the reason. She kept the door to her office closed to reporters." ...

... Leaker-in-Chief. Brad Reed of RawStory: "There have been several leaks out of the White House recently that paint an unflattering portrait of White House chief of staff John Kelly, and the New York Times' Maggie Haberman says that Kelly's allies now believe the leaks are coming from President Donald Trump himself.... Haberman then said morale had sunk to a low point not seen since the president's insistence after Charlottesville that there were 'very fine people' attending a white nationalist rally -- and she said that Kelly's allies think Trump is trying to oust him through leaking dirt to the press." --safari: Trump doesn't have the cojones to fire a General, so he publicly humiliates him instead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The Show Goes on. Lachlan Markay, et al., of the Daily Beast: Trumpland comic actors, some of whom John Kelly fired or sidelined -- like Anthony Scaramucci, Roger Stone, Corey Lewandowski & Chris Christie -- are urging Trump to fire Kelly. ...

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Let me just pause to issue a mea culpa. The Constant Weader & I have repeatedly mocked the Daily Mail ...

... But we have learned over the past week-plus that even a rag like the Daily Mail can perform a vital public service. William Saletan of Slate points out the obvious: the "process" failed (and would have continued to fail) if the women Rob Porter abused had not gone public. "Porter shattered the lives of these women years go. And the process didn't serve them. It served him."

... ** Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "More than 130 political appointees working in the Executive Office of the President did not have permanent security clearances as of November 2017, including the president's daughter [Ivanka Trump], son-in-law [Jared Kushner] and his top legal counsel [Don McGahn], according to internal White House documents obtained by NBC News. Of those appointees working with interim clearances, 47 of them are in positions that report directly to ... Donald Trump. About a quarter of all political appointees in the executive office are working with some form of interim security clearance.... A total of 34 people who started their government service on Jan. 20, 2017, the first day of the Trump presidency, were still on interim clearances in November. Among them are White House counsel Don McGahn, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah.... One of the president's central arguments against his Democratic opponent in the 2016 presidential election was that Hillary Clinton's alleged mishandling of classified information not only disqualified her but was grounds for imprisonment." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: If a Hillary Clinton administration had an intern with no direct access to secret documents working without a permanent security clearance, we'd be on our fifth Congressional investigation by now. In case you were wondering why the White House counsel wasn't all concerned about top officials' lack of clearance, I guess you can stop wondering now. ...

... Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "A senior official on the National Economic Council resigned on Tuesday after being informed that he would not receive a permanent security clearance, as the White House faces increasing scrutiny over the number of high-ranking officials allowed to work on interim clearances. George David Banks, who had served since February 2017 as special assistant to the president for international energy and environmental policy, told Politico that he was informed by the White House counsel's office Tuesday that his application for a permanent clearance would not be granted over his past marijuana use.... Banks said he was told that his clearance would not be granted because he admitted to smoking marijuana in 2013." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again, this story doesn't make sense. Having smoked dope in 2013 would not create a security risk. Lying about it -- that's something else. As Restuccia notes, "A former Obama administration official who worked on personnel and vetting issues said the Obama White House usually only denied clearances when there was both past drug use and a lack of full disclosure." ...

... The Washington Post story on Banks' resignation, by Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis, is here. A photo of Banks accompanies the article. Mrs. McC: Sorry, but he looks in-sane.

Twisting Slowly, Slowly in the Wind. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Trump's public search for his next chief has left [John] Kelly isolated and damaged by the drumbeat of leaks. Trump seems to be doing anything he can to needle Kelly.... One reason why Kelly still has a job is simply that it's been so difficult for Trump to find a qualified person who actually wants to be chief of staff." ...

... Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: White House counsel Don McGahn's lot is not a happy one. "From the start..., McGahn found himself in the thick of virtually every White House controversy.... McGahn's central role in such controversies, and his failure to shape events to the president's wishes, have led to ongoing tensions with Trump and left him increasingly isolated in the West Wing.... Particularly in the early months of the administration..., the two men would have 'spectacular' fights, according to a person who witnessed some of them."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In interviews with [Chris Whipple, the author of a book about presidential chiefs-of-staff, Reince] Priebus gave the first extended description of his tumultuous six months as Mr. Trump's top aide.... Mr. Priebus struggled as none of his predecessors had before. However arduous his tenure looked from the outside, he said it was even more so on the inside.... Vanity Fair posted an excerpt from the new chapter on Wednesday."


Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Wednesday that the panel had seen an 'abundance' of evidence of collusion with Russia and obstruction by Donald Trump's campaign and administration that is not yet public. Speaking to reporters in Washington, Schiff said a lot of information was already in the public domain that pointed to extensive contacts between the Trump campaign team and the Kremlin, and later efforts by the Trump entourage to cover up those contacts. But Schiff said there was much more to come out.... Schiff, from California, added on Wednesday that the intelligence committee had also seen evidence pointing towards money laundering involving Trump's circle, but had been hindered by the partisan deadlock that has paralysed its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election." ...

... Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The House Intelligence Committee is preparing for a showdown with former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon that members call a moment of truth for Congress if it wants to maintain any authority to scrutinize the Trump administration. Panel lawmakers are urging leaders to issue a contempt citation for Bannon if he refuses to answer their questions during an interview expected Thursday -- their second attempt to compel Bannon's testimony in recent weeks. Lawmakers subpoenaed him last month when he declined to address subjects related to their probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Bannon has successfully delayed several attempts to reschedule the interview while his lawyers coordinate with the administration, and according to members of the committee, he still maintains he will not answer questions about his time on Trump's transition team or in the White House." ...

... Micah Lee & Cora Currier of the Intercept: "... in the fall of 2015..., [Julian] Assange [of WikiLeaks] spoke freely about why WikiLeaks wanted [Hillary] Clinton and the Democrats to lose the [2016] election. 'We believe it would be much better for GOP to win,' he typed into a private Twitter direct message group to an assortment of WikiLeaks' most loyal supporters on Twitter.... Assange's thinking appeared to be rooted not in ideological agreement with the right wing in the U.S., but in the tactical idea that a Republican president would face more resistance to an aggressive military posture than an interventionist President Hillary Clinton would.... Twitter messages obtained by The Intercept provide an unfiltered window into WikiLeaks' political goals before it dove into the white-hot center of the presidential election. The messages also reveal a running theme of sexism and misogyny, contain hints of anti-Semitism, and underline Assange's well-documented obsession with his public image." ...

... New York Times Editors: "... why is Mr. Trump still ignoring [the conclusions of the nation's top intelligence officials that Russia continues to compromise U.S. elections]? Some have said he is giving Russia a green light to tamper with the 2018 elections. That would have once been an absurd suggestion. It can no longer be dismissed out of hand." ...

... The Vichy Party. Frank Rich: "The most important moment at this week's Senate hearings came when FBI director Wray conceded under questioning that the president had issued no orders to his agency to fight back against the Russian attack on the integrity of American elections. Quite the contrary. Trump has repeatedly denied that the Russians are up to anything, choosing to believe Vladimir Putin's denials over the findings conveyed by his own appointees, whether Wray or the director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats. And so ... the collusion is continuing in 2018 right before our eyes. You'd have to be blind not to connect these dots. Or a bootlicker. Republicans on Capitol Hill pretend not to notice and do nothing to counter a threat to the very existential core of our democracy. Historians will look back at their willful ignorance just as they now do on their predecessors in Vichy France."


Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Trump's military parade would cost between $10 million and $30 million, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Wednesday. Mulvaney offered the estimate during questioning at the House Budget Committee. He said the White House hasn't yet budgeted for the parade and would either rely on Congress to appropriate funds, or use money that already has been approved." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The President & the Porn Star, Ctd.

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "A Hollywood tabloid is reporting that Stormy Daniels thinks that she is free to speak since Michael Cohen acknowledged that she was paid by him to keep her mouth shut about an alleged affair with ... Donald Trump.... Gina Rodriguez, a manager for Daniels, confirmed to The Associated Press that she believes Trump's lawyer invalidated the non-disclosure agreement. Sources told The Blast that Daniels' legal team notified Trump's legal team, including Cohen, that they are in violation of the 2016 agreement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Maggie Haberman & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The admission by President Trump's longtime personal lawyer [Michael Cohen] that he sent $130,000 to a pornographic film actress, who once claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump, has raised potential legal questions ranging from breach of contract to ethics violations.... Mr. Cohen's assertions left many questions unanswered, including whether the payment was truly a personal gift by him or whether he was reimbursed by some other party, like Mr. Trump or an associate of Mr. Trump."


Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Americans' dissatisfaction with the quality of the environment is at an all-time high, Gallup reported Monday.... It's also the first time more than half of Americans were dissatisfied.... At the same time, however, Republicans' satisfaction with the quality of the nation's environment jumped 5 points to a remarkable 69 percent over the past year. That's quite remarkable given that Trump's own EPA released a study last fall concluding that simply undoing the Obama-era rule aimed at cutting carbon pollution could kill 100,000 Americans by 2050." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jenny Rowland of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump's budget released Monday recommends extreme staffing cuts of nearly 2,000 National Park Service rangers at a time when national park visitation is at an all-time high.... In 2016, the national parks received record visitation rates of nearly 331 million visits. Cuts to park staff could lead to a reduction in services to the public, closed facilities, and heavier workloads for remaining staff." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


They're All Crooked. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin's chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for the secretary's wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency's inspector general has found. Vivieca Wright Simpson, VA's third-most-senior official, altered language in an email from an aide coordinating the trip to make it appear that Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government, then used the award to justify paying for his wife's travel, Inspector General Michael J. Missal said in a report released Wednesday. VA paid more than $4,300 for her airfare. The account of how the government paid travel expenses for the secretary's wife is one finding in an unsparing investigation that concluded that Shulkin and his staff misled agency ethics officials and the public about key details of the trip. Shulkin also improperly accepted a gift of sought-after tickets to a Wimbledon tennis match, the investigation found, and directed an aide coordinating the trip to act as what the report called a 'personal travel concierge' to him and his wife.... Shulkin ... is the administration's lone holdover from the Obama administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. Donovan Slack of USA Today: "Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said he regrets mistakes he and others made during travel planning and ethics clearance processes that led to findings by the VA inspector general that he had misused taxpayer resources during a European trip last year."

They're All Crooked, Ctd. Caught Cheating Taxpayers, EPA Clams up. Eric Wolff, et al., of Politico: "EPA on Wednesday retracted its claim that Administrator Scott Pruitt has received a 'blanket waiver' to fly first class whenever he travels, after Politico pointed officials to federal travel rules that appeared to bar such arrangements. Pruitt has been routinely flying first class at taxpayers' expense after securing what EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox had described as 'blanket waiver,' Politico reported Tuesday. But the General Services Administration says federal rules require agencies' oversight staffers to sign off on officials' first- or business-class travel 'on a trip-by-trip basis ... unless the traveler has an up-to-date documented disability or special need.'... The EPA spokesman said anyone seeking additional details about Pruitt's travels would have to formally request them under the Freedom of Information Act, a process that can take months or years." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I get that Pruitt would prefer to travel in style; so would I. The solution is simple: Pruitt can personally pay for the difference between the ticket he's traveling on & the price of a coach ticket. He'd have to do the same for any of his security detail who are traveling along side him. He should reimburse us now for past upgraded travel. However, if he prefers to get a disability waiver, I'll bet we can find a doctor to certify that he has a profound & incurable asshole problem. ...

     ... David Eggert of the AP gets to the bottom of those "security reasons": "The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has broken months of silence about his frequent premium-class flights at taxpayer expense, saying he needs to fly first class because of unpleasant interactions with other travelers." Mrs. McC: Ergo, we must conclude that passengers in first class are much less "unpleasant" than are the riffraff shoehorned into coach. My sincere compliments to the riffraff. Some might call them taxpayers. ...

... All the Best People, Ctd. Charles Pierce: "There are two running gags within this administration* that are never going to stop being apropos. (How funny they are depends on how dark your sense of comedy is.) The first is the periodic arrival of Infrastructure Week, which invariably occasions something weird happening that has nothing to do with infrastructure. And the second can be fairly well summed up in the phrase .. all the best people! Throughout the campaign, the president* said over and over that he would staff his administration* with nothing but the best people because he knew all the best people and they were fairly slavering to help him снова сделай америку ... her ... Make America Great Again. This was crazy talk when you looked at the grifters and bedbugs with whom he staffed his campaign, but some people apparently bought it and, given the available evidence, those people would have been better off doing masonry work at the Trump Taj in Atlantic City."

Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "Last April, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, led the charge for his agency to approve rules allowing television broadcasters to greatly increase the number of stations they own. A few weeks later, Sinclair Broadcasting announced a blockbuster $3.9 billion deal to buy Tribune Media -- a deal those new rules made possible. By the end of the year, in a previously undisclosed move, the top internal watchdog for the F.C.C. opened an investigation into whether Mr. Pai and his aides had improperly pushed for the rule changes and whether they had timed them to benefit Sinclair, according to Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey and two congressional aides.... The inquiry puts a spotlight on Mr. Pai's decisions and whether there had been coordination with the company. It may also force him to answer questions that he has so far avoided addressing in public. The inquiry could also add ammunition to arguments against the Sinclair-Tribune deal. Public interest groups and Democratic lawmakers, including Mr. Pallone, are strongly opposed to the deal, arguing that it would reduce the number of voices in media and diminish coverage of local news."

Sasha Abramsky of the New Yorker takes a cleaver to the excellent Trumpbox plan for the hungry. "How, exactly, will this Administration -- which recently contracted with a desperately inept company to deliver millions of pre-made meals to Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria, only to withdraw the contract after almost none of the meals were delivered -- actually get these boxes of food to millions of households? Or to recipients who move frequently, or end up temporarily homeless? What if the food is stolen or delayed? How will the box cater to the dietary needs and allergies of all the recipients? Or children's finicky eating habits? Or simply to the fact that adults like to be treated like adults, which means having an element of choice -- one might even say of personal responsibility -- when making economic decisions, such as the ones bound up in grocery shopping?"

Casey Quilan of ThinkProgress: "This week, Congress is expected to vote on a bill that would significantly weaken the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act and let businesses off the hook for failing to provide accommodations for accessibility. The ADA Education and Reform Act was introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), and was recently adopted in the House Judiciary Committee.... If the bill passes, it would affect 22 percent of Americans who have a disability, 13 percent of which experience mobility issues, such as walking or climbing stairs, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The share of people with disabilities is higher among women and people of color." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Cristiano Lima & Lauren Dezenski of Politico: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren reaffirmed her claims of Native American heritage during an address to community leaders on Wednesday, pushing back against ... Donald Trump's attacks on her ethnicity in the most expansive explanation yet about a controversy that has dogged her since her 2012 election campaign. In a surprise visit to the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, the Massachusetts Democrat responded to those who have accused her of misleading voters about her ethnic background, according to prepared remarks of the address.... Questions surrounding Warren's claims to Native American heritage ... have circulated since her first Senate bid. She had listed herself as a minority in a legal directory published by the Association of American Law schools from 1986 to 1995, and both Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania listed Warren as a Native American in federal forms filed by the law schools while she worked there. Trump has repeatedly derided Warren, who says her family is part Cherokee, as 'Pocahontas.' During a White House event to honor Native Americans at the White House in November, the president revived the derogatory nickname." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Senate Race

Courtney Tanner of the Salt Lake Tribune: "The Utah Republican Party chairman blasted Mitt Romney's anticipated Senate run, hitting him for 'essentially doing what Hillary Clinton did in New York' -- campaigning in a state he hasn't spent much time in. 'I think he's keeping out candidates that I think would be a better fit for Utah because, let's face it, Mitt Romney doesn't live here, his kids weren't born here, he doesn't shop here,' Rob Anderson told The Salt Lake Tribune in an interview. It's highly unusual for a party chairman to criticize a potential candidate. And Anderson's comments came in the run-up to Romney's expected announcement Thursday morning. He has since postponed that, citing 'respect for the victims and their families' after a deadly school shooting in Florida."

Trumpism Gone Wild. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Rather than simply fighting judicial rulings, elected officials in some states across the country -- largely Republicans, but Democrats as well -- are increasingly seeking to punish or restrain judges who hand down unfavorable decisions, accusing them of making law instead of interpreting it. Civil liberties advocates and other critics have a different take: The real law-flouting, they say, is by politicians who want to punish justices whose decisions offend their own ideological leanings.... Political attempts to reshape or constrain state courts have risen sharply in the last 10 years, [Bill Raftery, a senior analyst at the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va.,] said, propelled by polarization and a fading of the civics-book notion of governmental checks and balances.... 'This is Trumpism at the lower level,' said Bernard Grofman, an elections expert at the University of California.... 'This is the view that if independent branches of government say things that don't match what you say or do, you fire them; you impeach them; you malign them; you destroy them as best you can.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Elections Matter. David Dayen of The Intercept: "Dominion Energy, the utility monopoly in Virginia, suffered a rare loss on the floor of the state House of Delegates late Monday night, when their ability to double-charge ratepayers for infrastructure improvements was stripped out of a controversial bill.... The move is a major victory for Virginia's large freshman class of Democratic legislators, many of whom campaigned against Dominion in their races and refused to take campaign contributions from them. It's an act of defiance against the state's most powerful corporate donor, as well as the Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, who endorsed the overall bill." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Norimitsu Onishi of the New York Times: "President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, a master tactician who survived a string of corruption scandals and harsh court judgments during his nearly nine-year presidency, agreed on Wednesday night to step down, repudiated by the governing African National Congress Party, threatened by a no-confidence vote in Parliament, cornered by opposition parties and abandoned by millions of voters. In an address to the nation Wednesday night, Mr. Zuma said he was resigning even though he disagreed with the party's decision ordering him to do so."

Juan Cole: "Are there parallels between Netanyahu's situation and Trump’s? Both came to power in part through the backing of billionaires and their fake news organs such as Fox Cable News for Trump and Yisrael Ha-Yom for Netanyahu. Both men are being investigated for corruption. Both have responded by denigrating law enforcement. Netanyahu attacked the police, Trump the FBI. Both have tried to normalize corruption. Netanyahu dismissed the hundreds of thousands of dollars he received as a few gifts among friends. Trump asks his audience if they don't want him to make money for his businesses. And in the case of both men, if they are removed from office for corruption, they will be succeeded by political figures even farther to their right and more dangerous to the world." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: The three -- Zuma, Netanyahu & Trump -- all deserve suites (cell + slop bucket) at the Trump Club Cuba at Guantanamo.

Comments Off
Tuesday
Feb132018

The Commentariat -- February 14, 2018

Afternoon Update:

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "In a brief statement to reporters at the White House, Trump said, 'I'm totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that. And it almost wouldn't even have to be said. So, now you hear it, but you all know.' He declined to answer follow-up questions." Mrs. McC: Okay then, totally opposed, not just opposed. Good for Trump for having the guts to take this controversial position. Jerk. ...

Never Believe Anything Donald Trump Says. Michael Shear & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday called on lawmakers to oppose a series of bipartisan efforts to address immigration and resolve the fate of the so-called 'Dreamers,' demanding fealty to his hard-line approach and increasing the odds of political gridlock as the Senate debates the issue.... While the president's support of [Sen. Chuck Grassley's hard-line] bill is not surprising, his vague promise not to support other bills is notable, as Mr. Trump told lawmakers last month that he would sign any immigration bill that Congress sends him." ...

... DACA Sabotage. Esther Yu Hsi Lee of ThinkProgress: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is giving the Senate the rest of this week only to consider permanent legislation to protect the nearly 800,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers before he moves on to 'other things.'... Allowing three days to debate the lives of millions of immigrants is absurd for a few reasons.... But there's also the issue of McConnell undercutting time by propping up measures that will go nowhere with Democrats." --safari

Leaker-in-Chief. Brad Reed of RawStory: "There have been several leaks out of the White House recently that paint an unflattering portrait of White House chief of staff John Kelly, and the New York Times' Maggie Haberman says that Kelly's allies now believe the leaks are coming from President Donald Trump himself.... Haberman then said morale had sunk to a low point not seen since the president's insistence after Charlottesville that there were 'very fine people' attending a white nationalist rally -- and she said that Kelly's allies think Trump is trying to oust him through leaking dirt to the press." --safari: Trump doesn't have the cojones to fire a General, so he publicly humiliates him instead.

Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "A senior official on the National Economic Council resigned on Tuesday after being informed that he would not receive a permanent security clearance, as the White House faces increasing scrutiny over the number of high-ranking officials allowed to work on interim clearances. George David Banks, who had served since February 2017 as special assistant to the president for international energy and environmental policy, told Politico that he was informed by the White House counsel's office Tuesday that his application for a permanent clearance would not be granted over his past marijuana use.... Banks said he was told that his clearance would not be granted because he admitted to smoking marijuana in 2013." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again, this story doesn't make sense. Having smoked dope in 2013 would not create a security risk. Lying about it -- that's something else. As Restuccia notes, "A former Obama administration official who worked on personnel and vetting issues said the Obama White House usually only denied clearances when there was both past drug use and a lack of full disclosure."

They're All Crooked. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin's chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for the secretary's wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency's inspector general has found. Vivieca Wright Simpson, VA's third-most-senior official, altered language in an email from an aide coordinating the trip to make it appear that Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government, then used the award to justify paying for his wife's travel, Inspector General Michael J. Missal said in a report released Wednesday. VA paid more than $4,300 for her airfare. The account of how the government paid travel expenses for the secretary's wife is one finding in an unsparing investigation that concluded that Shulkin and his staff misled agency ethics officials and the public about key details of the trip. Shulkin also improperly accepted a gift of sought-after tickets to a Wimbledon tennis match, the investigation found, and directed an aide coordinating the trip to act as what the report called a 'personal travel concierge' to him and his wife.... Shulkin ... is the administration's lone holdover from the Obama administration."

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Trump's military parade would cost between $10 million and $30 million, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Wednesday. Mulvaney offered the estimate during questioning at the House Budget Committee. He said the White House hasn't yet budgeted for the parade and would either rely on Congress to appropriate funds, or use money that already has been approved."

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Hollywood tabloid is reporting that Stormy Daniels thinks that she is free to speak since Michael Cohen acknowledged that she was paid by him to keep her mouth shut about an alleged affair with President Donald Trump.... Gina Rodriguez, a manager for Daniels, confirmed to The Associated Press that she believes Trump's lawyer invalidated the non-disclosure agreement. Sources told The Blast that Daniels' legal team notified Trump’s legal team, including Cohen, that they are in violation of the 2016 agreement."

Casey Quilan of ThinkProgress: "This week, Congress is expected to vote on a bill that would significantly weaken the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act and let businesses off the hook for failing to provide accommodations for accessibility. The ADA Education and Reform Act was introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), and was recently adopted in the House Judiciary Committee.... If the bill passes, it would affect 22 percent of Americans who have a disability, 13 percent of which experience mobility issues, such as walking or climbing stairs, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The share of people with disabilities is higher among women and people of color." --safari

Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Americans' dissatisfaction with the quality of the environment is at an all-time high, Gallup reported Monday.... It's also the first time more than half of Americans were dissatisfied.... At the same time, however, Republicans' satisfaction with the quality of the nation's environment jumped 5 points to a remarkable 69 percent over the past year. That's quite remarkable given that Trump's own EPA released a study last fall concluding that simply undoing the Obama-era rule aimed at cutting carbon pollution could kill 100,000 Americans by 2050." --safari...

... Jenny Rowland of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump's budget released Monday recommends extreme staffing cuts of nearly 2,000 National Park Service rangers at a time when national park visitation is at an all-time high.... In 2016, the national parks received record visitation rates of nearly 331 million visits. Cuts to park staff could lead to a reduction in services to the public, closed facilities, and heavier workloads for remaining staff." --safari

Cristiano Lima & Lauren Dezenski of Politico: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren reaffirmed her claims of Native American heritage during an address to community leaders on Wednesday, pushing back against ... Donald Trump's attacks on her ethnicity in the most expansive explanation yet about a controversy that has dogged her since her 2012 election campaign. In a surprise visit to the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, the Massachusetts Democrat responded to those who have accused her of misleading voters about her ethnic background, according to prepared remarks of the address.... Questions surrounding Warren's claims to Native American heritage ... have circulated since her first Senate bid. She had listed herself as a minority in a legal directory published by the Association of American Law schools from 1986 to 1995, and both Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania listed Warren as a Native American in federal forms filed by the law schools while she worked there. Trump has repeatedly derided Warren, who says her family is part Cherokee, as 'Pocahontas.' During a White House event to honor Native Americans at the White House in November, the president revived the derogatory nickname."

Juan Cole: "Are there parallels between Netanyahu's situation and Trump's? Both came to power in part through the backing of billionaires and their fake news organs such as Fox Cable News for Trump and Yisrael Ha-Yom for Netanyahu. Both men are being investigated for corruption. Both have responded by denigrating law enforcement. Netanyahu attacked the police, Trump the FBI. Both have tried to normalize corruption. Netanyahu dismissed the hundreds of thousands of dollars he received as a few gifts among friends. Trump asks his audience if they don't want him to make money for his businesses. And in the case of both men, if they are removed from office for corruption, they will be succeeded by political figures even farther to their right and more dangerous to the world." --safari

Elections Matter. David Dayen of The Intercept: "Dominion Energy, the utility monopoly in Virginia, suffered a rare loss on the floor of the state House of Delegates late Monday night, when their ability to double-charge ratepayers for infrastructure improvements was stripped out of a controversial bill.... The move is a major victory for Virginia's large freshman class of Democratic legislators, many of whom campaigned against Dominion in their races and refused to take campaign contributions from them. It's an act of defiance against the state's most powerful corporate donor, as well as the Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, who endorsed the overall bill." --safari

*****

... Matthew Rosenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Russia is already meddling in the midterm elections this year, the top American intelligence officials said on Tuesday, warning that Moscow is using a digital strategy to worsen the country's political and social divisions. Russia is using fake accounts on social media -- many of them bots -- to spread disinformation, the officials said. European elections are being targeted, too, and the attacks were not likely to end this year, they warned.... The warnings were striking in their contrast to President Trump's views on Russia. He has mocked the very notion of Russian interference in the last election, and lashed out at those who have suggested otherwise. He also said that he believes denials of Russian interference issued by President Vladimir V. Putin.... Mr. Trump has not directed his intelligence officials to specifically combat Russian interference, they said." Emphasis added. (This is a update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Trump's Fragile Ego Makes Him Unable to Protect U.S. Elections. Sara Murray & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "... Donald Trump still isn't buying that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Even as his intelligence chiefs unanimously told a Senate panel Tuesday that Russia meddled in 2016 and is planning to do so again in 2018, three sources familiar with the President's thinking say he remains unconvinced that Russia interfered in the presidential election. While this issue is separate from the question of whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Russian officials, to Trump the issues are interwoven, the sources say. He views the notion that Russia meddled in the election as an argument that he had help to win, and that he didn't win the election on his own." Mrs. McC: This alone makes Trump unfit for office. ...

... It's All About Sanctions. Maddow ties it up & puts a bow on it:

Julie Davis & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, said on Tuesday that the bureau delivered final results in January of its background investigation into Rob Porter, the staff secretary who resigned in disgrace amid spousal abuse allegations. But the White House allowed Mr. Porter to continue serving in his post until the accusations surfaced publicly in press reports last week. In testimony on Capitol Hill, Mr. Wray upended the White House's timeline of the events that led to Mr. Porter's departure, contradicting the contention of top officials that his background investigation was 'ongoing' at the time of his resignation. Mr. Wray also told lawmakers that the bureau delivered its first report on Mr. Porter to the White House in March, months earlier than White House officials said they learned of the problems with his background check. Mr. Wray did not disclose the contents of that initial report, but Mr. Porter's two ex-wives have said they told F.B.I. agents of the abuse in interviews conducted in January 2017. Mr. Wray's testimony pointed up a contradictory and frequently changing story line from the White House about a scandal that has engulfed the West Wing. It has raised questions about the credibility of President Trump's most senior advisers, their awareness of serious allegations against an aide who had access to some of the nation's most sensitive information, and the degree of tolerance they may have shown to an ambitious colleague apparently eager to cover up a dark past." AND this:

In late November last year, a distraught girlfriend of Mr. Porter's contacted [White House counsel Donald] McGahn and told him Mr. Porter had been unfaithful to her by dating Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, and had anger problems, according to several people familiar with the discussion. Mr. McGahn, who knew Mr. Porter's girlfriend, at that point suggested to Mr. Porter he should consider leaving the White House, the people said. But Mr. McGahn did not follow up on the matter. (This is a update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.)...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: According to several teevee commentators, the March 2017 "partial finding" would not be a routine report but one that indicated there were problems with Porter's background.

... Ellen Nakashima & Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "Wray's comments stand in stark contrast to how the White House has in recent days portrayed the status of the background check and when senior officials knew about the allegations of abuse against Porter. At the White House briefing Tuesday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stood by the White House's previous explanation of the matter, saying that the presidential personnel office was still reviewing Porter's case when the aide resigned last week.... Last week, Sanders's deputy, Raj Shah, said the background check had not been finished and that the White House saw it as the appropriate forum for the allegations of abuse and Porter's denials to be investigated.... [Chief of Staff John] Kelly has said that he took action against Porter within 40 minutes of learning that the allegations against him were true. But he issued a public statement lauding Porter on Feb 6, the same night the Daily Mail made public the abuse allegations, and according to people familiar with the matter, urged Porter to stay in his job. Porter did not resign until the next morning.... The day Porter resigned, Sanders portrayed it as his decision alone. 'I think that was a personal decision that Rob made, and one that he was not pressured to do, but one that he made on his own,' she told reporters." ...

... Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The president has said little publicly about the Porter issue other than to praise the former aide for doing 'a very good job.' But he has privately expressed frustration with the week-long fallout, peppering aides and confidants with questions about the media coverage and how the controversy is playing for him personally.... Inside the West Wing, a growing number of aides blamed Trump's second White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, for the bungled handling of allegations against Porter. Trump in recent days has begun musing about possible replacements, according to people with knowledge of the conversations.... Kelly does not enjoy the confidence of an increasing number of his subordinates, some of whom said they believe that [he] ... has misled them. Kelly is 'a big fat liar,' said one White House official.... 'To put it in terms the general would understand, his handling of the Porter scandal amounts to dereliction of duty.'" ...

... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "At the end of a lengthy meeting with lawmakers about trade at the White House on Tuesday, President Trump ignored reporters who tried to ask him about whether he believes the two ex-wives of a former top White House aide who have both accused him of abuse.... In the week since media reports first surfaced of the abuse allegations against Porter..., Trump has not said a word about his alleged victims or spoken out against domestic abuse. Instead, the president -- who denies each of the 14 sexual assault allegations made against him -- has praised Porter and lamented that 'lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation.'" ...

... Kaitlan Collins & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Rob Porter was involved in serious discussions to be promoted when he abruptly resigned from the White House last week.... His anticipated elevation further highlights how top White House officials were willing to overlook indications from the FBI that there were potential abuse allegations in his background in exchange for professional competence in a tumultuous West Wing. Porter had been actively lobbying to take on new policy portfolios outside the traditional scope of the staff secretary, one person familiar with the matter said, which included speechwriting duties and a role in planning policy rollouts. Neither of those tasks is traditionally carried out by the staff secretary." ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "... John Kelly defended the White House's response to domestic abuse allegations against Rob Porter, a former top aide. 'No,' Kelly told The Wall Street Journal when asked if it should have been handled differently. 'It was all done right.' The chief of staff made the comments Monday -- before FBI Director Christopher Wray undercut the White House's account of how it responded to the allegations from Porter's two ex-wives." ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "'Wray's FBI timeline makes one thing clear: the Kelly coverup is unraveling right before our eyes,' a White House official says.... Kelly's story -- that he acted immediately and decisively 'within 40 minutes' to terminate Porter last Tuesday night -- is also undermined by what multiple White House officials told reporters in real time. They said on Wednesday that nobody asked Porter to resign and in fact several senior officials asked him to 'stay and fight.'" ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "The White House's Rob Porter problem is only getting worse.... On Tuesday, Politico reported that White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders organized an off-the-record briefing with Porter and four reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Axios in the hours after The Daily Mail published photographs of one of Porter's ex-wives with a black eye. While it's unclear if [John] Kelly was aware of the briefing, it clearly contradicts the White House's primary claim, which is that Porter was removed immediately after evidence of his abuse surfaced.... The chief of staff may take the fall, but the entire White House shares responsibility for its failure to take action against Porter." ...

... Lisa de Moraes of Deadline: "One day after putting it on the FBI, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders handed responsibility for the months-long delay in moving against Rob Porter to the White House Personnel Security Office. In the time between her Monday briefing and her Tuesday briefing, FBI Director Christopher Wray had put in an appearance at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, responding to Sanders I Don't Think So-ily, telling the committee it had flagged things it had learned about Porter's security clearance nearly a year ago, and finished its investigation last July." ...

... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Watching the press secretary at Monday's briefing, the words that came to mind were these: A new low.... And that is really saying something, given the lying-from-day-one reign of Sean Spicer, along with [Sarah] Sanders's own fulsome history of dissembling, and the 10-day flameout of Anthony Scaramucci last summer.... You might think that as one of the most visible women in the Trump administration, Sanders would bring some credibility -- maybe even sympathy -- to bear on subjects related to respect for women. In fact, it seems to bring out the worst in her." ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "How could it be that Porter was still working with an interim clearance, and perhaps in line for a promotion, even after the FBI had delivered a report that recommended he not be granted clearance? In addition to showing how unseriously the White House treated the abuse allegations, this shows a fundamental truth of the clearance process: There's no mechanism to enforce it.... The FBI can recommend that an individual not be granted clearance, but it doesn't actually do the granting. For White House staff, the White House itself makes that decision.... Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, another Trump appointee, highlighted this problem during Tuesday's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, where he sat alongside Wray. 'The process is broken. It needs to be reformed,' Coates said. He called for restricted access to classified material when an interim clearance is required." ...

... The Kushner Effect. The White House Knew It Was Compromising National Security. Andrew Restuccia & Emily Stephenson of Politico: "The White House quietly imposed a ban on new interim security clearances for anyone in the executive office of the president last fall, but it let existing employees with interim clearances stay on, according to an email obtained by Politico. The Nov. 7 internal email to senior leaders at the Office of Management and Budget said the White House personnel security office had advised that it would no longer grant interim security clearances.... Staffers who had already been granted interim security clearances -- like former staff secretary Rob Porter ... -- could continue to hold them while their background investigations were finished, the email said.... The email nonetheless indicates that officials in the personnel security office -- and perhaps others in the White House -- were aware as far back as last year of the potential pitfalls of overreliance on interim security clearances...." ...

... Dan Merica of CNN provides a timeline of "what Trump's team actually knew when they were trying to clean up the Porter controversy." Mrs. McC: Kelly is a "big fat liar"? They're all either liars or uninformed. ...

... Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The House Oversight Committee is now investigating how former White House staff secretary Rob Porter kept his role in the administration even as accusations of domestic abuse were made against him, according to Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the panel's chairman.... Gowdy was unclear as to the nature of the investigation, saying at one point it could be called official or unofficial." Mrs. McC: Yeah, I'll bet. I suspect we'll find out the whole thing was just a little misunderstanding. ...

... When You've Lost "Fox & Friends" .... Michal Kranz of Business Insider: "For a show that has often served as one of ... Donald Trump's primary news sources and biggest boosters, 'Fox & Friends' has been fiercely critical of the White House's response to allegations of domestic violence against Rob Porter.... In a tense exchange on Monday's show, [co-host Brian] Kilmeade pressed Hogan Gidley, another White House deputy press secretary, on Trump's response to the allegations against Porter. 'So the president is just as outraged as many Americans about the alleged domestic abuse, which looks pretty strong -- the evidence -- strong against Porter,' Kilmeade said. 'Why won't he say that publicly?'... 'The president has been very clear that all forms of abuse, all forms of battery against women are deplorable,' [Gidley said]. Kilmeade fired back: 'But he hasn't said that.'" ...

The POTUS* Hides Out. Brett Samuels: "President Trump on Wednesday will sign legislation that strengthens the requirements to report sexual abuse, a bill quickly passed by Congress after the slew of allegations against ex-USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. The bill signing is closed to the press." Mrs. McC: I wonder why.

All the President*'s Lawyers

Crazy Trump Stories, Ctd. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, said on Tuesday that he paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to a pornographic-film actress who had once claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump. In the most detailed explanation of the 2016 payment made to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, Mr. Cohen, who worked as a counsel to the Trump Organization for more than a decade, said he was not reimbursed for the payment.... He declined to answer several follow-up questions, including whether Mr. Trump had been aware that he made the payment, why he made the payment or whether he had made similar payments to other people over the years. Mr. Cohen has previously said that Mr. Trump has denied an affair with Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels." Mrs. McC: Sorry, I don't believe it. Who ever heard of a lawyer taking money out of his own pocket to pay for the indiscretions of a client, especially a client who claims to be a billionaire? ...

     ... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post finds a pretty significant omission in the fine print: "Here's some of what Cohen said Tuesday: 'In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford [Daniels's real name]. Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly. The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.' You might notice there is one main Trump-related entity that Cohen doesn't deny was 'party to the transaction' or reimbursed Cohen, and that's Trump. It's difficult to dismiss that as a coincidence, given Cohen is a lawyer and has carefully parsed his comments throughout this situation." ...

     ... Wait, Wait, There's More. Orrin Kerr of the Volokh Conspiracy: "The press is widely reporting ... that Cohen said he paid the $130,000 to Daniels out of his own pocket." But what Cohen's statement actually says is this: "In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to [Daniels]." Kerr reasons, "... the most literal reading of Cohen's statement is just that he used his own funds to arrange the payment. He's not making any statement about whose $130,000 was paid. For example, if it took Cohen a few hundred dollars to set up an entity to pay Daniels, and to wire someone else's $130,000 to her, then he would have been using his own personal funds to faciltate that payment.... There are enough ambiguities in it to drive a truck through.... And of course we also don't know if what Cohen is now saying is literally true. Cohen's 'reputation for having a character for truthfulness,' to use an evidence law phrase, is lousy." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So the whole story is probably a ruse, & possibly an illegal one at that.

     ... Margaret Hartmann makes the case that the payment, even as described by Cohen, violated campaign finance law. But that probably won't matter: "'The FEC has been for years mired in dysfunction and now has a Republican majority of commissioners,' [Common Cause veep Paul Ryan] told USA Today, 'and the DOJ is within the Executive branch of government headed by the president.' In this administration, potentially violating campaign finance laws by paying off a porn star isn't even the biggest scandal of the week."; ...

The Court of Trumpic Opinion. Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "In recent weeks, Trump personal attorney Jay Sekulow has turned the live weekday talk-radio show he hosts into a regular forum for trashing the legitimacy of the federal probes into Trump's Russia connections. Fourteen of the past 19 episodes of 'Jay Sekulow Live' have involved freewheeling conversations about the Trump-Russia saga and what he calls the 'deep state' bureaucrats out to get the president. Sekulow also piles on during his regular appearances on Fox News."


Timothy Cama of the Hill: "Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt has a 'blanket waiver' to federal standards that limit officials' ability to book first-class flights on the taxpayer dime. Citing 'security threats' against Pruitt, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said late Tuesday that President Trump's top environmental regulator has been granted more leeway in flying business class or first class. The statement came amid new scrutiny into Pruitt's travel expenses. The Washington Post reported Sunday that he frequently flies first class, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars."

Ivan Nechepurenko, et al., of the New York Times: "Four Russian nationals, and perhaps dozens more, were killed in fighting between pro-government forces in eastern Syria and members of the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, according to Russian and Syrian officials. A Syrian military officer said that about 100 Syrian soldiers had been killed in the fighting on Feb. 7 and 8, but news about Russian casualties has dribbled out only slowly, through Russian news organizations and social media."

Richard Wolf of USA Today: "President Trump's search for deeply conservative federal judges appears to have eliminated most African Americans and Hispanics from the running. Among Trump's first 87 judicial nominees, only one is African American and one is Hispanic. Five are Asian Americans. Eighty are white. The demographics signal a return to the 1980s, when 94% of President Ronald Reagan's confirmed judges were white. Since then, minority enrollment in law schools has nearly tripled."

Dan Levine of Reuters: "A second U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked ... Donald Trump's decision to end a program that protects immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, cannot end in March as the Republican administration had planned, a victory for Democratic state attorneys general and immigrants who sued the federal government. The decision is similar to a Jan. 9 ruling by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco that DACA must remain in place while litigation challenging Trump's decision continues.... The Supreme Court on Friday is due to consider whether to take up the administration's appeal of the San Francisco ruling."

Church of the Latter Day Sexists. Jim Dalrymple of BuzzFeed: "In the wake of Rob Porter allegations..., BuzzFeed News spoke with more than 20 current and former female members of the LDS church from seven states..., all of whom said that they had experienced domestic abuse and then gone to their clergy for help. In most cases, those leaders were bishops, roughly the LDS equivalent of pastors who serve on a volunteer basis.... In response to their requests for guidance, the women said, they were told by their bishops to stay in abusive relationships, that their eternal salvation could be jeopardized by leaving violent partners, and that they were to blame for their marital problems. Though some reported positive experiences with church leaders, every woman who spoke with BuzzFeed News for this story said there are widespread inadequacies in the way local Mormon leaders handle reports of abuse and domestic violence."

Fox 5 (Washington, D.C.) "An envelope with a 'powdery substance' found at former President Barack Obama's D.C. office is now found to be baby powder, following a police investigation on Tuesday. The incident was reported at around 11 a.m. at the World Wildlife Fund Headquarters at 1250 24th Street in Northwest D.C. The former president has leased office space in the building since leaving the White House in January 2017."

Senate Races

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee has been reconsidering his decision to retire this year, but Mr. Corker's hopes for retaining his seat are running into a potentially insurmountable object: President Trump. Just over four months after Mr. Corker, upon declaring he would retire, unleashed a biting series of attacks on Mr. Trump, the president is refusing to bless his friend-turned-foe's effort to re-enter the Republican primary race. Instead, in a telephone conversation last week, Mr. Trump offered encouragement to Representative Marsha Blackburn, a conservative lawmaker and White House ally who has emerged as the favorite to win the Republican nomination for Mr. Corker's seat, according to three Republicans familiar with the call.... 'Anyone who thinks Marsha Blackburn can't win a general election is just a plain sexist pig,' said Andrea Bozek, a spokeswoman for Ms. Blackburn...."

John Bowden of the Hill: "Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney> will announce his run for Senate in Utah on Thursday with a message to supporters on social media, sources told the Washington Examiner."

Confederate Arizona Candidate Touts Fake News Endorsement. Jason Schwartz & Shawn Musgrave of Politico: "It looked as if Arizona Senate candidate Kelli Ward had scored a big endorsement: On Oct. 28, she posted a link on her campaign website and blasted out a Facebook post, quoting extensively from a column in the Arizona Monitor.... There was just one problem: Despite its reputable sounding name, the Arizona Monitor is not a real news site. It is an anonymous, pro-Ward blog that has referred to her primary opponent Martha McSally as 'Shifty McSally,' frequently blasted [Sen. Jeff] Flake and, at the top of its home page, proclaims its mission as 'Striking Fear into the Heart of the Establishment.' The site launched just a few weeks before publishing the endorsement, and its domain registration is hidden, masking the identity of its owner." Apparently Ward will not take down her "endorsement" boasts, even though campaign ethics experts say, for some odd reason, that claiming endorsements from fake news sites -- possibly created by foreign entities -- is unethical. ...


... The fake Arizona Mirror is hardly alone. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: Besides Devin Nunes' fake news site, Maine Republicans publish an even less transparent fake news site, & so does the Republican Governors' Association. "Mike Pence planned to create a state-run news service during his tenure as Indiana governor, before pulling the plug in the face of fierce criticism.... The sites represent a useful way to spread their message to supporters while falsely conveying the authority of independent journalism." Besides "looking like" legitimate news outlets, the "disclosure statements" for these GOP fake news sites are either non-existent or barely legible. Mrs. McC: When the Congress finishes its exhaustive investigation into Russian & other foreign fake news hoaxes (which for some reason has not yet begun), I'm sure it will move right on to Maine, the Republican governors, et al. ...


... Secret Sperm! Hannity as Art Critic. Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "Here is what [Sean] Hannity wrote on his own web site before it was deleted: 'The widening scandal surrounding former President Barack Obama's official portrait continued to swirl on Tuesday, with shocking allegations the artist included 'secret sperm cells' within the painting and once joked about 'Killing Whitey' during an interview.'... [According to a tweet from Dan Lavoie,] 'The Hannity Sperm Portrait nonsense was started THIS MORNING by racist 4Chan trolls, w/ the express purpose of "getting it in the news." The post calls the Obamas "king and queen n****r." Hannity was writing it up by early afternoon.'... I have to admit to a certain amount of schadenfreude at seeing Hannity with his pants down over a lie that even he can’t spin." LeTourneau writes more on Hannity's remarkable ignorance. ...

... digby: "Keep in mind that Hannity is one of Trump's most valued advisers and has the top rated show on Fox News[.]

Annals of "Journalism," OMG. Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "Less than 24 hours after she was hired, The New York Times on Tuesday fired editorial board member Quinn Norton, after a history of homophobic and racially insensitive tweets were uncovered.... Twitter users uncovered multiple instances in which she used the n-word, or gay slurs like 'faggot' or 'fag,' to refer to various users on the social-media platform. Other critics pointed out her chummy exchanges with a user who’d tweeted numerous anti-Semitic statements, and highlighted old tweets in which she explained that she was proudly friends with neo-Nazis." Mrs. McC: Apparently, the NYT editors do not have access to Twitter. Seriously, this in inexcusable.

Beyond the Beltway

Lisa Hagen of the Hill: "Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) on Tuesday rejected a new district map drawn by GOP lawmakers, bringing the state closer to handing its redistricting process over to a court. The GOP map was drawn after the state Supreme Court struck down the state's current map in a gerrymandering case."

The Wave? George Bennett of the Palm Beach Post: "Democrat Margaret Good won a special state House election in Republican Sarasota County[, Florida,] on Tuesday night in a race that drew national attention as the latest indicator of a potential Democratic anti-Donald Trump wave in the 2018 midterm elections. In a district where Republicans have a 9-point registration advantage and Trump won in 2016, liberal Good got 52.2 percent to 44.8 percent for Republican James Buchanan, the son of U.S. Rep.Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key."

Way Beyond

David Halbfinger & Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "The Israeli police recommended on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, casting a pall over the future of a tenacious leader.... Concluding a yearlong graft investigation, the police recommended that Mr. Netanyahu face prosecution in two corruption cases: a gifts-for-favors affair known as Case 1000, and a second scandal, dubbed Case 2000, in which Mr. Netanyahu is suspected of back-room dealings with Arnon Mozes, publisher of the popular daily Yediot Aharonot, to ensure more favorable coverage." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suggest we reserve Guantanamo (Orrin Hatch once said Guantanamo was pretty nice compared to freezing wastelands like Illinois) for Trump & all of these other right-wing corrupt dictators. Let them each have their very own suite (cell with a bucket) & get three squares of gruel a day. Gen. Kelly can come down once in awhile & strafe them with rubber bullets, which is an exercise he apparently enjoys.

News Ledes

Miami Herald: "More than 20 people have been injured and at least one person killed after someone opened fire Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in North Broward [County, Florida]." ...

     ... Sen. Bill Nelson is saying on MSNBC that there are multiple fatalities at the school (at 3:55 pm ET). At 4:10 pm ET, there are oral reports that the suspect -- a student -- is in custody. ...

... New York Times Update: "Seventeen people were killed in a shooting on Wednesday afternoon at a high school about an hour northwest of Miami, law enforcement officials said. The dead included adults and students. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the suspect is in custody.... A federal official said the gunman had been identified as Nicolas Cruz, 19. The sheriff said the gunman was a former student. He was arrested in Coral Springs, a neighboring city, about an hour after leaving the school. The gunman was armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 assault rifle, Sheriff Israel said, and 'countless magazines.'"

WJLA (Washington, D.C.): "A shooting at the National Security Agency has reportedly left three people injured in Fort Meade Wednesday morning. ABC7's John Gonzalez reports that a suspect is in custody and that no specific injury information has been released at this time. The White House said in a statement that President Trump has been briefed on the shooting." ...

... AP Update: "Three people, including a police officer, were injured after authorities say a vehicle tried to enter the secure campus of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade on Wednesday morning. Gunshots were fired during the incident, but officials say they do not believe any of the injuries resulted from gunfire. At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Gordon Johnson, special agent in charge of the FBI's Baltimore field office, said the FBI is still collecting evidence but believes it was an isolated incident. Johnson said the three injured were the driver of the vehicle, an NSA police officer and a civilian onlooker."

Comments Off
Monday
Feb122018

The Commentariat -- February 13, 2018

Afternoon Update:

David Halbfinger & Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "The Israeli police recommended on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, casting a pall over the future of a tenacious leader.... Concluding a yearlong graft investigation, the police recommended that Mr. Netanyahu face prosecution in two corruption cases: a gifts-for-favors affair known as Case 1000, and a second scandal, dubbed Case 2000, in which Mr. Netanyahu is suspected of back-room dealings with Arnon Mozes, publisher of the popular daily Yediot Aharonot, to ensure more favorable coverage." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suggest we reserve Guantanamo (Orrin Hatch once said Guantanamo was pretty nice compared to freezing wastelands like Illinois) for Trump & all of these other right-wing corrupt dictators. Let them each have their very own suite (cell with a bucket) & get three squares of gruel a day. Gen. Kelly can come down once in awhile & strafe them with rubber bullets, which is an exercise he apparently enjoys.

Matthew Rosenberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "As the midterm elections approach, Russia is likely to throw more propaganda at Americans, using people sympathetic to their messages and fake personalities on social media -- many of them run by bots -- to sow further political and social divisions in the United States, the top American intelligence officials said on Tuesday. The intelligence chiefs warned the Senate Intelligence Committee, during an annual hearing on worldwide threats that Russia believes its interference in the 2016 presidential election largely achieved its chief aim -- weakening faith in American democracy. Moscow now sees the coming congressional elections as a chance to build on its gains, they said.... The warnings were striking in their contrast to President Trump's views on Russia. He has mocked the very notion of Russian interference in the last election, and lashed out at those who have suggested otherwise. He also said that he believes denials of Russian interference issued by President Vladimir V. Putin."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, contradicted on Tuesday the White House timeline about the domestic abuse scandal involving Rob Porter, the president's former staff secretary. Mr. Wray said that the bureau delivered to the White House a partial report on problems in Mr. Porter's background in March, months earlier than the White House has admitted receiving the information.... He said the bureau received a request for a 'follow-up inquiry' and provided more information about Mr. Porter's background to the White House in November. He also said that Mr. Porter's background check investigation was 'administratively closed' in January, weeks before the allegations against Mr. Porter were publicly known.... White House officials also have insisted that the investigation into Mr. Porter's background was never completed." ...

     ... Story has been updated, with Julie Davis added to the byline: "Mr. Wray's testimony pointed up a contradictory and frequently changing story line from the White House about a scandal that has engulfed the West Wing. It has raised questions about the credibility of President Trump's most senior advisers, their awareness of serious allegations against an aide who had access to some of the nation's most sensitive information, and the degree of tolerance they may have shown to an ambitious colleague apparently eager to cover up a dark past."

Lisa Hagen of the Hill: "Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) on Tuesday rejected a new district map drawn by GOP lawmakers, bringing the state closer to handing its redistricting process over to a court. The GOP map was drawn after the state Supreme Court struck down the state's current map in a gerrymandering case."

*****

... Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post: "The National Portrait Gallery has unveiled the official portraits of former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, both painted by African American artists, and both striking additions to the museum's 'America's Presidents' exhibition." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Akhilleus checked out Fox "News"' reception of the portraits, & apparently the professional art critics over there didn't much care for them. See yesterday's thread. Mrs. McC: At least this is one thing that happened during the Trump administration that it's fair for them to claim is the Obamas' fault.

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday will propose offering $100 billion in federal incentives to encourage cities and states to invest in road, bridge and other building projects, the centerpiece of a plan to spur $1.5 trillion in infrastructure spending over the next decade without devoting significant federal money. The proposal, to be unveiled the same day as Mr. Trump's 2019 budget, faces long odds on Capitol Hill, where members of both parties -- particularly Democrats -- are skeptical of any plan that fails to create a dedicated new funding stream to address the nation's crumbling infrastructure. Lawmakers are also doubtful that such a small federal investment will be sufficient to spur an infrastructure spending boom." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Michael Laris of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is pushing federal officials to sell off, privatize or otherwise dispose of a broad array of government assets, from Reagan National Airport and the George Washington Memorial Parkway along the Potomac River to properties held by federal agencies across the country. The proposals are part of a long-awaited infrastructure initiative that President Trump has referred to repeatedly...." Mrs. McC: So like, Reagan International will become G.E. International & the G.W. Parkway will become Mattress Man Parkway? ...

... Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "In his State of the Union address, Donald Trump promised an infrastructure agenda that would let America 'build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land.' The actual infrastructure program he's unveiling today alongside his fiscal year 2019 budget request, however, is likely to do nothing of the sort. In part that's due to the specific elements of the program design. But more fundamentally it's because of the way the program is financed -- or, rather, not financed." Yglesias goes on to explain the financing. "By mashing up Trump's vague rhetoric with his staff's conventional hard-right politics, they've landed on a formula with no bipartisan appeal and no actual path forward." Mrs. McC: Otherwise, it's all good. ...

... Paul Krugman: "It's not a plan, it's a scam. The $1.5 trillion number is just made up; he's only proposing federal spending of $200 billion, which is somehow supposed to magically induce a vastly bigger overall increase in infrastructure investment, mainly paid for either by state and local governments (which are not exactly rolling in cash, but whatever) or by the private sector. And even the $200 billion is essentially fraudulent: The budget proposal announced the same day doesn't just impose savage cuts on the poor, it includes sharp cuts for the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy and other agencies that would be crucially involved in any real infrastructure plan. Realistically, Trump's offer on infrastructure is this: nothing.... [Why not a real plan, which would be beneficial to Trump in so many way?] I ... suspect that Trump is afraid to try anything substantive. To do public investment successfully, you need leadership and advice from experts. And this administration doesn't do expertise, in any field. Not only do experts have a nasty habit of telling you things you don't want to hear, their loyalty is suspect: You never know when their professional ethics might kick in." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Whyever is it that so many people refer to mobsters when writing of Trump?

... Julie Davis: "President Trump on Monday sent Congress a $4.4 trillion budget with steep cuts in domestic programs and entitlements, including Medicare, and large increases for the military, envisioning deficits totaling at least $7.1 trillion over the next decade. The blueprint, which has little to no chance of being enacted as written, amounts to a vision statement by Mr. Trump, whose plan discards longtime Republican orthodoxy about balancing the budget, instead embracing last year's $1.5 trillion tax cut and new spending on a major infrastructure initiative." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The theme here seems to be, "Congressional Republicans ignore GOP President*." ...

... First, Screw All the Poor People. Tracy Jan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The budget that President Trump proposed Monday takes a hard whack at the poorest Americans, slashing billions of dollars from food stamps, public health insurance and federal housing vouchers, while trying to tilt the programs in more conservative directions. The spending plan reaches beyond the White House's own power over the government social safety net and presumes lawmakers will overhaul long-standing entitlement programs for the poor in ways beyond what Congress so far has been willing to do. The changes call on lawmakers to eliminate the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and transform the rest of that program into a system of capped payments to states; convert food assistance into a hybrid of commodity deliveries and traditional cash benefits; and expand requirements that low-income people work to qualify for federal assistance." Read on. Boxed food! It's like Blue Apron! Uh-huh.

** Dan Alexander of Forbes: "The real money in the Trump empire comes from commercial tenants like the Chinese bank. Forbes estimates these tenants pay a collective $175 million a year or so to the president. And they do so anonymously.... Neither the White House nor the Trump Organization would provide a list of the president's tenants, much less reveal what they pay.... In other words, government ethics officials, charged with detecting conflicts of interest, have never seen the president's rent roll. So we created one on our own, identifying 164 tenants, in virtually every industry, from all around the world...Forbes discovered one deal, previously unreported, in which Trump partially serves as his own landlord: The U.S. government is paying some rent to the person who runs it.... In May the prime minister of Georgia made a visit to the White House, where, according to two of Trump's former business partners, the president asked about his old project in the former Soviet republic." --safari: The conflicts of interest are omnipresent and all this family sees is "green".

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "More than a year into his administration, President Trump is presiding over a staff in turmoil, one with a 34 percent turnover rate, higher than any White House in decades. He has struggled to fill openings, unwilling to hire Republicans he considers disloyal and unable to entice Republicans who consider him unstable. Those who do come to work for him often do not last long, burning out from a volatile, sometimes cutthroat environment exacerbated by tweets and subpoenas.... According to a report..., Mr. Trump's 34 percent turnover rate in his first year is more than three times as high as President Barack Obama's in the same period and twice as high as President Ronald Reagan's, which until now was the modern record-holder. Of 12 positions deemed most central to the president, only five are still filled by the same person as when Mr. Trump took office." ...

... Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Turbulence in this West Wing is typically generated by ... Donald Trump, but for the past week, it's been chief of staff John Kelly -- the man brought in to be a steadying hand -- who's inspiring what one White House official described as a crisis of confidence. While the president often makes a hash of the truth, aides took Kelly's word at face value until they were confronted with zigzagging accounts of the events leading up to former staff secretary Rob Porter's resignation -- and Kelly's role in them. In the hours immediately after the Daily Mail published a photograph of Porter's first ex-wife with a black eye, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders hastily arranged an off-the-record meeting in the West Wing with Porter and four reporters: the New York Times' Maggie Haberman, the Washington Post's Josh Dawsey, Axios' Jonathan Swan, and the Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender. In that meeting, which hasn't previously been reported, Porter relayed his version of events and fielded questions from the group. Kelly told staff two days later that once he'd been briefed on allegations of abuse against Porter by his two ex-wives, 'he was gone 40 minutes later.'" ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "A day after White House staff secretary Rob Porter resigned following reports that his two ex-wives accused him of domestic violence, Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah made a rare admission, saying the White House 'could have done better' in its response. President Trump was reportedly annoyed by this admission from Shah, who was filling in for his vacationing boss. When she returned for Monday's briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reestablished the Trump administration's usual tone: indignation even when confronted by evidence of their own wrongdoing." Read on for the highlights of Sanders' excuse conference. ...

Matthew Nussbaum & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump's White House on Monday said it relies on law enforcement to determine which background issues disqualify people from top jobs, as his administration seeks to distance itself from the controversy over a former aide who was accused of domestic abuse. But people familiar with the process for obtaining clearance for senior officials said the FBI's background check process does not include making any final decisions or recommendations -- and that the White House should have been closely involved in any decision to give Rob Porter a security signoff.... Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday told reporters she did not want to delve into the details of the clearance process, but she said the White House deferred to law enforcement on such decisions." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One thing I know: the press doesn't know how security clearances work. I've read half-a-dozen versions of who is responsible for what.

... Digby, in Salon: "... this scandal is about more than the rampant misogyny surrounding Donald Trump. The irony in the fact that Trump's White House counsel, Don McGahn, and his chief of staff, John Kelly, allowed Porter to operate without a top security clearance in a job that handles the United States' most sensitive secrets cannot be overstated. This president ran an entire campaign insisting that his rival should be jailed for using a private email server for non-classified State Department correspondence. Yet here we are, a year after the inauguration, and the Trump White House is reportedly employing dozens of people who cannot qualify for a security clearance. One of them was in a job that requires the highest level of clearance and another, Jared Kushner, has apparently been given access to the same intelligence the president gets." ...

... Accidents Happen. And Happen. And Happen. Tara Palmeri of ABC News: "Hours after allegations of domestic abuse came to light -- including stark photos of one ex-wife with a black eye and a harrowing account of violence from a second ex-wife -- former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter sought to downplay the narrative, instead offering stories of household mishaps and minor squabbles.... Porter told senior staffers his first ex-wife, Colbie Holderness, received a black eye and facial bruises during an argument as the two struggled over a Venetian glass vase in their hotel room while on vacation in Venice in the early 2000s after they were married.... In the case of the restraining order that his second ex-wife Jennifer Willoughby filed against him for allegedly breaking into their house with his fist, Porter said that he was merely tapping the glass pane with his index finger...." ...

... Colbie Holderness, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... I was dismayed when [Kellyanne] Conway, appearing on CNN's 'State of the Union,' [said] that she does not fear for White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, who has reportedly been dating [my ex-husband Rob] Porter. 'I've rarely met somebody so strong with such excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts.'... Recognizing and surviving in an abusive relationship take strength. The abuse can be terrifying, life-threatening and almost constant.... Telling others about the abuse takes strength.... Leaving and putting the pieces of your life back together take strength.... Being strong -- with excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts -- does not inoculate a person against abuse." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: What if the people POTUS* dismisses as liars & character assassins were more articulate & grounded that the person charged with leading the country & those he puts in positions of power? Oh, they are. If Trump had been a stellar president* in ever other regard, his & his staff's response to the women Porter abused have disqualified him to run an organization -- or country -- where he disregards & disparages more than half the people he is supposed to lead. ...

     ... Steve M.: "I know, I know -- this is the Trump White House, so I suppose Porter had reason to believe that he might get away with 'It's the bitch's fault,' and also 'Boy, did I have a terrible run of luck with seemingly violent incidents involving both of my ex-wives in which my behavior was perfectly innocent!' But whoever leaked these accounts understood how damning they are. Or did the leakers believe they were exonerating?" ...

     ... Thanks, Patrick. Thanks, Randy!

"Chain Migration" for Me But Not for Thee. Illegal Immigrants Living in White House? Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post tries unsuccessfully to find out how it is that Melania Trump's parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, have managed to emigrate from Slovenia to the U.S., where they apparently reside in Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago & maybe the White House & help care for their grandson Barron Trump. "... we gave ... the first lady's spokeswoman ample opportunity to explain the immigration status of the Knavses. It's a mystery why the White House refuses to answer such a simple question, given the president's high-profile demand to limit immigration." ...

... Jessica Kwong of Newsweek (Feb. 6): "First lady Melania Trump -- who has been distant from ... Donald Trump since reports surfaced that the president's lawyer paid off a porn star to cover up an alleged affair -- follows only five people on Twitter, her husband's favorite social media platform. The most recent addition to her Twitter feed is one of her husband's least favorite people, Barack Obama."...

...Alexia Fernández Campbell of Vox: "A Vox analysis of hiring records for seasonal workers at three Trump properties in New York and Florida revealed that only one out of 144 jobs went to a US worker from 2016 to the end of 2017. Foreign guest workers with H-2B visas got the rest." --safari

Tom Winter & Jonathan Deinst of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's daughter-in-law [Vanessa Trump] was taken to a Manhattan hospital as a precaution on Monday after a suspicious letter containing an unidentified white powder was sent to her apartment, senior law enforcement and city officials told NBC News." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing

Jonathan Alter & Nick Akerman in the Daily Beast (Feb. 9): One can make a "reasonable supposition that Mueller is well on his way to detailing conspiracy, wire fraud, illegal foreign campaign contributions, or all three.... One tip-off was in Michael Flynn's December 1 'allocution' -- his signed submission to the court as part of his guilty plea.... He admitted in writing that his lie 'had a material impact' on the FBI's probe 'into the existence of any links or coordination between individuals associated with the [Trump] Campaign and Russia's efforts to intervene in the 2016 election.'... Anyone associated with [Flynn's] deal [with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak on sanctions] is in deep legal trouble.... Campaign officials are criminally liable if Mueller and his team prove an overlap between the illegal Russian fake news posts and the Trump campaign's routine micro-targeted negative messages -- a painstaking but manageable set of data comparisons." Alter & Akerman outline elements of the Trump-Russia-Wikileaks conspiracy.

Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "President Barack Obama met in January 2017 with then-FBI Director James Comey and other top national security officials to discuss sharing information related to Russia with the incoming Trump administration, where Obama stated that the Trump-Russia investigation should be handled 'by the book,' according to an email made public Monday and a source familiar with the matter. The previously undisclosed meeting was memorialized in an email written by then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Donald Trump's Inauguration Day. A person familiar with the January 5, 2017, meeting said the Obama administration wanted to know whether the FBI and others in the intelligence community believed there was a national security reason to limit conversations with the Trump transition about Russia because some on the incoming President's team could be compromised. The email was disclosed by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who sent a letter Monday to Rice asking why she had sent the email to herself on the day of Trump's inauguration.... 'There is nothing 'unusual' about the National Security Advisor memorializing an important discussion for the record,' Kathryn Ruemmler, a counsel for Rice, said in a statement. 'The Obama White House was justifiably concerned about how comprehensive they should be in their briefings regarding Russia to members of the Trump transition team, particularly Lt. General Michael Flynn, given the concerning communications between him and Russian officials.'" ...

     ... Rachel Maddow had a segment on this last night. For some strange reason, Maddow thinks it was pretty sensible for the Obama team to be concerned about Flynn, who was caught on tape kanoodling with Kislyak about dispensing with sanctions imposed by the Obama administration for Russia's election-meddling. The entire Trump White House is one big, screaming national security risk. Grassley & Graham know this, so shame on them. ...

... The Week: "A former top FBI cybersecurity official has been traveling the world over the past six months in an effort to confirm aspects of the controversial dossier on President Trump for BuzzFeed News, Foreign Policy reports. Anthony Ferrante now works for FTI Consulting, which was reportedly hired by BuzzFeed's lawyers after the publication was sued by Russian billionaire Aleksej Gubarev for libel."...

... Hannah Levintova of Mother Jones: "Last week, a 25-minute video published by Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny alleging a new link between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign made headlines around the world. Now the Russian government wants it scrubbed from the internet -- so much so that it is taking steps that could block millions of its own citizens from using YouTube or Instagram.... The video was released last Thursday, and accused Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Prikhodko -- a top foreign policy official -- of having been a conduit between the Kremlin and Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch linked to the Trump campaign." --safari: You can watch the video with English subtitles. Interesting to say the least.


Trump Picks Putin as His "Honest Broker." Ed Kilgore: "Trump administration apologists are probably delighted today to have discovered a silver lining to the president's, er, close relationship with Russian president/strongman Vladimir Putin.... Apparently Putin and Trump spoke by phone just [yesterday].... It seems Vlad is acting as something of a go-between with the Palestinians, who are enraged by Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.... it sounds like Trump wants Putin to be his back channel to the Palestinians who unsurprisingly no longer consider the U.S. an 'honest broker' in its relationship with Israel." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Rachel Maddow pointed out last night, this is the 8th time Trump & Putin have met or spoken & the American people found out, not from a U.S. administration readout, but from the Russian state press.

How Jefferson Beauregard Sessions Celebrates Black History Month. Daily Beast: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday invoked 'Anglo-American heritage' in an off-the-cuff remark during a speech at the National Sheriffs Association winter meeting in Washington. 'The office of sheriff is a critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement,' Sessions said. 'We must never erode this historic office.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The Justice Department's No. 3 attorney had been unhappy with her job for months before the department announced her departure on Friday, according to multiple sources close to Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand. Brand grew frustrated by vacancies at the department and feared she would be asked to oversee the Russia investigation, the sources said. She will be leaving the Justice Department in the coming weeks to take a position with Walmart as the company's executive vice president of global governance and corporate secretary, a job change that had been in the works for some time, the sources said.... Should [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein be fired, Brand would be next in line to oversee Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, thrusting her into a political spotlight that Brand told friends she did not want to enter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andrew Perez & Lee Fang of The Intercept: "An association of top Republican law enforcement officials has created a secret online bulletin board called the 'Briefing Room' that's allowing big donors to help shape legal policy.... Republican law enforcement officials in more than a dozen states denied having records of the bulletin board or argued that documents kept on the Briefing Room shouldn't be made public.... While communications between elected officials and RAGA and RLDF should be subject to disclosure under open records laws, the secret bulletin board can shield the correspondence from public reach.... The increasing secrecy around RAGA communications comes as RLDF has coordinated efforts to roll back federal regulations closely with the current administration." --safari

Daniel González of the Arizona Republic: "The father of a 5-year-old boy battling cancer has returned to his home in the Phoenix area after federal immigration authorities on Monday backed off attempts to deport him to Mexico. Jesus Berrones, 30, the father of five American children, including a 5-year-old with leukemia, sought sanctuary inside a north Phoenix church Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told him to report on Monday to be immediately deported. But on Monday afternoon, his lawyer, Garrett Wilkes, received a call from ICE advising him that the agency had granted Berrones a one-year stay of removal."

Dominic Holden of BuzzFeed: "The Education Department has told BuzzFeed News it won't investigate or take action on any complaints filed by transgender students who are banned from restrooms that match their gender identity, charting new ground in the Trump administration's year-long broadside against LGBT rights. It's the first time officials have asserted this position publicly as an interpretation of law. No formal announcement has been made." Mrs. McC: How surprised are we that an administration headed by a bully is okay with bullying children & young people?

Personally, I think Devin Nunes is totally out of control. And Paul Ryan is letting it happen, which is not quite as bad as pedophile Denny Hastert letting his members screw the pages but getting pretty close. -- Martin Longman of BooMan Tribune ...

... Matthew Chapman of Shareblue: Devin Nunes' fake news "website, titled 'The California Republican,' was first exposed by Politico on Sunday. Paid for by the Devin Nunes Campaign Committee, it has run headlines like, 'CNN busted for peddling fake news AGAIN!' and 'Understanding the process behind #ReleaseTheMemo.' Its Twitter account even posted an image of Nunes with the words 'This is what a hero looks like.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Senate Race

Chris Massie of CNN: "Just months after Republican Kevin Nicholson announced his bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in 2018, his own parents donated the legal maximum to her primary campaign." Mrs. McC: The obligatory happy family photo in his campaign brochure could suck.

Beyond the Beltway

Antonio Olivo of the Washington Post: "For several years, Fredy Burgos has been a controversial but tolerated figure within Virginia's Republican Party -- a verbal bomb thrower whose attacks against Muslims, immigrants and others have turned off moderates while reflecting a new brand of conservatism in the era of Donald Trump. But in the wake of a wave of Democratic victories last fall that was fueled by anti-Trump sentiment in Northern Virginia, party leaders -- worried about losing more voters — moved to force Burgos off of the state central committee this week after he posted a Facebook comment suggesting Jews should not run for political office.... Burgos shared a 19th-century quote from John Jay, the country's first chief justice of the Supreme Court, asserting that it is the privilege of a Christian nation 'to select and prefer Christian rulers.' The comment came as Burgos was campaigning for Tim Hannigan, who is running to become the next chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Committee. Hannigan's rival in next month's election is Mike Ginsberg, who is Jewish." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So the Virginia GOP was willing to abide Muslim- & immigrant-bashing, but anti-Semitism was a bridge too far. And I'm just going to take a wild guess that Burgos is not a world-class historian who dug up Jay's remark from some obscure historical document but that Jay's "Christian rulers" comment is one that circulates in Right Wing World.

Wayne Drash of CNN: "California's insurance commissioner has launched an investigation into Aetna after learning a former medical director for the insurer admitted under oath he never looked at patients' records when deciding whether to approve or deny care. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones expressed outrage after CNN showed him a transcript of the testimony and said his office is looking into how widespread the practice is within Aetna. 'If the health insurer is making decisions to deny coverage without a physician actually ever reviewing medical records, that's of significant concern to me as insurance commissioner in California -- and potentially a violation of law,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Krista Mahr of the Washington Post: "South Africa's ruling African National Congress party announced Tuesday it had recalled President Jacob Zuma, leaving South Africans waiting to see whether the president will abide by the party’s decision and hand in his resignation. If Zuma decides not to resign, it will force a no confidence vote in the Parliament. While he has survived many such votes in the past, the party has increasingly turned against him as corruption allegations have mounted.... Zuma came to power in 2009, but his last years in office have been mired in a series of high-profile corruption scandals and accusations of mismanagement that has seen a steady decline in the popularity of Nelson Mandela's storied liberation movement." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, this could happen to us. In the meantime, Trump has found a new role model -- and he's black!

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