The Commentariat -- December 17, 2017

The Trumpification of Hate. Dan Barry & John Eligon of the New York Times: "Last year's contentious presidential election gave oxygen to hate. An analysis of F.B.I. crime data by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found a 26 percent increase in bias incidents in the last quarter of 2016 -- the heart of the election season -- compared with the same period the previous year. The trend has continued into 2017, with the latest partial data for the nation's five most populous cities showing a 12 percent increase.... Peppered among these incidents is a phenomenon distinct from the routine racism so familiar in this country: the provocative use of 'Trump.'... Across the country, students have used the president's name to mock or goad minority opponents at sporting events. In March, white fans at suburban Canton High School in Connecticut shouted 'Trump! Trump! Trump!' as players from Hartford's Classical Magnet School, which is predominantly black and Latino, took foul shots during a basketball playoff game." The authors cite numerous other instances, and quote a couple of experts who explain the phenomenon as one Trump invited.

Mike Allen of Axios: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained 'many tens of thousands' of Trump transition emails.... The sources say Mueller obtained the emails from the General Services Administration, the government agency that hosted the transition email system.... Charging 'unlawful conduct,' Kory Langhofer, counsel for the transition team, wrote in a letter to congressional committees Saturday that 'career staff at the General Services Administration ... have unlawfully produced [transition team] private materials, including privileged communications, to the Special Counsel's Office.'" ...

... Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "Officials with both the Special Counsel's Office and GSA, however, pushed back against the Trump campaign lawyer's claims.... GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny Loewentritt ... read to BuzzFeed News a series of agreements that anyone had to agree to when using GSA materials during the transition, including that there could be monitoring and auditing of devices and that, 'Therefore, no expectation of privacy can be assumed.'... A spokesperson for the Special Counsel's Office, Peter Carr, told BuzzFeed News, 'When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process.'" ...

... Warren Murray of the Guardian: "... Eric Swalwell, a Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said: 'This is another attempt to discredit Mueller as his Trump Russia probe tightens. 'Private documents' on a US government, public email system? What are they afraid was found? Baloney.' In a series of tweets, Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, said the Republicans were 'playing politics -- but this is a bad sign for them. Of course Mueller obtained emails from a third party,' he said. 'Prosecutors in most white collar criminal investigations do that. It's not "inappropriate" or even unusual. Anyone who claims otherwise has no idea what they're talking about.'... 'The reason Trump's lawyers are writing letters to Congress instead of Mueller or a court is because their legal arguments have no merit.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The same gang now screaming "it's illegal!" to read public documents also spent several years demanding that Clinton turn over her private e-mails on her private server. Meanwhile, their capo urged Russia to hack that same private server. Just how much urging he did is a subject Mueller hopes the transition e-mails will help illuminate. There is something fundamentally wrong with these hoods.

... There's Usually a Reason for Stupid Stuff. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Two senior FBI officials who texted each other about President Trump and Hillary Clinton relied on work phones to try to hide their romance from a spouse and made the bureau's probe of Clinton's private email server their cover story..., according to people familiar with the matter. The two officials, senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page and senior counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, are the subjects of an internal investigation that has roiled the FBI and emboldened its Republican critics who have accused the bureau of political bias. Had Page and Strzok used personal phones instead, people close to case say, it's unlikely their text messages would have come to the FBI's attention." ...

     ... The E-mails!!! The Texts!!! Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd guess Mrs. Strzok knows now. Not sure how this couple are supposed to be experts at covert ops. Apparently a lot of people -- including the bozos on Trump's transition team -- are unaware that government-owned devices & software belong to the people, & communications generated on these devices do, too. I'm not all concerned about these jerks' right to privacy. They gave that up as soon as they clicked "send" on their USA phones and computers. Hillary knew that. That's why she established a private server. And, yes, she was "extremely careless," as Strzok himself wrote, in also using that private server for government business. He should know from "extremely careless."

Kate Zernike & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "With [ObamaCare's] enrollment period shortened and outreach resources cut under the Trump administration this year..., [facilitators] have been working urgently to preserve one of the major achievements of the health law -- the remarkable decline it brought in the proportion of blacks and Hispanics without health insurance. 'Without question,' said Dr. David Satcher, a former surgeon general of the United States, 'the Affordable Care Act represents the biggest gain in coverage we've seen for African Americans since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid' more than a half-century ago." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND this is exactly the aim of Trump & the GOP in general. Their main objection to ObamaCare is "Obama," but his name also stands as a symbol for the minority groups who benefit from ObamaCare & other Obama-era programs. Opposition to ObamaCare begins with racism (or "racialism," as Omarosa would have it).

Sheila Kaplan & Donald McNeil of the New York Times: "The Department of Health and Human Services tried to play down on Saturday a report that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been barred from using seven words or phrases, including 'science-based,' 'fetus,' 'transgender' and 'vulnerable,' in agency budget documents. 'The assertion that H.H.S. has "banned words" is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process,' an agency spokesman, Matt Lloyd, said in an email.... Mr. Lloyd did not respond to other questions about the news report, which was published late Friday by The Washington Post.... The Times confirmed some details of the report with several officials, although a few suggested that the proposal was ... recommendations to avoid some language to ease the path toward budget approval by Republicans." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Describing censorship as "recommendations" is even more Orwellian than flat-out censorship. In 1984, citizens don't have to adopt Newspeak; it's a "suggestion."

Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "For years, the [Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program has] investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records.... It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo.... The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence.... The shadowy program -- parts of it remain classified -- began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena. Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid's, Robert Bigelow...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I see no value whatsoever in all the secrecy surrounding the program & neither does Elizondo. He resigned this year, partly because of the secrecy. In the meantime, I wish the occupants of one of those UFOs would beam up Trumpy -- and keep him for observation or something.

Andrew Van Dam of the Washington Post: "Republicans are paying for a permanent cut for corporations with an under-the-radar tax increase on individuals." Van Dam explains the multiple ways the tax heist raises taxes on individuals, some now, some later, some by fake math. "... the net effect of all individual provisions in the tax bill, according to the JCT, is to raise taxes on individuals by a cumulative $83 billion in 2027. Meanwhile, businesses are getting a $49.4 billion cut that year." ...

The GOP story line is: If we cut taxes, there will be more middle-class jobs and people will get increase in their wages. Everyone knows that story is utter nonsense. I think a tax cut is absurd. -- Robert Crandall, former CEO of American Airlines ...

** Some Are Way More Equal than Others. New York Times Editors: "... growing inequality helped create the [tax heist] bill in the first place. As a smaller and smaller group of people cornered an ever-larger share of the nation's wealth, so too did they gain an ever-larger share of political power. They became, in effect, kingmakers; the tax bill is a natural consequence of their long effort to bend American politics to serve their interests.... As kingmakers, rich families have supported candidates who share their hostility to progressive taxation, welfare programs and government regulation of any kind. These big-money donors have pushed the Republican Party in particular further to the right by threatening well-funded primary challenges against anybody who doesn't toe the line on tax cuts for the rich and other pro-aristocracy policies.... Most political campaigns now rely on a small group of wealthy donors.... About 40 percent of contributions to campaigns during the 2016 federal election came from an elite group of 24,949 donors, equivalent to 0.01 percent of the adult population." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yo, Editors, you forgot to give credit to the Roberts Court. That's okay. The Gorsuch Court is worse. ...

... Let's Call It the Trump-Corker Amendment. David Sirota in the International Business Times: "Republican congressional leaders and real estate moguls could be personally enriched by a real-estate-related provision GOP lawmakers slipped into the final tax bill released Friday evening.... The legislative language was not part of previous versions of the bill and was added despite ongoing conflict-of-interest questions about the intertwining real estate interests and governmental responsibilities of ... Donald Trump -- the bill's chief proponent.... [The Kushners also would benefit.] Sen. Bob Corker, who was considered a potential 'no' vote on the bill, abruptly switched his position upon the release of the final legislation. Federal records reviewed by IBT show that Corker has millions of dollars of ownership stakes in real-estate related LLCs that could also benefit." ...

     ... Corker to Vote for Bill He Had No Idea Benefited Him. Uh-Huh. Josh Keefe of International Business Times: "... U.S. Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn, denied knowing about a controversial last-minute provision slipped into the Republican tax bill that could personally enrich him. Corker, the lone Republican to vote against the original Senate bill, which didn't include the provision, also admitted he has not read the final tax bill he announced he will support. A trio of Democratic Senators, meanwhile, slammed the provision, which was first reported on by IBT.... 'I had like a two-page summary I went through with leadership,' said Corker. 'I never saw the actual text.' Despite not reading the bill -- and having time to read it before the final vote scheduled for this week -- he reiterated his support for the bill to IBT, support he announced hours before bill's full text was publicly released on Friday.... Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden ... [said,] 'This new real estate carve out was airdropped in at K Street's bidding, widens the proposed passthrough loophole and gives away an even bigger tax cut to Trump and his wealthy friends.... Combined with tax cuts for the one percent, these breaks create a bonanza for the politically powerful and well-connected at the expense of the middle class.'" ...

... So Much Winning. Heather Long of the Washington Post: "Republicans are on the verge of passing a massive tax cut for businesses that is deeply unpopular with the American public. They are doing it with no Democratic votes and at a moment when the U.S. economy looks pretty healthy (typically, tax cuts are most effective when the economy is struggling and the government wants to revive it). A surprising number of chief executives admit their top plan for the extra cash is to pay shareholders more, not grow jobs and wages. Billionaire chief executive Michael Bloomberg went so far as to declare the bill a 'trillion-dollar blunder.'... Pursuing legislation that most of the country doesn't like is still very risky."

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Representative Ruben Kihuen, a freshman Democrat from Nevada who has been accused of sexual harassment, said Saturday that he would not seek re-election. He is the fifth member of Congress in the past two weeks whose career has been derailed as part of the national reckoning over sexual misconduct. In a statement issued by his office, Mr. Kihuen, 37, said he wanted to 'state clearly' that he denied the allegations against him. He said that he would cooperate with the House Ethics Committee, which disclosed on Friday that it had opened an investigation into him, and that he looked 'forward to clearing my name.'... Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, had repeatedly called for Mr. Kihuen to resign. But until Saturday, he had steadfastly resisted doing so, insisting he had done nothing wrong. The allegations against Mr. Kihuen, first reported by BuzzFeed News two weeks ago, involve a 25-year-old woman, identified only as Samantha, who left her job as finance director of his campaign because of what she described as repeated unwanted propositions for dates and sex. In addition, The Las Vegas Journal-Review reported this past week that a second, unnamed accuser had come forward.... On Thursday, Representative Blake Farenthold, Republican of Texas, announced that he would not seek re-election. Mr. Farenthold settled a harassment claim filed by his former communications director for $84,000, paid for with taxpayer money."

Sexual Harassment at Fox "News"? Nope, Just "a Bit of Flirting." Yashar Ali in the Huffington Post: "Current and former female Fox News employees say they are 'stunned,' 'disgusted' and 'hungry for justice' after media mogul Rupert Murdoch on Thursday dismissed allegations of sexual misconduct at the network as 'nonsense' outside of a few 'isolated incidents' with former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes. In a televised interview, Sky News host Ian King ... asked Murdoch if sexual misconduct allegations had inflicted damage on Fox News Channel. Murdoch said, 'All nonsense, there was a problem with our chief executive [Ailes], sort of, over the years, isolated incidents. As soon as we investigated it he was out of the place in hours, well, three or four days. And there' been nothing else since then. That was largely political because were conservative. Now of course the liberals are going down the drain -- NBC is in deep trouble. CBS, their stars. I mean there are really bad cases and people should be moved aside. There are other things which probably amount to a bit of flirting.'" Read on. Mrs. McC: Murdoch has an ownership interest in Sky News; its majority owner is 21st Century Fox. It's unclear if Disney will take over Sky News in its deal to purchase most 21st Century Fox assets.

You cannot rewrite history, Mr. Murdoch. The problem was not only with your chief executive. For example, one of your former executives trapped me in his office, pulled-out his penis and shoved my head on it. That's not 'nonsense.' That's criminal. -- Tamara Holder, a Fox News commentator

... In case you think sexual harassment is going to stop or significantly wane as the Murdoch-Ailes generation dies off ...

... Kathy Lally in the Washington Post's "Outlook": "There's more than one way to harass women.... Twenty years ago, when I was a Moscow correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, two Americans named Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames ran an English-language tabloid in the Russian capital called the eXile.... The eXile was juvenile, stunt-obsessed and pornographic, titillating for high school boys. It is back in the news because Taibbi just wrote a new book, and interviewers are asking him why he and Ames acted so boorishly back then. The eXile's distinguishing feature, more than anything else, was its blinding sexism -- which often targeted me.... 'We dragged . . . Lally's charred [corpse] through the dust-and-fly-infested streets of our newspaper for all to have a laugh,' Ames wrote [in the new book].... Bullying, treating women with contempt, freezing them out of the lunches and meetings that build networks and authority: All are damaging, insidious and difficult to root out. That will take time -- and more women who call men out. That's why I'm saying #MeToo." Mrs. McC: You have to read the whole essay to get a picture of what assholes Taibbi & Ames are. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Murdoch & Taibbi are poster boys for the way men explain away sexism: "a bit of flirting," "nonsense," liberals picking on conservatives, "satire," "a laugh."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Nicholas Kulish & Michael Forsythe of the New York Times: "The 2015 purchase [of a $300MM French chateau -- reputed to be the most expensive home in the world --] appears to be one of several extravagant acquisitions -- including a $500 million yacht and a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting -- by ... Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the Saudi throne ... who is leading a sweeping crackdown on corruption and self-enrichment by the Saudi elite and preaching fiscal austerity at home.... The ownership of the chateau, in Louveciennes, France, near Versailles, is carefully shrouded by shell companies in France and Luxembourg.... He has come under even more scrutiny since the arrests last month of nearly a dozen of his royal cousins and hundreds of other businessmen or officials, who have been detained at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, now the world's most luxurious jail. The government characterized the arrests as a crackdown on corruption but critics have called it a political purge and a shakedown." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's not be all surprised when Prince Mohammed loses not only some of his money but also first place in the line of succession to the throne. After all, Mohammed just won first place in the beauty pageant this past June because King Salman deposed his predecessor. These things happen.

The Commentariat -- December 16, 2017

Late Morning Update:

Marvin S. has released the abstract of his research proposal to the CDC:

Considering that transgender people are vulnerable to many aspects of life, we believe they have an entitlement for science-based research. We are using tissue from a fetus to provide evidence-based results that will help to determine the scientific basis for this type of life. After all, transgender is just an example of human diversity.

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You'll have to read today's "Word Nazis" story, linked below, to assess Marvin's chances of getting a grant.

*****

Jim Tankersley & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Republican lawmakers appeared to secure enough votes on Friday to pass the most sweeping tax overhaul in decades, putting them on the cusp of their first significant legislative victory as leaders geared up to pass a $1.5 trillion tax cut along party lines and send it to President Trump by Christmas. A day after the bill’s prospects wavered somewhat, Republican leaders notched two victories on Friday, when Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said he would vote yes after gaining a more generous child tax credit in the final bill and Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who voted against the initial Senate bill over deficit concerns, said he would support the legislation. The bill also won praise from Senator Susan Collins of Maine, leaving it likely to pass with all 52 Senate Republicans in support." ...

There are no Republican heroes. They're all craven phonies, but Today's Biggest Phony is Corker. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie   

If it looks to me like we're adding one penny to the deficit, I am not going to be for it. -- Bob Corker, October 1, 2017

Bob Corker has made a career out of protesting very loudly, and then falling in line with his party's leadership when it counts. -- Brian Fallon, former spokesman for Chuck Schumer, ca. November 19, 2017

The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation analysis showed the Senate plan would add $1 trillion to the federal budget deficit. -- New York Times, December 15

After many conversations over the past several days with individuals from both sides of the aisle across Tennessee and around the country -- including business owners, farmers, chambers of commerce and economic development leaders -- I have decided to support the tax reform package we will vote on next week. -- Bob Corker, December 15, 2017

... Heather Long of the Washington Post: "Last-minute changes to the GOP's big plan give a larger tax break to the wealthy and preserves certain tax savings for the middle class, including the student-loan interest deduction, the deduction for excessive medical expenses and the tax break for graduate students. A change made Friday morning to win over [Marco] Rubio would expand the benefits of a child tax credit to give more money to working-class families. Here's a rundown of what's in the final bill. (If you want to read all 505 pages, click here.)" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Though the final bill has not been scored (since Republicans released it only as a late Friday afternoon dump), it appears that the (rather conservative) Joint Tax Committee analysis of how much the Senate bill would add to the deficit will increase by a significant amount. So thanks again, Bob. You're a real Corker. ...

... GOP Tax Bill Makes Puerto Rico a Foreign Country. Rebecca Spalding of Bloomberg: "The final version of the Republican tax plan would end some of the tax advantages companies with operations in Puerto Rico have long enjoyed, potentially delivering an economic blow to the territory still reeling from Hurricane Maria and a record setting bankruptcy, according to an expert who reviewed the plan Friday. Gabriel Hernandez, the head of the tax division at BDO Puerto Rico, said that under the new rules subsidiaries of U.S. companies based on the island would be treated as foreign, subject to a tax from income derived from intangible assets held offshore. Although the final plan did not include the House's proposed 20 percent excise tax, as many local officials feared, it still likely signaled sweeping changes for the commonwealth's economy, he said." ...

Mike Lucovich, AJC.     ... Mrs. McC: In the Spirit of the Season, the Party of Trump is giving tax breaks to the super-wealthy at the expense of people who would be lucky to find a stable to house themselves. Donnie, Mitch & Paulie the Three Kings of Orient Aren't.

We three kinds of 'Merica are

Bearing gifts for our donor stars,

Corporate tax cuts, pass-throughs & more,

Loaded in our clown car.

Eric Boehlert of Shareblue: "In a craven display of collective indifference [to victims of the Sandy Hook gun mass murder], [Donald] Trump hosted Wayne LaPierre, the controversial head of the NRA, at the White House on Thursday night, as families and friends of the elementary school gun massacre were remembering the victims of the horrific killing spree." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm familiar with Hanlon's razor. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Still, I'm going with malice here.

Padraig Collins of the Guardian: "The senior Democrat in a congressional Trump-Russia investigation has said he fears Republicans are manoeuvring to kill off inquiries into Moscow's interference in the 2016 US presidential election. 'I'm increasingly worried Republicans will shut down the House intelligence committee investigation at the end of the month,' said Adam Schiff, who is the leading Democrat on the House intelligence committee. Schiff suggested Republicans also had their sights on the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation overseen by special counsel Robert Mueller. The president's personal lawyers are reportedly set to meet Mueller and his team within days to ask about the next steps in his investigation. 'Beyond our investigation, here's what has me really concerned: the attacks on [Robert] Mueller, the DoJ [the Department of Justice] and FBI this week make it clear they plan to go after Mueller's investigation,' Schiff said." ...

... Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: The Trump legal team's "goal is to help Trump begin to emerge from the cloud of the ongoing investigation, several of the sources explained. The sources acknowledge that Mueller is under no obligation to provide any information and concede they may walk away with no greater clarity.... The Trump team's hopes for an investigation nearing its end contrast with a widely held view by other lawyers representing clients who have been interviewed."

Adam Raymond of New York: "A judge on Friday said former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort will soon be released from house arrest in Virginia and allowed to relocate to his home in Florida. But Manafort, who was indicted in October on several charges including 'conspiracy against the United States,' will not be allowed to leave the Sunshine State without permission and be required to abide by a 11 p.m. curfew." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There are hundreds of places in Broward & Palm Beach Counties (the area to which the court restricted Manafort) where Manafort could hop a yacht & escape the country. The land is crisscrossed with canals that lead to the Atlantic (and to the Gulf, for that matter).

AND. Mrs. McCrabbie: Looks as if Carter Page would rather have Dianne Feinstein grab his ass or give him a big sloppy kiss than keep up with her mean investigating harassment stuff.

Word Nazis. Lena Sun & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases ... in any official documents being prepared for next year's budget. Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are 'vulnerable,' 'entitlement,' 'diversity,' 'transgender,' 'fetus,' 'evidence-based' and 'science-based.'"

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is an extraordinary effort to both politicize the CDC & retard its mission. Language control is a tool totalitarian governments use to repress & redirect society. Trump can't order you not to use the word "diversity," but he can ban federal agencies from using it; as "diversity" becomes a dirty word, the goal is to remove the ideal of diversity from public discourse. This of course was exactly how the government's introduction of Newspeak (as opposed to English, a/k/a Oldspeak) worked in 1984. As Gloria wrote in yesterday's thread, "This is really serious, and unless we want to live in 1984, the fictional one that the Regressives live in, we had better fight this." Meanwhile, how the fuck is the CDC to control disease if it can't target "vulnerable" populations or use "science-based" methods? Are the scientists (already a dirty word in Right Wing World) supposed to do this in secret or just not do it? Will CDC staff be allowed to work on the opioid crisis because Trump voters are more vulnerable than Democratic voters to opioid addiction, but not on antidotes for sickle-cell diseases because more Democrats suffer from these diseases than do Republican voters? WTF is the CDC's Division of Reproductive Health supposed to do if it can't concern itself with the health of the fetus? ...

... Thought Nazis. Eric Lipton & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "One of the top executives of a consulting firm that the Environmental Protection Agency has recently hired to help it with media affairs has spent the past year investigating agency employees who have been critical of the Trump administration, federal records show.... A vice president for the firm [Definers Public Affairs], Allan Blutstein, federal records show, has submitted at least 40 Freedom of Information Act requests to the E.P.A. since President Trump was sworn in. Many of those requests target employees known to be questioning management at the E.P.A. since Scott Pruitt, the agency's administrator, was confirmed. Mr. Blutstein, in an interview, said he was taking aim at 'resistance' figures in the federal government.... The founders of Definers, Joe Pounder and Matt Rhoades, are longtime Republican political operatives.... Mr. Blutstein..., [who works for a Pounder & Rhoades GOP-oriented PAC] said that he filed the [FOIA] requests on his own, in an effort to try to undermine people who have been critical of policy changes taking place at the agency.... Legal experts also raised questions on Friday about the nature of the agency's contract with Definers. Charles Tiefer, a professor of contract law at the University of Baltimore, said he could see no legal justification for finding that only one company had the qualifications to gather news articles." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm quite good at gathering news articles. I'm surprised Pruitt didn't offer me the no-bid contract. BTW, the Environmental Pollution Agency is paying Definers only $120K per year whereas it previously contracted with another firm in an open-bid process for $207K/year. You might conclude, "Wow, Scott got us taxpayers a good deal!" But whaddaya bet Definers only clips positive reports about the EPA whereas the previous firm provided a range of clippings? In other words, Definers has to do little more than have a clerk check in with Breitbart & Coal Industry Weekly.

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "The National Labor Relations Board on Thursday overturned a key Obama-era precedent that had given workers significant leverage in challenging companies like fast-food and hotel chains over labor practices. The ruling changes the standard for holding a company responsible for labor law violations that occur at another company, like a contractor or franchisee, with which it has a relationship. The doctrine also governs whether such a corporation would have to bargain with workers at a franchise if they unionized, or whether only the owners of the franchise would have to do so." ...

     ... Workers' Party. Eric Levitz of New York: "'Five, ten years from now — different party,' Donald Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek in 2016, explaining how he would change the GOP. 'You're going to have a worker's party.' One year from then, the Republicans remain a party for bosses."

The Best People, Ctd. John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's aggressive push to fill scores of federal court vacancies with conservative judges hit severe turbulence this week, as he was forced to withdraw two nominees and an embarrassing video went viral showing a third struggling to answer rudimentary questions about the law. The White House said Friday that it is standing by the nomination of Matthew Petersen, a nominee for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, despite a clip from his confirmation hearing posted on Twitter in which Petersen was unable to answer questions about legal and courtroom terms posed by a Republican senator. The episode offered more ammunition to Democrats, who have accused Trump of tapping inexperienced nominees in a rush to reshape the federal judiciary. Even some Republicans have suggested they've felt pressured by the White House to move forward with his picks." (See also Akhilleus' commentary on this in yesterday's thread.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I really don't know what everybody's complaining about. Neither Petersen nor any of the other nominees in this mass consent hearing has ever blogged in support of the KKK (or so they claim). Um, which is unlike Trump's nominee (& ghostbuster) Brett Talley, who "was reported to have posted a defense of 'the first KKK' in an online comment in 2011.... Talley also did not tell the committee that he is married to the chief of staff for White House counsel Donald McGahn." Talley was one of two nominees Grassley asked Trump to "reconsider." The ABA rated him "not qualified."

Katie Rogers & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Omarosa Manigault Newman ... is urging viewers to stay tuned to find out why she really left [the White House].... On Thursday, Ms. Newman pushed back against reports that she had caused a scene over credentials at a White House Christmas party, and that she had tried to gain access to the president's residence.... 'As the only African-American woman in this White House,' Ms. Newman said in the 'Good Morning America' interview, 'I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people. It is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.'... Other than the hints she has left on national television, it is still unclear what, exactly, led to Ms. Newman's abrupt departure after a nearly yearlong tenure punctuated by conflicts with other White House aides, a lavish wedding at Trump International Hotel in Washington and a public meltdown at a conference for black journalists. Whatever the catalyst, her departure was handled by [John] Kelly; the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II; and Joseph Hagin, a deputy chief of staff.... Ms. Newman said that [she & Kelly] 'had a very candid conversation,' and that Mr. Trump learned that she had departed while watching television news."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "A federal court on Friday blocked Trump administration rules that made it easier for employers to deny insurance coverage of contraceptives for women. Judge Wendy Beetlestone of the Federal District Court in Philadelphia issued a preliminary injunction, saying the rules contradicted the text of the Affordable Care Act by allowing many employers to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage if they had religious or moral objections. In the lawsuit, filed by the State of Pennsylvania, the judge said the rules would cause irreparable harm because tens of thousands of women would lose contraceptive coverage. The Affordable Care Act contains no statutory language allowing federal agencies to create such 'sweeping exemptions' to the law's requirements to cover preventive services, Judge Beetlestone declared." Mrs. McC: Beetlestone is an Obama appointee.

The Commentariat -- December 15, 2017

AP: "... Donald Trump thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for remarks he made Thursday 'acknowledging America's strong economic performance,' the White House said. The two presidents spoke by phone following Putin's annual press conference in Moscow." Mrs. McC: According to Rachel Maddow, U.S. media first learned of the conversation from a Kremlin readout.

Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "About a month after Donald Trump launched his presidential bid, a British music promoter suggested his Russian pop-star client could arrange for the new candidate to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post. The July 2015 offer by publicist Rob Goldstone came about a year before he set up a meeting for Trump's eldest son with a Russian lawyer who he said had incriminating information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton." ...

... ** Greg Miller, et al., of the Washington Post write an extraordinary front-page piece on Donald Trump's refusal to accept Russia's successful attempts to swing the 2016 election to him. Among the intelligence James Clapper & Jim Comey shared with Trump during the transition: "Putin' specific instructions on the operation' to hack the election. "Rather than search for ways to deter Kremlin attacks or safeguard U.S. elections, Trump has waged his own campaign to discredit the case that Russia poses any threat and he has resisted or attempted to roll back efforts to hold Moscow to account.... Overall, U.S. officials said, the Kremlin believes it got a staggering return on an operation that by some estimates cost less than $500,000 to execute and was organized around two main objectives -- destabilizing U.S. democracy and preventing Hillary Clinton, who is despised by Putin, from reaching the White House." The WashPo report is based on "is based on interviews with more than 50 current and former U.S. officials, many of whom had senior roles in the Trump campaign and transition team or have been in high-level positions at the White House or at national security agencies." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Both the Post and the Times reported last month on Trump's habit of insisting even in private on defending obvious lies: that Barack Obama is not American, that Trump won the popular vote, that the voice on the Access Hollywood tape is not Trump's. Surely Trump knows what he said to Billy Bush. He was there. Trump either lies to absolutely everybody in his inner circle, or has the absolute power of self-delusion, sufficiently strong that his most apparently sincere protestations of his innocence mean nothing at all.... But it's quite possible his hair-trigger anger over the subject of Russia is a tactic designed to close off a subject on which his guilt runs very deep."

Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "Fourteen former national security, intelligence, and foreign policy officials who have served at senior levels in Republican and Democratic administrations recently wrote an amicus brief as part of a lawsuit brought against ... Donald Trump's campaign and Roger Stone, his longtime confidant. The lawsuit was filed in July by three private citizens -- Roy Cockrum, Scott Comer, and Eric Schoenberg -- whose personal information was stolen in hacks of the Democratic National Committee and published by WikiLeaks. The plaintiffs have argued that the Trump campaign, Stone, 'and those they conspired with arranged for the hacked information to be provided to WikiLeaks.' Among the former officials who filed the amicus brief on December 8 are John Brennan, a CIA director; James Clapper, a director of national intelligence; and Michael Hayden, a director of the National Security Agency; Avril Haines, a deputy national security adviser; Michael McFaul, a US ambassador to Russia; and Michael Morell, an acting CIA director.... Their message was clear: The Kremlin uses local actors to help amplify the scope and impact of its influence operations, including the one targeting the US election in 2016."

The Plot Thickens. Jonathan Chait: "The Republican party has spent the last two days in a frenzy of indignation over the disclosure that an FBI agent who worked on the Clinton and Trump investigations (and has since been removed) sent texts to another agent, who he was reportedly dating, criticizing Trump. The story was driven by the curious decision by Trump's Department of Justice to leak partial excerpts of the texts.... [It turns out] the main agent in question also wrote text messages criticizing Democrats.... His messages included calling Chelsea Clinton 'self-entitled,' and mocking Eric Holder. He wrote, 'I'm worried about what happens if HRC is elected.'... The scandal is that the Department of Justice selectively leaked private texts from its agents in order to placate the White House's desire to discredit the special counsel. And the news media let itself get suckered." ...

... Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Democrats pressed the Justice Department on Thursday to explain why it released salacious, anti-Donald Trump text messages exchanged between two FBI employees who are still under investigation for their work on the Russia special counsel investigation. Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerrold Nadler of New York and two other panel Democrats asked for a full review of DOJ's decision making that led to Tuesday night's release of about 375 texts that the FBI officials -- Peter Strzok and Lisa Page -- sent over a 15-month period during the 2016 presidential campaign." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Samuelsohn does not address the fact that the DOJ -- at Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein's behest -- released selective text messages, as Chait indicates, so Samuelsohn may have written this post before the WSJ reported that Strzok & Page were equal-opportunity critics. ...

... Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare: Rod Rosenstein's "behavior in this episode, in particular, has hardly done him credit. The release of private correspondence between two Justice Department employees whose correspondence is the subject of an active inspector general investigation is not just wrong. It is cruel.... Rosenstein here has, at a minimum, contributed to [the GOP] circus -- at the expense of his own employees." Wittes has a lot to say about the GOP's attempts to discredit the Mueller investigation, & it's worth reading. ...

... Josh Marshall: "... before [Wednesday's] hearing, the DOJ invited reporters to review all the texts between the two FBI employees -- seemingly far more access than Congress had even had. These were government documents -- texts on government devices. So the formal privacy claim is limited. But ... it's still a massive breach of privacy. Political and personal chit chat and sounding off between two lovers? The key point is there's no evidence either did anything wrong. The only conceivable purpose of doing this was to humiliate the two, damage Mueller's investigation and put wind in the sails of those pushing this pseudo-controversy.... This is a transparently political move on the part of the Justice Department. And since all tied to the Mueller probe falls under Rosenstein's purview, that's on Rosenstein....

... This whole episode is simply a disgrace. It is an example of how much the gravitational pull of Trump's corruption has already affected Washington, the federal government and the entire country. The corrupt and the desperate flock to him, the unprincipled defend him and even those who are I think mainly ethical people under normal circumstances -- I'm thinking of Rosenstein in this case -- are bent and deformed by the pull.

... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you're confused by all this, no wonder. The various accounts of what got leaked to whom & when are contradictory. We need a special investigator!

Trump's Data Teams Are Stonewalling Congress. Natasha Bertrand: "The ranking members of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees want to subpoena two of the data firms hired by ... Donald Trump's campaign team for documents related to their potential engagement with foreign actors like Russia and WikiLeaks during the election. Reps. Elijah Cummings and Jerry Nadler sent a letter to Cambridge Analytica's CEO Alexander Nix and Giles-Parscale cofounder Brad Parscale -- who also served as the Trump campaign's digital director -- in October.... The letter was also sent to the heads of Deep Root Analytics, TargetPoint Consulting, and The Data Trust, which were among the outfits hired by the Republican National Committee to bolster the Trump campaign's data operation. Whereas Deep Root, TargetPoint, and The Data Trust responded to the documents request, Cambridge Analytica did not. Parscale's response, moreover, was insufficient, the Democrats said." ....

... Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Special counsel Robert Mueller has asked data firm Cambridge Analytica to turn over documents related to campaign work for ... Donald Trump. The special counsel requested emails from any employees who worked on the Trump campaign as part of the ongoing investigation into election interference by Russia, reported the Wall Street Journal. The firm voluntarily complied with Mueller's request and turned over emails which had previously been provided to the House Intelligence Committee, the newspaper reported." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This, too, is confusing. According to Nadler & Cummings, the Mercer-Bannon firm Cambridge Analytica did not comply; according to the WSJ story, the company did comply, & what they complied with was turning over documents the House committees already had. Huh?

Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "Federal regulators voted Thursday to allow Internet providers to speed up service for websites they favor -- and block or slow down others -- in a decision repealing landmark Obama-era regulations overseeing broadband companies such as AT&T and Verizon.... The 3-2 vote, which was along party lines, enabled the FCC's Republican chairman, Ajit Pai, to follow through on his promise to repeal the government's 2015 net neutrality rules, which required Internet providers to treat all websites, large and small, equally. The agency also rejected some of its own authority over the broadband industry in a bid to stymie future FCC officials who might seek to reverse the Republican-led ruling." ...

... Erica Pandey of Axios: "New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday that he'll lead an effort by multiple states to sue the Federal Communications Commission over its decision to roll back net neutrality rules." ...

... Tom McKay of Gizmodo: "In a video with the conservative site Daily Caller's Benny Johnson -- the dude who got fired from BuzzFeed for plagiarizing Yahoo Answers -- Pai urged the country to understand that ... they'll let us continue to take selfies and other stupid bullshit. Pai then pantomimed things users will supposedly still be able to do, like being able to 'gram your food,' 'post photos of cute animals, like puppies,' 'shop for all your Christmas presents online,' 'binge watch your favorite shows,' and 'stay part of your favorite fan community.' All of these claims on what users 'will still be able to do' are actually questionable, seeing as under Pai's plan, ISPs could easily hit up their customers with crushing fees to let them access any of these services at reasonable speeds - particularly those binge-watching streaming services he claims to love so much.... One of the Daily Caller employees that danced alongside Pai in the video seems to be a proponent of Pizzagate...."

Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post: "Ivanka Trump's fashion company on Thursday opened a new store in the lobby of Trump Tower, where it plans to sell handbags, jewelry and candles as part of broader push to bypass retailers and sell directly to consumers. The store in Midtown Manhattan -- currently the company's only bricks-and-mortar location -- comes after a number of high-profile retailers, including Nordstrom, stopped carrying the presidential daughter's line earlier this year. The company also recently began selling its wares ... directly on its website." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The lobby of Trump Tower is by law a designated public space, as required in the permitting process to construct the building. So I'm not sure the shop is legal inasmuch as it appears to be planted in a space that's just as public as a city park. Donald Trump has long taken liberties with the public space -- he sells MAGA caps & other Trumpycrap there now. The City's parks commission should shut down any shops, kiosks, signage, etc. that intrude upon the area designated for public use.

Flimflam Man to Fold His Cards. Rachel Bade of Politico: "Despite several landmark legislative wins this year, and a better-than-expected relationship with ... Donald Trump, [Paul] Ryan has made it known to some of his closest confidants that this will be his final term as speaker.... In recent interviews with three dozen people who know the speaker -- fellow lawmakers, congressional and administration aides, conservative intellectuals and Republican lobbyists -- not a single person believed Ryan will stay in Congress past 2018." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe he thinks he'll be president by then. And he might be right. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "A major part of Ryan's motivation is that ... he has achieved his life's ambition by passing a gigantic tax cut for the affluent. But Politico also explains that Ryan hopes to end his tenure in a blaze of Randian glory." Ryan is planning to pursue "entitlement reform," & "may focus on ... vulnerable programs targeted to the very poor, like nutrition and housing assistance. It would be a final, fittingly Ryan-esque blow against the takers after having returned to the makers a large chunk of their hard-earned, or hard-inherited, wealth." ...

     ... Update: Looks like Ken W. has Ryan pegged in today's Comments.

Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "During a news conference on Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan urged American women to have more babies, saying their lack of procreation was stunting economic growth.... Alluding to the fact that he's a father of three, Ryan added, 'I did my part, but we need to have higher birth rates in this country. Meaning, baby boomers are retiring, and we have fewer people following them in the work force.'... There's an obvious solution to the problem that Ryan completely ignores -- allowing more immigrants into the country to fill the jobs being vacated by retiring baby boomers. But instead of using his position as House Speaker to pursue immigration reform, Ryan has instead indicated he's on board with Trump's hardline anti-immigration positions, including the president's insistence on spending billions of dollars on a border wall." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Traditional family values still include keeping 'em barefoot & pregnant.

** Alan Rappeport & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "House and Senate Republicans faced a new round of uncertainty on Thursday about the fate of their $1.5 trillion tax bill with the possible defection of a Republican senator, Marco Rubio of Florida, amid continuing questions about how the bill will be paid for and how much of the benefits will flow to low- and middle-income people versus corporations. Republicans, who reached agreement Wednesday on a merged version of the House and Senate tax plans, expect to unveil the final bill on Friday and vote on the legislation early next week so that it can be sent to President Trump before Christmas." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Increasing the child tax credit, as Rubio is insisting upon, is the policy side of Ryan's urging women to have more children. It's the brainchild of some "moderate conservative thinkers." As I recall, Douthat was a big advocate. Many Republican domestic policy objectives are part of a giant plot to restore & cement patriarchical norms. What frightened these guys about Roy Moore was not that he was an extremist kook but that, as a walking, talking exemplar of their own dark hearts, he would reveal the party's true aims. ...

... ** Paul Krugman: "As usual, Republicans seek to afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable, but they don't treat all Americans with a given income the same. Instead, their bill ... but whose shape is clear -- hugely privileges owners, whether of businesses or of financial assets, over those who simply work for a living.... The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center ... finds that the bill would reduce taxes on business owners, on average, about three times as much as it would reduce taxes on those whose primary source of income is wages or salaries. For highly paid workers, the gap would be even wider, as much as 10 to one.... (Yes, a lot of the bill looks as if it were specifically designed to benefit the Trump family.) If this sounds like bad policy, that's because it is.... Their disdain for ordinary working Americans as opposed to investors, heirs, and business owners runs so deep that they can't contain it." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One reason Republicans get away with this is that business owners & investors are far more attuned to how legislation & other government actions will affect their bottom lines than are wage-earners. I don't know that Paul Ryan actually likes "makers" better than working people; he just knows the "makers" are watching him & working people don't have the time or inclination to analyze his flimflams.