The Commentariat -- October 30, 2017

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Oliver Darcy of CNN: "NBC News and MSNBC have severed ties with 'Game Change' co-author and veteran journalist Mark Halperin, days after multiple women told CNN he sexually harassed or assaulted them during his time at ABC News. An MSNBC spokesman told CNN on Monday morning that Halperin's contract with both had been terminated.

The Guardian has a liveblog of developments in the Russian investigation. Latest: Manafort & Gates have pled not guilty.

The Hits Just Keep on Coming. Politico: "A former foreign policy adviser to ... Donald Trump's 2016 campaign secretly pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI about his outreach to Russian officials, court records made public on Monday show. George Papadopolous, 30, entered the guilty plea in a closed courtroom in Washington on Oct. 5, special counsel Robert Mueller's office announced. Unlike the just-unsealed indictment against Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and adviser Rick Gates for money laundering and other charges, the single felony count against Papadopolous directly relates to 2016 presidential campaign activity." ...

     ... Matt Apuzzo has the New York Times story: "A professor with close ties to the Russian government told an adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in April 2016 that Moscow had 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton in the form of 'thousands of emails,' according to court documents unsealed Monday. The adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about that conversation. The plea represents the most explicit evidence connecting the Trump campaign to the Russian government's meddling in last year's election."

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Well, that's funny, because President Lizalot keeps tweet-screaming, "there is NO COLLUSION!" ...

... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday called for the focus to be shifted to Hillary Clinton after his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort turned himself into the FBI after being indicted on 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States. 'Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????' Trump tweeted. 'Also, there is NO COLLUSION!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, I too was wondering why there isn't more focus on stuff Trump made up. ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "Keep in mind that the pressure to flip will be huge on Manafort and Gates due to the fact that Mueller closed the pardon loophole by partnering with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman." ...

... BUT. Jonathan Chait: "The [Republican] party apparatus is gearing up for a frontal attack on Mueller in particular, and the idea that a president can be held legally accountable in general.... Republicans have developed a bizarre theory of alt-collusion, which holds that the real interference was Russia feeding false allegations against Donald Trump to private investigator Christopher Steele. Since the FBI investigated Steele's charges, the FBI is the agency that colluded. And since Robert Mueller is close with the FBI, Mueller, too, is tainted.... In today's [Wall Street] Journal op-ed page, two Republican former Department of Justice staffers, David Rivkin and Lee Casey, who frequently pop up in the media to defend party-line arguments..., urge Trump to issue sweeping pardons to everybody involved in the scandal, himself included, so as to hopefully neuter Mueller's investigation.... Two courses of action -- neutering investigations into himself, and ordering them against Democrats -- seem to be linked in Trump's lizard brain.... [Paul] Ryan, of course, is tacitly allowing his chamber's investigative bodies to run point for Trump.... We are watching an important marker in the GOP's slow metamorphoses into an authoritarian party[.]"

*****

... Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Paul Manafort and his former business associate Rick Gates were told to surrender to federal authorities Monday morning, the first charges in a special counsel investigation, according to a person involved in the case. The charges against Mr. Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, and Mr. Gates, a business associate of Mr. Manafort, were not immediately clear but represent a significant escalation in a special counsel investigation that has cast a shadow over the president's first year in office." ...

     ... New Lede: "Paul Manafort and his former business associate were indicted on Monday on money laundering, tax and foreign lobbying charges, a significant escalation in a special counsel investigation that has cast a shadow over President Trump's first year in office. Mr. Manafort, the president's former campaign chairman, and his longtime associate Rick Gates, surrendered to the FBI on Monday. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, said Mr. Manafort laundered more than $18 million to buy properties and services." ...

... Evan Perez & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Manafort was indicted under seal on Friday and is planning to turn himself in, the source said. The indictment is expected to be unsealed later Monday. The indictment of a top official from ... Donald Trump's campaign signals a dramatic new phase of Mueller's wide-ranging investigation into possible collusion between the Russian government and members of Trump's team as well as potential obstruction of justice and financial crimes." ...

... The New York Times has a copy of the indictment here.

... Susan Glasser of Politico: "James Clapper, a crusty ex-cargo pilot who rose through the Air Force ranks and retired as director of national intelligence in January, only to emerge publicly as one of ... Donald Trump's foremost critics, wants you to know that no matter how much Trump rants about the 'Russia hoax,' the 2016 hacking was not only real and aimed at electing Trump but constituted a major victory for a dangerous foreign adversary. 'The Russians,' he said, have 'succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.' Far from being the 'witch hunt' Trump has repeatedly called it, the investigation of whether Trump's team colluded with Russia constitutes a 'cloud not only over the president, but the office of the presidency, the administration, the government and the country' until it is resolved, Clapper told me in an extensive new interview for The Global Politico, our weekly podcast on world affairs." Includes audio.

... Mrs. McCrabbie: BTW, the "Mueller Time" video in yesterday's thread is pretty clever.

Sad! Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "On Sunday morning, President Trump expressed frustration that his campaign is under investigation over possible ties to Russia's plot to influence the 2016 election but that his former opponent Hillary Clinton is not facing the same level of scrutiny. In four tweets sent over 24 minutes, Trump wrote: 'Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?), the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia, "collusion," which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Watch @JoyAnnReid produce, shred, & confetti the receipts when Ex GOP Spokeswoman Jen Kerns starts with the Hillary Uranium One conspiracy. pic.twitter.com/PLU65BVFDE

— Greg Hogben (@MyDaughtersArmy) October 29, 2017

... Sadder! Last week, after Trump announced, with some braggadocio, that he had "decided" to release government files on John Kennedy's assassination (he was required to do so by law), he "decided" to withhold many of the papers at the urging of the CIA. Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "... on Friday night the President tweeted, 'I will be releasing ALL JFK files other than the names and addresses of any mentioned person who is still living.'... The pretense last week was that, in releasing the files, Trump took action on behalf of the American people, in the pursuit of openness. But Trump acts in his own interest, and his pursuit of apparent openness has as its real end the undermining of public institutions and practices which depend on professionalism, independence, and trust.... The implicit, and increasingly explicit, argument here is: Don't listen to special counsels who worked for the F.B.I.; those are the guys that withheld all those documents about the J.F.K. assassination. As David Frum has pointed out, what Trump's surrogates really mean by 'the deep state' is the rule of law." ...

... Sadder! Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "The president left Trump National Golf Club at 3:12 p.m. [Sunday] after spending the day there on the edge of the Potomac River. A thick column of black SUVs escorted Trump past two pedestrians, a Guardian reporter wrote in a pool report -- 'one of whom gave a thumbs down sign.' 'Then it overtook a female cyclist, wearing a white top and cycling helmet, who responded by giving the middle finger.' The cyclist was photographed for posterity. So was an 'IMPEACH' sign held aloft outside the golf club that day." ...

... Saddest! Mark Murray of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's job approval rating has declined to the lowest point of his presidency, and nearly half of voters want their vote in the 2018 midterms to be a message for more Democrats in Congress to check Trump and congressional Republicans, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Thirty eight percent of Americans say they approve of Trump's job performance -- down five points since September -- while 58 percent disapprove."

Of Family, Friends & People Trump Pretends He Barely Knows

... Cristina Alesci of CNN: "The Maryland attorney general is investigating one of the Kushner family's real estate businesses after media reports surfaced earlier this year about allegedly abusive debt collection practices and poor conditions at several of its properties.... The inquiry does not mean charges will be filed." ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "In a Friday night phone call, President Trump's former chief strategist and enforcer Steve Bannon told Trump he was going 'off the chain' to destroy Paul Singer, a New York hedge fund billionaire who is one of the most influential donors to the Republican Party. Trump agreed with Bannon that it needed to be done, according to two sources familiar with the conversation. (Though I'm also told that Trump has since told at least one other person that Singer is 'on the team' -- suggesting that maybe he's telling everyone what they want to hear.)... Bannon spoke to Trump shortly after the New York Times broke the news that a Singer-funded conservative website first paid for anti-Trump research by the firm, Fusion GPS, that later produced the infamous Russia dossier." ...

... Olivia Nuzzi of New York: "Roger Stone is in full-on cartoon-villain mode since being banned by Twitter on Saturday night, vowing to sue the company and characterizing their dispute as a battle for free speech itself. 'I'll be baaaaaak,' the sometimes adviser to ... Donald Trump wrote in a text message to New York. 'They will soon learn they have bitten off more than they can chew.'... 'I am advised I have a very strong legal case. Twitter wants to avoid being regulated like a utility. No one has been willing to file the antitrust case. I am.'" ...

... Jason Leopold & Anthony Cormier of BuzzFeed: "The FBI's investigation of Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, includes a keen focus on a series of suspicious wire transfers in which offshore companies linked to Manafort moved more than $3 million all over the globe between 2012 and 2013. Much of the money came into the United States. These transactions -- which have not been previously reported -- drew the attention of federal law enforcement officials as far back as 2012, when they began to examine wire transfers to determine if Manafort hid money from tax authorities or helped the Ukrainian regime close to Russian President Vladimir Putin launder some of the millions it plundered through corrupt dealings."

Annie Karni of Politico: "... Jared Kushner returned home Saturday from an unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia -- his third trip to the country this year.... Kushner was accompanied in the region by deputy national security adviser Dina Powell and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt.... The Trump administration has said its strategy is to try to draw in neighboring Arab leaders to play a role in Middle East peace."

"Swamp Things." "Governance" in the Age of Trump. Lachlan Markay & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "Nearly a year since he won election, the president has turned federal agencies over to the private industries that they regulate. And he has done so to a degree that ethics groups say they have never witnessed. The Daily Beast examined 341 nominations the president has made to Senate-confirmed administration positions. Of those, more than half (179) have some notable conflict of interest, according to a comprehensive review of public records. One hundred and five nominees worked in the industries that they were being tasked with regulating; 63 lobbied for, were lawyers for, or otherwise represented industry members that they were being tasked with regulating; and 11 received payments or campaign donations from members of the industry that they were being tasked with regulating."

Frances Robles & Deborah Acosta of the New York Times: "Facing withering criticism from members of Congress and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the governor of Puerto Rico moved on Sunday to cancel a $300 million contract awarded to a small Montana company to rebuild part of the island's battered power grid. While government officials in Washington and San Juan have argued over how a company from Whitefish, Mont., with connections to the secretary of the interior but only two full-time employees secured an emergency contract that requires the work of thousands of people, the majority of Puerto Rico is still without electricity, nearly six weeks after Hurricane Maria knocked down thousands of poles and lines.... The House Committee on Natural Resources, which oversees Puerto Rican affairs, sent a letter on Thursday to the power authority demanding all records connected to the contract. That same day, the inspector general's office at the Department of Homeland Security said it was investigating. [Gov. Ricardo] Rosselló also ordered an audit of the contract, and the board that Congress created to oversee Puerto Rico's financial affairs asked a federal court to appoint a new manager to supervise the utility. The chief executive of the power authority, Ricardo Ramos, defended the contract, which he awarded. But he said on Sunday that he understood the governor's decision to cancel it because negative publicity and politics on the mainland had made the situation untenable." This is an update to a story linked here yesterday afternoon. ...

... Sheelah Kolhatkar of the New Yorker: MEANWHILE, vulture lawyers, hired to help Puerto Rico resolve its huge debt obligation, are eating the island alive. "... the government has paid nearly three hundred million dollars in advisory fees since 2014.)

Mike DeBonis & Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "The Republican effort to overhaul the tax code suffered a bruising setback over the weekend when a powerful corporate interest group came out against the proposal just days ahead of when House leaders plan to release it to the public. The National Association of Home Builders, after learning that a 'homeownership' tax credit it had wanted will not be in an initial version of the bill, is preparing a nationwide campaign against it. The development underscored just how difficult the prospect of a successful tax overhaul will be, given the complex and competing interests that President Trump and GOP lawmakers are trying to serve." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Every "bruising setback" these jamokes "suffer" is good news for ordinary Americans.

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) once pinned former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) against a wall and held a knife to his throat during a heated debate about earmarks. John Boehner told Politico about the incident in a new profile published Sunday. The former speaker described his difficulties in banning earmarks, or measures that funded projects in lawmaker's home districts.... Young held a 10-inch knife to Boehner's throat. Boehner responded by staring Young in the eyes and saying, 'F[uck] you.' Young confirmed the account as 'mostly true' to Politico, but pointed out that he and Boehner later became such good friends that Boehner was the best man at his wedding."

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Navy criminal authorities are investigating whether two members of the elite SEAL Team 6 strangled an Army Green Beret in June while they were in Mali on a secret assignment, military officials say. Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar, a 34-year-old veteran of two tours in Afghanistan, was found dead on June 4 in the embassy housing he shared in the Malian capital, Bamako, with a few other Special Operations forces assigned to the West African nation to help with training and counterterrorism missions. His killing is the latest violent death under mysterious circumstances for American troops on little-known missions in that region of Africa."

AP: "Only 10 active Houston Texans players stood for the national anthem with the rest of the team kneeling down. The Texans had indicated there would be some type of protest following comments by owner Bob McNair. McNair has issued two apologies and is attempting to explain his comments after a story in ESPN The Magazine this week revealed that he said 'we can't have the inmates running the prison' during a meeting of NFL owners about players who protest by kneeling during the national anthem."

Adam Vary of BuzzFeed: "In an interview with BuzzFeed News, [actor Anthony] Rapp is publicly alleging for the first time that in 1986, [actor Kevin] Spacey befriended Rapp while they both performed on Broadway shows, invited Rapp over to his apartment for a party, and, at the end of the night, picked Rapp up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him, making a sexual advance. According to public records, Spacey was 26. Rapp was 14.... After the accusations leveled against Harvey Weinstein have sparked an unprecedented conversation about sexual abuse and harassment in the entertainment industry, Rapp said he feels compelled to come forward." ...

     ... Update. Michael Paulson of the New York Times: "Kevin Spacey, a two-time Oscar winner, apologized Sunday night for what he said 'would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior' after the actor Anthony Rapp accused him of making a sexual advance on him 31 years ago, when Mr. Rapp was 14 years old.... He then disclosed that he had 'loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man.'"

Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Hamilton Fish V, the publisher of The New Republic, is taking a leave of absence from the magazine pending an investigation into allegations that he behaved inappropriately toward female staffers."

Beyond the Beltway

... Jess Bidgood, et al., of the New York Times: "Nearly 200 women have signed a letter denouncing a culture of rampant sexual misconduct in and around the [California] state government here in Sacramento. They complain of male lawmakers groping them, of male staff members threatening them and of a human resources system so broken that it is unable to give serious grievances a fair hearing. In dozens of interviews, women -- including legislative aides and lobbyists who said they had endured years of sexual harassment -- said the flawed system had left them with few options to stop behavior that threatened their livelihoods and careers.... In interviews, women said that they saw no benefit in taking their grievances to authorities. 'Retaliation can come in the form of intimidation, public trashing or being blacklisted,' said Naveen Habib...."

Dinner with Racists. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Hours after a 'White Lives Matter' rally unfolded Saturday in Shelbyville, Tenn. -- resulting in lots of counterprotesters, but no violence -- a fight broke out between a smaller group of white supremacists and an interracial couple at a restaurant in Brentwood, about 50 miles to the north.... ['One of the group] told [the woman, who was white,]to join their table and leave her boyfriend,' police said in a statement. 'The argument inside apparently escalated even after the female victim had gone outside to de-escalate the situation.' Police said another woman from the self-identified 'white lives matter' group began to argue with the 30-year-old woman, who was then reportedly punched in the face by a man, causing a cut above her eye."

The Commentariat -- October 29, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Sad! Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "On Sunday morning, President Trump expressed frustration that his campaign is under investigation over possible ties to Russia's plot to influence the 2016 election but that his former opponent Hillary Clinton is not facing the same level of scrutiny. In four tweets sent over 24 minutes, Trump wrote: 'Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?), the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia, "collusion," which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!'

Frances Robles & Christina Caron of the New York Times: "Gov. Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico has asked the governing board of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to 'immediately' cancel its contract with Whitefish Energy, he announced on Sunday. The decision came two days after the Federal Emergency Management Agency expressed 'significant concerns' about how Whitefish, a small Montana company, won a contract for up to $300 million to rebuild part of Puerto Rico's electrical grid after it was severely damaged last month by Hurricane Maria. Whitefish is based in the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke."

*****

A Calendar of His Own: When 10/26/2017 Is Not 10/26/2017. Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "President Trump tweeted Saturday that the sealed files about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released 'long ahead of schedule.' 'JFK Files are released, long ahead of schedule!' Trump tweeted.... The Trump administration released about 2,800 files surrounding the case late Thursday, a date that had been set by Congress in 1992. Trump had blocked the release of about 3,000 of the documents late Thursday. But the administration announced Friday that they would be releasing redacted versions of the documents over the next few months.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: One of the instant tests doctors give patients to see if they are mentally sound -- I just saw it on a teevee show yesterday, so it must be true! -- is whether or not the patients know what day and year it is. Trump just flunked that test, in writing. Twenty-fifth Amendment, please! I'm kinda not kidding, in the the same way Paul Ryan "was sort of joking" when he said Trump's being in Asia would help him get his tax bill passed. Seriously, when a person is so far gone he defends his missteps (or his administration's missteps) by denying what MO/DA/YR it is, there's something way out of whack in the space between his ears.

A Charles Boyer of Our Own (If Not So Debonair). Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "On Friday, while prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert Mueller, obtained their first grand-jury indictments in their investigation of potential collusion by the Trump campaign and Russia, the President of the United States was busy gaslighting. Trump tweeted, of course, that 'It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump. Was collusion with HC!' The President was referring to an episode that took place in 2010 whereby the Obama Administration gave a Russian firm permission to buy a Canadian company that had the rights to mine a great deal of uranium in the U.S.... I highly recommend this detailed account from FactCheck.org, which concludes, 'Donald Trump falsely accused former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of giving away U.S. uranium rights to the Russians and claimed -- without evidence -- that it was done in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation.'... Trump is once again spreading lies to confuse the public about the Russian attack on American democracy last year.... Trump's typical response to any allegation of wrongdoing is to accuse his accuser of the same crime." ...

... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post also has a very useful "guide to the latest allegations" on "the 'dossier' and the uranium deal." Mrs. McC: These sensible reviews will have no impact whatsoever on Trump or his hair-on-fire Congressional enablers. ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: Pundits have been speculating on the who & what-for special counsel Robert Mueller is expected to indict this week. "What isn't speculation is the fact that, five months into his investigation, Mueller has brought a first set of criminal charges. By the standards of recent special prosecutors, that is fast work, and it confirms Muelle's reputation as someone who doesn't like to dally. Now that he has started arresting people, there is no reason to suppose he will stop. And that is precisely the message he wants to send." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: The video below is super. Many thanks to NJC for linking it. ...

Thought in light of todays news this would be very fitting.
This is amazing. #MuellerTime #Comeyday pic.twitter.com/67x9M76bUG

— AgentHades (@AgentHades) October 28, 2017

 

Mueller Drives Trump Pals over the Edge

Violent. Ryan Parker of the Hollywood Reporter: "Roger Stone has been banned from Twitter permanently after a vulgar meltdown Friday aimed at CNN reporters, which included threats, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The close friend and former adviser to Donald Trump went on a tirade after CNN reported Robert Mueller approved the first charges into his investigation on the Russian meddling of the 2016 presidential election.... A source with direct knowledge of the situation told THR the suspension is permanent.... '.@donlemon stop lying about about the Clinton's and Uranium you ignorant lying covksucker !!!! You fake news you dumb piece of shit,' Stone wrote in one tweet." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Speaking of ignorant, lying cocksuckers (she said demurely), it appears from his limited command of the English language that Stone is more ignorant than Trump.

Delusional. Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "During a Saturday morning interview on Fox & Friends, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was asked how he thinks news special counsel Robert Mueller has filed his first charges is being received in the White House. Lewandowski ... responded by insisting that what's needed is new scrutiny of the nonexistent 'Clinton administration.'"

Crooked Donnie, Ctd. Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "President Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr., is expected to launch two residential projects in India for the Trump Organization in the coming weeks, continuing the family's promotion of the Trump empire despite concerns over the president' potential conflicts of interest with foreign governments. The Trump Organization vowed early on there would be 'no new foreign deals' during Trump's tenure as president; these two projects in India were inked before his election. But the high-profile launches demonstrate that the pledge comes with an asterisk -- agreements made years ago can move forward or be revitalized, such as the Trump' 2007 deal to build a luxury beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic that may be revived, according to an Associated Press report."

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Fusion GPS, the research firm behind the dossier containing allegations about ... Donald Trump and Russia, its bank and the House intelligence committee have reached an agreement over the panel's subpoena of Fusion's financial records. The agreement comes amid revelations that Perkins Coie -- the law firm representing Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee -- and the conservative Washington Free Beacon separately paid the firm to conduct research on Trump."

They Really Don't Know What They're Doing. Kimberly Kindy & Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "As Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston in late August, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director William 'Brock' Long said he wanted to avoid a repeat of Katrina-style temporary housing that shattered New Orleans communities.... But less than a week later, FEMA went on a mobile home-buying binge, spending nearly $300 million on 4,500 units, the largest purchase of the homes since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, federal contracting records show. Another 1,700 mobile homes in FEMA's inventory were also readied. Yet most of those homes remain warehoused. FEMA has made the hunt for permanent rental housing its top priority and is reluctant to deploy the notorious homes and trailers.... That decision is crippling recovery efforts in states where thousands of people remain in shelters and hotels more than six weeks after massive hurricanes destroyed their homes. Now in Texas and Florida -- where rental stock is inadequate -- state officials are cranking up the pressure on FEMA to release the mobile units." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course, if the object was to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on items which FEMA deemed unusable, then they do know what they're doing. AND it's worth remembering that last month "The federal government auctioned off disaster-response trailers at fire-sale prices just before Harvey devastated southeast Texas, reducing an already diminished supply of mobile homes ahead of what could become the nation's largest-ever housing mission."

Emily Atkin of the New Republic: "That fishy contract to rebuild Puerto Rico's electric grid is now a bona fide scandal.... the U.S. government is scrutinizing PREPA's [Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority] decision to award such a large contract to such a small and deeply shady company. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello has asked the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general to review the contract, and a congressional committee is investigating whether any 'inappropriate conduct' led to the decision. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has also said it has 'significant concerns' with how PREPA procured the deal. It was suspicious enough that the $300 million contract, as The Washington Post revealed earlier this week, had been awarded to Whitefish Energy, a tiny and unknown company based in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown in Montana. The Daily Beast then reported that Whitefish's CEO is friends with Zinke, and that the company is primarily financed by a large donor to ... Donald Trump.... The contract also shields Whitefish from legal liability if they screw up the job, and prevents government authorities from auditing the company."

The GOP Is Dreaming up Ways to Screw You. Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: Congressional Republicans' "tax bill includes giant reductions in business taxes. Figuring out how to pay for tax cuts is ... especially complicated in today's bitterly partisan atmosphere. Republican lawmakers intend to push through a bill without any Democratic support -- but there is a catch. The single-party strategy in this case triggers a rule that requires the policy to have no impact on the budget at the end of 10 years. To make the math work, lawmakers need to come up with the revenue to pay for the cuts sooner rather than later. That's where 401(k)'s come in. Rather than allow workers to continue delaying their tax payments, the Republican leadership wants to collect tax revenue on most new contributions upfront so they can use it to pay for those expensive corporate tax cuts. That's the equivalent of a middle-class tax increase." The GOP plan also would "cap the amount of tax-deferred [401(k)] contributions at $2,400 a year...." Emphasis added.

NEW. Peter Keating of New York: "The new[ly-released Kennedy] papers do add to the case for a cover-up, but it's a different cover-up than buffs brought up on Oliver Stone's batshit-crazy JFK are looking for: It's not a plot to kill Kennedy that government officials have spent the past 54 years hiding, it's all kinds of other dirty pool."

Beyond the Beltway

Doug Stanglin & Stephanie Ingersoll of USA Today: "Opponents outnumbered white nationalists Saturday in peaceful 'White Lives Matter' rallies in Tennessee that were punctuated by taunts and chants from both sides. In Shelbyville, the site of the first rally, some 200 white nationalists -- met by nearly twice as many counter protesters -- carried a Confederate flag and chanted for closed borders and deportations at a mid-morning gathering.... The protesters showed up here and in Shelbyville, 25 miles south, despite comments by Gov. Bill Haslam that 'these folks' were not welcome in the state." ...

... According to this report by Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post, it would appear that counter-protesters not only outnumbered the bigot brigade, they also out-prepared them. So finally, "In Murfreesboro..., a second set of counterprotesters lined the roadway, ready to challenge attendees of the second rally. But the rally didn’t happen; the bus of white supremacists never showed up."

The Commentariat -- October 28, 2017

Trump Scandal Bonanza:

Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "A federal grand jury in Washington, DC, on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter. The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are. A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment." ...

... Sharon LaFraniere & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Natalia V. Veselnitskaya arrived at a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 hoping to interest top Trump campaign officials in the contents of a memo she believed contained information damaging to the Democratic Party and, by extension, Hillary Clinton. The material was the fruit of her research as a private lawyer, she has repeatedly said.... But interviews and records show that in the months before the meeting, Ms. Veselnitskaya had discussed the allegations with one of Russia's most powerful officials, the prosecutor general Yuri Y. Chaika. And the memo she brought with her closely followed a document that Mr. Chaika's office had given to an American congressman two months earlier, incorporating some paragraphs verbatim. The coordination between the Trump Tower visitor and the Russian prosecutor general undercuts Ms. Veselnitskaya's account that she was a purely independent actor when she sat down with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner ... and Paul J. Manafort, then the Trump campaign chairman. It also suggests that emails from an intermediary to the younger Mr. Trump promising that Ms. Veselnitskaya would arrive with information from Russian prosecutors were rooted at least partly in fact -- not mere 'puffery,' as the president's son later said." ...

... Brandon Carter of the Hill: "A top donor to President Trump's 2016 election effort asked the campaign's data firm if it could help organize hacked emails released by WikiLeaks on Hillary Clinton, according to a new report. A source familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that Rebekah Mercer, a billionaire supporter of Trump, exchanged emails with Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix about the hacked emails." Mrs. McC: I'd have such a sad if a right-wing billionaire babe would up in jail for consorting with the enemy in a criminal enterprise. ...

... Ken Vogel & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website funded by a major Republican donor [-- hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer --] was the first to hire the firm that conducted opposition research on Donald J. Trump -- including a salacious dossier describing ties between Mr. Trump and the Russian government -- website representatives told the House Intelligence Committee on Friday. According to people briefed on the conversation, the website hired the firm, Fusion GPS, in October 2015 to unearth damaging information about several Republican presidential candidates, including Mr. Trump. But The Free Beacon told the firm to stop doing research on Mr. Trump in May 2016, as Mr. Trump was clinching the Republican nomination. In April 2016, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee also retained Fusion GPS to research any possible connections between Mr. Trump, his businesses, his campaign team and Russia.... The Free Beacon has a history of employing so-called opposition research firms to assist in news articles critical of targets ranging from Mr. Trump to Mrs. Clinton." ...

     ... Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "The Washington Free Beacon disclosed in congressional testimony on Friday that it is the mysterious client that initially paid for opposition research on Donald Trump performed by Fusion GPS, the firm that later worked with a former British spy to produce a dossier of claims about ties between Trump and Russia. Just three days earlier, the Free Beacon, a conservative news site founded in 2012, told its readers that before Democrats hired Fusion GPS in April 2016, the firm's work “was funded by an unknown GOP client while the primary was still going on.... President Trump and his allies have sought to cast Fusion GPS as a shadowy, illegitimate outfit that produced a 'fake' dossier. And the Free Beacon this week has published such characterizations unchallenged -- without noting that it considered Fusion GPS reliable enough to pay for its services." ...

... Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "When Marc Elias, general counsel for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, hired a private research firm in the spring of 2016 to investigate Donald Trump, he drew from funds he was authorized to spend without oversight by campaign officials, according to a spokesperson for his law firm. The firm hired by Elias, Fusion GPS, produced research that resulted a dossier detailing alleged connections between Trump and Russia. While the funding for the work came from the campaign and the Democratic National Committee, Elias kept the information about the investigation closely held.... It is unclear who else was familiar with the arrangement [between Elias & Fusion GPS], or who knew that Fusion GPS hired a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, who wrote the dossier. Clinton has not responded to requests for comment. A spokesman for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), who was DNC chairwoman at the time Perkins Coie contracted with Fusion GPS, said the former chair was 'not aware' of the law firm's arrangement with Fusion.... Clinton campaign officials who said they were not aware of Elias's arrangement with the firm defended his decision to tap its resources.... Elias himself did not receive the dossier but was briefed on some of the information in it, according to his firm's spokesperson."

... Gloria Borger, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump has made it clear to the State Department that he wants to accelerate the release of any remaining Hillary Clinton emails in its possession as soon as possible, according to three sources familiar with the President's thinking. This latest move for disclosure from the State Department comes at the same time the President called upon the Justice Department to lift a gag order on a key FBI informant in an investigation into Russian efforts to gain influence in the US uranium industry during the Obama administration. The sources described the President's interest in the release of the emails -- and the testimony of the FBI informant -- as rooted in a commitment to 'transparency.'... Taken together, these two actions could accelerate recent efforts by congressional Republicans to investigate the previous administration -- new probes that they've opened as multiple Russia investigations into the Trump campaign continue on Capitol Hill." ...

... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "... Donald Trump alleged Friday that Hillary Clinton colluded with Russia.... 'It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump,' the president wrote Friday morning. 'Was collusion with HC!' Republican lawmakers are nearing the end of their probes into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election, though it remains unclear whether they're close to concluding whether Trump associates colluded with Russians. The congressional panels plan to complete their probes by February." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Callum Borchers: "President Trump says Russia's 2010 acquisition of American uranium, approved by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight other agency heads, is 'Watergate, modern-age.' 'This is equivalent to what the Rosenbergs did, and those people got the chair,' former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka said on Sean Hannity's Fox News show Thursday night. Hannity has dubbed the uranium deal 'the biggest scandal -- or, at least, one of them -- in American history.' Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said on CNN Friday morning that 'it's exactly what people hate about corruption and politicians and the swamp.'... The argument relies on spectacular oversimplification.... Critics are free to second-guess the [decision], but the fact that every other involved agency made the same determination as Clinton's State Department undercuts the notion that her vote was bought -- unless, of course, everybody was in Russia's pocket. That really would be one of the biggest scandals in U.S. history." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Brian Beutler: "This week, House Republicans launched two joint investigations, spanning three congressional committees, aimed at sowing confusion about the nature of Russian influence over last year's election. This isn't liberal gloss on a series of news developments that muddy a clean scandal ensnaring ... Donald Trump. Rather, it describes a documentable, partisan effort to use the levers of government to confuse the public about a foreign conspiracy -- the subject of a federal criminal investigation -- to bolster ... Donald Trump's campaign and sabotage his rivals.... The purpose of the propaganda has changed from defaming Hillary Clinton to blurring the truth about Russia's subversion of the election, but the underlying content is the same. The facts of the matter are all out in the open, as are the ways and reasons the right manipulated those facts and has now returned to them a year later. But the press, once bitten, hasn't yet learned to be shy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post (October 24) has the sordid details -- of the fake accusations against & phony "investigations" of Clinton. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Huh. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney from Virginia who gained national prominence when he took a temporary leading role in President Trump's Justice Department, has submitted his resignation. He plans to serve until a successor is confirmed.... Boente, a 33-year veteran of the Justice Department, was tapped earlier this year to serve as acting attorney general after Sally Yates was fired. He went on to serve as acting deputy attorney general. He is serving as acting assistant attorney general of the National Security Division and will remain in that post until John C. Demers, an attorney for Boeing who worked at the Justice Department under President George W. Bush, is confirmed."

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: President Trump "is conducting the most dramatic and drawn-out search for a Federal Reserve chairman in the long history of the stolid institution. Mr. Trump is very publicly deliberating between two candidates with strikingly different views about the practice and purpose of monetary policy: Jerome H. Powell, a Fed governor who has voted in favor of every Fed policy decision since 2012, and John B. Taylor, a Stanford economist who is among the Fed's most vocal critics. The president also continues to insist that he could decide to renominate the Fed's chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, whose four-year term ends in February." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Jonathan Blitzer of the New Yorker has more on the Trump administration's attempts to deprive women of their Constitutional right to have an abortion. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Was He Lying Then or Is He Lying Now? Ella Nilsen of Vox: Sarah Sanders "is sticking by the president's assertion that the multiple women who have accused him of sexual assault and harassment over the years are lying.... On a recording taped in 2005, Trump admitted to kissing and groping women without their consent: 'I just start kissing them -- it's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy.' But Sanders's flat denial echoed one Trump made during a press conference in the Rose Garden last week, when he called the allegations 'totally fake news' and 'made-up stuff.'" ...

... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "While the president dismisses this as 'fake news,' the problem for the White House is that some of these women have produced witnesses who say they heard about the incident at the time -- long before Trump made his political aspirations known."

Mark Halperin Is Seriously Creepy. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Two days after CNN first reported that five women said 'Game Change' co-author and journalist Mark Halperin sexually harassed or assaulted them during his time at ABC News, the number of accusers has grown to at least a dozen women, including four who are now sharing their accounts for the first time. Another woman, who shared her account in CNN's initial article on the condition her name not be published, is now speaking out on the record. The new accusations from the four women include that Halperin masturbated in front of an ABC News employee in his office and that he violently threw another woman against a restaurant window before attempting to kiss her, and that after she rebuffed him he called her and told her she would never work in politics or media. The alleged incidents occurred while Halperin was in a position of significant authority at ABC News, while the women were young and had little power." ...

Andrew Kirell & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: " Halperin's apparently fake interest in young women's careers and very real interest in getting in their pants also extended to undergraduate students he was supposed to be enlightening.While the star pundit issued a contrite statement Friday evening claiming the misconduct ended after he left ABC News, one woman recounted to The Daily Beast a particularly uncomfortable run-in with Halperin at her alma mater in February 2011 -- years after Halperin left ABC. Katharine Glenn was then a student at Tulane University when she was a 20-year-old junior.... [Glenn allegests that a dinner party held in conjunction with his appearance at Tulane, Halperin put his hand on her upper thigh & invited her to his hotel room to 'discuss her career.'] According to two sources who were present at the time, Halperin made such inappropriate overtures to at least two female students during his swing through Tulane -- not just Glenn. In one instance, an adjunct professor .. 'intervened,' as one ex-student described, while Halperin was making unwanted advances towards a female student." ...

... ** Dana Milbank confesses his self-serving ignorance of the sexual harassment going on around him when he worked at the New Republic's boys' club. Marie: No point in coming down on Milbank. Millions of men & women -- including victims (#MeToo) -- have kept quiet, even when they were fully aware of a grossly hostile work environment. CBS News fired me when I objected, not to CBS management, but to the aggressor -- when he closed the door to his office & pulled out his penis. My harasser "told on me" to the network, & a woman from the network came to my office & fired me. When I told her what happened, she nodded & said she understood but, "You can't upset the talent." I learned my lesson, & when a male employee tried to rape me at my next job at ABC network, I escaped with help from another male employee. Neither of us told. Hostile work environment? They were all hostile when I was young. All of them.

Deficit Hawks Gone Extinct. Niv Elis of the Hill: "The GOP's tax plan would cause revenue to drop between $2.4 trillion and $2.5 trillion over the course of a decade, even after economic growth is taken into account, according to an analysis from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center." Update: See safari's comment below.

Senator Mitt? McKay Coppins of the Atlantic: "Senator Orrin Hatch has privately told allies in Utah that he is planning to retire at the end of his term next year, and if he does, Mitt Romney intends to run for his seat, according to five sources familiar with the situation."

Tim Egan: "We are retreating to our tribal, ethnic and primitively prejudicial quarters. Everything is about race and identity. We come from privilege, or oppression. We choose politicians based on whether they help our tribe or hurt People Like Us. This is President Trump's legacy. He has shattered the idea, eloquently expressed by President Barack Obama, that we are not 'irrevocably bound to a tragic past.' In the Trump era, we are neck-deep in that tragic past.... Trump opened the door to overt expressions of hatred."

Steve Schmadeke of the Chicago Tribune: "Former President Barack Obama has been called for Cook County jury duty -- and plans to serve next month, the county's chief judge said Friday. Chief Judge Tim Evans told county commissioners during a budget hearing that Obama, who owns homes in Washington, D.C., and Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood, will serve next month."

Beyond the Beltway

AND Justice for All. The South Is Still Officially the Confederacy: Radley Balko of the Washington Post reports on a horrifying story of the Mississippi "justice system": a judge took the infant child of a young mother of color from her & ordered that the mother have no visitation rights because she had "abandoned" her child when she was incarcerated for nonpayment of minor fines after a car in which she & the newborn were passengers (the baby was in a carseat) in a car stopped for a traffic violation. The MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi intervened on behalf of the mother. "The good news is that the judge has now resigned and the youth court in Pearl, Miss., has been closed. But this clearly goes beyond a single judge. A police officer detained someone, causing her to be separated from her newborn, over unpaid misdemeanors. The officer then claimed she had abandoned the baby, despite the fact that it was the officer's actions, not hers, that left the child without a parent." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Raphael Minder & Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "In a major escalation of Spain's territorial conflict, the Spanish Senate on Friday authorized the government to take direct control of the fractious region of Catalonia, just after Catalan lawmakers declared the region's independence. The dueling actions set up a potential showdown over the weekend, as Spain careened into its greatest constitutional crisis since it embraced democracy in 1978. The Senate voted 214 to 47 to invoke Article 155 of Spain's Constitution, granting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy a package of extraordinary powers to suppress Catalonia's independence drive. The measure will go into effect after it is published in the government register, which is expected to happen Friday night."