The Commentariat -- October 15, 2017

Paul Krugman: "... the selling of tax cuts under Trump has taken [lying] to a whole new level, both in terms of the brazenness of the lies and their sheer number. Both the depth and the breadth of the dishonesty make it hard even for those of us who do this for a living to keep track.... Lie #1: America is the most highly-taxed country in the world.... Lie #2: The estate tax is destroying farmers and truckers.... Lie #3: Taxation of pass-through entities is a burden on small business.... Lie #4: Cutting profits taxes really benefits workers.... Lie #5: Repatriating overseas profits will create jobs.... Lie #6: This is not a tax cut for the rich.... Lie #7: It's a big tax cut for the middle class.... Lie #8: It won't increase the deficit.... Lie #9: Cutting taxes will jump-start rapid growth.... Lie #10: Tax cuts will pay for themselves." ...

... Trump talks about his tax plan & maybe some other stuff:

The Cheese Stands Alone. Stephen Castle & Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "Iran, Russia and European leaders roundly condemned President Trump's decision on Friday to disavow the Iran nuclear deal, saying that it reflected the growing isolation of the United States, threatened to destabilize the Middle East and could make it harder to resolve the growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.... Though they avoided direct criticism of Mr. Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Emmanuel Macron of France said in a rare joint statement that they 'stand committed' to the 2015 nuclear deal and that preserving it was 'in our shared national security interest.' 'The nuclear deal was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Iran's nuclear program is not diverted for military purposes,' they added." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Eric Levitz has "a rundown of Trump's most absurd arguments for decertifying the nuclear agreement with Iran." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "President Trump’s statement Friday on the Iran nuclear deal may be the most dishonest speech he has ever given from the White House -- and, depending what happens next, it could be his most damaging. It flagrantly misrepresents what the deal was meant to do, the extent of Iran's compliance, and the need for corrective measures. If he gets his way, he will blow up one of the most striking diplomatic triumphs of recent years, aggravate tensions in the Middle East, make it even harder to settle the North Korean crisis peacefully, and make it all but impossible for allies and adversaries to trust anything the United States says for as long as Trump is in office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Eliana Johnson of Politico (story linked yesterday) puts the onus on Nikki Haley -- with a shoutout to John Bolton -- for stage-crafting Trump's speech. But I want to know, inasmuch as the Iran pact is integral to Middle East peace -- WHERE'S JARED? Here Trump is fooling with with a delicately-crafted international accord, and the Trump's Designated Middle East Peace Guru must be off enjoying the fall colors or something. ...

... Heather Hurlburt of New York: "If the theatrics of [Friday's] speech reminds you more of a reality-show season premiere than high diplomacy, it's not accidental. Trump and his team are stage-managing Iran policy as if it were an episode of The Apprentice. He intentionally built drama for weeks -- from his September taunt to the United Kingdom, our closest ally, that he'd made a decision but wasn't willing to share it, to a steady drip of leaks and time changes in the lead-up to today's announcement. European ambassadors were called to the State Department days ahead of time, then told the State Department had nothing to tell them. Tune in for the season opener, right? But international diplomacy doesn't thrive on 'reveals' -- in fact, it tends to fall apart over them." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "If hawks in Congress push through a law demanding further concessions, it could provoke Iran to abandon the deal, eject the inspectors, and accelerate its nuclear program. That might result in calls for Iran's facilities to be destroyed before they can produce enough weapons-grade material for a bomb. Such a chain of events could lead to a particularly perilous consequence: returning to the possibility of military conflict with Iran, at a time when the United States is already facing a nuclear standoff with North Korea, would court the prospect of a two-front war -- an act of self-sabotage more immediately damaging to American security than reviving the xenophobic slogan 'America First,' withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, or antagonizing our allies (Mexico, Australia, South Korea, and counting).... Indeed, in the past two weeks there have been a number of indicators of the President's growing political instability."

Steven Feldstein in Informed Comment: "At campaign rallies [Trump] pledged to 'bomb the hell' out of the Islamic State. He openly mused about killing the families of terrorists, a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits violence against noncombatants. Ten months into his presidency, a clearer picture is emerging. The data indicate several alarming trends. According to research from the nonprofit monitoring group Airwars, the first seven months of the Trump administration have already resulted in more civilian deaths than under the entirety of the Obama administration.... Researchers also point to another stunning trend -- the 'frequent killing of entire families in likely coalition airstrikes.'... The vast increase in civilian deaths is not limited to the anti-IS campaign. In Afghanistan, the U.N. reports a 67 percent increase in civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes in the first six months of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016." Feldstein lays out possible reasons for the increases. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: Larry Flynt, "best known as the publisher of the pornographic magazine Hustler," took out a full-page ad in today's Washington Post offering $10 million to "anyone who could provide a 'smoking gun' -- perhaps buried in Trump's tax returns or in some other investment records -- that would lead to his impeachment."

Chris Riotta of Newsweek: "Jared Kushner 'enriched himself' by not revealing his ownership of a real estate tech business that raised millions of dollars while he served in the government, said a member of the House Judiciary Committee, calling it part of a pattern of unethical behavior that he believes should cause the White House Senior Adviser to be stripped of his security clearance. Congressman Ted Lieu told Newsweek that Kushner's failure to list a company called Cadre on his initial financial disclosure forms -- man oversight that could mean millions for the president's son-in-law -- is an ethical lapse that should have severe ramifications." You'll have to read on to understand how the stunt worked in Jared's favor. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Natasha Brand of Business Insider: "An intern at the data mining and analysis firm Cambridge Analytica left online for nearly a year what appears to be programming instructions for the voter targeting tools the company used around the time of the election, raising questions about who could have accessed the tools and to what end. Social media analyst and data scientist Jonathan Albright discovered the election data processing scripts -- or programming instructions -- on what he said was the intern's personal GitHub account. GitHub, a 'Facebook for programmers,' is an internet hosting service mostly used for code." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This looks like a "get out of jail free" card for Trump, the Trump campaign, & the Mercers: "The intern did it!"

Michael Wines of the New York Times: "State election officials, worried about the integrity of their voting systems, are pressing to make them more secure ahead of next year's midterm elections. Reacting in large part to Russian efforts to hack the presidential election last year, a growing number of states are upgrading electoral databases and voting machines, and even adding cybersecurity experts to their election teams. The efforts -- from both Democrats and Republicans -- amount to the largest overhaul of the nation's voting infrastructure since the contested presidential election in 2000 spelled an end to punch-card ballots and voting machines with mechanical levers.... The effort to make the vote more secure is notably bipartisan and relatively rancor-free."

Oracle for Hire -- Will Say Whatever the Hell You Want to Hear. Josh Delk of the Hill: "Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon said Saturday .... during a speech at the Values Voter Summit ... that President Trump will 'win with 400 electoral votes in 2020,' following reports that he had lost faith in the president's ability to complete his current term.... [That's funny because] Bannon reportedly said several months ago that Trump only has a 30 percent chance of finishing his current term, a source told Vanity Fair, who said the president also did not know the function of the 25th Amendment, which allows a majority of the Cabinet to vote for the president to be removed from office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So to "Values Voters," Trump's in like Flynn (no, not that Flynn); to Vanity Fair, Trump will be deposed. Apparently Bannon has reason to believe that "know thy audience" can be monetized. ...

... Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "Steve Bannon taunted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday and vowed to challenge any Senate Republican who doesn't publicly condemn attacks on ... Donald Trump.... Bannon, now the executive chairman of Breitbart News, bashed Senate Republicans by name for not publicly distancing themselves from Sen. Bob Corker's criticism of Trump, reserving particular animus for Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), Dean Heller (Nev.) and Deb Fischer (Neb.).... 'There's time for a mea culpa,' Bannon declared. 'You can come to a stick and condemn Sen. Corker and you can come to a stick, a microphone, and say I'm not going to vote for Mitch McConnell as majority leader.'"

Mrs. McCrabbie: If you don't read the article linked next, at least read the entire summary. There's a punch line. ...

** Scott Higham & Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "In April 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, Congress effectively stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against large drug companies suspected of spilling prescription narcotics onto the nation's streets.... The new law makes it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments.... A handful of members of Congress, allied with the nation's major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to a more industry-friendly law, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and '60 Minutes.' The industry worked behind the scenes with lobbyists and key members of Congress, pouring more than a million dollars into their election campaigns. The chief advocate of the law that hobbled the DEA was Rep. Tom Marino, a Pennsylvania Republican who is now President Trump's nominee to become the nation's next drug czar.... It passed after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) negotiated a final version with the DEA." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's see if Trump withdraws Marino's nomination, now that the WashPo & "60 Minutes" have exposed the plot. For some reason, I'm not betting on this to happen.

The Fake, Failing New York Times Foils Trump. Haeyoun Park answers questions about getting health insurance converage under ObamaCare. Mrs. McC: I hope all news media & some popular shows & television sites act accordingly. And health insurance companies, who run zillions of ads for supplemental Medicare insurance, should have the sense to do the same for Healthcare.gov ...

... The number of state attorneys generals who are suing the Trump administration for stopping payments of the healthcare subsidies has grown to 18 plus the District of Columbia, according to a press release by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. The states are California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Oregon, North Carolina, Illinois, New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Minnesota, New Mexico, Washington, Iowa, and the District of Columbia."

Kendall Taggart & Jessica Garrison of BuzzFeed: "For all the women who have cheered as accusations against the producer Harvey Weinstein force a public conversation about sexual misconduct, one small group of women has watched with frustration. They are some of the dozen women who publicly accused Donald Trump of groping or kissing them -- accusations that Trump has denied. In a sharp contrast to the women who accused Weinstein, Trump's accusers did not see the public turn against him, the board of his company fire him, or the police launch an investigation. Instead, these women watched the man they say humiliated and abused them get elected president of the United States." ...

... Gregg Kilday of the Hollywood Reporter: "The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has expelled disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein from its ranks. The Academy's 54-member board of governors -- which includes such Hollywood luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg and Kathleen Kennedy -- held an emergency meeting at the organization's Beverly Hills headquarters today and voted to strip away Weinstein's lifetime membership. Following the meeting, the Academy issued a statement saying the board had voted 'to immediately expel him from the Academy. We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over.'"

The Commentariat -- October 14, 2017

Afternoon Update:

The Cheese Stands Alone. Stephen Castle & Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "Iran, Russia and European leaders roundly condemned President Trump's decision on Friday to disavow the Iran nuclear deal, saying that it reflected the growing isolation of the United States, threatened to destabilize the Middle East and could make it harder to resolve the growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.... Though they avoided direct criticism of Mr. Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Emmanuel Macron of France said in a rare joint statement that they 'stand committed' to the 2015 nuclear deal and that preserving it was 'in our shared national security interest.' 'The nuclear deal was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Iran's nuclear program is not diverted for military purposes,' they added." ...

... Eric Levitz has "a rundown of Trump's most absurd arguments for decertifying the nuclear agreement with Iran." ...

... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "President Trump's statement Friday on the Iran nuclear deal may be the most dishonest speech he has ever given from the White House -- and, depending what happens next, it could be his most damaging. It flagrantly misrepresents what the deal was meant to do, the extent of Iran's compliance, and the need for corrective measures. If he gets his way, he will blow up one of the most striking diplomatic triumphs of recent years, aggravate tensions in the Middle East, make it even harder to settle the North Korean crisis peacefully, and make it all but impossible for allies and adversaries to trust anything the United States says for as long as Trump is in office." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Eliana Johnson of Politico (story linked below) puts the onus on Nikki Haley -- with a shoutout to John Bolton -- for stage-crafting Trump's speech. But I want to know, inasmuch as the Iran pact is integral to Middle East peace -- WHERE'S JARED? Here Trump is fooling with with a delicately-crafted international accord, and the Trump's Designated Middle East Peace Guru must be off enjoying the fall colors or something.

... Heather Hurlburt of New York: "If the theatrics of [Friday's] speech reminds you more of a reality-show season premiere than high diplomacy, it's not accidental. Trump and his team are stage-managing Iran policy as if it were an episode of The Apprentice. He intentionally built drama for weeks -- from his September taunt to the United Kingdom, our closest ally, that he'd made a decision but wasn't willing to share it, to a steady drip of leaks and time changes in the lead-up to today's announcement. European ambassadors were called to the State Department days ahead of time, then told the State Department had nothing to tell them. Tune in for the season opener, right? But international diplomacy doesn't thrive on 'reveals'--in fact, it tends to fall apart over them."

Steven Feldstein in Informed Comment: "At campaign rallies [Trump] pledged to 'bomb the hell' out of the Islamic State. He openly mused about killing the families of terrorists, a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits violence against noncombatants. Ten months into his presidency, a clearer picture is emerging. The data indicate several alarming trends. According to research from the nonprofit monitoring group Airwars, the first seven months of the Trump administration have already resulted in more civilian deaths than under the entirety of the Obama administration.... Researchers also point to another stunning trend -- the 'frequent killing of entire families in likely coalition airstrikes.'... The vast increase in civilian deaths is not limited to the anti-IS campaign. In Afghanistan, the U.N. reports a 67 percent increase in civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes in the first six months of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016." Feldstein lays out possible reasons for the increases.

Chris Riotta of Newsweek: "Jared Kushner 'enriched himself' by not revealing his ownership of a real estate tech business that raised millions of dollars while he served in the government, said a member of the House Judiciary Committee, calling it part of a pattern of unethical behavior that he believes should cause the White House Senior Adviser to be stripped of his security clearance. Congressman Ted Lieu told Newsweek that Kushner's failure to list a company called Cadre on his initial financial disclosure forms -- man oversight that could mean millions for the president's son-in-law -- is an ethical lapse that should have severe ramifications." You'll have to read on to understand how the stunt worked in Jared's favor.

Oracle for Hire -- Will Say Whatever the Hell You Want to Hear. Josh Delk of the Hill: "Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon said Saturday ... during a speech at the Values Voter Summit ... that President Trump will 'win with 400 electoral votes in 2020,' following reports that he had lost faith in the president's ability to complete his current term.... [That's funny because] Bannon reportedly said several months ago that Trump only has a 30 percent chance of finishing his current term, a source told Vanity Fair, who said the president also did not know the function of the 25th Amendment, which allows a majority of the Cabinet to vote for the president to be removed from office." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So to "Values Voters," Trump's in like Flynn (no, not that Flynn); to Vanity Fair, Trump will be deposed. Apparently Bannon has reason to believe that "know thy audience" can be monetized.

*****

Gail Collins: "Policy-wise, this has been a particularly dreadful week in Washington. The president trashed the health care act and washed his hands of the nuclear agreement with Iran. Attention must be paid. But there has also been a bumper crop of Ridiculous Events. And it seems only fair to mention a few of them, given that the president himself doesn't have enough stable thoughts for a serious policy debate." And mention them she does, in a column titled "Stupid Trump Tricks."

Health Insurance Is Just a Game of Oneupmanship. Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump will oppose any congressional attempts to reinstate funding for Obamacare subsidies -- unless he gets something in return, his budget director Mick Mulvaney said in an interview Friday morning. The comments by the Office of Management and Budget chief delivered a severe blow to efforts by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to strike a bipartisan deal on funding the subsidies.... Mulvaney panned those efforts, calling the so-called cost-sharing reduction payments 'corporate welfare and bailouts for the insurance companies.'... The administration, however, opened the door to negotiations on the now-canceled payments. After speaking to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Saturday, Trump said that a temporary deal could be struck on shoring up the insurance markets. Mulvaney suggested the insurance payments could be a bargaining chip in a broader negotiation with Congress to either repeal President Barack Obama's signature health care law — or fund Trump's long-stalled border wall with Mexico." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I was wondering who-all was running Trump's anti-health-insurance push now that Tom Price is spending more time with his family; Mulvaney may not be the one, but he's certainly one of the "brains" behind the draconian schemes. ...

... Mike DeBonis & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "President Trump's decision late Thursday to cut off crucial health-care subsidies has once again torn open the long-festering debate over the Affordable Care Act, increasing the potential for a government shutdown in December and ensuring that the issue will be central in next year's midterm elections. The move to end insurer subsidies for low-income patients could spike premiums by as much as 20 percent for those who purchase insurance on the individual market. While Trump and Republican allies argued that former president Barack Obama's signature health-care reform law is fundamentally flawed, Democrats called the move an act of sabotage against the ACA and pledged to fight it.... 'Republicans in the House and Senate now own the health-care system in this country from top to bottom, and their destructive actions, and the actions of the president, are going to fall on their backs,' [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer] said. 'The American people will know exactly where to place the blame when their premiums shoot up and when millions lose coverage.'" ...

... James Hohmann of the Washington Post runs down some of the consequences of Trump's moves to sabotage ObamaCare. ...

... An Unintended Consequence of Malice Aforethought (but not so well "thought.") Eric Levitz of New York: "In an early-morning tweet [Friday], Trump confirmed that this was an act of malice. Months ago, the president predicted that canceling the so-called 'cost-sharing reductions' would break Obamacare -- and thus, force Chuck Schumer to negotiate with him over a replacement. On Friday, in a missive fit for a cartoon supervillain, Trump announced that the deed was done, and the Democrats' precious Obamacare was no more. 'The Democrats ObamaCare is imploding. Massive subsidy payments to their pet insurance companies has stopped. Dems should call me to fix!'... And yet..., according to the Congressional Budget Office, in this particular case, canceling Obamacare subsidies will only make them stronger. If CBO's analysis is correct, Trump's latest act of Obamacare sabotage will do the opposite of what every Republican health-care plan had intended.... Trump might have just made Obamacare a better deal for low-income Americans; provided 1 million more people with insurance (after 2020); and increased federal spending on health care by nearly $200 billion over the next decade." Levitz builds on health-care economist Nicholas Bagley's explanation, linked yesterday. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe about now you're thinking Mick Mulvaney isn't such an evil genius. Just evil. One problem: since the Trumpies are making it harder for enrollees to sign up, the new & degraded Healthcare.gov may make it more difficult for individuals to figure out which plan would be best for them. According to Levitz & others, it may turn out that -- thanks to Trump -- a gold plan will become most advantageous, but many people would probably just assume that a bronze plan -- the cheapest -- would be most affordable. I think I'm pretty smart, but it took me about a year (I'm not exaggerating) to figure out which Medicare supplement plan would give me the most bang for my buck, and I can tell you insurers dished out a lot of disinformation (and outright lies) to confuse me. I will say that the person who gave me the final, deciding clue was a helpful Medicare staffer. ...

... Sarah Kliff of Vox: "Fewer people will have insurance -- and the government will spend more.... There is no question that this new policy is lose-lose-lose for key stakeholders with no upside. It will raise Obamacare premiums by an estimated 20 percent in 2018.... Pulling the plug actually increases the national deficit. As those insurance plans make double-digit rate increases, the government will have to spend billions more on the other subsidies that 10 million Americans receive to purchase that coverage. The number of uninsured Americans would rise by one million people in 2018, in the CBO's estimate. Insurance companies ... now stand to face significant financial loses on the Obamacare marketplaces." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I doubt Trump has any idea of the fiscal consequences, but it wouldn't matter if he accidentally found out. His objective is to ruin ObamaCare, and if it costs billions to do so, so what? Meanwhile, all the dimwitted "values voters" are cheering him on. ...

... Megan Messerly & Riley Snyder of the Nevada Independent: Nevada "Governor Brian Sandoval [R] called the president's decision to end critical payments from the federal government that help health insurance companies offer affordable coverage to lower-income Americans 'devastating,' though officials with the state's insurance exchange say Nevadans won't feel any immediate impact in the coming plan year. Dealing yet another blow to the Affordable Care Act, the White House said in a statement late Thursday night that the government cannot 'lawfully' continue making the so-called cost-sharing reduction payments, which the president has repeatedly referred to as a 'bailout' for insurance companies. But halting those payments would be 'very destructive' for the state of Nevada, Sandoval said, echoing concerns expressed by exchange officials and health-care policy experts that injecting additional volatility into the individual insurance market could eventually lead to its collapse in the long term." ...

... Rachel Roubein of the Hill: "A new multistate lawsuit has been announced to stop President Trump from halting key ObamaCare payments to insurers. Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., are signing onto the new lawsuit, which will be filed Friday, according to Sarah Lovenheim, a spokeswoman for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. On Thursday night, Trump announced he would stop making the payments, which led to an outcry from critics saying he was sabotaging the health care law. The complaint will seek a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction and permanent injunction requiring the cost-sharing reduction payments be made."

Trump Whisperer. Eliana Johnson of Politico: "While many of the president's cabinet members, aides, and advisers work to restrain his impulses, when it came to Iran deal [U.N. Ambassador Nikki] Haley did the opposite -- channeling what many Democrats and even some Republicans consider the president's destructive instincts into policy.... The fingerprints of former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, whose access to Trump was recently limited by chief of staff John Kelly, were also on Trump's Friday address.... Bolton urged Trump to include a line in his remarks noting that he reserved the right to scrap the agreement entirely...."

Antony Blinken in a New York Times op-ed: "Now that Mr. Trump has decertified Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement, Congress has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions. Mr. Trump called on Congress and America's allies to use the time 'to address the deal's many serious flaws.' If not, he said, 'the agreement will be terminated.' By 'fix' Mr. Trump means legislation to impose new conditions on Iran beyond the purview of the agreement and to extend its constraints indefinitely. That would put the United States, not Iran, in violation of the agreement and isolate Washington, not Tehran, around the world." Blinken lays out the numerous lies Trump told to "justify" his supposed decertification of Iran's compliance. The headline on Blinken's piece: "Trump Alienates America's Allies and Hands Iran a Victory." ...

... Asawin Suebsaeng, et al., of the Daily Beast unearth the plot to hide the Iran nuclear agreement from Trump. H. R. McMaster has tried to lure Congressional Democrats into joining the conspiracy, even as he had to speak to them in code. Mrs. McC: To save the nation from Trump, the members of the Cabinet & Congress are already banding together. This could be the start of something big.

Storm-Ravaged Islands in the Big Ocean Are Other Countries. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "During a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Thursday, Energy Secretary Rick Perry mistakenly referred to Puerto Rico as a country while talking about how to repair its energy grid.... And now President Trump has talked about another U.S. territory struck by hurricanes as if it's a foreign country. He said in a speech at the Values Voters Summit on Friday morning that he met with the 'president' of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands don't have a president; they have a governor, Kenneth Mapp, with whom Trump met 10 days ago. In fact, their president is none other than Trump himself, since they are Americans." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... the Trump administration seems increasingly to see this tragedy [in Puerto Rico] as a public relations issue, something to be spun -- partly by blaming the victims -- rather than as an urgent problem to be solved.... And it took almost three weeks after Maria struck before Trump asked Congress to provide financial aid -- and his request was for loans, not grants, which is mind-boggling when you bear in mind that the territory is effectively bankrupt.... Puerto Ricans would doubtless be getting better treatment if they were all of, say, Norwegian descent.... Whatever the precise mix of motives, what's happening in Puerto Rico is utterly shameful. And everyone who enables the regime perpetuating this shame shares part of the guilt."

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "The White House has blown by an October 1 deadline for beginning to implement new sanctions targeting Russia, drawing concern in Congress that President Donald Trump is planning to ignore parts of a bill he grudgingly signed in August.... The aide said that members of the White House's National Security Council have assured senators that they are 'getting to' the sanctions and 'it's gonna happen.' But lawmakers are wary." --safari

NEW. Josh Meyer of Politico: "Twitter has deleted tweets and other user data of potentially irreplaceable value to investigators probing Russia's suspected manipulation of the social media platform during the 2016 election, according to current and former government cybersecurity officials. Federal investigators now believe Twitter was one of Russia's most potent weapons in its efforts to promote Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, the officials say...."

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Reince Priebus, the former chief of staff to President Trump, was interviewed for a full day Friday by members of special counsel Robert S. Mueller's team, Priebus's lawyer said.... The interview, which took place at the special counsel's office in Washington, is a sign that Mueller's investigation is now reaching into the highest levels of Trump's aides and former aides." ...

... Following the Money. Manafort & the Oligarch. Aggelos Petropoulos & Richard Engel of NBC News: "Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for ... Donald Trump, has much stronger financial ties to a Russian oligarch than have been previously reported. An NBC News investigation reveals that $26 million changed hands in the form of a loan between a company linked to Manafort and the oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin. The loan brings the total of their known business dealings to around $60 million over the past decade, according to financial documents filed in Cyprus and the Cayman Islands.... According to company documents obtained by NBC News in Cyprus, funds were sent from a company owned by Deripaska to entities linked to Manafort, registered in Cyprus."

Choir Boy. Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post: “'You cannot publicly castrate your own secretary of state without giving yourself that binary choice,' [Sen. Bob] Corker told me in a phone interview Friday. 'The tweets -- yes, you raise tension in the region [and] it's very irresponsible. But it's the first part' -- the 'castration' of [Rex] Tillerson -- 'that I am most exercised about.'... The problem, he suggested, is Trump's tweets and other statements implying that there is no deal to be made with North Korea and that Tillerson 'is wasting his time,' as one tweet put it. Such comments are causing the Chinese to back away from what has been an incipient willingness to bring serious pressure to bear on Pyongyang.'"

King Zinke. Sarah Burris of RawStory: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has come under fire for spending nearly as much as former Secretary Tom Price on private airline flights, but now it appears he also has special mandates for the buildings he's in. The Washington Post reported Thursday that Zinke unearthed a military ritual hoisting special secretarial flags on whatever buildings he happens to be in. Each time Zinke is scheduled to enter a building, a security staffer takes an elevator to the top floor and climbs to the roof where his special flag is raised. When he is not in the building, the security staffer must, once again, climb the steps to the top and take the flag down." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Burris has mangled the WashPo story, linked above: The flag-raising & -lowering hoo-hah happens only at the Interior Department building in Washington, D.C. (or, as Zinke's press secretary hilariously puts it, "in garrison.") Lisa Rein of the Post describes the flag as a "blue banner emblazoned with the agency's bison seal flanked by seven white stars representing the Interior bureaus," & Burris posts a representation of it. "In Zinke's absence," Rein writes, "the ritual is repeated to raise an equally obscure flag for Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt." Bernhardt's flag, pictured in Rein's story is white with blue stars. "Zinke," Rein reminds us, "upset some of the 70,000 employees at the agency that manages public lands by stating that 30 percent of the workers are 'not loyal to the flag' in a speech to oil and gas executives." I guess now we know what flag he had in mind. "Zinke rode to work on horseback on his first day in office and displays animal heads on his wood-paneled office walls. For a while, he kept a glass-case display of hunting knives but was asked to remove them because of security risks.... He has commissioned commemorative coins with his name on them to give to staff and visitors, but the cost to taxpayers is unclear. Zinke's predecessors and some other Cabinet secretaries have coins bearing agency seals, but not personalized ones.... The agency's inspector general opened an investigation after [Zinke] ran up bills for travel on chartered jets and mixed business with political appearances, sometimes accompanied by his wife, Lola." In any event, Zinke is a preposterous, self-aggrandizing laughingstock, a character type who is the butt of jokes in many a situation comedy.

Ryan Deveraux & Spencer Woodman of The Intercept: "An internal handbook obtained by The Intercept provides a rare view into the extensive asset seizure operations of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, an office that trains its agents to meticulously appraise the value of property before taking it.... The handbook acknowledges that civil forfeiture can be used to take property from a person even when there's not enough evidence for a criminal indictment." --safari

Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announced Friday that she will not run for governor in 2018, renewing her commitment to serve in a sharply polarized Senate where her centrist Republican positions have made her a key bulwark against much of President Trump's agenda. Ending months of speculation about her political future, Collins, who does not face reelection until 2020, opted to stick with the job she has held for the last two decades, even as other moderate GOP lawmakers including Rep. Charlie Dent (Pa.) and Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) are heading for the exits."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge on Friday turned down the Justice Department's request to dramatically scale back the reach of an injunction he'd issued against the Trump administration's targeting of so-called sanctuary cities. Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber granted the City of Chicago's request for a nationwide block on the Justice Department's plan to insist that cities and counties receiving public-safety grants allow immigration agents access to local jails and give local authorities advance notice when suspected illegal immigrants are about to be released from custody. Justice Department lawyers asked Leinenweber to stay his order so that it would benefit only Chicago...."

Al Baker & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "The police in London and New York said Thursday that they were looking into complaints involving the disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, the latest turn in a scandal that has consumed Hollywood over allegations of sexual abuse and harassment." ...

... TMZ: Harvey Weinstein will challenge his firing by The Weinstein Company at this month's Board of Directors meeting."

Medlar's Sports Report:

** Karen Attiah of the Washington Post: "With Pence's stunt, Trump's tweets, [ Cowboys owner Jerry] Jones's edict and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's statement saying players should stand, the debate about players standing for the national anthem is no longer about the flag. This is not about the anthem. This is not about supporting the troops. This is about putting outspoken black people back in their place in America -- subordinate, and silent about the racism, police brutality and white supremacy that affect our lives everyday."

Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "The N.C.A.A. did not dispute that the University of North Carolina was guilty of running one of the worst academic fraud schemes in college sports history, involving fake classes that enabled dozens of athletes to gain and maintain their eligibility. But there will be no penalties, the organization said, because no rules were broken. In a ruling that caused head-scratching everywhere except Chapel Hill, the N.C.A.A. announced on Friday that it could not punish the university or its athletics program because the 'paper' classes were not available exclusively to athletes. Other students at North Carolina had access to the fraudulent classes, too."

The Commentariat -- October 13, 2017

Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump really did go to military school, but they must have practiced fewer military traditions than the (female) principals did at my grade school. Every day, everyone in the school stood up & saluted when some poor kid played "To the Colors" & "Retreat" -- cast over the intercom system -- at the raising & lowering of the flag. Either that, or this is another instance of Trump's dementia kicking in:

*****

Mark Lander & David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump will make good on Friday on a long-running threat to disavow the Iran nuclear deal that was negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama. But he will stop short, for now, of unraveling the accord or even rewriting it, as the deal's defenders had once feared. In a speech on Friday afternoon, Mr. Trump will declare his intention not to certify Iran's compliance with the agreement. Doing so essentially kicks to Congress a decision about whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran, which would blow up the agreement. But the Trump administration made it clear that it wants to leave the 2015 accord intact, at least for now. Instead, it is asking Congress to establish 'trigger points,' which could prompt the United States to reimpose sanctions on Iran if it crosses thresholds set by Congress." ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "Trump's frequent (and seemingly growing) temper tantrums are alarming, as is the fact that his closest advisers routinely treat him like a toddler. But the biggest and most unsettling aspect of this is how we got to this [Iran] 'compromise.' It wasn't made for any reason related to policy -- it unsettles an acceptable framework by adding considerable, unnecessary, and far-reaching risk. Instead, the United States is shifting its policy toward Iran simply because President Trump doesn't want to acknowledge any of Barack Obama's achievements. This compromise was cooked up to please the president's ego, not because it serves any sort of larger strategic or geopolitical interest."

Vindictive Twerp Finds Another Way to Undermine ObamaCare. Josh Dawsey & Paul Demko of Politico: "... Donald Trump plans to cut subsidy payments to insurers in his most aggressive move yet to undermine Obamacare after months of unsuccessful repeal efforts on Capitol Hill, according to two sources. The subsidies, which are worth an estimated $7 billion this year and are paid out in monthly installments, may stop almost immediately since Congress hasn't appropriated funding for the program. Insurers rely on the subsidies to reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income Obamacare customers. They're still on the hook to provide the discounted rates to their members under the law, despite no longer receiving the federal funding." Mrs. McC: What a hateful, spiteful, vicious old SOB. Congress had better get its act together & flush Trump's shit down the toilet. ...

[President Trump has] apparently decided to punish the American people for his inability to improve our health care system. It is a spiteful act of vast, pointless sabotage leveled at working families and the middle class in every corner of America. Make no mistake about it, Trump will try to blame the Affordable Care Act, but this will fall on his back and he will pay the price for it. -- Chuck Schumer & Nancy Pelosi, in a statement ...

... Robert Pear & others write the New York Times story: "President Trump will scrap subsidies to health insurance companies that help pay out-of-pocket costs of low-income people, the White House said late Thursday. His plans were disclosed hours after the president ordered potentially sweeping changes in the nation's insurance system, including sales of cheaper policies with fewer benefits and fewer protections for consumers. The twin hits to the Affordable Care Act could unravel President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement, sending insurance premiums soaring and insurance companies fleeing from the health law's online marketplaces." ...

... Nicholas Bagley, the Incidental Economist: "Some years back, the House of Representatives sued the Obama administration for continuing to make the cost-sharing payments in the absence of an appropriation. Although I still don't think that the House had standing to sue, I thought its legal argument was sound: the money hadn't been appropriated. The Trump administration apparently agrees, and is using that as its pretext to terminate the payments. So what happens now? Lawsuits, lawsuits, and more lawsuits. Right out of the gate, I'd put dimes to dollars that that the 16 states that have intervened in the ongoing litigation will seek an immediate injunction from the D.C. Circuit to keep the cost-sharing payments flowing. The states may also file a separate lawsuit in district court seeking the same relief.... If Congress doesn't act, it's really the worst of all worlds." Bagley explains why Trump's move will cause "total federal outlays [to] actually increase.... It's a financial bath, and for no good reason other than sheer political cussedness. What a stupid, profligate, and unnecessary mess." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: These moves are part of Trump's larger effort to further separate the haves from the have-nots. In this case, the haves are financially-comfortable, relatively young & healthy younger Americans, and the have-nots are lower-income, older Americans with greater healthcare needs. Donald Trump has come after the old & the sick. ...

... Vindictive Twerp Signs Executive Order to Undermine ObamaCare. Robert Pear & Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that clears the way for potentially sweeping changes in health insurance, including sales of cheaper policies with fewer benefits and fewer protections for consumers than those mandated under the Affordable Care Act. But most of the changes will not come until federal agencies adopt regulations, after an opportunity for public comments -- a process that could take months." Story was reported earlier & kinked below) & updated after Trump signed the order, with the usual fanfare, including once again forgetting to sign the order (he did so after mike pence reminded him). (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "... depending on how it's implemented, the executive order Trump signed Thursday could be his most significant step yet to sabotage the [ACA]. It will expand the availability of plans that are loosely regulated and don't have to provide essential health benefits, which could pull people off the Obamacare exchanges." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Adam Cancryn of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing an overhaul of major federal health regulations, calling it the first step toward fulfilling the GOP's promise to repeal Obamacare. The order is aimed at encouraging the rise of a raft of cheap, loosely regulated health insurance plans that don't have to comply with certain Obamacare consumer protections and benefit rules. They'd attract younger and healthier people -- leaving older and sicker ones in the Obamacare markets facing higher and higher costs.... The administration is also preparing to roll back Obama-era restrictions on short-term health insurance plans, allowing insurers to once again sell stopgap policies which don't cover pre-existing conditions, mental health services and many other costly benefits. Coverage could extend for as long as a year, up from a current three-month limit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The Trump administration is taking two steps to [wreck ObamaCare]. First, it is opening two loopholes to allow healthy people to purchase unregulated insurance, splitting the market and loading more costs onto people with expensive medical needs. Second, it announced tonight it is ending cost-sharing payments to insurers who take on low-income customers.... If Obamacare were truly collapsing, sabotage would not be necessary. It is the law's success, not its failure, that has made Trump so determined to wreck it. The White House has released a statement confirming its intention to end the [subsidy] payments, written in the pidgin-English indicating the president's own authorial hand."

Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "President Trump will extend a March 5 deadline to end protections for young undocumented immigrants if Congress fails to act by then, according to a Republican senator who spoke directly with the president about the issue. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Trump told him he was willing to 'give it some more time' to allow lawmakers to find a solution for 'dreamers,' unauthorized immigrants brought to this country as children, if Congress does not pass legislation extending protections before time is up." Mrs. McC: Don't you know yet, Jim, that you can't believe a word Trump says? Better get cracking, Congress.

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "The White House has blown by an October 1 deadline for beginning to implement new sanctions targeting Russia, drawing concern in Congress that President Donald Trump is planning to ignore parts of a bill he grudgingly signed in August.... The aide said that members of the White House's National Security Council have assured senators that they are 'getting to' the sanctions and 'it's gonna happen.' But lawmakers are wary." --safari

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Under withering criticism from Puerto Ricans for his administration's flawed response to the devastation there Trump sought to hold the territory responsible for its own plight because of chronic mismanagement -- prompting an immediate backlash from Puerto Ricans and mainland lawmakers in both parties." ...

... Jessica Kwong of Newsweek: "In a tweet Thursday afternoon, FEMA spokeswoman Eileen Lainez wrote that the agency 'will be w/Puerto Rico, USVI, every state, territory impacted by a disaster every day, supporting throughout their response & recovery.'... Her tweet came five hours after Trump took to Twitter to say the island's financial crisis 'looms largely of their own making' and is due to the poor state of its infrastructure and electrical system and its governor's 'total lack of ... accountability.' 'We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!' Trump tweeted.... A few hours after Trump's tweet, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló doubled down on his call for federal aid, tweeting, 'The U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are requesting the support that any of our fellow citizens would receive across our Nation.'" Mrs. McC: Rosselló has previously been obsequiously supportive of Trump. ...

... Gene Robinson: "More than 80 percent of Puerto Rico is still in the dark, more than a third of its residents still have no clean drinking water, much of the island's infrastructure still lies in ruins -- and President Trump cruelly threatens to cut off federal aid. Doing so would be government by spite and should be considered an impeachable offense.... The president complained Sunday on Twitter, 'Nobody could have done what I've done for #PuertoRico with so little appreciation. So much work!' Note the use of 'I' instead of 'we' or even 'my administration.'.. For the record, what Trump has done personally for the people of Puerto Rico is playfully toss rolls of paper towels into a crowd."

When Is It Okay to Show Disrespect for the U.S. Flag? When the President Does It. Oliver Willis of Shareblue: "Donald Trump sat and laughed with Fox News host Sean Hannity as the 'Retreat' bugle call was played. Tradition dictates that members of the military and civilian leadership stand at attention to respect the U.S. flag during the solemn ceremony. Trump's act of disrespect occurred during an interview that happened in a hangar at the Air National Guard base in Pennsylvania. Trump referred to the bugle call as a 'nice sound,' and asked Hannity if they were playing it 'in honor of his ratings.' As the official Army website notes, playing 'Retreat' is 'one of the oldest traditions in the U.S. Army, which dates back to the Revolutionary War.' Playing the song is used 'to ... pay respect to the nation's flag.' Trump disrespected the flag the same evening he returned to the subject of black NFL players protesting police brutality by kneeling during the anthem." ...

... David Choi of Business Insider: "When the American flag is lowered and raised on US military installations, a bugle blares on loudspeakers as service members and civilians pay their respects to the flag. Uniformed service members located outside of a building are required to stop and salute the flag, while civilians are required to place their hand over their heart. The tradition also requires service members who are driving vehicles on a military base to pull over and render a salute. Members of the [Trump-Hannity] audience could be seen standing up during the ceremony[.]" ...

     ... Mrs. McC: And let's add that Hannity's audience cheered Trump's & Hannity's every word -- after they showed disrespect for the flag. (Update: According to the Washington Post, "Retreat" was played after Trump ragged NFL players.) Of course we should acknowledge that Trump & Hannity don't know or care squat about the military; they chose the Guard hangar for the interview site to provide an optical illusion that they do care. Neither has served in the military.

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "In one of the strangest links in ... Donald Trump's Russia scandal yet, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow noticed an interesting history with a key lawyer.... In 2013, Trump offered President Barack Obama $5 million for proof that he was born in the United States. In return, 'Real Time' host Bill Maher offered Trump $5 million if he could prove he wasn't the spawn of an orangutan.... Trump ... sent Maher a bill along with his birth certificate. [The attorney who sent Trump's $5MM demand letter was Scott Balber.]... This week, The Washington Post and CNN reported a story about greater details between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The intermediary between Veselnitskaya and the Trump campaign were Putin-linked Russian billionaires Aras and Emin Agalarov. The lawyer that represented Agalarovs is ... Scott Balber." ...

     ... Dear Bob Mueller: hard to believe this is some stranger-than-fiction coincidence. s/Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Sins of Omission. Kara Scannell of CNN: "The head of a government bureau responsible for clearing background checks told lawmakers Wednesday he has 'never seen that level of mistakes' when asked about numerous omissions in Jared Kushner's security clearance application. Charles Phalen, the director of the National Background Investigations Bureau, a newly created division within the Office of Personnel Management, made the comment in response to a question during a House subcommittee oversight hearing."

Gardiner Harris & Steve Erlanger of the New York Times: "The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would withdraw from Unesco, the United Nations cultural organization, after years of America distancing itself because of what it called the group's 'anti-Israel bias.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Louis Nelson of Politico: "White House chief of staff John Kelly said Thursday that he is not resigning, making a surprise appearance in the White House press briefing room to push back against media reports that his relationship with ... Donald Trump has been approaching a breaking point." (Also linked yesterday.)...

... Kelsey Tamborrino of Politico: "... John Kelly on Thursday defended ... Donald Trump's periodic public attacks on Republican members of Congress, saying the president 'has a right to defend himself.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "As a top executive at AccuWeather, Barry Myers has pushed for limits on the kinds of products that the National Weather Service offers to the public, saying they offered unfair competition to his industry. Now..., Donald Trump's nomination of Myers to lead the weather service's parent agency could allow him to make those kinds of restrictions mandatory -- to the benefit of his family-run forecasting company. The AccuWeather CEO's nomination to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is stirring criticism from people who worry he would hobble the weather service, which provoked an industry backlash more than a decade ago by making hour-by-hour forecasts, cellphone alerts and other consumer-friendly data widely available online.... Myers, whose brother Joel founded AccuWeather in 1962, would join a roster of other business leaders whom Trump has installed atop his agencies -- many of them bringing considerable potential conflicts of interest to the job. He has degrees in law and business, not the science and math degrees that Bush's and President Barack Obama's NOAA chiefs had."

Tim Egan: Scott "Pruitt is the swamp, the only wetland the Trump administration wants to protect. He serves the oil, chemical and mining interests that propped him up when he was attorney general of Oklahoma. He now runs the oil, chemical and mining protection agency out of Washington, with our money. You would never guess that this toady in a suit works for us.... In announcing this week that President Trump intends to spite all the other nations and gut President Barack Obama's signature effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Pruitt framed the move as the end of the 'war on coal.' Now comes the war on the planet and public health. Amid the hourly calamities of a White House that is forced to treat its chief occupant like a toddler, it's easy to forget that Trump is doing real damage to things that all of us share." ...

... Don't Be Upset -- It's the End of the World Anyway. Matthew Diebel of USA Today: "Scientists working in and around Yellowstone National Park say that the supervolcano sitting under the tourist attraction may blow sooner than thought, an eruption that could wipe out life on the planet.... The researchers, The New York Times reported, have determined that the supervolcano has the ability to spew more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of rock and ash -- 2,500 times more material than erupted from Mount St. Helens in 1980 -- an event that could blanket most of the United States in ash and possibly plunge the Earth into a volcanic winter." Mrs. McC: Maybe this is Mother Nature, aiming to beat Trump to the apocalypse. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Weinstein Company Accommodated Harvey's History of Sexual "Misconduct." TMZ: "Harvey Weinstein may have been fired illegally by The Weinstein Company.... TMZ is privy to Weinstein's 2015 employment contract, which says if he gets sued for sexual harassment or any other 'misconduct' that results in a settlement or judgment against TWC, all Weinstein has to do is pay what the company's out, along with a fine, and he's in the clear. The contract says as long as Weinstein pays, it constitutes a 'cure' for the misconduct and no further action can be taken. Translation -- Weinstein could be sued over and over and as long as he wrote a check, he keeps his job." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Company officials' pretense that they were the last to know is a Big Fat Lie. Not only did they know, they tacitly approved it, assuming TMZ's reporting is correct (and surprisingly, TMZ has a pretty good track record). The company's only concern was to make sure it was held harmless from Harvey's attacks on women. As TMZ asserts, it looks as if the Big Fat Pig has a viable breach-of-contract case against the Weinstein Company.

King Zinke. Sarah Burris of RawStory: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has come under fire for spending nearly as much as former Secretary Tom Price on private airline flights, but now it appears he also has special mandates for the buildings he's in. The Washington Post reported Thursday that Zinke unearthed a military ritual hoisting special secretarial flags on whatever buildings he happens to be in. Each time Zinke is scheduled to enter a building, a security staffer takes an elevator to the top floor and climbs to the roof where his special flag is raised. When he is not in the building, the security staffer must, once again, climb the steps to the top and take the flag down." --safari

Ryan Deveraux & Spencer Woodman of The Intercept: "An internal handbook obtained by The Intercept provides a rare view into the extensive asset seizure operations of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, an office that trains its agents to meticulously appraise the value of property before taking it.... The handbook acknowledges that civil forfeiture can be used to take property from a person even when there's not enough evidence for a criminal indictment." --safari