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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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

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

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Monday
Feb102020

The Commentariat -- February 11, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Time for Some Traffic Problems in Manchester, N.H. AP: "Eager to put on a show of force in a general-election battleground state..., Donald Trump tried to rattle Democrats on Monday with a rally in New Hampshire on the eve of the state's first-in-the-nation primaries.... Before leaving Washington, Trump said he had planned the rally to rattle Democrats and demonstrate his strength in the state before the primary vote.... Advisers also hoped that Secret Service moves in downtown Manchester to secure the area for the president's arrival would also make it harder for Democratic candidates and their supporters to transverse the state's largest city in the hours before the primary's first votes are cast, according to Trump campaign officials not authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly." Emphasis added.

Kate Brannen of Just Security: Just Security obtained a number of unredacted emails from the Office of Budget & Management previously released on Jan. 22 in highly-redacted form, "under the condition that they not be reprinted. Similar to the unredacted emails Just Security reported on in January, these new emails shed further light on the standoff that took place between the Pentagon and OMB over Trump's hold on Ukraine funding. They confirm that OMB, including the general counsel's office, was fully in the loop about the Pentagon's concerns and took active steps to bury them. They also expose the extent to which OMB misled, and even lied to, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional investigative body, as the GAO tried to understand the circumstances surrounding the funding hold. To this day, and through these redacted documents, OMB is continuing its efforts to keep its knowledge of the Pentagon's legal worries a secret, blacking out the portions of the emails where DoD officials voiced their concerns and where OMB staffers acknowledged them. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that [OMB general counsel Mark] Paoletta reviewed the redactions before the documents were released.

Blackburn Blocks Election Bill to Rein in Trump's Cheating. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats to unanimously pass three election security-related bills Tuesday, marking the latest attempt to clear legislation ahead of the November elections. Democrats tried to get consent to pass two bills that require campaigns to alert the FBI and Federal Election Commission (FEC) about foreign offers of assistance, as well as legislation to provide more election funding and ban voting machines from being connected to the internet. But Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) opposed each of the requests. Under the Senate's rules, any one senator can ask for unanimous consent to pass a bill, but any one senator can object and block their requests."

Trump Has Learned His Lesson, Ctd.

Prosecutor Proposes, Trump Disposes. Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department plans to reduce its sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Trump, after top officials professed to be blindsided by the seven-to-nine-year penalty prosecutors urged a judge to impose, a senior Justice Department official said Tuesday. In a stunning rebuke of career prosecutors that immediately raised questions about political interference in the case, a senior Justice Department official said the department 'was shocked to see the sentencing recommendation in the Roger Stone case last night. That recommendation is not what had been briefed to the department,' the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.... The statement came hours after Trump tweeted about the sentence prosecutors recommended, saying: 'This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!' The senior Justice Department official, though, said the decision to revise prosecutors' recommendation came before Trump's tweet." Mrs. McC: Yeah, right. So what now? Thirty days of home detention. ~~~

~~~ Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Following news of the Justice Department's plan to reduce its recommendation, Aaron Zelinsky, who investigated Stone under special counsel Robert Mueller and helped to prosecute the case, filed a 'notice of withdrawal' as government counsel in the case. A footnote the filing says that Zelinsky .... 'has resigned effective immediately' from his job as Special Assistant United States Attorney for District of Columbia." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: According to the New York Times, Zelinsky "withdrew from the case. He also resigned from a special assignment with the United States attorney's office in Washington, though he will continue to work for the Justice Department in Baltimore." CNN is reporting @ about 5 pm ET, that two other prosecutors have resigned from the case and the DOJ has filed a brief with the court recommending a lesser sentence but not specifying that new recommended sentence. Former Govs. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.) & John Kasich (R-Ohio) expressed outrage on a CNN roundtable. ~~~

     ~~~ John Kruzel of the Hill: "Three of the four Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors who recommended Roger Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison left the case Tuesday after top officials sought to reduce their sentencing request. In a one-sentence filing to the U.S. District Court, prosecutor Timothy J. Shea withdrew from the case. He followed two others, lawyer Jonathan Kravis and prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky. Kravis left the DOJ entirely, announcing his resignation as an assistant U.S. attorney. The three were involved in providing the initial sentencing guidance for Stone. But in a rebuke to the career prosecutors, the DOJ on Tuesday told the judge in the case to apply 'far less' to Stone's sentence. 'The government respectfully submits that a sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months' imprisonment would be reasonable under the circumstances,' the DOJ wrote in a memo late Tuesday afternoon." Update: According to CNN, now all four federal prosecutors have resigned from the case. ~~~

~~~ Marcy Wheeler: "... after DOJ recommended what Roger Stone's own memo makes clear is a a guidelines sentence yesterday, top DOJ officials almost certainly named Bill Barr have objected and announced they're going to lower the recommendation. I believe the brazenness of this fight may be a reflection of the damaging information Roger Stone may have about Trump's own conduct.... Bill Barr was brought in as AG to bury abundant evidence that Trump was personally involved in efforts to maximize the Russian operation, to deny all the ways that Trump did cheat to win. From his initial misleading claims in the wake of the report's release, he was always suppressing the centrality of Roger Stone in all this." ~~~

~~~ Other experts react with horror. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Great Thing about Trump's America is that you no longer have to go through the hassles of travel to visit a banana republic. You don't have to learn Useful Phrases for Travelers in another language. You don't need shots. You can drink the water (presuming you don't live in Flint, Newark or near a fracking operation). Just sit back, look out the window & behold your very own slice of banana republic.

Stop and Smash. Alexandra Jaffe of the AP: "Mike Bloomberg is under fire for resurfaced comments in which he says the way to bring down murder rates is to 'put a lot of cops' in minority neighborhoods because that's where 'all the crime is.' The billionaire and former New York mayor made the comments at a 2015 appearance at the Aspen Institute, as part of an overall defense of his support for the controversial 'stop and frisk' policing tactic that has been found to disproportionately affect minorities. Bloomberg launched his Democratic presidential bid late last year with an apology for his support for the policy_and on Tuesday, after the comments resurfaced, he reiterated his apology and said his 2015 remarks 'do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity.'... [In the taped speech,] Bloomberg says that '95 percent of murders and murder victims are young male minorities.... And to 'get the guns out of the kids hands,' Bloomberg says, police must 'throw 'em against the wall and frisk 'em.'" ~~~

~~~ "Total Racist" Calls Out Racist. Kevin Brueninger of CNBC: "... Donald Trump slammed Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday as a 'TOTAL RACIST' over a 2015 audio clip in which Bloomberg defended the 'stop and frisk' police practice. In reply to Trump's tweet, Bloomberg said, 'I am not afraid of you and I will not let you bully me or anyone else in America.' Bloomberg made his comments defending stop and frisk in 2015, years before the three-term former New York mayor disavowed the policy in advance of launching his presidential bid in November."

Weird News. Trump's DOJ Favors Hookers for Jesus over Catholic Charities. Sarah Lynch of Reuters: "A U.S. Justice Department anti-human trafficking grant program is facing internal complaints, after two nonprofits were denied funding in favor of two less established groups whose applications were not recommended by career DOJ officials. The awarding of more than $1 million total to the two groups, Hookers for Jesus in Nevada and the Lincoln Tubman Foundation in South Carolina, has triggered a whistleblower complaint filed by the Justice Department's employee union to the department's Inspector General. An internal department memo seen by Reuters shows that as of September 12, two long-established nonprofits -- the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Palm Beach and Chicanos Por La Causa of Phoenix -- were originally on the list of recommended grant winners after receiving high marks from outside contractors hired to review applications. The annual grants help nonprofits and local governments aid human trafficking victims. Later that month, those two organizations were replaced as recommended recipients by Hookers for Jesus and the Lincoln Tubman Foundation, which both received lower rankings from the outside reviewers."

~~~~~~~~~~

In case you missed it, it's primary day in New Hampshire. Mark Murray & Carrie Dann of NBC News: "'Undeclared' voters may vote in either a state or a presidential primary. They have to choose a Democratic or a Republican ballot at their polling places. After choosing a ballot, voters will become registered members of that party unless they specifically fill out a form confirming that they want to return to 'undeclared' status. While 'undeclared' voters can vote in either the Republican or the Democratic primary, registered Republicans can't vote in the Democratic primary and vice versa." According to a tool on Pete Buttigieg's Website, "You can register to vote on Primary Day. It makes it easier to do so if you bring proof of identity and age (photo ID), citizenship (passport), and domicile (a driver's license, a piece of mail, a lease). If you can't bring any of these documents, don't worry! You can still sign a simple statement to register and vote on Election Day."

The New York Times' liveblog of New Hampshire primary developments for today is here.

The New York Times' liveblog of New Hampshire pre-primary events Monday is here.

CNN: "Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar won the most votes when a little more than two dozen New Hampshire residents in three tiny townships cast their ballots shortly after midnight in Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary. Dixville Notch in the state's northern tip, nearby Millsfield, and Hart's Location, further south and tucked in the White Mountains, are the first places to declare primary results because voters cast ballots so early.... [Michael] Bloomberg, who isn't on the ballot in New Hampshire, won the first votes of Tuesday's Democratic and Republican primaries as a write-in candidate in the township of Dixville Notch."

Jon Keller of CBS Boston: "This New Hampshire primary has been a rollercoaster ride, with one last hairpin turn in the final night of the exclusive WBZ/Boston Globe/Suffolk University tracking poll. Bernie Sanders appears to be cementing his hold on first place with 27 percent, while Pete Buttigieg, who had surged into a virtual tie with Sanders as the week ended, in second with 19 percent. And Amy Klobuchar continues her momentum from last night with a 14 percent showing, good for third place. However, she is still within the poll's 4.4 percent margin of error of Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, who placed within a fraction of each other in fourth and fifth place." Mrs. McC: Yes, but it's boring Donald Trump. (Also linked yesterday.)

"Did a Debate Actually Make a Difference for a Change?" Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "By the end of [Friday night's Democratic presidential debate], Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) had left little doubt as to the candidate she most wants to undercut: Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Ind.... Since then? Well, Klobuchar and Buttigieg have moved in exactly the directions that she would have hoped, given her attacks." As Bump ticks off Klobuchar's debate attacks on Buttigieg, it's clear she threw the book at him. Oh wait, maybe that's not the metaphor I want to use.

Indecision 2020. Ryan Lizza of Politico: "The same dynamic that led to [Joe Biden's] underwhelming showing [in Iowa] is starting to define the race: Democrats don&'t have an obvious candidate who they can rally around. Indecision is the most common theme I encountered among voters at more than a dozen events in New Hampshire since Friday. (Perhaps this should have been more obvious when even The New York Times editorial board couldn't pick a single candidate.) There's no reason to think the choice will get easier after Tuesday. What's driving the indecision is not a plethora of great choices, but the fact that there are seven candidates in the mix, each of whom has at least one very serious flaw." And Lizza is happy to tell you what those flaws are. Mrs. McC: Fortunately for Republicans, the Democratic nominee's opponent in the general election is like totally flawless.

Quinnipiac University: "In the wake of the Iowa caucuses and heading into the New Hampshire primary, there is a dramatic shift in the Democratic primary race for president as Senator Bernie Sanders claims frontrunner status for the first time, overtaking former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a Quinnipiac ... University national poll released today. Sanders gets 25 percent of the vote among Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic, while Biden gets 17 percent, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg receives 15 percent, Senator Elizabeth Warren gets 14 percent, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg receives 10 percent, and Senator Amy Klobuchar gets 4 percent. No other candidate tops 2 percent." Via Steve M. ~~~

~~~ Billionaires Bump off Biden. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... the [Quinnipiac] poll suggests that Biden's support is being cannibalized by former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg. At the same time, Biden's planned path to resurrection may have been largely cut off by another billionaire, businessman Tom Steyer."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Clearly, it doesn't matter who opposes Trump in the 2020 election; he will spread lies about that person. (See Tina Nyugen's report, linked below, on Trump's latest Ukraine conspiracy theory -- Romney is implicated!) The trick is to know how to turn those lies against Trump & makes Trump's lies a lie-ability. We know Biden can't do it, and we know that early on Trump's attacks upended Warren's campaign. So far, it looks as if Bloomberg is most effective against Trump's attacks. Klobuchar did well when Trump mocked her snowy kickoff rally, and Buttigieg did okay, too. So far Sanders hasn't had much to fend off because Trump is promoting him, hoping Sanders will win the nomination and Trump can attack, among other things, Bernie's socialist label.


Jim Tankersley, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump released a $4.8 trillion budget proposal on Monday that includes a familiar list of deep cuts to student loan assistance, affordable housing efforts, food stamps and Medicaid, reflecting Mr. Trump's election-year effort to continue shrinking the federal safety net. The proposal, which must be approved by Congress, includes additional spending for the military, national defense and border enforcement, along with money for Mr. Trump's Space Force initiative and an extension of the individual income tax cuts that were set to expire in 2025. Its biggest reduction is an annual 2 percent decrease in spending on discretionary domestic programs, like education and environmental protection." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... Donald Trump posted a tweet on Saturday vowing, 'We will not be touching your Social Security and Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget.' One day later, the Wall Street Journal published a report indicating that Trump is doing exactly that with his budget proposal.... That Trump is proposing cuts to these programs isn't surprising -- his 2020 budget cut all three as well. It&'s a long-running contradiction for the president. He often says he won't touch these entitlement programs, but he's continued to employ Republican party officials who make cutting these programs center to their work.... The president is either brazenly lying about his 2021 budget or doesn't know what's in it."

S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: Donald Trump "created 1.5 million fewer jobs in his first three years in office than predecessor Barack Obama did in his final three. Newly revised figures from Trump's own Department of Labor show that 6.6 million new jobs were created in the first 36 months of Trump's tenure, compared with 8.1 million in the final 36 months of Obama's ― a decline of 19% under Trump, according to a HuffPost analysis.... [Despite the fact that jobs-growth numbers can be misleading as economic indicators,] the statistics belie Trump's frequent claims that he turned around Obama's poor management of the economy."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "The publisher of Stars and Stripes, the military's editorially independent newspaper which covers issues relevant to members of the armed forces, said he was notified on Monday that the Department of Defense intends to eliminate some of the publication's funding starting in 2021.... Stars and Stripes was first produced during the Civil War by Union soldiers. It was later revived during the first World War and has printed regularly since World War II. Stars and Stripes said it distributed more than 7 million copies of its US Weekly edition in 2019 and served an online audience of 18.8 million unique visitors.... According to a story published Monday about the proposed funding cuts, Stars and Stripes receives most of its funding from sales, subscriptions, and advertising, but relies on government funding to back overseas reporting and distribution."

"Thanks Obama." Jordan Weissman of Slate: "... Donald Trump has always exaggerated the strength of his jobs record.... But it turns out, the reality of it was even weaker than the official data let on.... On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest batch of employment numbers, along with its annual benchmark revisions adjusting its estimates from prior months.... In the end, the economy has added fewer jobs in every year of his presidency than it did during Obama's final one. There never was much of a Trump bump." --s

Kylie Atwood & Vivian Salama of CNN: "President Donald Trump has told top foreign policy advisers that he does not want another summit with Kim Jong Un before the presidential election in November, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.... One official familiar with the administration's efforts with North Korea bluntly described the negotiations as 'dead.'... Last month, a top adviser to Kim said North Korea has no intention of engaging in talks this year." --s

Impeachment Fallout, Ctd.

Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Monday said he will still aim to work with President Trump on some items even after the president attacked him with a slew of insults following the senator's vote to remove him from office.... Trump ramped up his attacks on Manchin over the weekend, calling the Democrat a 'puppet' on Saturday, and referring to him as 'Senator Joe Munchkin' in a subsequent Sunday morning tweet.... 'Do you think names bother me?' Manchin said in an appearance on MSNBC. 'Do I look like I'm small and fragile? Names don't bother me and the president knows he can't get to me that way.' Manchin said he is not 'going to retaliate' against Trump and called the president's remarks 'immature.'" ~~~

~~~ Besides, It's Trump Who Is Short & Fat. David Knowles of Yahoo! News: "As for Trump's insult nickname ['Joe Munchkin'], Manchin observed, 'I'm taller than him and a little bit bigger than he is, not heavier. He's much heavier than me, but I'm a little bit taller than him, so I guess he got that a little bit off.'"

Barr Tries to Suggest Giuliani Is Like Any Crackpot Phoning in Tips to the FBI. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Attorney General Bill Barr went out of his way Monday to express skepticism about information ... Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is offering on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, but Barr also made clear the Justice Department is open to receiving whatever Giuliani wants to share. Addressing comments by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that he'd arranged for Giuliani to present Justice officials with fruits of his on-the-ground research into the Bidens and Ukraine, Barr said information originating in Ukraine must be treated with caution. 'The Department of Justice has the obligation to have an open door to anybody who wishes to provide us information that they think is relevant,' Barr said in response to a reporter's question at a news conference on unrelated database hacking charges..... Barr left the news conference Monday without taking any follow-up questions, but FBI Deputy Director David Bowditch said any report from Giuliani would be handled in the usual course. 'We're taking information as we would in any case. We will evaluate it appropriately,' Bowditch said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ A Washington Post story by Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett is here. "A Justice Department official said Giuliani had 'recently' shared information with federal law enforcement officials through the process described by Barr. Two people familiar with the matter said the information is being routed to the U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh.... That Giuliani would have a direct pipeline to the Justice Department for providing information on a political rival of Trump raised fears among some legal analysts that federal law enforcement was being conscripted into doing campaign work for the president.... The House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), wrote to Barr on Monday saying that 'any official relationship between Mr. Giuliani and the Department raises serious questions about conflicts of interest -- both for the Department, generally, and for you, specifically.'... The matter is complicated, too, because Giuliani is under investigation by the Justice Department." Related stories linked yesterday. Everybody but Trump is treating Rudy like the avaricious, publicity-hounding nutter he is. ~~~

~~~ "Lindsey Graham Implicates William Barr in Massive Scandal, on Live Television." Jonathan Chait: "[Sunday], Senator Lindsey Graham appeared on Face the Nation and blurted out an apparent confession of what, if true, would be a scandal of Nixonian proportions. Graham reported he had spoken with Attorney General William Barr that morning. 'The Department of Justice is receiving information coming out of the Ukraine from Rudy,' he reported, explaining that Barr 'told me that they've created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it's verified.'... Graham defends this on the grounds that Giuliani is a 'crime fighter,' a label Trump himself has used. But there is no 'crime fighter' badge that lets you go into private practice with a bunch of crooks, and have your allegations given special attention by the authorities.... Normally, people who are being investigated by the DOJ don't have a special back channel that lets them feed allegations of their own to th attorney general.... Barr confirmed today that the Department has 'established an intake process,' because it 'has an obligation to have an open door to anybody.' But if it has an obligation to have an open door to anybody, hasn't that open door always existed? Why did Barr have to establish a new one?" ~~~

~~~ Lindsey Smears Vindman. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) gave his first Sunday show interview in the post-impeachment era of Donald Trump's presidency. And it was something.... Now that the [Ukraine conspiracy] theories don't need to be vouched for in the name of defending Trump, Graham appears to be distancing himself from them. (He even entertained the idea that Trump's own lawyer might be getting manipulated by Russia, which it bears emphasizing is extraordinary.) But the most interesting exchange might have come toward the end, when Graham defended Trump's retaliatory removal of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.... Graham speculated that Vindman might have been part of some kind of plot against Trump.... '... He's never been asked questions, did you leak to the whistleblower?' Graham said. 'People in his chain of command have been suspicious of him regarding his political point of view.'... Vindman ... said he does not know who the whistleblower is. In other words, he is saying he was not knowingly part of any plot to blow the whistle.... Vindman said explicitly that the [intelligence] person he spoke with was cleared to receive such information."

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is asking that every agency inspector general investigate retaliation against whistleblowers who report presidential misconduct, after the firing of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council. Schumer's letter [is] to 74 inspectors general.... In a letter to Acting Inspector General Glenn Fine at the Defense Department, Schumer described the NSC firings [of Vindman & his brother Yevgeny] as 'part of a dangerous, growing pattern of retaliation against those who report wrongdoing only to find themselves targeted by the President and subject to his wrath and vindictiveness.'"

Ryan Goodman & Joshua Geltzer of Just Security, republished in Slate: "What has been labelled the 'Friday Night Massacre' should be understood as an escalation in ... Donald Trump's ongoing efforts that threaten American democratic institutions.... The broader pattern in which the Friday events fit leads us to a far more ominous conclusion. These recent purges of U.S. officials are a direct extension of Trump's three-year project of politicization of the executive branch, an early move generally taken by autocrats who seek to exploit their election by consolidating power. It is important to take a step back and diagnose, as precisely as possible, the threat to American democracy and the broader pattern."

Tina Nguyen of Politico: "The MAGA machine is attempting to turn President Donald Trump's latest nemesis -- Sen. Mitt Romney -- into the next Hunter Biden. Trump in recent days took a new turn in his attacks on the Utah senator, veering from assailing his character and loyalty and tossing him into the wilds of Ukraine. Trump over the weekend retweeted several conservative personalities and stories attempting to connect the Republican senator to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and its former board member Hunter Biden.... The allegation was featured in several far-right blog posts [that Donald retweeted]: A senior adviser from Romney's 2012 presidential campaign was on Burisma's board of directors, and that by voting to impeach Trump last week, Romney was covering for his fellow swamp crony. At one point, the president retweeted a random follower's newfound suspicion: 'Romney is covering up his part in corruption in Ukraine. This has nothing to do with truth or God. He is a desperate man. The truth will come out.'" --s

Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has faced a bitter GOP backlash after casting the lone Republican vote for President Trump's impeachment. There have been angry tweets and calls for the party to expel the man it once nominated to lead the country. On Sunday, one influential conservative went so far as to say he could not be sure of Romney's safety at a major right-wing gathering, alarming some of the Utah senator's defenders and -- in some critics' eyes -- crossing a line from outrage to threat. Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference [CPAC], made the controversial comments Sunday as he explained why Romney would be excluded from this year's four-day event.... 'This year, I would actually be afraid for his physical safety, people are so mad at him.'" A TPM story is here. --s ~~~

~~~ Married to the Mob. Mrs. McCrabbie: Matt Schlapp is married to Mercedes Schlapp, a former Trump White House communications honcho who is currently working on Trump's 2020 campaign.

Leah Litman in Slate: The conservatives on the Supreme Court are as complicit in Trump's abuses of office as are GOP senators. By blessing Trump's thinly-disguised Muslim ban. "the justices ... acknowledged that the entry ban may very well have been motivated by anti-Muslim animus. But they claimed that, in light of the president's expansive powers over immigration, the court would uphold the entry ban so long as someone could think that the ban had a valid purpose.... It does not take a genius to see how that decision signals that the court is unwilling to stop the president from making policy based on bigoted, thinly veiled Islamophobia or racism. The president received the message and has run with it.... Neither the Senate nor the Supreme Court has been willing to stand up to the president for abusing the powers of his office for personal benefit or to stoke bigotry for partisan ends.... It is unclear what, if anything, can stop him now."


Spencer Hsu, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors on Monday said longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone deserves a sentence of 7 to 9 years in prison for lying to Congress and tampering with a witness related to his efforts to learn about hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The sentencing filing came after days of tense debate within the U.S. attorney's office in Washington about the proper prison term for the sixth Trump associate convicted and last person indicted in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation. Frontline prosecutors, some previously with Mueller's team, argued for a sentence on the higher end for Stone than some of their supervisors were comfortable with, according to two people familiar with the discussions." A CNN story is here. Mrs. McC: It's sort of a moot point. You know Trump will pardon Roger within a week of the November election -- unless Trump (a) loses AND (b) refuses to concede.

Matt O'Brien of the AP: "Amazon wants ... Donald Trump to submit to questioning over the tech company' losing bid for a $10 billion military contract. The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing project to Microsoft in October. Amazon later sued, arguing that Trump's interference and bias against the company harmed Amazon's chances.... The Pentagon was preparing to announce its decision between finalists Amazon and Microsoft when Trump publicly waded into the fray in July. Trump said then that other companies told him the contract 'wasn't competitively bid,' and he said the administration would 'take a very long look.'... Amazon is looking for more information about what happened before and after Trump ordered the review. Amazon's court filing cites an alleged comment that surfaced in a recent book that said Trump in 2018 privately told then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to 'screw Amazon' out of the contract.... Besides seeking Trump's deposition, Amazon is also asking to depose Mattis, current Defense Secretary Mark Esper and other government officials. Amazon said it wants more information about the 'unusual timing' of Esper recusing himself from the decision-making process because of his son's work for IBM. That came in October, long after IBM was no longer in the running for the contract and despite Esper earlier pledging to take a 'hard look' at the bids after Trump ordered the review."


Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr announced Monday that the Justice Department would sue two so-called 'sanctuary' jurisdictions ... over policies he considers overly friendly to those in the country unlawfully, as part of a renewed effort to get cities and states on board with the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. In separate complaints filed in federal court, the Justice Department sought to block a New Jersey policy that limits how state and local authorities can share information with federal immigration officials and to stop a King County, Wash., directive that prevents immigration authorities from using an international airport there for deportations. King County includes the city of Seattle."

Eric Geller of Politico: "Federal prosecutors announced charges Monday against four Chinese intelligence officers for hacking the credit-reporting giant Equifax in one of the largest data breaches in history. Officials said the massive hack by the members of China's People's Liberation Army underscored Beijing's aggressive pattern of stealing private data to improve its intelligence operations and boost the performance of its domestic companies.... FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich described the Equifax breach as 'the largest theft of sensitive [personally identifying information] by state-sponsored hackers ever recorded.'"

Travis Gettys in Salon: "The nation's leading manufacturing group [The National Association of Manufacturers] announced an award to Ivanka Trump with language sounding an awful lot like one of the president's glib banalities.... NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons ... [laid it on thick]. 'Like no one in government has ever done, she has provided singular leadership and shown an unwavering commitment to modern manufacturing in America.'" --s

Michael Hobbes of the Huffington Post has a long article on today's Golden Age of White Collar Crime in America --s Thanks to unwashed for the link.

Way Beyond the Beltway

China. Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "More than two weeks after China locked down a major city to stop a dangerous viral outbreak, one of the world's largest economies remains largely idle. Much of the country was supposed to have reopened by now, but its empty streets, quiet factories and legions of inactive workers suggest that weeks or months could pass before this vital motor of global growth is humming again. The global economy could suffer the longer China stays in low gear. It has been hampered by both the outbreak and its own containment efforts, a process that has cut off workers from their jobs and factories from their raw materials.... 'It's like Europe in medieval times,' said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, 'where each city has its checks and crosschecks.'" ~~~

~~~ Ben Dooley & Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "As coronavirus cases rapidly multiply on the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, the more than 2,500 passengers on board live in effective isolation. They receive meals in their cabins. They keep an officially mandated distance of six feet from each other for the few minutes each day when they are allowed on deck for walks. Below decks..., hundreds of crew members are eating, living and working elbow to elbow as they try to keep life as comfortable as possible for those above. They line up for simple buffet meals and then sit down together to eat. Bathrooms are shared by up to four people, and cabins often by two. These conditions have raised fears that a quarantine meant to halt the virus's spread on board, and keep the contagion from expanding on Japan's shores, is endangering the health and safety of the crew."

News Lede

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (12)

Norman Soloman, a columnist, tells the tale of Pete Buttigieg's campaign's try to get him arrested. This is an interesting story because it factors in the freedom of speech mandate and whether the incident Soloman is reporting was a clear violation of it.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/pete-buttigiegs-campaign-once-tried-to-have-me-arrested/

The Vindman debacle is still wanting for explanation from Esper and his deputy who assured us and Vindman that he would be protected; am glad to read today that Schumer is on this. Trump's vindictiveness toward Vindman and Romney and ANY person who dares go against him is so pathetic––so pathological––and yet––there have been countless people who have gone against Trump––take George Conway, for instance; I don't recall any ongoing vitriol toward George who is a constant thorn in Fatty's fat ass.

As for the budget: "The president is either brazenly lying about his 2021 budget or doesn’t know what’s in it.” How about both!

The tiresome rambling about candidate's winning and losing and how Democrats don't have it all together and people are confused and so on and so forth... and so much of the problem is due to the fact that beating Trump is essential which colors choices and perhaps hampers certain candidate's chances.

And we are asking people to choose at this early stage? We got miles to go and dramas to watch.

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@PD Pepe: Thanks for the piece by Norman Solomon. I don't understand why the campus & city cops threatened Solomon. I assume Buttigieg rented the auditorium, but I doubt he rented the real estate around it. Unless the campus has a posted "no fliers" policy, which is highly unlikely, it seems to me the cops were way out of line. I wish Solomon had solicited comment from college & city officials. They have some explaining to do, IMO. It seems to me the cops acted improperly & in violation of Solomon's First Amendment rights.

February 11, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

PD-- you so often bring up things that irk me too, and often in the same time frame-- are you sure you aren't my twin? Ha--

The sheer drama that accompanies the "news" pieces about Democrats and the amount of candidates running and who is "in" and who is "out" is so flibberty-gibberty! I would prefer to see/read more thoughtful pieces. And I get so tired of the bothsidesisms and the efforts of papers and programs to get some clueless person on the other side who tries to sound nontrumpy but still recites the r blabbing points...
It is especially annoying now that the programs are relocating to cafes for their shows, and those people are live. Here and there is relief-- Chris Hayes was dynamite last night. And Pete is back on the deficit kick again-- he ends up sounding like an r... Perez is...ugh. I just don't trust him or the rest of the DNC.

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

the "hookers for jesus" thing just smells and feels like something steven miller would think was a fine joke to play on Catholic Charities - kinda like how funny it is to smear feces on walls the way fatty does.
isn't it FUN to degrade legitimate charities and the responsible work they do?
If I had the time, I would want to find out when this "charity" was founded (before or after the grants were announced) and then where the money granted goes. I betcha right into fatty's pocket.

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria

@Victoria, it seems to be legit. As a 501(c)3 charity they need to submit Form 990 every year. Here's the one from 2016. It states they were formed in 2005 which agrees with this org. bio.

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Hookers for Jesus appears to be legit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Lobert

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Legit or not, I would relish watching von Clownstick explaining during a press conference why his administration chose Hookers for Jesus over Catholic Charities.

February 11, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Bea, their response would probably be - "Get over it. They both get on their knees."

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Meanwhile, isn't it beyond delicious that M. Bloomberg can face Fatty with the truth: I'm not afraid of you and you can't bully me or anyone else in this country. That's the Dem talking point that needs to be repeated ad infinitum this year.
And there's this worth your time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ue5F57dZMU&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2CZ0xLqNxC1cZveAEFzlWpIhSAsIQu21nqSSz5I1SWc0YJL83obzfAolg

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterNJC

“Hookers for Jesus appears to be legit“, and the fat John with the weird mushroom member who lives, unaccountably, in the White House (thanks, Vlad!) is a fan.

Strange days, indeed, when goings on unimaginable heretofore are as predictable as ipecac and vomiting.

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

...and so it continues. Re Roger Stone, the sentencing guidelines, the walk-back and the resignation of the lawyer who got him, it really is all about what Dear Leader and his fat, floppy-jowled consigliere can do. The great sucking noise is democracy and the rule of law disappearing into the maw of the beast. I may be releasing myself from SPW and adhering to Bloomburg, who is not pure, but mean enough to beat the ugliest presidunce ever.

It's also great news that we will never hear another committee's hearings again without the bellowing of Gym Jordan, boy attack dog.

Is it time for drinks yet?

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

@Jeanne, you're a little. It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

February 11, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed
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