The Commentariat -- June 23, 2018

Incompetence, Malevolence, Indifference, Negligence, Chaos, Ctd.

HHS Begins to Think about How to Reunite Families. Dan Diamond of Politico: "HHS on Friday created an 'unaccompanied children reunification task force,' a first step toward reunifying thousands of migrant children in the agency's custody with their families, according to an internal document obtained by Politico. The task force was established by the assistant secretary for preparedness and response -- the arm of the agency that responds to public health disasters, and an indication that the challenge of reunifying thousands of families is likely beyond the capabilities of the refugee office. 'The Secretary of Health and Human Services has directed the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response assist the ACF Office of Refugee Resettlement with Unaccompanied Children Reunification,' the order reads." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you were skeptical about news stories that claimed the Trump administration had no idea how to reunite the families Trump & JeffBo have been renting asunder -- which does sound preposterous -- here's the evidence. They're just now putting together a "task force" to think about thinking about how to do it. Although Sessions announced his "zero tolerance" policy in early April, the administration had been separating families at the border well before that. Yet no one in the administration ever thought to figure out how to get children back to their parents. I don't think one can chalk this up to incompetence; it's cruel & unusual -- and they're getting away with it.

"My People Love It." Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Confusion over President Trump's order to allow migrant families to remain together after they illegally enter the United States led to a tense argument at the White House late Thursday as senior officials across the federal government clashed over how to carry it out, according to several people briefed on the meeting. The dispute continued Friday morning as Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, returned to the White House to hash out his agency's ability to detain families with children and refer all of the adults for prosecution under the president's 'zero tolerance' policy.... As with the case of the travel ban, the reality of a vastly complicated bureaucratic system is colliding head-on with Mr. Trump's shoot-from-the-hip use of executive power.... Just a day [before he signed the order], one person close to the president said, Mr. Trump told advisers that separating families at the border was the best deterrent to illegal immigration and said that 'my people love it.' On Wednesday, Mr. Trump repeatedly changed his mind about precisely what he wanted to do, and how, according to people familiar with the discussions. The president vacillated about whether to do it until a short time before he signed the order, one person said." ...

... "A Pretty Insane Idea." Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post have more on the Trump week that was: "By Wednesday morning, the president had become convinced that he needed a way to calm the criticism, according to people familiar with the discussions, and he felt confident that Republicans in Congress would push through immigration legislation ending the family separation practice -- so he might as well get ahead of it. In private conversations with aides, Trump said he wanted to sign a full immigration bill as part of an executive order, which one administration official described as 'a pretty insane idea.' The president was told by government lawyers that he could not change immigration law by fiat, said a person familiar with the discussions. Trump then demanded that an executive order be written that would end child detentions in cages, and said he wanted it on his desk for signing by that afternoon.... Given hours to produce a complex legal document, government lawyers crafted one that met the moment's political demands but only added to confusion within the agencies tasked with implementing it." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the takeaway: after 17 months in office, Trump still thinks the president can write laws, & he wants to do so. That's another way of saying, if he could become dictator, he would. This is rather important.

Jonathan Lemire & Darlene Superville of the AP: "... Donald Trump tried to cast doubt Friday on wrenching tales of migrant children separated from their families at the border, dismissing 'phony stories of sadness and grief' while asserting the real victims of the nation's immigration crisis are Americans killed by those who cross the border unlawfully. Bombarded with criticism condemning the family-separation situation as a national moment of shame, Trump came back firing, sometimes twisting facts and changing his story but nonetheless highlighting the genuine grief of families on the other side of the equation." ...

... Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Trump hit back on Friday at criticism over his administration's hard-line stance on immigration, lamenting the 'death and destruction caused by people that shouldn't be here,' and accusing Democrats and the news media of not caring.... Mr. Trump has embraced the stories of Americans killed by undocumented immigrants since the early days of his presidential campaign, giving them a platform to describe their tragedies at the Republican convention. He also honored several of them during his first address to Congress. On Friday, he gave them a platform at the White House, inviting the family members to deliver a personal story about their relatives, and deliver details of the deaths of their children.... According to a 2017 report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, 1.53 percent of native-born Americans are incarcerated, compared with 0.85 percent of undocumented immigrants and 0.47 percent of legal immigrants. The Marshall Project, in a 2018 analysis of data from 200 metropolitan areas over the last few decades, found that crime has fallen despite the immigrant population increasing. Other studies have found that the immigration has little effect on crime." Dear Katie: This is not a "truth sandwich.") You buried the truth 12 grafs down the page. -- Mrs. McC ...

     ... ** Update: Ha Ha. Somebody made Rogers rewrite her story. Now the lede & second graf go like this: "President Trump hit back on Friday at criticism over his administration's hard-line stance on immigration, lamenting the 'death and destruction caused by people that shouldn't be here,' and accusing Democrats and the news media of not caring. While statistics show that native-born Americans commit crimes at higher rates than immigrants, Mr. Trump has long pushed a narrative that suggests otherwise." And the headline, which previously did not mention the lie, now reads, "Trump Highlights Immigrant Crime to Defend His Border Policy. Statistics Don't Back Him Up. Not a truth sandwich yet (in which the report must begin with the truth, report the lie, then follow up with the truth), but way better than not mentioning the truth till far down the page.

     ... Still, even among these griefstriken families whom he was using to excuse his racist, anti-immigrant policies, Trump managed to demonstrate what a complete jackass he is. ...

     ... Gabriella Paiella of New York: "Many of those family members ... were holding large photos of their late loved ones -- some of them signed by the President. It was while introducing Agnes Gibboney, whose son Ron was murdered, that Trump chose a curious moment to make a joke about the photo in her hand. 'This is Tom Selleck,' he said. 'Except better looking, right?'" ...

... Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump appeared to give up hope on Friday that the Republican-controlled Congress could succeed in passing an immigration bill this year, urging lawmakers in a Twitter post to stop 'wasting their time.' His advice is likely to kill current efforts to pass a measure that had little chance of succeeding. The president said a vote on immigration legislation should be postponed until after the midterm elections in November, when he expects Republicans to pick up more seats and create a stronger majority -- a prediction that is far from guaranteed.... But House Republicans are moving forward as planned and pushing ahead with efforts to pass immigration legislation, said Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority whip." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Jonathan Chait: "When Donald Trump first proposed to ban all Muslim immigrants from the United States two and a half years and a thousand Trump controversies ago, the Republican front-runner was asked if he would have supported the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. 'I would have had to be there at the time to tell you, to give you a proper answer,' he equivocated, before proceeding to express his general sympathy for the concept. 'It's a tough thing. It's tough,' he said. 'But you know, war is tough. And winning is tough. We don't win anymore. We don't win wars anymore. We don't win wars anymore. We're not a strong country anymore.'... This historical digression proved to be a prophetic guide to an as-yet-unimaginable future Trump presidency. It displayed one of Trump's foundational values: his contempt for human and legal rights, especially those of racial minorities, and his atavistic fixation with toughness as both the source of the country's (imagined) historical decline and the key to its restoration." Read on.

... "Temporary & Austere." Philip Elliott & W.J. Hennigan of Time: "The U.S. Navy is preparing plans to construct sprawling detention centers for tens of thousands of immigrants on remote bases in California, Alabama and Arizona, escalating the military's task in implementing ... Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy.... The Navy memo outlines plans to build 'temporary and austere' tent cities to house 25,000 migrants at abandoned airfields just outside the Florida panhandle near Mobile, Alabama, at Navy Outlying Field Wolf in Orange Beach, Alabama, and nearby Navy Outlying Field Silverhill. The memo also proposes a camp for as many as 47,000 people at former Naval Weapons Station Concord, near San Francisco; and another facility that could house as many as 47,000 people at Camp Pendleton, the Marines' largest training facility located along the Southern California coast.... The planning document estimates that the Navy would spend about $233 million to construct and operate a facility for 25,000 people for a six-month time period." ...

... Daniel Bates & Karen Ruiz of the Daily Mail: "The father of the Honduran girl who became the face of the family separation crisis has revealed that he still has not been in touch with his wife or daughter but was happy to learn they are safe. Denis Javier Varela Hernandez, 32, said that he had not heard from his wife Sandra, 32, who was with his two-year-old daughter Yanela Denise, for nearly three weeks until he saw the image of them being apprehended in Texas. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Hernandez, who lives in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, says that he was told on Wednesday by a Honduran official in the US that his wife and child are being detained at a family residential center in Texas but are together and are doing 'fine.' Denis said his wife and daughter were never separated by border control agents and remain together." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CBS News and Reuters have backed up the Daily Mail story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: Numerous outlets, including the NYT & WashPo, have confirmed the Daily Mail story. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wingers are loving this story because it "proves" the Time mag cover (posted here yesterday) "is a lie" and "fake news," etc. Um, not really. The cover says nothing about the status of the child, only "Welcome to America." AND the administration already has admitted to separating (or seperating) more than 2,300 children from their families. But let's not let the facts get in the way.

"The Child Snatcher". Kelly Weill of The Daily Beast: "Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen can't escape the cries of detained immigrant children. That's because activists say they will play the disturbing audio of a crying immigrant girl outside Nielsen's home, at restaurants, and everywhere she goes.... Activists gathered outside Nielsen's ritzy townhouse Friday morning with posters calling her a 'child snatcher,' and a loudspeaker playing the children's cries." --safari

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. But They're Foreigners. Andrew Kirell of the Daily Beast: "So much for 'All Lives Matter.' On Friday morning, Fox & Friends star Brian Kilmeade attempted to retrospectively justify President Trump's policy of separating immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. 'These aren't our kids,' the co-host of Trump's favorite cable morning show said. 'Show them compassion, but it's not like he is doing this to the people of Idaho or, uh, or, uh, Texas. These are people from another country.' Echoing his fellow right-wing Fox News host Tucker Carlson's xenophobic rants about foreigners -- which experts say come dangerously close to being outright white-nationalist catnip -- Kilmeade invoked the straw man that critics of the Trump policy view foreign children as more valuable than American ones." Mrs. McC Note: If you're going to abuse children, make sure they're foreign children (and preferably not Norwegians).

Matthew Haag of the New York Times: On Wednesday, "Border Patrol agents closed off all southbound lanes of Interstate 95 north of Bangor, Me., stopping drivers, searching outside their cars with drug-sniffing dogs and refusing to let them pass until they disclosed their citizenship.... Such immigration checkpoints on highways have been used by the Border Patrol for years, often along popular smuggling and drug-trafficking routes in the Southwest. But their frequency has increased under President Trump, federal officials have said. The one in Maine was set up several days after agents conducted a three-day checkpoint on a New Hampshire highway, at least the second checkpoint in that state so far this year. The recent checkpoints in Maine and New Hampshire resulted in the seizure of drugs and the arrest of at least six people on charges of being in the country illegally, according to Customs and Border Protection.... [Border Patrol] officers can work in any area within 100 miles of the perimeter of the United States. It is a wide swath of the country that is home to an estimated 200 million Americans and fully covers at least 11 states." ...

... Jon Hernandez of CBC News: "A visitor from France says she was jogging along the beach south of White Rock, B.C., when she crossed the U.S. border without realizing it. So began a two-week nightmare that landed her in a prison jumpsuit. Cedella Roman, 19, didn't know it at the time, but as she ran southeast along the beach on the evening of May 21, she crossed a municipal boundary -- and, shortly after, an international border. As the tide started to come in, she veered up and onto a dirt path before stopping to take a photo of the picturesque setting. She turned around to head back -- and that's when she was apprehended by two U.S. Border Patrol officers.... Roman said she didn't see any signs warning that she was crossing into the U.S. during her jog. She was informed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that she had entered the country illegally, which they said was captured via security cameras.... She said the officers detained her ... and transferred her more than 200 kilometres south to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Centre, run by the Department of Homeland Security.... Roman, a citizen of France who had travelled to Canada to visit her mother in B.C. and work on her English, didn't have any government-issued ID or travel permits with her."

From the Department of Unintended Ironies. Gabriella Paiella of New York: "... the brand R13 sent an email pointing out the similarity between [the $39 Zara jacket Melania Trump wore to visit her husband's child prisoners which was painted with the message 'I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?'] and one in their line, writing, 'seems Zara found "inspiration" from R13's FW18 God Save America parka.' Theirs features a slightly different message on the back -- and retails for $895. They've also previously released a 'Fuck Trump' dress." Mrs. McC: The "God Save America" parka would have been a far better look, Melanie. ...

... In her defense, Bill Maher asks, "When has Melania ever known what was going on behind her back?" ...

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "A handful of new federal prosecutors have joined one of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's cases -- an indication that he is preparing to hand off at least one prosecution to others when his office completes its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In a pair of court filings Friday, the special counsel added four assistant U.S. attorneys to the case against Russian entities and people accused of running an online influence operation targeting American voters. People familiar with the staffing decision said the new prosecutors are not joining Mueller's team, but rather are being added to the case so that they could someday take responsibility for it when the special counsel ceases operation.... The development suggests Mueller is contemplating the end of his work and farming out any potentially outstanding prosecutions to other parts of the Justice Department."

Peter Stone of McClatchy News: "A controversial peace plan for Ukraine and Russia that has drawn headlines and scrutiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller was initially devised in early 2016 with significant input from an ex-congressman and a Ukrainian-American billionaire, according to a former Ukrainian legislator who promoted the proposal before Donald Trump]s election. Ex-Ukrainian legislator Andrii Artemenko told McClatchy in several recent interviews that the peace proposal, which some analysts believe had a pro-Moscow tilt, was hatched in February 2016 during side discussions at a Ukraine-focused conference at Manor College in suburban Philadelphia. Former Republican Rep. Curt Weldon and New York real estate mogul Alexander Rovt were involved, said Artemenko, who also participated.... Neither the roles of Weldon and Rovt in the early framing of the plan, nor the fact that it was being devised nearly a year before it was given to a Trump associate for delivery to the administration, have been reported previously. The new names add to a roster of individuals with close ties to Trump who have been identified in connection with the proposal: Trump's personal lawyer and 'fixer,' Michael Cohen; a former sometimes-real estate partner, Felix Sater, who was also an old friend of Cohen; and the president's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn...."

Tracy Connor & Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: "... Michael Cohen, retweeted a photo of himself with comedian Tom Arnold -- who happens to be working on a show with Vice that features him hunting for unflattering video of Trump. Arnold told NBC News early Friday that Cohen ― who is under investigation by federal prosecutors ― talked to him about the show, which is expected to air later this year. 'We've been on the other side of the table and now we're on the same side,' said Arnold, an outspoken Trump critic.... Vice announced in May that it had tapped Arnold to helm a show called 'The Hunt for the Trump Tapes,' and investigate whether rumored tapes from the past showing the president in a negative light actually exist.... Arnold would not say whether Cohen was planning to give him any tapes he might have of conversations with Trump. But he added, 'This dude has all the tapes -- this dude has everything.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Gerstein of Politico: Robert "Mueller's prosecutors and [Paul] Manafortasking to block lawyers at an upcoming trial for the longtime lobbyist and political consultant from mentioning his stint at the helm of the Trump campaign in 2016.... 'Manafort should ... be precluded from arguing that he has been singled out for prosecution because of his position in the campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump, or otherwise asserting that he has been selectively prosecuted by the Special Counsel's Office,' Mueller's team wrote.... The defense lawyers' motion also evinced concern that their client could become the victim of anti-Trump bias among potential jurors."

Josh Gerstein: Special counsel Robert Mueller is asking that George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, be sentenced in September on the false-statement felony charge he pleaded guilty to last fall. In a court filing on Friday evening, Mueller's prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case asked U.S. District Court Judge Randy Moss to set Papadopoulos' sentencing for Sept. 7, or a date in October if the judge is unavailable.... The timing of the planned sentencing suggests either that Papadopoulos will not be a witness in other cases or that he is likely to receive a relatively light sentence regardless of the impact of his testimony, so there is no need to delay the sentencing."

That's too coincidental to be a coincidence. -- Yogi Berra (at least apocryphally) ...

This Russia Thing, UK Edition. Jonathan Chait: "What Vladimir Putin is accused of doing to help Donald Trump win the presidency is essentially identical to what he is either accused of or proven to have done to help many other right-wing candidates in many other countries. As the plot in the United States is slowly exposed, a remarkably similar one in the United Kingdom is quickly surfacing. Months before the United States narrowly elected Trump, the United Kingdom narrowly elected to withdraw from the European Union. Both votes advanced Russian foreign policy goals -- in the latter case, by splitting up the Western alliance. (Trump has energetically pursued this strategy, too.) Russia employed many of the same tools to influence both elections. It deployed social-media bots and trolls to spread its message. It recruited friendly candidates who gave voice to previously marginal Russophile positions. And, as the newly surfaced evidence suggests, it indirectly financed the campaign."

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "For years, President Trump personally signed the tax returns for his charitable foundation, scrawling his signature just below a stern warning from the IRS: Providing false information could lead to 'penalties of perjury.' But a lawsuit filed last week by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood alleges that four of the tax returns Trump signed contained incorrect statements, confirming previous reports by The Washington Post. In 2007, 2012, 2013 and 2014, the Donald J. Trump Foundation stated that none of its money had been used to benefit Trump or his businesses. But the New York attorney general found that, in each of those years, Trump had used his charity's funds to help one of his businesses. In 2013, the attorney general alleged, Trump also failed to disclose an improper gift to a political group. In the suit, Underwood also accuses Trump of turning his charity into a tool of his 2016 presidential campaign, despite prohibitions on political activity by nonprofit entities. She also laid out her findings in a letter to the IRS, suggesting that federal authorities investigate further. It is a felony to knowingly file a false tax return, with potential penalties of up to $100,000 in fines and up to three years in prison.&"

Better Katie Rogers: "The gulf between President Trump's rhetoric and a thorny geopolitical reality widened a bit further on Friday, when the White House said it would extend a decade-old executive order declaring a national emergency over the nuclear threat from North Korea. The announcement came days after Mr. Trump declared to the world that 'everybody can now feel much safer' after his meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un: 'There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,' Mr. Trump said on Twitter. Apparently, there still is. 'The existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the government of North Korea continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States,' read the notice, delivered through the press secretary on Friday."

John Flesher of the AP (June 21): "... Donald Trump has thrown out a policy devised by his predecessor to protect U.S. oceans and the Great Lakes, replacing it with a new approach that emphasizes use of the waters to promote economic growth. Trump revoked an executive order issued by President Barack Obama in 2010 following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, it killed 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of crude that harmed marine wildlife, fouled more than 1,300 miles of shoreline and cost the tourism and fishing industries hundreds of millions of dollars.... n his order this week, Trump did not mention the Gulf spill. He said he was 'rolling back excessive bureaucracy created by the previous administration' and depicted the Obama council as bloated, with 27 departments and agencies and over 20 committees, subcommittees and working groups."

Brett Stephens of the New York Times is worth reading today. He discusses how the Trump administration, over Congressional objections, is arming an enemy -- Turkey -- and numerous reasons why this is a terrible idea.

The Most Corrupt Administration Ever, Ctd.

Vicki Needham of The Hill: "A top Senate Democrat and a government watchdog are calling for an investigation into stock moves made by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) wants answers about whether Ross shorted stock knowing that a New York Times story about his financial holdings was imminent and if he made false statements or engaged in insider trading about his stocks. CREW sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and David Apol, the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), to investigate ... Ross.... The watchdog argues that there is substantial evidence that Ross 'may have knowingly and willfully made false or fraudulent statements when he certified to OGE that he had completed divestiture of all required assets.'" --safari

Ben Lefebvre & Nick Juliano of Politico: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met at department headquarters in August with Halliburton Chairman David Lesar and other developers involved in a Montana real estate deal that relied on help from a foundation Zinke established, according to a participant in the meeting and records cited by House Democrats late Thursday. Zinke, Lesar and the others later discussed the development project over dinner that night.... The new details raise further questions about Zinke's involvement in the project, and whether his conversations with the developers -- especially in Interior's office -- violated federal conflict of interest laws given Halliburton's extensive business before this department. Politico reported Tuesday that a foundation Zinke established a decade ago agreed to let the Lesar-backed development build a parking lot on foundation land."

John Schwartz & Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "The American oil and gas industry is leaking more methane than the government thinks -- much more, a new study says. Since methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, that is bad news for climate change. The new study, published Thursday in the journal Science, puts the rate of methane emissions from domestic oil and gas operations at 2.3 percent of total production per year, which is 60 percent higher than the current estimate from the Environmental Protection Agency.... Methane, the main component of natural gas, can warm the planet more than 80 times as much as the same amount of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period if it escapes into the atmosphere before being burned. A recent study found that natural gas power plants could actually be worse for climate change than coal plants if their leakage rate rose above 4 percent." ...

... And This of Course Brings Us to Scott Pruitt:

Eric Levitz: "... the Environmental Protection Agency spent years preparing a rule that would require natural gas companies to update their equipment (so as to minimize the risk of methane leaks), and also collect more data on how much gas that they leak into the air. But Scott Pruitt nixed that regulation, in one of his first actions as EPA director last year.... The International Energy Agency recently estimated that the gas industry could easily reduce its methane emissions by 75 percent -- and that the bulk of those reductions would pay for themselves in the form of saved gas. Alas, to this point, financial and humanitarian incentives haven't been enough to persuade the natural gas industry to diligently avoid spewing dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere. And Scott Pruitt is preventing the government from giving it a regulatory incentive to do so." ...

... Where Are the E-Mails, Scotty? Emily Holden of Politico: "An examination of Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt's government email accounts has uncovered only one message he wrote to anyone outside EPA during his first 10 months in office -- a number that has watchdogs questioning whether he is communicating in private. EPA says Pruitt mainly holds discussions in person or over the phone, which would explain the meager electronic trail for his external communications. But Pruitt's critics remain suspicious -- especially in light of all the steps the agency has taken to conceal his activities, from refusing to release his meeting calendars to installing a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office. Oversight groups said it seems implausible that someone as active as Pruitt, who meets frequently with political and industry allies, would have sent only a single email to someone outside EPA.... It's not unprecedented for high-ranking government officials to shun email, but Pruitt has in the past used his private email for official business when he served as Oklahoma's attorney general." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nonetheless, another Friday passes, and Scott Pruitt still has his job.

Daniel Costa-Roberts of Mother Jones: "A study published on Friday by scientists at the University of Texas and the University of Toronto points to a connection between Trump country and the nation's opioid crisis.... 'Support for the Republican candidate in the 2016 election is a marker for physical conditions, economic circumstances, and cultural forces associated with opioid use,' the authors say.... The researchers looked at how many people in each county were given opioid prescriptions lasting 90 days or longer, and checked those numbers against vote counts from the 2016 election.... [V]oters backed Trump at a 21 percent higher rate than in counties with significantly lower rates of opioid use." --safari ...

     ... safari: Dem messengers should massage the messaging away from "Deplorable", which Trumpistas now proudly wear as a twisted badge of tribal honor, to "Gullible", which would erode the power of Clinton's gaffe and remain a poignant critique of their blind fealty given to their weak and impotent leader. ...

... Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The House on Friday overwhelmingly passed sweeping bipartisan opioid legislation, concluding the chamber';s two-week voteathon on dozens of bills to address the drug abuse epidemic. The measure combines more than 50 bills approved individually by the House focusing on expanding access to treatment, encouraging the development of alternative pain treatments and curbing the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S. It was passed 396-14, with 13 Republicans and one Democrat voting against the package.... The bill, which the White House endorsed, now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers are planning to take up their own opioid legislation. A House Republican aide said leadership hopes to conference the bills in July, though it could slide later into the summer depending on the Senate's schedule."

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) in a Washington Post op-ed: "I've been involved in politics for a long time in my state and have run and won in tough races. This one was like no other. The operative question was not about conservative policies that are normally the lifeblood of a Republican primary, but rather who on the ballot would more loyally support the president.... We should all be alarmed when dissenting voices are quashed. President Trump is not the first executive to want compliance from a legislative body, but he has taken it to a new level.... I have overwhelmingly supported the president on the issues he attempted to advance. But because I haven't been 100 percent supportive, and have spoken out on areas where we disagreed, he injected himself into the race to oppose me as he did. This suggests his concern was over personal loyalty, rather than issue loyalty. That's a problem in a system built on compliance to laws and the Constitution -- not a single man."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In a major statement on privacy in the digital age, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the government generally needs a warrant to collect troves of location data about the customers of cellphone companies. The 5-to-4 decision has implications for all kinds of personal information held by third parties, including email and text messages, internet searches, and bank and credit card records. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said the decision was limited.... The question for the justices was whether prosecutors violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches, by collecting vast amounts of data from cellphone companies showing ... movements [of the plaintiff in Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402]." Mrs. McC: The Court's more liberal justices joined in Roberts' decision. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lynda Kinkade of CNN: "Americans born into poverty are more likely than ever before to stay that way, according to a United Nations report on poverty and inequality in the US. 'The United States, one of the world's richest nations and the "land of opportunity," is fast becoming a champion of inequality,' the report concluded.... US Ambassador to the UN Nicki Haley said, 'It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America.' The report, presented Thursday in Geneva, comes two days after Haley announced the US would withdraw from the UN human rights council. Haley's comment was in response to a letter from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and 18 other politicians calling on the US to 'take action to reduce shameful levels of poverty across the country.'They argued with the report's conclusion that the Trump administration's $1.5 trillion tax cuts 'overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality.' Philip Alston, a New York University law and human rights professor, led a UN study traveling across US. The group went to Puerto Rico and Washington DC -- and Alabama, California, Georgia, West Virginia were among the states they also visited. 'Most Americans don't care about it. They have bought the line peddled by conservative groups that poor people deserve what they are getting,' Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights [said]."

Right-wing climate-denying columnist George Will: "In today's GOP, which is the president's plaything, he is the mainstream. So, to vote against his party's cowering congressional caucuses is to affirm the nation's honor while quarantining him. A Democratic-controlled Congress would be a basket of deplorables, but there would be enough Republicans to gum up the Senate's machinery, keeping the institution as peripheral as it has been under their control and asphyxiating mischief from a Democratic House. And to those who say, 'But the judges, the judges!' the answer is: Article III institutions are not more important than those of Articles I and II combined."

Sam Biddle of The Intercept: "Earlier this year, it was reported that Elliott Broidy, a convicted felon in a 2009 bribery case and a top Donald Trump fundraiser, proffered meetings with the president to foreign regimes who were also potential clients of his defense firm Circinus. Little is known about Circinus, but purported company documents obtained by The Intercept contain plans to peddle social media surveillance software to repressive regimes. The Circinus website paints the contractor as a red-blooded defender of U.S. national security.... But the documents, a series of pitch decks, indicate that the company was prepared to sell what's described as a suite of sophisticated internet-mining tools to the governments of Cyprus, Romania, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates, touting the ability to detect and identify online 'detractors.'" --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Looks as if Friends of Trump are partial to dictators, especially when they see $$$ in their preferences.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hell on Earth. Thaslima Begum & Hannah Ellis-Peterson of the Guardian: "Harrowing accounts of Rohingya women tied to trees and raped for days by Myanmar's military and men being pushed into mass graves, doused with petrol and set alight have been sent to the international criminal court.... The legal argument for an ICC investigation is ... the first time such a case has been considered by the court. While Bangladesh is a member state, which gives the ICC power to investigate crimes committed there, Myanmar is not, and denies any ethic cleansing was carried out against the Rohingya." Caution: Report contains horrific details. --safari

"Rent-A-Womb" Erin Handley of the Guardian: "Thirty-three pregnant Cambodian women who were carrying babies on behalf of Chinese clients have been discovered during a raid on an illegal commercial surrogacy operation, police said on Saturday.... Phnom Penh anti-trafficking police chief Keo Thea said one of the five, a Chinese national, appeared to be the mastermind behind the 'rent a womb' operation run out of a villa in the capital's Russey Keo district.... Surrogacy flourished in Cambodia until a snap edict from the Health Ministry outlawed the practice in October 2016.... While some foreign fertility agencies pulled out of Cambodia, commercial surrogacy continued to thrive in the shadows, often with pregnant surrogates flown to Thailand for the birth of the child to circumvent Cambodian courts." --safari

Zack Beaucamp of Vox: "This week, Hungary passed what the government dubbed the 'Stop Soros' law, named after Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. The new law, drafted by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, creates a new category of crime, called 'promoting and supporting illegal migration' -- essentially, banning individuals and organizations from providing any kind of assistance to undocumented immigrants. This is so broadly worded that, in theory, the government could arrest someone who provides food to an undocumented migrant on the street or attends a political rally in favor of their rights.... The Stop Soros bill is every fear about right-wing populism made manifest: an attack on basic democratic rights by an elected government, one legitimized and made popular by attacks on vulnerable minorities. Americans might want to pay attention." --safari

Comments

[Ken Winkes]

To me, the most disturbing element in the careening disaster of the Pretender's immigration vacillations is the increasing involvement of the military, whose job it has become to build and maintain "austere" prisons for tens of thousands of civilian refugees--here in the United States.

I have driven past and visited the Manzanar WWII Japanese intern site in CA's Owen's Valley. As a reminder of what we once were but were no longer, the visit was simultaneously haunting and hopeful.

Today, as I revisit memories of that deserted place, the haunting is foremost, the hope replaced by foreboding and outright fear.

Why are so eager to become monsters?

[PD Pepe]

After reading today's news I feel sick to my stomach, especially after reading safari's link to the harrowing account of Rohingya women–-as young as 10––tied to trees, raped for days and left to die. And I couldn't help thinking of those who believe in a God "whose love and mercy shines down on us all now and forever"––how do they reckon with all this, I wonder. Ken's last sentence here:

"Why are we so eager to become monsters?"

This question reminded me of something Richard Burton (the actor) said in his diary:

"The more I read about man and his maniacal ruthlessness and his murdering envious scatological soul the more I realize that he will never change. Our stupidity is immortal, nothing will change it. The same mistakes, the same prejudices, the same injustice, the same lusts wheel endlessly around the parade-ground of the centuries,Immutable and ineluctable. I wish I could believe in a God of some kind but I simply cannot. My intelligence is too muscular and my imagination stops at the horizon, and I have an idea that the last sound to be heard on this lovely planet will be a man screaming."

I want desperately to believe in those "better angels"–-those human beings that are striving to be strong and truthful and are trying like hell to make life better for as many as possible and care about the planet and...the question in the end is are there enough to make a difference–-or are we to resign ourselves to Burton's gloomy prognosis.

[PD Pepe]

P.S. Well, hot damn! Stop the presses, stop the clocks–-just got an ad for a Jack Kerouac (of all people) bracelet engraved with the words:

"The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

I figure with this bracelet, Melania's jacket and Pruitt's tactical pants we is good to go–-no?

[Jeanne]

PD-- can you send an outfit in size 10? I must haz one...

[Akhilleus]

Trump’s authoritarian and misogynistic urges must be on fire with the horrific goings on in Myanmar. I’m surprised he hasn’t tweeted his congratulations to them for coming up with a deterrence/torture policy more inhuman even than his. He must be wondering why “his generals” aren’t as “creative” as those in Myanmar when dealing with undesirables.

[Ken Winkes]

It's sometimes extremely hard to get to the beating heart of any complicated matter, and the problems created by streams of undocumented immigrants crossing borders is one of them.

Yesterday's McClatchy link about the Obama policy of separating children from their parents provides an instance.

Talked to my older son--the one whose medical practice is primarily with Latina immigrants here in our agricultural river valley-- a few minutes ago about it, and asked him what differences, besides scale, he could see between the Pretender's actions and those of his predecessor.

His point: Large-scale immigration issues are a mess and messes can force people can do superficially inhumane things for fundamentally humane reasons.

But other people are just plain top to bottom inhumane, and the which is which and the who is who here in 2018 is obvious.

[Ken Winkes]

Two weeks in the locally infamous private Tacoma detention center for wandering across the U.S.--Canadian border? Didn't quite get the Cedella Roman story until I saw her picture.

Cedella ain't white.

Monsters.