The Commentariat -- December 1, 2019

Afternoon Update:

So yesterday we learned via the Hill (linked below) that "Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) demanding that he expand the panel beyond the four constitutional law scholars from whom the committee plans to hear.... The letter did not clarify which witnesses the Republicans would seek to call." ~~~

     ~~~ Now, today we learn from Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), the top GOP member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is the most important witness Republicans want to question in the upcoming phase of the impeachment inquiry." Mrs. McC: Right.

Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "A week after claiming that he didn't know whether Russia or Ukraine was responsible for hacking the DNC server during the 2016 election, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) left Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd astounded when he accused the former president of Ukraine of working for Hillary Clinton's campaign.... '... the fact that Russia was so aggressive does not exclude the fact that [Ukraine] President Poroshenko actively worked for Secretary Clinton,' [Kennedy said]. 'Actively worked for Secretary Clinton?! My goodness, wait a minute, Senator Kennedy,' Todd shot back. 'You now have the president of Ukraine saying he worked for the Democratic nominee for president. C'mon. You realize the only other person selling this argument outside the United States is this man, Vladimir Putin!'... Todd further pushed back on Kennedy's assertion, asking him if he believed that Ukrainian officials criticizing Trump during the election over his endorsement of Russia's annexation of Crimea was equivalent to Russia's hacking." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I checked out the most incendiary story from a reputable news organization about the Clinton-Ukraine connection -- the now-infamous January 2017 Politico article by Ken Vogel & David Stern -- and the closest the reporters get to claiming Poroshenko "actively" worked for Clinton is to cite an unnamed political operative who speculated that "... Poroshenko was probably aware of and could have stopped [a Ukrainian government investigation into corruption in the previous administration of Viktor Yanukovych, which had turned up off-the-books payments to Paul Manafort,] if he wanted to." So yeah, actively working for Clinton.

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For the first time in a long time, enjoy the luxury of a Slow Gnus Day. ~~~

Grace Segers of CBS News: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a delegation of members of Congress to the annual international climate summit known as COP25 in Madrid, Spain, next week. While the delegation will include members of both the House and Senate, it will not be bipartisan, as only Democrats will be attending.... In 2016, attendees at the COP25 summit in Paris, France, announced they would sign a pact to lower greenhouse gas emissions, a deal commonly known as the Paris Climate Agreement. President Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the agreement shortly after taking office, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced earlier this month the U.S. had begun formal proceedings to pull the U.S. out."

Phil McCausland of NBC News: “Three proposed rule changes by the Trump administration could cause millions of poor people to lose access to food stamps and decrease the size of the benefit for millions more. Over the past year, the Department of Agriculture proposed three changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps. The new rules create stricter work requirements for program eligibility, cap deductions for utility allowances and 'reform' the way 40 states automatically enroll families into SNAP when they receive other forms of federal aid. A study by the Urban Institute released this week examined the three rules in combination for the first time and found that 3.7 million fewer people would receive SNAP in an average month, 2.2 million households would see their average monthly benefits drop by $127, more than 3 million others would see an average drop of $37 per month, and 982,000 students would lose access to free or reduced lunches."

Let his days be few; and let another take his office. -- Psalm 109, 8. Today's prayer, suggested by Forrest M., for You-Know-Who

Mike DeBonis & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) set a Tuesday meeting to approve the release of a report expected to detail the panel's findings on President Trump's dealings with Ukraine. In keeping with committee rules, panel members are expected to be able to review the report starting at 6 p.m. Monday, 24 hours before the scheduled meeting." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Tax Axelrod of the Hill: "Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are calling for the panel to expand its list of witnesses ahead of the Dec. 4 hearing it will hold in the House's impeachment investigation into President Trump. Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) demanding that he expand the panel beyond the four constitutional law scholars from whom the committee plans to hear.... The letter did not clarify which witnesses the Republicans would seek to call. Staff for the Democrats on the committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill. Nadler wrote to Collins on Friday asking if he would like to issue any subpoenas or interrogatories relating to the matter. He also gave the ranking member until Dec. 6 to notify him." ~~~

~~~ Manisha Sinha in a New York Times op-ed, compares Donald Trump to Andrew Johnson, who escaped removal from office by one Senate vote: "While Mr. Trump's criminality is of the same order as Richard Nixon's, trying to interfere in a presidential election, like Johnson, he exhibits no public or private decorum. Johnson's and Mr. Trump's biographies could not be more different but their lack of presidential demeanor was evident from the start.... Both Johnson and Mr. Trump amply displayed their unfitness for the presidency before getting the job.... But most significantly, both men made an undisguised championship of white supremacy -- the lodestar of their presidencies -- and played on the politics of racial division. For Johnson, it was his obdurate opposition to Reconstruction, the project to establish an interracial democracy in the United States after the destruction of slavery.... Like Johnson, [Trump] uses derogatory language for people of color and he has expressed his preference for Nordic immigrants.... Both Johnson's and Mr. Trump's concept of American nationalism is narrow, parochial and authoritarian.... Johnson and Mr. Trump not only managed to diminish their office but also engaged in actions that have dangerous repercussions for American democracy." ~~~

~~~ Alex Pareene, in the New Republic, compares the Congresses then and now.

Foreign Election Meddling, Trump Edition. William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "... there's little surprise that the American president is playing an outsize role in Britain's upcoming elections -- for good or bad, depending. In Britain, more than any other country aside from the United States, Trump has sought to bolster his political allies and trash his detractors. In so doing, he has blithely crossed traditional red lines. In late October, Trump phoned in to a talk radio show hosted by a friend, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, to dump on leftist Labour Party head Jeremy Corbyn.... British officials have been taken aback by such overt election interference by a close ally. But in an act of political jujitsu, Corbyn embraced the fight, tweeting out Trump's harsh remarks as he sought to weaponize the U.S. president's deep unpopularity among Britons for his own aims. Now, with the Dec. 12 election just days away, Trump is headed here again. The president is due in London on Tuesday and Wednesday for a NATO summit.... On Friday, [PM Boris] Johnson tried to diplomatically dissuade the American president from offering his opinions on domestic affairs. 'What we don't do traditionally as loving allies and friends, what we don't do traditionally, is get involved in each other's election campaigns,' Johnson told LBC radio." Mrs. McC: Good luck with that.

Presidential Race 2020. Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "Joe Biden has embarked upon an eight-day tour across Iowa as the former US vice-president attempts to arrest his flagging poll numbers in the key state.... Biden started his election blitz on Saturday, telling supporters in a fundraising email that he was undertaking an 'eight-day, 18 county, "No Malarkey" barnstorm' across Iowa. 'The plan is to meet as many caucus-goers as I can, and we're going to cover a lot of ground to do it,' the email read. The bus tour follows recent polling that shows Biden's standing has slipped among Democratic voters in Iowa who, on 3 February, will be the first caucus in the US to pick a favored candidate to take on Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election."

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Karla Adam & William Booth of the Washington Post: "The queen on Saturday led tributes to individual acts of bravery on London Bridge, which included a Polish immigrant helping subdue [a] British-born terrorist with a five-foot narwhal tusk grabbed from a wall. As more details emerged about Friday's deadly knifings -- carried out, police said, by 28-year-old Usman Khan, previously convicted and jailed for a terrorism plot -- new profiles in courage appeared in the British press.... The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, no relation to the dead attacker, said he was in 'awe of the people who ran toward danger to keep us all safe.' Asked about reports that one of the defenders was from Poland -- whose identity has not been made public -- the mayor confirmed he was a Londoner of Polish origin. 'One of the great things about London is its diversity, so I'm not surprised at all. When I say "the best of us," I include E.U. citizens as well,' the mayor said. Many social media posts also pointed out that campaigners for Brexit used stereotypes such as the 'Polish plumber' and other tropes about workers coming to Britain from across the European Union."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Millions of Americans who had to navigate a bomb cyclone and a Midwest wind storm on the way to Thanksgiving will encounter more inclement weather when returning home Sunday and Monday, as a major winter storm takes shape in the Northeast and a new storm hits the San Francisco Bay area. In the Northeast, heavy snow, mixed precipitation and strong winds are expected to develop in many areas beginning as early as Sunday. Freezing rain was already falling in parts of Pennsylvania on Sunday, making roads hazardous, and the stage is set for a burdensome Monday morning commute for many from New York to Portland, Maine." The New York Times' story is here. A Guardian story is here. Mrs. McC: It's snowing on my house.

The Commentariat -- November 30, 2019

Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "After abruptly axing nearly a year of delicate peace talks with the Taliban in September, President Trump put the negotiations back on the front-burner this week in a similarly jolting fashion by seeming to demand a cease-fire that his negotiators had long concluded was overly ambitious. Despite a sense of relief at the prospect of resuming talks to end the 18-year conflict, Western diplomats and Taliban leaders were scrambling to figure out whether Mr. Trump had suddenly moved the goal posts for negotiations. They were particularly confused by his remarks, made during an unannounced Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan, that the United States was once again meeting with the Taliban to discuss a deal, but that 'we're saying it has to be a cease-fire.' Demanding a cease-fire would amount to a big shift in the American position and require a significant new concession from the Taliban -- one that the Americans have little leverage to extract." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: All easily explained by the maxim, "Trump doesn't know what he's doing." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Oops. My mistake. The other maxim applies: "Trump made it up out of thin air" (sometimes rendered, "Trump is talking through his ass again," but I would never be so crude). ~~~

~~~ Karen DeYoung & Susannah George of the Washington Post: "President Trump's confident assertion that the Taliban is ready and even eager for a cease-fire demanded by the United States in Afghanistan's 18-year-old war may be more wishful thinking than reality.... But on Friday neither the Taliban nor the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani indicated that a cease-fire was near, or even being discussed in resumed U.S. negotiations. At the time the U.S.-Taliban talks ended, the two sides were preparing to sign a draft agreement that called for a reduction in violence. But it specifically declared that any discussion of a cease-fire was to be left to follow-on negotiations between the militants and the government in Kabul. In a statement, the Taliban said that remains its understanding. 'We are ready to talk, but we have the same stance to resume the talks from where it was suspended,' Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Post. Ghani spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said Trump's brief visit to Afghanistan was 'important' but that 'we will have to see' whether there has been any change in the status of peace talks."

Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has informed President Trump that he has until Dec. 6 to let the committee know whether his counsel will participate in upcoming impeachment proceedings.... The notice follows a Monday letter from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to Democratic lawmakers saying that the committees leading the impeachment inquiry are putting together a report for the Judiciary Committee that they hope to send after members return from Thanksgiving."

Susan Simpson of Just Security: "At the heart of the impeachment inquiry, members of Congress may have been mistakenly led to believe that there were two phone calls between ... Donald Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland in early September -- with the second call having the possibility of helping the President's case. That's not what happened. There was only one call, and it was highly incriminating. The call occurred on September 7th. In this call, Trump did say there was 'no quid pro quo' with Ukraine, but he then went on to outline his preconditions for releasing the security assistance and granting a White House visit. The call was so alarming that when John Bolton learned of it, he ordered his deputy Tim Morrison to immediately report it to the National Security Council lawyers.... Sondland ... testified [in the public hearing that the September 9 call] was a brief conversation, in which he asked President Trump a single question, '... What do you want from Ukraine? And as I recall, he was in a very bad mood. It was a very quick conversation. He said: I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. I want Zelenskyy to do the right thing.'" [This of course is the claim Trump reiterated, reading from notes on the White House lawn, & which was later set to music, and which Trump has repeated.] Whether due to a faulty memory, or due to intentional deceit, Sondland's testimony about the 'no quid pro quo' call omitted the most critical part of the conversation: President Trump's rejection of the compromise offer for the Prosecutor General to announce the investigations, and his demand that Zelenskyy himself do it. The 'no quid pro quo' call was, in reality, a 'here is the specific quid pro quo I want' call." And it occurred on September 7. Emphasis original. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is sort of a follow-on to the Washington Post report also linked here Thursday in which Aaron Davis & others sussed out that a phone call Gordon Sondland said took place on Sept. 9 never happened. As the Post reporters noted, "would have occurred before dawn in Washington. And the White House has not located a record in its switchboard logs of a call between Trump and Sondland on Sept. 9, according to an administration official." Simpson said the Post published its report while her "article was in the publication process." It's a long article, but you can skim it (as I did), and still find her argument convincing -- & damning Trump.

Kylie Atwood of CNN: "Ukrainian officials are discussing ways to improve their country's standing with ... Donald Trump amid the continuing fallout from the impeachment inquiry, two sources told CNN. Those sources, who recently met with Ukrainian officials, said that the Ukrainian government could still announce new investigations which could be seen as politically beneficial to the US President. However, it is unclear what exactly those potential investigations would cover or when they would be announced. One source told CNN that Ukrainian officials recognized that any potential investigations would need to look into current issues and not just those of the past."

Trump Plays President for the Cameras. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "As Democrats in Congress push to impeach him, President Trump has toured a manufacturing plant in Texas, boasted about economic gains and signed numerous bills. He served turkey to U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving and grieved with the families of fallen service members at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. And next week, Trump is scheduled to jet to London to meet with European allies and be received at Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II.... Sure, Trump has been consumed by the impeachment proceedings, popping off daily, if not hourly, about what he dubs a 'hoax.' But he and his aides also have staged photo opportunities and public events designed to showcase the president on the job -- a strategy one year out from the election to convince the American people that he is hard at work for them at the same time that Democrats are trying to remove him from office. 'I'm working my ass off,' Trump told a thunderous rally crowd of roughly 20,000 on Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla. He added: 'The failed Washington establishment is trying to stop me because I'm fighting for you and because we're winning. It's very simple.'"

Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Former Republican congressman Charlie Dent said Thursday some of his former colleagues in the House of Representatives have privately told him they are 'absolutely disgusted and exhausted by the President's behavior.' Dent told CNN's Ana Cabrera on 'Newsroom' that House Republicans are standing with the President at the moment because of base pressure, but said 'they resent being put in this position all the time.' Dent ... cited the Trump administration trying to 'pivot from the Ukraine scandal' by announcing the 2020 G7 summit at the Trump National Doral resort. The decision was later reversed. 'Moving from one corrupt act to another,' Dent said. 'I mean those types of head-exploding moments are just I think infuriating these members and I think they'd like to step out but they just can't because of their base at the moment.'"

To put it mildly, I believe that Mr. Billingslea is one of the worst possible candidates for this critical senior leadership role overseeing human rights policy for the Department of State. -- Thomas J. Romig, retired major general & former judge advocate general of the Army ~~~

~~~ All the Best People, Ctd. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "President Trump's decision to nominate an official involved in the Pentagon's post-9/11 use of harsh interrogation techniques to the State Department's top human rights post has sparked a standoff in the Senate that has extended a nearly three-year vacancy in a key diplomatic position. Trump's nomination in January of Marshall Billingslea as undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights raised immediate alarms among the activists and former government officials who believe his confirmation would send a dismal message about the United States' commitment to human rights abroad. A September confirmation hearing has intensified those concerns, with several officials accusing Billingslea of improperly minimizing his role in the interrogation debate inside of the George W. Bush administration. From 2002 to 2003, Billingslea served as the Pentagon's point man on military detainees housed at Guantánamo Bay under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. In that position, according to a 2008 Senate report, he played a role in promoting interrogation techniques that Congress later banned as torture...."~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Many of Trump's nominees are nothing more than human trolls. They are his way of getting in the faces of decent Americans. He especially tries to put these people in positions for which he has no use, like human rights advocate.

Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "Newly released documents prove the U.S. Census Bureau under President Donald Trump was directly communicating with recently deceased GOP gerrymandering expert Thomas Hofeller -- despite DOJ repeatedly saying that no proof of such association existed.... According to DOJ attorneys, the damning documents were 'inadvertently not produced in discovery'...>. The potential for additional documents implicating administration officials got an additional boost on Tuesday when the House Oversight Committee sued [AG William] Barr over his 'unlawful refusals to comply with duly authorized, issued, and served Committee subpoenas' related to the 'citizenship question' controversy and coverup." --s

U.S. Senate. Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia "Gov. Brian Kemp plans to tap financial executive Kelly Loeffler for a U.S. Senate seat next week as he pushes to expand the Georgia GOP's appeal to women who have fled the party in recent years. The appointment would defy ... Donald Trump and other Republican leaders who have repeatedly urged the governor to appoint U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, a four-term congressman who is one of the president's staunchest defenders in Washington. It would end months of jockeying for the seat to be vacated by Republican Johnny Isakson, who is stepping down at year's end because of health issues."

Christopher Miller & Ryan Mac of Buzzfeed: "Ukrainian diplomats are lashing out at Apple after it gave in to Moscow's demands to show Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula as part of Russian territory on its maps and weather apps when accessed from Russia.... However, when viewing Apple Maps and Apple Weather from outside Russia, including Kyiv, those cities and Crimea don't show as being a part of any country. In those apps, which come preinstalled on all Apple iPhones, other global cities are typically listed with an associated country and state or region." --s

Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone: "Directed by Lynn Novick and produced by Sarah Botstein, College Behind Bars [on PBS] profiles the Bard Prison Initiative, a Bard College program that extends its curriculum and has awarded nearly 550 full degrees thus far to matriculated students in six New York State prisons.... [Dyjuan] Tatro entered prison the end of his teenage years and felt that he applied to BPI, one year into his 12-year sentence, because he had 'nothing else better to do.' He would go on to become a member of the Bard debate team that defeated Harvard in a well-publicized 2015 matchup and is now working for BPI as a government-affairs and advancement officer.... Our carceral state, one that prioritizes punishment over the actual correction that the facilities promise, is the America we continue to build. That's why it is so urgent that Bard Prison Initiatives become the rule, not the exception." --s

Pik-Mai Hui & Christopher Torres-Lugo of The National Interest:"We are part of the team that developed [a] tool that detects ... bot accounts on social media. Our next effort, called BotSlayer, is aimed at helping journalists and the general public spot these automated social media campaigns while they are happening.... At Indiana University's Observatory on Social Media, we are uncovering and analyzing how false and misleading information spreads online.... We also develop maps of how online misinformation spreads among people how it competes with reliable information sources across social media sites.... We receive many requests from individuals and organizations who need help collecting and analyzing social media data. That is why ... we combined many of the capabilities and software tools our observatory has built into a free, unified software package, letting more people join our efforts to identify and combat manipulation and misinformation campaigns." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Kentucky, Etc. Stephen Wolf of the Daily Kos: "GOP leaders in the Kentucky legislature are pushing a bill that would effectively remove Democratic Gov.-elect Andy Beshear's control over the state's Department of Transportation, the latest move in an accelerating trend of Republicans stripping power from Democratic governors before they can take office.... [W]ith Republicans firmly in charge of the legislature, it can become law even if Beshear were to veto it.... It also follows similar lame-duck maneuvers by Republican legislators in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2018 and North Carolina in 2016 -- all of which came only after the GOP lost elections for governor in each state.... The GOP establishment has given its full support to these power grabs in the states." --s

Way Beyond

Europe. Malcolm Chalmers of RUSI: "At the 2014 NATO summit in Wales, all the member states who were spending less than 2% of their GDP on defence agreed to 'halt any decline in their defence budgets' and 'to aim to increase defence expenditure in real terms as their GDP grew'. Both these aims have been achieved. Every one of NATO's 28 member states (excluding Iceland) has increased its defence budget in real terms since 2014. The median real-spending increase has been 31%. This is by far the most rapid, NATO-wide, increase in defence spending in the Alliance's history.... The number of European states meeting the 2% target has increased from two (Greece and the UK) to seven (these two, plus Poland, Romania and all three Baltic republics)." Includes lots of stats. --s

Iraq. Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "Pressured by an expanding protest movement and a rising death toll, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq said Friday that he would submit his resignation to Parliament, taking the country into greater uncertainty and possibly months of turmoil ahead.... Deep seated anger over corruption and Iran's influence in Iraqi politics are the major drivers of the protests across Iraq." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

U.K. BBC: "Two members of the public have died and another three people were injured in a stabbing attack at London Bridge, the Met Police's commissioner has said. Cressida Dick told a press conference the stabbing attack, which has been declared a terrorist incident, began at an event at Fishmonger's Hall. Within five minutes of being called officers confronted the suspect - who was shot dead by police - she said. The suspect was wearing what is thought to have been a hoax explosive device." The Guardian is updating developments. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Rob Evans, et al. of the Guardian: "Eleven wealthy American donors who have given a total of more than $3.7m (£2.86m) to rightwing UK groups in the past five years have been identified, raising questions about the influence of foreign funding on British politics. The donations have been given to four British thinktanks that have been vocal in the debate about Brexit and the shape of the UK's future trade with the EU, and an organisation that claims to be an independent grassroots campaign representing ordinary British taxpayers." --s ~~~

~~~ Guy Faulconbridge of Reuters: "British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday he would not say how many children he had, saying that he would not 'put them on the pitch' ahead of the Dec. 12 election." Mrs. McC: Because there's nothing more politically advantageous that hinting you have secretly fathered children.

News Ledes

CNN: "Millions of holiday travelers will be met with rain, snow or a messy mix of both this weekend as a winter storm moves through the Midwest and into the Northeast. More than 40 million people from California to Maine were under winter weather alerts Saturday morning, said CNN meteorologist Haley Brink. The winter storm, located over the central US at that time, brought with it heavy snow to the northern Plains and Midwest, Brink said. She added, high wind warnings and wind advisories cover 20 million people from New Mexico to Nebraska where winds could gust up to 85 mph."

CNN: "A Kentucky company is recalling bacon and ready-to-eat turkey products over misbranding and undeclared allergens. Blue Grass Quality Meats is recalling 121,083 pounds of the products because they contain soy, an allergen that's not declared on the product labels, the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Friday. The bacon and turkey breast items -- all Cajun style -- were produced on various dates between October 29, 2018 and November 19, 2019. The labels of recalled items can be found here. They ... were shipped to retail locations in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia, where the turkey products may have been offered as retail-sliced deli product."

AP: "Usman Khan was convicted on terrorism charges but let out of prison early. He attended a' Learning Together' conference for ex-offenders, and used the event to launch a bloody attack, stabbing two people to death and wounding three others. Police shot him dead after he flashed what seemed to be a suicide vest. Khan is gone, but the questions remain.... Britons looked for answers Saturday as national politicians sought to pin the blame elsewhere for what was obviously a breakdown in the security system, which had kept London largely free of terror for more than two years." ~~~

~~~ Guardian: "A convicted murderer was among ex-prisoners and members of the public who grappled with and grounded the London Bridge knife attacker before police arrived. One man was armed with a fire extinguisher and another a 5ft narwhal tusk as people at the scene surrounded the attacker, who was eventually pinned to the ground."

The Commentariat -- November 29, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "After abruptly axing nearly a year of delicate peace talks with the Taliban in September, President Trump put the negotiations back on the front-burner this week in a similarly jolting fashion by seeming to demand a cease-fire that his negotiators had long concluded was overly ambitious. Despite a sense of relief at the prospect of resuming talks to end the 18-year conflict, Western diplomats and Taliban leaders were scrambling to figure out whether Mr. Trump had suddenly moved the goal posts for negotiations. They were particularly confused by his remarks, made during an unannounced Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan, that the United States was once again meeting with the Taliban to discuss a deal, but that 'we're saying it has to be a cease-fire.' Demanding a cease-fire would amount to a big shift in the American position and require a significant new concession from the Taliban -- one that the Americans have little leverage to extract." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: All easily explained by the maxim, "Trump doesn't know what he's doing."

Susan Simpson of Just Security: "At the heart of the impeachment inquiry, members of Congress may have been mistakenly led to believe that there were two phone calls between ... Donald Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland in early September -- with the second call having the possibility of helping the President's case. That's not what happened. There was only one call, and it was highly incriminating. The call occurred on September 7th. In this call, Trump did say there was 'no quid pro quo' with Ukraine, but he then went on to outline his preconditions for releasing the security assistance and granting a White House visit. The call was so alarming that when John Bolton learned of it, he ordered his deputy Tim Morrison to immediately report it to the National Security Council lawyers.... Sondland ... testified [in the public hearing that the September 9 call] was a brief conversation, in which he asked President Trump a single question, '... What do you want from Ukraine? And as I recall, he was in a very bad mood. It was a very quick conversation. He said: I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. I want Zelenskyy to do the right thing.' [This of course is the claim Trump reiterated, reading from notes on the White House lawn, & which was later set to music, and which Trump has repeated.] Whether due to a faulty memory, or due to intentional deceit, Sondland's testimony about the 'no quid pro quo' call omitted the most critical part of the conversation: President Trump's rejection of the compromise offer for the Prosecutor General to announce the investigations, and his demand that Zelenskyy himself do it. The 'no quid pro quo' call was, in reality, a 'here is the specific quid pro quo I want' call." And it occurred on September 7. Emphasis original. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is sort of a follow-on to the Washington Post report also linked here Thursday in which Aaron Davis & others sussed out that a phone call Gordon Sondland said took place on Sept. 9 never happened. As the Post reporters noted, "would have occurred before dawn in Washington. And the White House has not located a record in its switchboard logs of a call between Trump and Sondland on Sept. 9, according to an administration official." Simpson said the Post published its report while her "article was in the publication process." It's a long article, but you can skim it (as I did), and still find her argument convincing -- & damning Trump.

Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "Pressured by an expanding protest movement and a rising death toll, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq said Friday that he would submit his resignation to Parliament, taking the country into greater uncertainty and possibly months of turmoil ahead.... Deep seated anger over corruption and Iran's influence in Iraqi politics are the major drivers of the protests across Iraq." The AP story is here.

BBC: "Two members of the public have died and another three people were injured in a stabbing attack at London Bridge, the Met Police's commissioner has said. Cressida Dick told a press conference the stabbing attack, which has been declared a terrorist incident, began at an event at Fishmonger's Hall. Within five minutes of being called officers confronted the suspect - who was shot dead by police - she said. The suspect was wearing what is thought to have been a hoax explosive device." The Guardian is updating developments.

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Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump paid an unannounced Thanksgiving visit to American troops in Afghanistan on Thursday and declared that he had reopened peace negotiations with the Taliban less than three months after scuttling talks in hopes of ending 18 years of war. 'The Taliban wants to make a deal, and we're meeting with them,' Mr. Trump said during a meeting with Afghanistan's president, Ashraf Ghani, at the main base for American forces north of Kabul. 'We're going to stay until such time as we have a deal, or we have total victory, and they want to make a deal very badly,' Mr. Trump added even as he reaffirmed his desire to reduce the American military presence to 8,600 troops, down from about 12,000 to 13,000." The AP story is here.

Jonathan Chait: "... the New York Times and Washington Post both have new stories [linked below] about [Rudy] Giuliani pursuing business deals with Ukrainian government officials at the same time he was lobbying them on Trump's behalf.... The first and most important thing to understand about these deals is that there is no possible set of mitigating circumstances that might make the negotiations remotely ethical." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Erin Banco & Betsy Swan of The Daily Beast: "Even before Gordon Sondland's work in Ukraine set off alarm bells, senior U.S. officials were raising concerns about his communications with officials from Romania -- including his efforts to get White House access for a politician [Liviu Dragnea, a Romanian politician] with a history of pushing back against anti-corruption reforms.... Sondland ... often hosted meetings with Romanian officials without consulting the National Security Council (NSC). His increasingly close relationship with one of those officials, former deputy prime minister Ana Birchall, generated significant concerns within the NSC.../ Ana Birchall has a history of opposing anti-corruption measures in her country and for years supported Liviu Dragnea." --s ~~~

~~~ Because He's a Trumpy Kinda Guy. David Herszenhorn of Politico: Gordon Sondland, "the U.S. ambassador to the EU..., has no intention of resigning over allegations of sexual misconduct, a close associate said Thursday. Sondland has flatly denied the accusations, made by three women, who allege he engaged in inappropriate behavior years before he was named Trump's envoy to the EU."

Nicholas Confessore & Alexandra Alter of the New York Times: "At least nine Republican organizations, G.O.P. candidates or advocacy groups are selling [Donald Trump, Jr.,'s book] 'Triggered' or promoting Mr. Trump's book tour, according to emails obtained by The New York Times, interviews and disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission. The president's son has emerged over the past few years as a political star in his own right, often said to be considering a run for office. It is neither illegal nor uncommon for candidates and political organizations to use books in fund-raising drives.... But the breadth of the Republican establishment's effort behind Mr. Trump is striking for a noncandidate whose most significant claim to fame remains his parentage, and who has sought to deflect criticism of his recent attacks on impeachment witnesses by asserting that he is merely a 'private citizen.' And it underscores the unusual cross-pollination between the Trump family's political ambitions, its business ventures and the party President Trump now leads.... Earlier this month, the R.N.C. denied making large bulk purchases of the book, a practice that some best-seller lists, including that of The Times, may penalize authors for when ranking sales. But F.E.C. records released last week showed that it spent almost $100,000 on copies on Oct. 29...." The Raw Story has a summary of the story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Gee, I wonder if they'll help me sell my new book, 1,001 Stupid Things Donald Trump Has Said & Done. It comes with a special bonus: a pass to read a firewalled online addition to the book every day. More than one entry daily often available.

Chantal Da Silva of Newsweek: "Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, was reportedly forced to retreat from a Thanksgiving Eve bash on Wednesday after former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley tore into him over his role in enforcing the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies. According to one witness, Siobhan Houton Arnold, who tweeted about the incident, O'Malley 'drove' Cuccinelli out of the Dubliner, a Capitol Hill pub meant to be popular among Gonzaga High School graduates, a school both men had attended, graduating five years apart in the 1980s, according to The Washington Post. 'Martin O'Malley just drove Ken Cuccinelli out of the Dubliner in DC w/ a passion-laced and shame-invoking tirade on behalf of immigrant refugee children!!!' Arnold said in her tweet.... The former governor said he also was not the only one to air his grievances with Cuccinelli, who he described as 'the son of immigrant parents who cages children for a fascist president,' that evening." ~~~

~~~ Laura Vozzella & Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "Both O'Malley and Cuccinelli described a confrontation that involved O'Malley hotly criticizing Cuccinelli's politics. And both said they eventually ended up face-to-face with O'Malley asking Cuccinelli if he wanted to throw a punch."

Melissa Lemieux of Newsweek: "WholeFoods Magazine has named Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as its Man of the Year for championing a hemp growing project in his home state of Kentucky. Twitter users have cried foul, though, and now they are trying to boycott the Whole Foods Supermarkets chain, which has nothing to do with the magazine."

Pete Hegseth, the Fox "News" host who most recently made the news for his advocacy for war criminal Eddie Gallagher is not only morally bankrupt, he is far more ignorant than any U.S. elementary school graduate should be. Yesterday, I linked a scene from the 1993 film "Addams Family Values," in which the character Wednesday (Christina Ricci) plays Pocahontas in a summer camp Thanksgiving play. Apparently the movie was where Pete learned his American history. Anyone who passed 5th-grade history knows that Pocahontas had nothing to do with the New England settlers. P.S. I checked Hegseth's bio to see if maybe he had a good excuse for his ignorance of early American history, like "raised by wolves in Mongolia." But no. Pete was graduated from Princeton & has a masters degree from the JFK School at Harvard. Someone should check to see if those schools are accredited. ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Justin Wise of the Hill: "Fox News host Pete Hegseth echoed language from President Trump on Thursday while taking a shot at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), saying that it was 'fitting' the 'Fox & Friends' morning program was talking about "Pocahontas" on Thanksgiving. Hegseth used the name Pocahontas, which Trump deploys to mock Warren's claims of Native American ancestry, as a panel discussed Warren's recent drop in polls focused on the 2020 Democratic presidential primary."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Sabrina Caserta of the AP: "The beloved balloons flew, but lower than usual, in a windy Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade after an anxious weather watch. Wind had threatened to ground the giant inflated characters. But officials announced less than an hour before Thursday's start time that the balloons could fly, if in a down-to-Earth way. As the parade continued -- even while city emergency officials sent out a public alert about wind gusts -- handlers struggled with some balloons and pulled them close to the ground. Meanwhile, winds did keep giant balloons out of Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Day parade." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ohio. Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "A bill to ban abortion introduced in the Ohio state legislature requires doctors to 'reimplant an ectopic pregnancy' into a woman's uterus -- a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of 'abortion murder'. This is the second time practising obstetricians and gynecologists have tried to tell the Ohio legislators that the idea is currently medically impossible.... An ectopic pregnancy is a life-threatening condition, which can kill a woman if the embryonic tissue grows unchecked. In addition to ordering doctors to do the impossible or face criminal charges, House Bill 413 bans abortion outright and defines a fertilized egg as an 'unborn child'. It also appears to punish doctors, women and children as young as 13 with 'abortion murder' if they 'perform or have an abortion'. This crime is punishable by life in prison. Another new crime, 'aggravated abortion murder', is punishable by death, according to the bill. The bill [has two sponsors]..., and [is] co-sponsored by 19 members of Ohio's 99-member House."

Way Beyond

China, Hong Kong. Yanan Wang of the AP: "China reacted furiously Thursday to ... Donald Trump's signing two bills aimed at supporting human rights in Hong Kong, summoning the U.S. ambassador to protest and warning the move would undermine cooperation with Washington. Hong Kong, a former British colony that was granted semi-autonomy when China took control in 1997, has been rocked by six months of sometimes violent pro-democracy demonstrations. Thousands of pro-democracy activists crowded a public square in downtown Hong Kong on Thursday night for a 'Thanksgiving Day' rally to thank the United States for passing the laws and vowed to 'march on' in their fight." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

U.K. Boris Was Not Amused. Alex Wickham & Mark Di Stefano of BuzzFeed News: "The Conservative Party is threatening to review Channel 4's public service broadcasting obligations after the broadcaster replaced Boris Johnson with an ice sculpture at Thursday night's election debate. In a dramatic escalation of the war of words between the Tories and Channel 4 that will likely provoke outcry, a Conservative source told BuzzFeed News that if they win the coming election they will reassess the channel's public service broadcasting licence.... The inflammatory move came after Channel 4 said it would empty-chair the prime minister and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage at its climate change leaders' debate, after the two leaders declined to take part.... Channel 4 is unique among UK broadcasters in that it is a publicly owned' public service broadcaster', which means it has licensing obligations imposed on it by the regulator Ofcom including requirements for impartial news, current affairs, original programming and production outside of London." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's hoping the sculptures melted during the broadcast.