The Commentariat -- August 23, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Angry Man in White House Pledges to Punish You Some More. Alan Rappeport & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "President Trump, angered by Beijing's decision on Friday to retaliate against his next round of tariffs and furious at his Federal Reserve chair for not doing more to juice the economy, said he would increase taxes on all Chinese goods and demanded that American companies stop doing business with China[.] Mr. Trump, in a tweet, said he would raise tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to 30 percent from the current rate of 25 percent beginning Oct. 1. And he said the United States would tax the remaining $300 billion worth of imports at a 15 percent rate, rather than the 10 percent he had initially planned. Those levies go into effect on Sept. 1.... Those levels are likely to exacerbate the financial pain already being felt from the tariffs as companies and consumers face higher prices for products that they buy from China. Even before the new 30 percent rate, the tariffs were expected to cost the average American household more than $800 per year, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York." The CNBC story is here.

Elizabeth Thomas & Devin Dwyer of ABC News: "Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was recently treated for a 'localized malignant tumor' on her pancreas, a court spokesperson said Friday. 'The tumor was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body,' the spokesperson said."

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts is dropping out of the presidential race, ending a candidacy that emphasized Mr. Moulton's centrist politics and military service but gained no traction with Democratic primary voters.... He warned in [an] interview that if Democrats were to embrace an overly liberal platform, it could make it harder for the party to defeat President Trump." The CNN story is here.

Yun Li of CNBC: "China said Friday it will impose new tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods and resume duties on American autos. The Chinese State Council said it decided to slap tariffs ranging from 5% to 10% on $75 billion U.S. goods in two batches effective on Sept. 1 and Dec. 15. That happens to be when President Donald Trump's latest tariffs on Chinese goods are to take effect. It also said a 25% tariff will be imposed on U.S. cars and a 5% on auto parts and components, which will go into effect on Dec.15. China had paused these tariffs in April. Stocks tumbled and bond yields fell following the announcement." ...

... ** Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday pledged to respond to China's latest round of tariffs 'this afternoon,' further ratcheting up the trade war between Washington and Beijing. In a string of tweets sent Friday morning, Trump also said he was ordering U.S. companies to 'immediately start looking for an alternative to China,' proposing they begin making their products in the United States, though it was not immediately clear what authority he was attempting to invoke. Trump has previously pressured companies including Apple to begin producing their goods in the U.S. 'The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing ... your companies HOME and making your products in the USA,' Trump tweeted." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't have to tell you Trump's "order" is insane. Maybe in a state of emergency -- like war -- Trump could "order" private corporations to alter their trade practices, but I know of no authority a president or president* has to do so for political or economic reasons in peace time. Trump so firmly believes he's a dictator who can push everyone around that he doesn't think twice before trying it. ...

     ... Update. The Washington Post story, by Taylor Telford & others, is here. "The White House does not have the authority to force companies to follow such directives, but his comments came in the middle of a Twitter tirade in which he appeared to be expressing mounting fury that his economic agenda is not coming together. 'I have no idea how the president thinks he can order companies to stop working with China. I'm baffled,' said Brian Riedl, a budget expert at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think-tank." See, especially, safari's third comment in the thread below. ...

     ...OR, as Kevin Drum puts it, "Anyway, the president obviously doesn't have the authority to order US companies to do anything, even if he does use a big word like 'hereby.' Still, I assume Republicans will all be shocked and outraged by this megalomaniac attempt to interfere in the free market. Right?" Akhilleus, in commentary below, invokes the Obama Corollary.

     ... Update 2. Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Stocks plunged on Friday after ... Donald Trump ordered that U.S. manufacturers find alternatives to their operations in China. Apple led the way lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 623.34 points lower, or 2.4% at 25,628.90. The S&P 500 slid 2.6% to close at 2,847.11. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3% to end the day at 7,751.77. The losses brought the Dow's decline for August to more than 4%." This is an update of an earlier report. Mrs. McC: What? Just because the POTUS* is insane? You people haven't been paying attention. ...

... Earlier, that same morning:

... Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "... Donald Trump on Friday again ripped into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, comparing him to Chinese President Xi Jinping. 'My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powel or Chairman Xi?' Trump tweeted, misspelling Powell's last name.... Trump tweeted his attack not long after the text of Powell's speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was made public. Powell on Friday promised to take the steps needed to maintain U.S. economic growth as fears about a potential recession grow. In his remarks..., [Powell] said the economy has 'continued to perform well overall' but acknowledged 'trade policy uncertainty seems to be playing a role in the global slowdown.' In a previous tweet Friday, Trump said, 'as usual, the Fed did NOTHING!' It is unclear what Trump expected the central bank to do at its symposium, as it does not have a policy meeting until the middle of next month." ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story, by Jeanna Smialek, is here.

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "David H. Koch, who joined his brother, Charles G. Koch, in business and political ventures that grew into the nation's second-largest private company and a powerful right-wing libertarian movement that helped reshape American politics, has died. He was 79." Thanks to unwashed for the lead. Here's the NBC News obituary.

Isaac Chotiner of the New Yorker interviews "Amy Wax, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School..., the academic who perhaps best represents the ideology of the Trump Administration's immigration restrictionists. Wax, who began her professional life as a neurologist, and who served in the Solicitor General's office in the late eighties and early nineties, has become known in recent years for her belief in the superiority of 'Anglo-Protestant culture.' In 2017, Wax said..., 'I don't think I've ever seen a black student graduate in the top quarter of the class, and rarely, rarely, in the top half.' The dean of Penn Law School, Theodore Ruger, said that Wax had spoken 'disparagingly and inaccurately' and had been barred from teaching core-curriculum classes.... During our conversation..., Wax expounded on her beliefs that people of Western origin are more scrupulous, empirical, and orderly than people of non-Western origin, and that women are less intellectual than men. She described these views as the outcome of rigorous and realistic thinking, while offering evidence that ranged from two studies by a eugenicist to personal anecdotes, several of which concerned her conviction that white people litter less than people of color."

Lynh Bui of the Washington Post: "Leon Haughton, a legal U.S. resident & green-card holder, bought three bottles of honey from a Jamaica roadside stand last Christmas "before heading home to Maryland. It was a routine purchase for him until he landed at the airport in Baltimore. Customs officers detained Haughton and police arrested him, accusing him of smuggling in not honey, but liquid meth. Haughton spent nearly three months in jail before all charges were dropped and two rounds of law enforcement lab tests showed no controlled substances in the bottles." There's an AFP report here.

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The irony here is that Trump's erratic, chaotic approach to the economy is probably the most significant economic risk factor in the world right now. Their response is just to show even more erratic behavior. It's economic narcissism. It's economic policy by whim, pride, ego and tantrum. -- Gene Sperling, top economist in the Clinton & Obama administrations

This administration has not done itself a whole lot of favors in talking about the economy. They have done a lot of communicating that is verifiably false on the economy. -- Tony Fratto, top economist in the Bush II administration ...

... Damian Paletta, et al., of the Washington Post: "Even as his aides warn of a business climate at risk of faltering, the president has been portraying the economy to the public as 'phenomenal' and 'incredible.' He has told aides that he thinks he can convince Americans that the economy is vibrant and unrattled through a public messaging campaign. But the internal and external warnings that the economy could slip have contributed to a muddled and often contradictory message. Administration officials have scrambled this week to assemble a menu of actions Trump could take to avert an economic downturn. Few aides have a firm sense of what steps he would seriously consider, in part because he keeps changing his mind." Here's an ABC News story on Trump's mixed messages on the economy. ...

... The Ripple Effect of Trump's Trade War. Jonelle Marte of the Washington Post: "The prolonged trade war between the United States and China is taking a toll on the manufacturing sector, which contracted for the first time since 2009, data show.... Sales of U.S. exports decreased at the fastest pace since August 2009, according to the report. When exports fall, manufacturers typically respond by reducing inventories and cutting production. Over time, that gloominess could lead manufacturers to trim jobs.... A contraction in manufacturing can have large ripple effects across the economy, [Mark] Zandi [of Moody's Analytics] said. Factories that produce fewer goods tend to cut back on shipping and distribution, which affects transportation companies, warehouses, seaports and airports, he said. Struggling manufacturers also have less need for general business services such as accounting, media and advertising. And when factories start reducing staff, those workers cut back on spending, hurting retailers and service providers, Zandi said." Here's the CNBC story.

Tim O'Brien of Bloomberg: "The Trump of the past few weeks is the same disordered figure of the past several decades with, I suspect, a big dollop of something new blended in: unbridled and unmanageable panic.... When Trump gazes into the sky at the White House and says that he's the chosen one, he's not the type who thinks he can actually walk on water. He's the type who's hoping that droves of evangelical voters might keep falling for his shtick. And Trump is willing to playact in this extraordinary way, I think, because he's mired in fear.... Trump, understandably, has started to panic and his attempt to convince people that he's the second coming shows how deeply worried he is about things he can't control -- and how increasingly reckless he might become."

Phil Rucker of the Washington Post has a good piece on the transactional nature of Donald Trump's pro-Israel stance. He begins, "President Trump decided long ago that it would be smart politics for him to yoke his administration to Israel and to try to brand the Democratic Party as anti-Semitic. He set about executing a pro-Israel checklist: moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as part of sovereign Israel, and taking a hard line against Iran. And he promoted himself as the greatest president -- a deity even -- for Jewish people." Mrs. McC: Rucker very much backs up what I wrote in Wednesday's thread in response to a reader who argued that Trump was Israel's BFF. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AND Talia Lavin, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... the series of bizarre statements Trump made about Jews this week do a lot to clarify why the president appears to be pressing for the Jewish vote. Assailing a minuscule, politically left-wing ethnic group under the guise of right-wing outreach makes a lot more sense when you realize it was never really about, or for, American Jews at all. Trump's appeals both reflect and attempt to reach a different population entirely, one much more likely to talk about the second coming of God or anoint a King in Israel: evangelical Christians.... Their support for Israel is grounded in the Book of Revelation, which dictates that Israel must be 'restored' to the Jews before the Jews convert en masse, redeeming themselves for having once rejected Jesus. This redemption comes in fire, and at the cost of complete erasure of any distinct Jewish identity; it is a hallmark of the end of history, a time of tribulation that will exterminate the faithless." ...

... Javanka MIA. Again. Kaitlan Collins & Betsy Klein of CNN: "During a week filled with uncertainty over the economy, retweets of conspiracy theorists, battles for his ear on gun legislation and an unsolicited fight with the prime minister of Denmark over buying Greenland, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have remained under the radar. The couple was on vacation in Wyoming with their children over the weekend, and, on Monday, participated in a Trump Victory fundraiser alongside his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. They returned to Washington this week but with a limited presence in the West Wing, people familiar with the situation said. The President's daughter and son-in-law -- who are Modern Orthodox Jews -- stayed silent publicly as Trump caused a firestorm by questioning the loyalty of some Jewish Americans to Israel. Trump has recently decided that branding the Democratic Party as anti-Semitic would be savvy political strategy -- and aides have largely supported the fight, but when he questioned the intelligence and loyalty of Jewish people who support Democrats, some inside the West Wing privately conceded to CNN he had gone too far.... Trump's daughter and son-in-law have developed a pattern of being absent amid some of the biggest controversies of his presidency."

Trump's Second-Term Project: Gutting Medicare & Social Security. Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "While Republicans do not expect Trump to push for cuts [in Medicare & Social Security] while campaigning for reelection, they've apparently encouraged him to do so should he win a second term -- a proposition to which President 'I'm not going to cut Social Security, I'm not going to cut Medicare' has reportedly been receptive. 'We've got to fix that,' Senator John Thune, the number two Republican in the Senate, told the Times. 'It's going to take presidential leadership to do that, and it's going to take courage by the Congress to make some hard votes. We can't keep kicking the can down the road. I hope in a second term, he is interested,' Thune said of Trump.... Republicans, said Senator John Barrasso, who seems to regularly chat with the president, have 'brought it up with President Trump, who has talked about it being a second-term project.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This, of course, is what Republicans do: cut taxes to balloon the deficit, then demand cuts to social services programs. And Republican voters go along with the program time & again, never, ever figuring out the con.

Alan Rappeport & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "President Trump has shifted his stance on the unrest in Hong Kong in recent days to show greater solidarity with the pro-democracy protesters after coming to view the issue as a point of leverage in trade negotiations with China. For months, Trump administration officials described the Hong Kong uprising as an internal matter for China.... But as the protests have dragged on, advisers to Mr. Trump have succeeded in making the case that wading into the issue could prove necessary -- and advantageous -- to the United States as it tries to push Beijing to accede to its trade terms. After previously saying Hong Kong was a 'very tough situation' that was up to Chinese leaders to handle, Mr. Trump has more recently called on those leaders to offer a 'humane' response and urged Mr. Xi to engage in dialogue with the protesters.... The words were couched in practical terms centered on a trade deal, not in the language of human rights, but they were nevertheless surprising given Mr. Trump's earlier passive remarks on Hong Kong." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Trump's sudden "interest" in democratic rights is a tactic, not a principled stance.

Trump Invited Himself to Denmark, Then Blew off Danes. Erin Banco & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "Speaking to reporters on the White House's South Lawn in late July..., Donald Trump revealed that he was 'looking at' a stop in Denmark after an upcoming trip to Poland to attend a World War II commemorative ceremony. For officials in Copenhagen, the comment came as a surprise. Although it is customary in Denmark for there to be a standing invitation for the U.S. president -- and though officials in both countries had been discussing the possibility of an American delegation visiting -- no formal invitation had actually been extended to Trump, according to two senior Danish officials and an individual who works closely with the Trump administration in Copenhagen. By the next day, Queen Margrethe II had issued the invite, and the White House had officially announced the president's plans to visit the country." The Danish government, including the Queen, were in the midst of elaborate preparations for Trump's visit when they learned he had decided not to show up, after all. ...

... Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday defended President Trump's push to buy Greenland, revealing that he discussed the idea in a conversation with the president [more than a year ago] and even proposed it in a meeting with the Danish ambassador [a few months back]. It was unclear whether Cotton was the first person to raise the idea to the president. Cotton said Wednesday that Trump had received the suggestion 'from me and from some other people as well.'" The USA Today story is here. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As a reminder of who Tom Cotton is, here's a November 2017 post by Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker which asks the question, "Is Tom Cotton the Future of Trumpism?" ...

... Sam Stein & Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: Carla Sands, "the United States ambassador tasked with cleaning up bizarrely strained relations with Denmark in the wake of Donald Trump's failed attempt to buy Greenland is a frequent retweeter of conspiracy theories who once starred in a movie so bad it was parodied on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Since becoming ambassador, she has frequently retweeted bizarre claims on her personal Twitter account.... It's rare for a top diplomat to be the one openly spreading conspiracies, even under a private account.... Sands ... appeared utterly caught off-guard by [Trump's] cancellation [of his Denmark visit].... How Sands performs in this now-delicate role could raise a myriad of questions, from why the U.S. government continues to rely on unseasoned hands in ambassadorial roles to how she ended up in this spot in the first place." (Also linked yesterday.)

Steve Peoples & Hanah Fingerhut of the AP: "About 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of ... Donald Trump's overall job performance, according to a new poll released Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which finds some support for the president's handling of the U.S. economy but gives him weak marks on other major issues. Just 36% of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president; 62% disapprove."

Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "An email sent from the Justice Department to all immigration court employees this week included a link to an article posted on a white nationalist website [VDare] that 'directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs,' [including an antisemitic slur] according to a letter sent by an immigration judges union and obtained by BuzzFeed News.... The post detailed a recent move by the Justice Department to decertify the immigration judges union.... After publication of this article, [Executive Office for Immigration Review] Assistant Press Secretary Kathryn Mattingly told BuzzFeed News 'the daily EOIR morning news briefings are compiled by a contractor and the blog post should not have been included. The Department of Justice condemns Anti-Semitism in the strongest terms.'" ...

... Steve M.: "It's appalling that the Justice Department would link to anything at the [VDare] site. [Steve elaborates on this.] But the post doesn't seem to attack any of the targeted judges in a specifically anti-Semitic way. On the other hand, it does refer unfavorably to a New York Times story with the word '#Lugenpresse' -- 'lying press,' a term used by the Nazis in reference to anti-Nazi journalism. The Times story in question is 'Trump Administration Moves to Decertify Outspoken Immigration Judges' Union' by Christina Goldbaum. Referring to a woman named Goldbaum as a member of the Lugenpresse? That's over the line."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha

Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House press secretary, will join Fox News as a contributor next month, reinforcing the strong ties between the conservative cable network and the Trump administration. Ms. Sanders, who left the administration less than two months ago, will make her debut on Sept. 6 on 'Fox & Friends,' the network said in a statement. In her new role, she will provide political commentary and analysis across Fox properties, including Fox News and Fox Business Network as well as digital and radio outlets." ...

... Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "In perhaps the least surprising news of the year, Fox News has hired ... Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a contributor. Sanders' White House tenure was characterized by the total contempt in which she held journalists and the public at large. She shamelessly lied from the press room podium and constantly belittled the reporters who tried to pry actual information away from her. In the end, she stripped them of access and eliminated the press briefings altogether." ...

... MEANWHILE, Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times profiles Trump's latest (and most invisible) press secretary, Stephanie Grisham: "... the White House is the loftiest stop in a turbulent career trajectory that has mixed toughness and loyalty to her bosses with professional scrapes, ethical blunders and years spent alternately wooing and pounding the press on behalf of scandal-prone Arizona Republicans.... Her career history ... include[s] losing a private-sector job after being accused of cheating on expense reports, a later job loss over plagiarism charges and two arrests for driving under the influence, the second while working on Mr. Trump's campaign." Mediaite has a short summary of the lowlights of the Times report. Mrs. McC: All the best people, etc. ...

     ... Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos: "The real takeaway from this profile is that Grisham comes with all of the warning signs we have come to expect from a Republican administration, and maybe more so from this current crew of cons and grifters."

Weird News. Scarce of Crooks & Liars: "The Topeka Capitol-Journal reported [Thusday night] that congressman Steve Watkins, [R-Kansas] barely eight months in office, is being asked to step down immediately by Republicans in Kansas and DC. The odd thing is though that no one will say why.... Speculation so far has centered around Watkins unorthodox 'open marriage', and allegations of inappropriate behavior towards multiple women." Here's the enigmatic Topeka Capital-Journal report. Best graf: "The Topeka Capital-Journal reported he was dating women in Topeka during the campaign while engaged to be married and after he was wed, and identified a Wasilla, Alaska, resident who accused Watkins of unwanted sexual advances. Watkins called the allegations 'preposterous.'" Oh what Wasilla resident could that be?

Presidential Race 2020

Biden's Enthusiasm Gap. Katie Glueck of the New York Times:"... there are signs of a disconnect between [Joe Biden's] relatively rosy poll numbers and excitement for his campaign on the ground [in Iowa], in the state that begins the presidential nominating process. In conversations with county chairs, party strategists and dozens of voters this week at Mr. Biden's events, many Democrats in Iowa described a case for Mr. Biden, the former vice president, that reflected shades of the one his wife, Jill Biden, bluntly sketched out on Monday. 'You may like another candidate better, but you have to look at who is going to win,' she said, citing Mr. Biden's consistent lead in early surveys.... That stands in stark contrast to the way voters explain their support for candidates like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who drew 12,000 people to an event this week in Minnesota..., or Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who also draws large crowds and maintains a core base of die-hard fans." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: To this, I say, "Remember President John Kerry. And don't forget President Al Gore."

Alexander Kaufman & Chris D'Angelo of the Huffington Post: "A panel of the Democratic National Committee on Thursday rejected a proposal to host a single-issue debate on the climate crisis. At a party conference Thursday in San Francisco, the DNC's resolutions committee voted 17-8 against a resolution that has become a cause célèbre for activists and for more than a dozen presidential contenders who felt the traditional debate format failed to adequately address the looming threat of catastrophe. The issue could resurface during the full committee's general session on Saturday.... The vote came a day after ... climate candidate Jay Inslee, who had been pushing for the debate, dropped out of the race."

Ken Vogel & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Months after backing out of a trip to Ukraine amid criticism that he was mixing partisan politics with foreign policy, Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, has renewed his push for the Ukrainian government to pursue investigations into political opponents of Mr. Trump. Over the last few weeks, Mr. Giuliani has spoken on the phone and held an in-person meeting, in Madrid, with a top representative of the new Ukrainian president, encouraging his government to ramp up investigations into two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump. One is whether Ukrainian officials took steps during the 2016 election to damage Mr. Trump's campaign. The other is whether there was anything improper about the overlap between former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s diplomatic efforts in Ukraine and his son's role with a gas company there." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Pamela Brown & Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that he had spoken with a Ukrainian official about Joe Biden's possible role in that government's dismissal of a prosecutor who investigated Biden's son. The move shows [Giuliani] is making a renewed push for the country to investigate ... Donald Trump's political enemies." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... It Gets Worse. Allan Smith of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani confirmed Thursday that the State Department assisted his efforts to press the Ukrainian government to probe two prominent Democratic opponents of the president: former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee.... [Giuliani] confirmed to NBC News that the State Department helped put him in touch with ... Andriy Yermak, a lawyer and close ally of recently elected President Volodymyr Zelensky.... The State Department put Yermak 'in contact with me,' Giuliani said. 'Not other way around....'"

New Poll Finds What We Knew All Along. Jill Filipovic in the Guardian: "A new poll shows ... the 'pro-life' movement is fundamentally about misogyny. A Supermajority/PerryUndem survey released this week divides respondents by their position on abortion, and then tracks their answers to 10 questions on gender equality more generally. On every question anti-abortion voters were significantly more hostile to gender equity than pro-choice voters." (Also linked yesterday.)

Eric Levitz of New York: "... on certain segments of the right, criticisms of the [New York Times' 1619 Project] have been so histrionic, they read less as arguments than primal screams.... But if the right's catastrophizing response to the 1619 Project is incomprehensible in intellectual terms, it's more understandable in psychological ones. The Times's narrative ... does challenge the legitimacy of white American identity -- and the secular saints and potted histories that lend that identity its substance. And for many white conservatives in the U.S., the idea of surrendering that identity is quite painful."

New York Times: "Patrick Byrne resigned as chief executive of the online retailer Overstock.com on Thursday, saying he had no choice but to quit because of the attention stirred up by his public disclosure of a relationship with [Maria Butina,] a woman accused of being a Russian agent.... The company's shares were up more than 10 percent on Thursday after Mr. Byrne announced his resignation."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Brazil/Earth. The Devastating Effects of Right-Wing "Populism." Leah Asmelash of CNN: "The Amazon rainforest is an ecological marvel. It's twice the size of India, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and it's the largest remaining tropical rainforest in the world. It's home to at least 10% of the world's biodiversity, produces 20% of the world's oxygen and helps regulate the temperature of the whole planet. Without it, climate change could become irreversible -- a reality brought to light by the fires in the region that have been raging this week. Here are some ways the Amazon rainforest helps the environment, and what these devastating fires could mean for climate change." ...

... Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "France's president, Emmanuel Macron, has said the fires in the Amazon are an 'international crisis' and called for them to be top of the agenda at the G7 summit, prompting a furious response from Brazil's leader. 'Our house is burning. Literally,' Macron tweeted.... Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing nationalist who bristles at the idea of foreign interference in the Brazilian Amazon, took exception to his French counterpart's comments. 'I regret that president Macron seeks to take advantage of what is a domestic Brazilian issue and of other Amazonian countries for personal political gain,' Bolsonaro tweeted, targeting what he called Macron's 'sensationalist tone'."

The Commentariat -- August 22, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

New Poll Finds What We Knew All Along. Jill Filipovic in the Guardian: "A new poll shows ... the 'pro-life' movement is fundamentally about misogyny. A Supermajority/PerryUndem survey released this week divides respondents by their position on abortion, and then tracks their answers to 10 questions on gender equality more generally. On every question, anti-abortion voters were significantly more hostile to gender equity than pro-choice voters."

Phil Rucker of the Washington Post has a good piece on the transactional nature of Donald Trump's pro-Israel stance. He begins, "President Trump decided long ago that it would be smart politics for him to yoke his administration to Israel and to try to brand the Democratic Party as anti-Semitic. He set about executing a pro-Israel checklist: moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as part of sovereign Israel, and taking a hard line against Iran. And he promoted himself as the greatest president -- a deity even -- for Jewish people." Mrs. McC: Rucker very much backs up what I wrote yesterday in response to a reader who argued that Trump was Israel's BFF.

Ken Vogel & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Months after backing out of a trip to Ukraine amid criticism that he was mixing partisan politics with foreign policy, Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, has renewed his push for the Ukrainian government to pursue investigations into political opponents of Mr. Trump. Over the last few weeks, Mr. Giuliani has spoken on the phone and held an in-person meeting, in Madrid, with a top representative of the new Ukrainian president, encouraging his government to ramp up investigations into two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump. One is whether Ukrainian officials took steps during the 2016 election to damage Mr. Trump's campaign. The other is whether there was anything improper about the overlap between former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s diplomatic efforts in Ukraine and his son's role with a gas company there." ...

... Pamela Brown & Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that he had spoken with a Ukrainian official about Joe Biden's possible role in that government's dismissal of a prosecutor who investigated Biden's son.The move shows the former New York mayor is making a renewed push for the country to investigate ... Donald Trump's political enemies."

Sam Stein & Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "The United States ambassador tasked with cleaning up bizarrely strained relations with Denmark in the wake of Donald Trump's failed attempt to buy Greenland is a frequent retweeter of conspiracy theories who once starred in a movie so bad it was parodied on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Carla Sands heads the U.S. mission to the kingdom of Denmark.... Since becoming ambassador, she has frequently retweeted bizarre claims on her personal Twitter account.... It's rare for a top diplomat to be the one openly spreading conspiracies, even under a private account.... Sands ... appeared utterly caught off-guard by [Trump's] cancellation [of his visit to Denmark].... How Sands performs in this now-delicate role could raise a myriad of questions, from why the U.S. government continues to rely on unseasoned hands in ambassadorial roles to how she ended up in this spot in the first place."

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Yesterday, as I was reading & writing some of what Trump had said & done Monday & Tuesday, I felt exhausted. How much more of this can we take? I wondered. Well, here we are, another day, and the beat goes on. Intensified. Wednesday we found out that Trump considers himself to be "the Chosen One," "the Second Coming" of Jesus, & "like the King of Israel." And that doesn't get to his plan to indefinitely detain asylum applicants or to the international incident he created with cancelling his trip to Denmark & calling the Danish Prime Minister "nasty." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, in a story about the Greenland/Denmark debacle: "Some former Trump administration officials in recent days said they were increasingly worried about the president's behavior, suggesting it stems from rising pressure on Mr. Trump as the economy seems more worrisome and next year's election approaches. After casting off advisers who displeased him at a record rate in his first two and a half years in office, Mr. Trump now has fewer aides around him willing or able to challenge him, much less restrain his more impulsive instincts."

Not That Funny. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump claimed to laughter on Wednesday that he sought to give himself a Medal of Honor, but decided not to after being counseled against the move by aides. The offhand remark from the president came during his address to the 75th annual national convention of American Veterans, a volunteer-led veterans service organization also known as AMVETS.... Trump never served in the military and was granted five draft deferments -- four for college and one for bone spurs in his heel." ...

     ... Watch especially "Thing 2." See also safari's commentary in today's thread.

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Wednesday that Jewish Americans who vote for Democratic candidates are 'very disloyal to Israel,' expanding on his remarks from the previous day and dismissing criticism that his remarks were anti-Semitic.... Asked by a reporter Wednesday to clarify his remarks, [Trump said,] 'In my opinion, the Democrats have gone very far away from Israel... I cannot understand how they can do that ... In my opinion, if you vote for a Democrat, you're being very disloyal to Jewish people and you're being very disloyal to Israel. And only weak people would say anything other than that.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... The NBC News story, by Allan Smith, is here. "Then, while speaking to reporters on Wednesday about his efforts to take on China's trade practices, Trump pointed at the sky and said, 'I am the chosen one.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump went on Twitter on Wednesday to quote a conservative radio host and known conspiracy theorist who praised him as 'the greatest President for Jews' and claimed that Israelis 'love him like he is the second coming of God.' In his tweets, Trump thanked Wayne Allyn Root for 'the very nice words.'... In his Wednesday morning tweets, Trump quoted Root saying, 'President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world ... and the Jewish people in Israel love him like he's the King of Israel.'... 'But American Jews don't know him or like him,' Root continued, according to Trump's tweets. 'They don't even know what they're doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense! But that's OK, if he keeps doing what he's doing, he's good for all Jews, Blacks, Gays, everyone. And importantly, he's good for everyone in America who wants a job.' In his own words, Trump added: 'Wow!'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Wagner notes, "Jews do not believe in a second coming." That, of course, is because they don't believe in Christians' claim there was a first coming. If Trump sees himself as the "King of Israel," you might think he'd want to buy Israel instead of Greenland. Maybe he's concerned that the Israelis are more formidable negotiators than the Danes & Greenlanders. ...

... Beth Levin of Vanity Fair: "It's probably self-evident that anyone claiming Trump is the Messiah is not right in the head, but just so it's on the record, Wayne Allyn Root -- a self-described 'Jew turned evangelical Christian' -- is an unhinged conspiracy theorist who believes the 2017 Las Vegas shooting was a 'coordinated Muslim terror attack' by ISIS and that George Soros paid actors to stage the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville that included Nazi chants like 'Jews will not replace us.' Trump, incredibly, seems to believe that he's going to win over Jewish voters by telling them they don't [know] what's good for them ('They don't even know what they're doing or saying anymore!')." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This thread, not a full day after calling American Jewish Democrats disloyal, is eschatological antisemitism from a right wing extremist. It draws a line between good (right wing and/or Israeli) and bad (liberal) Jews. This is stochastic terrorism. -- Rabbi Andy Kahn, in a tweet

The President is a raving lunatic. He is not well. -- Andrew Gillum in a tweet ...

... Jonathan Chait: "If the president is seeking more insight into why Jews have failed to jump onto the Trump train, this tweetstorm itself supplies more evidence. Root is taking the traditional complaint that Christians make against Jews -- Why are you stiff-necked people forsaking your Lord and Savior? -- and substituting Trump himself for the role of the Messiah. The traditional Trumpist overture to Jews is that Trump might go after all the other minority groups but definitely won't turn on Jews. That approach having failed to yield dividends, he is now turning to castigating them for failing to worship the true King of the Jews and veritable Second Coming of God. 'They don't even know what they're doing or saying anymore' is not usually a good pitch for any constituency. And where Jews specifically are concerned, the whole 'Second Coming' thing remains a bit of a sensitive area." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "Trump wants American Jews to think of him as their friend, all of the evidence staring our community in the face that he isn't. If the past day's outbursts have any upside, it's that they reveal just how false this charade is -- and show that American Jews are yet another minority group threatened by the Trump presidency.... To what extent can American Jews trust America's white Christian majority to protect their community and civil rights? Historically, the answer is 'not very much.'... Jews of European descent enjoy many of the privileges of whiteness -- especially when they aren't visibly Jewish. But we also are only contingently accepted as equal participants in white American society.... We Jews are most certainly part of the 'Other' with a capital-o, a tiny percentage of the country seen as different and distinct from the majority culture. We are targeted for attacks by the growing white supremacist movement and smeared by the president when we don't do what he wants." ...

Bradley Burston of Haaretz: "[Donald Trump] has now proven himself, well beyond all rivals, as the greatest anti-Semite of our age.... This week ... he made it official.... There it is. His test of the Jews, full frontal. Come and get me, he taunts. And just watch me as I mine and inflame and leverage the Jew in you, and turn all of it into votes.... It's not Jews he's talking to at all. He's talking to Evangelicals..., and what he's telling them is simple as flat trajectory AK fire: You're better Zionists than the Jews are, and at this point, you -- and especially, I -- are even more pro-Israel than that Omar-Tlaib waffler Netanyahu." --s ...

... ** Ed Kilgore of New York: "... in ... supporting an aggressive and expansionist Jewish State, Trump may be appealing to Jewish solidarity with Israel, but more important to him politically is the demonstration to Evangelicals that in this, as in many other things (notably the fight to reverse LGBTQ and reproductive rights), he is an agent of the divine will, despite (or sometimes because of) his heathenish personal behavior. From this perspective, Trump's strange rhetoric begins to make sense: When he accuses American Jews of 'disloyalty,' he really means they are not playing the role Christians have assigned them in the great redemptive saga of the human race [i.e., the End Times]." ...

... Zak Cheney-Rice of New York sees Trump's embrace of Israel as an attack on Muslims: "... if [Rep. Ilhan] Omar [D-Minn.] is an anti-Semite, and Trump is akin to the 'King of Israel' -- as suggested in a tweet he promoted on Wednesday -- then something more sinister than concern for Jewish people is going on. And given the Republican Party's long-term investment in demonizing Muslims and galvanizing white Evangelicals to back its agenda while casting its Democratic opponents as the 'real' bigots, it's not hard to see what that is."

It's What He Says about Women. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday said that the new prime minister of Denmark was 'nasty' to him when she rejected his interest in purchasing Greenland, as he explained why he abruptly canceled a trip to the European nation next month. Mr. Trump made the remarks to reporters outside the White House as he departed for a trip to Kentucky for an official event. The statement from Mette Frederiksen, the 41-year-old prime minister of Denmark, had called Mr. Trump's hope of buying Greenland 'absurd,' a statement the president called 'nasty.'... 'She's not talking to me, she's talking to the United States of America,' he said. 'They can't say "how absurd."'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Allie Malloy of CNN: "The President has frequently used the word 'nasty' to describe women he is angry with." Malloy cites "nasty" remarks Trump made about Nancy Pelosi, Meghan Markle, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris & Elizabeth Warren. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rick Noack, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Trump continued to lash out [at Denmark].... After departing on a trip to Kentucky, Trump ... [wrote] on Twitter that despite being 'a wealthy country,' it was falling short of a NATO goal for defense spending.... A Trump adviser said the president was annoyed at planned back-to-back trips to Europe in the coming days and the extensive flying involved and that the comments by [Danish PM Mette] Frederiksen gave him a reason to cancel the Denmark leg. Trump is scheduled to leave later this week for a Group of Seven summit in France. 'It doesn't take a member of the Intelligence Committee to know that canceling meetings with our foreign allies over the momentary whims of the President is absurd,' Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) wrote on Twitter. 'We can't keep making foreign policy decisions based on this President's fantasy world.'" ...

... As Baker & Haberman of the New York Times write (also linked above), after Trump chastised Denmark for re: NATO spending, "he went after NATO as a whole for not spending enough on their militaries. 'We protect Europe and yet, only 8 of the 28 NATO countries are at the 2% mark,' he wrote, referring to the goal set by the alliance for members to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. The dust-up could have wider ramifications, analysts said."

... Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "The Danish prime minister has said she is surprised and disappointed that Donald Trump has called off his planned visit to the country over Copenhagen's refusal to sell Greenland to the US.... [Danish] politicians from across the spectrum were united in their condemnation.... Villy Søvndal, a former foreign minister, said the decision 'confirms that Donald Trump is a narcissistic fool.... If he had been a clown in a circus, you could probably say that there is considerable entertainment value. The problem is that he is the president of the most powerful nation in the world,' he said." ...

... New York Times Editors: "What came through in Mr. Trump's approach [to purchasing Greenland] was not realpolitik, but a crude and insulting transactional vision of a world in which buying a self-ruled territory and its more than 56,000 people was just another 'large real estate deal' -- in his view, one that Denmark should welcome because Greenland was purportedly draining $700 million a year in Danish subsidies. When first reported in The Wall Street Journal last Friday, the idea drew howls of hilarity. But when Mr. Trump made clear he was serious, amusement turned to astonishment and, in Denmark and Greenland, to indignation.... That the president of the United States would demonstrate such willful ignorance of how the world works, that he would treat a territory and its independent people like goods and chattel, that he would so readily damage relations with an old and important ally out of petty pique, is frightening." ...

... Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution in the Atlantic: "The cancellation of Trump's visit to Denmark is part of a disturbing pattern. Trump regularly beats up on and abuses America's closest democratic allies while being sycophantic to autocrats.... This is the kind of thing the Russians and the Chinese do. It is territorial revisionism -- the use of national power to acquire territory against the desire of its sovereign government and its people.... Free societies and autocracies are at odds with each other -- over human rights, the rule of law, technology, freedom of the press, the free flow of information, and territorial expansion. At this particular moment, it is not sufficient to say that the free world is without a leader. He has actually defected to the other side." Emphasis added.

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday said his administration is once again seriously considering an executive order to end birthright citizenship months after several lawmakers cast doubt on his ability to take such action. 'We're looking at that very seriously,' Trump told reporters as he left the White House for Kentucky. 'Birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land -- walk over the border, have a baby, congratulations, the baby's now a U.S. citizen.'... [Last year, Trump said he] would sign an executive order to enact the change. Numerous lawmakers, including several Republicans, quickly pushed back on the idea and argued Trump lacked the authority to make such a change using an executive order. They cited that birthright citizenship is a right enshrined under the 14th Amendment. Trump responded to the criticism by saying birthright citizenship would be ended 'one way or another.'" ...

... Also at the "rambling, 35-minute back-and-forth with reporters..., Trump denied he is considering a payroll tax cut to head off a recession, arguing that there is no need to do so even after he confirmed it was under consideration the previous day," according to Washington Post reporters Rick Noack and others (also linked above). ...

... Yet Another "Catch & Release" Trump Plan. Matt Stieb of New York makes a stab at listing the crazy things Trump said yesterday, but he misses a few. Here's one he caught, though, that I haven't seen reported elsewhere: "As if his reputation in the European Union needed any further damage, Trump threatened to 'release' captured ISIS fighters from the continent in their respective countries if 'Europe doesn't take them.' It was the second time this month Trump had proposed that ultimatum: On August 2, he told reporters, 'We have 2,500 ISIS fighters that we want Europe to take,' and, if they were not received, 'we'll probably have to release them to Europe.'"

Alexandra Hutzler of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump has spent nearly a third of his presidency visiting his business properties at taxpayer expense, according to a new report by the government watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington. CREW has found over 2,300 conflicts of interest resulting from Trump's decision not to divest ownership of his global business empire upon entering office.... The nonprofit added that there are likely more conflicts of interest than the ones they have been able to identify." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Partly this is because Trump avoids doing the inconvenient or quasi-arduous parts of this job. As the WashPo reported (linked above), "A Trump adviser said the president was annoyed at planned back-to-back trips to Europe in the coming days and the extensive flying involved," so he picked a fight with Denmark as an excuse to avoid a state visit. Even when Trump is in the White House, at the times of day most people are at work, Trump is taking "executive time," fixing his hair & watching Fox "News."

Michael Shear & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The Trump administration unveiled a regulation on Wednesday that would allow it to detain indefinitely migrant families who cross the border illegally, replacing a decades-old court agreement that limited how long the government could hold migrant children in custody and mandated the level of care they must receive.... The new regulation would codify minimum standards for the conditions in family detention centers and would specifically abolish a 20-day limit on detaining families in immigration jails, a cap that has prompted President Trump to repeatedly complain about the 'catch and release' of families from Central America and elsewhere into the United States. The change will require approval from a federal judge before it can go into effect, and administration officials said they expect it to be immediately challenged in court." The NPR story is here. Mrs. McC: It's like, it's like, DHS has revealed Stephen Miller's wet dreams. But left out the torture part. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jake Thomas of The Intellectualist: "In Hildalgo County, Texas, residents are fighting to protect the graves of veterans under threat by ... Donald Trump's border wall, according to local news station KVEO-TV. The Eli Jackson Cemetery is the final resting place of veterans of bot World Wars as well as the Korean War, but the Trump administration wants to have those graves moved in order to make way for the proposed barrier along the southern U.S. border. Others buried in the cemetery, which is considered sacred land by local natives, include freed slaves and native ancestors." --s

Jim Tankersley & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The federal budget deficit is growing faster than expected, even as President Trump muses about more tax cuts and other ideas that would add to government debt. The deficit will reach $960 billion for the 2019 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and $1 trillion for the 2020 fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office said in updated forecasts released on Wednesday. Previously, it had projected an $896 billion deficit for 2019 and $892 billion for 2020. Those numbers would be even higher, if not for lower-than-expected interest rates, which are reducing the cost of servicing the national debt." The CBS/AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ben Casselman of the New York Times: "Employers added a half-million fewer jobs in 2018 and early 2019 than previously reported, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The revisions, which are preliminary, are part of an annual process in which survey-based estimates are brought into alignment with more definitive data from state unemployment insurance records. Wednesday's revision covers the period through March; final updates, which will include the rest of 2019, will be released in February. The revisions don't change the overall picture of a healthy job market. But they do mean that 2018, which had ranked among the strongest years of job growth in the decade-long recovery, was weaker than previously believed." ...

     ... Jeffry Bartash of Market Watch: "The newly revised figures indicate the economy didn't get a huge boost last year from President Trump's tax cuts and higher federal spending. They also signal the economy is a bit weaker than previously believed and could give the Federal Reserve even greater reason to cut interest rates in September."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Ever since Trump announced his Farmer Welfare Program to help make up for the billions American farmers were losing as a result of his trade wars, I have been wondering how much of that money was going to actual farmers. Well, contributor Anonymous looked into it, and the answer is not much:

... Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story (July 30): “... Donald Trump has tried to paper over the disaster his trade war has been causing for American farmers by issuing a $16 billion bailout, paying farmers for the work they lost due to the tariffs.... But ... according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group, of the $16 billion in 'Market Facilitation Payments' Trump's Department of Agriculture appropriated, the group found, 54 percent of it went to just the top one-tenth of farms, with 82 farmers receiving at least $500,000 and many of the recipients actually living in large cities. Smaller family farms, meanwhile, have received very little, with the bottom 80 percent of farmers getting less than $5,000 each -- and farmers of color have received almost nothing. The USDA initially said it would cap payments at $125,000 -- but in practice, Trump officials have allowed the richest farmers to get around that limit by having family members who do not do meaningful work on the farm apply for their own payments, double-dipping again and again." ...

... Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's officials were abruptly told to end their agricultural tour in the Midwest this week as tensions among farmers continue to rise.... Trump has claimed farmers support his trade war with China, that is going into its second year. Farmers told [Ag Secretary Sonny] Perdue that things weren't 'great' and they were concerned Americans see Trump's bailout as a welfare program for farmers. To make matters worse, the bailouts were given to corporate farms over family farms and put those in rural areas at a greater disadvantage as they struggle through Trump's trade war." ...

... Mario Parker, et al., of Bloomberg: "In a sign of rising tensions with the farm community, the Trump administration withdrew staff from a privately run tour of Midwestern corn and soybean fields after a government employee was threatened.... The USDA's data arm has been the subject of ire in recent months after crop estimates surprised traders and growers who had expected the agency to significantly reduce its outlook after rain delayed planting.... Its withdrawal from the crop tour comes about two weeks after farmers leveled criticism at Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue at a fair in Minnesota over ... Donald Trump's yearlong trade war with China, which has eroded demand and pressured already low prices."

Rebecca Leber of Mother Jones: "Allan Blutstein, an America Rising [a Republican opposition research outfit] lawyer and senior vice president, [has been] seeking the records of EPA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees who have contributed to Democrats.... Blutstein appears to be searching for evidence that ... EPA and NOAA employees violated the Hatch Act, which forbids government employees from performing any electioneering during work hours and from hosting political fundraisers.... Blutstein targets have included an EPA geologist, several EPA attorneys, and a National Weather Service staffer." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Leber notes, "Government employees ... are free to donate to political candidates so long as the contribution is made on their personal time and does not involve the use of government resources or equipment." Blutstein's requests smack of harassment & attempts to intimidate career federal employees.

Presidential Race 2020

John Bowden of the Hill: "Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) dropped out of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday. Inslee told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow during an interview that he would withdraw from the race because it had 'become clear' to him that he had no path to the nomination." ...

     ... The more extensive Washington Post report, by Eli Rosenberg, is here.

Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "A fledgling liberal organization, Demand Justice, is trying to force the [Democratic presidential] candidates to take a stand on a provocative proposal for the next Democratic administration. The group's founders, Christopher Kang, who helped run judicial selection for President Barack Obama, and Brian Fallon, a former aide to Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer, argue that the next President should not nominate any judicial candidates who come out of the world of corporate law. As Kang and Fallon, two insiders to the process, point out, even in Democratic administrations, there is a recurring pattern among nominees to the federal bench: 'A typical nominee might have an Ivy League degree and clerkships with one or more respected federal judges,' they write, in a new article in The Atlantic. 'But perhaps no qualification is more prevalent than prior work at a major private-sector firm, representing the interests of large corporations.' As they note, roughly sixty per cent of federal appellate judges come from corporate firms.... Sheldon Whitehouse, a senator from Rhode Island, has been one of the few Democratic politicians to focus on this issue of corporate power in the courts; he's even written a book about it."

Senate Race 2020. Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), who last week ended his 2020 presidential campaign, announced on Thursday that he will seek a seat in the U.S. Senate. 'I'm not done fighting for the people of Colorado,' he said in a video attacking Washington over preexisting conditions, prescription prices and the opening of public land to developers." Cory Gardner (R) currently holds the seat & is running for re-election.

Jessica Campisi of the Hill: "A Tennessee man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly posting threats online to 'shoot up' a Planned Parenthood facility in Washington, D.C. Jacob Cooper, 20, allegedly wrote in an Aug. 13 comment that he planned 'to shoot up a planned parenthood facility in Washington D.C., on August 19th at 3pm,' the Department of Justice (DOJ) wrote in a release. The FBI and U.S. attorneys in Washington and Nashville said in the release that Cooper appeared in court Wednesday on a charge of unlawfully transmitting a threat to injure. According to a criminal complaint, Cooper allegedly wrote in a separate Aug. 13 post, 'If you are a member of the FBI, CIA, whatever, and are on my profile I will trace your IP address and kill you if the opportunity arises.'" ...

... Steve Almasy, et al., of CNN: "... more than two dozen people ... have been arrested over threats to commit mass shootings since 31 people were killed in one weekend this month in shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. The raft of cases follows a directive by the FBI director immediately after the two early August massacres for agency offices nationwide to conduct a new threat assessment in an effort to thwart more mass attacks." The report lists "the known threats with publicized arrests that law enforcement agencies have investigated since the Dayton and El Paso shootings[.]"

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "At least eight Bureau of Prisons staffers knew that strict instructions had been given not to leave multimillionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alone in his cell, yet the order was apparently ignored in the 24 hours leading up to his death, according to people familiar with the matter. The fact that so many prison officials were aware of the directive — not just low-level correctional officers, but supervisors and managers -- has alarmed investigators assessing what so far appears to be a stunning failure to follow instructions, these people said.... Investigators suspect that at least some of these individuals also knew Epstein had been left alone in a cell before he died...." The Raw Story has a summary report of the WashPo story. ...

... Tom Sykes of The Daily Beast: "Flight logs for Jeffrey Epstein's private jet reportedly suggest that Prince Andrew was in the same part of the world as Virginia Roberts Giuffre on at least three occasions. Giuffre alleges she was 'given' to Andrew by Epstein three times. The flight logs ... show that Giuffre was flown around the world by Epstein, while Andrew was touring the globe himself, touching down in similar locations." --s

News for MAGA Users. Lateshia Beachum of the Washington Post: "Now, people can apparently purchase 3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine (MDMA), known as ecstasy or molly, in the shape of Trump's face." Here's the ABC News story.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Brazil. Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "The Brazilian president,Jair Bolsonaro, has accused environmental groups of setting fires in the Amazon as he tries to deflect growing international criticism of his failure to protect the world's biggest rainforest. Brazil has had more than 72,000 fire outbreaks so far this year, an 84% increase on the same period in 2018.... More than half of them were in the Amazon..., Bolsonaro suggested the fires were started by environmental NGOs to embarrass his government.... Bolsonaro said there were no written records and it was just his feeling." --s

Japan/North Korea. Justin McCurry of the Guardian: "Japan's government will reportedly state that North Korea is capable of miniaturising nuclear warheads in a forthcoming defence report, it has emerged. Tokyo will upgrade its estimate of the regime's nuclear capability, having said last year only that the technical feat was a possibility[.]" --s

Japan/South Korea. Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "South Korea said on Thursday that it would abandon a vital military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, a move that is likely to alarm the United States, which pushed for the arrangement in part to ensure that North Korea's missile activity is closely tracked. South Korea's relations with Japan have been at a low point in the weeks since Tokyo imposed a series of trade restrictions on the South. Kim You-geun, first deputy chief of the South Korea's National Security Council, said Thursday that the South had chosen to terminate the intelligence-sharing deal because the restrictions had 'caused an important change in security-related cooperation between the two countries." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In case you don't think that trade wars precipitate or at least portend more serious tensions.

The Commentariat -- August 21, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Michael Shear & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The Trump administration unveiled a regulation on Wednesday that would allow it to detain indefinitely migrant families who cross the border illegally, replacing a decades-old court agreement that limited how long the government could hold migrant children in custody and mandated the level of care they must receive.... The new regulation would codify minimum standards for the conditions in family detention centers and would specifically abolish a 20-day limit on detaining families in immigration jails, a cap that has prompted President Trump to repeatedly complain about the 'catch and release' of families from Central America and elsewhere into the United States. The change will require approval from a federal judge before it can go into effect, and administration officials said they expect it to be immediately challenged in court." The NPR story is here. Mrs. McC: It's like, it's like, DHS has revealed Stephen Miller's wet dreams. But left out the torture part.

Jim Tankersley & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The federal budget deficit is growing faster than expected, even as President Trump muses about more tax cuts and other ideas that would add to government debt. The deficit will reach $960 billion for the 2019 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and $1 trillion for the 2020 fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office said in updated forecasts released on Wednesday. Previously, it had projected an $896 billion deficit for 2019 and $892 billion for 2020. Those numbers would be even higher, if not for lower-than-expected interest rates, which are reducing the cost of servicing the national debt." The CBS/AP story is here.

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Wednesday that Jewish Americans who vote for Democratic candidates are 'very disloyal to Israel,' expanding on his remarks from the previous day and dismissing criticism that his remarks were anti-Semitic.... Asked by a reporter Wednesday to clarify his remarks, [Trump said,] 'In my opinion, the Democrats have gone very far away from Israel... I cannot understand how they can do that .. In my opinion, if you vote for a Democrat, you're being very disloyal to Jewish people and you're being very disloyal to Israel. And only weak people would say anything other than that.'" ...

     ... The NBC News story, by Allan Smith, is here. "Then, while speaking to reporters on Wednesday about his efforts to take on China's trade practices, Trump pointed at the sky and said, 'I am the chosen one.'" ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump went on Twitter on Wednesday to quote a conservative radio host and known conspiracy theorist who praised him as 'the greatest President for Jews' and claimed that Israelis 'love him like he is the second coming of God.' In his tweets, Trump thanked Wayne Allyn Root for 'the very nice words.'... In his Wednesday morning tweets, Trump quoted Root saying, 'President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world ... and the Jewish people in Israel love him like he's the King of Israel.'... 'But American Jews don't know him or like him,' Root continued, according to Trump's tweets. 'They don't even know what they're doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense! But that's OK, if he keeps doing what he's doing, he's good for all Jews, Blacks, Gays, everyone. And importantly, he's good for everyone in America who wants a job.' In his own words, Trump added: 'Wow!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Wagner notes, "Jews do not believe in a second coming.” That, of course, is because they don't believe in Christians' claim there was a first coming. See also today's Comments. ...

... Beth Levin of Vanity Fair: "It's probably self-evident that anyone claiming Trump is the Messiah is not right in the head, but just so it's on the record, Wayne Allyn Root -- a self-described 'Jew turned evangelical Christian' -- is an unhinged conspiracy theorist who believes the 2017 Las Vegas shooting was a 'coordinated Muslim terror attack' by ISIS and that George Soros paid actors to stage the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville that included Nazi chants like 'Jews will not replace us.' Trump, incredibly, seems to believe that he's going to win over Jewish voters by telling them they don't [know] what's good for them ('They don't even know what they're doing or saying anymore!')."

This thread, not a full day after calling American Jewish Democrats disloyal, is eschatological antisemitism from a right wing extremist. It draws a line between good (right wing and/or Israeli) and bad (liberal) Jews. This is stochastic terrorism. -- Rabbi Andy Kahn, in a tweet

The President is a raving lunatic. He is not well. -- Andrew Gillum in a tweet ...

... Jonathan Chait: "If the president is seeking more insight into why Jews have failed to jump onto the Trump train, this tweetstorm itself supplies more evidence. Root is taking the traditional complaint that Christians make against Jews -- Why are you stiff-necked people forsaking your Lord and Savior? -- and substituting Trump himself for the role of the Messiah. The traditional Trumpist overture to Jews is that Trump might go after all the other minority groups but definitely won't turn on Jews. That approach having failed to yield dividends, he is now turning to castigating them for failing to worship the true King of the Jews and veritable Second Coming of God. 'They don't even know what they're doing or saying anymore' is not usually a good pitch for any constituency. And where Jews specifically are concerned, the whole 'Second Coming' thing remains a bit of a sensitive area."

It's What He Says about Women. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday said that the new prime minister of Denmark was 'nasty' to him when she rejected his interest in purchasing Greenland, as he explained why he abruptly canceled a trip to the European nation next month. Mr. Trump made the remarks to reporters outside the White House as he departed for a trip to Kentucky for an official event. he statement from Mette Frederiksen, the 41-year-old prime minister of Denmark, had called Mr. Trump's hope of buying Greenland 'absurd,' a statement the president called 'nasty.'... 'She's not talking to me, she's talking to the United States of America,' he said. 'They can't say "how absurd."'" ...

... Allie Malloy of CNN: "The President has frequently used the word 'nasty' to describe women he is angry with." Malloy cites "nasty" remarks Trump made about Nancy Pelosi, Meghan Markle, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris & Elizabeth Warren.

~~~~~~~~~~

Chicken Little. Elaina Plott of the Atlantic: Shortly after the massacres in El Paso, Texas, & Dayton, Ohio, Ivanka Trump thought she had talked her father into hosting a Rose Garden ceremony in which he would sign a measure enhancing background checks. On August 7, Donald Trump called Wayne LaPierre of the NRA to discuss the plan. "The president reportedly asked LaPierre whether the NRA was willing to give in at all on background checks. LaPierre's response, the sources said, was unequivocal: 'No.' With that, 'the Rose Garden fantasy,' as the NRA official described it to me, was scrapped as quickly as it had been dreamed up. Earlier this [Tuesday] afternoon, according to a person briefed on the call, the president told LaPierre in another phone call that universal background checks were off the table." ...

... The Bad News: Innocent People Will Needlessly Die. The Good News: White House Issues the Most Excellent Doublespeak Ever. Gregg Re of Fox "News": "The White House pushed back late Tuesday on claims by the National Rifle Association (NRA) that President Trump said universal background checks were off the table.... A White House official, speaking to Fox News, maintained that 'meaningful' new background checks remained a legislative option, and denied that Trump said he supported universal background checks." Mrs. McC: So the White House (1) denied that Trump had taken universal background checks off the table & (2) denied that Trump had ever supported universal background checks.

Orion Rummler of Axios: "President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday that he didn't 'buy' the tears from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) at a recent press conference addressing Israel's decision to bar entry to her and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), adding that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats show either 'a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.'" Emphasis added. ...

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: Trump's language echoed the anti-Semitic smear that Jews are more devoted to Israel than they are to their own country, an accusation that goes as far back as the Roman Empire and is now used by white nationalists.... 'It's unclear who @POTUS is claiming Jews would be "disloyal" to,' Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said on Twitter..., 'but charges of disloyalty have long been used to attack Jews.' Logan Bayroff ... of J Street, a progressive Jewish organization, said: '... it is no surprise that the president's racist, disingenuous attacks on progressive women of color in Congress have now transitioned into smears against Jews.'... [Trump's] remark was the latest from a president who has a history of language that stokes racial and religious divisions, some of which have surfaced recently in the statements and writings of deranged people bent on committing violence." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is how crazy Trump is now. I leave it to your imagination as to how stark-staring mad he will be by election day 2020. ...

I am a proud Jewish person, and I have no concerns about voting Democratic. And in fact, I intend to vote for a Jewish man to become the next president of the United States. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa ...

... Jacob Kornbluh of Jewish Insider:"Jewish Democrats rushed to condemn Trump's statement. Halie Soifer, executive director of Jewish Democratic Council of America, said in a statement, 'This is yet another example of Donald Trump continuing to weaponize and politicize anti-Semitism.' The president's 'appalling' statement reveals that 'his professed support for Israel is based on personal political calculation, not principled commitment,' the Democratic Majority for Israel said on Twitter. Aaron Keyak, former National Jewish Democratic Council head, told JI, 'Just because President Trump is deeply unpopular in our community is no reason to slander us with echoes of some of the most insidious attacks against our people.' The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) defended the president. 'It shows a great deal of disloyalty to oneself to defend a party that protects/emboldens people that hate you for your religion,' the RJC tweeted." ...

... Conservative Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner: "No matter which way one wants to interpret this comment, it's sickening coming from an American president -- all the more bizarre coming as he has been unleashing a barrage of attacks on Tlaib and Omar for anti-Semitism.... [Trump] has up to this point avoided turning his wrath on Jews, but given his history of flipping on people he views as 'disloyal,' his comments make me wonder what would happen if, as is most likely, Jews overwhelmingly vote against him despite his pro-Israel policies." ...

... Batya Ungar-Sargon of the Forward: "President Trump, long a trafficker in anti-Semitic stereotypes, treated American Jews to a classic anti-Semitic canard Tuesday afternoon.... The dual loyalties trope is a classic of anti-Semitic literature. The idea that Jews are more loyal to each other or to Israel than to the countries where they live has long been used as an excuse to vilify our communities and to whip up pogroms against us. It's been used to justify our torture, murder, and even genocide. That the President of the United States would suggest that we vote for his party or be called traitors is an absolutely horrifying state of affairs, reminiscent of the worst periods of Jewish history.... Who in the Republican Party -- so quick to call out Democrats for their failures -- will call him out for this?... Someone close to the President clearly knows the comment was problematic: It was edited out of the White House's [video] version of the press conference...." Similarly, Democrats have failed to call out Omar & Tlaib for their recent anti-Semitic actions. "It's getting to the point where separating out left wing anti-Semitism from right wing anti-Semitism feels moot...." ...

... Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday ramped up his attacks on Rep. Rashida Tlaib after the Michigan Democrat got emotional at a press conference criticizing Israel over its decision to bar her from entering the country last week. 'Sorry, I don't buy Rep. Tlaib's tears,' Trump tweeted after Tlaib spoke out the previous day about Israel's decision. 'I have watched her violence, craziness and, most importantly, WORDS, for far too long. Now tears?' Trump again claimed that Tlaib 'hates Israel and all Jewish people,' and called her an 'anti-Semite.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wait, Wait. There's More Crazy. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday night abruptly canceled a coming trip to Denmark, writing on Twitter that because the country's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, 'would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland,' they would meet 'another time.'... Mr. Trump said he was reacting to Ms. Frederiksen's hard rejection of his interest [in buying Greenland].... Mr. Trump was scheduled to visit Copenhagen on Sept. 2 and 3, after being invited by Queen Margrethe II. The president was expected to participate in a series of bilateral meetings and meet with business leaders, and Ms. Frederiksen had underscored the importance of the session, calling the United States 'Denmark's most important and strongest ally in NATO.'... Mr. Trump ... [previously] claimed that discussing a potential purchase of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory reliant on Danish support, was not the purpose of his trip to Denmark.... The Twitter cancellation appeared to take Mr. Trump's own administration by surprise. 'Denmark is ready for the POTUS @realDonaldTrump visit!' Mr. Trump's ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, wrote on Twitter, hours before the trip was pulled back, with a photograph of 'Trump' billboards in place to welcome the president." ...

This is no longer funny. Danish troops fought alongside the US in Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 Danes died. The president dishonors the alliance and their sacrifice. On the same day he sought to appease [Russian President Vladimir] Putin by supporting his return to the G8. -- Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution, in a tweet ...

... Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "Trump's announcement suggests that, despite his denials, the central purpose of his trip had been discussion of a U.S. purchase of the massive, glaciered island, which holds increasing value as melting sea ice opens new parts of the Arctic to shipping and resource extraction.... Danish lawmakers, however, were outraged [that the purpose of Trump's had visit apparently had been to buy Greenland].... Senior administration officials had discussed the possibility of offering Denmark a deal in which the United States would take over its annual $600 million subsidy to Greenland in perpetuity, said two people familiar with the talks who were not authorized to reveal the internal deliberations. They also discussed giving Denmark a large one-time payment as well to incentivize the transfer, the people said." ...

      ... The USA Today story is here. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "During the 2016 presidential primary, Ted Cruz said, 'I don't know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way having his finger on the button. I mean, we're liable to wake up one morning and Donald, if he were president, would have nuked Denmark.' So the good news is that Trump is still exceeding expectations." ...

... Maybe Trump Thinks Putin Will Sell Him Siberia. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday reiterated his call for Russia to be allowed to rejoin the Group of Seven industrial nations, saying it's 'more appropriate to have Russia in.' Trump was speaking with reporters in the Oval Office days before he is set to arrive in France for this weekend's G-7 summit. 'I guess President Obama, because Putin outsmarted him -- President Obama thought it wasn't a good thing to have Russia in, so he wanted Russia out,' Trump said, referring to his predecessor's push for a united stand against Russia after it annexed Ukraine's Crimea region. 'But I think it's much more appropriate to have Russia in.'" The CNBC story is here.

Nearly Every Time Trump Speaks, He Makes Liars of His Staff. Damian Paletta, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday confirmed he is considering whether to push for a temporary payroll tax cut or other tax changes amid mounting concerns about an economic slowdown. Trump tried to tout the economy's strength while also spelling out a number of steps he might push for that are usually reserved for periods of significant economic weakness. In addition to tax-cut ideas that Trump said are under review, he continued Tuesday to push the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates. Trump's comments laid bare increasingly urgent White House discussions that have shifted from public denials that anything is wrong to a review process aimed at soliciting ideas to stimulate the economy.... [Monday,] the White House publicly denied [a payroll tax cut] was under consideration." The ABC News story is here. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Way back when Barack Obama was president, I occasionally listened to the daily press briefings (because way back then, there actually were daily press briefings). In response to questions, the press secretary (Jay Carney or Josh Earnest) would sometimes say, "I spoke to the President about that this morning...," or "I haven't spoken to the President about that; I'll get back to you" (which he reportedly usually did). As a result, there was none of this:

WH official yesterday: 'cutting payroll taxes is not something under consideration at this time.'

Trump today, per pool: 'Been thinking about payroll taxes for a long time'
     -- Annie Karni of the New York Times, in a tweet

... Nancy Cook of Politico: "At a fundraising luncheon this week in Jackson, Wyo., headlined by both Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged the [precarious state of the economy] to the GOP elite behind closed doors. If the U.S. were to face a recession, it would be 'moderate and short,' Mulvaney told roughly 50 donors, according to an attendee."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Brandy Zadronsky & Ben Collins of NBC News: "By the numbers, there is no bigger advocate of President Donald Trump on Facebook than The Epoch Times.... Behind the scenes, the media outlet's ownership and operation is closely tied to Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual community with the stated goal of taking down China's government.... Former practitioners of Falun Gong told NBC News that believers think the world is headed toward a judgment day, where those labeled 'communists' will be sent to a kind of hell, and those sympathetic to the spiritual community will be spared. Trump is viewed as a key ally in the anti-communist fight.... The Epoch Times now wields one of the biggest social media followings of any news outlet.... That engagement has made The Epoch Times a favorite of the Trump family and a key component of the president's re-election campaign.... [I]ts network of news sites and YouTube channels has made it a powerful conduit for the internet's fringier conspiracy theories, including anti-vaccination propaganda and QAnon, to reach the mainstream." Read the whole article. There's too much crazy to summarize. --s

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Federal agents arrested a Washington state man who allegedly threatened to 'exterminate' Latinos as part of a race war he believed would be launched by ... Donald Trump. According to court documents, Eric Lin frequently praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler online and sent multiple death threats against a woman in Miami and plotted to pay a man to beat her up, reported the Miami New Times. 'The time will come when Miami will burn to the ground -- and every Latin Man will be lined up against a Wall and Shot and every Latin Woman Raped or Cut to Pieces,' Lin wrote Aug. 8, according to investigators." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Another "Very Fine Person"? Anthony Attrino of NJ.com: New Jersey "State Police troopers who responded to the scene of a traffic accident last month said they found three firearms inside the driver's vehicle, along with bullets and brass knuckles that led to the discovery of a bigger weapons cache at the man's Sussex County home.... 'In the process of extracting Rubino from the motor vehicle in order to render medical treatment, law enforcement observed, among other things, various firearms and ammunition inside Rubino's vehicle,' authorities said in the complaint filed in federal court.... Police then obtained a search warrant for Rubino's home, where they found 14 more firearms, including assault rifles, shotguns, and handguns, authorities said. They also found four high-capacity magazines, ammunition, a grenade launcher, silencer tubes and a ballistics vest, authorities said. Officers also found methamphetamine, more than 6 pounds of marijuana, 200 cannabis vape cartridges and marijuana edibles, authorities said. Inside both the vehicle and the home, police found clothing and bumper stickers with white supremacist and Neo-Nazi slogans along with a document 'containing racist material and purporting to be an instruction manual for owning a slave,' the complaint states."

S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump has filed financial disclosure statements that appear to misstate the value and profitability of his Scotland golf courses by $165 million, possibly violating federal laws that are punishable by jail time. Trump claimed in his 2018 U.S. filing that his Turnberry and Aberdeen resorts were each worth more than $50 million. For that same time period, he filed balance sheets with the United Kingdom government showing that their combined debt exceeded their assets by 47.9 million British pounds ― the equivalent of $64.8 million at the exchange rate on Dec. 31, 2017, the date of the last U.K. filing available."

Anne Flaherty & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "The Trump administration is expected to announce, as early as Wednesday, that it's moving ahead with new rules that would allow for the longer term detention of families traveling with children across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two government officials familiar with the plan. The government's detention of children has been limited to less than 20 days under a court settlement known as the Flores Settlement Agreement." ...

... Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is trying to reach a deal with the Panama government that would allow the United States to send asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and elsewhere to Panamanian territory, if those travelers passed through the country en route to U.S. soil. The 'safe third country' accord would primarily apply to the relatively small but growing numbers of 'extracontinental' asylum seekers who arrive in South America before heading north into Panama through wild jungles and muddy rivers. Acting homeland security secretary Kevin McAleenan will travel to Panama City on Wednesday to meet with the country's newly elected president, Laurentino Cortizo, to 'discuss regional cooperation to confront irregular migration,' the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement." ...

... Jessica Bursztynsky of CNBC: "The U.S. won’t be vaccinating migrant families in holding centers ahead of this year's flu season, despite calls from doctors to boost efforts to fight the infection that's killed at least three children at detention facilities in the past year.... At least three children who were held in detention centers after crossing into the U.S. from Mexico have died in recent months, in part, from the flu, according to a letter to Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., from several doctors urging Congress to investigate health conditions at the centers. The United States had previously gone almost a decade without any children dying while under U.S. immigration custody."

Presidential Race 2020

Warren is, for once, on the right.Hannah Sayle of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: At a Minnesota rally, Elizabeth Warren met her doppelganger: Stephanie Oyen of Edina, Minnesota. Before the event began, so many people rushed Oyen, thinking she was Warren, that Oyen eventually removed her glasses & blazer.

Charles Pierce: "Unlike several of his colleagues, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, has managed to find a way to keep busy without the expense and bother of running for president." Read especially the excerpts of Whitehouse's amicus brief to the Supremes regarding a gun case. Mrs. McC: Whitehouse, who was at the top of my next-POTUS list until he chose not to join the stampeding horde, does not mince words, except to say he's very good at chopping them fine & making sure the guests get their just deserts.

David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "The corporate panic about capitalism [-- expressed most forcefully by the Business Roundtable's statement that companies must serve not only shareholders but also customers, employees, suppliers and communities --] could be a turning point, opening the way for a future president to begin fixing the problems of stagnant wages and inequality that are at the core of America's disarray. Business leaders seem to recognize the crisis: ... Corporate America fears the system is failing. President Trump's election reflects a populist rage that threatens America's future prosperity and stability.... [Franklin] Roosevelt saved capitalism by reforming it, redeeming his campaign pledge to 'the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.' Who in the current Democratic field can claim this role in 2020?" ...

... ** OR. Eric Levitz of New York: "Coverage of the Business Roundtable's rejection of shareholder value has been largely positive, while criticism has focused less on the substance of the lobby's new position than its alleged insincerity in adopting it.... But the Business Roundtable literally exists to prevent the U.S. government from statutorily mandating corporate America's fulfillment of such obligations. Founded in 1972, the lobby played a leading role in blocking the creation of a consumer-protection agency -- and a progressive revision of labor law -- under Jimmy Carter, thereby setting the stage for an era in which the interests of those' stakeholders' were ruthlessly subordinated to those of corporate stockholders (very much including the Business Roundtable's membership). In light of this history, the lobby's statement reads less like an argument for a less-profit-driven corporate culture than a case against a more democratically managed economy."

Justin Miller of the Texas Observer on how ALEC is preparing state legislators for the 2021 redistricting battle. "ALEC appears to be positioning itself as a key player in the scramble to maximize Republican power for another decade.... The GOP has embarked on a highly controversial and legally dubious crusade -- led by Trump -- to change how districts are drawn in a way that requires a radical reinterpretation of the Constitution's 'one person, one vote' principle. Right now, states draw those districts based on total population counts, but for years, party operatives have quietly plotted to draw state legislative districts based solely on the voter-eligible citizen population -- a move that would increase the power of predominantly white areas and diminish the power of heavily Hispanic areas...."

A Sickening New Definition of "Work Release." David Ovalle of the Miami Herald: "While serving a lenient jail sentence in Palm Beach County, wealthy financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was allowed to leave jail for 'work release' -- at an office at his own organization, the Florida Science Foundation. But at the foundation, according to a newly filed lawsuit, Epstein and his web of associates repeatedly arranged for sex with at least two girls, including one he met when she was 17.... The allegation was included in a trio of lawsuits filed Tuesday by three women who have now come forward to allege that Epstein abused them over years, dangling promises of riches and stability."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Brazil/Earth. Bruce Douglas & Tatiana Freitas of Bloomberg: "Around half a billion bees died in four of Brazil's southern states in the year's first months. The die-off highlighted questions about the ocean of pesticides used in the country's agriculture and whether chemicals are washing through the human food supply -- even as the government considers permitting more.... Since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January, Brazil has permitted sales of a record 290 pesticides, up 27% over the same period last year, and a bill in Congress would relax standards even further.... Brazil's pesticide use increased 770% from 1990 to 2016, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations." --s

Italy. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Italy's nationalist government collapsed on Tuesday as the country's prime minister [Giuseppe Conte] announced his resignation in the face of a mutinous power play by the hard-line and increasingly popular interior minister, Matteo Salvini.... With Mr. Salvini seated beside him with raised chin, Mr. Conte took aim, accusing him of 'political opportunism,' disregard for Italy's institutions and thrusting the country into a 'vortex of political uncertainty and financial instability.'" The Guardian's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

U.K. Jennifer Rankin & Jessica Elgot of the Guardian: "The European Union has rebuffed Boris Johnson's attempts to tear up the Irish backstop, in a coordinated response that appeared to close the door on further meaningful Brexit negotiations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)