The Commentariat -- July 23, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Olivia Beavers & Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "One of former special counsel Robert Mueller's deputies, Aaron Zebley, may accompany him for his public appearance before Congress on Wednesday, according to Republican lawmakers and multiple sources familiar with the internal discussions. One Democratic source said Zebley is likely to join Mueller at the witness table on Wednesday, though several sources described the situation as fluid. A Republican source said they were told by the Judiciary Committee that Mueller requested Zebley join him for his public testimony. A spokesman for Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said as of Tuesday afternoon Mueller was the only witness expected for the hearing."

Here's the New York Times' story, by Stephen Castle, on Boris Johnson's becoming Conservative party leader & new British PM. More stories linked under Way Beyond the Beltway. ...

... "Ivanka Trump Congratulates Boris Johnson On Becoming PM Of Nonexistent Country." Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "Ivanka Trump congratulated British lawmaker Boris Johnson for his imminent appointment as prime minister of the ... 'United Kingston' instead of United Kingdom." "Look Daddy.....I'm governmenting!!!" wrote Twitter wag Kim. Thanks to forrest m. for the link.

Potemkin Village, HHS-Style. Emily Green of Vice: "When the Department of Health and Human Services wanted to show how well it was treating unaccompanied minors in its custody, it invited journalists and politicians to visit a new emergency shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas, which had soccer fields, a gazebo, and well-equipped classrooms. Yet less than a month after it opened, that facility is shutting down...." Emphasis added. Read on.

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "More than 2,000 migrants who were in the United States illegally were targeted in widely publicized raids that unfolded across the country last week. But figures the government provided to The New York Times on Monday show that just 35 people were detained in the operation."

Obed Manual in the Dallas Morning News: "An 18-year-old Dallas-born U.S. citizen has been in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than three weeks, his attorney says.... [Francisco] Galicia wasn't allowed to use the phone for the three weeks he was in CBP custody, [his mother] said. Francisco's brother Marlon, who was born in Mexico, signed a voluntary deportation form after the CBP detained him for two days. "The Dallas Morning News reviewed a copy of the birth certificate [which Francisco's mother presented to CBP officials] and it lists Galicia as having been born at Parkland Memorial Hospital on December 24, 2000." Mrs. McC: Yes, but he "looks Mexican."

Trump's Tweets Led to Pipe Bombs. Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "Cesar Sayoc, the fanatical Donald Trump fan who mailed package bombs to the president's political opponents, is a cognitively limited sexual abuse survivor who thought of the now-president as a 'surrogate father' and came to believe in an 'alternative reality' fueled in part by Trump's attacks on his political opponents, his attorneys told a federal court on Monday. Sayoc has admitted to mailing pipe bombs to Democratic politicians, media figures and celebrities he perceived as Trump's enemies last fall, and pleaded guilty to several federal crimes in March.... 'A rational observer may have brushed off Trump's tweets as hyperbole, but Mr. Sayoc took them to heart,' according to Sayoc's attorneys."

Thanks, Betsy! Erica Green & Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "Dream Center Education Holdings, a subsidiary of a Los Angeles-based megachurch, had no experience in higher education when it petitioned the federal Education Department to let it take over a troubled chain of for-profit trade schools.... The purchase was blessed [by the Education Department] despite Dream Center's lack of experience and questionable finances by an administration favorable to for-profit education. But barely a year later, the company tumbled into insolvency, dozens of its colleges closed abruptly and thousands of students were left with no degree after paying tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.... Company emails, documents and recordings show that part of why Dream Center kept going is that it thought the Education Department, which under [Betsy] DeVos has rolled back regulations on for-profit education, would try to keep it from failing. Mr. Barton emailed other Dream Center executives that the department's head of higher education policy -- Diane Auer Jones, a former executive and lobbyist for for-profit colleges -- had pulled strings to help the company's schools in their effort to regain a seal of approval from an accreditor, despite their perilous positions. In another instance, Dream Center's chief operating officer told faculty at an endangered campus that Ms. Jones was changing departmental regulations to help the schools obtain accreditation retroactively."

Ben Westcott, et al., of CNN: "Warplanes from four countries faced off Tuesday in a chaotic and unprecedented confrontation above a small, disputed island off the coast of South Korea and Japan. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement claiming they had fired more than 300 warning shots at a Russian A-50 command and control military aircraft early Tuesday morning after it had twice violated the country's airspace, the first such incident between the countries. Moscow furiously denied Seoul's account of the encounter, claiming that South Korean military jets had dangerously intercepted two of its bombers during a planned flight over neutral waters. But in a statement Tuesday afternoon, Japan's Ministry of Defense backed up South Korea's claims, saying the A-50 had flown over the islands and that Tokyo had scrambled fighters to intercept. In a further complication, both South Korea and Japan said that two Chinese H-6 bombers had joined the Russian military aircraft on sorties through the region as well."

~~~~~~~~~~

** Emily Cochrane, et al., of the New York Times: "White House and congressional negotiators reached accord on a two-year budget on Monday that would raise spending caps and lift the government's debt ceiling, likely averting a fiscal crisis but splashing still more red ink on an already surging deficit. If passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, the deal would stop a potential debt default this fall and avoid automatic spending cuts next year. The agreement would also bring clarity about government spending over the rest of Mr. Trump's term.... The agreement, struck by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, would raise spending by $320 billion, compared to the strict spending levels established in the 2011 Budget Control Act and set to go into effect next year without legislative action. Spending on domestic and military programs would increase equally, a key demand of Ms. Pelosi, offset by about $75 billion in spending cuts, far lower than the $150 billion in cuts that some White House officials initially demanded. The deal would lift the debt ceiling high enough to allow the government to keep borrowing for two more years, punting the next showdown past the 2020 elections." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... John Bresnahan & Burgess Everett of Politico: "... Donald Trump may have to hand out some new nicknames -- for himself -- after endorsing a bipartisan budget deal with Congress: 'Trillion Dollar Trump?' 'Deficit Don?' With a new bipartisan budget deal that does nothing to cut federal spending, Trump is on track for another $1 trillion deficit this year. And there's no reason to believe the following fiscal year will be any different, with ballooning deficits from higher spending, the 2017 tax cuts -- Trump's signature legislative achievement, which slashed revenue -- and none of the entitlement reforms long preached by Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. Candidate Trump bragged that he would pay off the entire federal debt in eight years, but President Trump is governing as if deficits don't matter. In fact, Trump is approaching the level of red ink from President Barack Obama's first term, when Obama racked up trillion-dollar deficits four years in a row. Trump is on pace to do the same, starting with this year's yawning deficit of more than $1 trillion, according to budget estimates. But there are huge differences: Trump has a growing economy with historically low unemployment and a soaring stock market, while Obama was battling a brutal downturn in the economy during the worst recession in 80 years, making it much harder to curb federal spending." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It makes no sense to rack up deficits when the economy is in fairly good shape. The purpose of "fiat money" -- the government's ability to "print money" -- is to pump cash into the economy when it needs a boost during a recession or depression. But economists agree, in general, that the federal government should balance its budget & work toward getting the government in the black when the economy is mostly humming along because debt is expensive, especially when a good portion of that debt is to foreign entities. There can be exceptions: for instance, if government services like, say, infrastructure are in dire need of upgrades. (In theory, if all or most of the U.S.'s debt was owed to Americans, as it was after WWII, the national debt is not a net loss. Rather, it's a transfer from your grandkids to somebody else's grandkids or vice-versa.)

Almost every word out of Trump's mouth is a lie. Anderson Cooper calls him out:

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... ahead of the congressional hearings, Mr. Trump and his aides sought to dismiss them as nothing more than a desperate attempt to elicit from Mr. Mueller something that could justify impeachment proceedings. 'We had a total "no collusion" finding. The Democrats were devastated by it. They went crazy. They have gone off the deep end,' Mr. Trump said during a lengthy question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office, adding, 'All they care about is a phony investigation.' Mr. Trump's comments came after he posted about Mr. Mueller on Twitter earlier in the day, calling him 'highly conflicted' and saying that his testimony would be 'bad for him and the phony Democrats in Congress who have done nothing but waste time on this ridiculous Witch Hunt.' The president's tone was echoed by his aides.... But even as the president railed against Mr. Mueller online and in person, he also sought to continue his criticism of four Democratic congresswomen of color after a week in which his tweets about them dominated news coverage.... 'The "Squad" is a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'They are pulling the once great Democrat Party far left, and were against humanitarian aid at the Border...And are now against ICE and Homeland Security. So bad for our Country!'... Mr. Trump went on to claim that 'there's no racial tension' in the United States.... 'It's nonsense, O.K.,' he said, referring to the Russia inquiry but then mentioning last week's vote. 'They tried an impeachment vote and they got slaughtered last week. They got absolutely slaughtered. It was the most ridiculous -- I didn't even know they were going to do it.'" And so forth. ...

... Gail Collins & Bret Stephens of the New York Times argue about whether Trump is a vile, evil schemer or "just a raving imbecile." Mrs. McC: I'm going with both. ...

... Stifling Mueller. Bill Barr's DOJ Is at It Again. Eliana Johnson, et al., of Politico: "Justice Department officials have communicated to Robert Mueller that the department expects him to limit his congressional testimony this week to the public findings of his 448-page report, according to one current and one former U.S. official familiar with the preparations. In extensive discussions since the former special counsel was subpoenaed to testify on June 25, department officials have emphasized that they consider any evidence he gathered throughout the course of his investigation to be 'presumptively privileged' and shielded from public disclosure. The Justice Department is 'taking the position that anything outside the written pages of the report are things about which presidential privilege hasn't been waived,' the former U.S. official said. The White House and the Justice Department, meanwhile, have signaled they don't intend to place lawyers in the room during Mueller's highly-anticipated testimony...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Oh, Wait. It Gets Worse. David Shortell, et al., of CNN: In the letter, Associate Deputy AG Bradley "Weinsheimer told Mueller that DOJ policy prevents him from commenting on the legal conclusions his office made 'with respect to uncharged individuals, other than information contained within the portions of your report that already have been made public.' Weinsheimer also said Mueller should not testify about portions of the public report that have been redacted or about uncharged third parties." Mrs. McC: So nothing about Trump Sr., Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, etc., etc. ...

... Fox "News" has Weinsheimer's letter here. ...

... Rebecca Fishbein of Splinter: "So, as expected, everyone glued to their TVs at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday will more or less get a rehash of Amazon's #17 bestseller mashed up with a rotating series Congresspeople trying to shove in their 15 minutes (Mrs. McC: I think that's 5 minutes, but whatever). Democrats say they hope Mueller reiterating the report on live television will at least get people talking about impeachment again, but since the House's summer recess starts just a few days after Mueller testifies, that's probably a pipe dream. And in the end, after all this, President Trump will get to tweet some nonsense about how even dragging Mueller in front of Congress hasn't gotten him in any trouble. Anyway, Mueller would like everyone to know that he really doesn't want to do this, so thanks for fucking up his retirement." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe Mueller will surprise us, but he is a No Surprises kind of guy, so the odds are long. Mueller has a history of doing "thorough" investigations & writing reports signifying little or nothing. I'd say Rod Rosenstein hired Mueller with Mueller's NFL whitewash in mind. Mueller knows who's paying his tab & he acts accordingly. The people the special counsel prosecuted were people of no consequence to Trump: a campaign manager & a national security advisor Trump had fired, a personal lawyer who "ratted," factotums whose names Trump probably can't remember (or spell), a bunch of Russian hackers who will never go to trial. If you think the fix was in from the get-go, you're probably not a ridiculous cynic or conspiracy theorist.

International Policy by Bluster. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump said Monday he could end the war in Afghanistan 'in a week,' but that doing so would cause millions of deaths. Instead, the president said during a White House meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan that he wants Pakistan's help to bring an end to the nearly 18-year-old conflict.... 'If I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth.... It would be over in -- literally, in 10 days.'" ...

... But Wait. It Gets Worse. Jonathan Chait of New York: "India and Pakistan have been at daggers drawn over Kashmir for as long as both countries have existed.... It is, in short, a very sensitive topic. President Trump today announced, in a meeting with Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had invited him to mediate the subject. India heatedly denied having extended such an offer, having long maintained that it will not accept outside mediation.... With Khan beside him, Trump shared his alleged private conversation with Modi. 'He actually said, "Would you like to be a mediator or arbiter?" I said, "Where?" He said, "Kashmir." Because this has been going on for many, many years. I was surprised at how long.'... Maybe Modi decided that what he needed to settle his highly delicate, decades-long, blood-soaked international rivalry was the intervention of an erratic narcissist who probably couldn't locate the disputed territory on a map."

Trump May Show off His Corruption to World Leaders. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The Trump administration, which next year will host the leaders of the world's most powerful economies for the G7 summit, is down to its final few choices after completing site surveys of possible locations -- and Trump National Doral, President Trump's 800-acre golf club in Miami, is among the finalists." Mrs. McC: Maybe the members will kick the U.S. out of the G-7 because we now so resemble a third-world nation. (Also linked yesterday.)

While we're listening to Trump lie about everything, his minions are doing terrible stuff:

Tom Polansek of Reuters: "The Trump administration on Tuesday will propose a rule to tighten food stamp restrictions that would cut about 3.1 million people from the program, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said. Currently, 43 U.S. states allow residents to automatically become eligible for food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, if they receive benefits from another federal program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, according to the USDA. But the agency wants to require people who receive TANF benefits to pass a review of their income and assets to determine whether they are eligible for free food from SNAP, officials said. If enacted, the rule would save the federal government about $2.5 billion a year by removing people from SNAP, according to the USDA.... Donald Trump has argued that many Americans now using SNAP do not need it given the strong economy and low unemployment, and should be removed as a way to save taxpayers as much as $15 billion."

Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: "The Trump administration is planning to expand a procedure to speed up deportations to include undocumented immigrants anywhere in the US who cannot prove they've lived in the US continuously for two years or more. The change casts a wider net of undocumented immigrants subject to the fast-track deportation procedure known as 'expedited removal,' which allows immigration authorities to remove an individual without a hearing before an immigration judge." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Ed Kilgore of New York: "Send them back" is not just a racist, xenophobic Trumpbot chant; it's policy. "According to one estimate, it would instantly expose 300,000 people to quick deportation for the first time. And because the burden of proof for establishing the time of residence is on the immigrant, it could well be applied to many more who have been in the country for much longer than two years.... The general police-state atmosphere, of course, will be significantly enhanced by the expansion of authorized expedited deportations far beyond the border.... Unsurprisingly, advocates for immigrants and their communities are gearing up for a legal battle to stop the new policy's implementation[.]" ...

... Owen Daugherty of the Hill: "The Illinois Republican County Chairmen's Association (IRCCA) shared and later apparently deleted a movie poster-style meme labeling four Democratic minority congresswomen the 'Jihad Squad.' The post was shared on the group's Facebook page early Saturday morning and featured images of Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib(Mich.).... Mark Shaw, president of the IRCCA, issued a statement Sunday night after the post was deleted. 'I condemn this unauthorized posting and it has been deleted,' Shaw wrote in a post on the group's Facebook page. 'I am sorry if anyone who saw the image was offended by the contents.'" Mrs. McC: "I'm sorry if you're offended that we're racists." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Meet Your Trump Voters. Stephanie Saul & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "As President Trump presses his attacks against four women of color in Congress, suggesting they are unpatriotic and should leave the country, many voters in [Port Huron, Michigan,] are embracing his 'America -- Love It or Leave It' message, saying they do not see it as racist. And though they dismiss Mr. Trump's Twitter broadsides as excessive or juvenile, they voiced strong support for his re-election and expressed their own misgivings about the four women. 'They happen to be black or colored,' Dennis Kovach, 82, said of the women, as he watered the lawn of his home near the lake this weekend. 'But I don't think that viewpoint is a racist viewpoint....' ... As Mr. Trump signaled his intent last week to rely on nationalism and identity politics to propel his re-election campaign -- portraying Democrats as out of sync with American values -- his message did not appear to be backfiring with the conservative voters he hopes to bring out in force in 2020."

Trent Spiner of Politico: Vice President "Pence abruptly canceled his trip to Manchester, N.H., earlier this month but never said why he was pulled from Air Force Two at the last minute.... Among the problems was a federal law enforcement probe involving individuals Pence would likely encounter ..., [at least one of whom] was under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration for moving more than $100,000 of fentanyl from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. Jeff Hatch ... a former New York Giants player ... who agreed in federal court Friday to plead guilty and will face up to four years in prison, works for an opioid addiction treatment center in southern New Hampshire that Pence was set to visit." Mrs. McC: Aah, I still think pence was called off the tarmac because Trump wigged out & staff thought it might be 25th Amendment time (just kidding).

... Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "A Facebook post by a Louisiana police officer suggesting that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'needs a round' drew criticism on Sunday from officials in the city where he works. The officer, Charlie Rispoli, a 14-year veteran of the police department in Gretna, La., referred to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, in a post on Thursday as 'this vile idiot.' The post continued, saying she 'needs a round -- and I don't mean the kind she used to serve,' a reference to her past work as a bartender, according to a screenshot of his comment obtained by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ... ** See Nisky Guy's comment in yesterday's thread. The Snopes report Nisky Guy cites is here. Mrs. McC: I tweeted Vigdor & e-mailed the NYT editors to bitch about it. I expect a response (and I have not received one as of 9:30 pm ET Monday, nor has the story been corrected). This omission is a real candidate for the "Annals of 'Journalism,' Ctd." header. ...

... Update. Adios. Chad Calder of the Times-Picayune: "The Gretna Police Department fired two officers Monday, just days after one of the officers posted a comment on social media that suggested U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should be shot. The author of the Facebook post, Charlie Rispoli, and another officer who 'liked' the post, Angelo Varisco, were both fired for violating the department's social-media policy, Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson announced at a press conference.... Ocasio-Cortez tweeted about the local incident for the first time Monday afternoon, saying, 'This is Trump's goal when he uses targeted language & threatens elected officials who don't agree w/ his political agenda. It's authoritarian behavior.'"

Presidential Race 2020

Déjà vu All Over Again. Michael Sallah, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Two unofficial envoys reporting directly to Donald Trump's personal lawyer have waged a remarkable back-channel campaign to discredit the president's rivals and undermine the special counsel's inquiry into Russian meddling in US elections. In a whirlwind of private meetings, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman -- who pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican campaigns and dined with the president -- gathered repeatedly with top officials in Ukraine and set up meetings for Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani as they turned up information that could be weaponized in the 2020 presidential race. The two men urged prosecutors to investigate allegations against Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. And they pushed for a probe into accusations that Ukrainian officials plotted to rig the 2016 election in Hillary Clinton's favor by leaking evidence against Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chair, in what became a cornerstone of the special counsel's inquiry. They also waged an aggressive campaign in the United States, staying at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, and meeting with key members of Congress as they joined in a successful push that led to the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine after she angered their allies in Kiev." (Also linked yesterday.)

Congressional Races 2020

Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune: "Former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis is running for Congress. Early Monday morning, Davis announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination in Central Texas' 21st District. She is challenging U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a freshman Republican from Austin.... Davis is a fierce national advocate for abortion rights, while Roy has built his reputation in his first six months in Congress as a conservative firebrand. Davis lives in Austin but spent much of her adult life in Fort Worth, where she served on the City Council and in the state Senate. In 2013, Davis became a national figure when she filibustered an omnibus anti-abortion bill. Later that fall, she announced her campaign for Texas governor. Despite strong fundraising, she lost to Republican Greg Abbott by over 20 percentage points."

Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "Alex Morse, the mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, announced Monday that he will mount a primary challenge against Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee who has been criticized by progressives for not pushing harder for the release of ... Donald Trump's tax returns." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jared Holt of Right Wing Watch IDs the Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank, as increasingly going all white nationalist. The Institute has granted a fellowship to "One America News Network pundit Jack Posobiec, a notorious 'Pizzagate' conspiracy theorist with past ties to extreme-right figures...." Nonetheless, Claremont is pretty mainstream in Trump World: "In May, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the organization's 40th Anniversary Gala in California." Oh, and Claremont is the go-to place for conservatives "opposing LGBTQ equality and immigration issues...."

** Jane Mayer of the New Yorker does an autopsy on Al Franken's resignation from the Senate. It was a hit job, & a number senators who called for his resignation admit now they made a big mistake. "A big part of Franken's political problem was the way the story broke. KABC-AM released [Leeann] Tweeden's material on its Web site, giving it the look of a proper news story. In reality, the station, which is owned by Cumulus Media, was a struggling conservative talk-radio station whose survival plan was to become the most pro-Trump station in Los Angeles." (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Puerto Rico. Frances Robles & Alejandra Rosa of the New York Times: "Hundreds of thousands of people swept through the capital of Puerto Rico on Monday, shutting down a major highway and paralyzing much of the city in the latest in a series of furious protests over the island's embattled governor, Ricardo A. Rosselló. The protest was one of the largest ever seen on the island, as Puerto Ricans streamed into the capital on buses -- and some on planes from the mainland -- in a spontaneous eruption of fury over the years of recession, mismanagement, natural disaster and corruption that have fueled a recent exodus." ...

... The Interview Did Not Go Well. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "During his first television interview since the scandal broke out over leaked private chats that have resulted in near-unanimous calls for his resignation, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló struggled to come up with a single name when Fox News anchor Shepard Smith pressed him to offer up anyone who currently supports him. With hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans taking to the streets of San Juan on Monday to demand Rosselló's resignation after the governor said he wouldn't step down on Sunday, Smith pointed out that 'corruption is rampant' on the island before highlighting why the profanity-laced leaked chats have caused such backlash." ...

... Frances Robles & Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times are liveblogging the protests in San Juan, Puerto Rico. "Thousands of Puerto Ricans shut down traffic on a major highway in San Juan early on Monday, assembling for what is expected to be one of the largest protests the island has ever seen against Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló, who has resisted persistent calls for his resignation. People arrived by the busload hours before the demonstration was scheduled to begin, carrying Puerto Rican flags, protest signs and whistles. They broke into chants demanding the ouster of Mr. Rosselló, who said on Sunday that he will not seek re-election in 2020 but will remain in office -- and face possible impeachment." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Austin Ramzy of the New York Times: "A brazen overnight attack by a mob of men with sticks and metal bars who were apparently targeting antigovernment protesters raised tensions in Hong Kong to new levels on Monday after weeks of demonstrations, prompting fears of violence spiraling beyond the authorities' control. Dozens of people, including journalists and a pro-democracy lawmaker, were injured in the assault in and around a train station in Yuen Long, a satellite town in northwestern Hong Kong near the border with mainland China." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... With a Wink & a Nod from Trump. Jen Kirby of Vox: "It's unclear who exactly the train station attackers were, but many suspect them of having ties to Hong Kong's powerful triads: organized criminal gangs often referred to as the 'Chinese mafia.' There is also speculation among activists the attackers were at the very least encouraged by the Chinese central government in Beijing, which backs Carrie Lam's government and has been trying to quell these protests for weeks. The lackluster police response to emergency calls from victims during the mob attack is adding to the perception that the Hong Kong government and its Chinese backers sanctioned the assault as a way to send a strong message to demonstrators.... President Xi Jinping asked ... Donald Trump to curb his criticism of China over the Hong Kong protests as a condition for restarting trade talks. On Monday, answering questions from reporters, Trump said that Beijing has behaved 'very responsibly.' 'I hope that President Xi will do the right thing,' the president added. 'But it has been going on a long time.'"

** U.K. BBC: "Boris Johnson has been elected new Conservative leader in a ballot of party members and will become the next UK prime minister." Mrs. McC: Now don't tell me Britain's Conservative party isn't packed with numnits. ...

... Here's the Guardian's story, by Heather Stewart.

News Lede

AP: "Behind America's late leap into orbit and triumphant small step on the moon was the agile mind and guts-of-steel of Chris Kraft, making split-second decisions that propelled the nation to once unimaginable heights. Kraft, the creator and longtime leader of NASA's Mission Control, died Monday in Houston, just two days after the 50th anniversary of what was his and NASA's crowning achievement: Apollo 11's moon landing. He was 95."

The Commentariat -- July 22, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** Emily Cochrane, et al., of the New York Times: "White House and congressional negotiators reached accord on a two-year budget on Monday that would raise spending caps and lift the government's debt ceiling, likely averting a fiscal crisis but splashing still more red ink on an already surging deficit. If passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, the deal would stop a potential debt default this fall and avoid automatic spending cuts next year. The agreement would also bring clarity about government spending over the rest of Mr. Trump's term.... The agreement, struck by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, would raise spending by $320 billion, compared to the strict spending levels established in the 2011 Budget Control Act and set to go into effect next year without legislative action. Spending on domestic and military programs would increase equally, a key demand of Ms. Pelosi, offset by about $75 billion in spending cuts, far lower than the $150 billion in cuts that some White House officials initially demanded. The deal would lift the debt ceiling high enough to allow the government to keep borrowing for two more years, punting the next showdown past the 2020 elections."

Stifling Mueller. Bill Barr's DOJ Is at It Again. Eliana Johnson, et al., of Politico: "Justice Department officials have communicated to Robert Mueller that the department expects him to limit his congressional testimony this week to the public findings of his 448-page report, according to ... official[s] familiar with the preparations. In extensive discussions since the former special counsel was subpoenaed to testify on June 25, department officials have emphasized that they consider any evidence he gathered throughout the course of his investigation to be 'presumptively privileged' and shielded from public disclosure. The Justice Department is 'taking the position that anything outside the written pages of the report are things about which presidential privilege hasn't been waived,' the former U.S. official said. The White House and the Justice Department, meanwhile, have signaled they don't intend to place lawyers in the room during Mueller's highly-anticipated testimony...."

Trump May Show off His Corruption to World Leaders. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The Trump administration, which next year will host the leaders of the world's most powerful economies for the G7 summit, is down to its final few choices after completing site surveys of possible locations -- and Trump National Doral, President Trump's 800-acre golf club in Miami, is among the finalists." Mrs. McC: Maybe the their members will kick the U.S. out of the G-7 because we now so resemble a third-world nation.

Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: "The Trump administration is planning to expand a procedure to speed up deportations to include undocumented immigrants anywhere in the US who cannot prove they've lived in the US continuously for two years or more. The change casts a wider net of undocumented immigrants subject to the fast-track deportation procedure known as 'expedited removal,' which allows immigration authorities to remove an individual without a hearing before an immigration judge."

Frances Robles & Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times are liveblogging the protests in San Juan, Puerto Rico. "Thousands of Puerto Ricans shut down traffic on a major highway in San Juan early on Monday, assembling for what is expected to be one of the largest protests the island has ever seen against Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló, who has resisted persistent calls for his resignation. People arrived by the busload hours before the demonstration was scheduled to begin, carrying Puerto Rican flags, protest signs and whistles. They broke into chants demanding the ouster of Mr. Rosselló, who said on Sunday that he will not seek re-election in 2020 but will remain in office -- and face possible impeachment."

Austin Ramzy of the New York Times: "A brazen overnight attack by a mob of men with sticks and metal bars who were apparently targeting antigovernment protesters raised tensions in Hong Kong to new levels on Monday after weeks of demonstrations, prompting fears of violence spiraling beyond the authorities' control. Dozens of people, including journalists and a pro-democracy lawmaker, were injured in the assault in and around a train station in Yuen Long, a satellite town in northwestern Hong Kong near the border with mainland China."

Owen Daugherty of the Hill: "The Illinois Republican County Chairmen's Association (IRCCA) shared and later apparently deleted a movie poster-style meme labeling four Democratic minority congresswomen the 'Jihad Squad.' The post was shared on the group's Facebook page early Saturday morning and featured images of Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib(Mich.).... Mark Shaw, president of the IRCCA, issued a statement Sunday night after the post was deleted. 'I condemn this unauthorized posting and it has been deleted,' Shaw wrote in a post on the group's Facebook page. 'I am sorry if anyone who saw the image was offended by the contents.'&" Mrs. McC: "I'm sorry if you're offended that we're racists." ...

... Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "A Facebook post by a Louisiana police officer suggesting that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'needs a round' drew criticism on Sunday from officials in the city where he works. The officer, Charlie Rispoli, a 14-year veteran of the police department in Gretna, La., referred to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, in a post on Thursday as 'this vile idiot.' The post continued, saying she 'needs a round -- and I don't mean the kind she used to serve,' a reference to her past work as a bartender, according to a screenshot of his comment obtained by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans."

     ... ** See Nisky Guy's comment below. The Snopes report Nisky Guy cites is here. Mrs. McC: I tweeted Vigdor & e-mailed the NYT editors to bitch about it. I expect a response. This omission is a real candidate for the "Annals of 'Journalism,' Ctd." header.

Déjà vu All Over Again. Michael Sallah, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Two unofficial envoys reporting directly to Donald Trump's personal lawyer have waged a remarkable back-channel campaign to discredit the president's rivals and undermine the special counsel's inquiry into Russian meddling in US elections. In a whirlwind of private meetings, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman -- who pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican campaigns and dined with the president -- gathered repeatedly with top officials in Ukraine and set up meetings for Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani as they turned up information that could be weaponized in the 2020 presidential race. The two men urged prosecutors to investigate allegations against Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. And they pushed for a probe into accusations that Ukrainian officials plotted to rig the 2016 election in Hillary Clinton's favor by leaking evidence against Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chair, in what became a cornerstone of the special counsel's inquiry. They also waged an aggressive campaign in the United States, staying at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, and meeting with key members of Congress as they joined in a successful push that led to the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine after she angered their allies in Kiev."

Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "Alex Morse, the mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, announced Monday that he will mount a primary challenge against Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee who has been criticized by progressives for not pushing harder for the release of ... Donald Trump's tax returns."

** Jane Mayer of the New Yorker does an autopsy on Al Franken's resignation from the Senate. It was a hit job, & a number senators who called for his resignation admit now they made a big mistake. "A big part of Franken's political problem was the way the story broke. KABC-AM released [Leeann] Tweeden's material on its Web site, giving it the look of a proper news story. In reality, the station, which is owned by Cumulus Media, was a struggling conservative talk-radio station whose survival plan was to become the most pro-Trump station in Los Angeles."

~~~~~~~~~~

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "On Sunday, the chairman of the judiciary committee indicated the stakes when he said the 448-page [Mueller] report contained 'very substantial evidence that the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours' -- the benchmark for impeachment. 'It's important that we not have a lawless administration and a lawless president,' the New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler told Fox News Sunday. 'And it's important that people see what we're doing and what we're dealing with.'... Trump, who has repeatedly and inaccurately claimed exoneration, said this week he would not watch Mueller's testimony [this week] and accused Democrats of 'just playing games'." ...

... Zachary Basu of Axios: "House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said on Fox News Sunday that Donald Trump has 'violated the law 6 ways from Sunday' and that he would be indicted if he were not president.' With video. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump, desperate, sent Stephen Miller out to cover for him on "Fox 'News' Sunday." I can't stand to listen to 8 minutes of Stephen Miller, but I did read this summary by Josh Israel of ThinkProgress. According to Israel, the interview did not go well. However, contributor Hattie didn't think Chris Wallace put up much of a fight. Israel's post include video of the interview. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Chas Danner of New York: The "Send her back" chant "confirmed that [Trump's] divisive and xenophobic rhetoric had reached and inspired its intended audience, and reaffirmed Trump's special relationship with that audience and the base grievances which bind them.... The next day, pressured to disavow the chant by concerned GOP lawmakers and Vice-President Mike Pence, Trump didn't even bother coming up with remotely believable lies to explain why he had seemed to savor the moment. Instead, he claimed that everyone's eyes were the real liars, insisting he tried to 'quickly' speak over and cut off the chanting as he was 'not happy' and 'disagreed with' it, and even 'felt a little bit bad' that it had happened. The day after that, Trump decided he was done pretending to distance himself from the racist spectacle he had incited.... Then ... Trump argued that the chant wasn't even racist.... By Saturday, Trump had gone from inspiring his supporters' racism to celebrating it."

... Robert Reich in the Guardian: "The relevant question is not whether Trump is a racist. Of course he is. Or whether he's going to continue bashing these members of Congress, who fill all his demonization boxes: Democrats, females, people of color, a Muslim. Of course he will. The real question is whether the people bankrolling Trump and the Republican party are going to stop this rot before it consumes the politics of 2020, and perhaps more.... Much of the money that's flowing into Republican coffers is coming from the same place it's always come from: Wall Street.... [Wall Street] is delighted with what Trump and Senate Republicans are giving it: tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks. The putative leaders of the American economy owe it to the nation: they must help douse this fire."

... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "The president stirs up racial fury in his followers. He blames it on the targets themselves, the media, and the Democrats, but he is the one doing it. Now, whipping up racist crowds to chant racist things isn't a crime (though threatening to send people 'home' does, in fact, appear to violate federal anti-discrimination laws). But the point is that millions of people admire Trump when he says explicitly racist things. His polling numbers rise, as they did this week. Which is why, even though he wants to (occasionally) claim he didn't mean to, Trump is dead set on egging them on. His supporters' intentions have never been more clear. They want to engage in a war over race, immigration, and intolerance. And Donald Trump is not stumbling. He's taking deliberate shots." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Miami Herald Editors: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) "has transformed from Trump critic to a sycophantic cheerleader -- derided by former adviser and Washington Post columnist Max Boot as a 'Trump fan-boy' -- to the point that he's willing to kill Obamacare even though his own state leads the nation in enrollment. The Miami native who some, including us, thought could lead the Republican Party in finding a reasonable path on comprehensive immigration reform and help it broaden its appeal to minorities in America could not find the spine to do more than mildly criticize Trump after his blatantly racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen. Rubio, far from the Republicans' savior, seems just another slick politician with his finger in the wind -- pushing the party deeper into Trump's swamp." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Renuka Rayasam of Politico: "Federal inspectors visiting a California migrant detention center made a shocking discovery last year: Detainees had made nooses from bedsheets in 15 of 20 cells in the facility they visited. The inspection revealed the extent of a largely unseen mental health crisis within the growing population of migrants who are being held in detention centers in border states.... Donald Trump's 2017 decision toreverse a policy that encouraged releasing vulnerable individuals while they await deportation hearings has left U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unequipped to deal with conditions ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia. One estimate puts the number of detainees with mental illnesses between 3,000 and 6,000. Some advocates and lawyers who work with migrants in the facilities say it's probably more. Many of the migrants with mental illness are not stable enough to participate in their own legal proceedings, so they languish in detention. While treatment of immigrants has become an explosive national issue, the plight of mentally ill migrants has scarcely registered." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Iran said on Monday that it had arrested 17 Iranian citizens on charges of spying for the United States and had already executed some of them, Iranian and Western news media reported. At a news conference in Tehran, an official who identified himself as a director of counterespionage in the Intelligence Ministry described the arrests of people he said had been trained by the C.I.A., but he did not name them and gave few details of their alleged spying.... Iran has previously claimed, without elaboration or supporting evidence, to have broken up American spy rings. It made similar announcements in April and again in June this year."

Daniel Lippman of Politico: "The Commerce Department has reached its apex of dysfunction under Wilbur Ross, according to four people with knowledge of the inner workings of the department. The 81-year-old Commerce secretary, who has for months endured whispers that he is on the outs, spends much of his time at the White House to try to retain ... Donald Trump's favor, the sources said, leaving his department adrift.... 'He's sort of seen as kind of irrelevant. The morale is very low there because there's not a lot of confidence in the secretary,' said a former outside adviser to Commerce.... 'He's not respected in the building.' Ross doesn't hold routine meetings with senior staffers, according to a person familiar with the department's inner workings and a former outside adviser -- a departure from past practice that one source attributed to the secretary's lack of stamina. 'Because he tends to fall asleep in meetings, they try not to put him in a position where that could happen...,' said the former outside adviser."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Growing distrust between the United States and China has slowed the once steady flow of Chinese cash into America, with Chinese investment plummeting by nearly 90 percent since President Trump took office.... Chinese foreign direct investment in the United States fell to $5.4 billion in 2018 from a peak of $46.5 billion in 2016, a drop of 88 percent, according to data from Rhodium Group, an economic research firm. Preliminary figures through April of this year, which account for investments by mainland Chinese companies, suggested only a modest uptick from last year, with transactions valued at $2.8 billion.... A confluence of forces appear to be at play. A slowing economy and stricter capital controls in China have made it more difficult for Chinese investors to buy American, according to trade and mergers and acquisitions advisers. Mr. Trump's penchant for imposing punishing tariffs on Chinese goods and an increasingly powerful regulatory group that is heavily scrutinizing foreign investment, particularly involving Chinese investors, have also spooked businesses in both countries."

Presidential Race 2020. Hayley Miller of the Huffington Post: "Cumulus Media, one of the largest broadcasting companies in the country, blocked [Blair Garner,] one of its country radio station hosts, from airing his interview with 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg.... 'The decision was made by local programming management based solely on concerns related to the application of the FCC's Equal Time Rule,' the spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday...." Mrs. McC: Call me skeptical. I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think the Equal Time Rule applies. Garner's show is partly a talk show & he regularly does interviews' the ETR exempts talk shows. It also exempts news events, & the fact that Buttigieg was in Nashville on a campaign stop could be characterized as a news event. When CNN runs a clip of Buttigieg saying something on the campaign trail, I don't think 20 other candidates call up demanding equal time. So maybe there's some other reason.

Congressional Race 2020. Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "An insurgent progressive candidate trying to unseat Jerry Nadler in 2020 is making the House Judiciary chairman's dithering stance on impeachment a major pushing point for her long-shot campaign. Lindsey Boylan, who previously worked as a senior adviser to Gov. Cuomo, has been hammering Nadler on social media over his refusal to pull the trigger on impeachment proceedings.... Her latest Nadler-bashing effort is an 'Impeach Trump Now' petition that has spread across social media like wildfire. 'By refusing to impeach Trump, Democratic leaders are violating their oath to defend our Constitution,' Boylan posted along with the petition on Facebook. 'Join me in calling on my NY-10 opponent, Rep. Jerry Nadler, to exercise his authority and stop hiding behind Speaker Pelosi.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Especially after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's surprise upset of the Democrats' No. 4 person in the House, Joseph Crowley, Nadler should be worried. Reports are that he's itching to begin impeachment proceedings, so -- if nothing else -- Boylan's challenge gives Nadler an excuse to hit the "go" button. (At least Crowley was a remarkably good sport. Here he is on election night, after AOC trounced him):

     ... Trump, BTW, tweeted on election night, "... That is a big one that nobody saw happening. Perhaps he [Crowley] should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!" How's that working out for you, Donnie Boy?

Osita Nwanevu of the New Yorker went to the National Conservatism Conference & found out these so-called conservatives could find a lot of high-falutin "justifications" for excluding immigrants from "shithole countries." Also, David Brooks was there. I knew David Brooks would be there. And to show you what counts for a "conservative intellectual," Tucker Carlson & Sen. Josh Hawley, both of whom need their ears boxed, were featured speakers. ...

... Jennifer Schuessler of the New York Times went, too.

The New York Times has an interactive feature that allows you to see "how your hometown has changed so far and how much hotter it may get." The database goes back to 1960, so if you were born before then, as I was, it will use 1960 as your base. The city where I was born experienced 54 days of 90-degree-plus weather in 1960; today (2017) it was 93 days, so it reached 90 degrees 39 more days in 2017 than in 1960. What global warming?

AP: "Equifax will pay up to $700 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission and others over a 2017 data breach that exposed Social Security numbers and other private information of nearly 150 million people. The proposed settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, if approved by the federal district court Northern District of Georgia, will provide up to $425 million in monetary relief to consumers, a $100 million civil money penalty, and other relief."

Holly Aguirre of Vanity Fair: Residents of St. Thomas Island "say [Jeffrey] Epstein continued to bring underage girls to the [nearby Little St. James] island as recently as this year -- a decade after he was forced to register as a convicted sex offender -- and that authorities did nothing to stop him.Two employees who worked at the local airstrip on St. Thomas tell Vanity Fair that they witnessed Epstein boarding his private plane on multiple occasions in the company of girls who appeared to be under the age of consent. According to the employees, the girls arrived with Epstein aboard one of his two Gulfstream jets.... 'On multiple occasions I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children -- female children,' says a former air traffic controller at the airstrip.... 'One incident in particular really stands out in my mind, because the girls were just so young....'" Mrs. McC: Both St. Thomas & Little St. James Islands are U.S. territories. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "After Jeffrey Epstein got out of the Palm Beach County jail in 2009..., he began a media campaign to remake his public image. The effort led to the publication of articles describing him as a selfless and forward-thinking philanthropist with an interest in science on websites like Forbes, National Review and HuffPost. The Forbes.com article, posted in 2013, praised him as 'one of the largest backers of cutting-edge science around the world' while making no mention of his criminal past. The National Review piece, from the same year, called him 'a smart businessman' with a 'passion for cutting-edge science.' The HuffPost article, from 2017, credited Mr. Epstein for 'taking action to help a number of scientists thrive during the "Trump Era",' a time of 'anti-science policies and budget cuts.' All three articles have been removed from their sites in recent days, after inquiries from The New York Times.... The articles in praise of Mr. Epstein came about partly because of an online publishing model adopted by some news organizations that relied on outside contributors who often wrote for little or no pay, with little or no input from editors."

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Joshua Eaton of ThinkProgress: "Kathy Zhu was stripped of her title as Miss Michigan on Thursday after the organization found Twitter posts that were racist and Islamaphobic.... Zhu, 20, is vice president of the University of Michigan chapter of the College Republicans and communications director for the Chinese Americans for Trump Movement." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Definitely a candidate to have her ass grabbed by one Donald J. Trump.

New York: Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Robert M. Morgenthau, a courtly Knickerbocker patrician who waged war on crime for more than four decades as the chief federal prosecutor for Southern New York State and as Manhattan's longest-serving district attorney, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 99." ...

The crap you think of is unbelievable. -- Donald Trump, to participants in a White House meeting of far-right agitators & conspiracy theorists including at least one who promotes Q-Anon, July 11

Yes, it's all very funny, & let's have them over to the White House for a fun chat about the First Amendment & how they can help the Trump re-election campaign. Ha ha ha. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Ali Watkins of the New York Times: Anthony Comello, who killed Francesco (Franky Boy) Cali, a leader in the Gambino crime family, on Staten Island in March, "was so deluded by internet conspiracy theories [according to his lawyer,] that he was determined to conduct a citizen's arrest of Mr. Cali and turn the Mafia leader over to the military.... Mr. Comello had become convinced that Mr. Cali was part of the so-called deep state, a cabal of criminals that conspiracy theorists claim controls the United States government. Mr. Comello also believed he was a chosen vigilante of President Trump.... QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory..., played a key role in Mr. Comello's descent into mental instability, his lawyer said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Okay, maybe your heart isn't breaking because some lunatic pumped 10 rounds into a mob boss, but is this what "due process" now resembles in TrumpsAmerica?

Puerto Rico: "Facing an angry public uprising against his administration, Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló of Puerto Rico announced on Sunday evening that he would not seek re-election in 2020, and would step down as president of his political party. But Mr. Rosselló did not resign the governorship, as tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans have demanded.... Far from quelling the furor that has led to more than a week of mass protests in San Juan, the governor's announcement seemed to have th opposite effect: People quickly gathered on the street outside the governor's official residence in the Old San Juan neighborhood and said they were even more determined than ever to oust him."

Texas. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Texas lawmakers thought they were clear: The bill they overwhelmingly passed allowing the growth and sale of hemp had nothing to do with legalizing pot. But since Gov. Greg Abbott signed the measure into law in June, county prosecutors around Texas have been dropping some marijuana possession charges and declining to file new ones, saying they do not have the time or the laboratory equipment needed to distinguish between legal hemp and illegal pot. Collectively, the prosecutors' jurisdictions cover more than nine million people -- about a third of Texas' population -- including in Houston, Austin and San Antonio.... The police and prosecutors in Florida are facing the same problem as their Texan colleagues after the Sunshine State legalized hemp in July."

Way Beyond

Brazil. Dom Phillips of the Guardian: "Indigenous leaders and specialists working with Brazil's nearly one million tribal people have been stunned and disconcerted by the appointment of a federal police officer [Marcelo Xavier da Silva] with strong connections to agribusiness as the new head of the country's indigenous agency.... In June, the outgoing Funai president, Gen Franklimberg de Freitas, said Garcia 'froths hate' for indigenous people and sees Funai as 'an obstacle to national development'." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Hong Kong. Lily Kuo & Verna Yu of the Guardian: "Police and demonstrators have clashed after hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday in the city's largest demonstration in recent weeks. Riot police armed with batons and shields fired teargas to disperse the crowd as protesters ran toward officers who tried to push them back from a main road in the western district near Beijing's liaison office with the city. One demonstrator threw a bottle at police. Officers advanced on the crowd, setting off smoke bombs. Smoke filled the air after several rounds of teargas were fired. Hundreds of protesters ran away in panic. The clashes came after demonstrators defied police orders to restrict the boundaries of their rally, in a new and bold display of support for a political movement that shows few signs of slowing."

The Commentariat-- July 21, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Zachary Basu of Axios: "House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said on Fox News Sunday that Donald Trump has 'violated the law 6 ways from Sunday' and that he would be indicted if he were not president." With video.

Trump, desperate, sent Stephen Miller out to cover for him on "Fox 'News' Sunday":

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I can't stand to listen to 8 minutes of Stephen Miller, but I did read this summary by Josh Israel of ThinkProgress. Apparently, the interview did not go well.

Miami Herald Editors: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) "has transformed from Trump critic to a sycophantic cheerleader -- derided by former adviser and Washington Post columnist Max Boot as a 'Trump fan-boy' -- to the point that he's willing to kill Obamacare even though his own state leads the nation in enrollment. The Miami native who some, including us, thought could lead the Republican Party in finding a reasonable path on comprehensive immigration reform and help it broaden its appeal to minorities in America could not find the spine to do more than mildly criticize Trump after his blatantly racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen. Rubio, far from the Republicans' savior, seems just another slick politician with his finger in the wind -- pushing the party deeper into Trump's swamp." --s

Renuka Rayasam of Politico: "Federal inspectors visiting a California migrant detention center made a shocking discovery last year: Detainees had made nooses from bedsheets in 15 of 20 cells in the facility they visited. The inspection revealed the extent of a largely unseen mental health crisis within the growing population of migrants who are being held in detention centers in border states. President Donald Trump's 2017 decision to reverse a policy that encouraged releasing vulnerable individuals while they await deportation hearings has left U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unequipped to deal with conditions ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia. One estimate puts the number of detainees with mental illnesses between 3,000 and 6,000. Some advocates and lawyers who work with migrants in the facilities say it's probably more. Many of the migrants with mental illness are not stable enough to participate in their own legal proceedings, so they languish in detention. While treatment of immigrants has become an explosive national issue, the plight of mentally ill migrants has scarcely registered."

Holly Aguirre of Vanity Fair: Residents of St. Thomas Island "say [Jeffrey] Epstein continued to bring underage girls to the [nearby Little St. James] island as recently as this year -- a decade after he was forced to register as a convicted sex offender -- and that authorities did nothing to stop him.Two employees who worked at the local airstrip on St. Thomas tell Vanity Fair that they witnessed Epstein boarding his private plane on multiple occasions in the company of girls who appeared to be under the age of consent. According to the employees, the girls arrived with Epstein aboard one of his two Gulfstream jets.... 'On multiple occasions I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children -- female children,' says a former air traffic controller at the airstrip.... 'One incident in particular really stands out in my mind, because the girls were just so young....'" Mrs. McC: Both St. Thomas & Little St. James Islands are U.S. territories.

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "The president stirs up racial fury in his followers. He blames it on the targets themselves, the media, and the Democrats, but he is the one doing it. Now, whipping up racist crowds to chant racist things isn't a crime (though threatening to send people 'home' does, in fact, appear to violate federal anti-discrimination laws). But the point is that millions of people admire Trump when he says explicitly racist things. His polling numbers rise, as they did this week. Which is why, even though he wants to (occasionally) claim he didn't mean to, Trump is dead set on egging them on. His supporters' intentions have never been more clear. They want to engage in a war over race, immigration, and intolerance. And Donald Trump is not stumbling. He's taking deliberate shots." --s

Joshua Eaton of ThinkProgress: "Kathy Zhu was stripped of her title as Miss Michigan on Thursday after the organization found Twitter posts that were racist and Islamaphobic.... Zhu, 20, is vice president of the University of Michigan chapter of the College Republicans and communications director for the Chinese Americans for Trump Movement." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Definitely a candidate to have her ass grabbed by one Donald J. Trump.

Dom Phillips of the Guardian: "Indigenous leaders and specialists working with Brazil's nearly one million tribal people have been stunned and disconcerted by the appointment of a federal police officer [Marcelo Xavier da Silva] with strong connections to agribusiness as the new head of the country's indigenous agency.... In June, the outgoing Funai president, Gen Franklimberg de Freitas, said Garcia 'froths hate' for indigenous people and sees Funai as 'an obstacle to national development'." --s

~~~~~~~~~~~

Swedish PM Explains Equality under the Law to Trump. Mihir Zaveri of the New York Times: "The Swedish prime minister, Stefan Lofven, told President Trump in a phone call on Saturday that the rapper ASAP Rocky, who has been detained in Sweden on an assault charge, will not get any special treatment, according to a statement from the Swedish government.Mr. Trump had sought Rocky's release after being pressed by American celebrities, including the rapper Kanye West. Toni Eriksson, Mr. Lofven's press secretary, told The Associated Press that the phone call lasted about 20 minutes and was 'friendly and respectful.' Mr. Lofven was said to have 'underlined that in Sweden everyone is equal before the law and that the government cannot and will not attempt to influence the legal proceedings,' The A.P. reported."

Devan Cole of CNN: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Saturday slammed ... Donald Trump's policies on immigration in her latest argument against the President's handling of the situation at the southern border, saying that his signature agenda is really about 'ethnicity and racism.' 'All you need to do is hear what the President did this week to know this is not about immigration at all. Because once you start telling American citizens to quote "go back to your own countries," this tells you that this President's policies are not about immigration, it's about ethnicity and racism,' Ocasio-Cortez said during a town hall on immigration held in her district in Queens, New York, in reference to Trump's tweeted racist attacks at her and three other minority congresswomen known as 'The Squad.'" ...

... BTW, here was Ocasio-Cortez last week grilling acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan on the Border Patrol's secret Facebook page:

     ... Mrs. McC: Remember when the righty-rights did a remake of "Footloose" by acting all shocked & upset to discover that AOC danced with her friends when they were in college? Well, I'll bet they were even more upset to see her very politely dance that concentration camp overseer into a corner.

Justin Wise of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his attacks against a group of minority congresswomen.... 'I don't believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country,' Trump said in an early-morning tweet. 'They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!'" ...

... Michael Crowley of the New York Times: “President Trump on Saturday extended the debate over a chant of 'send her back!' at his campaign rally in North Carolina this week when he retweeted a right-wing British commentator who has drawn repeated condemnation over a long history of anti-Muslim remarks and for casting blame on a Jewish leader for provoking a synagogue shooting. Sending fresh mixed signals about his view of the chant directed at a Democratic lawmaker, Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Mr. Trump shared video of the episode posted by the commentator, Katie Hopkins, who has said 'Islam disgusts me' and who last year appeared to link a rabbi's pro-migrant work to the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh." Mrs. McC: Trump is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks; eventually paranoid, aggrieved racist will prove to have the most staying power. ...

... The Company He Keeps. Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "Per Todd Schulte, the president of the immigration advocacy group FWD.US, [Katie Hopkins is] an anti-Muslim pundit who called for a 'final solution' for Muslims in her country following a 2017 terrorist attack[.... According to the Guardian,] Hopkins also 'wrote a column for the Sun in which she compared migrants to cockroaches and suggested Europe should use gunboats to stop them crossing the Mediterranean.'... Amplifying Hopkins' voice is significant because Trump's criticism of Omar is ostensibly that he believes she's anti-semitic (because of her criticism of the Israeli government). But it was Hopkins who blamed last year's mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Jewish leaders' support for migrants. So where does Trump even find these people? Per the BBC, 'Katie Hopkins first came under the public gaze when she was a contestant on the BBC TV series The Apprentice in 2007.' Of course."

Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "Long before he ignited a firestorm by telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to 'go back' to their home countries..., Mr. Trump sought to pit Americans against one another along racial lines.... Over decades in business, entertainment and now politics, Mr. Trump has approached America's racial, ethnic and religious divisions opportunistically, not as the nation's wounds to be healed but as openings to achieve his goals, whether they be ratings, fame, money o power, without regard for adverse consequences.... But the longer Mr. Trump spends on the stage, the more friends and former employees, like Michael D. Cohen, Omarosa Manigault Newman and Anthony Scaramucci, have concluded that he is more racist than they had admitted." ...

... Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "For the past two years, observers have been divided about whether Trump's tweets are calculated trolling, designed to keep his opponents off balance, or the sincere expressions of an unbalanced psyche. The current outburst indicates that the answer is both." ...

... Maureen Dowd: "It is a travesty that Donald Trump, 154 years after Lincoln tried to bind the wounds of the nation on race to keep the dream of America viable, is pouring salt into those wounds to keep himself viable.... [Trump] doesn't rely on division only for elections, like his predecessors; he uses it to govern. And while that is a tad embarrassing for Republicans, they know from half a century of experience that it works to stir up racial animus and label foes wild-eyed socialists and commies. Mitch McConnell admitted this on Thursday when he told Fox Business that 'the president is on to something' with his fragging, though he denied Trump was a racist. While it is awful to contemplate, this trade-off of our national ideals for strong stock returns and more millions for billionaires could be working." ...

... Trump: Melania & Ivanka Are Just as Racist as I Am. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump contradicted reports that First Lady Melania Trump and White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump objected privately to rally chants urging that U.S. citizen Rep. Ilhan Omar be sent back to Africa. Rep. Omar was born in Somalia.... During an impromptu gaggle on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump was asked 'What did the First Lady and Ivanka advise you about the chant? I know you guys talked about it...' 'False information,' Trump interrupted. 'It was fake news.... We -- I talked about it, but they didn't advise me. They told me, but I didn't....'" Mrs. McC: That "they told me" sentence fragment is suspicious. "They told me" what? It sounds to me as if Trump caught himself just in time to avoid a gaffe. (Also linked yesterday.)

Billings Gazette Editors: "Responding to a Tweet in which Donald Trump told Democrats to go back to the country they came from, [Montana Sen. Steve] Daines said, 'Montanans are sick and tired of listening to anti-American, anti-Semite, radical Democrats trash our country and our ideals. We're the greatest country in the world. I stand with @realdonaldtrump.'... But Montanans are more sickened by the never-ending torrent of childish, bigoted views that are shoveled from the White House that make the country look like bigots and idiots.... To make matters worse, Daines' chief of staff decided to applaud his boss by commenting, 'America: Love It Or Leave It.'... Sen. Daines, please stop defending the indefensible. You don't represent Donald Trump, you represent us.... If Daines really believes that people should go back to where they came from, then that means Daines should start packing for California where he was born." Mrs. McC: Daines is not up for re-election till 2022.

Presidential Race 2020

Tim Reid of Reuters: Joe "Biden, in California for a two-day swing to campaign and fundraise, told a gathering that Trump is 'more George Wallace than George Washington.'"

"Dream Small." Alex Shephard of the New Republic: Joe "Biden has spent much of the week targeting [Bernie] Sanders, making the case that Medicare for All is both a pipe dream and, apparently, an affront to Barack Obama's legacy. 'I knew the Republicans would do everything in their power to repeal Obamacare,' he said in a promotional video timed to the release of his health care plan. 'They still are. But I'm surprised that so many Democrats are running on getting rid of it.' Sanders himself has fired back a number of times, pointing out factual inaccuracies in Biden's critique -- including his delusory claim that a transition to Medicare for All would create a 'hiatus' in health coverage.... Biden's health care plan is yet another example of the kind of thinking that has plagued Democrats over the past several decades. Rather than presenting a bold vision for the country, Biden is promising a steady hand guiding a slightly improved version of what people already have."

Eric Levitz of New York on a few ways confederates are trying to corral the American identity & remake it to fit their limited -- and limiting -- worldview.

The New York Times has a neat interactive page in which they superimpose the words of the Apollo 11 crew & Houston control upon photos that reflect what's going on in the dialog.