The Commentariat -- July 20, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Trump: Melania & Ivanka Are Just as Racist as I Am. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump contradicted reports that First Lady Melania Trump and ... 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.

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In case you missed it:

... The moon landing is not the only 50-year anniversary we're recognizing this weekend. As Josh Sanburn writes for Vanity Fair, "The weekend of the Apollo 11 moon landing should have cemented the Kennedy family's legacy of public service." But the Kennedys had another preoccupation: the drowning death of Mary Jo Kopechne in a Chappaquiddick pond. The truth of what happened when Teddy Kennedy drove off Dike Bridge with Kopechne "still feels just out of reach."

How to Muck up a Photo-op, Starring Donald J. Trump. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump has spent days feuding with progressive House Democrats, but on Friday he stoked another conflict, pitting his NASA chief against the first men to travel to the moon as they debated traveling directly to Mars. During a gathering in the Oval Office to commemorate Saturday's 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Trump grilled NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine and former astronauts Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin over the logistics of putting a man on Mars as well as the recent progress of NASA." An argument ensued.

Trump Can't Imagine Anyone as Profane as Himself. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday extolled the debt ceiling as 'a sacred element of our country' that should never be wielded as a bargaining chip in budget talks.... 'That's a very, very sacred thing in our country, debt ceiling. We can never play with it...,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. The president's remarks come as White House officials, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, home in on a two-year budget agreement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that would raise the national debt limit.... 'I can't imagine anybody ever even thinking of using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge,' Trump said Friday.... But as a private citizen in December 2012, Trump tweeted that 'the Republicans must use the debt ceiling as leverage to make a good deal!'"

What truly makes our country great is its diversity. I've seen that beauty in so many ways over the years. Whether we are born here or seek refuge here, there's a place for us all. We must remember it's not my America or your America. It's our America. -- Michelle Obama, in a tweet, Friday

They called our country 'garbage.' -- Donald Trump, Friday, among the lies he told about Democratic Congresswomen Friday

I can tell you this: You can't talk that way about our country. Not when I'm the president. -- Donald Trump, Friday, suspending First Amendment rights of Democratic Congresswomen ...

Also too, Democratic representatives don't have the right to say what they didn't say, but it's okay for Trump to falsely attribute inflammatory statements to them. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

... Never Mind. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday demonstrated the limited influence of allies or advisers who try to steer him away from pre-election racial and cultural fights. He walked back his disavowal of a racially loaded chant at a campaign rally less than 24 hours after making it. Acquiescing to behind-the-scenes pressure from nervous Republican lawmakers and from his elder daughter, Ivanka Trump, the president distanced himself on Thursday from the chant of 'Send her back!' that the crowd at his rally on Wednesday in Greenville, N.C., directed at Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who was born in Somalia. Mr. Trump said he was 'not happy' with the chant's language and claimed, falsely, that he had tried to cut it off. But on Friday, the president appeared to disavow his disavowal -- following the same three-stage crisis playbook he used after setting off a wave of criticism when he defended neo-Nazi protesters in 2017 Charlottesville, Va.... Mr. Trump defended the crowd as 'incredible patriots' and said that Ms. Omar, who was elected last November, was 'lucky to be where she is.' When asked about the chant again later in the day as he left Washington to spend the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., Mr. Trump refused to condemn them. Instead, he seemed to be repeating his criticism of Ms. Omar and her allies in Congress without mentioning any names. 'You know what's racist to me, when someone goes out and says the horrible things about our country,' he said. 'The people of our country that are anti-Semitic, that hate everybody, that speak with scorn and hate -- that to me is really a dangerous thing.'" ...

... Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday accused the media of siding with Rep. Ilhan Omar and the other freshman progressive congresswomen with whom he has feuded this week, criticizing reporters' coverage of the 'send her back' chant that broke out at his most recent campaign rally. 'It is amazing how the Fake News Media became "crazed" over the chant "send her back" by a packed Arena (a record) crowd in the Great State of North Carolina, but is totally calm & accepting of the most vile and disgusting statements made by the three Radical Left Congresswomen,' the president tweeted." Mrs. McC: Three?? Trump seems to lost one of his nemeses; he named four during his Wednesday campaign rant. Also too, he's very upset with the media for covering the crowd who enthusiastically greeted Omar when she returned to Minnesota: "They even covered a tiny staged crowd as they greeted Foul Mouthed Omar in Minnesota," Trump tweeted. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Lara Takenaga & Aidan Gardiner of the New York Times: "When we asked readers if they had been told to 'go back,' some 16,000 responses flooded in on our website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Readers recounted the insults they've heard as African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans and Jewish Americans. Many recalled first becoming aware of their 'otherness' as young children and said that slurs have followed them into adulthood. Their stories span decades, with notable upticks after 9/11 and Mr. Trump's election. And several readers expressed regret after telling others to 'go back.' We chose 67 of the most representative stories to feature here, lightly edited and condensed." ...

... Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "... what I noticed most about the president's rally in Greenville, N.C., on Wednesday night was the pleasure of the crowd. His voters and supporters were having fun. The 'Send her back' chant directed at Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was hateful but also exuberant, an expression of racist contempt and a celebration of shared values.... To watch raucous crowds of (mostly) white Americans unite in frenzied hatred of a black woman -- to watch them cast her as a cancer on the body politic and a threat to a racialized social order -- is to see the worst of our past play out in modern form." Bouie compares Trump's crowd to "an 1893 lynching in Paris, Tex., where Henry Smith, a mentally disabled black teenager, was burned alive: "'It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage," [W.E.B. Dubois] wrote [in 1935], outlining the ways in which this 'public and psychological' wage strengthened ordinary white Americans' attachment to a system that ultimately exploited them too[.]"

... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "As Trump's racist invective against [Rep. Ilhan] Omar and three other freshman Democratic congresswomen has dominated the news, the president's defenders have used Jews as human shields, pretending that hatred of the quartet is rooted in abhorrence of anti-Semitism.... 'When they start asking people to go back where they came from, that's the first line of attack on the Jewish people over centuries,' said [Jeremy] Ben-Ami [of J Street]. It's terrifying enough to have a president who says such things. It's an almost incalculable insult for Trump and his enablers to act as if he's helping the Jews when he adopts the language of the pogrom." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Trump's So Low Even David Brooks Gets Him Right: "In Trump's version, 'American' is defined by three propositions. First, to be American is to be xenophobic. The basic narrative he tells is that the good people of the heartland are under assault from aliens, elitists and outsiders. Second, to be American is to be nostalgic. America's values were better during some golden past. Third, a true American is white. White Protestants created this country; everybody else is here on their sufferance. When you look at Trump's American idea you realize that it contradicts the traditional American idea in every particular. In fact, Trump's national story is much closer to the Russian national story than it is toward our own. It's an alien ideology he's trying to plant on our soil. Trump's vision is radically anti-American." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Priscilla Alvarez & Geneva Sands of CNN: "The Trump administration is making revisions to the naturalization test for the first time in a decade, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday. The agency is focusing on changes to the civics portion of the test, though there could also be updates to the English section, according to a USCIS official. The announcement comes amid a heated debate over who should be allowed in the country after ... Donald Trump targeted progressive congresswomen, telling them to 'go back' to where they came from. Three of the four women were born in the US. The other is a naturalized citizen." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Mrs. McC: Ken sees the move as "Another Pretender initiative bursting with satiric possibility." I have no idea what he means, but I have it on good authority that one of the new questions is "The President of the United States is elected for a term of (a) Four years; (b) Eight years; (c) As long as he wants." Correct answer: (c).

David D. Kirkpatrick & Megan Specia of the New York Times: "Iran seized at least one British oil tanker in a vital Persian Gulf waterway on Friday, a sharp escalation of tensions with the West that revived fears of a military clash, even as voices on both sides appeared to be seeking room for negotiations. The impoundment of the tanker by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps naval patrols came a day after the United States said it had downed an Iranian drone menacing an American warship in the region. But Iran's standoff with Britain, in particular, carries its own complications. Britain occupies a pivotal place in a bloc of European states that have tried to broker some resolution to a broader conflict between Tehran and Washington over the fate of a 2015 deal with the world powers designed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain convened an emergency meeting of advisers late Friday night to respond."

Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "George Nader, who was a key witness in ... Robert Mueller's investigation, was hit with new federal charges of sex trafficking for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy he transported from Europe. An indictment unsealed Friday morning in Eastern District of Virginia also charges Nader with counts of child pornography and obscenity. The charges come on top of separate child-porn charges leveled by the same prosecutors last month. Nader pleaded not guilty to all charges during a court appearance Friday.... Nader met several times with individuals associated with the Trump campaign throughout the election and into the early days of the administration." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There must be a reason that sexual predators are attracted to Trump & he to them. There's Jeffrey Epstein, of course, who likes women "on the younger side," as Trump once put it; there's Roger Ailes, who abused & harassed female employees for decades, during which time he & Trump were good friends; there's Steve Wynn, who was vice chair of Trump's inaugural committee & finance chair of the RNC -- by Trump's choice -- until Wynn resigned among dozens of accusations of sexual harassment & assault; there's Jason Miller, whom Trump chose as White House communications director till Miller resigned over an extramarital affair with another staffer whom he impregnated among various other allegations of unsavory sexual behaviors; etc., etc. ...

... AND This Guy, Fox "News"'s Answer to a "Liberal" Trump Backer. Andrew Rice of New York: "Of all of the many men on the long list of socialites, billionaires, and politicians associated with [Jeffrey] Epstein..., perhaps no name had been tarnished as seriously as [Alan] Dershowitz's. As Epstein's lawyer, he had helped him to thwart prosecutors; as his houseguest, he was accused of enthusiastically joining in Epstein's alleged sexual abuse.... He has been perhaps inadvisably willing to talk, and talk, and talk, answering every request for comment (including mine).... [Thursday] night, on Fox News, he accused his nemesis [attorney David Boies] of having 'an enormous amount of chutzpah to attack me and challenge my perfect, perfect sex life.'" Mrs. McC: This is a longish piece which I chose to very lightly skim on account of the "eww!" factor.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "House Democrats want to know whether a decades-old Justice Department prohibition on indicting a sitting president played a role in federal prosecutors' decision not to criminally charge ... Donald Trump over hush money payments that he directed his fixer to pay to women. The prohibition, laid out in a 2000 memo by the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel, was also a key factor in former special counsel Robert Mueller's decision to refrain from considering whether to charge Trump with obstruction of justice for his repeated attempts to thwart the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Now Democrats on the House Oversight Committee say the federal prosecutors based in the Southern District of New York should disclose whether they made a similar analysis. The president's longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen was jailed earlier this year, in part for his role in hush payments to women accusing Trump of extramarital affairs, and he implicated the president in the scheme. Documents made public Thursday showed contacts between Cohen and Trump surrounding the hush money payments and were part of prosecutors' evidence that Trump directed Cohen to make the payoffs.... [Committee Chairman Elijah] Cummings noted that he wrote directly to the SDNY prosecutors because of concerns about the accuracy of information provided to Congress by Attorney General William Barr in characterizing Mueller's findings in March...."

Your Taxpayer Dollars, Going to Enrich Trump & Aid His Re-election Campaign. S. V. Date of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump is leaving Friday for another million-dollar golf weekend at his New Jersey course, where he will also host a fundraiser that will convert Republican Party money into his own personal money. The trip will be Trump's 17th visit to his resort 45 miles west of New York City since taking office, with each costing taxpayers at least $1.1 million in travel and security costs. The trip will bring his taxpayer-paid golf tab to $109.2 million. With a planned return on Sunday, Trump will add another three days to the time he has spent at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, bringing his tally there to 64 days and his total time at golf courses that he owns to 194 days.... The fundraiser at Bedminster, meanwhile, is set for Friday evening and is expected to bring in some $3 million to Trump's re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee.... Because Trump still owns his business -- despite campaign promises that he would separate himself from it -- a portion of that revenue will wind up in Trump's personal bank account."

Presidential Race 2020

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: Donald Trump's "advantage in the Electoral College, relative to the national popular vote, may be even larger than it was in 2016, according to an Upshot analysis of election results and polling data. That persistent edge leaves him closer to re-election than one would think based on national polls, and it might blunt any electoral cost of actions like his recent tweets attacking four minority congresswomen." (Also linked yesterday.)

Matthew Brown of the AP: "A U.S. appeals court panel sided with the Trump administration Friday in a mining pollution dispute, ruling that state and federal programs already in place ensure that companies take financial responsibility for future cleanups. The ruling came after the administration was sued by environmental groups for dropping an Obama-era proposal that would have forced companies to put up money to show they have resources to clean up pollution. The mining industry has a legacy of bankrupt companies abandoning polluted sites and leaving taxpayers to cover cleanup costs. But the three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it was 'unpersuaded' by the environmentalists' arguments that the Trump administration relied on a faulty economic analysis in making its decision.... The Associated Press has reported that every day, millions of gallons of water loaded with arsenic, lead and other toxic metals flow from some of the most contaminated mining sites in the U.S. and into surrounding streams and ponds without being treated."

Devoun Cetoute of the Miami Herald: "The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office has opened an internal affairs investigation into whether it properly handled the case of multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, the part-time Palm Beach resident accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. Specifically, it will look at the decision more than a decade ago to allow Epstein to be free 12 hours a day on work release while serving a short sentence in the county stockade on prostitution-related charges. On Friday, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw -- the same sheriff who oversaw the controversial work release arrangement -- ordered that the investigation be done."

The Commentariat -- July 19, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Julian Borger & Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Iran's Revolutionary Guards claim to have seized a British oil tanker, the Stena Impero, which suddenly veered off course and headed into Iranian waters. The ship's owners issued a statement saying it had been 'approached by unidentified small crafts and a helicopter during transit of the Strait of Hormuz while the vessel was in international waters.' 'We are presently unable to contact the vessel which is now heading north towards Iran,' the owners, Stena Bulk, and the ship's managers, Northern Marine, said in the statement." ...

     ... Update: According to the New York Times, "There were also unconfirmed reports on Friday that a second British-owned tanker may have been seized."

Never Mind. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday took fresh aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) while deflecting blame away from his supporters who chanted 'send her back' at a Wednesday night rally. When asked about his unhappiness with the chants in North Carolina, Trump quickly turned his criticism to Omar.... Trump's renewed focus on Omar is a shift from just a day earlier, when he sought to distance himself from the chants of 'send her back.'" Mrs. McC: He said of Omar, "She's lucky to be where she is." ...

     ... Joan Greve of the Guardian (at 18:26 in the liveblog): “Trump also praised the crowd that broke out in the racist chant as 'incredible.' 'Those are incredible people; those are incredible patriots,' the president told reporters, bragging about the 'record crowd.'" Mrs. McC: You knew this would happen.

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: Donald Trump's "advantage in the Electoral College, relative to the national popular vote, may be even larger than it was in 2016, according to an Upshot analysis of election results and polling data. That persistent edge leaves him closer to re-election than one would think based on national polls, and it might blunt any electoral cost of actions like his recent tweets attacking four minority congresswomen."

Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "George Nader, who was a key witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, was hit with new federal charges of sex trafficking for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy he transported from Europe. An indictment unsealed Friday morning in Eastern District of Virginia also charges Nader with counts of child pornography and obscenity. The charges come on top of separate child-porn charges leveled by the same prosecutors last month. Nader pleaded not guilty to all charges during a court appearance Friday.... Nader met several times with individuals associated with the Trump campaign throughout the election and into the early days of the administration."

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "As Trump's racist invective against [Rep. Ilhan] Omar and three other freshman Democratic congresswomen has dominated the news, the president's defenders have used Jews as human shields, pretending that hatred of the quartet is rooted in abhorrence of anti-Semitism.... 'When they start asking people to go back where they came from, that's the first line of attack on the Jewish people over centuries,' said [Jeremy] Ben-Ami [of J Street]. It's terrifying enough to have a president who says such things. It's an almost incalculable insult for Trump and his enablers to act as if he's helping the Jews when he adopts the language of the pogrom."

Trump's So Low Even David Brooks Gets Him Right: "In Trump's version, 'American' is defined by three propositions. First, to be American is to be xenophobic. The basic narrative he tells is that the good people of the heartland are under assault from aliens, elitists and outsiders. Second, to be American is to be nostalgic. America's values were better during some golden past. Third, a true American is white. White Protestants created this country; everybody else is here on their sufferance. When you look at Trump's American idea you realize that it contradicts the traditional American idea in every particular. In fact, Trump's national story is much closer to the Russian national story than it is toward our own. It's an alien ideology he's trying to plant on our soil. Trump's vision is radically anti-American." ...

... Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday accused the media of siding with Rep. Ilhan Omar and the other freshman progressive congresswomen with whom he has feuded this week, criticizing reporters' coverage of the 'send her back' chant that broke out at his most recent campaign rally. 'It is amazing how the Fake News Media became "crazed" over the chant "send her back" by a packed Arena (a record) crowd in the Great State of North Carolina, but is totally calm & accepting of the most vile and disgusting statements made by the three Radical Left Congresswomen,' the president tweeted." Mrs. McC: Three?? Trump seems to lost one of his nemeses; he named four during his Wednesday campaign rant. Also too, he's very upset with the media for covering the crowd who enthusiastically greeted Omar when she returned to Minnesota: "They even covered a tiny staged crowd as they greeted Foul Mouthed Omar in Minnesota," Trump tweeted.

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Oh. Actual Populists. Sheryl Stolberg & Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "The House voted Thursday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, delivering a long-sought victory to liberals and putting the Democratic Party's official imprimatur on the so-called Fight for $15, which many Democratic presidential candidates have embraced. The bill would more than double the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour -- about $15,000 a year for someone working 40 hours a week, or about $10,000 less than the federal poverty level for a family of four. It has not been raised since 2009, the longest time the country has gone without a minimum-wage increase since it was established 1938. The measure, which passed largely along party lines, 231-199, after Republicans branded it a jobs-killer, faces a blockade in the Senate, where Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said he will not take it up." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: On the other hand, Trump & McConnell deserve credit for giving themselves huge tax breaks at the expense of the rest of us. The truth is, Trump's antics are extremely useful to McConnell. Few are paying attention to McConnell's stonewalling of almost every bill the House passes when we're all tearing out hair out over Trump's latest outrage.

Once Again, Trump Denies Reality Caught on Tape. Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday disavowed the 'send her back' chant that broke out at his re-election rally Wednesday night when he railed against a Somali-born congresswoman, as Republicans in Congress rushed to distance themselves and their party from the ugly refrain. Mr. Trump said he was 'not happy' with the chant, directed at Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a hijab-wearing freshman Democrat whom the president has singled out repeatedly for verbal excoriation. On Thursday he claimed that he had tried to cut off the chant, an assertion contradicted by video of the event. Asked why he did not stop it, Mr. Trump said, 'I think I did -- I started speaking very quickly.' In fact, as the crowd roared 'send her back,' Mr. Trump looked around silently and paused as the scene unfolded in front of him, doing nothing to halt the chorus.... Mr. Trump's effort to dissociate himself from his own supporters reflected the misgivings of his allies, who have flooded the upper echelons of his team with expressions of concern in the wake of a rally that veered into ugly nativist territory.... Among them were House Republican leaders, who pleaded with Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday morning to separate the party from the message embraced by the crowd in Greenville, N.C." Ivanka Trump reportedly got to Daddyo this morning. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Let's go to the videotape:

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's not forget Trump's late Wednesday tweet: "Just returned to the White House from the Great State of North Carolina. What a crowd and what great people. The enthusiasm blows away our rivals on the Radical Left. 2020 will be a big year for the Republican Party!" (Linked below.) IOW, Trump only accepted the notion that a threatening, racist, nativist taunt was not that good a look after advisors & allies begged him to disavow the fascist chant. Up till then he thought it was so great he congratulated the chanters. Then he pretended the chant had nothing to do with him and said he heroically tried to stop it. And I am the Queen of Romania.

Wussilini:

... You may have noticed there are two more of Daniel Dale's "'Sir' Tell"s in just the few short clips Colbert featured.

... Aaron Rupar of Vox: "Trump isn't shy about gaslighting -- during a speech last summer, he advised his supporters to 'just remember, what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening.' But his claim that he 'started speaking very quickly' is directly contradicted by video footage of Wednesday's event.... Even Trump and his supporters seem to realize that this is a bad look. But instead of apologizing, they're lying." Mrs. McC: Rupar cites House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's & White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley's lame excuses, but I'd say Lindsey Graham's rationale was the worst: "If you're a Somali refugee wearing a MAGA cap, [Trump] doesn't want to send you back. What does that tell me? That it's about the criticism, not the critic." That is a repudiation of the First Amendment or at least an assertion that freedom of speech is a right not accorded immigrants. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Kevin McCarthy managed to tell three, count 'em three, lies in defense of Trump re: the "Send her back" chant: (1) Trump never named the Congresswomen/he named them all, and name-checked Omar several times; (2) Trump "moved on in the speech"/he "moved on" only after the chant died down; (3) It was a "small group to the side" who chanted/the chant was deafening & you can see Trumpbots standing behind Trump joining in with the rest of the audience. ...

... ** Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post: Trump's Greenville, N.C., rally presented "an arresting scene: a predominantly white crowd of thousands, many in red 'Make America Great Again' hats, encouraging a receptive president to illegally deport one of his political opponents, who is a black, Muslim American woman. To scholars of fascism -- who have been ringing the alarm bells since Trump began his climb to power in 2015 -- the rally in Greenville felt like an escalation. Like the U.S. just made another leap toward outright fascism.... Among Trump supporters in Greenville on Wednesday, anti-Muslim bigotry was ubiquitous.... As at every Trump rally before it, there was a widespread hatred of the press in Greenville, a well-documented characteristic of fascist movements." Read on. Mathias cites both experts on fascism & the fascists at the Trump rally. ...

... ** Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "The only thing new Trump brings to the American nationalism of recent decades is a restoration of its old ethnic-chauvinist tradition. Conservative intellectuals cannot rescue nationalism from Trump, any more than they could rescue [Barry] Goldwater from Jim Crow, because Trump's explicit appeals to racial and religious traditionalism, and his authoritarian approach to enforcing those hierarchies, are the things that have bound conservative voters so closely to him.... the president's [believes] that American citizenship is conditional for people of color, who should be grateful we are even allowed to be here.... Trump has falsely accused [Rep. Ilhan] Omar of supporting al-Qaeda, of betraying her country. But when a foreign power attacked American elections, it was the president who first sought to profit from that attack, and then to obstruct the investigation into it, and finally to offer a vocal defense of the perpetrators.... Under Trumpism, no defense of the volk is a betrayal, even if it undermines the republic, and no attack on the volk's hegemony can be legitimate, even if it is a defense of democracy.... Racism is at the core of Trumpism.... What Americans do now, in the face of this, will define us forever." Mrs. McC: Serwer (rightly, IMO) lets House Democrats have it for slow-walking any defense of democracy, ostensibly as a political strategy. Thanks to Anonymous for the link. ...

... Zak Cheney-Rice of New York: "... some Republicans may be put off by Trump's racist remarks, but they're fine with his racist policies. This is predictable, given that much of this agenda marks a continuation of mandates the party has pursued for years — indulging the electorate's most extreme Islamophobic impulses, suppressing votes and gerrymandering districts to enshrine minority rule, and drumming up resentment toward immigrants from Latin America.... They object to the crudeness of the vessel [Trump]. But its substance aligns firmly with their views." ...

... Annals of "Journalism", Ctd. Matt Gertz of Media Matters for America: "Commentators will debate the factors that created the bitter brew that led here, to public cries at a presidential rally for the banishment of a U.S. citizen who came to this country as a child refugee from Somalia. They will attribute blame to a craven and complicit Republican Party, to a feckless Democratic one, to the rise off fractured, paranoid social media. To those I'll add: You don't get frothing crowds chanting 'send her back' without Fox News." --s

Will Sommer of The Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) once married her own brother in an immigration fraud scheme.... The remarks were the first Trump had ever uttered on Omar's marriage. And they represented a remarkable -- if not depressing -- capstone for the unproven rumor, which has gained steam in the fever swamps for three years as Omar became one of the country's most outspoken and controversial lawmakers.... [T]he completely unproven idea that she married her brother is based entirely on a single, anonymous, unsourced allegation initially made on an obscure internet forum." --s

Prosecutors Let Individual 1 off the Hook. Tom Winter & Adam Edelman of NBC News: "The FBI believed then-candidate Donald Trump was closely involved in a scheme to hide hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had an affair with Trump, court documents from the closed campaign finance case against former Trump-fixer Michael Cohen show. The documents, released Thursday, describe a 'series of calls, text messages, and emails' among Cohen, Trump, Trump campaign aide Hope Hicks, Keith Davidson -- an attorney for Daniels..., and David Pecker, an executive of the company that published the National Enquirer." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Kevin Johnson & Kristine Phillips of USA Today: "Federal prosecutors' decision to end an investigation into hush money payments to women claiming affairs with Donald Trump relied at least in part on long-standing Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.... A person familiar with the case, who was not authorized to discuss i publicly, said it was unclear whether prosecutors made a determination that they had sufficient evidence to bring a case against Trump or anyone other than his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year. But the Justice Department's opinion that a president cannot be indicted factored into the decision to end the probe, the person said.... House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the unsealed documents bolstered Cohen's assertions. 'The inescapable conclusion from all of the public materials available now is that there was ample evidence to charge Donald Trump with the same criminal election law violations for which Michael Cohen pled guilty,' Schiff said." ...

... Kara Scannell & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Federal search warrants released Thursday detail how Donald Trump and others scrambled in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign to arrange a hush-money deal to hide his alleged affair and contain the fallout from related stories in the press. The internal chaos consumed Trump, then-attorney Michael Cohen, campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks and even reached campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, according to the documents unsealed by a federal court in New York. After the 'Access Hollywood' tape came out in October 2016, there was a mad scramble inside the Trump campaign to contain the damage and suppress additional allegations of a sexual nature from reaching public view...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "The House Judiciary Committee is examining the truthfulness of former White House communications director and Trump confidante Hope Hicks' statements in the aftermath of new documents released on Thursday, asking her to clarify her testimony to the committee last month. The FBI documents released earlier Thursday revealing that one day after the tape came out..., Michael Cohen spoke on th phone with then-campaign spokeswoman Hicks and candidate Donald Trump. Those conversations were apparently about adult film actress Stormy Daniels..., according to the documents. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler wrote to Hicks asking if she wanted to voluntarily clarify her testimony, saying the new evidence 'raises substantial questions about the accuracy" of several statements she made. In her appearance last month before the Judiciary Committee, Hicks said 'no' when asked multiple times by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee whether Hicks was ever present when Trump and Cohen discussed Daniels, according to a transcript released of the closed-door interview. She also said she had no information about Daniels other than what she learned from reporters.... Hicks told CNN on Thursday that she doesn't believe anything in these documents contradicts what she has previously said or testified. She said the early October conversations with Cohen were regarding the Access Hollywood tape."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A judge on Thursday stopped just short of acquitting Michael Flynn's former business partner, Bijan Rafiekian, on charges stemming from a Turkey-related lobbying campaign the men worked during the 2016 campaign.... 'There are very substantial issues with respect to the sufficiency of the evidence,' [U.S. District Judge Anthony] Trenga said. He called the government's proof 'all very circumstantial,' adding: 'Most of it's speculative.' However, the judge noted that court rules at this stage call for him to assess the evidence in the light most favorable to the government. Then, he announced he was planning to 'reserve' on the issue."

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Iran has offered a deal with the US in which it would formally and permanently accept enhanced inspections of its nuclear programme, in return for the permanent lifting of US sanctions. The offer was made by the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on a visit to New York. But it is unlikely to be warmly received by the Trump administration, which is currently demanding Iran make a range of sweeping concessions, including cessation of uranium enrichment and support for proxies and allies in the region. Zarif insisted, however, that his offer was 'a substantial move'." ...

... So Hours Later, This Happened. Kevin Liptak & Barbara Starr of CNN: "... Donald Trump says a US ship 'destroyed' an Iranian drone on Thursday. He said the drone came within 1,000 yards of the USS Boxer and ignored 'multiple calls to stand down. 'Speaking at the White House Trump said the drone was 'threatening the safety of the ship and the ship's crew' in the Strait of Hormuz and was 'immediately destroyed.' The drone was destroyed using electronic jamming, according to a US defense official. The crew of the Boxer took defensive action after the drone came within a threatening distance of the US ship, the official said. 'This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters,' Trump added." With video. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Watching Trump haltingly read from the teleprompter, leaving the viewer/listener with no confidence he has any idea what he's talking about, I couldn't help think of President Obama & other previous real presidents who, even when they mostly read their remarks about national security issues, seemed to know not only what they were talking about but much more than they revealed. We must not forget how real presidents communicate in crises. You can watch Trump in the video accompanying the CNN story & contrast the presentation by Trump -- a former TV star & con-man/professional actor -- with this:

All the Best People, Ctd. Oh. Fake Populist. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump said Thursday that he would name Eugene Scalia as his next secretary of labor, tapping the longtime labor lawyer and son of the former Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia for a position with vast responsibility over the American work force. The appointment is likely to be contested by Democrats and labor unions because Mr. Scalia has a long record of representing Walmart and other companies that pushed back against unions and tougher labor laws.... 'President Trump has again chosen someone who has proven to put corporate interests over those of worker rights,' [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. 'Workers and union members who believed candidate Trump when he campaigned as pro-worker should feel betrayed.'"

Nancy Cook & Margaret Harding McGill of Politico: "The White House is pushing a top aide to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross [Commerce policy director Earl Comstock] ;out of the Trump administration, the first round of house-cleaning after the 2020 census debacle and clashes over tech policy." --s

Ephrat Livni & David Yanofsky of Quartz: "In the past [William] Barr gave [donations] sporadically, once in 2009 and 2011, twice in 2014, one contribution in 2015, and another in 2016. Then, Jeff Sessions' tenure as attorney general got rocky, and Barr started giving regularly. He donated on a schedule, providing $10,000 every month to the NRSC, on the third of the month, starting in October. That continued until he was confirmed on Feb. 14, 2019, just 11 days after his last contribution.... In total, Barr gave $51,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) -- a group that raises money to help elect Republicans to the Senate -- in the months leading up to the Senate's confirmation of his nomination ... [although the NRSC refunded $30,000 to Barr on Feb. 6, about a week before he was confirmed].... The donations do not violate FEC rules." --s

Tom Philpott of Mother Jones: "On Wednesday, the United States Environmental Protection Agency doubled down on one of the most controversial environmental deregulation moves of the Trump presidency ... reaffirm[ing] its 2017 decision to reject a proposal from the agency's own scientists to ban an insecticide called chlorpyrifos [made by Dow Chemical].... Major studies ... have found strong evidence that low doses of chlorpyrifos inhibits kids' brain development ... with effects ranging from lower IQ to higher rates of autism. Since the 2017 chlorpyrifos decision, the administration has approved the Dow-Dupont merger, and named several former Dow execs to high posts within the US Department of Agriculture." --s ...

... Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration took a major step to weaken the regulation of toxic chemicals on Thursday when the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would not ban a widely used pesticide that its own experts have linked to serious health problems in children. The decision by Andrew R. Wheeler, the E.P.A. administrator, represents a victory for the chemical industry and for farmers who have lobbied to continue using the substance, chlorpyrifos, arguing it is necessary to protect crops. It was the administration's second major move this year to roll back or eliminate chemical safety rules. In April, the agency disregarded the advice of its own experts when officials issued a rule that restricted but did not ban asbestos, a known carcinogen."

Ted Hesson of Politico: "The Trump administration is considering a virtual shutdown of refugee admissions next year -- cutting the number to nearly zero -- according to three people familiar with the plan. During a key meeting of security officials on refugee admissions last week, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services representative who is closely aligned with White House immigration adviser Stephen Miller suggested setting a cap at zero, the people said. Homeland Security Department officials at the meeting later floated making the level anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000, according to one of the people. The proposal for a near-shutdown of the refugee program is alarming officials at the Department of Defense, who don't want to see a halt in admissions of Iraqis who risked their lives assisting U.S. forces in that country."

Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "[I]f you want to really understand American politics in the summer of 2019, it makes sense to tune out the carnival barker's antics for a moment and consider a plaintive memo issued earlier on Wednesday by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz -- one of America's top business law firms.... [The memo states that] under Trump there's been a 'significant drop over the past two years in both the number of white-collar prosecutions and the scale of corporate fines and penalties.'... In the fight Trump wants to have, he casts himself as a champion of the typical white American Christian who is beset by various alien forces and politically correct elites. But when you bring the entire iceberg into view, you see a version of Trump that is much more reflective of Trump's entire business career -- a scam artist who profits off the misplaced trust of his fans just as much as anything else." --s ...

... Igor Derysh of Salon: "Federal prosecutors are on pace to file 162 child sex trafficking cases this fiscal year, marking a 26.7 percent drop from last year and a 32.2 percent drop from five years ago, according to a report from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC)." --s

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings ripped into the acting head of Homeland Security Thursday, upbraiding Kevin McAleenan over the conditions of detention facilities for migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Maryland Democrat got emotional while discussing the crowded centers migrants are being held in. Reading from a court document in which a federal judge found that Homeland Security 'did a better job of tracking immigrants' personal property than their children,' Cummings repeatedly shut down McAleenan's attempts to speak up."

Ryan Grim of The Intercept: "Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ventured across the Capitol complex on Tuesday afternoon to meet privately with House members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.... Schumer ... told the Progressive Caucus members that the Senate had always expected the House to pass a stronger [border security] bill, after which the two chambers would negotiate a compromise -- either informally or through a conference committee. Instead, House leaders simply waved through the Senate bill without letting him know they planned to cave." --s

Presidential Race 2020

Orion Rummler of Axios: "CNN has determined the schedule for the second round of 2020 Democratic debates.... A live, random drawing during a "special edition" of Anderson Cooper 360 kicked off the debate lineup on Thursday.... Each candidate's podium position on debate night will be based on public polling, per CNN.

     "July 30: Steve Bullock, Elizabeth Warren, Tim Ryan, John Hickenlooper, John Delaney, Marianne Williamson, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg.

     "July 31: Bill de Blasio, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Michael Bennet, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jay Inslee, Cory Booker, Andrew Yang and Julián Castro."

A Solid No-Confidence Vote. Alexi McCammond of Axios: "On July 9, John Delaney's senior team sat him down and told him to drop out of the presidential race by mid-August, according to three sources close to the campaign."

Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Imagine, for a moment, what 2009 would have looked like if the Senate's Democratic supermajority showed up for its first day of work and immediately nuked the filibuster. In such a world, the White House didn't have to beg Republican senators for the votes it needed to enact President Barack Obama's stimulus package.... [C]onservative Senate Democrats also could have been sidelined during the Obamacare negotiations.... Obama could have filled the federal courts with lions of the civil rights, criminal defense, poverty, and consumer protection bars.... If the next Democratic president hopes to be more than a figurehead, they will need to think in terms of structural reforms that will restore some resemblance between the popular vote and the composition of the United States Senate." --s

Benjamin Weiser & Ali Watkins of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday denied bail for Jeffrey Epstein, the financier facing sex-trafficking charges, rejecting his request to await trial under home detention at his Upper East Side mansion. The judge, Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said Mr. Epstein, who owns property in Paris and has a private plane, would be detained in jail until his trial on charges that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s. Judge Berman emphasized Mr. Epstein's danger to the others, particularly his accusers and 'prospective victims as well.'"(Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jackie Kucinich & Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "A Pentagon cybersecurity contractor has been charged with threatening to kill a member of Congress over the introduction of a bill that would require public schools to vaccinate children, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Maryland. Darryl Albert Varnum of Westminster, Maryland called the congressperson -- identified only as 'congressperson #1' -- on June 28, 2019, according to the complaint, and left a voicemail threatening to kill the member if the bill was introduced. 'I'm gonna kill your ass if you do that bill. I swear,' Varnum's voicemail began. 'I will fucking come down and kill your fucking ass. And you're a Congressperson, that's fine. I hope the fucking FBI, CIA and everybody else hears this shit. This is the United States of America, bitch. Get the fuck out,' the voicemail continued. 'I'll tell you what I'll come down to Miami bitch. I'll fuck you up. Like the Cubans don't even know.' Though the name of the member targeted is not listed in the complaint, The Daily Beast has learned that the Varnum's death threat was directed at Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL)." Mrs. McC: Wilson is black. Varnum repeats Trump's racist "get the fuck out" trope.

The Commentariat -- July 18, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Kevin Liptak & Barbara Starr of CNN: "... Donald Trump says a US ship 'destroyed' an Iranian drone on Thursday. He said the drone came within 1,000 yards of the USS Boxer and ignored 'multiple calls to stand down. 'Speaking at the White House Trump said the drone was 'threatening the safety of the ship and the ship's crew' in the Strait of Hormuz and was 'immediately destroyed.' The drone was destroyed using electronic jamming, according to a US defense official. The crew of the Boxer took defensive action after the drone came within a threatening distance of the US ship, the official said. 'This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters,' Trump added." With video. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Watching Trump haltingly read from the teleprompter, leaving the viewer/listener with no confidence he has any idea what he's talking about, I couldn't help think of President Obama & other previous real presidents who, even when they mostly read their remarks about national security issues, seemed to know not only what they were talking about but much more than they revealed. We must not forget how real presidents communicate in crises. You can watch Trump in the video accompanying the CNN story & contrast the presentation by Trump -- a former TV star & con-man/professional actor -- with this:

Oh. Actual Populists. Sheryl Stolberg & Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "The House voted Thursday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, delivering a long-sought victory to liberals and putting the Democratic Party's official imprimatur on the so-called Fight for $15, which many Democratic presidential candidates have embraced. The bill would more than double the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour -- about $15,000 a year for someone working 40 hours a week, or about $10,000 less than the federal poverty level for a family of four. It has not been raised since 2009, the longest time the country has gone without a minimum-wage increase since it was established 1938. The measure, which passed largely along party lines, 231-199, after Republicans branded it a jobs-killer, faces a blockade in the Senate, where Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said he will not take it up." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: On the other hand, Trump & McConnell deserve credit for giving themselves huge tax breaks at the expense of the rest of us. The truth is, Trump's antics are extremely useful to McConnell. Few are paying attention to McConnell's stonewalling of almost every bill the House passes when we're all tearing out hair out over Trump's latest outrage.

Tom Winter & Adam Edelman of NBC News: "The FBI believed then-candidate Donald Trump was closely involved in a scheme to hide hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had an affair with Trump, court documents from the closed campaign finance case against former Trump-fixer Michael Cohen show. The documents, released Thursday, describe a 'series of calls, text messages, and emails' among Cohen, Trump, Trump campaign aide Hope Hicks, Keith Davidson -- an attorney for Daniels... -- and David Pecker, an executive of the company tha published the National Enquirer." ...

... Kara Scannell & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Federal search warrants released Thursday detail how Donald Trump and others scrambled in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign to arrange a hush-money deal to hide his alleged affair and contain the fallout from related stories in the press. The internal chaos consumed Trump, then-attorney Michael Cohen campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks and even reached campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, according to the documents unsealed by a federal court in New York. After the 'Access Hollywood' tape came out in October 2016, there was a mad scramble inside the Trump campaign to contain the damage and suppress additional allegations of a sexual nature from reaching public view, according to the documents."

Once Again, Trump Denies Reality Caught on Tape. Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday disavowed the 'send her back' chant that broke out at his re-election rally Wednesday night when he railed against a Somali-born congresswoman, as Republicans in Congress rushed to distance themselves and their party from the ugly refrain. Mr. Trump said he was 'not happy' with the chant, directed at Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a hijab-wearing freshman Democrat whom the president has singled out repeatedly for verbal excoriation. On Thursday he claimed that he had tried to cut off the chant, an assertion contradicted by video of the event. Asked why he did not stop it, Mr. Trump said, 'I think I did -- I started speaking very quickly.' In fact, as the crowd roared 'send her back,' Mr. Trump looked around silently and paused as the scene unfolded in front of him, doing nothing to halt the chorus.... Mr. Trump's effort to dissociate himself from his own supporters reflected the misgivings of his allies, who have flooded the upper echelons of his team with expressions of concern in the wake of a rally that veered into ugly nativist territory.... Among them were House Republican leaders, who pleaded with Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday morning to separate the party from the message embraced by the crowd in Greenville, N.C." Ivanka Trump reportedly got to Daddyo this morning. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's not forget Trump's late Wednesday tweet: "Just returned to the White House from the Great State of North Carolina. What a crowd, and what great people. The enthusiasm blows away our rivals on the Radical Left. 2020 will be a big year for the Republican Party!" (Linked below.) IOW, Trump only accepted the notion that a threatening, racist, nativist taunt was not that good a look after advisors & allies begged him to disavow the fascist chant. Up till then he thought it was so great he congratulated the chanters. Then he pretended the chant had nothing to do with him and said he heroically tried to stop it. And I am the Queen of Romania.

... Benjamin Weiser & Ali Watkins of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday denied bail for Jeffrey Epstein, the financier facing sex-trafficking charges, rejecting his request to await trial under home detention at his Upper East Side mansion. The judge, Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said Mr. Epstein, who owns property in Paris and has a private plane, would be detained in jail until his trial on charges that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s. Judge Berman emphasized Mr. Epstein's danger to the others, particularly his accusers and 'prospective victims as well.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

I have to be out until late afternoon, and there may be newsworthy developments during the late morning/early afternoon in the Trump-Cohen hush-money case & in the Jeffrey Epstein case. So if you come across a good story or these or other matters, please provide a link in the comments, & I'll catch up later. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Daily Beast: "Donald Trump has showered praise upon the crowd who launched into a' Send her back!' chant directed towards Rep. Ilhan Omar during the president's Wednesday night rally in North Carolina..., writing late Wednesday: 'Just returned to the White House from the Great State of North Carolina. What a crowd, and what great people. The enthusiasm blows away our rivals on the Radical Left. 2020 will be a big year for the Republican Party!'" ...

... At 7:52 pm ET Wednesday, Trump is at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, and his racist crowd is chanting re: Rep. Ilhan Omar "Send her back! Send her back!" See MAG's prophetic remark in yesterday's Commentariat. Update: Rachel Maddow pointed out that the Trump crowd, not surprisingly, was "almost all white" even though the population of Greenville is about 30 percent African-American. ...

The crowd at Trump's rally chanting 'send her back' after the President viciously and dishonestly attacked Ilhan Omar is one of the most chilling and horrifying things I've ever seen in politics. -- Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, in a tweet ...

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise. -Maya Angelou

     -- Rep. Ilhan Omar, in tweet responding to Trump's latest attack

... Contributor Hattie puts Trump's rally in its historical context:

... "Trump Batters Dem Congresswomen on Campaign Trail." Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump doubled down on the go-back-to-where-you-came-from trope during a Wednesday rally in Greenville, N.C., laying into the four progressive House members who have styled themselves as the foil to the Republican president. During his first rally since officially relaunching his re-election campaign, Trump spent more of his initial energy focusing on the four new Democratic members ... than his assorted 2020 presidential opponents. The rally was a campaign distillation of the racist tweets he had sent Sunday where he insisted the four members 'go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.' 'They are always telling us how to run it, how to do this,; Trump said Wednesday of the Democratic freshmen. 'You know what? If they don't love it, tell them to leave it.' Save for the occasional heckler, the crowd at East Carolina University seemed to enjoy his new campaign themes, chanting 'send her back.'..." ...

... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Goaded on by the president, a crowd at a Donald Trump rally on Wednesday night chanted 'send her back! send her back!' in reference to Ilhan Omar, a US congresswoman who arrived almost 30 years ago as a child refugee in the United States.... But clearly sensing a political winner -- notwithstanding polling showing that a majority of Americans found his remarks to be offensive -- Trump riffed on the theme at his rally.... Trump's 'go back' tweets were prompted by an appearance before a House committee in which [four] congresswomen testified to inhumane conditions they witnessed during tours of migrant detention facilities in Texas." ...

     ... Delusional Donnie. Marina Pitofsky of the Hill: "President Trump falsely claimed during his campaign rally Wednesday night that he has never 'had an empty seat at any event.' Reporters online were quick to point out that the president's statement is incorrect, with multiple events having open spaces, including Wednesday's rally." ...

... Matt Novak of Gizmodo: "Donald Trump held another neo-fascist rally yesterday in North Carolina.... Online dictionary searches in the U.S. from last night show just how bad things have gotten. Merriam-Webster reports that the most common searches last night included the terms: racism, socialism, fascism, concentration camp, xenophobia, and bigot. The searches are quite a snapshot of what it's like to live in 2019, when toxic xenophobia and hatred are coming not just from the political fringes but from the most powerful man in the country." --s ...

... Mediaite: "... Donald Trump was asked on Wednesday night about whether Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) should be investigated for possibly marrying her brother, bringing a scandalous rumor from the congresswoman's home state onto the national stage. In response to the question -- from a reporter at OANN, a right wing network best known for pushing conspiracies -- Trump said: 'There's a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it. I hear she was married to her brother. You're asking me a question about it. I don't know, but I'm sure that somebody will be looking at that.'... Without more evidence, the allegation remains unproven.... But for now, the claim that she married her brother is just a rumor -- as Snopes laid out in thorough detail here." Omar has vehemently denied it. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The only things Trump "proved" was that he stays up on right-wing theories and that he's willing to go to almost any lengths to "otherize" nonwhite opponents. ...

... Julie Davis & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House on Wednesday killed an attempt to impeach President Trump for statements that the chamber condemned this week as racist, turning aside an accusation that he had brought 'ridicule, disgrace and disrepute' to his office. But 95 Democrats signaled their support for impeachment, while 137 opposed it -- a dramatic split signaling trouble ahead for a divided party. The 332-95 vote to table the impeachment article drafted by Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, constituted the first action by the House since Democrats took control in January on a measure to impeach Mr. Trump, a significant move that Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and other party leaders have toiled to avoid. By agreeing to table the article, Ms. Pelosi and the Democrats put off -- at least for now -- a prolonged and divisive debate over whether Mr. Trump's conduct warrants his expulsion." ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... before becoming president, [Donald Trump] did not believe in 'American exceptionalism,' he said, because America was not exceptional. Instead, it was a 'laughingstock' that was no better than Vladimir V. Putin's Russia. By promising to make America great again, he made it clear that he believed it was not great anymore. That was then. Now the president who trash-talked America more than any other in modern times says anyone who trash-talks America should leave. The president, who took office with an inaugural address decrying 'American carnage,' now says that it is unpatriotic to speak ill of the country. And on Tuesday, he went further, equating attacks on him by his political opponents with attacks on 'the Country, the Flag.'... Assailed for inflaming racial divisions, Mr. Trump this week sought to reframe his attack on the so-called squad of congresswomen into a question of patriotism and loyalty, claiming that they 'hate our country..'" ...

... Qusay Speaks. Quint Forgey of Politico:"Eric Trump said Wednesday he supported his father's racist Twitter post, which the House formally condemned in a resolution the previous evening. He called the so-called squad of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) an 'absolute clown show.' 'I love the tweet, "If you don't love our country, get out. Leave,"' Eric Trump said. 'You know, if you complain about our country, you know, go to somewhere -- go experience somewhere else in the world. I have seen a lot of the world, right? We have it so great in America. America is doing so well.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Stupid Republican Thoughts. Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "Republican Rep. Mike Kelly (Pa.) on Tuesday weighed in on criticism of President Trump's tweets targeting four minority congresswomen, saying that he is a person of color because he is white. 'You know, they talk about people of color. I'm a person of color. I'm white. I'm an Anglo Saxon. People say things all the time, but I don't get offended,' Kelly told Vice News before a vote on a resolution condemning the president. 'With a name like Mike Kelly you can't be from any place else but Ireland,' he said. The term 'person of color' is widely used in the U.S. to refer to anyone who is not white or of European descent." ...

     ... Charles Pierce: "The Irish are not Anglo-Saxon, dumbass. They are Celts with a little Scandinavian Viking mixed in.... Also, you're not a 'person of color' because you're white, either. These really are the fcking mole people."

... Susan Page of USA Today: "A clear majority of Americans say ... Donald Trump's tweets targeting four minority congresswomen were 'un-American,' according to a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll. But most Republicans say they agreed with his comments, an illustration of the nation's sharp partisan divide on issues of patriotism and race. More than two-thirds of those aware of the controversy, 68%, call Trump's tweets offensive. Among Republicans alone, 57% say they agree with tweets that told the congresswomen to go back to the countries 'from which they came,' and a third 'strongly' agree with them. All four lawmakers are American citizens; three were born in the USA." ...

... Sanjana Karanth of the Huffington Post: "The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has written specific rules that protect people, mostly immigrants, against employment discrimination on the basis of their national origin.... 'Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person's foreign accent or comments like, "Go back to where you came from,' whether made by supervisors or co-workers,' it [reads]." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Aris Folley of the Hill: "Many on social media have been pointing to a federal guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that identifies the phrase "Go back to where you came from" as language that could violate anti-discrimination laws in the wake of recent attacks by President Trump targeting four lawmakers of color." Among those pointing out the EEOC reg were 's husband), Chris Hayes, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), & Lawrence O'Donnell. O'Donnell wrote, "Trump broke the law and would be fired from any federal job except the one he has." ...

... "The Party of Racist Bastards." Charles Pierce: "Congratulations, George Corley Wallace.... It took a little over 50 years, but you finally did it. You got one of our two major political parties to remake itself in your image. Your deep drilling into the foul national Id has finally come home a gusher. All the demons you unleashed from history are now on the main stage and dancing in perfect rhythm and singing in perfect harmony. It took a little over 50 years, and the effort of a lot of people inside the Republican Party establishment and outside in the conservative movement, but you won, you old bastard. You truly did. Born as the Party of Lincoln, the Republican Party is now yours. It is the party of racist bastards, up and down the scale." Read on. ...

... No, No, They're Not Racists; You Are. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos on how Republican officials & voters have learned to explain away Trump's & their own racist sentiments: Step one: Trump isn't racist, because he didn't mention race. The definition of racism for the modern Republican is completely down to whether someone used a racial epithet. Trump did not say the N-word, so nothing else he could say could possibly be racist according to the Republican rules. Step two: Trump isn't racist; he's just telling it like it is. Step three: Democrats are the real racists, for saying that Trump is racist. Being a racists is a bad thing, but Trump isn't racist because that's already been established in step one and step two. So if Trump didn't say anything about race, then whoever mentioned race first is the real racist. QED. As Reuters reports, Trump's net approval among Republicans rose by 5% following his "go back" tweets and his double-, triple-down aftermath." ...

... Jonathan Chait provides some concrete examples that jibe with Sumner's theory & concludes: "There appears to be no point at which evidence of Trump's racism will compel most Republicans, though. They are only able to process offense at the charge itself. Indeed, the more evidence Trump supplies for the charge, the more offended they become." Chait's recitation of Marco Rubio's both-sides fake excuse is a classic.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Manhattan disclosed on Wednesday that prosecutors have concluded their investigation into campaign finance violations involving President Trump and ordered that they publicly release some of their files.... 'Now that the government's investigation into those violations has concluded,' Judge [William] Pauley wrote, 'it is time that every American has an opportunity to scrutinize the materials.'... The judge's order did not answer one of the lingering questions of the investigation: whether prosecutors in the United States attorney's office in Manhattan still plan to file additional charges in connection with the case. The investigation, which centered on hush money payments arranged during the 2016 presidential campaign to two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump, already resulted in the conviction of the president's former fixer, Michael D. Cohen." ...

     ... Rachel Maddow said Wednesday night that the government had wanted to delete a great deal of material to :protect private third parties: and "government officials," but Judge Pauley ordered that material to be unredacted because the material prosecutors wanted redacted Pauley wrote, "are a matter of national importance." Maddow also remarked that the only "government official" who was involved in the hush-money scheme was Donald Trump (Mrs. McC: as far as we know). The NYT report notes that "Judge Pauley is still allowing the prosecutors to black out some portions, which he called imited references' to an 'uncharged third-party.' The identity of that person is unclear."

Lifestyles of the Rich & Sleazy. Jack Bohrer of NBC News: A "November 1992 tape in the NBC archives shows Donald Trump partying with Jeffrey Epstein at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, now a private club, more than a decade before Epstein pleaded guilty to felony prostitution charges in Florida. At one point in the video, Trump is seen grabbing a woman toward him and patting her behind.... The future president was largely surrounded by cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills, in town for a game against the Miami Dolphins.... Trump is seen talking to Epstein and another man while they watch the women on the dance floor. Trump noted the presence of an NBC camera to Epstein, and both point out women...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... The old tape begins at about 3:05 min. in:

     ... Update: According to MSNBC, "The 1992 footage of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein was shot by NBC for a Faith Daniels talk show called 'A Closer Look' which profiled the then-newly divorced Trump. During that episode Faith Daniels and Trump describe the circumstances of how he ended up on the show." Those circumstances: at a "Celebrity Show" dinner, Trump walked up to Daniels & kissed her on the lips in front of the paparazzi, & she told him he'd have to pay that off by appearing on her show. Trump's attack of Daniels, as Chris Matthews points out in the segment embedded below, is consistent with what Trump told Billy Bush in the "Access Hollywood" interview. ...

... Joe Nocera in Bloomberg: "Instructed by the court to list his assets, Epstein turned in a financial disclosure form claiming a net worth of more than half a billion dollars. He listed $379 million in cash and investments, and valued his six (yes, six) properties at $181 million. There were no further details. At Monday's bail hearing, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman described the document as 'cursory' and unhelpful.... Plainly, the government will need to dig deep to gain a complete understanding of Epstein's wealth. Under the criminal forfeiture statute, it has the right to take any asset that can be connected to a crime -- in Epstein's case, his properties, if it is proved that underage girls were abused there.... [I]f he acquired any of his wealth from trafficking[, t]hat money could also be taken away by the government.... Paul Cassell, a lawyer representing one of the victims, told the Washington Post that 'it's easy to foresee 160 victims in this case and possibly more.' He added that Epstein's 'exposure' from such lawsuits could exceed $1.5 billion.... [T]he mystery of how Epstein became rich enough to own six properties, plus a private jet, plus all the rest of it remains just that: a mystery." --s ...

... ** Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "The Jeffrey Epstein case is an asteroid poised to strike the elite world in which he moved.... Likely within days, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will release almost 2,000 pages of documents that could reveal sexual abuse by 'numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders,' according to the three-judge panel's ruling.... Another person involved with litigation against Epstein told me: 'It's going to be staggering, the amount of names. It's going to be contagion numbers.'... For those in Epstein's orbit, the stakes of exposure are bound to get higher as more and more women come forward. Every day seems to bring new horrors about Epstein's alleged depravity." --s ...

Juan Cole: "It's official. Trump has put US manufacturing, which is about 14% of the US gross national product, into recession, according to AFP. Recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of decline. The recession in manufacturing has many reasons.... But on top of them all came Trump's trade war with China, which tipped the balance.... Trump's support, like that of most Republican candidates, comes from the upper middle class and the rich (along with, in his peculiar case, Evangelical Christians determined to go to hell for hypocrisy). But about 14% of blue collar workers who had voted for Obama switched to Trump, mainly over his promise to restore US manufacturing and to bring jobs home from China.... The 14% of blue collar workers who switched to voting for the Republican Part[y] -- in hopes that their class interests would be served by a billionaire narcissist -- got taken for a ride." --s

... Mike Lofgren, former GOP Congressional aide, in Common Dreams: "In the age of Trump, the wrongdoing has become so blatant, the attitude towards the rest of us so contemptuous, that a presumption of guilt may be the only realistic attitude[.]... In the rarified world at the intersection of oligarchy and celebrity, the rules are different. Trump's presidency and Epstein's arrest have pulled back the curtain -- ever so slightly -- on this twisted world. It is a black pit of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), codes of omerta, sending batteries of lawyers and sleazy detectives to harass people who saw things they shouldn't have, lining up character witnesses, setting up fake charities both as attestation of beneficence and tax dodge." Worth reading.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House voted Wednesday evening to hold Attorney General William P. Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt of Congress for their refusal to turn over key documents related to the Trump administration's attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The citations for two cabinet officials, approved 230-198, will breathe new life into a dispute that has touched all three branches of government over why Trump administration officials pushed to ask census respondents if they were American citizens and what that question's impact would be. Democrats investigating the issue believe that the documents and testimony being shielded would confirm that the administration's long-stated rationale for collecting the data -- to better enforce the Voting Rights Act -- was merely a cover for a politically motivated attempt to eliminate noncitizens from population statistics used to allocate political representation, diminishing Democratic power. The Supreme Court hinted at that theory last month when it rejected the administration's stated reason for adding the question as 'contrived.'... And in an unusual twist, President Trump himself all but confirmed those suspicions earlier this month when he said of the citizenship question, 'You need it for Congress, for districting.'"

Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "[Currently] Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer ... runs the [defense] department temporarily while Trump's permanent choice [for Defense secretary], Army Secretary Mark Esper, awaits Senate confirmation. Meanwhile nearly two dozen senior civilian positions remain unfilled by Senate-confirmed appointees. Temporary officials like Spencer now occupy the most crucial roles at the Pentagon, including the top three positions: secretary of defense, deputy secretary of defense, and chief management officer. Twelve senior roles within the secretary's office are vacant in total.... But the staffing problem is not isolated to the Defense Department's central division. The Army and Air Force lack permanent civilian leaders. Trump's choice to be chief of naval operations withdrew his nomination last week, creating another vacancy for the White House to fill.... The wave of vacancies has left the Pentagon without relevant policy advisers or Senate-confirmed leaders during a time when the White House is responding to a myriad of foreign policy challenges[.]" --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but Pentagon leaders are superfluous. The main function of Trump's generals is to come to the White House to tell Trump, "Sir, you were right all along. Thank you for setting us straight, Sir." Then the toughest men you've ever seen openly weep with gratitude for the stable genius. (See Daniel Dale post, linked yesterday, for context.) (Also linked yesterday.)

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "There is a 'culture of fear, censorship, and suppression' within the Trump administration that is impeding government scientists from doing their best work, former Interior Department policy director and scientist turned whistleblower Joel Clement warned on Wednesday[, s]peaking to lawmakers on the House Science Committee.... But the scientists said that under President Donald Trump, political interference had reached a new level." With multiple examples. --s

One of Those "Great" Border Patrol Agents. Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "A border agent who worked at a child detention facility in Clint, TX allegedly sent harassing messages to the mother of a 12-year-old child who was detained where he worked, according to the Washington Post. The mother filed a complaint with Customs and Border Protection about the alleged incident. The complaint alleges that the agent sent abusive chats and video calls to the undocumented Guatemalan woman living in California while he held her son in detention. The messages included a video of the agent masturbating. The agent apparently asked for her Facebook handle after she was allowed to speak by phone with her son, and she agreed, hoping she might find out more information about his case.... The woman says she met with CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility in May and showed them the Facebook messages. In June, she was reunited with her son for the first time since he was 8 months old."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Democrats to pass an extension of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) tried to win the Senate's consent to approve the House-passed bill, which would reauthorize funding until fiscal 2090. The bill cleared the House in a 402-12 vote last week.... A spokesperson for Paul later told The Hill that Paul 'is not blocking anything,' adding that he is 'simply seeking to pay for it.'" Mrs. McC: Li'l Randy can't help it; he has his principles, you know. Maybe he can take the money from the widows & orphans fund. ...

     ... Update. Justin Wise of the Hill: "... Jon Stewart on Wednesday strongly condemned Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) after he and another GOP senator objected to legislation to extend the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.... 'It's absolutely outrageous. Pardon me if I'm not impressed in any way by Rand Paul's fiscal responsibility virtue signaling, Stewart said on Fox News while appearing alongside 9/11 first responder John Feal." ...

... Nonetheless, Trump & Li'l Randy Think He Would Be a Great Diplomat. Eliana Johnson & Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Over a round of golf this past weekend, Sen. Rand Paul asked ... Donald Trump's blessing for a sensitive diplomatic mission. Paul proposed sitting down with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to extend a fresh olive branch on the president's behalf, according to four U.S. officials. The aim: to reduce tensions between the two countries. Trump signed off on the idea."

Amanda Becker of Reuters: "Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman lawmaker who has clashed with ... Donald Trump and her own Democratic leadership, has sought a meeting with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to discuss their relationship, a Pelosi aide said on Wednesday."

Presidential Race 2020

Jim VandeHei & Mike Allen of Axios: "It might seem like improvisational madness when President Trump tells American citizens in Congress to 'go back' where they came from, but those close to Trump say there's a lot of calculation behind his race-baiting.... It's central to his 2020 strategy, they say. Trump's associates predict more, not less, of the race-baiting madness.... Trump sees the four progressive women in The Squad as perfect foils until he gets a Democratic nominee to run against." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison, ending one of modern history's most brutal and notorious criminal careers. The life sentence, mandated by law as a result of the severity of Mr. Guzmán's crimes, was handed down in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, where the kingpin was convicted last winter of drug, murder and money laundering charges after a sprawling three-month trial. As some of the federal agents who had chased him for years looked on from the gallery, Judge Brian M. Cogan issued the life term and Mr. Guzmán, 62, was hauled away to prepare himself -- pending an appeal -- for spending the rest of his life behind bars." (Also linked yesterday.)

Senate Race 2020. Homophobic Alabama. Tim Fitzsimons of NBC News: "Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican contender in the 2020 U.S. Senate race, has set off a new controversy after saying Americans' fixation with 'homosexual activities' has, in part, caused the country's moral decline. Merrill, 55, is running to defeat Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat who won the seat in 2017 after his Republican challenger Roy Moore was accused of soliciting sex from underage girls.... Merrill's remarks about gays come on the heels of several other controversial comments made by Alabama officials, including a mayor who suggested killing gay people and a police officer who mocked a gay teen's suicide.... [Roy] Moore blamed gays, liberals and socialists for the emergence of sexual misconduct allegations against him during his ill-fated first Senate run in 2017." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Puerto Rico. Patricia Mazzei & Frances Robles of the New York Times: "For the fifth consecutive day, [protesters] demanded Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló's resignation. As on Monday, the night ended with chaotic confrontations with the police.This time, there were many more protesters packed into the narrow colonial streets of Old San Juan, including a hardcore group that faced off with the authorities for hours. Police officers in riot gear deployed tear gas and rubber bullets. Ostensibly, the demonstrators were protesting the arrogant and crass exchanges by the governor and his inner circle in a leaked group chat and the corruption of top politicians unveiled by a series of high-profile arrests. But the forceful display on the streets of Old San Juan amounted to a rejection of decades of scandals and mismanagement involving affluent and disconnected leaders who have time and again benefited at the expense of suffering Puerto Ricans."

Way Beyond

France. Elian Peltier, et al., of the New York Times: Paris's Cathedral of "Notre-Dame still stands only because firefighters decided to risk everything, a New York Times reconstruction has found.... This is how it was saved. With lots of graphics.