The Commentariat -- July 1, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

David Sanger of the New York Times: "Iran has exceeded a key limitation on how much nuclear fuel it can possess under the 2015 international pact curbing its nuclear program, effectively declaring that it would no longer respect an agreement that President Trump abandoned more than a year ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Monday. The breach of the limitation, which restricted Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium to about 660 pounds, does not by itself give the country the material to produce a nuclear weapon. But it is the strongest signal yet that Iran is moving to abandon the limits and restore the far larger stockpile that took the United States and five other nations years to persuade Tehran to send abroad."

Jack Crosbie of Splinter: "Per the Washington Post, Trump is again giving the National Parks Service a massive headache by requesting massive armored vehicles on the National Mall for his planned rebrand of the nation's Fourth of July celebration as a VIP 'Salute to America.' According to the paper this morning: '... The ongoing negotiations over whether to use massive military hardware, such as Abrams tanks or Bradley fighting vehicles, as a prop for Trump's "Salute to America" is just one of many unfinished details when it comes to the celebration planned for Thursday.... Traditionally, major gatherings on the Mall, including inauguration festivities and a jubilee commemorating the start of a new millennium, have featured a designated event producer. But in this case, the producer is the president himself....'... As HuffPost reported at the time [of Trump's inauguration, when he also requested tanks for his parade]: '... "I could absolutely see structural support being a reason [not to use tanks]," a Department of Defense official said. 'D.C. is built on a swamp to begin with.'" The WashPo story is here.

Jonah Shepp of New York on how Trump shifted the G-20 summit. "In his statements and meetings on the sidelines of the summit, he gave explicit cover and support to authoritarian leaders, made concessions to adversaries, and threatened to tear up decades-old agreements with longstanding allies.... When Trump wasn't posing for smiling snapshots with [an] all-star cast of brutal dictators, he was taking potshots at real U.S. allies like Europe and Japan."

The New York Times weighs in on Ivanka Trump, Junior Diplomat. Katie Rogers: "On Sunday, [Ivanka] Trump ... used an impromptu meeting between her father and Kim Jong-un ... to further slip into the role of unofficial spokeswoman and budding stateswoma for the Trump administration. With her husband ... Jared Kushner at her side, Ms. Trump delivered news interviews, posed for photos and attended a closed-door meeting between her father and Mr Kim.... 'We are on the precipice of ushering in potentially a golden era for the Korean Peninsula,' Ms. Trump told Bloomberg News in the hours before her father took the historic step of crossing into the North. But by the time she emerged from the closed-door meeting between the leaders hours later, she only had one word for journalists about her encounter with North Korea. She called it 'surreal.' Others following along called [her presence] inappropriate.... Ms. Trump's participation in the G20 trip illustrated just how unchecked her ascent in the White House has been in recent months, and how few people who might have raised doubts remain." Mrs. McC: Junior Diplomat. I thinks there's a merit badge for that. ...

Ivanka Trump at Yalta. I'm thing that if Ivanka hadn't been there to assert her own views (notice Churchill, Roosevelt & Stalin are mum while Ivanka shares her thoughts), there might never have been a cold war.

... Alison Rourke of the Guardian: "Ivanka Trump's prominent role at the G20 summit over the weekend, and her presence at the Korean demilitarised zone with her father, has inspired a slew of parodies under the hashtag #unwantedivanka.... Following an awkward encounter in Osaka, in which Trump appeared to muscle in on a conversation with world leaders, the president's daughter and senior White House advisor has been photoshopped into significant moments in history...."

Michael Tomasky in a New York Times op-ed: "The aggressive gerrymandering, which the Supreme Court just declared to be a matter beyond its purview; the voter suppression schemes; the dubious proposals that haven't gone anywhere -- yet -- like trying to award presidential electoral votes by congressional district rather than by state, a scheme that Republicans in five states considered after the 2012 election and that is still discussed: These are not ideas aimed at invigorating democracy. They are hatched and executed for the express purpose of essentially fixing elections." Tomasky borrows a term from Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way: "competitive authoritarianism," which describes the political structures of countries like Mozambique, Cambodia & Russia, where "formal democratic institutions exist..., but in which incumbents' abuse of the state places them at a significant advantage vis-à-vis their opponents."

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Michael Crowley & David Sanger of the New York Times: "... for weeks before the meeting [between Donald Trump & Kim Jong Un]..., a real idea has been taking shape inside the Trump administration that officials hope might create a foundation for a new round of negotiations. The concept would amount to a nuclear freeze, one that essentially enshrines the status quo, and tacitly accepts the North as a nuclear power, something administration officials have often said they would never stand for. It falls far short of Mr. Trump's initial vow 30 months ago to solve the North Korea nuclear problem, but it might provide him with a retort to campaign-season critics who say the North Korean dictator has been playing the American president brilliantly by giving him the visuals he craves while holding back on real concessions. While the approach could stop that arsenal from growing, it would not, at least in the near future, dismantle any existing weapons, variously estimated at 20 to 60. Nor would it limit the North's missile capability." ...

... Jim Acosta of CNN: "The new White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, got into a scuffle with North Korean officials on Sunday during a chaotic scene outside a meeting room where ... Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un talked privately. A source at the scene said Grisham got in 'an all out brawl' with North Korean officials as American and North Korean reporters were hustled in to view the summit. Grisham was bruised a bit in the scuffle, the source added." (Also linked late yesterday.) ...

... "Everything is going very smoothly":

(MEANWHILE. Mike Allen of Axios: "Sarah Sanders is likely to hit the speaking circuit and write a book after leaving the White House on Friday, and she'll move to Arkansas in August as the prelude to a possible 2022 run for governor, sources tell Axios." Mrs. McC: So now we'll have to pay to hear/read the lies we used to get for free.)

... This. Is. Not. Diplomacy. Mrs. McCrabbie: The Stephanie Scuffle, it turns out, was just one dance in the TrumpKim Shuffle. Confederate Jonathan Karl of ABC News starts out his report on the Shuffle with high praise: "For Donald Trump the showman, this may have been the greatest performance of his presidency. In one dramatic gesture, he became the first U.S. president to set foot in North Korea -- and the first to arrange an impromptu meeting with a North Korean dictator via tweet." But eventually Karl's recessive newsman gene kicks in, & he writes, "The scene at the DMZ was dramatic and chaotic because there was no agenda, no plan, no advance work. This was improv.... The first moves seemed well choreographed.... Then -- chaos. The two leaders walked around and talked, security guards for both sides were seemingly unclear about where they were going and where the press would be allowed to go.... There was lots of yelling as some of the Korean press followed the leaders into the building. There were shouts to the press to back away from the building ... called the House of Freedom, on the South Korean side of the border.... Then, moments later, shouts for the U.S. press to come inside.... At one point, incoming White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham appears. She elbows and shoves aside a Korean security guard who was among those trying to block the U.S. press from getting into the room where Kim and Trump were now meeting." ...

... Robin Wright of the New Yorker: "... analysts with long experience in dealing with North Korea were skeptical about the prospects. 'This is diplomacy as a reality show -- devoid of substance, purely driven by the pursuit of faux-historic photo ops,' Abraham Denmark, a former East Asia specialist at the Pentagon..., told me.... At the D.M.Z., Kim agreed to do only what he had already promised in Singapore last year: allow more talks between their teams." Mrs. McC: Kinda like going to Paris for the sole purpose of having your picture taken by the grave of Jim Morrison.

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones lists "seven lowlights from Trump's latest adventure abroad." Here's one we missed: "Trump brought his daughter Ivanka with him, a decision that resulted in cringe-worthy instances of the younger Trump, who had no political experience prior to her father giving her job as a White House advisor, appearing to insert herself into pictures and conversations with world leaders. A viral video released Saturday by the office of French President Emmanuel Macron shows [Ivanka] Trump joining a conversation between [Mrs. McC: among!] Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde. The effort drew widespread mockery. 'Being someone's daughter actually isn't a career qualification,' Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted." ...

     ... Balloon Juice has an extended excerpt from the Washington Post's story (by Anne Gearan) on Ivanka's odd & inappropriate role on the East Asia trip. ...

... Cristina Cabrera of TPM: “President Donald Trump brought Fox News host Tucker Carlson to North Korea on Sunday instead of his own national security adviser, John Bolton. Several journalists reported seeing Carlson on the sidelines of Trump's historic visit to the the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, and the hosts of 'Fox & Friends' confirmed Carlson was there during a phone interview with him." --safari: Why take him all the way to the DMZ for a phone interview. WTF? ...

... No, No. Bolton was way too busy to dance on the graves of murdered North Koreans with Trump & Tucker ... because Trump sent Bolton on an important mission to ... Mongolia. And we are delighted to learn that Bolton is "Delighted to be in Ulaanbaatar & looking forward to meeting with officials to find ways to harness Mongolia's capabilities in support of our shared economic & security objectives." I wonder if sending your top national security aide to Outer Mongolia while you preen on the world stage is sort of a message to said aide. Still, Ulaanbaatar must be lovely in summer. ...

... Anyhow, Tucker did a great job defending Trump. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "... Tucker Carlson on Sunday defended President Trump's praise of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, saying part of leading a country 'means killing people.'... The frequent Trump ally said there 'is no defending the North Korean regime, which is a monstrous regime. It is the last reall Stalinist regime in the whole world. It is a disgusting place, obviously. On the other hand, you've got to be honest about what it means to lead a country. It means killing people,' Carlson continued. 'Not on the scale the North Koreans do, but a lot of countries commit atrocities, including a number that we are closely allied with.'" Mrs. McC: Since Trump has an aversion to firing staff, next time he wants to rid himself of some meddlesome aide, he should just shoot the guy on Fifth Avenue. P.S. According to Bill Barr, that would be legal because l'état c'est Trump (see Donald Ayer essay, linked below).

Bryan Bender of Politico: "The U.S. is ill-equipped to counter the increasingly brazen political warfare Russia is waging to undermine democracies, the Pentagon and independent strategists warn in a detailed assessment that happens to echo much bipartisan criticism of ... Donald Trump's approach to Moscow. The more than 150-page white paper, prepared for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and shared with Politico, says the U.S. is still underestimating the scope of Russia's aggression, which includes the use of propaganda and disinformation to sway public opinion across Europe, Central Asia, Africa and Latin America. The study also points to the dangers of a growing alignment between Russia and China, which share a fear of the United States' international alliances and an affinity for 'authoritarian stability.'... The unclassified 'Strategic Multilayer Assessment' marks a clear warning from the military establishment to civilian leaders about a national security threat that strategists fear, if left unchecked, could ultimately lead to armed conflict."

Nahal Toosi of Politico: "President Donald Trump has so closely linked U.S. humanitarian assistance to his attempt to oust Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro -- even placing goods along the country's border as an incentive for Venezuelans to revolt -- that some groups are citing security concerns and asking U.S. officials if they can strip legally required U.S. branding from aid sent to Venezuela, three aid officials told Politico.... The situation reflects broader fears that Trump's unusually politicized approach to handing out U.S. aid worldwide is backfiring, tarnishing America's brand and possibly risking the lives of people from Latin America to the Palestinian territories." --s

Laurie Penny in the New Republic: "A rape allegation for Donald Trump, a domestic abuse allegation for Boris Johnson, and a filmed assault by [British MP] Mark Field -- all in the same week.... The way politicians treat women and children informs their attitude toward everything else. Men who bully, grope, and harass because they feel entitled to do so will treat the electorate with the same violent contempt. Institutions that cover up and tacitly condone abuse will operate similarly. Sexual violence and abuse are central to our political culture, not least because they create something that men like Trump and Johnson have always relied on: They create complicity, and complicity rallies the troops quicker than loyalty in fickle times like these." This essay is a week old but worth reading.

Eliott McLaughlin & Artemis Moshtaghian of CNN: "A federal judge has ordered US Customs and Border Protection to permit health experts into detention facilities holding migrant children to ensure they're 'safe and sanitary' and assess the children's medical needs. The order encompasses all facilities in the CBP's El Paso and Rio Grande Valley sectors, which are the subject of a lawsuit.... U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ... made the ruling Friday, despite Attorney General William Barr and other defendants' request that the court 'set a schedule for briefing these issues that provides defendants with a full and fair opportunity to respond to the allegations that plaintiffs have lodged against them.'"

** Donald Ayer in the Atlantic: "Having known [Bill] Barr for four decades, including preceding him as deputy attorney general in the Bush administration, I knew him to be a fierce advocate of unchecked presidential power.... It is not at all surprising that Bill Barr, with this vision of the law in mind, could reach his ultimate conclusion on obstruction in just a few days, or that in subsequent public appearances he has never offered to explain his conclusions by referencing what Trump actually did. The facts simply don't matter under Barr's understanding of the Constitution, in which 'the President alone is the Executive branch ... the sole repository of all Executive powers conferred by the Constitution,' and Congress may not restrict his exercise of discretion in using those powers. Why worry about facts if, as Trump has claimed repeatedly, the president has unlimited power to direct or terminate any investigation, including of himself?... [Given Trump's endless assertions of power], Barr may have found the ideal setting in which to pursue his life's work of creating an all-powerful president and frustrating the Founders' vision of a government of checks and balances." ...

    ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Everybody in the Trump administration is insane.

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "A state department office tasked with negotiating and implementing nuclear disarmament treaties has lost more than 70% of its staff over the past two years, as the Trump administration moves towards a world without arms control for the first time in nearly half a century. The Office of Strategic Stability and Deterrence Affairs, normally a repository of expertise and institutional knowledge that does the heavy lifting of arms control, has been whittled down from 14 staffers at the start of the Trump administration to four, according to the former staffers." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: According to the report, "the downgrading of the state department's capacity to negotiate disarmament agreements is ... widely seen as a deliberate strategy directed by John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, and a lifelong opponent of arms control agreements which he sees as unnecessary constraints on US sovereignty." Because everybody in the Trump administration is insane.

Emma Vickers of Bloomberg: "Born out of World War II, it's the world's deepest and most comprehensive collaboration among spy services. But now the U.S. has threatened to limit the intelligence it supplies to the so-called Five Eyes network unless its members join it in excluding equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. from their new 5G mobile networks." --s ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Vickers' report is confusing. This weekend several news media reported that Trump, during his G-20 tour de farce "suspended a ban on U.S. companies' selling products to Huawei." (NYT) According to this Bloomberg report by Margaret Talev & others, "The U.S. has been engaged in a global campaign to block Huawei from so-called 5G communications networks, calling the company a security threat.... Trump didn't suggest he was relenting on plans to ban imports of Huawei equipment for new 5G telecommunications networks." So I gues U.S. companies can sell to Huawei but Americans (and American companies) -- and if the U.S. gets its way, the other Five Eyes countries -- can't purchase their products, because they products could contain software that allows China to spy on users.

Notes from the Trump Sump. Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "More than two years ago, Pavel Fuks, a wealthy Ukrainian-Russian developer looking for ways to attract more investment from the United States to his hometown, Kharkiv, Ukraine, enlisted an especially well-connected American to help him: Rudolph W. Giuliani. Mr. Fuks, who years earlier had discussed a Moscow tower project with Donald J. Trump, hired Mr. Giuliani ... under a one-year deal to help improve Kharkiv's emergency services and bolster its image as a destination for investment. 'I would call him the lobbyist for Kharkiv and Ukraine -- this is stated in the contract,' Mr. Fuks said in an interview in March.... Mr. Giuliani's overseas work in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America has drawn criticism from Democrats, who contend it is difficult to separate that work from his close relationship with the president."

Asawin Suebsaeng, et al. of The Daily Beast: "This month, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller is set to finally appear for his public testimony on Capitol Hill to answer questions about his famous report on Russian election meddling and potential obstruction of justice.... Republican lawmakers, as well as prominent allies and legal advisers to this president, want to turn it into a hostile referendum on the nexus of the 'deep state' and sexual dalliance and infidelity -- which is to say that they want to use Mueller's testimony to zero in on the duo that President Trump has repeatedly slammed as 'the FBI lovers.'" --s ...

... Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "... Trump defenders are signaling that they'll use the historic moment to try to undercut [Mueller's] credibility and paint him as a political pawn in Democrats' efforts to undermine the president.... Mueller will also face a grilling from Trump's top Republican allies in Congress, including Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Devin Nunes (Calif.) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.). They intend to press him on long-held articles of Trumpian faith: that Mueller's team was biased against the president from the start and that the Russia investigation was tainted by inappropriate surveillance.... They've already signaled that they want to press the former special counsel on how the so-called Steele Dossier factored into his work."

Presidential Race 2020

Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "The number of Democratic primary voters who pick Kamala Harris as their first choice for president doubled after the first Democratic debates, vaulting the California senator into a third-place tie in a new poll. The latest Morning Consult survey found Harris increased her standing to 12 percent in the poll, which was taken after the debate ended through Friday, up 6 percentage points over the previous week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lauren Evans of Splinter: "Joe Biden, a walking anachronism perpetually trapped in a bygone era, stuck his foot in his mouth yet again during a fundraiser in Seattle when he suggested that it was perfectly cool and chill to make homophobic remarks in...2014? According to CNN, 'The presidential hopeful suggested public sentiment toward gay rights issues has come far in a short period of time, saying five years ago if someone at a business meeting in Seattle 'made fun of a gay waiter' people would just let it go....' ... Members of the crowd pointed out to Biden that such comments would actually not have been acceptable at all, shouting 'Not in Seattle!'... Biden's intended point was that LGBTQ people still lack legal protections from job discrimination in 22 states, and that point is completely valid. But unfortunately, a large part of being president (a good one, anyway) is clearly conveying your message without mucking it up.... Politico's Dan Diamond points out [in a tweet] that Biden has been getting mileage out of this joke for years now, which is strange because it barely made sense when he debuted it: 'Back in 2014, Biden told a similar story about gay waiters, although he set the scene 15 years earlier - back in 1999.'"

Steven Overly of Politico: "Facebook on Sunday announced it's developing a plan to stop misinformation aimed at keeping people from participating in the 2020 census, the results of which will shape American political districting for a decade. The company said it will release a policy this fall that prohibits users from misrepresenting 'census requirements, methods or logistics,' and will deploy algorithms to detect and delete census-related misinformation. It will also appoint a manager to oversee its 'census interference policy' and train staff to specifically handle census-related ads and content. Facebook detailed its plans in a 26-page update to an ongoing civil rights audit published Sunday, part of a broader effort to tackle civil rights concerns that advocates have raised about the social network.... With both the census and presidential election taking place next year, 2020 will present a major test of Facebook's ability to halt the kind of misinformation and foreign meddling that was rampant during the 2016 election cycle."

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Peter Robinson of Bloomberg: "It remains the mystery at the heart of Boeing Co.'s 737 Max crisis: how a company renowned for meticulous design made seemingly basic software mistakes leading to a pair of deadly crashes.... The Max software -- plagued by issues that could keep the planes grounded months longer after U.S. regulators this week revealed a new flaw -- was developed at a time Boeing was laying off experienced engineers and pressing suppliers to cut costs. Increasingly, the iconic American planemaker and its subcontractors have relied on temporary workers making as little as $9 an hour to develop and test software, often from countries lacking a deep background in aerospace -- notably India." --s

Harvard Promotes Lead Poisoning. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R), who is currently being sued for his role in the Flint water scandal, has been named a Harvard fellow." --s

Beyond the Beltway

New York. James Barron of the New York Times: "... the Pride March, a buoyant global celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identity..., swept down Fifth Avenue and into Greenwich Village at a moment in history that many said was a crucial one, a half-century after the landmark Stonewall uprising: More gay rights have been affirmed than ever before, but L.G.B.T.Q. issues remain a flash point in the nation's culture wars. On Sunday, amid the bright palette of rainbow colors on flags and floats, there was awareness -- the sober awareness of 50 years of laws and changing attitudes that moved gay men, lesbians and transgender people into the mainstream.... The march brought together activists from across generations and around the world as one of the main events of WorldPride, the international L.G.B.T.Q. gathering held every couple of years."

Way Beyond

Hong Kong, China. New York Times: "Hundreds of riot police officers with helmets and shields used batons and pepper spray to push back protesters who tried to march to the site of an annual ceremony on Monday morning marking the 22nd anniversary of the territory's return to China from Britain. Thousands of protesters, dressed in black, with some wearing helmets and face masks, had occupied roads around Hong Kong's legislature early Monday. They barricaded streets and marched as they sought to disrupt a morning ceremony at the city's convention center that was attended by the Hong Kong's embattled leader, Carrie Lam, and other top officials." This is a liveblog.

U.K. Gabriel Pogrund & Tom Harper of The Times: "MI5 has launched an investigation into a Russian lobbying campaign to infiltrate British politics that received advice and support from a senior Conservative MP. Ben Wallace, the security minister, has passed evidence to the intelligence services of an influence operation involving Sir Henry Bellingham, one of the prime minister's official trade envoys. The lobbyists, whose ultimate source of funding is unclear, have been urging British authorities to take action against Alexander Shchukin, a Russian oligarch." --safari: The article is firewalled.

The Commentariat -- June 30, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Jim Acosta of CNN: "The new White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, got into a scuffle with North Korean officials on Sunday during a chaotic scene outside a meeting room where ... Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un talked privately. A source at the scene said Grisham got in 'an all out brawl' with North Korean officials as American and North Korean reporters were hustled in to view the summit. Grisham was bruised a bit in the scuffle, the source added."

Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "The number of Democratic primary voters who pick Kamala Harris as their first choice for president doubled after the first Democratic debates, vaulting the California senator into a third-place tie in a new poll. The latest Morning Consult survey found Harris increased her standing to 12 percent in the poll, which was taken after the debate ended through Friday, up 6 percentage points over the previous week."

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Zeke Miller & Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "With wide grins and a historic handshake..., Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un met at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on Sunday and agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation's nuclear program. Trump, pressing his bid for a legacy-defining accord, became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea. What originally was intended to be an impromptu exchange of pleasantries turned into a 50-minute meeting, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two technically warring nations." ...

     ... The New York Times story, by Peter Baker & Michael Crowley, is here. ...

... Zeke Miller & Jonathan Lemire: "... Donald Trump will meet Sunday with North Korea's Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the North and South, a day after he issued an unprecedented invitation and expressed willingness to cross the border for what would be a history-making photo op. South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced that Kim accepted Trump's invitation to meet when the U.S. president visits the heavily fortified site at the Korean border village of Panmunjom." ...

... The Pathetic, Envious Liar-in-Chief Makes up Another Fantastic Lie about Obama. Inquisitr: "... before making the trip to the DMZ, Trump made a claim about his predecessor, Barack Obama, that was immediately contradicted by one of Obama's top former foreign policy advisers. Trump claimed that while president, Obama was 'begging' to meet with Kim, according to ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl reporting via Twitter. 'There were begging for meetings constantly, and Chairman Kim would not meet him,' Trump said, according to an Twitter account to deny Trump's claim, which was also reported as 'false' in the ABC News report.... The truth was exactly the opposite of the way Trump described it, according to a Los Angeles Times report. It was Kim and his predecessor Kim Jong Il -- Kim's father -- who repeatedly sought meetings with Obama and previous U.S. presidents, but were rejected."

Peter Baker & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China agreed on Saturday to resume trade talks after a seven-week breakdown, averting for now an escalation of their multibillion-dollar tariff war that has roiled global markets and threatened the future of the world's two largest economies. The agreement, brokered during more than an hour of discussion between the leaders, did not by itself signal any major breakthrough in resolving the fundamental conflict. But it represented a temporary cease-fire to give negotiators another chance to forge a permanent accord governing the vast flow of goods and services between the two nations." ...

... The Art of the Cave. Gordon Chang of the Daily Beast: "The United States will resume sales of products to Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer..., Donald Trump said in his post-G20 press conference Saturday in Osaka. The action appears to be a surrender to publicly issued Chinese demands.... On Thursday..., the Wall Street Journal reported that Huawei's removal [from the U.S.'s 'Entity List' of foreign companies U.S. companies cannot deal with without prior government approval] was one of China's three main preconditions to a trade deal.... Trump, in response to a reporter's question at the Osaka press conference, refused to confirm he would be taking Huawei off the Entity List.... Nonetheless, the president's initial words made it clear that his administration would resume the flow of high-tech American products to the embattled Chinese company.... Trump also mentioned at the press conference that he would not be imposing any additional tariffs on Chinese goods."

Mrs. McCrabbie: When Patrick wrote in yesterday's Comments, "DiJiT thinks that when Putin says Western liberalism is kaput, he's talking about California democrats and cities," I thought Patrick was joking. He wasn't. Jonathan Chait provides the evidence. Even Mueller would convict. Trump's ignorance is breathtaking. (So is his incoherence, but that's SOP.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rebekah Entralgo of ThinkProgress: "This was hardly Trump's only flub during the Saturday's news conference. He was asked by ABC News about an exchange between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) in Thursday's Democratic presidential debate over busing.... Trump's made clear he thought the term 'busing' meant using a bus to commute to school. 'You know, there aren't that many ways you're going to get people to schools. So this is something that's been done. In some cases, it's been done with a hammer instead of a velvet glove. And, you know, that's part of it[....] But it is certainly a primary method of getting people to schools.' (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Gary Bass in a New York Times op-ed: "President Trump reserves some of his worst behavior for foreign trips.... Yet even by Mr. Trump's dismal standards, his performance this week before the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, should take everyone's breath away. More than yet another demonstration of his erratic behavior, this was also an object lesson in the dangers of his context-free hostility to the world beyond the United States. Before arriving in Japan, Mr. Trump had reportedly been musing about withdrawing the United States from the security treaty with Japan signed in 1951 and revised in 1960 -- the cornerstone of the alliance between the United States and Japan and a pillar of American foreign policy.... Though Mr. Trump implied that the security treaty favors Japan, it was largely dictated by the United States.... Mr. Trump's comment demonstrates a strategic cluelessness and historical ignorance that would disqualify a person from even a modest desk job at the State Department." ...

... Aris Folley of the Hill: "Veteran journalist Dan Rather criticized President Trump for his 'deeply strange behavior' towards Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit.... 'But that was only the beginning. He praises the leader of Saudi Arabia,' Rather continued while speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, saying that 'to put this in context, we have to understand, and whether you're Republican, Democrat or whatever, that under President Trump, American foreign policy has become incoherent and immaturish. For example, tweeting to the president of North Korea, "Meet me at the DMZ, just to see you and say hello,"' Rather continues, referring to a tweet Trump shared on Friday.... Cooper cut in saying he thought that was 'a joke' at first.... 'The president himself doesn't seem all that interested in learning about foreign policy...,' Rather continued, telling Cooper that it's 'hard to say ... whether it's more ineptitude, ignorance or mendacity. But whatever it is, it's dangerous for the country."

LOLGOP in ElectraBlog: "Donald Trump is good at a lot of things, nearly all of them are terrible and nearly all of them exploit weaknesses in our system that have been intentionally exacerbated by America's right wing.... You don't get away with crimes like rape, tax fraud, or conspiring with foreign powers because you're lucky. You do it because you mastered the advantages you have.... The greatest advantage [the powers who made Trump possible] have is our belief is that it can't happen here. But Donald Trump already happened here and he knows he can get away with it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... As Rose, who linked the LOLGOP post for us wrote at the end of Friday's thread, "... I think the Democrats are falling into the trap described in the article of thinking that Trump is incompetent at what he does. Yes, he's stupid beyond bearing mentally unstable in the extreme, narcissistic, sadistic and just plain evil, but -- and he doesn't need intelligence for this, just gut instinct -- he's gifted at grifting, a perfect example of the idiot savant in that regard. Whoever ultimately ends up facing off against him in the general election is going to have to take this into account if they hope to bring him down."

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A federal judge has ordered a mediator to move swiftly to improve health and sanitation at Border Patrol facilities in Texas, where observers reported migrant children were subject to filthy conditions that imperiled their health. Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Central District of California asked late on Friday that an independent monitor, whom she appointed last year, ensure that conditions in detention centers are promptly addressed. She set a deadline of July 12 for the government to report on what it has accomplished 'post haste' to remedy them." ...

... Kate Cronin-Furman in a New York Times op-ed: "What's happening at the border doesn't match the scale of [some infamous] horrors, but if, as appears to be the case, these harsh conditions have been intentionally inflicted on children as part a broader plan to deter others from migrating, then it meets the definition of a mass atrocity: a deliberate, systematic attack on civilians.... Many Americans have been asking each other 'But what can we DO?' The answer is that we call these abuses mass atrocities and use the tool kit this label offers us to fight them.... Children are suffering and dying. The fastest way to stop it is to make sure everyone who is responsible faces consequences." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This sounds like an urgent call to Congress to either investigate the atrocities from the ground up or quickly appoint a nonpartisan commission to hold open hearings.

Presidential Race 2020

Anita Kumar of Politico: "Sen. Kamala Harris 'received too much credit for her attack on Joe Biden at Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate,' ... Donald Trump said Saturday. 'I think she was given too much credit for what she did. It wasn't that outstanding,' Trump said at a news conference in Osaka, Japan...." Mrs. McC: Trump's little critique is based on (1) he's afraid to run against Harris, and (2) he had no idea whatsoever about what Harris was talking about. (See Rebekah Entralgo's post above.) P.S. Notice how, at the end of her report, Kumar pretends that Trump did understanding busing. This is notably irresponsible reporting.

Trump Consultant Runs Fake Biden Website. Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "For much of the last three months, the most popular Joseph R. Biden Jr. website has been a slick little piece of disinformation that is designed to look like the former vice president's official campaign page, yet is most definitely not pro-Biden. From top to bottom, the website, JoeBiden.info, breezily mocks the candidate in terms that would warm the heart of any Bernie Sanders supporter.... All the site says about its creator is buried in the fine print at the bottom of the page. The site, it says, is a political parody built and paid for 'BY AN American citizen FOR American citizens,' and not the work of any campaign or political action committee.... His name is Patrick Mauldin, and he makes videos and other digital content for President Trump's re-election campaign.... in anonymously trying to exploit the fissures within the Democratic ranks -- fissures that ran through this past week's debates -- Mr. Mauldin's website hews far closer to the disinformation spread by Russian trolls in 2016 than typical political messaging."

Maureen Dowd: "The aloofness and arrogance of the Biden operation came spilling out for all to see under the bright lights of the debate stage. The 76-year-old seemed irritated and unprepared to address inevitable jabs from his younger, more nimble rivals.... [Kamala] Harris [ground] her stiletto on a vulnerable part of Biden's record. The reason [Anita] Hill was eviscerated and a lying Clarence Thomas ascended to the Supreme Court is that Biden, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was bending over backward to appease uncompromising Republicans on the panel -- the same men who were falsely accusing Hill of perversity, erotomania and perjury.... Biden is selling himself as someone who can work with a Republican Party that everyone but Biden realizes doesn't exist anymore."

Sam Roberts of the New York Times: "Luis G. Alvarez, a former New York City detective who pleaded with Congress this month to extend health benefits to police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers who responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, died on Saturday in a hospice in Rockville Centre, N.Y. He was 53. His family announced his death in a post on Facebook. The cause was complications of colorectal cancer, for which Mr. Alvarez received a diagnosis in 2016. The disease was linked to the three months he had spent at the site of the toppled World Trade Center towers in Lower Manhattan, searching for survivors and for remains of his fellow officers on nearby rooftops and in the toxic rubble at ground zero."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Bari Weiss of the New York Times: "... the San Francisco school board's [unanimously decided] on Tuesday night to spend at least $600,000 of taxpayer money ... to destroy [a historical work of art].... Victor Arnautoff, the Russian immigrant who made the paintings in question, was perhaps the most important muralist in the Bay Area during the Depression.... His freshly banned work, 'Life of Washington,' does not show the clichéd image of our first president kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge. Instead, the 13-panel, 1,600-square-foot mural, which was painted in 1936 in the just-built George Washington High School, depicts his slaves picking cotton in the fields of Mount Vernon and a group of colonizers walking past the corpse of a Native American.... Arnautoff's purpose was to unsettle the viewer...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This supports my contention that school boards in general are gathering places for the stupidest people in the U.S. Thus, the San Francisco school board is being perfectly consistent with other boards when they prove they "just don't get" art even when it is carefully explained to them. Now, can we please burn Picasso's "Guernica" & replace it with a painting of playful kittens?

I've always considered school board elections stepping stones for up and coming future stupid politicians. -- Dan L., in yesterday's Comments

First God made idiots. That was for practice. Then He made school boards. -- Mark Twain, via Procopius, in yesterday's Comments thread

Florida. Doha Madani of NBC News: "A group of civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida Friday after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that would require felons to pay court-ordered financial obligations if they want their voting rights restored. Florida's new law, SB7066, violates the prohibition against poll taxes enshrined in the 24th Amendment, claims a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Florida, the Brennan Center for Justice and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The suit filed on behalf of 10 Floridians also claims the law was at least partly motivated by a racially discriminatory purpose in violation of the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to people born or naturalized in the United States, and the 15th Amendment that prohibits the government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race or color or previous servitude."

The Commentariat -- June 29, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Mrs. McCrabbie: When Patrick wrote in today's Comments, "DiJiT thinks that when Putin says Western liberalism is kaput, he's talking about California democrats and cities," I thought Patrick was joking. He wasn't. Jonathan Chait provides the evidence. Even Mueller would convict. Trump's ignorance is breathtaking. (So is his incoherence, but that's SOP.) ...

... Rebekah Entralgo of ThinkProgress: "This was hardly Trump's only flub during the Saturday's news conference. He was asked by ABC News about an exchange between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) in Thursday's Democratic presidential debate over busing.... Trump's made clear he thought the term 'busing' meant using a bus to commute to school. 'You know, there aren't that many ways you're going to get people to schools. So this is something that's been done. In some cases, it's been done with a hammer instead of a velvet glove. And, you know, that's part of it[....] But it is certainly a primary method of getting people to schools.'"

LOLGOP in ElectraBlog: "Donald Trump is good at a lot of things, nearly all of them are terrible and nearly all of them exploit weaknesses in our system that have been intentionally exacerbated by America's right wing.... You don't get away with crimes like rape, tax fraud, or conspiring with foreign powers because you're lucky. You do it because you mastered the advantages you have.... The greatest advantage [the powers who made Trump possible] have is our belief is that it can't happen here. But Donald Trump already happened here and he knows he can get away with it." ...

... As Rose, who linked the LOLGOP post for us wrote at the end of yesterday's thread, "... I think the Democrats are falling into the trap described in the article of thinking that Trump is incompetent at what he does. Yes, he's stupid beyond bearing, mentally unstable in the extreme, narcissistic, sadistic and just plain evil, but -- and he doesn't need intelligence for this, just gut instinct -- he's gifted at grifting, a perfect example of the idiot savant in that regard. Whoever ultimately ends up facing off against him in the general election is going to have to take this into account if they hope to bring him down."

Kate Cronin-Furman in a New York Times op-ed: "What's happening at the border doesn't match the scale of [some infamous] horrors, but if, as appears to be the case, these harsh conditions have been intentionally inflicted on children as part a broader plan to deter others from migrating, then it meets the definition of a mass atrocity: a deliberate, systematic attack on civilians.... Many Americans have been asking each other 'But what can we DO?' The answer is that we call these abuses mass atrocities and use the tool kit this label offers us to fight them.... Children are suffering and dying. The fastest way to stop it is to make sure everyone who is responsible faces consequences." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This sounds like an urgent call to Congress to either investigate the atrocities from the ground up or quickly appoint a nonpartisan commission to hold open hearings.

Bari Weiss of the New York Times: "... the San Francisco school board's [unanimously decided] on Tuesday night to spend at least $600,000 of taxpayer money ... to destroy [a historical work of art].... Victor Arnautoff, the Russian immigrant who made the paintings in question, was perhaps the most important muralist in the Bay Area during the Depression.... His freshly banned work, 'Life of Washington,' does not show the clichéd image of our first president kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge. Instead, the 13-panel, 1,600-square-foot mural, which was painted in 1936 in the just-built George Washington High School, depicts his slaves picking cotton in the fields of Mount Vernon and a group of colonizers walking past the corpse of a Native American.... Arnautoff's purpose was to unsettle the viewer...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This supports my contention that school boards in general are gathering places for the stupidest people in the U.S. Thus, the San Francisco school board is being perfectly consistent with other boards when they prove they "just don't get" art, even when it is carefully explained to them. Now, can we please burn Picasso's "Guernica" & replace it with a painting of playful kittens?

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump Praises World's Tyrants at G-20

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as 'a friend of mine, despite concerns about the young leader among U.S. lawmakers and international officials. Trump and the crown prince held a working breakfast in Osaka, Japan, at the Group of 20 (G-20) summit. The president did not respond to shouted questions from reporters about whether he would confront the crown prince about the killing of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. Instead, he credited the crown prince for doing a 'spectacular job,' citing reforms that benefit women in the long-restrictive kingdom." ...

     ... Update. David Herszenhorn of Politico: "... Donald Trump enjoyed breakfast [in Osaka, Japan,] Friday with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, heaping praise on the Saudi ruler while ignoring evidence of his role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi..., including a conclusion by the Central Intelligence Agency, that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing. Appearing before their breakfast at the Imperial Hotel in Osaka, Trump and Prince Mohammed ignored at least two questions about Khashoggi's death.... 'It's an honor to be with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, a friend of mine, a man who has really done things in the last five years in terms of opening up Saudi Arabia,' Trump said. 'And I think especially what you've done for women. I'm seeing what's happening; it's like a revolution in a very positive way.' Trump continued, 'I want to just thank you on behalf of a lot of people, and I want to congratulate you. You've done, really, a spectacular job.'" ...

     ... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Barely a week ago, he was in theory a marked man, fingered by the United Nations as the probable mastermind behind one of the most grisly and sensational murders of recent years. But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has been wandering around the world stage in Japan the last couple of days hobnobbing with presidents and prime ministers as if he were just another leader deliberating on economics and energy. No one is more important to Saudi efforts to rehabilitate their de facto ruler after the bone-saw killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi than President Trump, who joshed around with the crown prince during a summit photo session on Friday and hosted him for a personal breakfast on Saturday morning where he lavished praise on the prince as a reformer opening up his society." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's embrace of bin Salman, besides reflecting his admiration for brutal dictators & his greed for remuneration from the super-wealthy prince, also reflects his disdain for journalists. Just as he suggested to Vladimir Putin (see Baker & Crowley's NYT report, linked below) that murdering, shutting down & intimidating jounalists were good ways to solve the "problem" of "fake news," so he dismisses bin Salman's participation in the grisly murder of an American-based journalist.

Jordan Fabian & Saagar Enjeti of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday said he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea after the Group of 20 (G-20) summit that's taking place this weekend in Japan. 'After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!' Trump tweeted." ...

     ... AP: "... Donald Trump says he wants to inspect the heavily-fortified Korean demilitarized zone as an example of what a 'real border' looks like.... Says Trump: 'By the way, when you talk about a wall when you talk about a border, that's what they call a border. Nobody goes through that border.... That's called a real border.'" Mrs. McC: And you're called a real sadist. As the Hill story linked above describes the DMZ, "The region, a heavily guarded border dividing the North and South, is occupied by thousands of troops from both sides and is littered with land mines. Former President Clinton once called it 'the scariest place on earth.'"

Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shared a 'cheers' as the pair gathered with other world leaders at the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Japan. Trump and Putin were photographed sitting near each other at a G-20 dinner Friday night in Osaka with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seated between them.... Trump grabbed his glass and reached to clink it with Putin's cup, which appeared to be a plastic tumbler. Both then took a sip from their cups." ...

... Peter Baker & Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "Like old friends reuniting, [Trump & Putin] warmly shook hands, smiled and chatted amiably. And then President Trump brushed off Russia's interference in American democracy with a joke as President Vladimir V. Putin chuckled.... Rather than challenge Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump treated it as a laughing matter..., [putting] put the issue back in the spotlight as House Democrats prepare to question Mr. Mueller on camera next month.... As reporters and photographers entered their meeting room..., the American president offered the sort of disdain for journalists sure to resonate with an authoritarian like Mr. Putin. 'Get rid of them,' Mr. Trump said. 'Fake news is a great term, isn't it? You don't have this problem in Russia, but we do.' 'We also have,' Mr. Putin insisted in English. 'It's the same.' In fact, Mr. Putin has made a hallmark of his nearly two decades in power a takeover of major news outlets. Russia's relatively few independent journalists often come under intense pressure and, in some cases, have even been killed. It fell to other leaders gathered in Osaka, Japan, for the annual Group of 20 summit meeting to volunteer the rebuttal to Mr. Putin's worldview that Mr. Trump did not." Baker & Crowley contrast Trump's effusive praise for Putin with the remarks & attitudes of world leaders Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, British PM Theresa May. ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Baker & Crowley repeatedly express the conventional wisdom that Trump's dismissal of Russian interference in 2016 is the result of Trump's discomfort with the implication that the Russians' aid tainted his 2016 victory. But I don't think that's the whole story, and I find it a much too kindly reading of Trump's motivations. As the reports above attest, Trump kisses up to plenty of murderous dictators who did nothing to help his election. Trump really likes Putin; he's "in love with" Kim Jong-un; at the G-20, he was jovial in the company of Mohammed bin Salman. He admires these monsters. He aspires to be one of them.

Gigi Sukin of Axios: "Former President Jimmy Carter said Friday that a thorough investigation into the 2016 presidential election would reveal that President Trump would not have won the presidency without the help of Russian interference, the Washington Post reports.... 'There's no doubt that Russians did interfere in the election, and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016,' he said at a Carter Center conference in Virginia. He also indicated that he considers Trump to be an 'illegitimate president.'"

Presidential Race 2020

Julie Bosman & Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "A day after a bruising primary debate in which Senator Kamala Harris laced into his history on civil rights, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. vigorously defended his record on Friday, saying that '30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange can't do justice to a lifetime committed to civil rights.' Mr. Biden recited a litany of actions he had taken in his long career to promote equality, saying that 'I fought my heart out to ensure that civil rights and voting rights, equal rights are enforced everywhere.'... But his political and personal vulnerabilities as a 2020 candidate have never been more clear than they were on Thursday night...." ...

I did not oppose busing in America. -- Joe Biden, to Kamala Harris, in Thursday's debate ...

That's a big fucking whopper, Joe. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

... Domenico Montanaro of NPR: "Factoring prominently into the debate against busing [in 1975] ... was a young, liberal, 32-year-old Delaware senator by the name of Joe Biden. Asked in an interview at the time by NPR's David Ensor whether he would go so far as supporting a constitutional amendment to stop court-ordered busing, Biden was open to it. 'That would clearly do it,' he said, adding, 'I'm going to go at it through a constitutional amendment, if it can't be done through a piece of legislation.'" ...

Craig Silverman & Jane Lytvynenko of BuzzFeed News: "Not long after Sen. Kamala Harris challenged Joe Biden's record on race during part two of the first Democratic debate last night, a barrage of tweets questioned her race and US citizenship. While these claims erupted into national prominence last night, in part due to a quote-tweet from Donald Trump Jr., falsehoods about her have long been simmering in fringe conspiracy and neo-Nazi circles.... Harris was born in Oakland to an Indian mother and Jamaican father, and is eligible to run for president.... The sentiment that Harris is not an 'American Black' was also expressed in a viral tweet -- one that was briefly amplified by Trump Jr. (he later deleted his message)[.]... The smears against Harris have been percolating since long before she announced her campaign for president earlier this year." ...

... Katie Rogers & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, shared another person's tweet with his millions of followers during the Democratic debate on Thursday that falsely claimed Senator Kamala Harris was not black enough to be discussing the plight of black Americans. 'Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves,' Ali Alexander, a member of a right-wing constellation of media personalities, wrote on Twitter. 'She's not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That's fine. She's not an American Black. Period.' Mr. Trump, a valuable Republican surrogate as his father faces a bruising 2020 race, posted the tweet of unverified information, then asked his more than three million followers: 'Is this true? Wow.' By the end of the night, Mr. Trump had deleted his message, and by Friday, a spokesman said it had all been a misunderstanding.... Because his tweet was elevated by valuable surrogates like the president's son, Mr. Alexander has become part of a loose network of accounts weaponized by the Trump campaign as part of its effort to discredit candidates."

Frank Rich: "We're down from 20 [candidates] to either seven (Biden, Sanders, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, Castro, and Klobuchar) or nine, if you hold out hope that the mellifluous but glib bros Booker and Beto will start putting at least as much effort into bold policy positions as they have into their pandering effusions of gringo Spanish.... By linking Biden's praise of James Eastland and Herman Talmadge to his opposition to busing, [Harris] revealed that Biden still doesn't understand that he didn't only benefit from these bigots' supposed 'civility'..., but actively enabled at least one plank of their arch-segregationist political strategy. He has chosen not to apologize for that failure. And last night, he paid a huge price by digging himself in further. His invocation in 2019 of states' rights to argue against busing ... sounds like something that would pop out of the mouth of Rand Paul, not a Democratic front-runner." Read on.

Michelle Goldberg: "We've now had two Democratic debates in which women dominated.... The question now is whether these victories can convince battle-scarred Democratic women to believe once again that a woman can beat Donald Trump. There's a bleak paradox here.... But the more you think that misogyny undermined Clinton, the less inclined you might be to support another female challenger.... This week should give us confidence that a woman can lead the fight against this grotesque president. Surely it's not riskier to back the women who won the debates than the men who lost them."

Ezra Klein of Vox: Kamala "Harris walked into the debates an unknown quantity. She walked out the winner. Given the number of Democratic factions that could plausibly unite behind Harris's banner, that's no small thing. It's a rare debate that truly shakes up the primary, but I suspect this one did."

Ledyard King of USA Today: "Author Marianne Williamson's quirky, love-conquers-all approach on the Democratic debate stage Thursday drew applause, ridicule and confusion. On Friday, she was attracting donations. From Republicans. GOP strategist Jeff Roe, who ran Texas Sen. Ted Cruz' 2016 presidential campaign, tweeted out to his 16,000 followers asking fellow Republicans "to donate $1 to keep this vibrant democrat on the debate stage. One debate performance is not enough."

David Brooks is very upset that Democrats won't give him a mealy-mouthed candidate he can vote for against Trump. Mrs. McC: Brooks is one of the slimiest, sneakiest columnists in the history of the New York Times op-ed page. This is his attempt to undermine the Democratic party by promising he will vote for a boring, uninspiring moderate if only Democrats will nominate one. Just so you'll know, Brooks is lying. Should Democratic voters follow his advice, he just won't be able to find enough to like about their dull nominee, and he'll use every column right up to November telling readers why.

A Ratings Blockbuster. Brian Stelter of CNN: "Thursday night's Democratic debate featuring Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and eight other candidates was the highest-rated Democratic match-up in Nielsen ratings history. About 18.1 million viewers tuned in for the debate across three TV channels -- NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo — according to Nielsen ... data."

Salute to America Trump & Friends. Elly Yu of the DCist: "... Donald Trump's 'Salute to America' on July 4 will include a ticketed area for VIPs around the Lincoln Memorial, officials announced Friday.... The ticketed area will be 'immediately around the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and about midway down through the Reflecting Pool,' said Matt Miller with the U.S. Secret Service.... A spokesperson for the White House said there will be a 'portion' that is ticketed for special guests, friends, and family, and the rest will be open to the general public."

Mehdi Hasan of The Intercept: "[New White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham fits right into this kakistocratic administration. Her cavalier disregard for the truth is matched by her equally cavalier disregard for the law. In September 2018, Grisham was reprimanded by the Office of Special Counsel for violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits White House employees from engaging in party-political activities. Rather than fire her, Trump decided to promote her. And why wouldn't he? There don't seem to be any consequences for Trump advisers who tell lies or break the law." --s

Maybe you were wondering how Trump officials would respond to the heartbreaking photo of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria lying dead on the banks of the Rio Grande. Turns out (okay, not surprisingly,) Ken Cuccinelli, Trump's new (acting) director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services doesn't have a heart to break: "... the reason we have tragedies like that on the border is because that father didn't wait to go through the asylum process in the legal fashion and decided to cross the river and not only died but his daughter died tragically as well." Mrs. McC: According to CBS News, "Martinez' family said he spent weeks trying to seek asylum at the U.S. Consulate in Mexico, but couldn't get anyone to talk to him. His father said he was there about two or three months." So not only is Cuccinelli a heartless SOB, he's a lying, heartless SOB if the Martinez story is true. (Also linked yesterday.)

Former Trump Campaign Chairman Gets a Perp Walk. Erica Orden of CNN: "Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty Thursday in New York state's Supreme Court to state fraud charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney's office, the third criminal case he has faced in recent years and one that may trigger a battle on double jeopardy grounds."

Debbie Nathan of The Intercept: "A Trump administration program [known as the Migrant Protection Protocols] that banishes asylum-seekers to perilous Mexican border cities could expand exponentially -- and disastrously -- with a new plan to hold mass video proceedings in tents along the border.... So far, the MPP has sent immigrants to Mexico but returned them for hearings in traditional brick-and-mortar courtrooms, where immigration judges almost always sit a few feet from the migrants and their lawyers, and journalists and representatives from immigrant advocacy groups observe from benches in the spectator section. But the new plan is to erect giant tents, each one subdivided into several courts, and each court containing migrants but no judges, reporters, or observers." --s

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The House of Representatives passed the Securing America's Federal Elections Act (SAFE Act) on Thursday, on a 225 to 184 vote. While the bill's provisions to ensure a paper trail for American's ballots, give accessibility and privacy for citizens with disabilities, and avoid foreign rigging would seem fairly non-controversial, just one Republican voted for the bill.... Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), who lost both legs while serving in Afghanistan and has made advocacy for wounded veterans a priority, joined the Democratic majority in supporting the bill.... 183 other Republican colleagues, voted no." --s

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The House Ethics Committee announced Friday that it is investigating Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for a February tweet in which he threatened to release embarrassing personal information about ... Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen. The panel revealed in a statement that it has opened a formal inquiry into Gaetz's comment based on a March 13 complaint from a fellow lawmaker, who is not identified. According to the panel, Gaetz blew off an initial review of the complaint on May 16, an extraordinary rebuke to his colleagues. That refusal to cooperate led the committee to launch a more formal inquiry, led by a subcommittee of two Democrats and two Republicans. Gaetz, in a text, said he intends to blow off that panel too. 'If members of Congress want to spend their time psychoanalyzing my tweets, it's certainly their prerogative,' he wrote. 'I won't be joining them in the endeavor. Too busy.'... Gaetz's initial attack on Cohen came a day before the former Trump confidant was slated to testify to the House Oversight Committee...."

Adam Liptak & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court will decide whether the Trump administration may shut down a program that shields some 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants from deportation, the court said on Friday. The court will hear arguments in the case during its next term, which starts in October, and will probably issue its decision in the spring or summer of 2020, ensuring a fierce immigration debate over the outcome in the midst of the presidential campaign." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a case on an Alabama law that outlawed a common form of abortion, allowing lower court orders blocking the law to remain in place.Alabama had sought to overturn lower court rulings that struck down the ban on the abortion procedure, but the justices rejected that bid in their order." (Also linked yesterday.)

Dahlia Lithwick & Mark Stern of Slate: "As [Chief Justice John] Roberts' first term as the court's decisive vote in major political cases has drawn to a close, he has centered that gravity around upholding the legitimacy of the court as an institution -- while pushing our nation's laws as far to the right as possible without cracking the façade of that institutional integrity. In an age of crudeness and ugliness, the Last Reasonable Man still values moral seriousness over scoring points or throwing tantrums, much to the chagrin of the enemies on his own side.... If Republicans learn the lesson of the 2018 term, it's that the chief justice is on their side, until and unless they do it ugly. He has limits, which is more than one can say for most of the GOP." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is the teeny upside of elitism. Roberts wants to be thought of & remembered as a proper gentleman, someone who is endeavoring to put his middle-class past behind him & demonstrate his inherent fitness for power & his worthiness for respect. He must well understand Joe Biden's admiration for the "civility" of those segregationist senators who called Biden "son" instead of "boy" even as they collaborated to curb the rights of black Americans. ...

... Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "Chief Justice John Roberts would like the Trump administration to stop leaving a paper trail. Conservatives were outraged Thursday when Roberts joined the Court's Democratic appointees in at least temporarily blocking the addition of a citizenship question to the U.S. census because the Commerce Department had plainly lied about the purpose of that change.... Roberts did not argue that a citizenship question was unconstitutional, merely that the administration had violated administrative law by misleading the public about its decision.... The chief justice clearly wanted to side with the Trump administration, writing that 'we do not hold that the agency decision here was substantively invalid,' but that the law 'calls for an explanation for agency action' rather than the false explanation provided.... The Trump administration's dishonesty and even its bigotry are no barrier to its success at the Supreme Court, even when it demands that the Court endorse blatant discrimination and disenfranchisement. All that Roberts asks is that they lie about it more convincingly. His conservative colleagues don't even need that much."

Kartikay Mehrotra of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump was ready to break ground Monday morning on his long-promised Mexico border wall. But a court ruling late Friday dealt the president another setback. A federal judge who last month blocked a pair of construction projects in Arizona and New Mexico added four more sites in Arizona and California. And the Oakland, California-based judge turned his temporary injunction into a permanent one. Trump promised to appeal the ruling immediately.... 'We'll appeal it right away,' he said at a news conference following the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan on Saturday. 'It's very unfair. We're building a lot of wall. But we had a ruling just yesterday, late, from a judge in the 9th Circuit. There's no reason that that should have happened.'... [Judge Haywood] Gilliam agreed with the Sierra Club that Trump overstepped his authority by reprogramming federal funds without approval from Congress." thanks to Ken W. for the lead.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Gary Fineout of Politico: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday quietly signed into law a sweeping elections overhaul that restricts the voting rights of former felons, a measure civil rights groups have already prepared to challenge in court.... The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, along with the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, are expected to file a federal lawsuit in Gainesville that will challenge the new law as unconstitutional and fo targeting African Americans.... The measure crafted by [Republican state] legislators requires offenders to pay all restitution owed to victims, as well as fees or fines imposed by the court, to be eligible to vote.... Critics have likened the measure's requirement that fines and fees be paid to a modern-day poll tax, which was still in place in several Southern states into the 1960s."

North Carolina. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Republican North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who is currently exploring a bid for governor in 2020, delivered a sermon on Sunday denouncing America's diversity and multiculturalism and calling for Christian assimilation.... Forest issued a stern warning that diversity was destroying America.... Anti-multiculturalism rhetoric is popular among the growing white nationalist wing of the Republican Party. " --s

Way Beyond

Germany. Philip Oltermann of the Guardian: "A group of German rightwing extremists [known as Nordkreuz compiled a 'death list' of leftwing and pro-refugee targets by accessing police records, then stockpiled weapons and ordered [200] body bags and quicklime to kill and dispose of their victims, German media have reported, citing intelligence sources.... The 30-odd members of the group reportedly had close links to the police and military, and at least one member was still employed in the special commando unit of the state office of criminal investigations." --s

Guatemala -- Where the Coyotes Wear Clerical Collars. Sarah Kinosian of the Guardian: "Guatemala is one of the biggest sources of migrants to the US, and across the highlands of this poor Central American country, churches and clergymen also play a role in the booming business of people-smuggling. As trusted individuals in a deeply religious society, pastors and priests can offer comfort and a promise of safety to those undertaking the dangerous trek north. They also take a cut of the profits.... 'The church is an invisible actor in migration,' said Francisco Simón, a researcher on migration and smuggling at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala.... Evangelical leaders were more frequently involved in migration than Catholic priests, Simón found." --s