The Commentariat -- June 28, 2019

Late Morning Update:

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."

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."

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.

~~~~~~~~~~

Very Funny. Trump & Putin Share a Joke about Russia's Election Interference. Jonathan Lamire & Zeke Miller of the AP: "With a smirk and a finger point..., Donald Trump dryly told Russia's Vladimir Putin 'Don't meddle with the election' in their first meeting since the special counsel concluded that Russia extensively interfered with the 2016 campaign.... Putin laughed.... The tone of the president's comment, which came after a reporter asked if he would warn Putin, was immediately open to interpretation. But it would seem to do little to silence questions about Trump's relationship with Russia in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller's conclusion that he could not establish a criminal conspiracy between Trump's campaign and Russia." The "joke" came in response to a reporter's shouted question on whether or not Trump would warn Putin "not to meddle." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: "Open to interpretation"? You'd have to be an idiot not to see this as yet another of the dozens of known instances of Trump's (and his aides') "colluding" with Russia to skew U.S. presidential elections in 2016, and now in 2020. Trump has already said publicly he would welcome Russian help in 2020. This is a confirmation of his remarks to George Stephanopoulos. But, hey, it was a "joke." So not impeachable, right? See also David Corn's post, linked below, on Rex Tillerson's assignment in Moscow.

Presidential Race 2020

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Joseph R. Biden Jr. repeatedly found himself on the defensive in the Democratic debate on Thursday over his record as well as his personal views, with the most searing moment of the night, and the primary campaign to date, coming when Senator Kamala Harris confronted him over his comments on working with segregationists in the Senate.... She then ... recall[]ed that he had also opposed school busing in the 1970s. 'There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day,' Ms. Harris said. 'And that little girl was me.' Mr. Biden responded indignantly..., and then returned fire at Ms. Harris, who has faced attacks from the left for her record as a prosecutor in California.... 'I was a public defender, I didn't become a prosecutor.'"

... Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker: When Biden responded to Harris, "he started to sound lawyerly. He had opposed only the intervention of the federal Department of Education in busing[, he said]. In fact, Biden opposed busing, then and now; it was a federal policy, and without federal intervention, Berkeley and countless other places across the country would not have integrated their schools. Harris noted that she was part of her pioneering class 'almost two decades after Brown v. Board of Education.' 'Because your city council opposed it,' Biden replied. That remark made Harris's point for her: a city council should not have veto power over civil rights. It was the first turning point of the Democratic Presidential election.... The implicit [argument] was about which of them could claim the legacy of Barack Obama."

There was a little girl in California who was bussed to school. That little girl was me. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/XKm2xP1MDH

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 28, 2019

Emma Green of the Atlantic: "Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, called out Republicans for what he described as moral hypocrisy during the second night of the first Democratic presidential debates.... The conversation had turned to the border.... 'For a party that associates itself with Christianity, to say that ... God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages,' Buttigieg said, 'has lost all claim to ever use religious language again.'"

Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "... Eric Swalwell was the first to launch a direct attack at former Vice President Joe Biden during Thursday's Democratic primary debate, stating Biden should 'pass the torch' to younger candidates by quoting then-Sen. Biden's words to the now 76-year-old Democratic front-runner. 'I was 6 years old when a presidential candidate came to the California Democratic convention and said it's time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans,' said Swalwell, a Democratic congressman from California. 'That candidate was then-Sen. Joe Biden. He was right when he said that 32 years ago. He is still right today,' Swalwell, who is 38, continued. Swalwell's line of attack was met with a collective gasp from the audience."

Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "During the period between his inauguration and April 27, 2019, [Donald Trump] spewed a whopping 10,111 falsehoods in 828 days.... Which is all to say: It was downright refreshing that in the first two-hour Democratic debate on Wednesday, basically everyone told the truth!... Meanwhile, in the past day Trump has told at least half a dozen lies." --s

Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Trump owes his victory in many ways to [Roger] Ailes and Fox. But they've also put Trump in a box. In 2016, Trump had the loyalty of the Fox News base, and he still has it.... But he's also become ... tightly wedged in the niche that Roger Ailes created, which doesn't seem to include more than, say, 43% of the American electorate.... [T]he Trump campaign is realizing, it probably isn't enough to elect Trump to a second term. His bid to reach a broader audience [with interviews on ABC & NBC], the network audience that Ailes had so much contempt for, failed. For the time being, Trump is trapped in Ailes's world.... The base-first strategy, with Fox as the linchpin, has put Trump's reelection campaign in mortal danger." --s

The Supremes Dispose

Putting "the Interests of the Established Few Above the Many." Michael Wines of the New York Times: "In two rulings that bore huge implications for American politics and governance, the Supreme Court handed Republicans a key victory by refusing to halt even the most extreme gerrymandered maps and potentially gave Democrats a win by at least delaying the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The two bitterly contested cases addressed an issue fundamental to the political system itself: How that system allocates power, and ultimately, how much of a voice the American people have in selecting their leaders. Gerrymandered maps that entrench one party in near-unbreakable power have become rampant as courts dithered over how and whether to rein them in. Now, with a green light from the justices, Republicans have an opportunity to lock in political dominance for the next decade in many of the 22 states where they control both the legislature and the governor's office. And the decision will almost certainly force Democrats, who control 14 statehouses, to reconsider their belated crusade against gerrymandered maps and begin drawing thei own -- an eat-or-be-eaten response to Republican success in gaming the redistricting process."

Ted Hesson of Politico: "The Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow today to the Trump administration's move to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census, ruling that official explanations for the move were implausible and legally inadequate. In a surprising ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's liberals on that point. The high court returned the case to lower courts for further action, raising doubts about the administration getting the go-ahead to add the question before upcoming deadlines to finalize the census questionnaire." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Nicholas Wu, et al., of USA Today: "... Donald Trump said on Thursday afternoon that he would attempt to delay the 2020 census following a Supreme Court decision that would send his administration's request to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census back to a lower court, giving opponents another chance to block it. 'Seems totally ridiculous that our government, and indeed Country, cannot ask a basic question of Citizenship in a very expensive, detailed and important Census,' Trump said in a tweet. 'I have asked the lawyers if they can delay the Census, no matter how long, until the United States Supreme Court is given additional information from which it can make a final and decisive decision on this very critical matter,' Trump tweeted. The Constitution requires the population count every 10 years to reapportion seats among the states in the House of Representatives, said Terri Ann Lowenthal, a census consultant who covered the Census Bureau for the 2008 Obama Presidential Transition Team. She said the bureau must start the count on time."

... "John Roberts Just Called Out the Trump Administration for Lying." Richard Primus in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "All administrations sometimes hide, shade or slant the truth -- and occasionally lie outright. The present administration is different in that it lies regularly, blatantly, heedlessly. In the census case, the Supreme Court, for the first time, called the administration on this behavior -- ever so politely and by the slimmest of margins. But still. Now the question is whether it will have the stomach to do so in other cases -- or even in this case, if it comes back to the court in the near future.... [Thursday], a majority composed of Chief Justice Roberts and the four more liberal justices called shenanigans." ...

... Jay Michaelson of the Daily Beast: "'Reasoned decisionmaking under the Administrative Procedure Act calls for an explanation for agency action,' Chief Justice Roberts wrote in the opinion for the Court. 'What was provided here was more of a distraction.'... Finally, there is a limit to how much this administration can lie and get away with it.... In Roberts's words, 'we are presented ... with an explanation for agency action that is incongruent with what the record reveals about the agency&'s priorities and decisionmaking process.' 'Incongruent' is legalese for 'lied.' The Trump administration said one thing, but the evidence showed another.... There was good reason to doubt that Roberts, in particular, would decide the case this way. Just last year, he took the Trump administration at its word that the so-called 'Travel Ban,' which began, obviously, as a ban against Muslims entering the United States, was in fact a religion-neutral travel ban put in place for national-security reasons.... But, Roberts seemed to say, there is a limit to how much BS the Court will take." ...

... Roberts Tells Ross to Make up a Better Lie. Noah Feldman of Bloomberg looks at Chief Roberts' motivation: "On the one hand, the case is now back in [Judge Jesse] Furman's courtroom, where he will have to judge the legitimacy of some new explanation to be given by the Commerce Department.... On the other hand, Roberts gave the Commerce Department an extremely clear road map to explain what it should say.... Even if Furman finds this explanation insufficient, the Supreme Court could agree to hear an emergency appeal from Furman's ruling and rubber-stamp the citizenship question on the census.... Roberts's approach ... is to try to craft a middle ground that will make the Supreme Court seem less purely political than it would if he opted to join the conservatives. It is as if Roberts always wants to thwart a headline that says, 'Roberts Court Goes Fully Partisan Republican' on a major decision." Mrs. McC: Wow, Noah, that's so cynical.

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Thursday that political partisan gerrymandering cases present a question that courts cannot decide. The justices made the ruling in a pair of cases presented over district maps in Maryland and North Carolina, alleged to be instances of unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court's majority opinion that federal courts cannot consider such challenges. The opinion vacates previous rulings on the district maps in Maryland and North Carolina, and requests that the cases be dismissed 'for lack of jurisdiction.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Forget "one person, one vote." Huge victory for Republicans and against democracy. Kagan read her dissent from the bench. ...

... "A Terrible Day for Democracy." Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The Supreme Court handed down two opinions on Thursday which could shape American democracy for decades." Millhiser discusses Roberts' rationales for the gerrymandering & Census cases. " Rucho and New York both fit within a pattern common to the Roberts Court. When the court's Republicans wish to move fast and hard on a particular issue, they hand down sweeping opinions that fundamentally remake American law. When they hand victories to liberals, by contrast, their decisions tend to be very narrow and offer little relief to future litigants."

Nina Totenberg & Bill Chapell of NPR: "The Supreme Court has ruled that police may, without a warrant, order blood drawn from an unconscious person suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol. The Fourth Amendment generally requires police to obtain a warrant for a blood draw. But in a 5-4 vote on Thursday, the court upheld a Wisconsin law that says people driving on a public road have impliedly consented to having their blood drawn if police suspect them of driving under the influence. It also said that 'exigent circumstances' permit police to obtain a blood sample without a warrant. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer and Brett Kavanaugh joined Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority vote. The decision conflicts with previous court rulings in which the justices ruled that a blood draw is a significant bodily intrusion into a person's privacy and that there are less intrusive ways of enforcing drunken driving laws against unconscious motorists.... The constitutional rights case produced four opinions -- two concurring and two in dissent. In a break with his conservatives benchmates, one of those dissents came from Justice Neil Gorsuch."

The Defeat of Decency. Julie Davis & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday passed a Senate humanitarian aid package without any of the House's strict protections for migrant children in overcrowded border shelters after Speaker Nancy Pelosi capitulated to Republicans and Democratic moderates in a striking defeat. The vote came after a startling display of Democratic disarray and was an unusual setback for Ms. Pelosi, who has been adept at navigating the political complexities of a caucus split by powerful progressive and moderate factions that often work at cross purposes.... The final vote, 305 to 102, included far more Republicans in favor, 176, than Democrats, 129.... Her retreat came after Vice President Mike Pence gave Ms. Pelosi private assurances that the administration would voluntarily abide by some of the restrictions and rules that she had sought...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't believe for one minute that the Trump administration will abide by any promises. ...

... For once thing, the Trump Gang is meaner than dirt. FOR INSTANCE..., here's how the Trump Mob honors the folks Trump calls "our great military":

... Thank You for Your Service. Your Wife & Mother Have Been Deported. Franco Ordoñez of NPR: "The Trump administration wants to scale back a program that protects undocumented family members of active-duty troops from being deported, according to attorneys familiar with those plans. The attorneys are racing to submit applications for what is known as parole in place after hearing from the wives and loved ones of deployed soldiers who have been told that option is 'being terminated.' The protections will only be available under rare circumstances, the lawyers said they've been told. 'It's going to create chaos in the military,' said Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney who represents recruits and veterans in deportation proceedings. 'The troops can't concentrate on their military jobs when they're worried about their family members being deported.'"

Populist Prez* Still Working for the Common Man. Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg: "The White House is developing a plan to cut taxes by indexing capital gains to inflation..., in a move that would largely benefit the wealthy and may be done in a way that bypasses Congress. Consensus is growing among White House officials to advance the proposal soon, the people said, to ensure the benefit takes effect before ... Donald Trump faces re-election in 2020. Revamping capital gains taxes through a rule or executive order likely would face legal challenges, a concern that reportedly prompted former President George H.W. Bush's administration to drop a similar plan. Most of the benefits would go to high-income households, with the top 1% receiving 86% of the benefit, according to estimates in 2018 by the Penn Wharton Budget Model. The policy could reduce tax revenue by $102 billion over a decade, the model found." Note to Trumpbots: You are so fucking stupid!

** Amateur Hour. Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson claims the State Department was kept in the dark about key U.S. foreign-policy decisions during his time in the Trump administration because the president's son-in-law had effectively set up his own shadow operation. Jared Kushner was privately working on strategic partnerships with foreign countries and meeting discreetly with world leaders outside the formal structures of the U.S. government, according to Tillerson.... Because Kushner at times went around Tillerson and his staff, the State Department was not able to efficiently manage U.S. diplomacy.... At several points, Trump's ousted secretary of state vented his frustrations with being repeatedly undercut and left in the dark by Ivanka's husband. 'One of the challenges I think that everyone had... to learn to deal with was the role, the unique situation with the president's son-in-law [Kushner] and daughter [Ivanka] being part of the White House advisory team,' Tillerson said, according to the transcript The Daily Beast obtained.... The former chairman and CEO of Exxon said that on one ludicrous occasion he had bumped into his Mexican counterpart in Washington, D.C. purely by chance -- when the official had come to see Kushner without even informing the State Department that he was in the country." Tillerson was dining at a D.C. restaurant when the restaurateur told Tillerson the Mexican foreign secretary was seated nearby. ... Mrs. McC: The hubris of those punks Jared & Ivanka is breathtaking. ...

... Edward Wong & Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: “Saudi and Emirati leaders bypassed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017 when they told Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon ... about secret plan to impose a blockade on Qatar, a critical American ally in the Middle East. Mr. Tillerson was taken by surprise when the blockade was announced, according to a transcript of an interview with Mr. Tillerson last month by a congressional committee. Mr. Tillerson, who left the State Department in 2018, said he had no knowledge that the Saudis had told Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bannon about the blockade until a committee member asked him about it in the interview. 'It makes me angry,' Mr. Tillerson said.... 'The State Department's views were never expressed.' The account highlights the extent to which Mr. Kushner, Mr. Trump's son-in-law and Middle East adviser, and Mr. Bannon were running foreign policy during the administration's first year in the world's most sensitive regions without telling Mr. Trump's top foreign policy officials and their agencies. The interview especially sheds light on the power wielded behind the scenes by Mr. Kushner." Read on. ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones: "In 2016, Vladimir Putin mounted a sweeping attack on the US election in part to help elect Donald Trump president. Less than three months after Trump took office..., Trump sent his new secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, to Moscow to meet Putin. At that meeting, Tillerson did not challenge or press Putin when the Russian president falsely denied that Moscow had perpetrated this assault on American democracy. Who says so? Tillerson himself.... Tillerson had received no instructions from Trump on how to address the issue of Putin's attack. And Trump showed no interest in any discussion of this important topic before or after the meeting." --s

Miranda Bryant of the Guardian: "A US government policy that restricts funding to organisations that conduct or support abortions has been linked to a 40% increase in [pregnancy] terminations in African countries that depend on American foreign aid, according to new research.... The study ... also found that implementation of the policy resulted in a reduction of the use of modern contraceptives and an increase in pregnancies. [A]lso known as the global gag rule..., Donald Trump reinstated the rule days after taking office in 2017 and expanded it significantly to prevent NGOs that do not sign from receiving any health assistance -- including HIV, nutrition and primary care.... Although the implied intention of the rule is to lower abortions in those countries, researchers suggested that because the abortion providers are often also suppliers of contraception it could have the opposite of effect, driving a rise in unwanted pregnancies and, in turn, abortions." --s

Nancy Scola of Politico: "Twitter said on Thursday it will begin labeling and demoting tweets from world leaders that violate its rules -- an action that appears aimed at ... Donald Trump's often incendiary attacks.... Under the new policy on so-called public interest tweets, Twitter will consider adding a notice about why rule-violating tweets are allowed to remain up. The company shared an example of such a label that reads, 'The Twitter Rules about abusive behavior apply to this Tweet. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain available.'... 'What they did to me on Twitter's incredible. I have millions and millions of followers, but I will tell you they make it very hard for people to join me on Twitter," [Trump] said [in a Fox 'News' interview]. "If I announced tomorrow that I'm going to become a nice liberal Democrat, I would pick up five times more followers.'"

Will Carless & Michael Corey of Reveal: "We wanted to know whether police officers nationwide were members of extremist groups.... We ultimately identified almost 400 users [through Facebook groups] we confirmed were indeed either currently employed as police officers, sheriffs or prison guards or had once worked in law enforcement. We then tried to join as many of the closed extremist groups as we could to see what members, and in particular officers, were saying inside. In a series of stories, we're laying out what we saw: officers engaging in conduct that calls into question their ability to serve their communities without prejudice. More than 50 police departments took action or launched internal investigations after we called them with our findings." --s

Caitlin Murray & Sam Morris of the Guardian: "The US women's national [soccer] team ... have each already earned $90,000 in bonuses [just to play for the quarter-finals].... Yet, if the US women were entitled to the same World Cup bonuses as the US men's national team, their rewards would already be six times larger. The women would've already earned around $550,000 each.... At most, US Soccer would pay the women $260,870 each, which is roughly a quarter of what the regular starters for the men would earn en route to winning a World Cup." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Equal pay for equal work? Ha ha ha. Adding to the disparity Murray & Morris highlight is the fact that in the U.S., women's soccer is actually more popular than men's.

The Commentariat -- June 27, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Court rules Commerce Department cannot go forward on Census question, but is sending it back to lower court for "adequate explanation." Roberts wrote decision but apparently rumblings from confederate justices. ...

     ... Ted Hesson of Politico: "The Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow today to the Trump administration's move to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census, ruling that official explanations for the move were implausible and legally inadequate. In a surprising ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's liberals on that point. The high court returned the case to lower courts for further action, raising doubts about the administratio getting the go-ahead to add the question before upcoming deadlines to finalize the census questionnaire." (As of 11:20 am ET, that the whole story.) ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak is here.

... John Roberts writes 5-4 decision in favor of gerrymandering. Forget "one person, one vote." Huge victory for Republicans and against democracy. Kagan is reading her dissent from the bench. ...

     ... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Thursday that political partisan gerrymandering cases present a question that courts cannot decide. The justices made the ruling in a pair of cases presented over district maps in Maryland and North Carolina, alleged to be instances of unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court's majority opinion that federal courts cannot consider such challenges. The opinion vacates previous rulings on the district maps in Maryland and North Carolina, and requests that the cases be dismissed 'for lack of jurisdiction.'" ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak is here.

Heather Caygle & Burgess Everett of Politico: "The House will vote Thursday on an amended emergency border aid package, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear that his chamber won't consider the new version, teeing up a game of chicken just before the holiday break." ...

... Andrew Taylor & Alan Fram of the AP: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell demanded Thursday that House Democrats drop their insistence for changes in a $4.6 billion border aid package that the Senate passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and instead give final congressional approval to the legislation."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race 2020

Tonight's Democratic debate: same time, same place. Here's where to watch, via Wired.

The New York Times' liveblog of the first Democratic presidential debate is here. Mrs. McC: I find it easier to read the liveblog than to listen to ten candidates yelling at me while spitting out words as fast as this guy:

Eric Levitz of New York provides a credible rundown of the candidates' performances. Based on what I heard on the teevee, his assessment represents a consensus, but Levitz says it better.

Charles Pierce has some thoughts about how the candidates fared.

Jim Newell of Slate: Elizabeth Warren "did what she had to."

Justin Peters of Slate: Chuck Todd is a crappy, talky debate moderator.

This tweet came when the debate discussion turned to the photograph of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria who drowned attempting to reach the US this week. -- Olivia Nuzzi of New York

BORING! -- Donald Trump

... To be fair to Trump, here's what he really didn't like about the debate: "David Graham of the Atlantic: "On the debate stage, he was barely mentioned."

** American Atrocity. Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "When Department of Homeland Security inspectors visited several border facilities in the Rio Grande Valley earlier this month, they found adults and minors with no access to showers, many adults only fed bologna sandwiches, and detainees banging on cell windows -- desperately pressing notes to the windows of their cells that detailed their time in custody. The inspectors compiled a draft report, obtained by BuzzFeed News, that described the conditions as dangerous and prolonged. Some adults were held in standing room-only conditions for a week. There was little access to hot showers or hot food for families and children in some facilities. Some kids were being held in closed cells. There was severe overcrowding. The draft report was written by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and addressed to the acting DHS secretary, Kevin McAleenan. It comes after inspectors visited five border facilities and two ports of entry during the week of June 10. It appears to have been sent to DHS officials last week for comments and requests for redactions before being released publicly." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... ** Damon Linker of the Week: "The question is why the United States -- one of the richest countries in the world and one that loves to wrap itself in a mythology of moral righteousness -- would be acting to produce suffering on such a massive scale. One option has been proposed by journalist Adam Serwer in one of the most widely debated essays of the Trump era. The article's title -- 'The cruelty is the point' -- effectively conveyed its argument. Trump's supporters actively enjoy inflicting suffering on those they hate and fear, and his administration is more than happy to give them what they want.... There's just one problem: The Trump administration has been doing nothing to publicize the conditions in which children are being held and abused.... But ... maybe the cruelty, far from being the point, is actually beside the point. Maybe the administration, from the president on down to detention center guards, doesn't care one bit about the health and well-being of the children in its care. Maybe it views them as a nuisance, as an irritant, as a matter of relative moral indifference.... When cruelty is beside the point, the only way to inspire restraint is the fear of political consequences." ...

     ... See also safari's commentary at the top of today's thread.

So ... Ted Hesson & Nancy Cook of Politico: "Hard-liners inside and outside the Trump administration are pressing for the removal of ... Donald Trump's acting Homeland Security secretary amid a rolling leadership purge that began in April and shows no signs of ending, according to five people in the Trump administration and four former Department of Homeland Security officials. Kevin McAleenan, who took over the post less than three months ago, is under heavy criticism from prominent Trump allies, including former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan, who might become the administration's immigration czar.... Like three other officials purged from immigration agencies since the April resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, McAleenan stands accused of disloyalty to the Trump White House's hard line on immigration because of a perception that he didn't support ICE raids targeting migrant families scheduled to begin last weekend." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Get that? Trumpies are not satisfied that McAleenan is cruel or careless enough. Sickos are running this country.

... Congressional Standoff. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate on Wednesday approved $4.6 billion in emergency humanitarian aid for the southwestern border, rejecting House legislation approved Tuesday that sought to rein in President Trump's immigration crackdown by setting significant rules on how the money could be spent at squalid detention facilities. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California rejected the Senate's bill even before the vote was taken, setting up a clash over immigration policy just days before Congress leaves Washington for a weeklong July 4 recess. Ms. Pelosi called President Trump to discuss how to reconcile the dueling measures in a 15-minute phone call early Wednesday afternoon.... The margin of the Senate vote, 84-8, underscored Senate Republican contentions that only their bill stands a chance of obtaining the president's signature." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... AND this from the NYT report: "To make their point, Republican Senate leaders put the House’s $4.5 billion bill to a test vote; it failed, 37-55, with three Democrats voting against the measure. Seven Democrats, all presidential candidates, were not present ahead of the first Democratic debate in Miami Wednesday night." ...

... Trump Doesn't Know What's Going on Down the Road. Sarah Cammarata of Politico: "... Donald Trump complained Wednesday that congressional Democrats 'won't do anything at all about border security' hours after the House passed a funding package worth billions of dollars to address the humanitarian crisis at the nation's southern border." Mrs. McC: Then he told some more lies disparaging Democrats before continuing on to insult "the American soccer player Megan Rapinoe in a three-href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1143892328236687361">tweet blast on Wednesday morning after she colorfully said in an interview that she would not go to the White House if the United States wins the Women's World Cup." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone: "House Democrats, voting nearly in unison Tuesday night, countered human rights abuses worthy of the Hague's attention with more words and money.... The Trump administration is supposed to spend [the funds] on humanitarian aid.... But there really is no reason to trust the Trump administration with a dime of border funds until it ends the abuse of children there.... Trump's evil actions with regard to immigration enforcement and the catastrophe that is resulting from it are borne from his preternatural talent for discovering where America is not quite so exceptional -- and emphasizing that point even further.... In a nation built on a foundation of genocide, enslavement, and sexual brutalization, it is a wonder how often it seems that we are struck dumb by the horrors authored by our own imperfect American experiment." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, I cringe every time a political candidate claims, "That's not who we are," or "We're better than that." Obviously, they're wrong.

Jarrell Dillard of Bloomberg: "Emotions flared during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday after a picture of a migrant and his daughter who drowned trying to cross into the U.S. underscored the urgency for Congress to address the humanitarian crisis at the border. Democrats in Wednesday's hearing interrogated U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials on the treatment of migrant children within their custody. Brian Hastings, head of border patrol law enforcement, said the actual situation is the complete opposite. Hastings said border patrol has increased food funding for migrants and that the facilities have storerooms with supplies that 'frankly look like Costco.' 'We provide three hot meals a day and snacks are unlimited,' said Hastings. 'I have seen agents on their own go out and purchase toys and bring in for the children to play with.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There are three possibilities here: (1) Hastings is a sadistic liar; (2) All the advocates AND the DHS inspector general & staff are lying; (3) officials are withholding distributing food & necessities from the stocked storerooms because they're sick fucks. I'm going to guess (1).

Gigi Sukin of Axios: "U.S. asylum officers Wednesday implored a U.S. appeals court to block the Trump administration from requiring migrants to stay in Mexico while awaiting immigration hearings in the U.S., the Washington Post first reported. The Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' policy, which forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their cases have been finalized, can put migrants fleeing dangerous situations at risk. The labor union for federal asylum officers called the program in an amicus brief filing, 'fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our Nation and our international and domestic legal obligations." Includes brief.

Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo: "The Trump administration portrays refugees from Central America as criminals or economic migrants ineligible even to request asylum, much less win it. Its treatment of separated children held in appalling conditions in, essentially, concentration camps erected along the border testify to the cruelty of Trump's myopic ethno-nationalism.... Branding asylum seekers economic migrants fleeing local violence is oversimplified. They are fleeing deprivation.... The Trump administration's sticks-only approach adding to the humanitarian crisis on the border with Mexico is not only cruel, cost-ineffective, and failing. It is woefully inadequate to the task of preparing for and ameliorating what could become a hemisphere-wide and global crisis the acting president's head-in-the-sandbox nationalism will not solve. Failing to assist neighbors to the south in addressing the drivers of migration is not American leadership, but retreat from it. The result will be greater instability across the hemisphere."

Elliott Hannon of Slate: "Employees at the online furniture seller Wayfair are planning to walk off the job Wednesday afternoon at the company's Boston headquarters to protest its sale of furniture to be used in border shelters for migrant children. Last week, employees discovered the company had sold $200,000 worth of bedroom furniture to the government contractor BCFS, which is responsible for managing camps at the border. That prompted more than 500 employees to sign on to a letter of protest to management; when Wayfair refused to change course, the employees organized a work stoppage.... [In their protest letter,] The employees specifically asked the company to donate the profit from the sale -- some $86,000 -- to the nonprofit RAICES that supports families on the border, as well as establish a code of ethics for future sales. The company rebuffed employee demands to, essentially, vet its customers." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Update. Sapna Maheshwari & Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "Employees at [Wayfair]'s Boston headquarters left their offices Wednesday afternoon to protest Wayfair's sale of more than $200,000 of bedroom furniture to a government contractor that operates a network of the centers. The walkout followed reports of facilities that were overcrowded and filthy, where children and teenagers were lacking clean clothing and sufficient food. The walkout has not led to a full-blown boycott yet, but the situation has drawn the attention of activist groups...." ...

... Lananh Nguyen of Bloomberg: "Bank of America Corp., the second-biggest U.S. bank, will stop lending to companies that run private prisons and detention centers.... The move followed a review by the bank's environmental, social and governance ... committee, which included site visits and consultation with clients, civil rights leaders, criminal justice experts and academics. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender also met with its internal Hispanic and black leaders. The company will stop its activities in the industry as soon as it can, while meeting contractual obligations.... Shares of two of the largest private-prison companies, GEO Group Inc. and CoreCivic Inc., fell as much as 4.3% and 4.4%, respectively, Wednesday."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump lashed out at the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, on Wednesday, dredging up false accusations about the conduct of investigators after House Democrats announced that Mr. Mueller would testify publicly next month. The president offered no evidence as he repeated earlier accusations that Mr. Mueller destroyed text messages between two former F.B.I. officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who worked on the Russia investigation. 'They're gone and that is illegal,' Mr. Trump said of the texts in an interview with Fox Business Network. 'That's a crime.'... He repeated that Mr. Mueller's report, released in April, found no collusion with the Russians, and he again offered a false assertion that he was cleared of obstruction of justice. Mr. Mueller emphasized that Mr. Trump has not been cleared of obstruction crimes." (Also linked yesterday.)

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted on Wednesday to authorize a subpoena for White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after she failed to appear at a hearing centering on her alleged violations of the Hatch Act. The White House blocked Conway from attending Wednesday's hearing, prompting the Democrat-led panel to authorize Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to issue the subpoena.... Henry J. Kerner, who leads the OSC, testified before the Oversight Committee on Wednesday to defend his report. A former GOP staffer for the Oversight panel, Kerner was nominated by ... Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate.... Lawmakers raised their voices at times as they sparred over the allegations, with Republicans asserting that Conway was unfairly targeted. The debate got so heated that Cummings repeatedly slammed his gavel to bring the committee back to order. One Republican -- Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan -- joined all Democrats in voting to authorize Cummings to subpoena Conway." (Also linked yesterday.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "As Fox & Friends talked about Robert Mueller's upcoming testimony before Congress..., Brian Kilmeade said..., 'I don't think he knows the details of the report.... He is like the King of England on this; he assigns the people....'" Mrs. McC: Sounds like a little projection there, Brian. Not that you yourself aren't very good at details. (Also linked yesterday.)

Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "Two women in whom E. Jean Carroll confided about having allegedly been sexually attacked by Donald Trump in the 1990s spoke publicly about it for the first time in an interview excerpted on the New York Times podcast 'The Daily,' describing the conflicting advice they gave their friend at the time.... On Wednesday, Megan Twohey, a Times reporter, interviewed Ms. Carroll and the two women, Carol Martin and Lisa Birnbach, who had not been publicly identified until now.... Ms. Martin was a news anchor on WCBS-TV in New York from 1975 to 1995. Ms. Birnbach is a writer best known for 'The Official Preppy Handbook,' a best seller released in 1981. She has occasionally written for The Times." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: No sensible person would think Carroll made up the story a quarter century ago, shared the fabrication with two prominent women, then reported it publicly 25 years later. Trump voters and his Congressional enablers are saying that rape -- or at least rape committed by powerful men -- is okay.

Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: the play "The Investigation," that takes its script from the Mueller report, is still available on the Lawworks Website. If you're never going to read Mueller's report, this is a painless -- actually, quite enjoyable -- way to hear the gist of Part 2.

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Ahead of his expected meeting with Putin on the sidelines of this weekend's G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, the president told reporters that while he expected to have a positive conversation with Putin, he would not divulge whether he will press the adversarial leader about election interference. 'I will have a very good conversation with him,' Trump said, adding, 'What I say to him is none of your business.'"

"Baby Trump" to Reign on His Parade. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The 'Baby Trump' blimp that has followed President Trump around the world will fly just blocks from the White House hours before his Fourth of July address. Mike Litterst, a spokesman with the National Park Service, confirmed to Fox 5 this week that feminist anti-war group Code Pink has been granted a permit to fly the notorious balloon during their anti-Trump demonstration.... Most recently, the inflatable ball[o]on, or one of its six clones, was in Orlando, Fla., for Trump's 2020 reelection campaign kickoff." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nicole Lafond of TPM: "An employee at the upscale Aviary cocktail bar in Chicago's West Loop was taken into Secret Service custody Tuesday night for allegedly spitting on Eric Trump, according to NBC Chicago. Chicago police responded to the incident and assisted the Secret Service, according to a Chicago Police Department spokesperson.... Trump confirmed the incident during an interview with Breitbart Tuesday evening, calling it a 'disgusting' act by someone with 'emotional problems.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... MEANWHILE, Back in D.C. ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Charles Pierce: Some White House correspondents, led by an enthusiastic Anita Kumar, now of Politico, held a farewell cocktail party for Sarah Sanders. "The relentless desire of the elite political media to pretend that what we're experiencing is just politics as usual, that it conforms to the usual forms and fashions, and that, you know, the pendulum always swings the other way, (insert mandatory extraneous platitude here) is almost charming in its hopeful and child-like simplicity. First of all, this is not a normal administration*. It is a larval tyranny. Secondly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not a normal White House spokesperson. She was an embarrassingly bad liar and an embarrassingly arrogant countrified know-nothing running cover for a criminal gang, and everyone who attended this nightmare with canapes should be fired forthwith and replaced with someone who has covered organized crime for a living." Mrs. McC: I wonder if an employee spit in their drinks. (Also linked yesterday.)

Miranda Green of the Hill: "The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) air policy chief is leaving, amid ethics concerns. The agency on Wednesday announced that Bill Wehrum, the head of EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, will leave the agency by the end of June. The announcement comes a few months after lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation into whether Wehrum and his deputy improperly aided former energy industry clients after joining the EPA. Wehrum along with the office's senior counsel, David Harlow, formerly worked at the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, where he represented Utility Air Regulatory Group." (Also linked yesterday.)

Brian Long Repaid Two Cents on the Dollar. Daniel Lippman & Ian Kulgren of Politico: "Former FEMA Administrator Brock Long returned to the government only a tiny fraction of the costs he incurred for unauthorized use of vehicles while in office, according to previously undisclosed documents provided to Politico. A Homeland Security Department inspector general probe last year found that Long spent $151,000 using government-funded Chevrolet Suburbans for routine weekend travel to his home in North Carolina. After Politico broke the story of the investigation in September, Long was forced to reimburse the expenses, which he agreed to do. But a copy of Long's personal check, obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight through a public records request, shows that the former administrator paid back only $2,716 -- less than 2 percent of the total cost billed to taxpayers. That's because then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversaw FEMA, did not require Long to reimburse the government fully for his misuse of an expensive program.... The $2,716 bill, Nielsen wrote, was calculated based on a rate of 81.7 cents per mile for 3,324 unauthorized miles driven."

** Faris Bseiso of CNN: "The Trump administration has not sent $600 million in emergency food stamp aid to Puerto Rico two weeks after President Donald Trump approved the funds, and the US territory does not expect to receive the funding until September, according to The Washington Post." --safari: Nothing says "emergency" like a four month delay.

Pilar Menendez of The Daily Beast: "A former House Republican staffer [Rory Riley-Topping] on Wednesday alleged that Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) sexually assaulted her during a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in 2014." --s

Whew! Saved by the Chief. For Now. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The legal drive to rein in the power of federal regulators hit an unexpected stumbling block on Wednesday as the Supreme Court narrowly rejected an opportunity to overturn a controversial legal precedent under which courts let federal agencies interpret their own regulations. Conservatives have been railing and battling against that principle, known as Auer deference, for years, but in the new, late-term ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts split with his Republican-appointed colleagues by refusing to strike down the longstanding legal rule. Roberts did not join all of Justice Elena Kagan's opinion upholding Auer, but he joined enough of it to give the doctrine a reprieve." As Gerstein explains, the matter is not altogether decided, & it will surely come back another day. ...

... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Kisor was supposed to be the first in a series of blows against federal agencies' power to make regulations and interpret existing regulations..., leaving behind a dream for radical libertarians and a nightmare for anyone who cares about simple things like clean air. Instead, Justice Kagan managed to convince Chief Justice John Roberts to join a relatively moderate decision.... [T]he outcome in Kisor suggests that there is a meaningful distance between Roberts and the more nihilistic members of the court's conservative majority. Kisor is not a cause for celebration. But it is a cause for hope." --s

Mark Stern of Slate: "The constitutional right to trial by jury won a significant victory at the Supreme Court on Wednesday that once again brought Justice Neil Gorsuch together with the court's liberal wing. Gorsuch's plurality decision in United States v. Haymond places new, important limits on the government's ability to extend the sentences of certain offenders without a jury's input. It may be the first tremor in a coming Sixth Amendment earthquake. The remaining conservative justices seem to think so: Justice Samuel Alito's apoplectic dissent warned that Gorsuch is preparing to demolish the federal scheme that Congress cooked up to let judges imprison offenders for longer than any jury ever permitted." Read on for the explanation. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's appointees, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh, are as right-wingy as they come, but they have showed in their first full year on the big bench that they are also quirky, and occasionally those quirks bend toward justice.

Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced Wednesday that, in April, 'U.S. monthly electricity generation from renewable sources exceeded coal-fired generation for the first time.' While coal provided 20% of U.S. power in April, renewables -- which include utility-scale hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass -- provided 23% of total generation." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a watershed moment and a big Fuck-You to coal magnates' BFF at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Polly Mosendz, et al., of Bloomberg: "As the National Rifle Association's chief lobbyist, Chris Cox pumped more money into the unlikely election of Donald Trump than anyone else.... Until his resignation was made public on Wednesday, Cox had spent 17 years as the executive director of the NRA&'s Institute for Legislative Action. He headed its political action committee and was the NRA's power broker and liaison with Congress, the White House and federal agencies, and he oversaw the rewarding of reliable conservative politicians with 'A' ratings for fortifying the Second Amendment.... Cox was placed on administrative leave on June 20, along with his deputy, after being accused of helping former NRA President Oliver North plot to overthrow Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's longtime leader and public face. The group is also in a messy public divorce with its longtime advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen Inc., which produced NRATV and helped transform the NRA into a lobbying powerhouse and cultural force. All told, the NRA is entering the 2020 race with Trump lagging in polls and without the marketing or lobbying power that made it such an effective force for Trump in 2016.

Julia Wong of the Guardian: "Reddit has taken steps to 'quarantine' the largest pro-Donald Trump community on its site, The_Donald, due to 'repeated rule-breaking behavior' and, in recent days, 'encouragement of violence towards police officers and public officials in Oregon'... The quarantine restricts the board, known as a subreddit, from generating revenue and limits its popular posts from reaching an audience in other parts of Reddit. It also means visitors are shown a message asking if they still want to enter before they click through.... Becca Lewis, a research affiliate at Data & Society who studies online political subcultures, said that the subreddit has played a 'crucial mediating role' between far-right online spaces, such as Gab, 4chan and 8chan, and mainstream politicians." --s

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Ross Barkan of the Nation: "Tiffany Cabán, the 31-year-old public defender endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is on the verge of a stunning upset in a Queens district-attorney's race that could dramatically impact the direction of criminal-justice reform in America. With 98 percent of the vote reported, Cabán held a razor-thin 1,229-vote lead over Melinda Katz, the borough president backed by the same Queens Democratic machine that Ocasio-Cortez crushed one year ago. Katz has refused to concede, waiting for absentee votes to be counted. Cabán's startling performance may not only redefine criminal-justice reform but also New York's once-ossified, hierarchical political scene. Bold leftists are ascendant, with groups like the Democratic Socialists of America evolving from a curiosity to a preeminent vote-getting force in the city." (Also linked yesterday.)

Pennsylvania. Holly Otterbein of Politico: "The embattled leader of the Pennsylvania GOP has resigned amid a #MeToo scandal, throwing the party into further upheaval in a state critical to ... Donald Trump's reelection chances. The news of Val DiGiorgio's departure follows months of party infighting and disastrous midterm election results for Republicans in the state, including the loss of three congressional seats and double-digit collapses in the gubernatorial and Senate races." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Bloomberg: "Several Huawei Technologies Co. employees have collaborated on research projects with Chinese armed forces personnel, indicating closer ties to the country's military than previously acknowledged by the smartphone and networking powerhouse. Over the past decade, Huawei workers have teamed with members of various organs of the People's Liberation Army on at least 10 research endeavors spanning artificial intelligence to radio communications.... Those projects are just a few of the publicly disclosed studies that shed light on how staff at China's largest technology company teamed with the People's Liberation Army on research into an array of potential military and security applications." --s

The Commentariat -- June 26, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Congressional Standoff. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate on Wednesday approved $4.6 billion in emergency humanitarian aid for the southwestern border, rejecting House legislation approved Tuesday that sought to rein in President Trump's immigration crackdown by setting significant rules on how the money could be spent at squalid detention facilities. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California rejected the Senate's bill even before the vote was taken, setting up a clash over immigration policy just days before Congress leaves Washington for a weeklong July 4 recess. Ms. Pelosi called President Trump to discuss how to reconcile the dueling measures in a 15-minute phone call early Wednesday afternoon.... The margin of the Senate vote, 84-8, underscored Senate Republican contentions that only their bill stands a chance of obtaining the president's signature."

** American Atrocity. Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "When Department of Homeland Security inspectors visited several border facilities in the Rio Grande Valley earlier this month, they found adults and minors with no access to showers, many adults only fed bologna sandwiches, and detainees banging on cell windows -- desperately pressing notes to the windows of their cells that detailed their time in custody. The inspectors compiled a draft report, obtained by BuzzFeed News, that described the conditions as dangerous and prolonged. Some adults were held in standing room-only conditions for a week. There was little access to hot showers or hot food for families and children in some facilities. Some kids were being held in closed cells. There was severe overcrowding. The draft report was written by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and addressed to the acting DHS secretary, Kevin McAleenan. It comes after inspectors visited five border facilities and two ports of entry during the week of June 10. It appears to have been sent to DHS officials last week for comments and requests for redactions before being released publicly." Read on.

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump lashed out at the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, on Wednesday, dredging up false accusations about the conduct of investigators after House Democrats announced that Mr. Mueller would testify publicly next month. The president offered no evidence as he repeated earlier accusations that Mr. Mueller destroyed text messages between two former F.B.I. officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who worked on the Russia investigation. 'They're gone and that is illegal,' Mr. Trump said of the texts in an interview with Fox Business Network. 'That's a crime.'... He repeated that Mr. Mueller's report, released in April, found no collusion with the Russians, and he again offered a false assertion that he was cleared of obstruction of justice. Mr. Mueller emphasized that Mr. Trump has not been cleared of obstruction crimes."

Trump Doesn't Know What's Going on Down the Road. Sarah Cammarata of Politico: "... Donald Trump complained Wednesday that congressional Democrats 'won't do anything at all about border security' hours after the House passed a funding package worth billions of dollars to address the humanitarian crisis at the nation's southern border." Mrs. McC: Then he told some more lies disparaging Democrats before continuing on to insult "the American soccer player Megan Rapinoe in a three-tweet blast on Wednesday morning after she colorfully said in an interview that she would not go to the White House if the United States wins the Women's World Cup."

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted on Wednesday to authorize a subpoena for White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after she failed to appear at a hearing centering on her alleged violations of the Hatch Act. The White House blocked Conway from attending Wednesday's hearing, prompting the Democrat-led panel to authorize Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to issue the subpoena.... Henry J. Kerner, who leads the OSC, testified before the Oversight Committee on Wednesday to defend his report. A former GOP staffer for the Oversight panel, Kerner was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate.... Lawmakers raised their voices at times as they sparred over the allegations, with Republicans asserting that Conway was unfairly targeted. The debate got so heated that Cummings repeatedly slammed his gavel to bring the committee back to order. One Republican -- Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan -- joined all Democrats in voting to authorize Cummings to subpoena Conway."

Miranda Green of the Hill: "The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) air policy chief is leaving, amid ethics concerns. The agency on Wednesday announced that Bill Wehrum, the head of EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, will leave the agency by the end of June. The announcement comes a few months after lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation into whether Wehrum and his deputy improperly aided former energy industry clients after joining the EPA. Wehrum, along with the office's senior counsel, David Harlow, formerly worked at the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, where he represented Utility Air Regulatory Group."

"Baby Trump" to Reign on His Parade. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The 'Baby Trump' blimp that has followed President Trump around the world will fly just blocks from the White House hours before his Fourth of July address. Mike Litterst, a spokesman with the National Park Service, confirmed to Fox 5 this week that feminist anti-war group Code Pink has been granted a permit to fly the notorious balloon during their anti-Trump demonstration.... Most recently, the inflatable ball[o]on, or one of its six clones, was in Orlando, Fla., for Trump's 2020 reelection campaign kickoff."

Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "As Fox & Friends talked about Robert Mueller's upcoming testimony before Congress..., Brian Kilmeade said..., 'I don't think he knows the details of the report.... He is like the King of England on this; he assigns the people....'" Mrs. McC: Sounds like a little projection there, Brian. Not that you yourself aren't very good at details.

Nicole Lafond of TPM: "An employee at the upscale Aviary cocktail bar in Chicago's West Loop was taken into Secret Service custody Tuesday night for allegedly spitting on Eric Trump, according to NBC Chicago. Chicago police responded to the incident and assisted the Secret Service, according to a Chicago Police Department spokesperson.... Trump confirmed the incident during an interview with Breitbart Tuesday evening, calling it a 'disgusting' act by someone with 'emotional problems.'" ...

... MEANWHILE, Back in D.C. ...

... Charles Pierce: Some White House correspondents, led by an enthusiastic Anita Kumar, now of Politico, held a farewell cocktail party for Sarah Sanders. "The relentless desire of the elite political media to pretend that what we're experiencing is just politics as usual, that it conforms to the usual forms and fashions, and that, you know, the pendulum always swings the other way, (insert mandatory extraneous platitude here) is almost charming in its hopeful and child-like simplicity. First of all, this is not a normal administration*. It is a larval tyranny. Secondly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not a normal White House spokesperson. She was an embarrassingly bad liar and an embarrassingly arrogant countrified know-nothing running cover for a criminal gang, and everyone who attended this nightmare with canapes should be fired forthwith and replaced with someone who has covered organized crime for a living." Mrs. McC: I wonder if an employee spit in their drinks.

Ross Barkan of the Nation: "Tiffany Cabán, the 31-year-old public defender endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is on the verge of a stunning upset in a Queens district-attorney's race that could dramatically impact the direction of criminal-justice reform in America. With 98 percent of the vote reported, Cabán held a razor-thin 1,229-vote lead over Melinda Katz, the borough president backed by the same Queens Democratic machine that Ocasio-Cortez crushed one year ago Katz has refused to concede, waiting for absentee votes to be counted. Cabán's startling performance may not only redefine criminal-justice reform but also New York's once-ossified, hierarchical political scene. Bold leftists are ascendant, with groups like the Democratic Socialists of America evolving from a curiosity to a preeminent vote-getting force in the city."

Elliott Hannon of Slate: "Employees at the online furniture seller Wayfair are planning to walk off the job Wednesday afternoon at the company's Boston headquarters to protest its sale of furniture to be used in border shelters for migrant children. Last week, employees discovered the company had sold $200,000 worth of bedroom furniture to the government contractor BCFS, which is responsible for managing camps at the border. That prompted more than 500 employees to sign on to a letter of protest to management; when Wayfair refused to change course, the employees organized a work stoppage.... [In their protest letter,] The employees specifically asked the company to donate the profit from the sale -- some $86,000 -- to the nonprofit RAICES that supports families on the border, as well as establish a code of ethics for future sales. The company rebuffed employee demands to, essentially, vet its customers."

Holly Otterbein of Politico: "The embattled leader of the Pennsylvania GOP has resigned amid a #MeToo scandal, throwing the party into further upheaval in a state critical to ... Donald Trump's reelection chances. The news of Val DiGiorgio's departure follows months of party infighting and disastrous midterm election results for Republicans in the state, including the loss of three congressional seats and double-digit collapses in the gubernatorial and Senate races."

~~~~~~~~~~

Robert Mueller is being subpoenaed by some House Committee (not specified), Rachel Maddow reports. I'll get up a link to a report when one becomes available. Update: The subpoena is for both the Judiciary & Intelligence Committees, and testimony from Mueller will be open. Some of his staff are to testify in closed session before the Intelligence Committee. Rep. Adam Schiff, chair of the Intelligence Committee, told Maddow he would not characterize the subpoena as "friendly," as Mueller has made clear he does not wish to testify. Update update: Hill & NYT stories linked below.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Chaos intensified on Tuesday inside the agency responsible for securing the nation's borders as a top official [John Sanders] was replaced by an immigration hard-liner and former Fox News contributor [Mark Morgan] who last week pushed for nationwide deportations. Mark Morgan, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director who pushed for raids to deport undocumented families, will lead Customs and Border Protection, administration officials said Tuesday.... Before he was named acting director of ICE, Mr. Morgan made frequent appearances on Fox News supporting some of President Trump's more aggressive immigration policies." (An earlier version of this story was linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Ted Hesson of Politico: "Mark Morgan, the White House choice to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said during a Fox News interview earlier this year that he can judge the likelihood that an unaccompanied minor will become a gang member by looking into that child's eyes. 'I've been to detention facilities where I've walked up to these individuals that are so-called minors, 17 or under,' Morgan said on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' in January. 'I've looked at them and I've looked at their eyes, Tucker -- and I've said that is a soon-to-be MS-13 gang member. It's unequivocal.'... Morgan's comment echoed statements by ... Donald Trump. During an event last year in Long Island, N.Y., Trump said unaccompanied minors 'look so innocent,' but aren't in reality.... The view that unaccompanied minors are more likely to become criminals is unsupported by statistical evidence." Mrs. McC: Oh, Morgan will do a great job. ...

... Arturo Rubio & Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "At the squat, sand-colored concrete border station in [Clint,] Texas that has become the center of debate over President Trump's immigration policies, a chaotic shuffle of migrant children continued on Tuesday as more than 100 were moved back into a facility that days earlier had been emptied in the midst of criticism that young detainees there were hungry, crying and unwashed.... In a press call on Tuesday, a Customs and Border Protection official said that the agency was able to send about 100 children back to the station because overcrowding there had been alleviated. The official disputed the lawyers' accounts of [abysmal] conditions at the facility, insisting that migrant detainees housed by the agency were given access to periodic showers and were offered unlimited snacks throughout the day. The continuing movement of children and confusion over the situation at Clint demonstrated the increasingly disorganized situation along the southern border and the government's struggle to maintain minimal humanitarian standards...." ...

I'm very concerned. And they're much better than they were under President Obama by far.... And we're trying to get the Democrats to get us some humanitarian aid.... If we get this bill signed, we'll be able to do it. The Democrats don't want to sign anything, and now I think they're going to probably sign this, from what I understand, I call it humanitarian aid. -- Donald Trump, in the Oval Office yesterday, in response to a reporter's question about whether or not he was personally concerned about the conditions at these border facilities (lies indicated in boldface type)

... Jordan Fabian & Saagar Enjeti of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday declared migrant detention facilities are better than they were under former President Obama, despite numerous reports describing worsening conditions in centers along the southern border and elsewhere. 'No, the conditions are much better than they were under President Obama,' Trump said during an exclusive interview with The Hill.... He said he would 'like to see them' receive toothbrushes and other toiletries, but added there may be issues providing them 'from a strictly legal standpoint' while repeating his claim that 'we're taking care of people far better than President Obama did.'... Obama also faced criticism in 2014 for the conditions at makeshift facilities for child migrants, most of whom crossed the border unaccompanied. At the time, news outlets and advocates discovered thousands of children sleeping inside chain-link-fenced cages, oftentimes on the floor.... 'When I came in, I took over Obama's policy. It was a policy of separation. I'm the one that put them together,' [Trump] said. The Trump administration last year created a 'zero tolerance' policy as a deterrent amid a growing number of Central American migrants crossing the southern border, which resulted in children being separated from their parents after families were detained by immigration authorities. The previous administration did not have a sweeping policy of prosecuting adults in a way that required they be separated from their children." ...

... Julie Davis & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The House pressed toward a vote Tuesday evening on an emergency $4.5 billion humanitarian aid bill to address the plight of migrants at the border, and Democratic leaders appeared confident they had quelled a rebellion in their ranks by adding health and safety requirements for children and adults held by the government. A group of liberals and Hispanic-American lawmakers had threatened to withhold their backing for the bill because they feared that the aid package would enable President Trump's immigration crackdown.... 'This isn't an immigration bill,' [Speaker Pelosi [told reporters]. 'It's an appropriations bill to meet the needs of the children.'... The White House has already threatened that Mr. Trump would veto the House bill because of restrictions that were included even before those new measures." ...

     ... New Lede: "A divided House voted on Tuesday to send $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid to the border to address horrific conditions facing a crush of migrants, attaching significant rules on how the money could be spent in the first action by Democrats to rein in President Trump's immigration crackdown. But the package, which passed by a vote of 230 to 195 nearly along party lines only after Democratic leaders toughened restrictions on the money to win over liberal skeptics, faces a tough path to enactment." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: To summarize: if Trump is "very concerned" about conditions at border camps, there is no objective evidence of his concern for the inhumane conditions in the camps he -- not Democrats or President Obama -- is administering. Veteran immigrant advocates have said conditions now are far worse than anything they've seen during previous administrations, including of course Obama's. Rather than "trying to get the Democrats to get us some humanitarian aid," Trump has threatened to veto the measure. Yesterday House Democrats passed the humanitarian aid package with only three Republican votes. (Members of Congress don't "sign" bills, as Trump characterized Congressional efforts.) Humane treatment is not conditional on an appropriations bill; if the administration truly doesn't have the funds to accommodate asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants & their children, it can decline to incarcerate them. I doubt there exist laws or regulations that prevent the administration from providing "toothbrushes and toiletries" or other necessities to incarcerated adults & children; a DOJ lawyer argued in court last week that such necessities were not required under the Flores decision. ...

... Roque Planas of the Huffington Post: "Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren called Tuesday for repealing the decades-old law criminalizing unauthorized border crossing ― the same law the Trump administration used to systematically split up families at the border last year. Warren joins fellow 2020 contender Julián Castro and several other prominent Democrats in backing a reform that, if enacted, would give civil immigration courts exclusive legal control over immigration enforcement at the border. Under the current system, tens of thousands of migrants who cross without authorization, including some asylum-seekers, face federal prosecution in criminal courts and jail time before they get in front of an administrative judge, who decides their immigration cases.... Congress first criminalized unauthorized border crossings in 1929, when it passed a law authored by famed segregationist Sen. Coleman Blease, a man known for celebrating the lynchings of black men." ...

... Peter Orsi & Amy Guthrie of the AP: "The man and his 23-month-old daughter lay face down in shallow water along the bank of the Rio Grande, his black shirt hiked up to his chest with the girl tucked inside. Her arm was draped around his neck suggesting she clung to him in her final moments. The searing photograph of the sad discovery of their bodies on Monday, captured by journalist Julia Le Duc and published by Mexican newspaper La Jornada, highlights the perils faced by mostly Central American migrants fleeing violence and poverty and hoping for asylum in the United States. According to Le Duc's reporting for La Jornada, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, frustrated because the family from El Salvador was unable to present themselves to U.S. authorities and request asylum, swam across the river on Sunday with his daughter, Valeria. He set her on the U.S. bank of the river and started back for his wife, Tania Vanessa Ávalos, but seeing him move away the girl threw herself into the waters. Martínez returned and was able to grab Valeria, but the current swept them both away."

D. Parvaz of ThinkProgress: "When asked by the White House press pool on Tuesday if he had an exit strategy for tensions with Iran -- especially if war breaks out -- ... Donald Trump replied, 'You're not going to need an exit strategy. I don't do exit strategies.' Whether he intends to sow confusion or communicate incoherence, the president has managed to bring things to a near boiling point with Iran." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One can surmise this is Trump's way of confirming something we already know about him: the consequences of his actions are of no concern to him. Update: See Ken W.'s comment on Trump's "exit strategy" in the thread below. I have to admit Ken is right.

Katie Rogers & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump's loyal and sometimes combative communications director, will replace Sarah Huckabee Sanders as White House press secretary, the first lady announced on Tuesday. She will also take on the added role of communications director, a job that has been vacant since the departure of Bill Shine in March, and will keep her role with Mrs. Trump." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Robert Mackey of The Intercept: "Last year, when Trump returned to Britain as president..., [he] responded to a [reporter's] question about the protracted Brexit negotiations by claiming that he had predicted the outcome during his 2016 visit to Turnberry [insisting he arrived before the referundum on June 23rd, when he really came June 24th after the vote].... His false claim was quickly noted on Twitter by Jon Sopel, the BBC News North America Editor.... Less than an hour later, Stephanie Grisham [Trump's new Press Secretary], who had by then graduated to the role of communications director for First Lady Melania Trump, made the striking decision to deny objective reality in defense of Trump's delusion of grandeur. Grisham insisted to Sopel that Trump had arrived in Scotland on the day of the referendum, June 23rd 2016, in plenty of time to predict the outcome.... Grisham refused to give an inch to objective reality." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Anyone capable of denying what day it is, is capable of lying about anything & everything, an obvious job requirement in a Trump spokesperson.

This Is Who Passes for the Top Diplomatic Specialist in TrumpWorld. Jennifer Jacobs & Daniel Flatley of Bloomberg: "The Trump administration official in charge of diplomatic protocol plans to resign and isn't going to Japan for this week's Group of 20 meetings, where he would have played a sensitive behind-the-scenes role, according to people familiar with the matter. Sean Lawler, a State Department official whose title is chief of protocol, is departing amid a possible inspector general's probe into accusations of intimidating staff and carrying a whip in the office, according to one of the people." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: And you wonder why Trump doesn't know how to behave himself on foreign trips.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Tax Axelrod of the Hill: "Special counsel Robert Mueller will publicly testify in front of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on July 17 following a subpoena, the panels' chairmen said Tuesday. 'Pursuant to subpoenas issued by the House Judiciary and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence tonight, Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III has agreed to testify before both Committees on July 17 in open session,' Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Judiciary panel, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chair of the Intelligence panel, said in a press release.&" ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story, by Nicholas Fandos, is here.

Burgess Everett & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "The president's GOP allies in Congress are moving swiftly to dismiss new rape accusations against him, arguing journalist E. Jean Carroll is eager to promote her new book and that Trump's denial of the alleged attack is credible.... Politico spoke to 16 Republican senators and a half-dozen House members, the majority of whom offered little on the subject. Many said no comment..., and several said that they were unaware of the allegations and had only seen news coverage in passing." The story cites a slew of GOP lemmings who are okay with a rapist president* & a few equivocators. ...

... Ted Barrett & Kristin Wilson of CNN: "Two Republican senators said Tuesday the rape allegation made against ... Donald Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll should be explored to determine the veracity of the allegation against the President -- even as many Senate Republicans sidestepped questions over the matter More Options and defended Trump. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said both Trump and Carroll should be questioned about the alleged assault.... Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said there needs to be an 'evaluation' but that he didn't know what entity should conduct it...." ...

... ** Jonathan Chait: "Asked by reporters about E. Jean Carroll's accusation that President Trump raped her, Senator Lindsey Graham replied, 'He's denied it. That's all I needed to hear.' This seems like an inappropriately high level of credibility to grant a man who has made over 10,000 documented false statements just since taking office.... There are a number of reasons to disbelieve his denial of this specific charge. Trump began his denials by claiming he had 'never met this person in my life.' This denial was pre-refuted by a photograph that New York ran with the story, showing the two of them together. He proceeded to insist 'she's not my type.' Even aside from the insinuation that Trump does have a type of women he would rape, this denial echoed a line he has used before.... It would seem a little strange for Trump to be now refuting a false allegation by using the same terms he previously employed to refute ... allegations that he slept with Stormy Daniels," since the Daniels relationship is known to be true. Read on.

Richard Hasen in Slate: "The government's conduct in the pending Supreme Court case about adding a citizenship question to the census has gone from indefensible to outrageous. In the case, which is likely to be decided this week, Solicitor General Noel Francisco on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to become complicit in a cover up of discriminatory activity by doing something the court does not and cannot do: decide a legal issue that is not before it. If the court does so, any pretense of the legitimacy of the decision will be gone. Here's the relevant background." Should the Court decide for the government this week, Hasen writes that it would "be the biggest travesty since Bush v. Gore."

Matt Shuham of TPM: "The federal judge in congressional Democrats' Emolument Clause lawsuit against President Donald Trump has yet again rejected an attempt by the President to derail the case. In a 12-page opinion Tuesday, Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected Justice Department lawyers' attempt to delay the discovery phase of the suit by appealing Sullivan's previous opinions."

Melanie Zanona, et al., of Politico: "Federal prosecutors have accused Rep. Duncan Hunter of improperly using campaign funds to pursue numerous romantic affairs with congressional aides and lobbyists, according to a new court filing late Monday night. The Justice Department alleged that Hunter (R-Calif.) and his wife Margaret Hunter illegally diverted $250,000 in campaign funds for personal use, including to fund lavish vacations and their children's school tuition. Monday's court filings also spell out allegations that Hunter routinely used campaign funds to pay for Ubers, bar tabs, hotel rooms and other expenses to fund at least five extramarital relationships." You might want to read on just for the fun of it. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's a fun detail from the report: "The filing also says Hunter -- who has developed a reputation on Capitol Hill for drinking heavily and carousing -- used campaign money to pursue 'clearly non-work related activity during get-togethers with his close personal friends.' But prosecutors declined to elaborate further, saying the sensitive conduct could potentially taint the jury pool." IOW, Hunter's behavior was so abhorrent that prosecutors can't reveal it because they would not be able to empanel a jury who could give Hunter a fair trial if potential jurors had heard the allegations. Duncan Hunter may be creepier than Donald Trump.

Presidential Race 2020

The first Democratic presidential debate is tonight beginning at 9 pm. Here's where to watch, via Wired.

Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) released a 'plan to strengthen our democracy' on Tuesday. Much of Warren's plan tracks the For the People Act of 2019, the legislation commonly referred to as 'H.R. 1,' which House Democrats passed last March. What sets Warren's plan apart is the sophisticated mechanisms she uses to insulate voting reforms from state officials hostile to voting rights. Warren's plan is not a perfect solution to the problem of anti-democratic state officials, and, like nearly all laws, it is defenseless against a rogue Supreme Court that is determined to give an electoral advantage to Republicans. Nevertheless, it's a thoughtful effort at least, to mitigate red states' ability to sabotage pro-democratic reforms." --s

Oh Noes! Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "The National Rifle Association has shut down production at NRATV. The N.R.A. on Tuesday also severed all business with its estranged advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen, which operates NRATV, the N.R.A.'s live broadcasting media arm, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times. While NRATV may continue to air past content, its live broadcasting will end and its on-air personalities -- Ackerman employees including Dana Loesch -- will no longer be the public faces of the N.R.A."

Beyond the Beltway

Oregon. Will Sommer of The Daily Beast: "While the Oregon Senate walk-out has earned national headlines, this isn't the first time the state's conservatives have gone wild. Over the past few years, Oregon Republicans have fought vaccines and brought in militias as their private security. Even as they're increasingly marginalized in state government, Oregon Republicans have grown more extreme.... Oregon's political divide falls between its western urban centers and its more rural eastern parts, according to John Temple, the author of a new book on militias..., 'Oregon is an interesting snapshot of the U.S. as a whole -- that divide,' Temple said.... Oregon ... was the only state whose original constitution forbid non-white people from living there." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. Dirk VanderHart & Lauren Dake of Oregon Public Broadcasting: State "Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, says Oregon's sweeping plan for addressing climate change this legislative session does not have the votes to pass. But it's not clear whether that will be enough to bring Senate Republicans back to work. As a walkout by Republican Senators entered its sixth day and fifth Oregon Senate meeting Tuesday, Courtney announced that House Bill 2020 -- the reason Republicans began skipping work last week -- will not pass the Senate chamber."

Pennsylvania. Chris Brennan of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Valentino DiGiorgio III, the South Philadelphia-born chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party..., sent a "barrage" of sexually explit messages -- including a photo of his erect penis -- in a texting exchange with a woman who was running for a seat on the Philadelphia City Council. "They finally stopped communicating..., after a written exchange in which she told him his messages amounted to his 'sexually harassing' her. In a reply to her, DiGiorgio denied any wrongdoing during their online interaction, and said he had been a 'perfect gentleman' in their only face-to-face meeting, at a Philadelphia restaurant. They never had physical contact.... Joel Frank, general counsel for the state Republican Party and a lawyer for DiGiorgio, in a letter last week described the messages as 'mutual private exchanges between adults' and called ['correspondent Irina] Goldstein's claims 'a mischaracterization, incomplete and defamatory.'... Goldstein, 35, also said Michael Schwartz, a former federal prosecutor now representing DiGiorgio as a private attorney, called her last week and proposed that she sign a nondisclosure agreement that would bar her from disparaging DiGiorgio, 51, who is married with children." ...

     ... Update. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "The chairman of Pennsylvania's Republican Party abruptly resigned Tuesday after a news report that he sent a sexually explicit photograph of himself to a female candidate who ran unsuccessfully for the Philadelphia City Council."

Way Beyond

Guardian: "The estimated number of people using opioids -- an umbrella term for drugs ranging from opium and derivatives such as heroin to synthetics like fentanyl and tramadol -- in 2017 was 56% higher than in 2016, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in the report published on Wednesday. The report also said that global cocaine production reached an all-time high in 2017, breaking the previous year's record by 25%, as production soared in post-conflict Colombia.... Seizures of tramadol around the world have surged from less than 10kg in 2010 to almost nine tonnes in 2013 and 125 tonnes in 2017, the report showed, adding that the problem was particularly severe in west, central and north Africa." --s

Brazil. Tom Philliips of the Guardian: "Since the far-right leader [Jair Bolsonaro] took office in January, his foreign policy team has set about pulverizing decades of diplomatic tradition: cuddling up to rightwing nationalists including Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán; irking China, an jettisoning its position as a climate crisis leader; infuriating longtime Middle Eastern partners by embracing Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel and threatening to move Brazil's embassy to Jerusalem. All this under a Bible-bashing pro-Trump foreign minister who claims global heating is a Marxist conspiracy and Nazism is a movement of the left.... In interviews with the Guardian, doyens of Brazilian diplomacy described their bewilderment, unease and indignation at seeing such a cherished ministry -- and their country's place in the world -- turned on its head." --safari: The parallels between the two "melting pots" of the Americas is fascinating. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Congo. David Corn of Mother Jones: "[T]here is another nightmare brewing:... Ebola...The number of confirmed Ebola deaths over the past 10 months in the eastern region of Congo has topped 1,500, and the outbreak has spread into Uganda.... This is a far cry from the 11,300 deaths that occurred in 2014 and 2015, but the current eruption is the second-worst flare-up, and it's heading from rural areas toward a major city and refugee camps. So what is President Donald Trump doing about this? Not much..., Ronald Klain, the Ebola czar for President Barack Obama during the 2014-15 episode, notes, it is essential that a senior official in the Trump administration with full White House authority coordinate the various agencies involved -- the State Department, USAID, the Centers for Disease Control, the Pentagon, and others &-- to have an effective response. Now no one holds such a position." --s