The Commentariat -- June 2, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Trump is visiting the U.K. His trip should go well:

... Allan Smith of NBC News: "... Donald Trump is insisting he did not call British royal Meghan Markle 'nasty' during an interview with a British publication. 'I never called Meghan Markle "nasty,'" Trump tweeted Sunday morning. 'Made up by the Fake News Media, and they got caught cold! Will @CNN, @nytimes and others apologize? Doubt it!' But an audio recording of Trump's interview with The Sun -- which was tweeted out by a Trump campaign account -- tells a different story." Trump's Official War Room Twitter account tweeted out an audio in which Trump says "... No, I didn't know that she was nasty." accompanying a tweet that reads, "Fake News CNN is at it again, falsely claiming President Trump called Meghan Markle 'nasty.' Here is what he actually said. Listen for yourself!" "Trump's use of "nasty" harkens back to a moment during a 2016 presidential debate when he called his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, a "nasty woman." Emphasis added....

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: What is the matter with these people? They post an audio of Trump saying Markle is nasty & ask you to listen to it to prove to yourself that he didn't say what he says on the audio. We are a long way through the looking glass. We know Trump is a crazed liar. Has he made all his staff crazy? Or did they start that way? ...

... Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Handlers of the baby blimp that ridicules Donald Trump and thousands of police officers are preparing for the arrival of the U.S. president in London on Monday for a three-day state visit.... London Mayor Sadiq Khan ... has granted permission for the high-profile blimp to fly over London the second day of Trump's visit, according to the Times. The 20-foot-high blimp portrays Trump as a giant baby in a diaper, holding a cell phone and having a temper tantrum. In a scathing op-ed piece in The Observer that ran on Saturday, Khan lashed Trump for supporting white supremacists and called him 'the figurehead of a global far-right movement,' comparing him to 20th-century fascist leaders." (Khan's op-ed also linked below.)

Moving a Battleship to Spare Trump's "Feelings" Is "Not Unreasonable." Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "With the U.S. Navy confirming that a 'request was made' to 'minimize the visibility' of the USS John S. McCain ahead of President Trump's visit to Japan last month, Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney admitted on Sunday that it was a member of the White House advance team that asked for the ship to be moved.... 'That's not an unreasonable thing to ask...,' Mulvaney said on Meet the Press. The White House official added that it's 'silly' to think someone would be fired over this, noting the president's feelings towards [deceased Sen. John] McCain are 'well known.'" Mulvaney suggested the advance person was 23 or 24 years old. ...

... Not Everyone Agrees, Mick. Lolita Baldor of the AP: "The Pentagon has told the White House to stop politicizing the military, amid a furor over a Trump administration order to have the Navy ship named for the late U.S. Sen. John McCain hidden from view during ... Donald Trump's recent visit to Japan.... A U.S. defense official said Patrick Shanahan, Trump's acting defense chief, is also considering sending out formal guidance to military units in order to avoid similar problems in the future.... Shanahan also said that he spoke with McCain's wife, Cindy, a few days ago. He declined to provide any details."

Donica Phifer of Newsweek: "... Rudy Giuliani, jokes about serving special counsel Robert Mueller with a $17 million lawsuit following Mueller's failure to come to a conclusion on obstruction of justice charges against Trump." Mrs. McC: Oh, ha ha. Why not sue your own client, Rudy, inasmuch as it was his criminal & suspicious behavior that necessitated an expensive inquiry. Oh, and why not mention that "the Mueller investigation actually made a profit for the federal government after Manafort was forced to forfeit over $46 million to the feds"? Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor, tweeted that Rudy's "joke" "should be added to the long list of reasons he should be disbarred."

~~~~~~~~~~

Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump pushed ahead with plans to impose tariffs on Mexico over the objections of several top advisers, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner opting to side with hard-line officials who were advocating the move, according to multiple administration officials and people briefed on their plans. For several weeks, Mr. Trump's top economic advisers have been urging the president not to use tariffs to punish Mexico for failing to stop the flow of migrants into the United States. Mr. Kushner, along with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Robert Lighthizer, Mr. Trump's top trade negotiator, has warned the move would imperil the president's other priorities, like passage of a revised North American trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.... This week, as headlines about Mr. Trump's attempts to interfere in the special counsel's Russia investigation once again swirled, the president's irritation boiled over. In a meeting Wednesday night in the Oval Office, with Mr. Kushner dialing in from the Middle East, the president lost patience with aides he saw as slow-walking his request and decided tariffs would be going into effect. The idea of punishing Mexico with tariffs had several key proponents, including Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump's chief policy adviser and an immigration hard-liner. Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, and Peter Navarro, a trade adviser, had also argued that emergency powers gave the president broad authority to impose the tariffs." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Not surprisingly, Mueller makes Trump even crazier than usual.

AP: "The State Department is now requiring nearly all applicants for U.S visas to submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers. It's a vast expansion of the Trump administration's enhanced screening of potential immigrants and visitors. In a move that's just taken effect after approval of the revised application forms, the department says it has updated its immigrant and nonimmigrant visa forms to request the additional information, including 'social media identifiers,' from almost all U.S. applicants. The change, which was proposed in March 2018, is expected to affect about 15 million foreigners who apply for visas to enter the United States each year.... Social media, email and phone number histories had only been sought in the past from applicants who were identified for extra scrutiny, such as people who'd traveled to areas controlled by terrorist organizations. An estimated 65,000 applicants per year had fallen into that category."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Maureen Dowd: "The twisty saga of Robert Mueller and Bill Barr is a case of an imperfect hero and a perfect villain.... Mueller is as elliptical as Barr is diabolical. The special counsel is clearly frustrated that we don't understand his reasoning. But his reasoning is nonsensical.... Mueller was trying to let himself off the hook by insisting that he couldn't reach a conclusion on the president's obstruction because he was bound by a Department of Justice opinion stating that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Plus, he layered on some extra 'principles of fairness.'... The ultimate straight arrow decided to remain agnostic even though his job did not require agnosticism. And that made him weirdly complicit in Barr's whitewashing of Trump.... Barr took the knife he had already stuck in his old friend and twisted it.... After indicating that Mueller was derelict and misguided, Barr went ahead and belittled him and his dream team as inept.... Mueller colored inside the lines and Barr seized the narrative. Rectitude was Mueller's Achilles' heel." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The ever-acerbic Dowd is right on here. Dowd mimics Barr by borrowing from Homer, and there is an epic element to the clash between two supposedly old friends who, as that sage of our times Yogi Berra might say, came to a fork in the road & took it. The fact that the fate of a once-great nation hinges upon the outcome of that clash makes the tale more than a study of conflict between two flawed characters Mueller, of course, is the more interesting character, because Barr has no apparent redeeming qualities. He fell off his pedestal early in th first act, and he himself claims to have no interest in trying to climb back up.

John Ziegler of Mediaite: "If you are going to take on a dastardly rule-breaker like Trump in an impeachment fight, you cannot do so shorthanded and in a timid manner. It is quite clear that we no longer remotely have the type of leadership our Founding Fathers counted on to courageously come through in challenging times like these. So, while philosophically I still strongly support Trump's impeachment, perhaps it is time that we accept the sad reality that we are just not the country we once were, and we are no longer capable of doing great or brave things, at least in the political realm. Maybe Trump should remain president, not because he deserves to, but because he is the president that our politically pathetic nation now deserves."

Also see pieces about Trump 's impending invasion of Great Britain linked under Way Beyond.

... ** The Attorney General of the United States Lies to the American People Every Chance He Gets. William Saletan of Slate: "Attorney General William Barr says he's trying to wrap up the Russia investigation with fairness and honesty.... But the 45-minute interview, from which CBS aired excerpts on Friday, is full of falsehoods and smears. It exposes Barr as an agent of ... Donald Trump." Saletan does a yeoman's job of identifying "the worst smears and falsehoods" in Barr's CBS news interview. See also Jonathan Chait's takedown of Barr's latest stop on his Fake Trump Exoneration Tour, linked yesterday.

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Emmet T. Flood, the White House lawyer who oversaw the administration's response to the special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, will step down from the job this month, President Trump said on Saturday. The departure of Mr. Flood, who first rose to prominence when he defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment in the 1990s, was always expected. Though Mr. Trump had considered Mr. Flood for other positions in the administration -- including as White House counsel -- Mr. Flood had always made it clear he wanted his purview limited to the Mueller investigation. 'He has done an outstanding job -- NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION! Case Closed!' Mr. Trump said on Twitter from his golf club in Sterling, Va. 'Emmet is my friend, and I thank him for the GREAT JOB he has done.' The president added that Mr. Flood would leave his post on June 14."

Paul Campos in LG&$: "I'm going to extend Alan Dershowitz the backhanded compliment of assuming he's not going senile, and that his recent advocacy is a product of unctuous groveling before his new master, rather than sudden severe cognitive decline. Dershowtiz's argument is that it's up to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to decide whether the House's passage of articles of impeachment warrants a trial of the president in the Senate[.]... He also argues that's it's up to the SCOTUS as a whole, after the Senate convicts an impeached president, to essentially take on the role of an appellate court in a criminal case[.]... This is all complete nonsense.... First..., the Supreme Court has explicitly dealt with the question of what sort of role it has in reviewing impeachment proceedings, and the answer is literally 'none.'... Even more outrageous is Dershowitz's assertion that Congress must prove the president is guilty of a crime to remove him via the impeachment process, and that the Supreme Court should and will review whether the conviction was warranted.... The Supreme Court has ruled specifically that it doesn't have anything remotely like the constitutional authority to do something like that, there's universal agreement among scholars that the constitutional phrase 'high crimes and misdemeanors' did not and does not mean only crimes in the statutory sense.... That Dershowitz has become a shameless hack is not exactly breaking news, but this is egregious even by his non-existent standards."

Max Burman & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "The U.S. Navy has acknowledged that a request was made to hide the USS John S. McCain during ... Donald Trump's recent state visit to Japan. '... however, all ships remained in their normal configuration during the President's visit,' Rear Admiral Charlie Brown, chief of information, said in a statement to NBC News. 'There were also no intentional efforts to explicitly exclude Sailors assigned to USS John S. McCain,' the statement said."

Presidential Race 2020. Fernanda Echavarri of Mother Jones: "Another high-profile Republican has said he will not challenge ... Donald Trump's reelection bid. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan posted on Twitter Saturday that he appreciated the encouragement he had received from people urging him to consider running in 2020. 'However,' he tweeted, 'I will not be a candidate.'... On Friday afternoon, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich suggested he would be unlikely to challenge Trump, even though 'all of my options are on the table.'... Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, the only major Republican politician currently challenging Trump, told CSPAN last week that he'd encouraged Horgan and Kasich to run."

Congressional Races 2020. Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "A move by House Democratic leaders to thwart party members from mounting primary challenges to incumbents, even in safe Democratic districts, could have the unintended consequence of arresting the party's shift toward a more female and racially diverse caucus, one of its most striking achievements of the last election. This past week, a Democratic political consultant with longstanding ties to the party's campaign committees quit a senior-partner position at the firm Deliver Strategies after it, like most dominant campaign outfits, agreed to comply with a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee policy barring it from conducting business with a primary opponent of a sitting Democrat." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is the Democratic party acting like the Republican party: undemocratically & jealously guarding against "outsiders." Power corrupts.

Lynn Walsh of KPBS (San Diego): "Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, said he probably killed 'hundreds of civilians' while serving as an artillery officer in Fallujah. His comments were made public Monday on the latest episode of the podcast 'Zero Blog Thirty.' 'I was an artillery officer, and we fired hundreds of rounds into Fallujah, killed probably hundreds of civilians,' he said. 'Probably killed women and children if there were any left in the city when we invaded. So, do I get judged too?' Hunter recalled this story in response to a question about the actions of Navy SEAL Edward R. Gallagher who is on trial in San Diego accused of war crimes including shooting at civilians. Gallagher has pleaded not guilty. During the podcast, Hunter was asked specifically about one of the individuals Gallagher is accused of killing, a teenage ISIS fighter. According to prosecutors, the SEAL stabbed the teen who was brought in for medical treatment. 'I frankly don't care if he was killed,' Hunter said. 'I just don't care.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Hunter seems determined to prove, again & again, that he's a low-life in every aspect of his being. We are convinced.

Tom Paxton wrote this song in (or before) 1964, so at least 55 years ago. Sadly, it's as relevant today as it was then:

... No, These Policemen Are Not Your Friends. Emily Hoerner & Rick Tulsky in BuzzFeed News: "Police officers saying bigoted and racist things online has been an issue since the beginning of social media.... A new review of police behavior on Facebook documents the systemic nature of the conduct across several departments. The Plain View Project, launched by Philadelphia lawyer Emily Baker-White, examined the accounts of about 2,900 officers from eight departments across the country and an additional 600 retired officers from those same departments. She compiled posts that represented troubling conduct in a database that is replete with racist imagery and memes, and in some cases long, vitriolic exchanges involving multiple officers.... Of the pages of officers whom the Plain View researchers could positively identify, about 1 in 5 of the current officers, and 2 in 5 of the retired officers, made public posts or comments ... displaying bias, applauding violence, scoffing at due process, or using dehumanizing language. The officers mocked Mexicans, women, and black people, celebrated the Confederate flag, and showed a man wearing a kaffiyeh scarf in the crosshairs of a gun."

Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "... the main reason that [Mitch] McConnell might push through a Republican nominee to the [Supreme] Court while blocking a Democratic choice is simple: because he can. There's another, less obvious reason that McConnell can game the Supreme Court confirmation process with impunity. The Republican Party has been far more invested in the future of the Supreme Court, and of the judiciary generally, than the Democratic Party has. Judicial appointments, especially to the Supreme Court, are a central pillar of the Republican agenda, and Republican voters will forgive any number of other transgressions if the Party delivers on the courts.... Consider what happened after McConnell blocked the [Merrick ]Garland nomination. After a few days of perfunctory outrage, most Democratic politicians dropped the issue.... [Each Web site] of three leading contenders for the Democratic Presidential nomination: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren ... has thousands of words outlining the candidates' positions on the issues -- and none of them mentions Supreme Court nominations, much less nominations for lower-court judges."

Caitlin O'Kane of CBS News: "Russian Twitter trolls have attempted to fuel the anti-vaccination debate in the U.S., posting about the issue far more than the average Twitter user last year, a study out of George Washington University has found. The 'sophisticated' bots shared opinions from both sides of the anti-vaxxer debate, which took the U.S. by storm and prompted tech companies to crack down on the spread of misinformation surrounding vaccinations.... The U.S. is in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in the country in 25 years.... According to Axios..., Russia is focusing on spreading misinformation around health care issues ahead of the 2020 election." --s

Axios: "Of top 10 global carbon emitters, not a single one is hitting its climate goals as outlined under the Paris Agreement, per data from the Climate Action Tracker." --s

Jack Nicas, et al., of the New York Times: "The fatal flaws with Boeing's 737 Max can be traced to a breakdown late in the plane's development, when test pilots, engineers and regulators were left in the dark about a fundamental overhaul to an automated system that would ultimately play a role in two crashes. A year before the plane was finished, Boeing made the system more aggressive and riskier. While the original version relied on data from at least two types of sensors, the ultimate used just one, leaving the system without a critical safeguard. In both doomed flights, pilots struggled as a single damaged sensor sent the planes into irrecoverable nose-dives within minutes, killing 346 people and prompting regulators around the world to ground the Max. But many people involved in building, testing and approving the system, known as MCAS, said they hadn't fully understood the changes."

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Dylan McGinness of MySA: "Outrage over Texas' voter ID law was reignited in San Antonio on Thursday after the city's 97-year-old former mayor was turned away from a polling site for lack of identification. Lila Cockrell was one of more than 12,000 people who flocked to the polls Wednesday to vote in San Antonio's mayoral runoffs, but she didn't get to cast a ballot when she couldn't present an authorized form of ID.... Jacque Callanen, the elections administrator in Bexar County, said the incident was unfortunate, but officials don't have the same discretion they had in the past.... Texas' controversial voter ID law, first passed in 2011 and then amended after a federal court declared it unlawful, requires residents to bring one of seven forms of identification to the polls. Acceptable forms include a Texas driver's license, passport and Texas Department of Public Safety-issued personal identification card.... Cockrell said she brought her voter registration card to the early voting polling site Wednesday but did not have an ID."

Virginia. GOP Aided & Abetted Virginia Beach Mass Murderer. Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "A state bill seeking to ban sales of large-capacity magazines similar to those used by the >Virginia Beach gunman was rejected in committee in a GOP party-line vote in January, The Washington Post first reported Saturday.... The move against the bill, SB1748, received little public attention because it was seen as a foregone conclusion, according to the Post.... University of Virginia School of Law communications director Mike Fox tweeted a series of gun control bills the GOP had blocked. Gun Violence Prevention Caucus co-chair Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who sponsored SB1748, told the Post a big reason for the bills' failure was 'the political influence of gun rights organizations.'"

Way Beyond

Congo. Axios: "The world's second-largest Ebola outbreak on record is underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.... [T]he longer this Ebola outbreak continues, the greater the likelihood it will spread to other highly populated areas within the country, move to neighboring countries or even internationally." --s

U.K. Aamna Mohdin of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has backed Boris Johnson to be the next prime minister, in an interview with the Sun in which he also described Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, as 'nasty' [over comments she made in 2016 threatening to move to Canada if Trump won the presidency.]... During the state visit, the president, his wife, Melania, and his four adult children are expected to meet Prince Harry as well as Prince William and his wife, Kate. Meghan is expected to stay home with Archie." --s ..

... ** Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in the Observer: "[T]he president of the United States of America ... is a man who tried to exploit Londoners' fears following a horrific terrorist attack on our city, amplified the tweets of a British far-right racist group, denounced as fake news robust scientific evidence warning of the dangers of climate change, and is now trying to interfere shamelessly in the Conservative party leadership race by backing Boris Johnson.... Donald Trump is just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat. The far right is on the rise around the world..., using the same divisive tropes of the fascists of the 20th century to garner support, but are using new sinister methods to deliver their message.... They are intentionally pitting their own citizens against one another, regardless of the horrific impact in our communities.... That's why it's so un-British to be rolling out the red carpet this week[.]" Read on. --s

News Lede

New York Times: "Leah Chase, the nation's pre-eminent Creole chef..., died on Saturday at her son’s home near her restaurant in New Orleans, her daughter Stella Reese Chase said. She was 96." An obituary definitely worth the read.

The Commentariat -- June 1, 2019

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

"Some Episodes." CBS News: "Asked about the fundamental difference between his and [Robert] Mueller's views on what the evidence gathered during the Russia probe means, [AG William] Barr said, 'I think Bob said he was not going to engage in the analysis. He was not going to make a determination one way or the other. We analyzed the law and the facts and a group of us spent a lot of time doing that and determined that both as a matter of law, many of the instances would not amount to obstruction.... As a matter of law. In other words we didn't agree with the legal analysis, a lot of the legal analysis in the report. It did not reflect the views of the department,' Barr said. 'It was the views of a particular lawyer or lawyers and so we applied what we thought was the right law.... And the bottom line was that Bob Mueller identified some episodes. He did not reach a conclusion. He provided both sides of the issue, and he -- his conclusion was he wasn't exonerating the president, but he wasn't finding a crime either.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: "Didn't find a crime," Bill? First, Mueller explained what the crime was, then he cited the applicable laws, then he related all the stuff Trump did that fit the criminal definitions he'd laid out. You'd have to be (1) stupid, (2) naive or (3) lying to say Mueller didn't find a crime. I'll guess (3). Frankly, I thought the Mueller report so evidently condemned Trump that Mueller was rather disingenuous in declaring that it would be "unfair" to indict Trump for crimes he could not defend in court until he was no longer president*. The report is an indictment in all but name. ...

... Here's the transcript of the CBS interview. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Are You Lying Now or Were You Lying Then? Nicole Lafond of TPM: "According to one legal analyst, the comments [Barr made to CBS News] appear to differ from what Barr said during his press conference before releasing the Mueller report on April 18, as well as during congressional testimony in May. Ryan Goodman, a law professor at NYU and former Defense Department special counsel, pointed out that Barr previously said he accepted Mueller's 'legal framework.'... 'May 1 to Congress: "We accepted the Special Counsel's legal framework for purposes of our analysis...in reaching our conclusion" May 31 to CBS: "We didn't agree with ... a lot of the legal analysis in the Report.... So we applied what we thought was the right law."' [-- Ryan Goodman, in a tweet]" ...

Yeah, I mean, I guess ['spying' has] become a dirty word somehow.... It's part of the craziness of the modern day that if a president uses a word, then all of a sudden it becomes off bounds. It.s a perfectly good English word, I will continue to use it. -- Bill Barr, interview with CBS

Poor Bill Barr. He just doesn't understand why spying has suddenly gotten a negative connotation that it never had before Trump mentioned it. Prior to 2017, it was just an ordinary, nonjudgmental English word that everyone used for any kind of police investigation. But these are hyperpartisan times, so what can you do? -- Kevin Drum ...

... ** Jonathan Chait: "... Barr's long, detailed interview with Jan Crawford [of CBS News] suggests the rot goes much deeper than a simple mania for untrammeled Executive power. Barr has drunk deep from the Fox News worldview of Trumpian paranoia.... Barr, as he has done repeatedly, provides a deeply misleading account of what Robert Mueller found.... Later in the interview, Barr grossly contradicts Mueller's findings with regard to Trump's ties to Russia. 'Mueller has spent two and half years, and the fact is, there is no evidence of a conspiracy,' he says. 'So it was bogus, this whole idea that the Trump was in cahoots with the Russians is bogus.' This is just a wild lie.... Nowhere does the Mueller report say there's no evidence of a conspiracy.... Barr, amazingly, goes even farther to say the report proved 'this whole idea that the Trump was in cahoots with the Russians is bogus.'... The report in fact finds extensive evidence that Trump was in cahoots with Russia.... Barr goes on to repeat Trump's obsession with texts capturing the political chatter of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two romantically-involved FBI agents.... Even more astonishingly, Barr proceeds ... to liken the FBI's counterintelligence investigation of Trump to right-wing birther conspiracies[.]... Barr portrays the Russia investigation as an effort to overturn Trump's election[.]" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bill Barr is your Uncle Fred. Sure, Uncle Bill is smarter & has a better vocabulary, but when it comes to owning right-wing conspiracy theories & Fox-"News"-marinated views, Uncle Fred has nothing on Bill. It is kind of nice that in the CBS interview, Barr is wearing an Uncle-Fred outfit -- flannel shirt & vest -- (on account of his being on vacation in Alaska).

Elizabeth Warren Read the Mueller Report, AND She's Got a Plan: "First, a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help candidate Donald Trump get elected. Second, candidate Donald Trump welcomed that help. Third, when the federal government tried to investigate, now-President Donald Trump did everything he could to delay, distract, and otherwise obstruct that investigation. That's a crime. If Donald Trump were anyone other than the President of the United States right now, he would be in handcuffs and indicted. Robert Mueller said as much in his report, and he said it again on Wednesday.... Mueller's statement made clear what those of us who have read his report already knew: He's referring President Trump for impeachment, and it's up to Congress to act.... This is not about politics  -- it's our constitutional duty as members of Congress. It's a matter of principle.... Congress should make it clear that Presidents can be indicted for criminal activity, including obstruction of justice. And when I'm President, I'll appoint Justice Department officials who will reverse flawed policies so no President is shielded from criminal accountability." Emphasis original. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Lock Him Up! Paul Blest of Splinter: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign has garnered a reputation for being policy heavy and generally wonky, but perhaps no idea she's had is more simple or obvious than the one she rolled out today: reversing Department of Justice policy saying a sitting president can't be indicted.... There's not a whole lot to say about this other than: good! Not only is it plainly obvious ... that the president shouldn't be the only person in the country immune to federal indictment, but this is also a very easy way for the eventual Democratic nominee to flip the script on Trump, whose rallies in 2016 regularly featured claims that if anyone else in America had done what Hillary Clinton did with her emails, they'd be in prison."

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "Robert Mueller's report makes the stirring claim that 'a fundamental principle of our government' is that no person, not even the president, 'is above the law. But the special counsel's ultimate legacy may well be the exact opposite -- because of his controversial decision not to say whether Trump committed criminal obstruction of justice.... It was the punt heard around the world.... It effectively 'removes the president from the scope of generally applicable criminal laws,' Cornell law professor Jens David Ohlin recently told my colleague Sean Illing.... Even though Mueller made clear this was his own decision, it will inevitably set a precedent for future investigations into presidents -- a problematic one.... Mueller's considered decision not to decide was immediately thrown out the window by his superior [William Barr].... Perhaps hanging over all this is the fact that, if Mueller had submitted a report to Barr concluding that Trump committed a crime, it would have initiated a crisis." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

DOJ Is Above the Law, Too. Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors rebuffed a judge's order to release by Friday highly classified transcripts of discussions that Michael T. Flynn, the president's former national security adviser, had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. The transcripts between Mr. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak, formerly Russia's top diplomat in the United States, were expected to show that they talked in December 2016 about sanctions that the Obama administration had just imposed on Russia.... The order this month from the judge, Emmet G. Sullivan of the Federal District Court in the District of Columbia, was unusual. The transcripts came from a secret F.B.I. wiretap of Mr. Kislyak, and their release would have provided an extraordinarily rare look at the fruits of the government's eavesdropping.... The Justice Department's refusal to comply with the judge's order made clear that prosecutors had no interest in confirming the wiretap, which was approved by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.... Prosecutors asserted that they did not need to provide the transcripts because they were, in the end, not vital to the prosecution of Mr. Flynn." ...

... Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The Justice Department on Friday released a more complete transcript of a voice mail from Donald Trump's attorney John Dowd to Rob Kelner, the lawyer for ... Michael Flynn, where he sought information about Flynn's discussions with the special counsel on the eve of his cooperation deal.... The voice mail highlights a call that special counsel Robert Mueller investigated as potential obstruction of justice by the President. Dowd had made the call on November 22, 2017, after Flynn's team said it could no longer communicate with the White House, just before Flynn pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in Mueller's investigation. In the voice mail transcript, most of which was previously documented in the Mueller report, Dowd said it 'wouldn't surprise me' if Flynn was about to make a deal, but if it 'implicates the President, then we've got a national security issue, or ... some issue ... not only for the President, but for the country.' He then asked for a 'heads up,' according to the transcript. Dowd also wanted to remind Flynn about 'the President and his feelings towards Flynn.' The call 'could have had the potential to affect Flynn's decision to cooperate, as well as the extent of that cooperation,' Mueller wrote in his report on potential obstruction of justice by the President during the investigation. 'We do not have evidence establishing whether the President knew about or was involved in his counsel's communications with Flynn's counsel.'" ...

... James Meek & Soo Rin Kim of ABC News have the full transcript of Dowd's voicemail here. Mrs. McC: Sounds like what you might hear from your better class of mob lawyers.

More Tariffs. Ana Swanson & Vindu Goel of the New York Times: "The Trump administration announced on Friday that it was stripping India of a special status that exempts billions of dollars of its products from American tariffs, part of a deepening clash over India's protections for its market. The White House said that it would terminate India's preferential market access to the United States as of June 5. The notice claimed that India had not given the United States 'equitable and reasonable access to its markets.' The administration said that it would also apply to India tariffs on solar panels and washers that President Trump announced last year, suspending an exemption it had granted to certain developing countries.... Mr. Trump's move could set off yet another trade war with an allied country."

Rebecca Shabad, et al., of NBC News: "Several Republicans in Congress and major business groups on Friday slammed ... Donald Trump's threat to impose a 5 percent tariff on all Mexican goods starting next month, warning that the move would hurt both the U.S. economy and the chances of Congress approving a major trade deal with Mexico and Canada.... A senior administration official and two sources familiar said business groups and federal agencies were not informed of the president's tariff threat ahead of time. A fourth source familiar said the relevant congressional committees were not notified. Trump's threat was 'hurried out the door' by White House aides to appease the president, an administration official said Friday. Behind the scenes, the official said there has been some 'squabbling at the staff level' about the threat and potential blowback to the USMCA and overall economy. A second administration source described the situation as 'flying blind' and there was no internal guidance on how to explain the tariff threat to the business community. The tariff strategy was spearheaded by White House adviser Stephen Miller, two sources said, who had Trump's ear on his trip last weekend to Japan." ...

... Jacob Pramuk, et al., of CNBC: "U.S. business groups are considering suing the White House over the Trump administration's new tariffs on Mexican imports. The powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce is mulling its legal options in response to the duties, the group's senior vice president of international affairs, John Murphy, told reporters Friday. Murphy said the group has no choice but to look into every option to push back against the tariff policy.Business groups more broadly are discussing the possibility of suing the White House, a source told CNBC. A decision on how to proceed is expected by Monday. While top business organizations have repeatedly slammed tariffs Trump levied on trading partners such as Mexico, Canada and China, a lawsuit would mark a major escalation in their opposition to White House trade policy." ...

... Kayla Tausche & Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "... Donald Trump's Treasury secretary [Steve Mnuchin] and top trade advisor [Robert Lighthizer] opposed his surprise plan to impose new tariffs on Mexican imports, according to a source close to the White House who said the idea was pushed by immigration hawk Stephen Miller. The announcement came as Trump was' riled up' by conservative radio commentary about the recent surge in border crossings, according to the source.... Peter Navarro, a White House economic advisor [Mrs. McC: and complete dickhead], told CNBC earlier Friday that Trump's threat of new tariffs came in response to Mexico's 'export' of 'illegal aliens.'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: The analyses I heard on the radio & teevee Friday on Trump's new tariff plan for Mexico ranged from "incoherent" to "incredibly stupid." In yesterday's Comments, RAS is checking his mail for his tariff kickback. The odds are that RAS is not a Trump-country farmer. So good luck on that.

Trump Administration Horror Story. Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: "The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General has found 'dangerous overcrowding' and unsanitary conditions at an El Paso, Texas, Border Patrol processing facility following an unannounced inspection, according to a new report. The IG found 'standing room only conditions' at the El Paso Del Norte Processing Center, which has a maximum capacity of 125 migrants. On May 7 and 8, logs indicated that there were 'approximately 750 and 900 detainees, respectively.' 'We also observed detainees standing on toilets in the cells to make room and gain breathing space, thus limiting access to the toilets,' the report states.... A cell with a maximum capacity of 12 held 76 detainees, another with a maximum capacity of eight held 41, and another with a maximum capacity of 35 held 155, according to the report. '... With limited access to showers and clean clothing, detainees were wearing soiled clothing for days or weeks,l the report states." Mrs. McC: Needless to say, this is a human rights disaster. Hard to complain about the abuses of coyotes when you're treating people as badly as -- or worse than -- they do.

Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to the economist Arthur Laffer, whose tax-cutting enthusiasm has shaped decades of Republican policymaking, including Mr. Trump's. Mr. Laffer, 78, was an adviser to Mr. Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, helping to craft the candidate's tax plan, and a co-author of the recent book 'Trumponomics,' which is a celebration of the president and nearly all of his economic programs.... Democrats have largely moved away from Mr. Laffer, viewing him as an architect of tax handouts to the rich." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ...

... Here's a Krugman post on Laffer. ...

... Thornton McEnery of Dealbreaker: "Donald Trump [Is] Using Presidential Medal Of Freedom To Make Paul Krugman's Head Explode. Sometimes the news does its own heavy lifting as a piece of dark satire.... One doesn't think of the Medal of Freedom as a particularly troll-centric piece of hardware, but this choice is a next-level brilliant addition to the medium." Mrs. McC: Yes, let's make that the Presidential* Medal of Freedom. It's nothing but a cheap metal disk on a ribbon.

Emma Anderson of Politico: German Chancellor ";Angela Merkel urged Harvard graduates Thursday to 'tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness' in a speech laced with apparent jibes at Donald Trump and his policies. Though she did not name the U.S. president, the German chancellor devoted much of her Harvard University commencement speech to attacking major pillars of Trump's presidency: protectionism, trade wars and building walls.... The audience of students, parents, and alumni gave Merkel a standing ovation when she said it is important not to 'describe lies as truth, and truth as lies.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race 2020

Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "... Donald Trump this week criticized Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for his role in passing 'tough on crime' measures in the 1990s, but Trump once expressed support for some of the same policies Biden championed in the US Senate.... Trump's criticisms of Biden are undercut by positions he took in his 2000 book 'The America We Deserve.' Trump wrote in the book that he supported tougher sentencing and street policing and warned of 'wolf packs" of young criminals roaming the streets, citing since-discredited statistical analysis that was linked to the 'super predator' crime theory. In a pair of tweets sent on Monday during his trip to Japan, the President wrote, 'Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected.' He added, '....Super Predator was the term associated with the 1994 Crime Bill that Sleepy Joe Biden was so heavily involved in passing. That was a dark period in American History, but has Sleepy Joe apologized? No!'" Mrs. McC: And neither have you, Don.

Ursula Perano of Axios: "Donald Trump announced in a tweet on Friday that he will be holding his official 2020 campaign launch at the 20,000 seat Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., on June 18...."

David Corn of Mother Jones: "Joe Biden had barely joined the 2020 presidential race when the right-wing disinformation machine began cranking out th newest iteration of its Deep State conspiracy theory, with this version claiming the former vice president was part of a government cabal that cooked up a supposedly phony Trump-Russia scandal to keep the reality television celebrity from gaining the White House. This certainly is an easy charge to debunk -- that is, if you care about facts -- but it's still likely that this unfounded notion will take hold in the fever swamp of Trump-encouraged and Fox-fueled conservative paranoia." --s

Luiz Romero of Quartz: "The Italian government has delivered a potentially fatal blow to Steve Bannon's plans to transform a medieval monastery near Rome into a training academy for the far-right. Italy's cultural heritage ministry announced on Friday (May 31) that it would revoke a lease granted to Bannon after reports of fraud in the competitive tender process. The former Breitbart chief and aide to US president Donald Trump was reportedly paying €100,000 ($110,000) per year to rent the 13th Century Carthusian monastery.... The Italian state allowed the conservative Catholic organization Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI) to use the building early last year. Bannon happens to be a trustee of the institute, and planned to convert the space into a 'gladiator school for cultural warriors,' where students would learn philosophy, theology, history, and economics, and receive political training from the former Trump aide himself. But earlier this month, Italian newspaper Repubblica reported that a letter used to guarantee the lease was forged. The letter had the signature of an employee of Danish bank Jyske, but the bank said that employee hadn't worked there for years, and called the letter fraudulent.... The institute plans to fight the decision in court."

And All the Children Are Above Average. Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "A superhuman group of adolescents broke the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, with eight contestants crowned co-champions after the competition said it was running out of challenging words. It was a stunning result, coming just after midnight Thursday, for the 92nd annual event, which has had six two-way ties but had never before experienced such a logjam at the top. After the 17th round, Jacques Bailly, the event's pronouncer, announced that any of the eight remaining contestants who made it through three more words would share in the prize."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Fox News on Friday afternoon stood by Laura Ingraham after she defended a white supremacist and several other fringe people who have been banned or disciplined by large social media companies.... Ingraham displayed a graphic showing images of people she characterized as 'prominent voices censored on social media.' 'It's people who believe in border enforcement, people who believe in national sovereignty,' Ingraham added. The graphic included Paul Nehlen, a white supremacist who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018. Nehlen, who refers to himself as "pro-white," has had his racism and anti-Semitism well documented. In April, for instance, he appeared on a podcast and admitted to wearing a shirt featuring Robert Bowers, the man accused of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.... Following [a] backlash, Fox News released a statement saying it was 'obscene to suggest' Ingraham had defended Nehlen."

Beyond the Beltway

Missouri. Jessica Ravitz of CNN: "Abortion services can continue for now in Missouri after a judge ruled that its license would not expire at the end of the day Friday. The state had refused to renew Planned Parenthood's license to continue providing the procedure. Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer's ruling does not renew the license. Instead, the ruling allows the current license to remain in effect until the matter can be heard in court again on June 4. Planned Parenthood 'has demonstrated that immediate and irreparable injury will result if Petitioner's license is allowed to expire,' Stelzer wrote in his decision. 'The court finds that a temporary restraining order is necessary to preserve the status quo and prevent irreparable injury to Petitioner pending disposition of the case on the merits.' If the clinic had to stop providing abortion services, Missouri would have been the first state in the nation to block the procedure in more than 45 years."

West Virginia. Karma. Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "A former West Virginia official who gained notoriety after making a racist remark about former first lady Michelle Obama [calling her an 'ape'] was sentenced to prison this week after pleading guilty to embezzling [more than $18,000] federal disaster funds. Pamela Taylor, who served as the Clay County development director, was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison and two months of house arrest, the local U.S. attorney's office announced Thursday. She was also fined $10,000." --s

Way Beyond

Canada. Leyland Cecco of the Guardian: "Three decades of missing and murdered Indigenous women amounts to a 'Canadian genocide', a leaked landmark government report has concluded. The document, titled Reclaiming Power and Place, was compiled over more than two and a half years. Canada's CBC News was given a copy of the report, which is due to be released on Monday.... The report, by the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, determined that 'state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies' were a key driving force in the disappearance of thousands of Indigenous women." --s

North Korea. Gordon Chang of The Daily Beast: "So far, the most important conclusion we can draw from reports North Korea's senior nuclear negotiator and four foreign ministry officials were executed in March is this: Kim Jong Un is not the reliable, trustworthy negotiator President Trump has made him out to be.... Whatever the accuracy of the Chosun Ilbo reporting -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said he was looking into the matter -- there is evidence of severe turmoil in Pyongyang political circles, and it appears Kim Jong Un's grip on power has been weakening in recent months.... Trump's four-minute video about the North's bright future, showed to Kim in Singapore, may have had more effect than observers once suggested. By now it's clear that rich and poor North Koreans were sorely disappointed by the breakdown in talks with Trump." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wouldn't it be something if Trump had blundered accidentally into a means to overthrow Little Kim, free the people from near-slavery, institute some form of democracy, develop North Korea's "beautiful beaches," etc.? Trump of course, rather than admitting he had "fallen in love with" the wrong guy, would claim this was his plan all along &, P.S., what about that Nobel Peace Prize?

The Commentariat -- May 31, 2019

Afternoon Update:

"Some Episodes." CBS News: "Asked about the fundamental difference between his and [Robert] Mueller's views on what the evidence gathered during the Russia probe means, [AG William] Barr said, 'I think Bob said he was not going to engage in the analysis. He was not going to make a determination one way or the other. We analyzed the law and the facts and a group of us spent a lot of time doing that and determined that both as a matter of law, many of the instances would not amount to obstruction.... As a matter of law. In other words we didn't agree with the legal analysis, a lot of the legal analysis in the report. It did not reflect the views of the department,' Barr said. 'It was the views of a particular lawyer or lawyers and so we applied what we thought was the right law.... And the bottom line was that Bob Mueller identified some episodes. He did not reach a conclusion. He provided both sides of the issue, and he -- his conclusion was he wasn't exonerating the president, but he wasn't finding a crime either.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: "Didn't find a crime," Bill? First, Mueller explained what the crime was, then he cited the applicable laws, then he related all the stuff Trump did that fit the criminal definitions he'd laid out. You'd have to be (1) stupid, (2) naive or (3) lying to say Mueller didn't find a crime. I'll guess (3).

... Here's the transcript of the CBS interview.

Elizabeth Warren Read the Mueller Report, AND She's Got a Plan: "First, a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help candidate Donald Trump get elected. Second, candidate Donald Trump welcomed that help. Third, when the federal government tried to investigate, now-President Donald Trump did everything he could to delay, distract, and otherwise obstruct that investigation. That's a crime. If Donald Trump were anyone other than the President of the United States right now, he would be in handcuffs and indicted.Robert Mueller said as much in his report, and he said it again on Wednesday.... Mueller's statement made clear what those of us who have read his report already knew: He's referring President Trump for impeachment, and it's up to Congress to act.... This is not about politics  --  it's our constitutional duty as members of Congress. It's a matter of principle.... Congress should make it clear that Presidents can be indicted for criminal activity, including obstruction of justice. And when I'm President, I'll appoint Justice Department officials who will reverse flawed policies so no President is shielded from criminal accountability." Emphasis original. ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: “Robert Mueller's report makes the stirring claim that 'a fundamental principle of our government' is that no person, not even the president, 'is above the law.' But the special counsel's ultimate legacy may well be the exact opposite -- because of his controversial decision not to say whether Trump committed criminal obstruction of justice.... It was the punt heard around the world.... It effectively 'removes the president from the scope of generally applicable criminal laws,' Cornell law professor Jens David Ohlin recently told my colleague Sean Illing.... Even though Mueller made clear this was his own decision, it will inevitably set a precedent for future investigations into presidents -- a problematic one.... Mueller's considered decision not to decide was immediately thrown out the window by his superior [William Barr]...."

Mrs. McCrabbie: The analyses I've heard on the radio & teevee today on Trump's new tariff plan for Mexico ranged from "incoherent" to "incrediby stupid." In today's Comments, RAS is checking his mail for his tariff kickback. The odds are that RAS is not a Trump-country farmer. So good luck on that.

Emma Anderson of Politico: German Chancellor "Angela Merkel urged Harvard graduates Thursday to 'tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness' in a speech laced with apparent jibes at Donald Trump and his policies. Though she did not name the U.S. president, the German chancellor devoted much of her Harvard University commencement speech to attacking major pillars of Trump's presidency: protectionism, trade wars and building walls.... The audience of students, parents, and alumni gave Merkel a standing ovation when she said it is important not to 'describe lies as truth, and truth as lies.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

There He Goes Again. Annie Karni, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump said Thursday that he would impose a 5 percent tariff on all imported goods from Mexico beginning June 10, a tax that would 'gradually increase' until the flow of undocumented immigrants across the border stopped. The announcement, which Mr. Trump made on his Twitter feed, said the tariffs would be in place 'until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP.' In a presidential statement that followed, he said that tariffs would be raised to 10 percent on July 1 'if the crisis persists,' and then by an additional 5 percent each month for three months. They would remain at 25 percent until Mexico acted, he said. An across-the-board tariff on all Mexican goods would exact a serious toll on American consumers and corporations.... Rufus Yerxa, the president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents the nation's largest exporters, called the move 'a colossal blunder.'... [The tariffs] could derail another of his chief goals: Revising the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico." ...

... John Bowden of the Hill: "The Dow Jones futures dropped more than 100 points on Thursday after President Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on Mexico until the flow of immigrants to the southern U.S. border is cut off. The index saw losses of almost 200 points by 8:15 p.m., less than an hour after Trump tweeted to announce a 5 percent tariff on all imports from Mexico that would "gradually increase" until the flow of migrants stopped." According to Niv Elis' report linked below, "Dow futures plummeted more than 200 points on Thursday evening after the president announced the new tariffs."...

... Niv Elis of the Hill: "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) condemned President Trump's new tariffs on Mexico late Thursday, calling the move a 'misuse' of presidential tariff authority and cautioning the levies could derail passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.... 'I support nearly every one of President Trump's immigration policies, but this is not one of them,' he added." ...

... Rafael Bernal of the Hill: "Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blasted President Trump's decision to impose tariffs on exports from his country in response to an immigration crisis on the border, writing in a letter that Trump's 'America First' policy was a 'fallacy.' 'With all due respect, although you have the right to express it, 'America First' is a fallacy because until the end of times, even beyond nationa borders, justice and universal fraternity will prevail,' López Obrador wrote in the two-page letter to Trump. The Mexican president said his country was doing 'as much as possible' to stem the flow of Central American migrants through his country to the United States, and 'without violating human rights.' He also wrote that Mexico wanted to avoid a confrontation with the United States on the issue." ...

... Matthew Yglesias of Vox looks at some of the ramifications of the plan, including the possibility that it's a fake threat: "One complicating factor here is that migration flows are at least in part a function of seasonality, with spring normally being the high point for border-crossings and summer a low point. Whether or not Mexico changes anything, in other words, numbers will almost certainly fall in July.... That means six to eight weeks from now, Trump should have a pretty easy off-ramp from this policy and an opportunity to declare victory even if the concessions he manages to wring from Mexico are relatively minor." ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "As Trump announcements go, his planned tariffs on Mexican goods appeared more orchestrated than most with a tweet, a presidential statement from the press office and a background call with reporters. But behind the scenes, it was an administration-wide scramble. As with many presidential 'announcements,' this once sprang from intense frustration and boiled over quickly with staff rushing to react.... While the plan was hurried out the door to appease Trump, he has been privately talking about doing this for a while, per two sources who've discussed it with him."

Ian Kullgren, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump is considering sweeping restrictions on asylum that would effectively block Central American migrants from entering the U.S., according to several administration officials and advocates briefed on the plan. A draft proposal circulating among Trump's Homeland Security advisers would prohibit migrants from seeking asylum if they have resided in a country other than their own before coming to the U.S., according to a Homeland Security Department official and an outside advocate familiar with the plan. If executed, it would deny asylum to thousands of migrants waiting just south of the border, many of whom have trekked a perilous journey through Mexico.... The move could reach beyond Central America, affecting asylum seekers in other parts of the world, according to an activist who has been briefed on the issue." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, this is a Catch-22 for migrants from Central American countries other than Mexico. To get to the U.S., they have to travel through Mexico (unless they fly over it), but if they travel thru Mexico, they can't get into the U.S. Not only that, as Samantha Grasso's report (linked next) suggests, Trump has set up these migrants. It seems to me this plan would violate U.S. & international asylum laws, but that's what Trump does. ...

... Samantha Grasso of Splinter: “Reports of the proposal come nearly six months after the Trump administration fully enacted its 'remain in Mexico' policy, requiring Central American migrants seeking asylum to return to Mexico and wait 45 days for their court date. The ACLU has legally challenged the policy, though a Ninth Circuit Court has allowed the policy to continue as the government's appeal goes through the courts. Last week, BuzzFeed News reported that some migrants had been told that they'd have to wait more than a year before their court date."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Charlie Savage & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times explain how impeachment works. Mrs. McC: I hope Trump reads the story (as if he will), because he demonstrated Thursday that he doesn't understand impeachment. In his chopper presser, he claimed that he would have to be guilty of high crimes "AND, not with or for" misdemeanors to be impeached, & he was innocent, he said, on both counts. He said he couldn't "imagine the courts would allow" the House to impeach him. (He also has claimed in the past that he couldn't be impeached because the economy was strong & he's doing a great job.) Since the Congress decides what constitutes impeachable offenses, neither the target of impeachment proceedings nor "the courts" has a say-so The House could decide that dying your hair & face orange constituted high crimes & misdemeanors, & that would be that.

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump tweeted on Thursday that Russia helped 'me to get elected,' and then quickly retracted the idea. 'No, Russia did not help me get elected,' Mr. Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for Colorado Springs. 'I got me elected.' He spoke less than an hour after his Twitter post. The original comment, a clause in one of several Twitter posts this morning, is an extraordinary admission from Mr. Trump, who has avoided saying publicly that Russia helped him win the presidency in 2016 through its election interference.... Speaking to reporters outside the White House and in a subsequent Twitter post, Mr. Trump revived personal attacks on Mr. Mueller, asserting that the special counsel should never have been chosen for that position -- he was 'highly conflicted'-- and had failed to get the job he really wanted, F.B.I. director, an allegation addressed and countered in Mr. Mueller's final report. Mr. Mueller, who had previously served in that role in two administrations, did not go to the White House looking for a job, one of president's senior advisers, Stephen K. Bannon, told investigators.... 'I think Mueller is a true never Trumper,' Mr. Trump said on Thursday. 'He is somebody that dislikes Donald Trump, he's somebody that didn't get a job that he requested that he wanted very badly, and then he was appointed.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Mueller, a Republican, has never publicly expressed his political opinions about Trump. Also, he was not interested in returning as FBI director; he met with Trump to give him an idea of the qualities of a good director. ...

... Colby Hall of Mediaite: Trump deleted the "admission" tweet, then reposted it with a change in a word that does not change the "admission." "It's unclear why he did not delete the admission in his reposted tweets, given he just disavowed it in comments to reporters."

Lying Machine Turned up to High. Elizabeth Thomas & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: Trump told reporters as he left for a trip to Colorado, "'He [Robert Mueller] said, essentially: "You're innocent." There was no crime, there was no charge because he had no information.'... 'The whole thing [the Mueller investigation] is a scam. It's a giant presidential harassment,' Trump said. 'Russia did not help me get elected. You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn't help me at all,' Trump said, adding that, if anything, Russia helped 'the other side' get elected. 'I believe Russia would rather have Hillary Clinton as president of the United States than Donald Trump,' the president said. 'The reason is nobody has been tougher on Russia than me.... I think it was the same as the report,' Trump said when asked for his reaction to Mueller's statement. 'There's no obstruction. There's no collusion. There's no nothing. It's nothing but a witch hunt.... There was no high crime and there was no misdemeanor,' Trump said when asked about impeachment. 'I don't see how... I can't imagine the courts allowing it,' Trump said. 'To me, it's a dirty word, the word 'impeach.' It's a dirty, filthy, disgusting word, he said.... The president also said that Mueller was 'totally conflicted' because of a business dispute he claimed he had with Mueller, discussions he had with Mueller about the position of FBI director early in the Trump administration and called him a friend with former FBI director James Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Peter Baker & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump lashed out angrily at Robert S. Mueller III on Thursday, accusing him of pursuing a personal vendetta as Mr. Trump sought to counter increasing calls among Democrats for his impeachment.... Mr. Trump's assertions of conflict of interest have been refuted not only by Mr. Mueller but even by some of the president's own former aides. But Mr. Trump appeared determined to undermine the credibility that Mr. Mueller has developed over a long career as a lawyer, prosecutor and the second-longest-serving F.B.I. director in American history who worked under presidents of both parties.... Mr. Mueller ... said he could not clear the president of obstruction of justice and essentially suggested that Congress take up that question. Mr Trump fumed with friends that Mr. Mueller was out to get him. Bill O'Reilly, the former Fox News host, told WABC-AM radio that Mr. Trump called him at 11 that night and complained about Mr. Mueller's supposed conflicts." The report implies that Trump is one crazy, mixed-up dude. ...

... Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Mercedes Schlapp, White House director of strategic communications, said Thursday that President Donald Trump is 'moving on' after special counsel Robert Mueller closed his investigation, urging the rest of the country to do the same. Minutes earlier, however, Trump's tweets about 'presidential harassment' made it clear he had no intention of focusing on anything else." --s

Barr Plays Dumb. Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News: "Attorney General William Barr said he believes special counsel Robert Mueller could have reached a decision on whether President Trump committed obstruction of justice, regardless of long-standing Justice Department policy that prohibits the indictment of a sitting president.... 'I personally felt he could've reached a decision,' he told CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford during an exclusive interview in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday. 'The opinion says you cannot indict a president while he is in office, but he could've reached a decision as to whether it was criminal activity,' Barr added. 'But he had his reasons for not doing it, which he explained and I am not going to, you know, argue about those reasons.' When he became aware that Mueller would not make a determination in his obstruction of justice probe -- which investigated 11 instances in which Mr. Trump tried to derail the Russia investigation -- Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein 'felt it was necessary' for them to make decision on the issue.... Mueller said the U.S. Constitution 'requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.' Many Democrats said the special counsel's remarks represented a referral of his investigation to Congress, which has the power to impeach and remove a president from office. Barr said Thursday he did not know what Mueller was 'suggesting' in his statement." ...

... Not His Fault. In the same interview, Barr blamed the "hyper-partisan age" for charges that he was protecting and enabling Trump. Mrs. McC: Right.

Video released by Republicans for the Rule of Law:

... Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Republicans for the Rule of Law announced Thursday it will deliver a copy of the report with highlighted sections to Republicans in Congress.... Along with the letter and highlighted report, Republicans for the Rule of Law released a video [embedded above] with three GOP-appointed federal prosecutors claiming Trump would have been indicted if he were not president. The prosecutors also discuss ways in which the report outlines Trump's alleged obstruction of justice." Mrs. McC: That's a pretty good idea because ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Conservatives ... erupted in outrage [at Robert] Mueller's curt affirmation of his previous conclusions[.]... It seems ... that they believed their own propaganda about what Mueller had (and had not) found. Presented even briefly with reality, their minds have reeled in shock. Mueller produced massive evidence that President Trump committed Nixonian-scale obstruction of justice in office.... Trump, William Barr, and the Republican Party followed a strategy of systematically lying about this." ...

... "Old News." Quinta Jurecic of Lawfare in the Atlantic: "Based only on the reaction to Mueller's appearance, you could be forgiven for assuming that he had dropped a bombshell. The fact that this material is being treated as new when it has been available for weeks is indicative of a vast failure on the part of American institutions, which have not adequately grappled with the information conveyed in the Mueller report or presented it to the public with sufficient clarity.... The difficulty in communicating the substance of the Mueller report began even before the report itself was released. When Barr first released his letter describing Mueller's top-line conclusions weeks before the report itself became public, the press struggled to respond to the spin campaign mounted by the president and his allies..... The New York Times and The Washington Post both said a 'cloud' had been lifted from over the White House.... The status of the report as an impeachment referral should have been obvious [to members of Congress] the moment the document was released." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I do think one of the reasons the vast majority of House Democrats are willing to go along with Nancy Pelosi's "no impeachment now" decision is that they -- and perhaps Pelosi herself -- have not taken the time to read Mueller's report. Mueller should be smart enough to figure this out for himself & quit kvetching about sitting for a public hearing. The fact that he thinks it's more important to appear "above it all" suggests he too longs for an age when the only voters were rich white men who had time to sit around & discuss the issues of the day while wives, servants & slaves took care of the mundane chores of daily life. ...

... Marina Pitofsky of the Hill: "An American University professor who has correctly predicted the last nine presidential elections says President Trump will win the 2020 election unless congressional Democrats, 'grow a spine,' CNN reported [in a tweet]. Allan Lichtman, a political historian, said Democrats only have a shot at the White House if they begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, calling the decision both 'constitutionally' and 'politically' right in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election."

Olivia Messer of the Daily Beast: "President Trump said Thursday that he wasn't aware of a reported White House request to keep the USS John S. McCain 'out of sight' on his trip to Japan this week.... During a gaggle with reporters on the White House lawn, Trump said, 'I wasn't a fan, but I would never do a thing like that. Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him. They were well-meaning, I will say.' Minutes later, Trump picked the topic back up again, noting that whoever made the request 'thought they were doing me a favor because they know I am not a fan of John McCain.' He added, 'John McCain killed health care for the Republican Party, and he killed health care for the nation.... I disagreed with John McCain on the Middle East. He helped George Bush to make a very bad decision of going to the Middle East. So I wasn't a fan of John McCain and I never will be. But certainly I couldn't care less whether there's a boat named after his father.'" Mrs. McC: A boat?? How nice that Trump used the bizarre move to protect his fragile ego, not to chastise his staff, but to attack a deceased Senator again. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Wesley Morgan, et al., of Politico: "Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan's quest for the Pentagon's top job faced a new obstacle Thursday amid outrage over an aborted attempt to hide the name of the destroyer USS John S. McCain during ... Donald Trump's visit to Japan.... Shanahan initially told reporters Thursday that he learned about the effort through media reports and declined to comment further. He later said he would never dishonor the memory of the late Sen. John McCain and promised to get to the bottom of what happened.... [He] said he has tasked his chief of staff with finding out who knew what and when. Yet critics say Shanahan is responsible for the military's actions.... '[Shanahan] ought to take responsibility no matter what, and he ought to demand that whoever in the White House made this request be fired,' former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in an interview. 'Whether he knew about it or not, declining to take responsibility in his initial reaction ought to be looked at carefully' by Congress during Shanahan's upcoming confirmation hearing.... Trump appeared to confirm Thursday that someone in the White House had made the request.... Trump later tweeted that the Navy had 'put out a disclaimer' on the story. 'Looks like the story was an exaggeration, or even Fake News - but why not, everything else is!'" ...

... Yvonne Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: "Sen. Martha McSally said an investigation is warranted to get to the bottom of an order to keep the warship named for the late Sen. John McCain, his father and his grandfather out of ... Donald Trump's view during his trip to Japan earlier this month. McSally, R-Ariz., now holds the seat McCain once held before his death and sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which McCain chaired before his death in August 2018. 'I am appalled to hear of the allegations surrounding the USS John S. McCain,' McSally said in a written statement." ...

... Eliot Cohen in The Atlantic: "Dishonor. Not to to the late senator [John McCain], nor to his father and grandfather of the same name, who rendered the same distinguished service in war and peace. Their deeds and reputations are far beyond such mean contrivances. But dishonor indeed to the civilians and officers who hold the lives of young Americans in their hands and went along with this.... That this could happen to the mightiest armed forces on Earth should worry Americans far more than reports of Chinese hypersonic missiles or ace Russian-military hacking teams. When large elements of the chain of command yield to illegitimate and morally corrupt demands of this kind, there is reason to fear veins of rottenness in the whole structure.... In a just world, [those that acquiesced to the request] would lose their commissions or resign their posts, but they will not. They will burrow more deeply in. They will do so because it is the nature of the moral compromise of someone sworn to a demanding code that weakness begets weakness, yielding begets yielding, and cowardice begets still more cowardice." --s

Andrew Restuccia of Politico ruminates on Trump's weird obsession with IQs. (Also linked yesterday.)

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The federal government now owns condo 43G in Trump Tower because of the Mueller investigation, a judge certified Thursday. Judge Amy Berman Jackson's order was the final move seizing the apartment from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his wife Kathleen after he admitted to illegal foreign lobbying and money laundering and was convicted by a jury of fraud and other financial crimes during the Mueller probe. Manafort is now serving a prison sentence in western Pennsylvania. Manafort bought the 1,500-square foot, 2-bed, 2.5-bath Fifth Avenue condo more than a decade ago for $3.675 million through a shell company that hid his riches from US authorities.... In 2015, Manafort and his wife mortgaged it for $3 million, when his long-successful Ukrainian lobbying business dried up. He had paid off none of the mortgage, according to court filings."

"Only The 'Best' People," Ctd. Priscilla Alvarez, et al. of CNN: "President Donald Trump appears to have set his sights on a North Dakota construction firm with a checkered legal record to build portions of his signature border wall. The family-owned company, Fisher Sand & Gravel ... has a history of red flags including more than $1 million in fines for environmental and tax violations. A decade ago, a former co-owner of the company pleaded guilty to tax fraud, and was sentenced to prison. The company also admitted to defrauding the federal government by impeding the IRS." --s

Justin Wise of the Hill: "Vice President Pence on Thursday suggested that the Democratic Party supported late-term abortion and 'infanticide' while speaking alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa. Pence said, among other things, that he was bothered by the Democrats 'in our country, and leaders around the country, supporting late-term abortion, even infanticide. But those are debates within the U.S., and I know that Canada will deal with those issues in a manner the people of Canada determine most appropriate,' he continued.... Trudeau, who had vowed to confront Pence over America's 'backsliding' on women's rights, said that he told the U.S. vice president that Canadians have concerns about the 'anti-choice laws' its state lawmakers have passed. 'It was a cordial conversation, but it is one on which we have very different perspectives,' Trudeau said. Trudeau has repeatedly spoken out against restrictive abortion policies."

Jonathan Chait of New York: "The Congressional Research Service ... has a new paper analyzing the effects of the Trump tax cuts. It finds that ... growth has not increased above the pre-tax-cut trend. Neither have wages. After a brief and much smaller than expected bump, repatriated corporate cash from abroad has leveled off.... [K]eep a close eye on the number of Republican officials or conservative policy-makers who revise their position on the Trump tax cuts in light of the data. So far, the number of Republicans reassessing their support for the Trump tax cuts is, give or take, zero. What this suggests is that ... the primary effect -- giving business owners more money &-- was the hidden main goal all along." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Congressional Research Service, as the name suggests, is a non-partisan operation controlled by the Congress for the purpose of analyzing (and predicting) the effects of legislation. It would be nice if members of Congress familiarized themselves with its reports.

The Week: "A seemingly bipartisan disaster aid bill has just stalled out in Congress for the third time. The Senate overwhelmingly passed a $19.1 billion bill last week, even getting support from President Trump. Yet just one voice in the House has caused the bill to crash and burn, given that Congress is still on Memorial Day recess and would need unanimous support to pass the bill before it reconvenes. Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.) said he wanted more debate over the bill before approving it, and asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to call the House back early to get it done."

Secrets of the Dead. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Thomas B. Hofeller achieved near-mythic status in the Republican Party as the Michelangelo of gerrymandering, the architect of partisan political maps that cemented the party's dominance across the country. But after he died last summer, his estranged daughter discovered hard drives in her father's home that revealed something else: Mr. Hofeller had played a crucial role in the Trump administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Files on those drives showed that he wrote a study in 2015 concluding that adding a citizenship question to the census would allow Republicans to draft even more extreme gerrymandered maps to stymie Democrats. And months after urging President Trump's transition team to tack the question onto the census, he wrote the key portion of a draft Justice Department letter claiming the question was needed to enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act -- the rationale the administration later used to justify its decision. Those documents, cited in a federal court filing Thursday by opponents seeking to block the citizenship question, have emerged only weeks before the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the legality of the citizenship question.... The disclosures represent the most explicit evidence to date that the Trump administration added the question to the 2020 census to advance Republican Party interests." Read on. Mrs. McC: The secrets of dead Republicans are not pretty. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... It's a Feature, Not a Bug. Rick Hasen in Slate: "If we had a fair Supreme Court not driven by partisanship in its most political cases, Thursday's blockbuster revelation in the census case would lead the court to unanimously rule in Department of Commerce v. New York to exclude the controversial citizenship question from the decennial survey.... But this revelation ... is ironically more likely to lead the Republican-appointed conservative justices on the Supreme Court to allow the administration to include the question that would help states dilute the power of Hispanic voters.... At the Supreme Court oral argument, as Mark Joseph Stern reported for Slate, the conservative justices on the court offered disingenuous arguments in favor of the government." ...

... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Coming up with a transparently feeble pretext for justifying what everyone knows to be racial discrimination to make it easier for Republicans to win elections and then lying about your real motives is essentially a summary of the Roberts Court&'s voting rights jurisprudence. The fact that disenfranchising Hispanic voters was the real reason for (illegally) adding the census question probably just makes it more appealing to the Court's neoconfederate majority, and someone having said the quiet part loud is highly unlikely to change that." ...

... Jay Michaelson of the Daily Beast: "This is worse than anyone thought. This is white supremacy.... Coincidentally, two major gerrymandering cases, both descended from Hofeller's REDMAP efforts, are also being considered by the Supreme Court at the moment -- and like the census case, it is likely that the Court's conservative majority will rule for the gerrymanderers.... None of [Hofeller's dirty work] was disclosed by Trump administration officials. On the contrary, they baldly lied about it, denying that Hofeller had anything to do with the citizenship question when in fact he had written the DOJ letter requesting it. Indeed, senior DOJ official John Gore testified under oath that he drafted the letter, which we now know was copied from Hofeller.... The Court can and does consider new evidence when it enables the disposition of a case. And here, the memo, the letter, and the lies all amount to a gigantic violation of the law.... Apart from the legal issues..., today's revelation is a bombshell even by the standards of the Trump administration. It reveals a years-long effort, led by the White House, to rig the electoral system for partisan and racist goals." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: No one should be shocked. The Republican party became the white supremacist party well before Trump was peddling birthism.

MEANWHILE, on White Supremacy Watch. Driving While Hispanic ... Owen Daugherty of the Hill: "A video of a California man berating a teen girl he thought was his Uber driver has gone viral showing the man harassing her for parking in a community lot and questioning her immigration status. The cell phone video from last week depicts a man leaning outside the girl's passenger window in Laguna Community Park and threatening her with the police, saying 'she barely speaks English' and 'you don't belong here,' according to CBS Sacramento. The girl repeatedly tells the man she is a citizen, as the man refuses to step away from her car, saying he's called police and will report her to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The confrontation started when the teenage girl pulled up and the man thought she was his Uber ride, according to the outlet. When the girl told him she was not an Uber driver, the man reportedly became incensed and began questioning her citizenship." Mrs. McC: I've always thought the worst thing about immigrants is that they might take "my" parking spots.

Presidential Elections 2020 & Beyond. Michelle Rindels & Riley Snyder of the Nevada Independent: "Gov. Steve Sisolak [D] has issued his first veto out of the 2019 legislative session, rejecting a proposal that would have pledged Nevada's six electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote for the presidency." ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "... when Sisolak vetoed a bill that would have committed Nevada to the National Popular Vote Compact (NPVC) Wednesday, he did so in the name of a breathtakingly stupid (but high-minded sounding) principle.... 'Once effective, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact could diminish the role of smaller states like Nevada in national electoral contests and force Nevada's electors to side with whoever wins the nationwide popular vote, rather than the candidate Nevadans choose,' Sisolak said in a statement.... The National Popular Vote Compact would not 'diminish the role of smaller states.'... In fact, in the highly plausible event that Texas becomes light blue, the NPVC could actually prevent the large states of Texas, California, and New York from installing a president over the objections of a large majority of 'small state' voters. Meanwhile, under the Electoral College system, voters in America's eight smallest states by population -- Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Montana -- receive approximately zero attention from presidential candidates."

Mike Spies of Trace: "Like all charitable groups, the NRA is required to describe the amount, nature, and recipients of its grants on its annual tax filings. But between 2013 and 2017, the NRA did not disclose payments to at least one charity -- a Christian organization called Youth for Tomorrow.... Founded in 1986 by the former football coach Joe Gibbs, the charity ... is a favorite of conservative elites. It is not an obvious match for the NRA Foundation. But the two groups do have one point of overlap: Wayne LaPierre's wife, Susan LaPierre, is a longtime member of the YFT board and, until very recently, was its president.... During the time of her involvement with the charity, the NRA Foundation has sponsored at least seven of its events, including its annual Heart 2 Heart Gala.... The NRA Foundation, however, faces potential regulatory problems for not disclosing its YFT event sponsorships, according to two nonprofit experts." --s

Annals of Journalism?, Ctd. Joe Pompeo of Vanity Fair: "On Sunday, May 19, New York Times finance editor David Enrich got a request from a producer at MSNBC to appear on Rachel Maddow's show the following night. Enrich had a red-hot front-page story for Monday's paper, about anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank flagging suspicious transactions involving Donald Trump and Jared Kushner, and Maddow wanted to bring him on air to talk about it.... Enrich said yes, but after mentioning the planned appearance to the Times's communications department, he was told he would have to retroactively decline. The reason? The Times was wary of how viewers might perceive a down-the-middle journalist like Enrich talking politics with a mega-ideological host like Maddow.... It's not just Maddow. The Times has come to 'prefer,' as sources put it, that its reporters steer clear of any cable-news shows that the masthead perceives as too partisan, and managers have lately been advising people not to go on what they see as highly opinionated programs. It's not clear how many shows fall under that umbrella in the eyes of Times brass, but two others that definitely do are Lawrence O'Donnell's and Don Lemon's, according to people familiar with management's thinking.... It's not so much a new policy as a reinforcement of an old one."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "ederal authorities in Florida have issued an expansive subpoena seeking information related to Andrew Gillum [D] the former Tallahassee mayor, and the campaign for governor he narrowly lost last year, as well as some of his associates. In a statement on Thursday night, Mr. Gillum's lawyer, Barry Richard, acknowledged the subpoena but denied that Mr. Gillum had done anything wrong. 'Somebody is out to damage Mr. Gillum politically and is making allegations to different law enforcement bodies,' he said. The closely watched 2018 campaign ... was shadowed by questions about corruption following a federal investigation into Tallahassee's community redevelopment agency that resulted in three arrests. Mr. Gillum has said that he was never a target of that investigation, in which undercover F.B.I. agents cozied up to a businessman with close ties to Mr. Gillum, eventually meeting the mayor on a New York trip that included a boat tour of New York Harbor. The recent subpoena was unrelated to Mr. Gillum's time as mayor, Mr. Richard said."

New Hampshire. Nathalie Baptiste of Mother Jones: "New Hampshire just became the 21st state to abolish the death penalty. Earlier this month, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a measure to end capital punishment statewide, but on Thursday lawmakers voted to override the veto." --s

Ohio. E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "A Trump campaign official pressured Ohio lawmakers to pass a nuclear and coal plant bailout bill, arguing it would help President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.... The Ohio House passed HB 6 with bipartisan support Wednesday, in a 53 to 43 vote. The bill is an effort to boost struggling nuclear and coal power plants in addition to gutting clean energy requirements currently mandated by the state. The bill must now be approved by the state Senate in order to become law, with the governor already in support." --s

Way Beyond

North Korea. Pompeo & Bolton Beware. Shinhye Kang & Jihye Lee of Bloomberg News: "North Korea executed its former top nuclear envoy to the U.S. and four other foreign ministry officials in March after a failed summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported. Kim Hyok Chol, who led working-level negotiations for the February summit in Hanoi, was executed by firing squad after being charged with espionage after allegedly being co-opted by the U.S., the newspaper said Friday, citing an unidentified source. The move was part of an internal purge Kim undertook after the summit broke down without any deal, it said." Mrs. McC: Way worse than getting fired by a presidential aide while on the toilet, then having the aide tell the press about the unceremonious ouster.

Russia. Amy Knight of The Daily Beast: "The bodies had hardly stopped falling from the sky on July 17, 2014, when the trolls of Russia's Internet Research Agency went into action. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 had just been shot down over eastern Ukraine, and the same IRA operation Vladimir Putin would use to influence the U.S. presidential election two years later went into overdrive, pumping out conspiracy theories to exculpate Moscow's murderous clients.... Exhaustive research by two Dutch journalists, Robert van der Noordaa and Coen van de Ven, published in the Dutch weekly Der Groene Amsterdammer, shows precisely the way the Russian trolls worked to shift blame for the massacre and create a dense fog of conspiracy theories to obscure the facts.... Altogether, 111,486 tweets about MH17 were posted by the IRA in just three days, from July 17 through 19. (By comparison, in the 10-week period leading up to the November 2016 elections, the IRA accounts posted 175,993 tweets.)" --s

News Ledes

CNN: "At least 11 people were killed after a gunman opened fire at a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Virginia, police chief James Cervera told reporters Friday night.The shooter is dead, Cervera said. It was unclear whether the shooter was among the 11 dead." Mrs. McC: At a news conference Friday night, the chief said a 12th victim died.

Rolling Stone: "Leon Redbone, the singer who built a career out of performing ragtime, vaudeville and American standards with a sly wink and an unmistakable, nasally voice, died Thursday. He was 69."