;)
The Commentariat -- March 30, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Jon Swaine & David Smith of the Guardian: "Stephen Moore, the economics commentator chosen by Donald Trump for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, was found in contempt of court after failing to pay his ex-wife hundreds of thousands of dollars in alimony, child support and other debts. Court records in Virginia obtained by the Guardian show Moore, 59, was reprimanded by a judge in November 2012 for failing to pay Allison Moore more than $300,000 in spousal support, child support and money owed under their divorce settlement. Moore continued failing to pay, according to the court filings, prompting the judge to order the sale of his house to satisfy the debt in 2013. But this process was halted by his ex-wife after Moore paid her about two-thirds of what he owed, the filings say.... The Guardian revealed this week that Moore owes the US government $75,000 according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Moore disputes the government's claim and blames confusion over tax deductions relating to his child support and alimony payments.... Unlike all current members of the Federal Reserve board of governors, Moore does not hold a doctoral degree." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So now I'll be Donald Trump: "It's a terrible thing the way the fake news attacks a good man. This is a sad day when socialist foreign agitators try to destroy our democracy."
Calvin Woodward of the AP: "... Donald Trump is misrepresenting the circumstances of a 7-year-old migrant girl's death as he seeks to steer any potential blame for it away from his administration. Trump, after mockingly painting asylum seekers as a 'con job' in a rally the previous night, asserted on Friday that Jakelin Caal Maquin was given no water by her father during their trek to a remote border area and that the dad acknowledged blame for his daughter's death on Dec. 8. Those assertions are not supported by the record. TRUMP: 'I think that it's been very well stated that we've done a fantastic job. ... The father gave the child no water for a long period of time - he actually admitted blame.' -- to reporters Friday. THE FACTS: An autopsy report released Friday found that Guatemalan girl died of a bacterial infection just more than a day after being apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol.... Neither the autopsy report, nor accounts at the time by Customs and Border Protection, spoke of dehydration."
~~~~~~~~~~
The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- The Barr Cover-up
Scrub-a-Dub-Dub. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The special counsel's report on the investigation into Russia's election interference will be made public by mid-April, Attorney General William P. Barr told lawmakers on Friday, adding that the White House would not see the document before he sent it to Congress. 'Everyone will soon be able to read it,' Mr. Barr wrote in a letter to the chairmen of the congressional judiciary committees. Prosecutors from the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and other law enforcement officials are scouring the report for sensitive information to black out before releasing it, including secret grand jury testimony, classified materials and information about other continuing federal investigations, Mr. Barr wrote.... It remains an open question whether Justice Department lawyers themselves will excise material they believe could be privileged before sending the report to Congress. It is also not clear whether Mr. Barr or other politically appointed officials would be a part of such a redaction process." ...
... Axios copies Barr's latest cover-up letter here. ...
... Devlin Barrett & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Barr's letter aimed to reassure lawmakers and the public that the process for handling the report -- which numbers nearly 400 pages, he said -- would be aboveboard and fair.... In the Friday letter, Barr said he will also redact any information that would 'potentially compromise sources and methods' used for intelligence collection, and any information that would 'unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties. That language suggests Barr wants to keep secret any derogatory information gathered by investigators about figures who ended up not being central to Mueller's investigation."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What do you bet "peripheral third parties" include Jared, Ivanka, Donnie Jr. & anyone else who's not on the outs with Trump right now. And why is it that Barr intends to redact classified material which a number of Congressional leaders have clearance to read? Plus, Rachel Maddow suspects, as do I, that Mueller already provided Barr with a version of his report that excluded grand jury material & any information that would compromise ongoing investigations. Anyhow, nice to know that Barr was able to "summarize" in one page a hundred pages of Mueller's report. Impressive. ...
... Barrett & Demirjian, Ctd.: "Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Barr's new letter did not satisfy his demands for the complete report. 'As I informed the Attorney General earlier this week, Congress requires the full and complete Mueller report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence, by April 2,' Nadler said. 'That deadline still stands.' Nadler said Barr is wasting 'valuable time and resources trying to keep certain portions of this report from Congress,' when he should 'work with us to request a court order to release any and all grand jury information to the House Judiciary Committee -- as has occurred in every similar investigation in the past.'"
Congress has asked for the entire Mueller report, and underlying evidence, by April 2. That deadline stands. In the meantime, Barr should seek court approval (just like in Watergate) to allow the release of grand jury material. Redactions are unacceptable. #ReleaseTheReport -- Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), in a tweet Friday
... Marcy Wheeler: "Since [Bill Barr's] obviously limited summary released Sunday night, DOJ has been refusing to provide basic transparency about the Mueller Report or its plans for release. That refusal is best exemplified by DOJ's unwillingness to reveal how long the Mueller Report is. Four days later DOJ has just made public a letter to the Judiciary Committees leaders. And while it doesn't provide an exact page count, it finally offers a ballpark of the page count:' nearly 400 pages long (exclusive of tables and appendices).' It issues a hilarious denial that Barr's four page summary -- which Barr said 'summarize[d] the principal conclusions reached by the Special Counsel and the results of his investigation' [my emphasis] -- wasn't a summary but then uses the word 'summary' in describing what it was.... [Barr's letter was] to Jerry Nadler, who has a solid constitutional claim to be entitled to grand jury information -- indeed, to the entire report. So while it may remain a reasonable solution for public release (though, note his silence on the exhibits, which must be released too), it is a absolutely unacceptable response to the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wheeler notes that it took four days to get a page count (still only estimated) out of DOJ. After Barr spoke to Nadler for 10 minutes on Wednesday, a reporter asked Nadler how many pages the Mueller report was, & Nadler said he couldn't reveal it as Barr would not release him to do so. Why a page count is a state secret is beyond me. But there you have it.
Christian Vasquez of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday called for the New York Times and the Washington Post to have their Pulitzer prizes rescinded for their coverage of the special counsel's Russia investigation. 'So funny that The New York Times & The Washington Post got a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage (100% NEGATIVE and FAKE!) of Collusion with Russia - And there was No Collusion! So, they were either duped or corrupt? In any event, their prizes should be taken away by the Committee!' Trump tweeted." Also too, Junior is apparently unaware Pulitzers (or "Pulitzer's," as Junior writes) also are awarded for works of fiction. Mrs. McC: No doubt "The Art of the Deal" was eligible for the fiction prize. In any event, there's no reason to think the NYT & WashPo reports on the Russia investigation were inaccurate. ...
... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "What's been remarkable, this week, is how much Trump triumphant has sounded like Trump at every other point in his Presidency: angry and victimized; undisciplined and often incoherent; predictable in his unpredictability; vain and insecure; prone to lies, exaggeration, and to undercutting even those who seek to serve him.... He remains the public figure he has always been: a weird combination of perpetual victim and perpetual bully, whose one constant is to remain on the attack." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Glasser goes on to observe that Democrats won't let it go either, which I find a remarkably stupid observation. Of course Democrats won't let it go. After years in the wilderness, they are just getting started. They, along with the press, are one of the two main institutions to help illuminate Trump's corruption.
Jonathan Chait: "The Barr letter [published last Sunday] is not an exoneration of Trump's conduct. It is something much worse: a vindication of his ethos." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Chait is right. In the teevee shows, the criminals usually get their comeuppance. But in reality, criminals -- especially high-profile white collar ones -- quite often skate. And, as Chait points out, Barr is particularly adept at helping his betters beat the raps: "The attorney general's relevant work history consists of helping a Republican administration cover up a massive scandal (Iran-Contra) and then submitting a private memo trashing Mueller's obstruction-of-justice inquiry." Barr also aided & abetted George W. Bush in his decision to pardon the Iran-Contra Six.
Mrs. McCrabbie: For your weekend reading, I highly recommend Corn & Unger, linked next. What they write is highly disturbing, but it comprises a valid reply to the fallacious TrumpBarr narrative.
... ** "The Real Trump-Russia Hoax." David Corn of Mother Jones: "Two fundamental facts were established long before Mueller completed his investigation. First, the Russians attacked an American election in order to sow chaos, hurt Hillary Clinton, and help Donald Trump. Second, Trump and his top advisers during the campaign repeatedly denied this attack was underway, echoing and amplifying Moscow disinformation (the false claim that Russia was not attacking). Whether or not the Trumpers were directly in cahoots with the Russian government, they ran interference for Vladimir Putin's assault on the United States, and they even did so after the intelligence community had briefed Trump on Russia's culpability.... This is the original sin of the Trump presidency.... Far from cooking up anything, many reporters worked hard to slice through the lies knitted by Trump and his allies and revealed many of the essential facts...." ...
... ** Rinse & Repeat. Craig Unger, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Collusion or not, President Trump and the Russians are thick as thieves. For more than three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to the Russian Mafia held the deeds to, lived in or ran criminal operations out of Trump Tower in New York or other Trump properties.... Many of them used Trump-branded real estate to launder vast amounts of money by buying multimillion-dollar condos through anonymous shell companies.... The Bayrock Group, a real estate development company that was based in Trump Tower and had ties to the Kremlin, came up with a new business model to franchise Trump condos after he lost billions of dollars in his Atlantic City casino developments, and helped make him rich again. Yet Trump's relationship with the Russian underworld, a de facto state actor, has barely surfaced in the uproar surrounding Russia's interference in the 2016 campaign. That oversight may be explained in part by journalist Michael Kinsley's long-held maxim: The real scandal isn't what&'s illegal; it's what is legal.... It's not hard to conclude that, as a result, the president, wittingly or not, has long been compromised by a hostile foreign power...."
Avery Anapol of the Hill: "Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee plan to hold a vote next week on subpoenaing the former White House personnel security director in their investigation into the White House's security clearance process. Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) has called for a committee meeting on Tuesday to vote on a resolution authorizing a subpoena for Carl Kline to testify 'in connection with the Committee's investigation into the security clearance process at the White House.'"
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Attorneys for Maria Butina and U.S. prosecutors jointly asked a federal judge Friday to order the gun rights activist deported to her native Russia after she is sentenced on April 26 for conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate conservative American groups as an undeclared agent for the Kremlin. Butina has sought removal since pleading guilty in December in a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to cooperate with the investigation into her efforts on behalf of the Russian government to forge ties with the National Rifle Association and other U.S. conservative groups leading up to the 2016 elections. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on Thursday set a sentencing date, after Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson said prosecutors were ready.... In her plea deal, Butina said she began to act on behalf of the Russian government in 2015 and continued her work after moving to the United States to attend graduate school at American University in 2016."
Manafort Gets to Keep the Swag. Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The FBI, in searching Manafort's home and other possessions, had taken photos of dozens of hangers full of custom House of Bijan and Alan Couture clothing, including animal skin outerwear that was worth thousands -- the python bomber worth $18,500, a camel hair sportcoat for $6,500, an ostrich track jacket at $15,000, an ostrich vest for $9,500. And the government and Manafort never agreed for him to hand over the menswear as part of his forfeiture. Even so, special counsel Robert Mueller -- whose investigation cost about $25 million as of September 2018 -- got his money's worth out of the Manafort case.... Manafort is turning over property and assets worth at least $36 million to the US government and to his debtors and victims, which are mostly banks, as part of his criminal sentences." (Also linked yesterday.)
Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Friday that there would be a 'very good likelihood' that he would seal off the United States border with Mexico next week, even as he moved to punish Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador for migrant caravans by cutting off all foreign aid to the countries. The moves escalated a sustained berating of countries he blames for being unable to stop the flow of migrants trying to make their way north. 'I will close the border if Mexico doesn't get with it,' Mr. Trump said to reporters who had gathered at Mar-a-Lago, his winter retreat in Florida. 'If Mexico doesn't stop it.'... The State Department issued a statement late on Friday saying: 'At the secretary's instruction, we are carrying out the president's direction and ending FY 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle. We will be engaging Congress as part of this process.'" ...
... (Not Just a Racist but) A Remarkably Ignorant Racist. Aaron Rupar of Vox: "During a brief news conference he held at Mar-a-Lago on Friday afternoon..., Donald Trump claimed that closing the border with Mexico would be a 'profit-making operation' because of the United States' trade deficit with its southern neighbor.... As Vox's Dara Lind explained..., closing the border would disrupt supply chains and import/export flows, causing an economic catastrophe: '... Approximately $1.5 billion worth of commerce happens along the US-Mexico border every day. Nearly half a million people cross the border legally every day through Texas ports alone....' According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, Mexico is the US's third-largest trading partner, with the total goods and services trade amounting to over $615 billion in 2017. While the US's overall deficit with Mexico was $63.6 billion that year, an estimated 1.2 million American jobs are based on US-Mexico trade.... Trump may believe American jobs are better guarded through protectionist trade policies ... but he has a long history of either misunderstanding how those policies actually impact the US economy or of making wildly false statements about trade deficits." Emphasis original.
Eric Levitz of New York: "'The next major priority for me, and for all of us, should be to lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs,' the president said in his most recent State of the Union Address.... And yet, the president's new version of NAFTA -- the uncreatively named United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) -- actually forbids the U.S. Congress from curtailing Big Pharma's patent monopolies on some of the world's most expensive drugs. In other words: Trump's 'America First' trade deal restricts U.S. sovereignty, for the sake of locking in high drug prices.... Congressional Democrats have drafted legislation that would cut the duration of biologic monopolies down to seven years [from 12]. But if Trump's revised version of NAFTA takes effect, Democrats will not have the legal authority to advance that legislation -- because the USMCA guarantees biologic makers at least a ten-year monopoly on their new drugs across all three of North America's major economies.... As the administration pushes to get its trade deal through Congress, Nancy Pelosi's caucus has made striking the provision on biologics one of it top demands." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Trump, be assured he has no idea what-all is in NAFTA 2.0, or as Trump would have it, UsMcKay.
Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "At a rally in Michigan, President Trump misstated the findings of the special counsel investigation, misleadingly promised to protect patients with pre-existing conditions and falsely described funding for a restoration program for the Great Lakes.... Mr. Trump's claims of a 'decimated' automobile industry before he took office and its revitalization since are not rooted in fact.... Mr. Trump also repeated more than a dozen [false] claims The Times has previously fact-checked[.]" Mrs. McC: No doubt Qiu only scratched the surface. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
I'm going to get, in honor of my friends, full funding of $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which you have been trying to get for over 30 years. -- Donald Trump, telling another lie in Michigan ...
... Sabrina Eaton of Cleveland.com: "Less than a month after proposing a federal budget that would have cut Great Lakes cleanup money from $300 million to $30 million..., Donald Trump pledged to provide the full $300 million during a campaign rally in Michigan. During the rally in Grand Rapids, Trump told the audience '... I support the Great Lakes. Always have. They are beautiful. They are big, very deep, record deepness, right? And I am going to get, in honor of my friends, full funding of $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which you have been trying to get for over 30 years. So, we will get it done.' Since entering the White House, all the yearly budgets that Trump has presented to Congress suggested cuts to the program, but Congress has overruled Trump by giving the program $300 million each year. Over the past two years, Trump proposed a 90 percent cut to the program. During his first year in office, Trump called for eliminating the program.... 'As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, which approves funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, I would have never allowed Trump's gutting of GLRI make it through Congress without a fight,' said a statement from Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is another of those "The Lord taketh away & the Lord giveth back" "gifts" for which ignorant Trumpbots express roaring gratitude. (In this case, it's actually, "Obama & Congress giveth, Trump taketh away & Trump giveth back," altho, again, remember that the presidential budget request is merely a statement of preferences, & no money is actually allocated.) As Linda Qiu wrote (linked above), "The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a program for restoring the ecosystem of the Great Lakes, was first implemented by the Obama administration in 2010. Federal funding ranged from nearly $300 million to $450 million every year under Mr. Obama. Mr. Trump requested no funding at all for the initiative in his 2018 budget request, effectively eliminating the program, though Congress ended up appropriating nearly $300 million. His latest budget proposes a 90 percent cut to the program, reducing funding to $30 million." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "For President Trump, sometimes the easiest problems to solve are the ones created by his own policies. On Thursday, Trump said he was reversing proposed funding cuts to the Special Olympics -- after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and his reelection campaign spent days defending the cuts -- which were outlined in the president's own budget.... He often relishes in the reversals, performing them in front of cameras and without mentioning his role in creating the situation. Praise from Republican officials usually follows." Olorunnipa provides numerous examples of Trump's modus operandi. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: A normal presidential administration would not have zeroed out aid to the Special Olympics. But when other administrations have made unpopular moves, the president or the responsible subordinate admitted the error in judgment & corrected it. Trump called Democrats "sick, sick, sick" Thursday. This is projection.
Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has kept secret seven authorizations it has issued since November 2017 allowing U.S. nuclear energy companies to share sensitive technological information with Saudi Arabia, even though the kingdom has not yet agreed to anti-proliferation terms required to construct a pair of U.S.-designed civilian nuclear power plants. The Energy Department and State Department have not only kept the authorizations from the public but also refused to share information about them with congressional committees that have jurisdiction over nuclear proliferation and safety.... Members of Congress are upset about the administration's stance and are trying to learn whether the United States has been sharing information with Saudi Arabia even after the October killing in Istanbul of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen and U.S. resident." This is a update to a Daily Beast story safari linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)
... Mrs. McCrabbie: By "members of Congress," Mufson means Democratic members. Republicans don't give a rat's ass about nuclear proliferation if Trump & his Saudi whisperer Jared are the proliferators. ...
... Update: Thanks, Mike Pompeo, for backing up my assertion:
... Joel Gehrke of the Washington Examiner: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Thursday with the Saudi Arabian prince who lied to senators about his role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. According to the CIA, Prince Khalid bin Salman helped persuade Khashoggi to visit the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where an elaborate operation was in place to have him killed and dismembered. Pompeo, a former CIA director, hosted Prince Khalid in his headquarters at Foggy Bottom to discuss plans for 'countering the Iranian regime's destabilizing activities' in the Middle East. The meeting confirmed Prince Khalid's return to the center of the alliance as deputy defense minister, just months after the former ambassador to the United States gave top lawmakers a transparently false explanation for Khashoggi's disappearance in a Saudi diplomatic facility. 'The secretary congratulated the minister on his new role and looked forward to continuing to work together to advance the U.S.-Saudi partnership,' the State Department said." Mrs. McC: All so diplomatic except for that beheading & dismemberment part. Mike Pompeo is one cold-blooded bastard. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... ** MEANWHILE. David Ignatius of the Washington Post: “Saudi Arabia still hasn't explained officially how and why ... [Jamal Khashoggi] was killed. But Saudi and American sources have begun disclosing new information about the people and events surrounding Khashoggi's fatal visit to Istanbul. They've described secret intelligence deals that are now frozen. And they've explained, in the clearest detail yet, how an operation that began as a kidnapping ended with a gasping, dying Khashoggi pleading: 'I can't breathe.'... After his death, the transcript describes a buzzing noise, perhaps from an electric saw as his body is cut into pieces.... The Saudi machine of repression remains intact.... U.S. officials worry that the young crown prince has become a Saudi version of Saddam Hussein, an authoritarian 'modernizer.'"
Brady Dennis & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Trump signed a new order Friday granting permission for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, marking the White House's latest effort to jump-start one of the most controversial infrastructure proposals in recent U.S. history.... The order appears aimed at addressing a ruling from a federal court judge in Montana last fall, who halted the project after finding the [State Department] had inadequately considered the environmental impact of the project.... But because that law applies to agency actions, as opposed to those by the White House, the president may be able to sidestep the issue by granting the permit himself rather than delegating the cross-border permit to the secretary of state.... Trump's move ... does not address a separate legal hurdle that the project faces in Nebraska, where the state Supreme Court is considering a challenge landowners have brought against the pipeline route approved by the Nebraska Public Utilities Commission."
Manu Raju & Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "Jessikka Aro, a Finnish investigative journalist with a history of breaking stories on Russian propaganda efforts, had been slated to receive a prestigious award in Washington along with several other women selected by the State Department for their courage in the face of great risks overseas. Suddenly and without warning, the honor ... was rescinded -- with no explanation from the [State] department. After a Foreign Policy report suggested that the State Department may have retaliated against her because of her criticism of ... Donald Trump on social media, State Department deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino asserted ... she had been 'incorrectly notified' of her award.... But internal communications ... show that the State Department and US embassy officials in Finland had been in talks with Aro for several months, extensively communicating with her about the award, her travel documents, her itinerary in Washington and her bio, which had been approved by eight State Department officials. Then, two weeks after an official asked her to provide a list of her social media accounts, the honor was abruptly rescinded.... The documents were obtained by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...." (Also linked yesterday.)
ICE Gone Wild. Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "When Donald Trump's children and campaign staff arrived in South Florida during the 2016 presidential campaign, they were often greeted at the airport by Zoltan Tamas in a black Cadillac Escalade. As a senior security guard at Trump National Golf Club in the town of Jupiter, Mr. Tamas was licensed to carry a gun. He bought a home, paid taxes and never ran afoul of the law since immigrating legally to the United States from Romania in 2011. But for eight months, Mr. Tamas, 38, has been locked in a correctional facility six hours' drive from his family as he fights a protracted legal battle to remain in the United States.... Mr. Tamas has fallen prey to the crackdown on immigration that is at the top of the president's national agenda -- and letters of support from high-profile businesspeople and his former bosses have so far not helped him win leniency. Mr. Tamas, a green-card holder, was arrested by immigration authorities after he applied for United States citizenship in 2016 and a background check revealed that he had been convicted in absentia of committing insurance fraud in Romania." Tamas was in the U.S. legally until ICE arrested him. ICE intends to deport him, even though his wife & child are now American citizens. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, Donaldo, this looks like another one of those problems you created that you now can fix -- and brag about it. Ivanka will tweet that you're so compassionate & humanitarian.
Erica Green & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... when President Trump triumphantly declared Thursday evening that he had 'overridden my people' and saved the Special Olympics, [Education Secretary Betsy] DeVos [-- who had been publicly excoriated for slashing all funding for the popular program --] seemed to have taken enough blame. 'I am pleased and grateful the president and I see eye-to-eye on this issue, and that he has decided to fund our Special Olympics grant,' Ms. DeVos said. 'This is funding I have fought for behind-the-scenes over the last several years.' It was an unusual move for Ms. DeVos, who has gone to great lengths to publicly support the president even when she and her staff have disagreed with the administration's policy positions. And it has kicked off fresh speculation that Ms. DeVos might be the next member of the cabinet to fall to the commander in chief's capricious whims.... For months, Mr. Trump has mocked Ms. DeVos to other aides, making clear that he considers her expendable, according to West Wing officials.... Mr. Trump is not fond of her, White House officials said, and he had no problem making her appear to be the bad actor in relation to the Special Olympics." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Green & Haberman cast Trump & the bean counters as the real villains here, & they credit DeVos with fighting for the Special Olympics, then, when she lost the fight, donating part of her government salary to the organization. I'm willing to accept that. I'll find it even more believable if the next time there's a Cabinet meeting/round-robin-Trump-ass-kiss, Betsy skips her turn. ...
... Update. Michael Warren of CNN: "The Education Department failed to include funding for the Special Olympics in its budget proposal this year after it was rebuffed by the White House's budget office, a department official familiar with the process tells CNN. Department officials tried repeatedly to include the nearly $18 million in funding while still coming in under the White House's budget cap, but officials at the Office of Management and Budget rejected each proposal, according to the official."
Kevin Liptak & Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "Linda McMahon, the former professional wrestling executive turned government official, is leaving her post as administrator of the Small Business Administration. McMahon is leaving ... Donald Trump's administration to join his outside political group, America First, two sources familiar with the move confirmed to CNN. The President deemed McMahon a 'superstar' in a send-off from his Mar-a-Lago club on Friday. He said her new role would help him win re-election after she leaves her post.... One of the highest-ranking women in government -- and one of the richest -- McMahon had served largely under the radar in her more than two years at the agency. Unlike some of her Cabinet counterparts, she has not drawn the ire of Democrats in Congress or of ethics experts." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What Trump means by "superstar" is "not mired in scandal." The bar could not be lower.
Matthew Choi of Politico: "House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Friday urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to agree by Monday to provide additional documents detailing why the Trump appointee added a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Cummings complained in a letter that Ross has repeatedly snubbed the committee on document requests related to the contentious 2020 census question. Despite fierce backlash from the public and judiciary, Ross approved a question in the census asking for respondents' citizenship for the first time in 60 years. Cummings suggested the committee would consider forcing cooperation by subpoena during the committee's Tuesday meeting if the secretary does not agree to the terms of the letter. A federal judge ruled in January against asking about respondents' citizenship in the census, arguing doing so could potentially be discriminatory against non-citizens. The question has gone to the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on the issue early next month."
Presidential Race 2020
Lucy Flores, a former Democratic candidate for Nevada lieutenant governor, in a New York essay, recounts the time in 2014 that Joe Biden came up behind her, put his hands on her shoulders, sniffed her hair, and kissed the back of her head. ...
... Laura McGann of Vox: "It is no secret in Washington that Biden has touched numerous women inappropriately in public. It's just never been treated as a serious issue by the mainstream press.... [Biden's] substantial public record includes a mixed history on women's issues, a legacy that makes his in-person conduct even more worthy of discussion.... Democrats are conflicted about what to do about this category of behavior. It's not the same as what other men of the #MeToo movement have bee accused of, but it's also not what liberals want to endorse. Sen. Al Franken's resignation is still controversial for this reason. Some Democrats feel the party is putting itself at a disadvantage against Republicans, who let the president get away with far worse than any accusation Franken faced." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Biden, he physically embraced me in 2008, and I thought it was sweet, not sexual.
Sebastian Murdock of the Huffington Post: "Infowars host Alex Jones was questioned earlier this month for three hours by the lawyer of a Sandy Hook parent who has accused him of perpetuating an abhorrent hoax. It did not go well for Jones.... The deposition, which was released publicly on Friday, shows Jones in the hot seat as he attempts to explain his reasoning for spending years falsely claiming that the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut ― which left 20 children and six adults dead ― was a hoax.... He denies claims he made in the past just seconds before he is presented those exact claims in video evidence. He admits he didn't prepare for the deposition. He can't recall basic details of the shooting, including the date it happened. And he defends making the [home] address of Sandy Hook father Leonard Pozner public.... By the end of the deposition, Jones presents himself as a martyr who has been victimized, and admits he will not take responsibility for the unfathomable pain he has caused his victims[.]" The story includes a transcript of the deposition & links to videos of the deposition. ...
... Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "How Alex Jones helped a Florida man stalk Sandy Hook families.... Soon after the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., [Alex] Jones, the right-wing provocateur, began spreading outlandish theories that the killing of 20 first graders and six educators was staged by the government and victims' families as part of an elaborate plot to confiscate Americans' firearms. Many of the most noxious claims originated in the mind of [Wolfgang] Halbig, a retired Florida public school official who became fixated on what he called 'this supposed tragedy' at Sandy Hook. Court records and a previously unreleased deposition given by Mr. Jones in one of a set of defamation lawsuits brought against him by the families of 10 Sandy Hook victims show how he and Mr. Halbig used each other to pursue their obsession and promote it across the internet." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: These stories will disgust you. Remember, Donald Trump has appeared on Jones' show & sometimes parrots Jones' conspiracy theories.
Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "An iceberg roughly twice the size of New York City is set to break away from an Antarctic ice shelf as a result of a rapidly spreading rift that is being monitored by Nasa. A crack along part of the Brunt ice shelf in Antarctica first appeared in October 2016, according to ...Nasa. The crack is spreading to the east. This rift, known as the Halloween crack, is set to intersect with another fissure that was apparently stable for the past 35 years but is now accelerating north at a rate of around 2.5 miles a year. Once these two rifts meet, which could happen within weeks, an iceberg of at least 660sq miles is set to be loosened. While the anticipated iceberg is large by most measures, it is dwarfed by other recent Antarctic breakaways.... The long-term future of Antarctic ice shelves will have a major influence on sea level rise around the world." (Also linked yesterday.)
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but we know these breakaways are not caused by global warming because snow fell on Amy Klobuchar in February in Minnesota.
Jason Bittel of the Washington Post: "There is a plague ripping through the amphibian species of the world. It's caused by fungus that's invisible to the naked eye and spreads easily by many means. It kills by disrupting the way these creatures breathe through their skin, essentially suffocating frogs and salamanders. The disease is called chytridiomycosis, and according to a landmark study published Thursday in the journal Science, it's even worse than we thought. Scientists once estimated that about 200 species of frogs and salamanders have been harmed by the disease, but the study concludes that chytrid fungus has contributed to declines in at least 501 amphibian species. Ninety of the species are thought to have gone extinct because of it. Populations in tropical Australia, Central and South America seem to be hardest hit, though populations in Africa, Europe and North America are also affected. According to this accounting, the epidemic has caused the worst loss of biodiversity of any disease ever recorded." (Also linked yesterday.)
If you like gossip, here's a poorly-written Daily Mail report by Caroline Howe about George W. Bush's long-rumored affair with a aide named Jennifer Fitzgerald. The Daily Mail story is based on material from Susan Page's biography of Barbara Bush, or at least it is, according to Howe.
Way Beyond the Beltway
William James, et al., of Reuters: "Lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal for a third time on Friday, sounding its probable death knell and leaving Britain's withdrawal from the European Union in turmoil on the very day it was supposed to leave the bloc. The decision to reject a stripped-down version of May's divorce deal has left it totally unclear how, when or even whether Britain will leave the EU, and plunges the three-year Brexit crisis to a deeper level of uncertainty." (Also linked yesterday.)
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