The Commentariat -- March 18, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Jessica Elgot of the Guardian: "The House of Commons Speaker has thwarted any attempt by Theresa May to bring a third meaningful vote to parliament, unless there has been substantial change to the Brexit deal. With Theresa May's plans thrown into chaos by the move, one of her chief law officers warned the government could be forced to cut short the parliamentary session and restart in order to bring back the Brexit deal."

Jon Henley of the Guardian: "Armed police were searching multiple buildings in the Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday after a possible terrorist shooting on a tram left at least three people dead and nine injured, some seriously.... [The attack] happened at about 10.45am at a tram stop on the city's central 24 Oktoberplein junction, a police spokesman, Bernhard Jens, told reporters at the scene. The mayor of Utrecht, Jan van Zanen, said in a video statement at least three people had died in the attack and nine more were wounded, three of them seriously. Van Zanen said police 'are not ruling out -- in fact, we are assuming' a terrorist motive." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "After a nearly eight-hour manhunt, the police said they had arrested a Turkish-born man who had been identified as a suspect in the shooting. It was not clear how many people were involved."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Donald Trump tweeted or retweeted a total of 50 times over the weekend, according to MSNBC. (Maybe this is another sign he'll get the Mueller report this week [not that we will].)  He isn't finished:

... He Takes No Responsibility for Encouraging White Supremacists. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday accused the news media of blaming him for last week's deadly shootings on a pair of mosques in New Zealand. 'The Fake News Media is working overtime to blame me for the horrible attack in New Zealand. They will have to work very hard to prove that one. So Ridiculous!'" ...

... Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday called Joe Biden a 'low I.Q. individual' after the former vice president had a slip of the tongue and nearly announced he was running for president in 2020. 'Joe Biden got tongue tied over the weekend when he was unable to properly deliver a very simple line about his decision to run for President,' Trump tweeted. 'Get used to it, another low I.Q. individual!'" Mrs. McC: I guess we'll have to consider Trump a low-IQ individual -- okay, we do, we do -- since "slips of the tongue" and word salad are his specialties. Bigly.

CBP Targets Americans at Border. Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "At least one journalist and four American immigration attorneys have been stopped and questioned at border stations in Arizona and Texas in recent months, according to their interviews with NBC News. These are in addition to 59 others whose names were on a list to be pulled aside by border agents in San Diego.... A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection told NBC News that the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general was investigating the practice, which he said was specific to San Diego. But Taylor Levy and Hector Ruiz, whose names were not included on the San Diego list, were stopped 700 miles to the east in El Paso, Texas. Levy and Ruiz both provide legal assistance to asylum-seekers on the U.S. and Mexican sides of the border."

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** David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The president of the United States suggested last week that his political supporters might resort to violence if they didn't get their way.... This wasn't the first time Trump had mused about violence, of course. He has talked about 'Second Amendment people' preventing the appointment of liberal judges. He's encouraged police officers to bang suspects' heads against car roofs. He has suggested his supporters 'knock the hell' out of hecklers. At a rally shortly before 2018 Election Day, he went on a similar riff about Bikers for Trump and the military.... Trump combine[s] lies about his political opponents -- Democrats who need to be investigated (for made-up scandals) -- with allusions to a patriotic, violent response by ordinary citizens.... It isn't very complicated: The man with the world's largest bully pulpit keeps encouraging violence and white nationalism. Lo and behold, white-nationalist violence is on the rise. You have to work pretty hard to persuade yourself that's just a big coincidence."

Trump Madder at McCain than at Mass Murderer. Stephen Collinson of CNN: "... Donald Trump spent the weekend venting venom at a bewildering list of targets -- even as much of the rest of the world was still trying to come to terms with a true outrage -- the carnage wrought against Muslims in New Zealand. In a stunning display of personal grievances aired on Twitter, Trump demanded the return of a supportive Fox News host who was missing from her usual spot on Saturday after verbally attacking an American Muslim lawmaker. He escalated his beyond-the-grave feud with late Sen. John McCain. [Mrs. McC: twice!] He complained at being lampooned by NBC's 'Saturday Night Live.' [Mrs. McC: SNL was a rerun!] Trump also fulminated against the Russia investigation and 'Radical Left Democrats' and took shots at an Ohio union boss. It isn't that it is unusual for this most unconventional of Presidents to hit out at his foes on Twitter. But this weekend's tirade came across as even more jarring given his tepid tone on Friday when he said that he didn't think white supremacy was a growing global problem after the attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Clearly, Trump thinks you'll forget about a mass murder committed by one of his fans as soon as he reminds you that a deceased Senator was a lousy student in the 1950s. ...

... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: “On Saturday, Trump launched an attack on McCain -- who has been dead for seven months -- tweeting, 'Spreading the fake and totally discredited Dossier "is unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain." Ken Starr, Former Independent Counsel. He had far worse "stains" than this, including thumbs down on repeal and replace after years of campaigning to repeal and replace!' Upping the attack on Sunday, he accused McCain of colluding with the Democrats to undermine him while mocking the Vietnam war veteran's academic status during his time at the U.S. Naval College as 'last in his class.'" [Mrs. McC: McCain placed 894 of 899 at the Naval Academy, so not technically "last in his class." Not sure where Trump placed at Penn since it's a state secret, but it was apparently nowhere near the top. The point of Boggioni's post, BTW, is that lame Lindsey, supposedly McCain's BFF, didn't come to McCain's defense until he finally succumbed to hours of Twitterworld criticism, and even then he didn't have the guts to call out Trump.

Bigot-in-Chief Doubles Down. Brian Stelter of CNN: "Jeanine Pirro, whose show did not air on Saturday night, was suspended by Fox News after her widely criticized commentary doubting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's patriotism, according a source familiar with the matter.... On Sunday morning the president ... tweet[ed], 'Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro. The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well.'... Fox did not announce the suspension publicly. The network declined to confirm or deny that Pirro has been suspended. There is no word on whether Pirro's show will return next week. At the same time, there is no indication that she has been fired from Fox. The source said she has not been fired. Pirro is one of the network's highest-rated weekend hosts, well known for her vehement defenses of ... Donald Trump and attacks against his perceived enemies." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

      ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump knows what he is doing. This is another appeal to Islamophobes & white supremacists in general. And once again he's coy enough about it to enjoy barely-plausible deniability. Here's the sequence: (1) Pirro questions the "constitutionality" of wearing a hijab; (2) Fox "News" condemns her remark & quietly suspends her; (3) a white supremacist kills 50 Muslims; (4) Trump demands Fox reinstate the person who questioned the constitutionality of Muslim clothing. P.S. If I get it, you can bet the dimmest ethno-nationalist does, too. ...

... Matt Shuham of TPM: "As his chief of staff defended him against charges of Islamophobia on Sunday..., Donald Trump defended a Fox News anchor who was reportedly suspended for Islamophobic remarks.... Mick Mulvaney argued on 'Fox News Sunday' that he was not a white supremacist, and two days after a white nationalist terrorist attack killed 50 Mosque-goers in Christchurch, New Zealand. In a separate interview Sunday, Mulvaney told CBS's Margaret Brennan that 'I don't think anybody can say that the President is anti-Muslim.' 'Well, the President's tweeting now about a TV host who was suspended for anti-Muslim rhetoric,' Brennan responded. 'So I think it's a fair question to ask you about this.'" Mrs. McC: Mick, now you have blood on your hands, too, you sniveling, lying toady. And, yeah, everyone can say the President* is anti-Muslim. And everyone would be right. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Marisa Fernandez of Axios: "The string of [Trump] tweets comes one day after authorities said 'an immigrant-hating white supremacist'killed at least 50 people at a pair of mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Trump issued a single tweet on the day of the attack extending his sympathies to the people of New Zealand, but he did not condemn the shooter's racial motives or acknowledge the targeting of Muslims." Both Shuham & Fernandez cite Trump's full Twitter defense of Pirro & Tucker Carlson." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Juan Cole: "World-straddling press lord Rupert Murdoch's media is under pressure in the wake of the massacre of 50 worshipers by a white supremacist terrorist at a a Christchurch mosque. Murdoch's Fox News is known for pushing white nationalist themes and for demonizing Muslims, and his Sky News Australia is not very different.... Over in the US, far right propagandist Jeanine Pirro did not do her show on Saturday ... [after] ... she launched a ;virulent hate campaign against congresswoman Ilhan Omar.... But the shooting to death of 50 innocent Muslims over exactly the same issues on which Pirro had gone after Omar cast Pirro's comments in a new and dangerous light.... Murdoch's channel can pull Pirro, but that is just a personnel shift. The real problem is the editorial line, which is just hate." --s

... Kelly Cohen of Vox: "Data released earlier this month by the Anti-Defamation League shows white supremacists' propaganda efforts increased 182 percent last year, with 1,187 distributions across the US in 2018, up from 421 total incidents reported in 2017. The number of racist rallies and demonstrations also rose last year: The ADL data released in February shows at least 91 white supremacist rallies or other public events attended by white supremacists were held in 2018, up from 76 the previous year.... Right-wing extremists were linked to at least 50 murders last year, a 35 percent increase over 2017, ADL revealed in January.... It's not only an issue in the US. According to CBS, far-right attacks in Europe jumped 43 percent between 2016 and 2017.... The FBI maintains it has approximately 900 open domestic terror investigations." --s ...

... Christopher Dickey of the Daily Beast: "Now is the time for a global war on white nationalist terrorism.... Networks of white nationalist apologists, sympathizers, supporters and facilitators -- vital to any terrorist movement -- are deeply embedded in the political and social fabric. They are literally the enemy within. As an apologist, it should be said..., Donald Trump is in a class by himself. Trump is 'a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose,' as [the New Zealand mosque murderer] wrote in his manifesto.... And when it comes to feeding the basic instincts of the base in order to hold on to power, it is not at all clear how far Trump will go." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Sean Illing of Vox: "What's the best way to fight racism and extremism? The impulse to dismiss extremists as unreachable fanatics is strong and at times justifiable. But perhaps it's not always the most effective means of combating them. Deeyah Khan, a journalist and filmmaker, has decided to engage them directly as human beings.... In two documentary films, White Right: Meeting the Enemy and Jihad: A Story of the Others (both of which are currently streaming on Netflix), Khan sits down with white supremacists and jihadists (respectively) and tries to understand what's really motivating them.... I spoke with Khan about her experience making these films, what she discovered about the nature of extremism, and how her thinking has evolved[.]" With interview. --s

Amanda Hoover of NJ.com: "Anthony Comello, the 24-year-old arrested in New Jersey Saturday for allegedly gunning down a mob boss in Staten Island last week, will return to New York to face the murder charge against him. Comello waived his extradition rights Monday during a hearing in Ocean County Superior Court before Judge Wendel Daniels. He is expected to appear in court in Staten Island next Monday, March 25.... In the courtroom, Comello held his open handcuffed palm up to reporters, showing a symbol and several words scrawled in pen. 'MAGA forever' and 'united we stand' were some of the phrases he had printed, while others were not entirely legible." Mrs. McC: Somehow, Donald Trump is featured in nearly every American crime story. You might think criminals see him as a role model.

Michael Laris, et al., of the Washington Post: "In public and in private, Trump presented himself as a key arbiter in deciding whether the Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 planes would be able to keep flying, according to White House and administration officials.... Rather than simply being briefed on the FAA's findings in the days after the crash, Trump played an active role, participating in phone calls with Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg and other stakeholders, and offering his thoughts about the aviation industry. Asked by reporters about the decision to ground the plane, Trump left the impression that he had taken the lead, saying it was a 'very tough decision.' But in the days that followed, as Trump faced criticism about whether his administration acted too slowly and whether he should have been so involved, the White House sought to direct attention back to the aviation agency." ...

... Dominic Gates of the Seattle Times: "As Boeing hustled in 2015 to catch up to Airbus and certify its new 737 MAX, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) managers pushed the agency's safety engineers to delegate safety assessments to Boeing itself, and to speedily approve the resulting analysis.... The FAA, citing lack of funding and resources, has over the years delegated increasing authority to Boeing to take on more of the work of certifying the safety of its own airplanes. Early on in certification of the 737 MAX, the FAA safety engineering team divided up the technical assessments that would be delegated to Boeing versus those they considered more critical and would be retained within the FAA. But several FAA technical experts said in interviews that as certification proceeded, managers prodded them to speed the process. Development of the MAX was lagging nine months behind the rival Airbus A320neo. Time was of the essence for Boeing.... Both Boeing and the FAA were informed of the specifics of this story and were asked for responses 11 days ago, before the second crash of a 737 MAX last Sunday." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yo, Congress. Do you really think it's a good idea to underfund the FAA?

The Continued Collapse of American Global "Leadership"

Sandra Laville of Mother Jones: "Environmental groups involved in talks at a United Nations conference in Kenya have accused the US of blocking an ambitious global response to plastic pollution.... Norway, Japan and Sri Lanka had put forward proposals for a legally binding agreement for nations to coordinate action against plastic litter in the oceans and microplastics. India also suggested strong action with a resolution to phase out single-use plastic across the world.... On Friday, a series of non-binding proposals were agreed.... Large oil firms in the US are investing billions of dollars in petrochemical production over the next decade, particularly shale gas. The new facilities ... will help fuel a 40% rise in plastic production in the next decade, according to industry experts." --s ...

... ** Liz Ford of the Guardian: "US officials in New York are attempting to water down language and remove the word 'gender' from documents being negotiated at the UN, in what is being seen as a threat to international agreements on women's rights. In negotiations at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which resume at UN headquarters this week, the US wants to replace 'gender' in the forum's outcome document with references only to women and girls.... In draft documents, seen by the Guardian, the US is taking a step further at CSW by refusing to reaffirm the country's commitment to the landmark Beijing declaration and platform for action [regarded as the blueprint for global women's rights], agreed at the fourth world conference of women held in 1995.... The Guardian understands the US also wants references to migration and climate change completely removed from the CSW document. Under the Trump administration, US negotiators have found themselves more aligned with countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia than European nations.... Last week, the US state department came under fire for excluding women's rights from its annual country reports." --s ...

... Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "The United States and Saudi Arabia have hamstrung global efforts to scrutinise climate geoengineering in order to benefit their fossil fuel industries, according to multiple sources at the United Nations environment assembly, taking place this week in Nairobi. The world's two biggest oil producers reportedly led opposition against plans to examine the risks of climate-manipulating technology.... [G]eoengineering has risen up the political agenda of some nations as the climate crisis has become more apparent. The petrochemical industry sees it as a way to justify further expansion of fossil fuel industries. Chevron,BHP and other high-emitting companies have invested in companies that are pushing ahead with experiments to pull CO2 out of the air.... This was not the only agenda item in Nairobi that Trump administration diplomats were accused of watering down; they were also accused of undermining efforts to ensure strong environmental governance. 'They are trying to remove all targets and timelines,' said one senior delegate." --s

Kevin Poulsen of The Daily Beast: "A Russian tech entrepreneur [Aleksej Gubarev] accused in the Trump-Russia scandal two years ago may end up regretting the defamation lawsuit he filed against a U.S. media outlet. Thousands of pages about his company's operations and finances were released to the public last week by the federal judge overseeing the case -- effectively turning the suit into a WikiLeaks-sized data dump that]s raising new questions about his dealings with computer criminals.... When BuzzFeed published a leaked copy of the [Michael Steele] dossier in January 2017, Gubarev vehemently denied any role on the Kremlin's hack and filed a defamation lawsuit against the media company.... [T]he dossier's tale of Gubarev using porn to hack Democrats had been banished to the fringes of the Russiagate narratives.... Now, [as] the Times notes, 'the report's suggestions of a link between Mr. Gubarev and Russian hacking is likely to spur new demands for renewed investigations.'" --s

Robert Faturechi & Justin Elliott of ProPublica: "Federal authorities raided the office of Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy last summer, seeking records related to his dealings with foreign officials and Trump administration associates, according to a sealed warrant obtained by ProPublica.... The Washington Post reported in August that the Justice Department was investigating Broidy. The sealed warrant offers new details of federal authorities' investigation of allegations that Broidy had attempted to cash in on his Trump White House connections in dealings with foreign officials. It also shows that the government took a more aggressive approach with the Trump ally than was previously known, entering his office and removing records -- just as it did with Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Broidy served as a major Trump campaign fundraiser and was the national deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee until he resigned in April 2018, when it was revealed he had agreed to secretly pay off a former Playboy model in exchange for her silence about their affair." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You might think the feds regard Broidy, Cohen, Manafort & Stone as untrustworthy bastards capable of destroying incriminating evidence.

"Annals of Idiocracy," Ctd. Will Sommer of The Daily Beast: "Michael Flynn's family members appear to be at war with each other over the QAnon conspiracy theory and whether Flynn himself is playing a role in it." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's truly amazing that in this family feud, Michael Flynn, Jr., -- best known for his espousal of the insane Pizzagate conspiracy theory -- is the sane one. Meanwhile, Michael Flynn, Sr.'s sister & brother have busily emitted QAnon signals from their built-in radio antennae (and Twitter).

Presidential Race 2020

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Beto O'Rourke raised more than $6 million online in the first 24 hours after announcing his presidential campaign last week, according to his campaign, outpacing his rivals for the Democratic nomination and making an emphatic statement about his grass-roots financial strength. Mr. O'Rourke brought in $6,136,736 after declaring his long-anticipated bid with a web video and trip to Iowa on Thursday morning, raising the sum entirely online and from all 50 states, the campaign said. He narrowly beat the first-day haul of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who raised $5.9 million after announcing his bid last month and who would go on to raise $10 million before his first week was over."

... "No Irish Need Apply" -- RNC. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: “The Republican National Committee on Sunday sent out a tweet linking Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke's Irish heritage to his 1998 drunken-driving arrest, in an attack that Democrats and some Republicans criticized as being based on stereotypes. Republicans have previously sought to focus attention on O'Rourke's DWI arrest, but the tweet by the RNC which came on St. Patrick's Day and described O'Rourke as a 'noted Irishman' -- appeared to be the first time they have raised the topic of his ancestry. 'On this St. Paddy's Day, a special message from noted Irishman Robert Francis O'Rourke,' the tweet states. It includes O'Rourke's 1998 mug shot with a leprechaun hat on top, along with the message 'Please drink responsibly.'" Emphasis added. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Ten-and-a-half percent of the U.S. population self-identifies as Irish-American; I think I read somewhere that 25 percent have some Irish ancestry. So pretty smart of the RNC to insult Irish-Americans as drunks & drunk-drivers.

"Capitalism is Awesome," Ctd. Addy Baird of ThinkProgress: "Insulin pricing may seem like a niche issue, but it's one that affects millions of people across the country.... More than 30 million people in the United States have diabetes and as of last year, an estimated 7.4 million people ... used insulin daily, according to the American Diabetes Association.... In recent years, insulin prices have skyrocketed, according to figures compiled by the Senate Finance Committee.... Between 2001 and 2005, Eli Lilly's Humalog increased from $35 to $234, a 585% increase, the Senate panel found. Novo Nordisk's Novolog rose from $289 in 2013 to to $540 in 2019, an 87% increase. Sanofi's Lantus, meanwhile, increased in price from $244 to $431 between 2013 and 2019, an approximately 77% increase." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Iowa. The GOP Fears Democracy. Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress: "[W]ith Senate File 575, Iowa is once again making headlines, this time for its attempts at voter suppression.... Under SF 575 ... students at Iowa's public universities -- University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa ---- would be unable to vote early on campus.... Additionally, this bill would require the approximately 70,000 students at Iowa's public universities to fill out a form when they graduate indicating if they plan to stay in Iowa.... If they indicate that they plan on moving, the state will automatically purge them from the voting rolls.... Voters between the ages of 18 and 29turned out in record numbers for the 2018 midterm elections ... and voted for Democrats by a margin of 35 points.... But SF 575 does more than just target college students. It will make it harder for all Iowans to vote..." --s

Way Beyond

** Mark Mazzetti & Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia authorized a secret campaign to silence dissenters -- included the surveillance, kidnapping, detention and torture of Saudi citizens -- more than a year before the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, according to American officials who have read classified intelligence reports about the campaign. At least some of the clandestine missions were carried out by members of the same team that killed and dismembered Mr. Khashoggi in Istanbul in October, suggesting that his killing was a particularly egregious part of a wider campaign to silence Saudi dissidents, according to the officials and associates of some of the Saudi victims. Members of the team that killed Mr. Khashoggi, which American officials called the Saudi Rapid Intervention Group, were involved in at least a dozen operations starting in 2017, the officials said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bear in mind that Donald Trump would have known about this for quite a while. Yet he has chosen to "believe" MBS's claims of innocence because ignoring MBS's gross suppression of human rights -- to the point of torture & murder -- suits Trump's & his family's financial interests. BTW, if you want to know why federal officials leaked this intelligence to the U.S., it's almost certainly because those officials are appalled by Trump's refusal to act against Saudi Arabia. ...

Stephanie Kirchgaessner & Nick Hopkins of the Guardian: "The heir to the Saudi throne [Crown Prince Mohammed 'bone saw' bin Salman] has not attended a series of high-profile ministerial and diplomatic meetings in Saudi Arabia over the last fortnight and is alleged to have been stripped of some of his financial and economic authority.... The move to restrict ... [the Crown Prince's] responsibilities ... is understood to have been revealed to a group of senior ministers earlier last week by his father, King Salman.... Tensions are said to have flared up after Prince Mohammed announced two important personnel decisions hours after the king left Saudi Arabia for an official visi to Egypt ... allegedly announced without the king's approval or knowledge." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Huh. The NYT no doubt has worked on its story linked above for some time, & they would have contacted Saudi Arabian officials about it. I wonder if the NYT story has anything to do with the apparent restrictions on MBS.

Lily Kuo of the Guardian: "Chinese primary school textbooks may soon include definitions for terms like 'price-to-earnings ratio' or 'buy and hold' as the country embarks on a campaign to improve investor awareness.... Officials said the campaign to improve understanding of the country's securities and futures markets would begin with textbooks for primary and middle schools." --s

Hannah Ellis-Peterson of the Guardian: "A young whale that washed up in the Philippines died from 'gastric shock' after ingesting ... 40 kilos of plastic bags, including 16 rice sacks, 4 banana plantation style bags and multiple shopping bags.... The use of single-use plastic is rampant in south-east Asia. A 2017 report by Ocean Conservancy stated that China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam have been dumping more plastic into the ocean than the rest of the world combined." --s

News Lede

NBC News: "Heavy rain and melting snow that overpowered the Missouri River forced hundreds of families out of their homes in the Midwest and forced the base that is home to U.S. Strategic Command to sharply scale back operations on Sunday. At least three people are confirmed to have died in what the National Weather Service called 'major and historical river flooding' along parts of the Missouri and Mississippi river basins."

The Commentariat -- March 17, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Bigot-in-Chief Doubles Down. Brian Stelter of CNN: "Jeanine Pirro, whose show did not air on Saturday night, was suspended by Fox News after her widely criticized commentary doubting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's patriotism, according a source familiar with the matter.... On Sunday morning the president ... tweet[ed], 'Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro. The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well.'... Fox did not announce the suspension publicly. The network declined to confirm or deny that Pirro has been suspended. There is no word on whether Pirro's show will return next week. At the same time, there is no indication that she has been fired from Fox. The source said she has not been fired. Pirro is one of the network's highest-rated weekend hosts, well known for her vehement defenses of ... Donald Trump and attacks against his perceived enemies." ...

      ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump knows what he is doing. This is another appeal to Islamophobes & white supremacists in general. And once again he's coy enough about it to enjoy barely-plausible deniability. Here's the sequence: (1) Pirro questions the "constitutionality" of wearing a hijab; (2) Fox "News" condemns her remark & quietly suspends her; (3) a white supremacist kills 50 Muslims; (4) Trump demands Fox reinstate the person who questioned the constitutionality of Muslim clothing. P.S. If I get it, you can bet the dimmest ethno-nationalist does, too. ...

... Matt Shuham of TPM: "As his chief of staff defended him against charges of Islamophobia on Sunday..., Donald Trump defended a Fox News anchor who was reportedly suspended for Islamophobic remarks.... Mick Mulvaney argued on 'Fox News Sunday' that he was not a white supremacist, and two days after a white nationalist terrorist attack killed 50 Mosque-goers in Christchurch, New Zealand. In a separate interview Sunday, Mulvaney told CBS’s Margaret Brennan that 'I don't think anybody can say that the President is anti-Muslim.' 'Well, the President's tweeting now about a TV host who was suspended for anti-Muslim rhetoric,' Brennan responded. 'So I think it's a fair question to ask you about this.'" Mrs. McC: Mick, now you have blood on your hands, too, you sniveling, lying toady. And everyone can say the President* is anti-Muslim. And everyone would be right. ...

... Marisa Fernandez of Axios: "The string of [Trump] tweets comes one day after authorities said 'an immigrant-hating white supremacist'killed at least 50 people at a pair of mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Trump issued a single tweet on the day of the attack extending his sympathies to the people of New Zealand, but he did not condemn the shooter's racial motives or acknowledge the targeting of Muslims." Both Shuham & Fernandez cite Trump's full Twitter defense of Pirro & Tucker Carlson."

Christopher Dickey of the Daily Beast: "Now is the time for a global war on white nationalist terrorism.... Networks of white nationalist apologists, sympathizers, supporters and facilitators -- vital to any terrorist movement -- are deeply embedded in the political and social fabric. They are literally the enemy within. As an apologist, it should be said..., Donald Trump is in a class by himself. Trump is 'a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose,' as [the New Zealand mosque murderer] wrote in his manifesto.... And when it comes to feeding the basic instincts of the base in order to hold on to power, it is not at all clear how far Trump will go."

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The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday said he encouraged House Republicans to vote in favor of a resolution calling on the Justice Department to make Robert Mueller's final report public -- despite tweeting a day earlier that the special counsel 'should never have been appointed' and that 'there should be no Mueller Report.'... 'On the recent non-binding vote (420-0) in Congress about releasing the Mueller Report, I told leadership to let all Republicans vote for transparency,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Makes us all look good and doesn't matter. Play along with the game!'" Mrs. McC: Anyone inclined to "play along" with that assertion, Donald, will have to suspend disbelief.

Daniel Politi of Slate: "... Donald Trump made it clear Saturday that just because someone is dead, doesn't mean that they get a reprieve from his petty squabbles.... The president's criticism of [John McCain] began with a quote of a comment by former independent counsel Ken Starr who was referring to reports that it was McCain's office that passed along the unverified dossier of Trump's ties to Russia to the media. Starr had said that while McCain was an 'American hero,' the reports, if true, amount to a 'very dark stain' on the late senator. Trump, however, seized this opportunity to bring up his long-held criticism of McCain, saying the Arizona Republican 'had far worse "stains" than this,' going on to cite his vote against efforts to repeal Obamacare in 2017."

Laurence Tribe & Joshua Matz in the Daily Beast argue that Trump is more impeachable than ever: "When we released To End A Presidency: The Power of Impeachment in May 2018, we ... concluded that four alleged impeachable offenses merited further investigation: (1) improper dealings with Russia surrounding the 2016 presidential election; (2) obstruction of justice in Russia-related investigations; (3) abuse of the pardon power; and (4) implementing kleptocracy. We stand by our original conclusions. Indeed, in many respects the facts bearing on these four issues have grown worse for Trump. The evidence of sketchy interactions with Russia during the election is now much stronger; his assaults on the Russia investigation have continued apace; and Trump's financial entanglements with hostile powers have cast a pall of corruption over key foreign policy judgments.... In light of events since May 2018, we now believe that two more potential 'high Crimes and Misdemeanors' warrant investigation.... The first such offense is corrupt failure to defend the United States -- and its electoral system -- against domestic operations launched by a hostile foreign power.... The same is true of allegations that Trump broke the law during the 2016 presidential election." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So in case you're afraid you might be slightly wacky to be singing the impeachment song, take heart in knowing that Larry Tribe is in the chorus.

Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times explore Li "Cindy" Yang's endeavors in her pay-for-play shenanigans at Mar-a-Lago. It certainly appears she has engineered illegal contributions to Trump's re-election committee. "Over the weeks leading up to the event, at least nine people in Ms. Yang's orbit, some of them with modest incomes, made donations at exactly $5,400. She ended up at the dinner.... One of the $5,400 political donations came from a 25-year old woman who gives facials at a beauty school, in a strip mall in nearby Palm Beach Gardens that is owned by Ms. Yang's family. Another $5,400 came from a woman who says she worked as a receptionist at a massage parlor owned by Ms. Yang's husband. A third gift of $5,400 came from an associate of Ms. Yang's who had been charged in 2014 after a prostitution sting with practicing health care without a license, police records show." (Also linked yesterday.)

Dance of the Dinosaurs. Darryl Fears & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is aggressively pressing ahead in expanding federal oil and gas industry leases that could lead to more drilling on land and at sea, defying an assessment by government scientists that the production and use of fossil fuels is accelerating climate change. On Friday, the administration announced a final decision to lift protections for a uniquely American bird, called the greater sage grouse, on nearly 9 million acres to provide more leasing opportunities to oil, gas and mining industries. A day earlier, an Interior Department assistant secretary confirmed that he told leaders of the fossil fuel industry last month that the Atlantic coast will almost certainly be included in the administration's plan to expand federal leasing to nearly the entire outer continental shelf. Offshore leases haven't been granted in the Atlantic for decades, and drilling hasn't been allowed for a half-century.... n his remarks, [assistant secretary for land and minerals management Joe] Balash said he found it 'absolutely thrilling' that President Trump's 'knack for keeping the attention of the media and the public focused somewhere else' has allowed Bureau of Ocean Energy Management employees to process the permits without much scrutiny."

Aaron Davis & Marina Lopes of the Washington Post: "The FAA's publication of pilot training requirements for the Max 8 in the fall of 2017 [--which did not mention the new anti-stall software --] was among the final steps in a multiyear approval process carried out under the agency's now 10-year-old policy of entrusting Boeing and other aviation manufacturers to certify that their own systems comply with U.S. air safety regulations. In practice, one Boeing engineer would conduct a test of a particular system on the Max 8, while another Boeing engineer would act as the FAA's representative, signing on behalf of the U.S. government that the technology complied with federal safety regulations, people familiar with the process said.... The process was occurring during a period when the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General was warning the FAA that its oversight of manufacturers' work was insufficient. In the years between the time Boeing launched the Max 8 design in 2011 and the first plane rolled out of production in 2016, the inspector general criticized the FAA's handling of the 'self-certification' system in three successive reports." (Also linked yesterday.)

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... even though it was encouraging to see some individual Republicans [vote against Trump], there is still no reason to suppose that the G.O.P. as a whole is getting ready to rein in Trump, or to start distancing itself from him. To the contrary, the [Senate] vote [on his fake national emergency] demonstrated that the vast majority of elected Republicans are still too cowed by the President and his supporters to oppose him, even when they know what he has done is wrong, a majority of the public agrees with them, and the outcome of the vote is largely symbolic."

Presidential Race 2020 -- Feet of Clay Edition

Christopher Hooks in the American Prospect: "While representing a gerrymandered city council district that contained some of [El Paso]'s richest residents at one end and some of the country's poorest at the other, [Beto] O'Rourke championed a plan by the well-heeled to appropriate large parts of the city's historic barrios for redevelopment. It was bitterly opposed by many of his constituents in the affected areas, but supported fervently by his father-in-law Bill Sanders, one of the richest and most powerful men in town. This is the paradox of Beto O'Rourke.... He can be a loud and distinctive progressive voice on national issues and an avatar for the wealthy and powerful, sometimes simultaneously. He's the House primary challenger who took on Silvestre Reyes in 2012, running to Reyes's left on legalizing marijuana, and to his right on increasing the Social Security retirement age. He's the rock-star Democrat who wouldn't support a fellow House candidate over a Republican he considered his friend. And he's the city councilmember who tried to be everything to everyone in El Paso -- except for the people of south El Paso." ...

... A Precocious Hacker. Joseph Menn of Reuters: "While a teenager, [Beto] O'Rourke acknowledged in an exclusive interview, he belonged to the oldest group of computer hackers in U.S. history. The hugely influential Cult of the Dead Cow, jokingly named after an abandoned Texas slaughterhouse, is notorious for releasing tools that allowed ordinary people to hack computers running Microsoft's Windows. It's also known for inventing the word 'hacktivism' to describe human-rights-driven security work. Members of the group have protected O'Rourke's secret for decades, reluctant to compromise his political viability."

Say What? Sarah Jones of New York: "Senator Amy Klobuchar, alleged staff-abuser and Democratic candidate for president, has decided to cast her 'tough' treatment of aides as a positive quality. The Minnesota Democrat told CNN's Poppy Harlow that while she 'can always do better,' being a boss means 'you have to have high standards.' She went on to claim that her behavior would make her a good president: 'One can always do better, and that means you want to be sure that you are listening to people if they felt that something was unfair, or they felt bad about something. But I still think that you have to demand good product. When you're out there on the world stage and dealing with people like Vladimir Putin, yeah, you want someone who's tough. You want someone that demands the answers and that's going to get things done, and that's what I've done my whole life.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's see: "I throw binders at my incompetent staff, so I would stand up to Vladimir Putin, too." Okay then.

Avery Anapol of the Hill: "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) on Sunday officially announced she is running for president in 2020. The Democratic senator, who announced an exploratory committee for a potential run last month, takes aim at President Trump and highlights a number of progressive causes in a launch video that asks: 'Will brave win?'"

Mike Memoli of NBC News: "Joe Biden nearly declared his candidacy several weeks ahead of schedule as he previewed the message he'd take to the campaign, telling his home state Democrats that he had 'the most progressive record of anybody running' even as he appealed for a return to bridge-building politics of consensus. Biden's keynote address to the Delaware Democratic Party's largest annual fundraising dinner was not supposed to be an announcement speech. But for the second time in less than a week he walked close to the line as he addressed a very friendly audience."

Carole Cadwalladr of the Guardian: "Facebook is facing explosive new questions about when senior executives knew of Cambridge Analytica's abuse of users' data, one year on from when the scandal first broke, as federal prosecutors investigate claims that the social media giant has covered up the extent of its relationship with the firm. The Observer has also learned of claims that a meeting was hosted at the office of Facebook board member and confidant of its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, in the summer 2016 just as the data firm started working for the Trump campaign.... Individuals who attended the meeting with Wylie and [Facebook board member Marc] Andreessen claim it was set up to learn what Cambridge Analytica was doing with Facebook's data and how technologists could work to 'fix' it."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. "Fox News Channel replaced [Saturday] night's broadcast of Jeanine Pirro's weekly program with a repeat episode of its documentary series 'Scandalous,' just days after the ... cable-news network said it condemned remarks the outspoken host made about Minnesota Democrat Ihan Omar.... A Fox News spokesperson ... declined to elaborate." Mrs. McC: Looks as if even Fox "News" thinks it's a bad idea to be airing the views of an Islamophobic wacko in the wake of the New Zealand mass murder.

A History Lesson for White Supremacists. Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post: White supremacists, including the New Zealand mass murderer, sport medieval signs which they think symbolize the good old days when Europe was all-white. "'White supremacists imagine the Middle Ages as a time when Europe was all white, separated from its neighbors and in constant conflict with those that it deemed to be outsiders,' [medievalist Paul] Sturtevant said. 'Nothing could be further from the truth.' In medieval Sicily, Christians, Muslims and Jews were 'living and working together side by side,' Sturtevant said. In 7th-century England, the well-respected archbishop of Canterbury was from Turkey, and his favorite abbot was from North Africa. There were Ethiopian embassies across southern Europe, including Rome. Pilgrimage books listed travelers as hailing from 'India' -- though this was probably just a fill-in for anywhere in the Middle East." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Historically, the only all-white continent is Antarctica, where the whiteness is snow. Any place outside Europe that is predominantly white today is so because Europeans invaded it, not the other way around. That certainly includes Australia, which whites first invaded as recently as the late 18th century, and New Zealand, which whites began to settle only in the mid-19th century. The "intellectual" basis for white supremacy is white territorial aggression.

Beyond the Beltway

Missouri. People Voted for This Idiot. John Bowden of the Hill: "A Republican lawmaker in Missouri wants to require adults in his state to purchase handguns and AR-15 rifles. Two bills introduced by state Rep. Andrew McDaniel would require residents to purchase firearms while providing $1 million in tax credits on a first-come, first-served basis to residents who fall under the law."

New York. Ali Winston & William K. Rashbaum of the New York Times: "A 24-year-old Staten Island man who was taken into police custody on Saturday in connection with the fatal shooting of the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family faces murder charges, according to court records and officials. The brazen shooting of the boss, Francesco Cali, in front of his home in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island on Wednesday ... fueled speculation that New York City was seeing the return of open mob conflict that last erupted decades ago. Several officials, however, said on Saturday that preliminary information suggested that the killing of Mr. Cali, 53, was not related to organized crime. One official cautioned that the inquiry was still in its early stages."

Way Beyond

... Australia. Palko Karasz of the New York Times: "An anti-immigration lawmaker in Australia who has been criticized for blaming Muslim immigration for Friday's New Zealand shootings struck a teenager who smashed an egg on his head in Melbourne on Saturday.... After dozens of people were shot and killed at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday, [Sen. Fraser] Anning said in a statement widely shared on Twitter, 'The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place.'"

... Calla Wahlquist of the Guardian: "The Australian government has cancelled the visa of far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos just a week after it was personally approved by the immigration minister. Immigration minister David Coleman said on Saturday that comments about Islam made by Yiannopoulos in the wake of the Christchurch massacre were 'appalling and foment hatred and division' and he would not be allowed in the country. It comes a week after Coleman approved Yiannopoulos' visa against the advice of the home affairs department, which said the commentator may fail the character test to enter Australia." ...

... Al Jazeera: "Yiannopoulos is a former editor of the US-based far-right website Breitbart news site who has regularly railed against ;Muslims, immigrants and the press. On Friday, he said on Facebook that attacks like Christchurch happen because 'the establishment panders to and mollycoddles extremist leftism and barbaric, alien religious cultures.'" ...

... New Zealand. Melissa Davey of the Guardian: "The death toll from the mosque terror attacks in Christchurch has risen to 50, New Zealand police commissioner confirmed on Sunday morning." ...

... Emanuel Stoakes & Gerry Shih of the Washington Post: "The primary suspect in Friday's deadly shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, appeared in court on Saturday. Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, did not enter a plea on one count of murder and made a white power gesture from the dock. Authorities have two more suspects in custody. New Zealand's [Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern] vowed its 'gun laws will change.' Suspect had license to carry the types of guns used in deadly attacks.... Ardern said Tarrant had modified guns used in the killing that left at least 49 dead, and Attorney General David Parker says the government will ban semiautomatic rifles." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- March 16, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Aaron Davis & Marina Lopes of the Washington Post: "The FAA's publication of pilot training requirements for the Max 8 in the fall of 2017 [--which did not mention the new anti-stall software --] was among the final steps in a multiyear approval process carried out under the agency's now 10-year-old policy of entrusting Boeing and other aviation manufacturers to certify that their own systems comply with U.S. air safety regulations. In practice, one Boeing engineer would conduct a test of a particular system on the Max 8, while another Boeing engineer would act as the FAA's representative, signing on behalf of the U.S. government that the technology complied with federal safety regulations, people familiar with the process said.... The process was occurring during a period when the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General was warning the FAA that its oversight of manufacturers' work was insufficient. In the years between the time Boeing launched the Max 8 design in 2011 and the first plane rolled out of production in 2016, the inspector general criticized the FAA's handling of the 'self-certification' system in three successive reports."

Emanuel Stoakes & Gerry Shih of the Washington Post: "The primary suspect in Friday's deadly shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, appeared in court on Saturday. Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, did not enter a plea on one count of murder and made a white power gesture from the dock. Authorities have two more suspects in custody. New Zealand's [Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern] vowed its 'gun laws will change.' Suspect had license to carry the types of guns used in deadly attacks.... Ardern said Tarrant had modified guns used in the killing that left at least 49 dead, and Attorney General David Parker says the government will ban semiautomatic rifles."

Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times explore Li "Cindy" Yang's endeavors in her pay-for-play shenanigans at Mar-a-Lago. It certainly appears she has engineered illegal contributions to Trump's re-election committee. "Over the weeks leading up to the event, at least nine people in Ms. Yang's orbit, some of them with modest incomes, made donations at exactly $5,400. She ended up at the dinner.... One of the $5,400 political donations came from a 25-year old woman who gives facials at a beauty school, in a strip mall in nearby Palm Beach Gardens that is owned by Ms. Yang's family. Another $5,400 came from a woman who says she worked as a receptionist at a massage parlor owned by Ms. Yang's husband. A third gift of $5,400 came from an associate of Ms. Yang's who had been charged in 2014 after a prostitution sting with practicing health care without a license, police records show."

~~~~~~~~~~

You know what I am? I'm a nationalist, O.K.? I'm a nationalist. Nationalist! Use that word! Use that word! -- Donald Trump, at a rally in October 2018

In Wake of Mass Murder, Trump Fails to Condemn White Nationalism. Shannon Vavra of Axios: "Following the fatal mosque shootings in New Zealand, President Trump said Friday he thinks white nationalists make up just 'a small group of people,' when asked if he believes white nationalism is a 'rising threat.' 'I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess. If you look what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that's the case. I don't know enough about it yet ... But it's certainly a terrible thing.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Once again, when it was especially necessary, Trump was unwilling to condemn white nationalism. And why would he? He is a white nationalist. ...

     ... Nick Confessore of the NYT, appearing on MSNBC, noted that Trump uses the same language avowed white nationalists do; for instance, both speak of the "invasion" of non-whites. ...

     ... Update: Alex Ward of Vox: "... Donald Trump just used similar language to describe immigrants coming into the United States that the alleged mass shooter did to justify killing nearly 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand.... During a veto signing ceremony [more on that farce below], Trump explained why he felt a national emergency was warranted to stop migrants from entering the US. 'People hate the word "invasion," but that's what it is,' he said.... In the rambling 74-page manifesto the 28-year-old suspected shooter posted online shortly before the attack, he writes that he was committing the killings 'to show the invaders that our lands will never be their lands.' It's also the same language the man who killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last October used: In that case, the perpetrator blamed Jews for helping what he called 'invaders' in the Central American migrant caravans who were trying to enter the US.... [Trump's] rhetoric around both Muslims and immigrants echos some of the same exact tropes that white nationalist extremists frequently traffic in -- and it has for a long time." ...

... David Jackson of USA Today: "... Donald Trump appeared to use Twitter around midnight Thursday to promote a website with an interview in which he explained how 'tough' his supporters could get -- but the tweet had disappeared as of Friday morning. In his chat with the Breitbart News Network, Trump said: 'I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump -- I have the tough people, but they don't play it tough -- until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.'... 'I think it sounds very much to me like he's encouraging them to engage in something that's probably illegal such as assaulting people, you know behave in a dangerous way,' said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, speaking on MSNBC. 'That sounds like a threat to me. I think it's appalling.' Social media users criticized Trump for posting the article as news was breaking about the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 49 people dead. On Friday morning, Trump tweeted a condemnation of the the attacks." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears to me that Trump -- or a staff member -- realized it was "bad optics" to favoriably tweet about violence against "the left" right after one of his admirers murdered dozens of Muslim worshippers & posted the killing spree on social media. Bad timing, sure, but I doubt Trump's sentiment has changed. ...

... Brian Klaas, in a Washington Post op-ed, writes "a short history of President Trump's anti-Muslim bigotry.... Trump is an Islamophobic bigot.... Upon taking office, Trump surrounded himself with anti-Muslim bigots.... Hollow statements of condolence are meaningless if you are willing to turn around and support an Islamophobic bigot in the White House who makes those condolences more necessary.... If we want to stop such massacres, we need to work much harder to stamp out hate and bigotry in society -- and part of that is to stop electing or supporting hateful bigots." ...

... Nicole Lafond of TPM: "In response to the massacre in New Zealand on Friday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) -- one of two Muslim women in Congress -- condemned 'white supremacists' in the U.S. who influence attacks around the world." --s ...

... Wajahat Ali in the New York Times: "All those who have helped to spread the worldwide myth that Muslims are a threat have blood on their hands." Ali calls out Donald Trump, Steve King & other white nationalists for their anti-Muslim rhetoric that stokes fear & hatred. ...

... Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "In the wake of the deadly New Zealand shootings targeting two mosques, Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) issued a statement condemning the violence. He also suggested that the alleged shooter's apparent motivations were valid concerns that could have been addressed through either the courts or the legislature.... Gohmert did not specifically offer condolences to the victims or their families.... Gohmert was one of 24 House Republicans who refused to vote for last week's resolution condemning bigotry." --s ...

... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Right from the twisted start, those who plotted to kill worshipers at two New Zealand mosques depended on the passive incompetence of Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms. They depended on the longtime priorities of the tech giants who, for years, have concentrated on maximizing revenue, not protecting safety or decency.... Many hours after the massacre, a horrific 17-minute video -- showing a man in black shooting with a semiautomatic rifle at those running from mosques and shooting into piles of bodies -- could still be easily accessed on YouTube.... As violence goes more and more viral, tech companies need to deal with the crisis that they have helped create." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

The attackers' civilized, European response to living among people not like them is barbarism. -- Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo ...

... C.J. Werleman of the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald: The New Zealand mosque murderer "represents the dangerous convergence between broken white men and extreme right-wing media, bearing in mind that 100 per cent of all terrorist attacks carried out on US soil in 2018 were carried out by right-wing extremists, with the Southern Poverty Law Centre crediting a' toxic combination of political polarisation, anti-immigrant sentiment and modern technologies that help spread propaganda online'. These kind of attacks are being carried out in increased frequency and ferocity in mosques, synagogues, and black churches throughout the Western world, with a notable common denominator: the gunmen are always white, male and fuelled by consumption of right-wing media.... Whereas anti-Semitism, anti-black and anti-Asian racism are rightfully and routinely condemned, Islamophobia remains the only form of racism that remains within socially acceptable limits. Last week, for instance, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro suggested America's first elected black Muslim congresswoman would not be loyal to the US constitution because she wears a hijab...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Amanda Meade of the Guardian: "Sky New Zealand has pulled fellow broadcaster Sky News Australia off air until the channel stops broadcasting clips from the Christchurch mosque shooter's Facebook live stream. In a tweet posted on Saturday morning, Sky New Zealand, an independently-owned broadcaster, said it had decided to remove the Australian 24-hour news channel from its platform because of the distressing footage.... Despite a plea from New Zealand police, Rupert Murdoch's Australian pay-TV channel was among the broadcasters that chose to screen [the video.]... Sky News Australia has been broadcasting the footage repeatedly, sparking anger on social media." --s ...

... It's Never Wingers' Fault. Caleb Ecarma of Mediaite: "Rush Limbaugh promoted a fringe conspiracy that suggests the Christchurch, New Zealand Mosque massacre may have been a false flag attack carried out by a 'leftist' to 'to smear' right-wingers.... Limbaugh was repeating a conspiracy promoted on online, fringe cesspools, like 4chan's /pol/ and the /r/The_Donald subreddit, during the immediate aftermath of the shooting." ...

... Guardian: "Mosques in New Zealand and around the world have been inundated with floral tributes and messages of support after a massacre in Christchurch that killed 49 Muslims. The strongest response from the public was in New Zealand, which is reeling in the wake of the worst peacetime mass killing in the nation's history. Unable to reach the mosques that were targeted by the shooter because of a cordon, people left piles of flowers and cards as close as they were allowed to go." --s ...

... Spencer Ackerman, et al. of The Daily Beast: "[F]ewer than a fifth of the FBI's open terrorism investigations focus on people without connections to international extremist organizations. It's a proxy figure that highlights what former counterterrorism officials consider an insufficient focus on far-right violence.... Out of about 5,000 open terrorism investigations, 900 probe domestic terrorism, according to FBI data.... 'Domestic terrorism' is an umbrella category that includes far more than just far-right terrorism, but functions as the most granular data available to indicate how federal law enforcement targets white supremacist violence." --s

Look! Trump signed something.Bill Barr Overtly Politicized the DOJ. Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday issued the first veto of his presidency, rejecting legislation that opposed his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the southern border. The bill blocking Mr. Trump's emergency declaration had attracted significant Republican support in Congress.... The president called the resolution 'dangerous' and 'reckless.' The president was flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William P. Barr and Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary. Mr. Barr said that the president's emergency order was 'clearly authorized under the law' and 'solidly grounded in law.' The president's veto, which was expected, will send the legislation back to Congress, which most likely does not have enough votes for an override, meaning that Mr. Trump's declaration will remain in effect." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: In yesterday's Comments, Akhilleus made fun of Trump for this ceremonial show veto: "It seems like every time Trump signs some bill in the Oval Office, surrounded by selected members of the press and a passel of obsequious toadies, he holds up the document, freshly scribbled gigantic John Hancock down below, to show it off to the assembled group. As if he's a five year old showing mom and dad that he can too write his name. I cannot, for the life of me, recall any other president going through this same embarrassing ritual whereat they sign a bill then hold it up and waggle it around in this fashion." You should read the whole comment. But it's even worse than Akhilleus lets on. Real presidents don't "sign vetoes." Rather, they return the bills to Congress, unsigned. As Brian Williams put it on MSNBC, "Somebody gave Trump some kind of document to sign & pass around the room."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump put in another plug Friday for a group that seeks to lure Jews from the Democratic Party, writing that 'Republicans are waiting with open arms' in a tweet sent shortly after he used Twitter to condemn deadly attacks on New Zealand mosques.... 'The "Jexodus" movement encourages Jewish people to leave the Democrat Party,' Trump wrote. 'Total disrespect! Republicans are waiting with open arms. Remember Jerusalem (U.S. Embassy) and the horrible Iran Nuclear Deal!'... The timing of Trump's latest tweet was panned by many pundits on Twitter.... 'Trump is now stoking religious division immediately after tweeting out a post-#ChristchurchMosqueAttack condolence message. Add it to the pile,' wrote Kevin Baron, executive editor of Defense One, a publication devoted to national security." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe it's just me, but I do find the term "Jexodus" to be anti-Semitic. ...

... Matthew Yglesias of Vox explains the origins behind the fake "Jexodus" peddled by Trump. --s

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday insisted there should be no report from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, denouncing the investigation as 'illegal.' 'So, if there was knowingly & acknowledged to be 'zero' crime when the Special Counsel was appointed, and if the appointment was made based on the Fake Dossier (paid for by Crooked Hillary) and now disgraced Andrew McCabe (he & all stated no crime), then the Special Counsel ... should never have been appointed and there should be no Mueller Report,' the president tweeted Friday.... The president on Friday also complained that the probe was only started as an excuse for Democrats losing the 2016 election. 'This was an illegal & conflicted investigation in search of a crime,; he tweeted, adding 'Russian Collusion was nothing more than an excuse by the Democrats for losing an Election that they thought they were going to win.' 'THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN TO A PRESIDENT AGAIN!' Trump concluded." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump doesn't seem to know what an "investigation" is. It's a search for facts; not a statement of fact. The whole "Waiting for Mueller" drama is a pause in which Congress & ordinary citizens are waiting to learn what facts Mueller has uncovered to determine whether or not crimes or other bad acts were committed. It's not "illegal" to conduct an investigation of a person if there is evidence s/he may have violated the law. It's how a justice system is supposed to work. Otherwise, we are left with Trump's system: if an official doesn't like somebody -- say "Crooked Hillary" -- you just accuse her of a crime and "lock her up." Trump's whine o' the day is yet another iteration of his authoritarianism.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Michael Flynn has finished cooperating with ... Robert Mueller's investigation, but the information he provided is still part of other ongoing criminal investigations, prosecutors said in court on Friday.Federal prosecutors in Virginia want to restrict sharing some special counsel memos of interviews with Flynn because of the 'ongoing investigation' into matters he shared with investigators. In court Friday, the prosecutor said the ongoing probes were unrelated to Flynn's Turkish lobbying case -- raising the possibility it touches on Flynn's ties to the Trump campaign, transition, administration or the Russian government. The prosecutor in court Friday stopped himself after he acknowledged other US attorneys may be looking at what Flynn shared with the special counsel."

Chad Day of the AP: "Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and key cooperator in the special counsel's Russia probe, is not ready to be sentenced because he continues to help with 'several ongoing investigations,' prosecutors said in a court filing Friday.... The [joint] filing [by prosecutors & Gates' attorneys] asks for another 60 days to update U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on whether Gates can proceed to sentencing." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ken Vogel & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, sued the United States government on Friday, demanding it lift sanctions that he claimed have cost him billions of dollars, made him 'radioactive' in international business circles and exposed him to criminal investigation and asset confiscation in Russia. In a lawsuit filed in United States District Court in Washington, Mr. Deripaska said that the sanctions, leveled in April by the Treasury Department, should be struck down because they deprived him of due process and relied on unproven smears that fell outside the sanctions program." Mrs. McC: Maybe Deripaska can get Trump & Manafort to testify as character witnesses. ...

Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The academic who helped Cambridge Analytica vacuum up private information from tens of millions of Facebook profiles sued the social media giant on Friday, arguing that the company defamed him when it claimed he had lied about how the data was going to be used. Since the full scope of Cambridge Analytica's data mining was revealed last year, Facebook has repeatedly tried to shift blame for the privacy breach onto the academic, Aleksandr Kogan. Facebook executives -- including the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg -- have said Mr. Kogan told Facebook that the data was for academic purposes when it was being collected for use in political campaigns."

** Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "[Cliff Zhonggang Li, the executive director of the National Committee of Asian American Republicans] said he can't 'rule out' the possibility that Chinese citizens illegally used American straw donors to funnel cash to the Trump campaign at events in which his group participated.... Li has been a political mentor to Cindy Yang, 45, the massage parlor entrepreneur who, through a separate company she set up in 2017 with her husband, offered access to President Donald Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington.... He said that he and Yang agreed last year -- in either March or April -- that she would be 'gradually dismissed' from a fundraising role with his organization due to differing views on fundraising.... Yang instead began fundraising for Republican politicians through a corporation, called the Women's Charity Foundation, that she created, according to Li." --s ...

... U.S. Foreign Policy for Sale at Mar-a-Lago. Caitlin Ostroff, et al., of the Miami Herald: "South Florida day spa entrepreneur Li 'Cindy' Yang -- now famous for her Super Bowl party selfie with the president -- used her burgeoning political access to bring Xianqin Qu, a leader from the foreign arm of the Communist Party of China, to an event where she met top Republicans and members of the Trump administration, including Kellyanne Conway, counselor to ... Donald Trump. Qu is the president of the Florida Chapter of the Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Unification -- a group 'directly subordinate' to the Communist Party of China, according to a 2018 U.S. government report. The group's stated purpose is to push for reunification of China and Taiwan, although in recent years members in chapters around the world actively promoted a wide range of policies in harmony with Beijing's agenda abroad.... Through Yang, Qu gained access to high-profile events featuring Trump aides and family members on at least two occasions.... Although liaisons with lobbyists from foreign governments are normal, Qu gained access to some of Trump's closest allies not through official channels but at political and social events."

** Dana Milbank: "This is what happens when corporations run the government. As the world was grounding 737 Max airliners this week, following the second crash involving the new jet in five months, the Trump administration, serving as a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing, declared 'no basis to order grounding.' This from an administration and president that claim climate change is a hoax, radiation and pesticides are healthy, and that 'raking' prevents forest fires. When President Trump finally buckled to pressure and grounded the 737 Max on Wednesday, he said he 'maybe didn't have to' but thought it important 'psychologically.' And why shouldn't everybody trust the judgment of a guy who didn't know the difference between HIV and HPV, proposed that exercise is bad for you and claimed that vaccines cause autism?" Read on.

The "Power" of the Purse. Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "Created during the Cold War, OCO ['overseas contingency operations'] has become popular in recent years as a convenient place to stash funding that exceeds the budget restrictions instituted by Congress in 2011. [It's] ... a quirky funding tool lawmakers from both parties have long despised, seeing it as a usurpation of the power of Congress in determining budgets.... The Pentagon is open about the fact that this account is set up this way to avoid being limited by budget caps.... But during the Trump administration, its use far has exceeded historical norms. Last year, the Pentagon requested $69 billion in OCO funding on top of their base budget of $616 billion and projected it would need only $20 billion from OCO in this year's budget cycle. Because the 2011 caps restrict the Pentagon this year to a $545 billion base budget, officials requested roughly $165 billion in uncapped OCO funding, a 140 percent increase from the prior year and a 725 percent difference from the Pentagon's earlier projection." --s

Weak Presidunce* Overruled, Again. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan says the Trump administration will not ask allies who host U.S. troops to pay the full cost of hosting plus an extra 50 percent for the privilege of having American soldiers on their soil.... Democrats and Republicans in both chambers were alarmed when Bloomberg reported last week that 'under White House direction, the administration is drawing up demands that Germany, Japan and eventually any other country hosting U.S. troops pay the full price of American soldiers deployed on their soil -- plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them.'" --s

Matthew Lee of the AP: "The United States will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court personnel who attempt to investigate or prosecute alleged abuses committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere and may do the same with those who try to take action against Israel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday. Pompeo, making good on a threat delivered last September by national security adviser John Bolton, said the U.S had already moved against some employees of The Hague-based court, but declined to say how many or what cases they may have been investigating." (Also linked yesterday.)

A "Charity" in Name Only. Kim Barker of the New York Times: Southwest Key is best known for its substandard migrant shelters, but "the operations of ... charter schools, serving about 1,000 students, show how Southwest Key profits off public money, boosting compensation for charity leaders and stockpiling tens of millions of dollars.... The charity has been awarded almost $1.8 billion to run migrant shelters over the last decade, but is now under federal investigation for possible financial improprieties, prompted by an article last December in The New York Times. Two top officials, including the founder, Juan Sanchez, have stepped down. And a complaint about mismanagement at the schools, which have received more than $65 million in government money over the last decade, is under review by the Texas Education Agency." (Also linked yesterday.)

Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "Republicans have reacted to the [Green New Deal policy proposal] in the same evenhanded, reasonable manner with which they've responded to other Democratic ideas like affordable health care and higher taxes on the wealthy. By which we mean they've lost their f--king minds.... Speaking at a news conference in Washington on Thursday night, Congressman Rob Bishop, who worked as a history teacher before going on to represent Utah's 1st Congressional District, told reporters, 'For many people who live in the West, but also in rural and urban areas, the ideas behind the Green New Deal are tantamount to genocide. That may be an overstatement, but not by a whole lot.'" --s

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The Equality Act, which would ensure legal protections for members of the LGBTQ community, was reintroduced in Congress on Wednesday. Shortly thereafter, the Human Rights Campaign announced a 167-member corporate coalition in support of the legislation. But a ThinkProgress review of campaign finance data reveals that, through their corporate PACs, members of that coalition have recently given more than $750,000 combined to the two biggest congressional obstacles to the Equality Act's passage: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC)." --s

Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "Weeks after a deadly crash involving a Boeing plane last October, company officials met separately with the pilot unions at Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. The officials said they planned to update the software for their 737 Max jets, the plane involved in the disaster, by around the end of 2018. It was the last time the Southwest pilots union heard from Boeing.... After a second 737 Max crashed, on Sunday in Ethiopia, United States regulators said the software update would be ready by April. This delay is now part of the intense scrutiny over Boeing's response after the first air disaster, a Lion Air accident that killed 189 people in Indonesia." (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Moon of the Alabama Political Reporter: "The Southern Poverty Law Center on Thursday announced that it had fired Morris Dees, the center's co-founder and long-time public face of the civil rights organization, amid undisclosed allegations that Dees failed to meet the standards of the SPLC.... Internal emails obtained by APR related to Dees' firing appear to show that the problems -- which employees said spanned from sexual harassment to gender- and race-based discrimination — were more systemic and widespread, creating an atmosphere over several years in which female and minority employees felt mistreated. The employees also said that they felt their complaints were either not heard or resulted in retaliation from senior staff." The story cites specific e-mails.

Samantha Michaels of Mother Jones: "Since the 1970s, [Gary] DeLand has written or helped develop jail standards in at least 19 states, striking agreements with counties and sheriffs' groups to keep his model guidelines private. When lawyers requested to see the DeLand-inspired standards for Oregon's Deschutes County Jail as part of a wrongful death lawsuit in 2015, the sheriffs' association there claimed they were a 'trade secret' like 'the formula for Coca-Cola or the recipe for KFC.' Making them public 'would destroy their value,' the association's executive director said. A federal district court ruled that the documents must remain confidential.... Jails are keeping more than their rules out of the public eye. When the Utah State Records Committee sided with DeLand, it also found that Davis County had no obligation to release its jail's audit reports, which would reveal whether employees were complying with the operational standards.... Jails in more than a dozen states, from Alabama to Pennsylvania, use the company's auditing system. According to DeLand, ensuring that all these records stay private improves jails' accountability." --s

Bee Wilson of the Guardian: "For most people across the world, life is getting better but diets are getting worse. This is the bittersweet dilemma of eating in our times. Unhealthy food, eaten in a hurry, seems to be the price we pay for living in liberated modern societies.... You can measure this life improvement in many ways, whether by the growth of literacy and smartphone ownership, or the rising number of countries where gay couples have the right to marry. Yet our free and comfortable lifestyles are undermined by the fact that our food is killing us, not through lack of it but through its abundance -- a hollow kind of abundance." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: "When a white newspaper editor in Alabama drew widespread condemnation for an editorial that called for the Ku Klux Klan to ride again, only to be replaced by a black woman who hoped to take the newspaper in a new direction, it seemed like a symbolic moment. The new editor and publisher, Elecia R. Dexter, said she wanted to make the newspaper, The Democrat-Reporter, more reflective of the community it serves in Linden, a small town in western Alabama that is about 59 percent white and 41 percent black. But now, after only a few weeks, Ms. Dexter has stepped down. Her departure this week, which she attributed to continuing interference from the editor she was meant to replace [he still owns the paper], complicates the future of the weekly newspaper, which was once hailed for its journalism, and reflects the thorny reality that healing from racially hurtful acts is rarely a once-and-done process."

West Virginia. Herald-Dispatch: "Former Massey Energy CEO and U.S. Senate candidate Don Blankenship on Thursday filed a lawsuit seeking at least $12 billion in damages from a variety of national news and political organizations, claiming they set out on a 'search and destroy' mission against his 2018 candidacy for the Senate. The lawsuit, filed in Mingo County Circuit Court, claimed the 'DC establishment "swamp" and the establishment media united ... to take out Mr. Blankenship' in his bid for election. He argued in the suit that repeated references about him in the media as a 'convicted felon' as damaging his bid, even though he was not convicted of any felonies in relation to the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in Raleigh County in 2010 that killed 29 miners. Among those named in the lawsuit were news organizations Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Boston Globe Media Partners, Breitbart News Network, Clarity Media Group, The Washington Times, Tribune Publishing Co., Los Angeles Times Communications, The Washington Post and The Associated Press. Also named were the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a variety of individuals.... Blankenship ... was sentenced in 2016 for a misdemeanor conviction of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch. He was acquitted of felonies that could have stretched his sentence to 30 years."

News Lede

New York Times: "W. S. Merwin, a formidable American poet who for more than 60 years labored under a formidable poetic yoke: the imperative of using language -- an inescapably concrete presence on the printed page -- to conjure absence, silence and nothingness, died on Friday at his home near Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii. He was 91."