The Commentariat -- March 12, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Edward Wong & Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "The United States is withdrawing all remaining diplomatic personnel from its embassy in Venezuela's capital, Caracas, because of worsening conditions in the country, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late Monday. The move is a setback for the Trump administration, which had vowed to keep diplomats in the country to legitimize the opposition challenger to President Nicolás Maduro, who cut diplomatic ties with the United States in January. Mr. Pompeo said the move reflected the 'deteriorating situation' in the country and the belief that the presence of American diplomats 'has become a constraint on U.S. policy.' The last phrase could be read as hinting at some form of military intervention."

Tom Winter, et al., of NBC News: "Hollywood actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are among 50 people charged in a $25 million college entrance exam cheating scheme, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. The alleged scam focused on getting students admitted to elite universities as recruited athletes, regardless of their athletic abilities, and helping potential students cheat on their college exams, according to the indictment unsealed in Boston. Authorities said the FBI investigation, code-named Operation Varsity Blues, uncovered a network of wealthy parents who paid thousands of dollars to a California man who boosted their childrens' chances of gaining entrance into elite colleges, such as Yale and Stanford, by paying people to take tests for their children, bribing test administrators to allow it to happen, and bribing college coaches and administrators to identify the applicants as athletes."

Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: A new book titled Kushner Inc., by journalist Vicky Ward, "portrays [Ivanka] Trump and [Jared] Kushner as two children forged by their domineering fathers ... who have climbed to positions of power by disregarding protocol and skirting the rules when they can. And Ms. Ward tries to unravel the narrative that the two serve as stabilizing voices inside an otherwise chaotic White House, depicting them instead as Mr. Trump's chief enablers." After Donald Trump expressed support for white nationalists in Charlottesville, Gary Cohn "was shocked" when Ivanka told him, 'My dad's not a racist; he didn't mean any of it.'... Appearing to channel her father, she added, 'That's not what he said.'"

Nick Ochsner of WBTV (Charlotte, N.C.): "The Department of Justice has issued subpoenas for a federal grand jury investigation into allegations of election fraud in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District.... The subpoenas come less than a month after the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously to hold a new election in the 9th District. The vote came at the abrupt end of a four-day evidentiary hearing held by the board that concluded with Republican Mark Harris -- the candidate who received the winning number of votes in the November 2018 contest -- admitting he had given incorrect testimony and calling for a new election."

Tucker Carlson wants you to know you're a horrible person and he's a brave defender of "independent thoughts." Here's Tucker's official Fox "News" response -- adapted from Monday night's brilliant monologue -- to what we horrible people are doing to him -- and to all conservatives who must "police themselves" to toe the line of "progressive orthodoxy." Punchline: "But we will never bow to the mob -- ever. No matter what." As far as I can tell, this is not meant to be funny. ...

     ... See also Akhilleus's commentary below.

~~~~~~~~~~

Lord Dampnut's Proposal. Jim Tankersley & Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump sent Congress on Monday a record $4.75 trillion budget request that proposes an increase in military spending and sharp cuts to domestic programs like education and environmental protection for the 2020 fiscal year. Mr. Trump's budget, the largest in federal history, includes a nearly 5 percent increase in military spending -- which is more than the Pentagon had asked for -- and an additional $8.6 billion for construction of a border wall with Mexico. White House officials said the budget would include a total of $1.9 trillion in cuts to mandatory safety net programs, like Medicaid. It also proposes new work requirements for working-age adult recipients of supplemental nutrition assistance, federal housing support and Medicaid, a move the administration said would reduce spending on those programs by $327 billion." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Katia Dmitrieva of Bloomberg News: "President Donald Trump's newest budget forecasts the U.S. fiscal deficit surpassing $1 trillion this year and staying above that level until 2022. The fiscal 2020 proposal sees the deficit expanding to $1.1 trillion for 2019 and 2020, when Trump will run for re-election." --s ...

... Tara Golshan of Vox: "... Donald Trump's administration unveiled its third budget proposal Monday, cementing a vision for the United States that bolsters funding for defense and border walls, while severely cutting social programs for the nation's poorest. The $4.7 trillion budget proposal, which encompasses everything from funding for food aid, education, and health care to national defense, seeks to slash $845 billion from Medicare -- a program Trump notably promised to leave untouched -- $241 billion from Medicaid through major structural reforms, as well as a 9 percent cut across non-defense programs, all while increasing the defense budget to $750 billion, 5 percent more than the 2019 budget.... As Democratic presidential candidates continue to unveil proposals to increase taxes on the wealthy to boost the nation's social safety net, it's clear Trump is offering the opposite vision." ...

... Sarah Kliff of Vox: "Democratic presidential candidates have spent years building a new vision of American policy, one where a lot more of us get our health insurance from the government. I see President Trump's newly released budget as his counterproposal to all that. It envisions a really different future, one where government-run health care shrinks -- and public programs become more difficult to sign up for. Here are some key health policy features of the Trump budget[.]" Kliff runs down the potential effects on health care. --s ...

... Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump's new budget proposal would cut Social Security payouts by $84 billion over the next decade while providing fewer resources to explain the changes to recipients.... Though Trump has previously made repeated promises to shield Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits from the budget ax, his administration asserts that cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) do not constitute cuts to the Social Security program writ large." --s ...

... Gomez of ThinkProgress: "The White House released its 2020 budget proposal on Monday, proposing more than $1 trillion in cuts to the popular programs Medicare and Medicaid and giving insight into what the executive branch would do if Congress didn't control the federal government's pocketbook. The most notable cut comes out of Medicaid, a health program for people who are low-income or have a disability, which Trump proposes cutting by more than $700 billion over 10 years. The budget calls for Medicaid block grants to states[.]" --s ...

... Kiley Kroh of ThinkProgress: "As President Donald Trump prepares his to release his fiscal year 2020 budget request, he is expected to propose massive cuts to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) renewable energy and energy efficiency budget.... Trump's proposal will slash the budget for DOE's Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EERE) from $2.3 billion to $700 million -- a roughly 70 percent cut -- Bloomberg reported this week, citing a department official familiar with the plan. " --s ...

... Pompeo Good with Bare-bones Budget. Lindsay Wise of the Kansas City Star & Brian Lowry of the Wichita Eagle (reprinted in the Miami Herald): "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that $13 billion in proposed budget cuts for his agency won't hurt America's 'swagger' abroad. The Trump administration's budget plan, released Monday, would slash the budget for the State Department and international programs by more than 23 percent, from $55.8 billion to a proposed $42.8 billion. In an interview Monday with McClatchy's Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle, Pompeo said he was deeply involved in preparing the budget and would support it before Congress.... When he became Secretary of State last year, Pompeo pledged to help the agency 'get its swagger back.' Asked on Monday how that would be possible in the face of such deep cuts, Pompeo was unfazed. 'When I talked about swagger it was about going out in the world and having the confidence that as an American diplomat you represent the greatest nation in th history of the world,' he said." ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "I've noted before that Donald Trump lives by a famous dictum from Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist: 'When one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it.'... And the President has outdone himself with his Administration's new budget proposal for the 2020 fiscal year, which is entitled 'A Budget for a Better America:. Promises Kept. Taxpayers First.' 'Promises kept' has a particularly nice ring to it. Almost as nice as what Trump said on that fateful day, June 16, 2015, when he descended the escalator at Trump Tower. 'Save Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security without cuts,' he declared.... Throughout the Republican primary campaign, Trump repeated this pledge many times and also accused his G.O.P. opponents of wanting to slash the three big entitlement programs. In the general-election campaign, he stuck to the same mantra. A few days before Election Day, he suggested that Hillary Clinton wanted to 'destroy' Medicare..., which she had vowed to expand, and claimed that he alone would 'protect' it.... So how does the 'Budget for a Better America' treat Medicare and the other programs that Trump vowed to safeguard at all costs? By calling for even larger cuts to them than the White House proposed this last year, when it formally abandoned Trump's campaign pledges." ...

... "Blueprint for a Shutdown." Jim Newell of Slate: "The president's annual budget request ... is often portrayed as the White House's 'statement of priorities' for the coming fiscal year. White Houses are typically in on the joke and understand that they're offering a symbolic document. But what if this White House isn't in on the joke...? Then what it has offered, in the fiscal 2020 budget request it released Monday, is ... a blueprint for the next government shutdown.... [Historically,] Republicans would have been perfectly happy to boost defense and cut domestic spending. But they couldn't get such legislation past the Senate's 60-vote requirement. Democrats used that leverage to ensure Republicans wouldn't get their defense spending increase if Democrats didn't get their boosts to domestic programs.... [As usual, this year] there will still have to be bipartisan spending negotiations, the easiest answer to which is always giving Republicans what they want (increases to defense spending) in exchange for giving Democrats what they want (increases to non-defense spending). If Trump proclaims that he won';t sign such a deal..., the country will again careen toward a government shutdown In other words, it sounds exactly like the move that would appeal to him most."

... Sarah Jones of New York: "Donald Trump is nothing if not a man of vision -- a destructive vision, to be sure, soaked in blood-and-soil nationalism and open contempt for the poor. He's not always so skilled at executing that vision, a failure aptly demonstrated by the fate of his first budget. The administration's most drastic proposals ... mostly didn't survive Congress.... Trump is a slow learner. His latest budget, released on Monday morning, closely resembles his inaugural attempt, as it, too, contains welfare cuts that are likely to create a public relations problem for the Republican Party. It probably won't fare any better than its predecessor, and it sets up a costly political battle for Republicans, who will have to convince voters, again, that they're motivated by something other than pure animus for the poor. They'll have a difficult time making themselves heard over the president's budget, which whittles down some of the most popular entitlement programs in the country partly to secure funding for his border fence." ...

... Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker (satire): "Donald J. Trump's $4.7-trillion budget raised eyebrows on Monday when government-watchdog groups discovered that it contained twenty million dollars for bail. The line item for a 'bail fund' was buried in the fine print of the published budget, along with a footnote specifying that the money could be used only to bail out Trump and members of his immediate family. The footnote listed the members of his family who would be eligible to use the funds, including his daughter Ivanka and his sons Donald, Jr., and Eric, but not his son-in-law, Jared Kushner."

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to say Monday whether President Trump believes Democrats 'hate Jewish people,' arguing that reporters should pose that question to Democratic lawmakers. According to an attendee, Trump said Friday at a Republican National Committee fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago Club that 'the Democrats hate Jewish people.'... Sanders said she would not 'comment on a potentially leaked document,' referring to reports of Trump's fundraiser remarks. She took aim at Democrats for a House resolution last week that broadly condemned hate, arguing that the measure -- which overwhelmingly passed with bipartisan support -- did not specifically reference alleged anti-Semitic comments made by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)." ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "President Trump is the most successful, prominent promoter of anti-Semitism in American history. Certainly he is the only president who has ever compiled such a record. I wanted to put together just a handful of examples of this ... referencing things he's done publicly over the last three plus years. Just a few examples." --s ...

... Hey, Maybe Paul LePage Can Clean This Up. AP: "Former [Maine] Gov. Paul LePage suggested Monday that the Democratic Party's money comes mostly from Jewish people.... 'The Jewish people in America have been great supporters of the Democratic Party,' LePage said. 'In fact, that's where their money comes from for the most part. They should be absolutely insulted for what she's been saying.'" ...

... AND this exchange is extraordinary. Sanders' response to Jim Acosta's suggestion that Trump tone down his incendiary rhetoric was to amp up the incendiary rhetoric: "[Democrats are] comfortable ripping babies straight from a mothers' womb or killing a baby after birth...." Sanders is like Trump's evil twin:

President* Changes One Crazy Tim Apple Story for Another: Maybe somebody rolled the videotape. According to a Trumpertwee Monday, Trump didn't say "Cook" & you failed to hear it. Instead, "At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!" Philip Bump of the Washington Post calculates the amount of time Trump saved was 0.27 seconds. Not sure how long it took him to write the whiney-tweet.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

I'm not for impeachment.... Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there's something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don't think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he's just not worth it. -- Nancy Pelosi, in an interview ...

... Joe Helm interviews Nancy Pelosi for the Washington Post Magazine: She "says Trump is unfit to be president -- 'ethically,' 'intellectually' and' curiosity-wise' -- but impeachment would be too divisive."

William Rashbaum & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "The New York attorney general's office late on Monday issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records relating to the financing of four major Trump Organization projects and a failed effort to buy the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League in 2014, according to a person briefed on the subpoenas. The inquiry opens a new front in the scrutiny of Deutsche Bank, one of the few lenders willing to do business with Donald J. Trump in recent years. The bank is already the subject of two congressional investigations and was examined last year by New York banking regulators, who took no action. The new inquiry, by the office of the attorney general, Letitia James, was prompted by the congressional testimony last month of Michael D. Cohen...."

Jonathan Chait: "While Robert Mueller's investigation is (probably?) approaching its conclusion, many other investigations into Trump's corrupt or illegal behavior are just getting started. Trump has long dismissed the Russia probe as a 'hoax' and 'witch hunt,' slogans his supporters have fleshed out with an elaborate conspiracy theory involving a deep state cabal working in tandem with the Clinton campaign to frame him. The task of dismissing all the other investigations is far more diffuse. Trump's strategy is to aggregate the broad category 'miscellaneous non-Russia investigations' into a category he calls 'presidential harassment.'... As usual, indefatigable conservative reporter Byron York is leading the way.... For York, the notion that Trump has done nothing wrong, or at least no more wrong than a typical president, is not the conclusion of his argument but the starting point. From this premise, he interprets all the investigations into his conduct as evidence of the unfairness or desperation of the president's adversaries."

Tom Llamas & Kaitlyn Folmer of ABC News: In an ABC News interview, "Keith Davidson, the former attorney for adult-film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, detailed his role in negotiating hush-money deals to keep both women quiet about alleged affairs with Donald Trump, claiming a $130,000 payment to Daniels was 'done for political reasons.'... He also described [Michael] Cohen's anger when the nomination he expected for a key position within Trump's administration, such as chief of staff, never materialized.... 'He confided in me that he was just beside himself, and, in his words, you know, he said, "Can you f---ing believe, after everything I've done, he's not taking me to Washington?'" Davidson recalled. 'He felt that it was a personal embarrassment for him, that he was rejected.'" Earlier this month, Cohen told the House Oversight Committee, under oath, "I did not want to go to the White House. I was offered jobs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Epic Sleaze." Michelle Goldberg: "... it's worth trying to summon whatever is left of our pre-Trump sensibilities and pause to consider the epic sleaze of the unfolding story of Li Yang, also known as Cindy Yang.... News that the owner of a chain of dubious massage parlors was brokering foreign access to the president of the United States should be a big deal. It has the potential to be a sex scandal, an intelligence scandal and a financial scandal all at once.... Both Mother Jones and The Herald found evidence that Yang, who emigrated from China, ran a business, GY US Investments, selling Chinese executives access to Trump, his family and Republican officials.... Mother Jones has reported that Yang is an officer in local branches of two groups tied to the Chinese government.... Chris Lu, a former deputy secretary of labor..., said that when he served in the White House, his rule was that 'anyone who comes in contact with the president or is in the room with the president needs to be vetted. Who the hell is vetting people that are going into Mar-a-Lago?'... Under Trump, America's leadership and its secrets are for sale."

Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the team he assembled to investigate ... Donald Trump and his associates have been funded through the end of September 2019, three U.S. officials said on Monday, an indication that the probe has funding to keep it going for months if need be."

** Nelson Cunningham in the Daily Beast: "There may in fact be two Mueller reports. This is because from the very beginning, Mueller has ... borne two missions relating to the Russia investigation. The most public and familiar one is as a criminal investigator under the special counsel regulations. But Mueller has also carried a second charge, as a counterintelligence expert, with a much broader charge to determine and report the scope of any interference and any links to the Trump campaign.... It is Mueller's counterintelligence report we should really be anticipating. Done well..., it will provide a much richer, broader narrative description of Russia's effort to interfere in 2016, the nature of any links or cooperation between the Russians and the Trump campaign, and whether Trump or his associates were witting or unwitting assets for the Russians (including by obstructing the investigation) -- as well perhaps as conclusions for action.... Neither the special counsel regulations nor Attorney General Barr's discretion will keep Mueller's counterintelligence findings from Congress." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Cunningham, a former prosecutor with SDNY, seems to be just speculating on what Mueller will do with the counterintelligence info he has gathered, but let's hope his speculation is accurate. I would LOL if Trump was doing a "no collusion" victory dance over a brief DOJ report when Mueller dropped a bombshell that vividly condemned Trump -- to the point that even Matt Gaetz & Jim Jordan were left speechless.

Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Dick Cheney lit into Vice President Mike Pence behind closed doors over the direction of the Trump administration's foreign policy, flouting a set of agreed-upon subjects and forcing Pence on the defensive over ... Donald Trump's foreign policy. The former vice president interviewed Pence at the American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum in Sea Island, Ga., an off-the-record confab attended by approximately 200 top-dollar Republican donors, lawmakers and business leaders.... Cheney pressed Pence about Trump's proclivity for making major policy announcements on Twitter and his off-and-on commitment to NATO, according to four meeting attendees and a source briefed on their remarks. The former vice president, who has kept a low public profile in recent years, questioned whether Trump places enough value on the findings of the intelligence community, which he has repeatedly and publicly dismissed. He suggested that Trump foreign policy has at times looked more like President Barack Obama's -- which Cheney has repeatedly lambasted -- than that of a Republican standard-bearer."

Dara Lind of Vox: "A federal judge [Dana Sabraw] has declared that the Trump administration is legally responsible for all children who were separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border and placed with relatives or other sponsors after July 1, 2017 -- which could amount to 'thousands' beyond the 2,800 separations already acknowledged as a result of the Trump administration's 'zero tolerance' policy of 2017 and 2018.... The order doesn't force the government to reunify these families -- it just declares that their fate is legally now part of this lawsuit, and opens the door to the government and the ACLU to propose specific next steps.... The Trump administration has argued forcefully that this record-keeping task could take months.... [T]he government is so resistant to taking on responsibility for separated children who have left its custody that it's threatening to appeal Sabraw's order[.]" --s

Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Canada border have risen by 91 percent compared to the previous year according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), even as President Donald Trump remains fixated on building a wall and adding additional agents to prevent migrants from crossing the southern U.S. border.... The largest spike occurred along the Swanton border patrol section, which includes the borders of New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, where 548 people were apprehended in 2018, up from 165 in all of 2017. While these numbers are significantly smaller than the crossings at the southern border, the lack of outrage against illegal activity on the northern border is emblematic of President Trump's war against black and brown immigrants and asylum seekers." --s

Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "On Monday, The Atlantic published a cover story in which [Dubya neo-con turned NeverTrumper David] Frum calls for a radical cut to legal immigration in the name of promoting assimilation and warding off fascism. Frum cites the election of Donald Trump as evidence of a widespread backlash to immigration.... But do Americans actually think there's too much immigration? The answer, according to polling data, is a resounding no. Last year, only 24 percent of Americans supported cutting legal immigration, down from 40 percent in 2006, according to data provided to Mother Jones by the Pew Research Center. Among Republicans without a college degree, the heart of Trump's base, 59 percent say legal immigration should be increased or kept at the present level.... But given that support for immigrants is now at or near record highs, it's unclear why 2019 should be the year the United States finally adopts the anti-immigration agenda Frum has been pushing for decades." --s

Robert Mackey of The Intercept [March 6]: "[F]irst lady Melania Trump's visit to a school in Oklahoma this week might have accidentally triggered an international incident after reporters in Turkey revealed that the school was founded by followers of a dissident Turkish cleric who Turkey's government blames for an attempted coup in 2016.... Stephanie Grisham, a spokesperson for the first lady, declined to answer a direct question about whether the White House was aware of the Oklahoma school's links to [Fethullah] Gülen before the visit.... TRT World, the English-language arm of Turkey's state broadcaster, spent some time parsing the first lady's visit, trying to determine if it was 'an intentional move or just a faux pas on the part of the administration.'" --s

Presidential Race 2020

Bill Barrow, et al., of the AP: "Democrats picked Milwaukee on Monday to host their 2020 national convention, setting up the party's standard-bearer to accept the presidential nomination in the heart of the old industrial belt that delivered Donald Trump to the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alex Thompson & Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), one of the most outspoken advocates of the #MeToo movement..., spent last summer pressing legislators to update Congress' 'broken' system of handling sexual harassment. At the same time, a mid-20s female aide to Gillibrand resigned in protest over the handling of her sexual harassment complaint by Gillibrand's office, and criticized the senator for failing to abide by her own public standards. In July, the female staffer alleged one of Gillibrand's closest aides -- who was a decade her senior and married -- repeatedly made unwelcome advances after the senator had told him he would be promoted to a supervisory role over her. She also said the male aide regularly made crude, misogynistic remarks in the office about his female colleagues and potential female hires. Less than three weeks after reporting the alleged harassment and subsequently claiming that the man retaliated against her for doing so, the woman told chief of staff Jess Fassler that she was resigning because of the office's handling of the matter. She did not have another job lined up.... The male aide, Abbas Malik, kept his job.... Two weeks ago..., Politico presented the office with its own findings of additional allegations of inappropriate workplace conduct by Malik.... Gillibrand's office opened a new investigation and dismissed Malik last week." ...

... Sarah Jones: Kirsten Gillibrand "... is hardly the only prominent Democrat to be accused of ignoring sexual harassment within her office or campaign.... Gillibrand, though, may be uniquely vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy. As Politico notes, she's used her campaign and her rising national profile to highlight issues of gender inequality.... Despite her recent leftward turn, Gillibrand hasn't been leading the polls for president. This scandal won't exactly help her make her case."

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Facebook removed several ads placed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign that called for the breakup of Facebook and other tech giants. But the social network later reversed course after Politico reported on the takedown, with the company saying it wanted to allow for 'robust debate.'... 'Curious why I think FB has too much power? Let's start with their ability to shut down a debate over whether FB has too much power,' [Warren] tweeted. 'Thanks for restoring my posts. But I want a social media marketplace that isn't dominated by a single censor.'"

Presidential Race 2016. Nihal Krishan of Mother Jones: "The Federal Election Commission has hit Right to Rise USA, the super-PAC that backed Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential bid, with a record fine for accepting a seven-figure donation from a company owned by Chinese nationals who were in business with Bush's brother, Neil, according to FEC documents obtained by Mother Jones. It is illegal for foreign nationals to be involved in making donations to political committees. Neil Bush, who has extensive business dealings in China, solicited the $1.3 million contribution from American Pacific International Capital (APIC), an international investment holding company where Neil is a board member.... The total combined fine against Bush's super-PAC and APIC, which has not previously been reported, is $940,000, the largest amount levied in a single case against anyone since the 2010 Citizens United ruling. The penalty is also the biggest fine that the FEC has ever handed down due to foreign national participation." ...

... Lee Fang & Jon Schwarz of The Intercept: "The Federal Election Commission has unveiled one of the most significant enforcement actions in its history, citing a 2016 investigative series by The Intercept. That series, 'Foreign Influence,' detailed how Right to Rise USA, a Super PAC supporting the 2016 presidential candidacy of Jeb Bush, received $1.3 million in campaign donations from American Pacific International Capital, a California corporation controlled by two Chinese citizens." --s

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has moved to quickly unseal long-secret court filings related to financier Jeffrey Epstein's sexual contact with underage girls, but one judge is expressing some disagreement with the plan. Two judges on a 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals panel considering motions to unseal records in an Epstein-connected lawsuit said in an order Monday that they plan to make public several key submissions in the case unless the parties make a compelling argument in the next eight days why the records shouldn't be released."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha

Madeline Peltz of Media Matters: "Between 2006 and 2011, Fox News host Tucker Carlson spent approximately an hour a week calling in to the Bubba the Love Sponge Show, a popular shock jock radio program where he spoke with the hosts about a variety of cultural and political topics in often-vulgar terms. In addition to making many misogynistic remarks and sexual comments about underage girls, Carlson, who was hired by Fox in 2009, also repeatedly made racist remarks. Carlson credited 'white men' for 'creating civilization' and made numerous racist remarks about the Obamas, including agreeing that Michelle Obama would 'be a problem' because she 'turns into a sister' and asking of Barack Obama, 'How is he Black, for one thing? He has one white parent, one Black parent.' Carlson called Iraqis 'semiliterate primitive monkeys' and said Afghanistan is 'never going to be a civilized country because the people aren't civilized.' He also said he had 'zero sympathy' for Iraqis because they 'don't use toilet paper or forks' and that the war could turn around 'if, somehow, the Iraqis decided to behave like human beings.'"...

... Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "Pushing extreme narratives about immigration, racism, and political correctness is the bread and butter of Carlson's current show. What these tapes reveal is a remarkable ideological consistency, dating back 15 years." ...

... Joan Walsh of the Nation: "None of this should be shocking to any sentient being: Carlson is a sexist pig, who has lately become the white-nationalist defender of fragile white men. But it is particularly not shocking to me - because, nine years ago, Carlson called me the C-word to a Salon intern, multiple times, and told the young man I needed to get 'fucked.'... I knew that he was lying when he trashed Samantha Bee for calling Ivanka Trump the C-word. 'That one word that [Bee] used. I don't know any man who uses that word because it is kind of the one word that is actually degrading.'"

Charles Davis of the Daily Beast: "Defending statutory rape committed by women has been a recurring theme for Carlson." Davis cites several examples, including one as recently as 2014. He chose once to have such a discussion with Gavin McInnis, founder of the Proud Boys white nationalist group. "McInnes was previously a columnist for The Daily Caller, which Carlson founded; and in their conversation, McInnes discussed how an editor there once deleted the phrase 'fucking Jews' from one of his articles."

Tucker's Lame Whaddaboudism Self-Defense. Lisa de Moraes of Deadline: "On his first Tucker Carlson Tonight telecast since [Media Matters released audio of his misogynistic, racist remarks], Carlson [said]: 'Why are the people who consider Bill Clinton a hero lecturing me about sexism?' he asked, rhetorically. 'How can the party that demands racial quotas denounce other people as racist? After awhile you begin to think that maybe their criticisms aren't sincere. Maybe their moral puffery is a costume. The fate of the human soul and the moral regeneration of society do not interest 'progressives' who are 'too busy pushing late-term abortion and cross-dressing on fifth-graders,' argued Carlson, whose FNC primetime program, along with those of Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, are among the most popular on cable news, and on basic cable TV." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe you're sensing a theme here. It appears that (rarely-performed) late-term abortion is the right's "defense" against their rampant racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, etc. BTW, Fox "News" issued a strong statement against Jeanine Pirro's anti-Muslim remarks. So far, the fair-skinned & unbalanced network has been silent about Carlson, who enjoys a prime-time slot in the network's illustrious lineup. ...

... Adam Raymond of New York: "The decision by Fox News to rebuke [Jeanine] Pirro for her incendiary comments is notable because it doesn't happen often.... The latitude the network gives its biggest stars became clear as, just hours after its statement on Pirro, it remained silent on Tucker Carlson's recently unearthed misogynistic and creepy comments. A spokesperson for Fox News didn't respond to an email asking why the network condemned Pirro and not Carlson. So, what kind of offense rises to the level of an official Fox News rebuke? Here are some recent missteps that went too far even for Fox."

Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Sales of synthetic chemicals will double over the next 12 years with alarming implications for health and the environment, according to a global study that highlights government failures to rein in the industry behind plastics, pesticides and cosmetics. The second Global Chemicals Outlook ... said the world will not meet international commitments to reduce chemical hazards and halt pollution by 2020. In fact, the study by the United Nations Environment Programme found that the industry has never been more dominant nor has humanity's dependence on chemicals ever been as great." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Nebraska. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: The 2018 field director for Gov. Pete Rickett's (DR-Neb.) re-election campaign has sent “a shocking trove of ... private messages ... over ... an online gaming platform popular with white nationalists.... [In the messages, Bennett Bressman says] has 'more compassion for small dogs than illegals' and claims his 'whole political ideology revolves around harming journalists.' He uses the n-word freely and cracks jokes about the Holocaust.... 'I am shocked and horrified to learn that this former staffer made these statements and I had no idea he harbored these feelings. He never expressed these views to me. I condemn these statements and this hateful worldview, which do not reflect my beliefs or the beliefs of Nebraskans,' Ricketts said in a statement." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You know what, Pete? This is no aberration. This is the kind of fans you attract. That's what should "shock and horrify" you. On the other hand, your buddy Bennett doesn't seem a helluva lot worse than Tucker Carlson, & he's a national teevee star.

Way Beyond

Algeria. Alex Ward of Vox: "In a massive concession after weeks of protests, Algeria-s ailing, long-time authoritarian leader -- who has rarely been seen in public for years -- won-t run for a fifth term as president. On Monday, the 82-year-old Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has led Algeria since 1999 despite having a stroke in 2013 that left him paralyzed and basically mute, put out a statement to quell the concerns of thousands of demonstrators. 'There will be no fifth term,' Bouteflika said.... The remaining question is whom the regime will name to replace Bouteflika." --s

The Commentariat -- March 11, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Lord Dampnut's Proposal. Jim Tankersley & Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump sent Congress on Monday a record $4.75 trillion budget request that proposes an increase in military spending and sharp cuts to domestic programs like education and environmental protection for the 2020 fiscal year. Mr. Trump's budget, the largest in federal history, includes a nearly 5 percent increase in military spending -- which is more than the Pentagon had asked for -- and an additional $8.6 billion for construction of a border wall with Mexico. White House officials said the budget would include a total of $1.9 trillion in cuts to mandatory safety net programs, like Medicaid. It also proposes new work requirements for working-age adult recipients of supplemental nutrition assistance, federal housing support and Medicaid, a move the administration said would reduce spending on those programs by $327 billion."

President* Changes One Crazy Apple Story for Another: Maybe somebody rolled the videotape. According to a Trumpertweet Monday, Trump didn't say "Cook" & you failed to hear it. Instead, "At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!" Philip Bump of the Washington Post calculates the amount of time Trump saved was 0.27 seconds. Not sure how long it took him to write the whiney-tweet.

Tom Llamas & Kaitlyn Folmer of ABC News: In an ABC News interview, "Keith Davidson, the former attorney for adult-film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, detailed his role in negotiating hush-money deals to keep both women quiet about alleged affairs with Donald Trump, claiming a $130,000 payment to Daniels was 'done for political reasons.'... He also described [Michael] Cohen's anger when the nomination he expected for a key position within Trump's administration, such as chief of staff, never materialized.... 'He confided in me that he was just beside himself, and, in his words, you know, he said, "Can you f[uck]ing believe, after everything I've done, he's not taking me to Washington?'" Davidson recalled. 'He felt that it was a personal embarrassment for him, that he was rejected.'" Earlier this month, Cohen told the House Oversight Committee, under oath, "I did not want to go to the White House. I was offered jobs."

Bill Barrow, et al., of the AP: "Democrats picked Milwaukee on Monday to host their 2020 national convention, setting up the party's standard-bearer to accept the presidential nomination in the heart of the old industrial belt that delivered Donald Trump to the White House."

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Damian Paletta & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday will request at least another $8.6 billion in funding to build more sections of a wall along the Mexico border, setting up a fresh battle with Congress less than one month after Trump declared a national emergency. In Trump's annual budget request to Congress, he will request $5 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to continue building sections of a wall along the Mexico border, three people briefed on the request said. He will request another $3.6 billion for the Defense Department's military construction budget to erect more sections of a wall." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Not Gonna Happen. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated on Sunday that President Trump's reported plan to ask for $8.6 billion in the fiscal 2020 budget to fund a wall along the southern border was a non-starter. 'President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico,' the Democratic leaders said in a statement. 'Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again,' they added." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "To prevent leaks from Trump's Friday night Mar-a-Lago speech to RNC donors, security guards made attendees put their cellphones in magnetized pouches.... [Mrs. McC: And no wonder!]... Referring to the recent anti-Semitism controversies with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, Trump told the donors: 'The Democrats hate Jewish people.' [Mrs. McC: If true, this would be a bit odd, because many Democrats are Jewish people.]... Trump went off on what one guest called a 'bizarre tangent.' He described being home alone in the White House over Christmas 'while the Democrats were in Hawaii.'... He said he saw [Secret Service] agents wearing night vision goggles. 'They're in blackface,' Trump added, jokingly referring to the masks over the agents' faces. Trump [said] ... maybe 'they have to take [the masks] away'..." Mrs. McC: Trump thinks all this is very funny, partly because, according to Swan, "the crowd roared with laughter throughout." ...

... Jonathan Swan: "Republican donors in attendance called it one of Trump's weirdest lies ever. On Friday night, under a tent erected over the pool at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, President Trump claimed the media were spreading "fake news" when they said he called the CEO of Apple 'Tim Apple.' that he actually said 'Tim Cook Apple' really fast, and the 'Cook' part of the sentence was soft. But all you heard from the 'fake news,' he said, was 'Tim Apple.'" Mrs. McC: Whether because of the natural effects of aging, weird "hair" medications he is taking, or the stress of being hounded by daily reports of his sleaziness, incompetence, lies, corruption & criminality, Trump is losing it. And since he recognizes no personal failings, he has to blame someone else even for his own slips of the tongue. I believe he would be willing to testify that the videographer -- who probably works for "fake news" -- edited out "Cook." If he weren't a horrible person, it would be sad. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice that Trump doesn't pause between "Tim" and "Apple." Trump makes it one word: "Timapple." Yet we're supposed to believe there's a quietly-enounced "Cook" in there.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

About That Other Trump Tower Meeting. Zachary Basu of Axios: "House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that Erik Prince was lying when he claimed last week that he testified about a 2016 meeting he had with foreign nationals at Trump Tower.... Robert Mueller, who Schiff said is now in possession of all witness transcripts, has charged a number of Trump associates with lying to investigators. Notably, Donald Trump Jr. also neglected to tell the committee about the second Trump Tower meeting during his testimony." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "It wasn't long ago that Trump saw and berated [Paul] Manafort as a nuisance and another expendable former adviser. In the first year of his presidency, Trump and his top aides went out of their way to downplay the former campaign chairman's major role in the 2016 effort, with many on Team Trump privately blaming Manafort in part for federal investigators' interest in the finances of the president's family, and political and business associates.... Nowadays, however, Trump's annoyance towards his onetime aide has been largely replaced with pity and attaboys.... The president's public display of emotional support for Manafort is reflected in private discussions with close associates, who say that Trump has praised 'Paul' for not being a 'rat' or 'coward,' as he views [Michael] Cohen, and has repeatedly expressed agitation over Manafort's jailing, sometimes likening him to a political prisoner. Trump has also encouraged it when his advisers or legal team have made public statements bashing the feds' treatment of Manafort."

Christina Wilkie of CNBC has a long & hard-to-follow tale of how Paul Manafort got $125K through a series of (probably legal) cutouts, then lied about it to prosecutors. ...

     ... BUT as Steve M. Yastreblyansky points out, the importance of the story may be "that one of the simplest and craziest-sounding hypotheses of the Russian conspiracy -- that Manafort got that polling data to Russia in August 2016 to inform their Facebook voter-targeting activities in October, and may in this way have played a decisive role in turning the election around -- could ... be true. Steve Yastreblyansky notes that Jerry Nadler is on the case. ...

     ... UPDATE: Oops!

Melanie Stunned Australian Woman Is Top Official. Matt Stieb of New York: "Melania Trump, the allegedly reluctant wife of the president, mistook Australia's former foreign minister Julie Bishop for the wife of a politician, according to a story shared by Bishop on Saturday. In front of an audience at the Adelaide Festival, Bishop -- who served from 2013 to 2018 as Australia's equivalent of secretary of state -- said that Melania thought her partner was the foreign minister, after President Trump began talking to him at a UN event in 2017: 'Melania, standing by, assumed David was the foreign minister and she said to me: "Julie, will you be coming to my ladies' lunch tomorrow?" And I said "No, David's going to the partners' lunch".... So this went on for a while until the president explained that I was the foreign minister.'" Mrs. McC: Kinda reminds you of the time she & Donald had tea with Queen Elizabeth & asked the Queen where King Philip was.

How could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency? Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump? -- Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, on mike pence

James Glanz & Zach Wichter of the New York Times: "Two eerily similar scenes have played out in recent months for Boeing's brand-new 737 Max jets: on Sunday, when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed just after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing 157 people, and in October, when a Lion Air disaster killed 189 people in Indonesia.... The rarity of two planes of the same model going down in such a short time span has urgently caught the attention of pilots, passengers, engineers and industry analysts. For Boeing, the questions go to the heart of its business, as the 737 class is a workhorse for airlines worldwide, and the single-aisle 737 Max has been the company's best-selling plane ever." ...

     ... The New York Times is updating developments. "The newest version of Boeing's most popular jet is under scrutiny after a deadly crash on Sunday, leading several countries and airlines around the world to ground their fleets' 737 Max 8 planes."

Eric Schmitt & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The American military has escalated a battle against the Shabab, an extremist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, in Somalia even as President Trump seeks to scale back operations against similar Islamist insurgencies elsewhere in the world, from Syria and Afghanistan to West Africa. A surge in American airstrikes over the last four months of 2018 pushed the annual death toll of suspected Shabab fighters in Somalia to the third record high in three years. Last year, the strikes killed 326 people in 47 disclosed attacks, Defense Department data show. And so far this year, the intensity is on a pace to eclipse the 2018 record."

Kate Kelly & Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: The talent agency Endeavor has returned a $400 million investment by the Saudi government in protest over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. "It is one of the few instances of a major company halting business with the wealthy kingdom to protest its agents' assassination of a journalist."

All the Best People, Ctd. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "When MSNBC host Al Sharpton confronted Trump campaign senior adviser Katrina Pierson about the lack of black staffers in Trump's West Wing, Pierson offered a jaw-dropping excuse, asking Sharpton how many black people worked in Abraham Lincoln's West Wing." Mrs. McC: Well now, that puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha.

Tucker Carlson Is as Creepy as You Thought He Was. Madeline Peltz of Media Matters: "Between 2006 and 2011, Tucker Carlson spent approximately an hour a week calling in to Bubba the Love Sponge, a popular shock jock radio program where he spoke with the hosts about a variety of cultural and political topics in sometimes-vulgar terms. During those conversations, Carlson diminished the actions of Warren Jeffs, then on the FBI's 'Ten Most Wanted Fugitives' list for his involvement in arranging illegal marriages between adults and underage girls, talked about sex and young girls, and defended statutory rape. Carlson, who was hired by Fox News in 2009, also used sexist language to talk about women, including then-co-workers at NBC and public figures. He referred to Martha Stewart's daughter Alexis Stewart as 'cunty,' called journalist Arianna Huffington a 'pig,' and labeled Britney Spears and Paris Hilton 'the biggest white whores in America.' He also said that women enjoy being told to 'be quiet and kind of do what you're told' and that they are 'extremely primitive.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Lest you think Tucker can write off these comments as "youthful indiscretions," Carlson had a (terrible) CNN "shouting" show with Paul Begala prior to his radio call-in career. Jon Stewart pretty much blew up the Carlson-Begala show in 2004 when he appeared as a guest & told the hosts they were irresponsible (he called Carlson a dick, which is accurate). CNN cancelled the show, called "Crossfire," a few months later. ...

     ... BUT Carlson Tries the "Youth Indiscretion" Defense Anyway (AND Promotes His Show). Daily Beast Update: "Fox News host Tucker Carlson has refused to apologize for a string of derogatory comments he made about women on a radio show years ago, including dismissing women as 'extremely primitive' and 'like dogs.'... Carlson ... post[ed] on Twitter: 'Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I'm on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.'"

Daniel Politi of Slate: "Fox News host Jeanine Pirro openly questioned Rep. Ilhan Omar's loyalty to the United States during her show on Saturday.... 'Think about it, Omar wears a hijab, which, according to the Quran 33:59, tells women to cover so they won't get molested,' she said. 'Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?' Pirro then continued to press the issue when talking to guests later on in her show.... Update: 'We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro's comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar,' Fox News said in a statement [released Sunday]. 'They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.' As for Pirro, she doesn't think she did anything wrong. 'I did not call Rep. Omar un-American. My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don't support the Constitution,' Pirro said."

Beyond the Beltway

Missouri. Daniel Politi: “Police in western Missouri got a call reporting a marijuana smell and they decided to investigate. The fact that the smell was apparently coming from the hospital room of a Stage 4 pancreatic cancer patient wasn't going to stop them. Video posted on Facebook shows officers from the Bolivar Police Department going through Nolan Sousley's things at Citizens Memorial Hospital.... Sousley told [the police] that all he had were pills with THC but the officers insist someone said they could smell marijuana in the room.... The officers specified that if they found marijuana, Sousley would receive a citation. When Sousley reminded them that Missouri will soon legalize medical marijuana, the officers were unconvinced.... Although Missourians voted to legalize medical marijuana in November, the regulations are still not in place."

Way Beyond

Canada. Rob Gillies of the AP: "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a controversy that seems trivial by comparison [to Trump's scandals], but it could topple him in elections later this year. Two high-profile women ministers in Trudeau's Cabinet, including Canada's first indigenous justice minister, resigned in protest, and his top aide and best friend quit too. The former justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, says Trudeau and senior members of his government pressured her in a case involving a major Canadian engineering company accused of corruption related to its business dealings in Libya. Trudeau reportedly leaned on the attorney general to instruct prosecutors to reach the equivalent of plea deal, which would avoid a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, because he felt that jobs were at stake.... He denied applying any inappropriate pressure, saying he and his officials were only pointing out that prosecution could endanger thousands of jobs."

Israel. Amy Spiro of the Jerusalem Post: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel 'is not a country of all its citizens,' hitting back at criticism from an Israeli actress who said the government treats Arabs like they are less worthy. 'First of all,' Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook message Sunday morning addressed to actress Rotem Sela, 'an important correction: Israel is not a country of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish nation -- and its alone. As you wrote, there is no problem with Arab citizens -- they have equal rights like everybody and the Likud government has invested in the Arab sector more than any other government.' The prime minister was responding to an Instagram post from Sela, a prolific and popular TV host and star of The Baker and the Beauty. Sela took to Instagram Saturday night to criticize Culture Minister Miri Regev and a journalist who interviewed her that evening."

The Commentariat -- March 10, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Damian Paletta & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday will request at least another $8.6 billion in funding to build more sections of a wall along the Mexico border, setting up a fresh battle with Congress less than one month after Trump declared a national emergency. In Trump’s annual budget request to Congress, he will request $5 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to continue building sections of a wall along the Mexico border, three people briefed on the request said. He will request another $3.6 billion for the Defense Department's military construction budget to erect more sections of a wall." ...

... Not Gonna Happen. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated on Sunday that President Trump's reported plan to ask for $8.6 billion in the fiscal 2020 budget to fund a wall along the southern border was a non-starter. 'President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico,' the Democratic leaders said in a statement. 'Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again,' they added."

About That Other Trump Tower Meeting. Zachary Basu of Axios: "House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that Erik Prince was lying when he claimed last week that he testified about a 2016 meeting he had with foreign nationals at Trump Tower.... Robert Mueller, who Schiff said is now in possession of all witness transcripts, has charged a number of Trump associates with lying to investigators. Notably, Donald Trump Jr. also neglected to tell the committee about the second Trump Tower meeting during his testimony."

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Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "People are advised to avoid scheduling anything important for 2:30 a.m. Sunday, since, by law, such a moment does not exist. But the law may change. The national policy of switching from standard time to daylight saving time and back again is under legislative challenge from coast to coast. Multiple initiatives in Congress and in statehouses would terminate our current system of time toggling -- a system that started a century ago and has been controversial ever since. It's not really daylight saving time that's drawing fire: It's standard time. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Wednesday reintroduced a bill to make daylight saving time a year-round reality across the country, with no more biannual time changes." Read on. Every once in awhile Marco is right about something.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker on the arguments for and against impeaching Trump. ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: For everyone worrying that Democrats are "overreaching" by conducting oversight on Trump's potentially-impeachable offenses, let me remind you that the "Watergate hearings" -- held over the summer of 1973 -- were not impeachment hearings; they were Senate oversight, or fact-finding hearings. Although the House did some "pre-hearing" prep, the House Judiciary Committee didn't begin impeachment hearings till after the Saturday Night Massacre in October 1973. Hauling Erik Prince & Donnie Junior in for questioning is not the equivalent of an impeachment hearing, no matter how much weeping & wailing Republicans do about it.

GOP Senators & Former Senators on Why the President Should Be Impeached

The subject matter is not what is significant here; it's lying under oath and obstructing justice. -- Mitch McConnell

You don't even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic ... Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office. -- Lindsey Graham

We are miraculously transformed from politicians to people who leave their Republican and Democrat labels at the door.... We're there to seek the truth and to find out whether the president is guilty or not guilty, and no stone should be left unturned to make that determination. -- Chuck Grassley

He lied to protect himself from being prosecuted for a crime. I could think of no other lie that is a more egregious lie.... I fear that if this country is confronted with a serious crisis over the next two years, that his ability to marshal the American public behind what he tells them is the truth would be diminished. -- Rick Santorum

It is crucial to our system of justice that we demand the truth. I fear that an acquittal of this President will weaken the legal system by providing an option for those who consider being less than truthful in court. -- Jeff Sessions

Oh, did I forget to mention they were talking about Bill Clinton? -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

** Presidential* Profiteering. CREW: "During President Trump's second year in office, CREW recorded more than 900 interactions between the government, those trying to influence it, and the Trump Organization, each resulting in a conflict of interest for President Trump. Those instances bring the total number of known conflicts of interest involving the Trump Organization to more than 1,400, two years into the Trump administration.... President Trump has tried to use the presidency to enrich himself by promoting his businesses as extensions of his administration. That includes conducting government business at them, praising them in his official capacity, and even going so far as to offer exclusive perks to members of his clubs including access to government leaders, influence on government business, and in some cases, appointments to government positions. Perhaps most concerning, President Trump's political allies have embraced the arrangement by making their own visits to his properties and showering them with political cash. In other cases, officials' visits to his properties have led to Trump profiting at taxpayer expense, as state and federal funds are paid to Trump businesses to cover various aspects of his visits or the visits of state and federal officials to his properties." ...

... Presidential* Access for Sale. David Corn, et al., of Mother Jones: "The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reported that last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump's West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have 'gained a reputation for offering sexual services.'... Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. And a website for the business -- which includes numerous photos of Yang and her purported clients hobnobbing at Mar-a-Lago ... suggests she had some success in doing so."

That Time Judge Ellis Sentenced a Black Woman (Way Last Year.) Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: Paul "Manafort, a wealthy Republican political operative, and [Tessicar] Jumpp, a slight Jamaican woman born into poverty, couldn't be more different in their backgrounds, but in court they were just two thieves and liars in the dock. Mail fraud. Wire fraud. Tax fraud. Bank fraud. They violated different statues but committed the same offense: They stole through deceit. Jumpp cruelly conned victims out of $385,000 through a fake lottery scam.... Manafort's victims -- at least in this case -- were more abstract. But the scale of his financial misdeeds was much, much bigger. He hid $55 million dollars of income in offshore accounts, skipped out on $6 million in taxes, and conned three banks out of $25 million in loans on false premises, according to prosecutors.... [Federal Judge T.S.] Ellis sentenced Jumpp to six years. On Thursday, he gave Manafort fewer than four." Mrs. McC: Yes, but maybe Jumpp hasn't led "an otherwise blameless life." ...

... Renato Mariotti, in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: Judge T.S. Ellis's "flawed decision is a consequence of the vast discretion given to federal judges to issue sentences without real fear of being overturned.... Federal law permitted Judge Ellis to give Manafort a sentence of anywhere between 0 to 80 years in prison. And as long as Ellis did not go above the 24.5-year maximum called for by the sentencing guidelines an appellate court would almost certainly not reverse his sentence, given the very deferential standard of review.... As the federal sentencing commission recently found, 'the length of a defendant's sentence increasingly depends on which judge in the courthouse is assigned to his or her case.'... Ellis made a number of statements about Manafort that cannot be defended, such as his false claim that Manafort led an 'otherwise blameless life.'... Even more concerning are statements Ellis made that caused many to question whether he exhibited partisan political bias, or a particular bias against special counsel Robert Mueller and his team."

Fleecing Our Friends. John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "In private discussions with his aides, President Trump has devised an eye-popping formula to address one of his long-standing complaints: that allies hosting U.S. forces don't pay Washington enough money. Under the formula, countries would pay the full cost of stationing American troops on their territory, plus 50 percent more, said U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the idea, which could have allies contributing five times what they provide. Trump calls the formula 'cost plus 50,' and it has struck fear in the hearts of U.S. allies who view it as extortionate. Rumors that the formula could become a global standard have especially rattled Germany, Japan and South Korea, which host thousands of forces, and U.S. officials have mentioned the demand to at least one country in a formal negotiation setting, said people familiar with the matter."

Clark Pettig of American Oversight: "American Oversight has uncovered the signed directive from former Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructing a federal prosecutor to carry out President Trump's authoritarian demand to investigate Hillary Clinton. The document, obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation by American Oversight, is a formal, November 2017 letter from Sessions to U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber.... In a sworn declaration filed in November 2018 in response to American Oversight's lawsuit, the Justice Department had insisted that no written directive existed and that all guidance to Huber had been delivered verbally. Trump has repeatedly tweeted demands for DOJ to investigate Clinton.” Read on. Among those who knew about the letter were Sessions & Huber (of course), as well as Assistant AG Stephen Boyd, & Matt Whitaker. You might conclude the DOJ was run by professional liars.

Labor Secretary Favors Business over Labor. Rebecca Rainey of Politico: "A Politico analysis of ... documents [obtained under FOIA requests] shows that Republicans and business representatives occupied most of [Labor Secretary Alexander] Acosta's schedule during his first eight months as labor secretary. Between May and December 2017, Acosta was scheduled to meet or talk 146 times with Republican politicians or with representatives of trade associations and businesses. Among the corporate chairmen whose input Acosta received were Steve Easterbrook of McDonald's and Jim McNerney of Boeing. By comparison, Acosta was scheduled to meet or talk only 43 times with representatives of labor unions, including AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and SEIU President Mary Kay Henry. Acosta met with Democratic politicians or left-leaning interest groups only ten times during the same time period. '"This is exactly what we saw in Scott Pruitt's calendar,' said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, in a written statement. 'Trump cabinet officials putting the industries they regulate ahead of the people they're supposed to be protecting.'"

U.S. Troops Not as Backward & Bigoted as POTUS*. Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "This has been an uneasy time for transgender troops in the United States military, caught between a commander in chief who wants them out and court injunctions that, at least temporarily, said they could stay. (The last of the injunctions was lifted on Thursday.) But dozens of transgender troops ... said in interviews that they felt supported in the service. Their comrades and commanders have welcomed them, they said, and the military has often been more accepting than the homes and neighborhoods they left to enlist."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "During a Q&A with Vanity Fair media reporter Joe Pompeo at the South by Southwest festival on Saturday, [CNN President Jeff] Zucker said it's not like networks have a 'right' to host [presidential] debates. 'I think the consternation about this is a little misplaced,' he said. ... Calling Fox a 'propaganda' outlet, Zucker said, 'I think the question should be, is Fox state-run TV or is the White House state-run government by Fox TV?' As for Fox News' response singling out its more legitimate news anchors, Zucker said, 'They chose to work at Fox and they don't get to hide behind the fact that they're excellent journalists or anchors. The fact is they work at a place that has done tremendous damage to this country.' Earlier in the talk, Zucker also said he has no doubt that the Trump administration interfered in the Justice Department's actions over the merger between AT&T and Time Warner&-CNN's parent company -- though said it's now a 'moot point' because the merger went through.... Of course..., CNN received its fair share of criticism and even blame for supposedly helping boost Trump." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Zucker actually made Trump famous twice: first, when he headed NBC Entertainment & aired "The Apprentice," & second when he headed CNN Entertainment & carried most of most of Trump's airhead campaign rallies. President* Trump is a Jeff Zucker Production. Zucker betrayed the nation for the ratings.

Tariro Mzezewa & Milan Schreuer of the New York Times: "United States citizens wishing to visit or travel to the majority of the European Union nations after January 2021 will have to register online and pay a small fee as part of a new security system intended to screen visa-free travelers." Mrs. McC: If he's not in jail or house detention then, how about a "cost +50" for our former President*? Or better yet, just put him on he Trump Travel Ban & don't allow any plane that's carrying him to land.

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Bob Moser in the New Republic: "After Brian Kemp suppressed enough votes and stirred up enough bigotries to get himself elected governor of Georgia last November, you might have expected him to hit the ground running with some extra-crazy, super-Trumpy initiatives.... The governor's most consequential move thus far has been to urge the state to buy super-pricey new electronic voting machines to replace its 27,000 ancient, notoriously hackable models that Kemp insisted on using last time for his own election. But lest you think Kemp is motivated by a desire for freer and fairer elections, there is, in fact, a Trumpian catch: The likely recipient of Georgia's largesse will be a company that one of Kemp's closest aides used to lobby for, while another served on its board of advisers. So far, Kemp's administration has apparently been fueled by good old-fashioned crony corruption.... The justification for the big-spending election bill -- which zipped through the state House and now awaits approval in the Republican-dominated Senate -- is that the machines will ward off cybersecurity threats while making elections more efficient than the messy old paper balloting. Inconveniently for the GOP, neither is true."

News Lede

New York Times: "An Ethiopian Airlines flight carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members crashed early Sunday shortly after departing from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, en route to Nairobi, Kenya, the airline said. A spokesman for the airline told state television that there were no survivors."