The Commentariat -- February 25, 2019

Afternoon Update:

CBS/AP: "Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday that the United States had asked Moscow's advice in dealing with North Korea ahead of a summit between ... Donald Trump and the North Korean leader.... The Trump administration has not confirmed any outreach to Moscow over the negotiations with the Kim regime. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had not discussed the summit in Hanoi with Donald Trump directly."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump said Monday that a U.S. citizen held captive in Yemen for more than a year has been reunited with his family. The president announced on Twitter that Danny Burch 'has been recovered and reunited with his wife and children.'"

Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "In a Monday morning appearance on Fox News, Donald Trump, Jr., insisted that the president's 2016 campaign team has been unfairly targeted by a 'Stalinist' special counsel Robert Mueller -- and that crimes committed before the election shouldn't count as 'actual crimes.'... It was unclear what crimes Trump Jr. might have been alluding to...." Mrs. McC: Because, like the Old Man, Junior just makes up stuff. Now would be a good time for Special Counsel Stalin to indict Junior.

John Wagner & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "A lawyer for the Trump Organization has asked the House Judiciary Committee to cease any investigations related to it, claiming that the panel's work has been tainted by its hiring of an outside lawyer whose firm has represented Trump's company. In a letter Monday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Trump Organization lawyer Alan S. Futerfas objected to the committee's hiring of Berry H. Berke on the grounds that his law firm, Kramer Levin, has represented the Trump Organization on an array of issues. Futerfas raised similar concerns in a letter last week to House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), saying that his panel works closely with Nadler's committee. In a statement, Kramer Levin called the Trump Organization's letter to Nadler 'baseless.'.... In its statement, Kramer Levin said Berke was working for the Judiciary Committee in his personal capacity and that the firm would not receive any compensation or provide legal support."

A Note from Your Racist President*. Alex Marsall of the New York Times: "On Sunday night, Spike Lee won his first competitive Oscar, then made an acceptance speech that gained a standing ovation. But the events did not please at least one person apparently watching: President Trump. On Monday, he called Lee's speech a 'racist hit on your President.' Lee opened his speech, after winning best adapted screenplay for 'BlacKkKlansman,' by discussing slavery and his family's experiences of it. 'I give praise to our ancestors, who have built this country into what it is today along with the genocide of the native people,' he said. 'The 2020 presidential election is around the corner,' Lee said. 'Let's all mobilize. Let's all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate.' Lee did not mention the president in his speech, but that call to action seems to have angered him. 'Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes, or better yet not have to use notes at all, when doing his racist hit on your President,' Trump said in a tweet in the early hours of Monday morning.' The president's policies had 'done more for African Americans (Criminal Justice Reform, Lowest Unemployment numbers in History, Tax Cuts, etc.) than almost any other Pres!' the president added." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, I too recall when Trump freed the slaves & jammed the Civil Rights Act through Congress.

Beth Reinhard & Alice Crites of the Washington Post: "A staffer on Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign says he kissed her without her consent at a small gathering of supporters before a Florida rally, an interaction that she alleges in a new lawsuit still causes her anguish. In interviews with The Washington Post, and in the lawsuit, Alva Johnson said Trump grabbed her hand and leaned in to kiss her on the lips as he exited an RV outside the rally in Tampa on Aug. 24, 2016. Johnson said she turned her head and the unwanted kiss landed on the side of her mouth, which she called 'super-creepy and inappropriate.'... In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed Johnson's allegation as 'absurd on its face.'" Mrs. McC: One would think there would be photos or videos. ...

... Ronan Farrow of the New Yorker: "The most legally significant aspect of Johnson's suit may ultimately be something the complaint does not explicitly address: the pervasive use of nondisclosure agreements by Trump during his campaign and in his Administration. Johnson's suit is at least the sixth legal case in which Trump campaign or Administration employees have defied their nondisclosure agreements."

Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "The president made clear to his outside legal team, which includes Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, that he didn't want his lawyers going anywhere -- even after the Mueller probe ends. The conversations served as a private admission that federal investigations bedeviling his first term in office will be haunting him for possibly years to come. The president broached the topic of keeping his team together starting late last year ... by discussing other legal woes he might face after the Special Counsel's Office submits its report to the Department of Justice. Trump's focus at the time? The Southern District of New York."

CREW Press Release: "There is compelling evidence that President Trump may have personally committed up to eight criminal campaign finance and related offenses while running for president and during his first year in office, according to a report released today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). In a new report, A Campaign to Defraud, CREW combs through the facts behind these apparent crimes, based on admissions by two of President Trump's likely co-conspirators and news reports, detailing how criminal law can already be applied to publicly known facts. Most of President Trump's potential violations are related to illegal campaign contributions meant to cover up evidence of Trump&'s affairs with two women, preventing voters from learning the truth about his behavior ahead of the election, though at least one continued well into his first year in office.... Trump's conduct ... may trigger criminal penalties."

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "In a meeting with regional leaders, Vice President Pence on Monday announced minor new U.S. sanctions against loyalists of President Nicolás Maduro and called on other nations to follow the Trump administration's lead in freezing the assets of Venezuela's state oil giant PDVSA -- a move meant to further cut Maduro's international cash flow. Following a weekend that saw the Venezuela military and pro-government militias violently put down an opposition attempt to break Maduro's blockade of humanitarian aid, Pence arrived in Bogota to reiterate that Washington will not back away from diplomatic confrontation. His trip comes as some in the Venezuelan opposition have begun openly calling for the use of 'force' to oust Maduro's socialists from power."

*****

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of 58 former senior national security officials will issue a statement Monday saying that 'there is no factual basis' for President Trump's proclamation of a national emergency to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The joint statement, whose signatories include former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former defense secretary Chuck Hagel, will come a day before the House is expected to vote on a resolution blocking Trump's Feb. 15 declaration. The former officials' statement, which will be entered into the Congressional Record, is intended to support lawsuits and other actions challenging the national emergency proclamation and to force the administration to set forth the legal and factual basis for it." ...

... Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Nearly two dozen former Republican members of Congress have penned an open letter to GOP lawmakers, urging them to reject ... Donald Trump's national emergency declaration to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. In the letter, the former members wrote that the president's move undermines the constitutional authority given to Congress to make federal appropriations, and argue that the emergency declaration would set a precedent for future presidents that could one day come back to bite them.... The House is set to vote on a joint resolution to block Trump's emergency declaration on Tuesday, a measure that is expected to pass. The resolution would then have to be taken up by the Senate, where it would need just a simple majority for approval, setting up the prospect of Trump vetoing the measure."

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump spent his Sunday morning in his own unique way, tweeting away about his admiration for the worst people in the world. This time it was North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whom Trump is scheduled to meet in Vietnam to discuss, as Trump put it, 'Denuclearization?' Boasting of his 'great relationship' with Kim, Trump called the brutal dictator an asset to his country with a potential for great things[.]... Conducting diplomacy with dictators is sometimes just part of the job, but Trump is unique in his insistence that the brutal dictators he's conducting diplomacy with are, in fact, good people.... Trump's admiration, he explained, stemmed from Kim's ability to consolidate power at such a young age -- something Kim was able to do through a campaign of assassinations and terror." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Josh Smith & Hyonhee Shin of Reuters: "North Korea's state media criticized U.S. Democrats and American intelligence officials on Sunday for 'chilling the atmosphere' ahead of leader Kim Jong Un's second summit with ... Donald Trump this week.... In some parts, the article appeared to echo Trump's own recent talking points, which have blamed former President Barack Obama for taking the two countries to the brink of war.... One U.S. government Korea analyst ... said the commentary appeared aimed at softening Trump up ahead of the summit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Connor O'Brien of Politico: "... Donald Trump is preparing to ask Congress for yet another increase in defense spending in the coming weeks. But his plan would evade federal budget limits by stashing nearly a quarter of that money in an off-the-books account -- and both Democrats and Republicans say it won't fly in Congress. The White House plans to stuff as much as $174 billion of its $750 billion request for national defense for the coming fiscal year into a special war fund, according to reports, allowing the administration to maintain its long-sought military buildup without violating a 2011 law aimed at reining in the deficit. The gimmick is especially striking given that Trump budget chief Mick Mulvaney once fought to limit the very same war account, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations fund." Mrs. McC: Guess we'll have to have a war against Mexico, so Trump can further fund wall." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

"We Shall Fight on the Beaches...." Quint Forgey of Politico: "House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff on Sunday threatened to call Robert Mueller to Capitol Hill and subpoena his investigative findings if Attorney General William Barr does not make public the special counsel's highly anticipated report. 'We will obviously subpoena the report. We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We will take it to court if necessary,' Schiff told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC's 'This Week.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Zachary Warmbrodt of Politico: "House Democrats are planning to cross one of ... Donald Trump's red lines: investigating his personal finances.... Democrats are launching an investigation to discover why Deutsche Bank was willing to lend the Trump Organization money when other banks wouldn't and whether Russia was involved. The German bank, which has been under scrutiny for its role in Russian money laundering, lent Trump hundreds of millions of dollars over the years for his property development ventures. The House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees have been staffing up for their probes into the bank and Trump's Russia ties."

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Asked on Face the Nation about the possibility of criminal wrongdoing in Trump's business dealings and by his inaugural committee, the Missouri Republican [Sen. Roy Blunt, chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee] suggested that the Senate should steer clear of such matters because investigations should not be overly broad.... Blunt has not always felt this way. In 1998, then-Rep. Blunt voted for four articles of impeachment against then-President Bill Clinton (D) -- including two articles that did not even garner a majority in the Republican-controlled House. Each of the charges stemmed from Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report on Clinton's extramarital affair with an intern, even though Starr had been appointed to investigate a completely unrelated Arkansas land deal called Whitewater." --s

"Eight Days in May." Jeff Toobin, in the New Yorker, writes a brief review of Andrew McCabe's book The Threat. "... anyone who has followed Trump will recognize the accuracy of the portrayal of him in 'The Threat.' And Trump's disrespect for the norms of American democracy extends well beyond his personal dishonesty and pettiness. It can be seen at the level of policy, too, and his transgressions in that realm are now threatening the constitutional order." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

As Cohen reportedly talks to investigators about insurance claims the Trump Org has filed over the years, it is worth revisiting this October 2016 story about a $17 million dollar claim for hurricane damage a[t] Mar-a-Lago that no one remembers happening[.] -- Susan Hennessey, in a tweet

Liz Stark & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "... Donald Trump announced on Sunday he will be delaying US tariffs on China and will be planning a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago to finalize the trade agreement. 'As a result of these ... very productive talks, I will be delaying the U.S. increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1. Assuming both sides make additional progress, we will be planning a Summit for President Xi and myself, at Mar-a-Lago, to conclude an agreement. A very good weekend for U.S. & China!' Trump posted in two tweets. The President cited 'substantial progress' on trade talks with China, pointing to 'important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues.'"

Jonathan Swan of Axios claims that Trump's hawkishness on Venezuela was spurred by a chance Oval Office meeting with Lilian Tintori, the wife of Venezuelan political prisoner Leopoldo Lopez. Mrs. McC: I don't believe it; it's either Trump's dreams of stealing Venezuela's oil (most likely) or of overturning a socialist dictator. Of course, it probably helped that Tintori is quite beautiful; if Trump finds out Lopez is equally handsome, he could change his mind.

Julia Gavarrete & Heather Geis of The Intercept: "Sixteen-year-old Jorge Alexander Ruiz took off alone in the middle of the night from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to escape pressure to join a gang.... Jorge grew up in a neighborhood that has long served as a drug dealing hub.... Some 2,700 miles from home, Jorge was optimistic about his asylum case and relieved to have left both the gang threats in Honduras and the dangers of the migrant trail behind him.... A week after we spoke outside the shelter, Jorge's body was found with 37 stab wounds and strangle marks around his neck, dumped alongside a second victim, a 17-year-old from Honduras. A third Honduran teenager managed to escape alive.... The murders of the two teenagers in Tijuana cast into stark relief the dangers that migrants and refugees -- especially unaccompanied minors -- may face while stranded at the border." --s

Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration announced ... plans to kill a deal to provide $929 million for California's effort to build the country's first high-speed rail train. But while President Donald Trump now mocks high-speed rail on Twitter, calling it 'a "green" disaster...,' the president's move is pure hypocrisy. In a March 2016 presidential campaign rally, Trump explained that the U.S. needs to invest heavily in its train system to compete with the vastly superior infrastructure in Asia. 'You go to China, they have trains that go 300 miles an hour. We have trains that go "chug, chug, chug." And then they have to stop because the tracks split, right?' said Trump. '... They have trains, Japan, China, a lot of countries ... We are like third world.'" --s

Daniel Politi of Slate: President Trump announced Sunday morning that "his administration will be hosting 'one of the biggest gatherings' in the history of the nation's capital to celebrate the Fourth of July. HOLD THE DATE!' Trump wrote in a tweet. 'It will be called "A Salute To America" and will be held at the Lincoln Memorial. Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!'... Trump sure sounds like he wants to turn the Independence Day celebration into one of his typical rallies.... Several questions remained unanswered, including whether this would run in parallel to Washington's annually televised concert and fireworks near the Capitol.'" Mrs. McC: Trump still seems unaware that there is already a spectacular Independence Day celebration in Washington, D.C. Apparently the absence of He Trvmpvs makes the event less spectacular. Since the show always is televised, it's surprising Trump doesn't know about it; then again, it's televised nationally on PBS, & I'm guessing Trump doesn't have a PBS mug & shopping bag or a boxed set of Peter, Paul & Mary DVDs.

Today's Horror Story. Liz Sly of the Washington Post: "The Russian company that gave the world the iconic AK-47 assault rifle has unveiled a suicide drone that may similarly revolutionize war by making sophisticated drone warfare technology widely and cheaply available. The Kalashnikov Group put a model of its miniature exploding drone on display this week at a major defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where the world's arms companies gather every two years to show off and market their latest wares.... The KUB is four feet wide, can fly for 30 minutes at a speed of 80 mph and carries six pounds of explosives, the news release says. That makes it roughly the size of a coffee table that can be guided to explode on a target 40 miles away -- the equivalent of a 'small, slow and presumably inexpensive cruise missile,' according to a report by the National Interest website."

Gregory Korte of USA Today: "A federal judge in Texas has declared that the all-male military draft is unconstitutional, ruling that 'the time has passed' for a debate on whether women belong in the military. The decision deals the biggest legal blow to the Selective Service System since the Supreme Court upheld the draft in 1981. In Rostker v. Goldberg, the court ruled that the male-only draft was 'fully justified' because women were ineligible for combat roles. But U.S. District Judge Gray Miller ruled late Friday that while historical restrictions on women serving in combat 'may have justified past discrimination,' men and women are now equally able to fight. In 2015, the Pentagon lifted all restrictions for women in military service. The case was brought by the National Coalition For Men, a men's rights group, and two men who argued the all-male draft was unfair." Miller is a Bush II appointee. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Um, did this fairly right-wing organization accidentally strike a blow for women's rights?

They Really Don't Care. Do You? Emily Rueb of the New York Times: "The March issue of the National Rifle Association's monthly publication The American Rifleman features a photo of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who was shot in the head during a constituent meeting in 2011. The photo, taken last month at an announcement about proposed legislation to expand background checks for firearms purchases, carried the headline in large letters: 'Target Practice.' The article, written by Chris W. Cox, the executive director of the N.R.A.'s lobbying arm, described Ms. Pelosi as an 'arch anti-gunner,' and said the proposal was being 'deceptively marketed to the public' and was 'a broadside against gun ownership in America.'... Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla..., said on Twitter the layout was an 'incitement of violence.' Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat of California, said on Twitter that the layout was 'a call for violence' and that the N.R.A. 'should face legal consequences.'"

** Derek Thompson of the Atlantic on the culture of "workism," which is making its adherents miserable. "In 1980, the highest-earning men actually worked fewer hours per week than middle-class and low-income men, according to a survey by the Minneapolis Fed. But that's changed. By 2005, the richest 10 percent of married men had the longest average workweek. In that same time, college-educated men reduced their leisure time more than any other group. Today, it is fair to say that elite American men have transformed themselves into the world's premier workaholics, toiling longer hours than both poorer men in the U.S. and rich men in similarly rich countries.... In the past century, the American conception of work has shifted from jobs to careers to callings -- from necessity to status to meaning."

Presidential Election. Sam Brasch of NPR: "An attempt at an Electoral College workaround is gaining momentum in the Mountain West. Democrats in Colorado and New Mexico are pushing ahead with legislation to pledge their 14 collective electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote -- no matter who wins each state. The plan only goes into effect if the law passes in states representing an electoral majority. That threshold is 270 votes, which is the same number needed to win the presidency. Democrats have been stung by the fact that President Trump's victory marked the second time in five cycles that a Democrat lost the presidency while winning the popular vote. 2016 was the most egregious example, with Hillary Clinton winning 3 million more votes than Donald Trump, but losing the election. It was the largest margin ever for someone who won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College.... So far, 11 states -- including New York, California and New Jersey -- have joined the effort along with the District of Columbia, putting the effort 98 votes short of its goal."

Caitlin Flanagan of the Atlantic defends Dianne Feinstein, who told off a group of young people & children when they came to lobby her for the Green New Deal in a Sister-Mary-Elephant-meets-Cheech-&-Chong moment.

Jason Horowitz & Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "Pope Francis ended a landmark Vatican meeting on clerical sexual abuse with an appeal 'for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors,' which he compared to human sacrifice, but his speech did not offer concrete policy remedies demanded by many of the faithful.... Faithful Catholics -- especially those in the United States and other countries that have grappled with the problem for years -- had demanded more than homilies: They wanted action that would hold their leaders accountable, once and for all. They did not get it from the pope's speech. But church officials have hinted that concrete policy changes were on the horizon, especially on issues of transparency and bishop accountability that were discussed during the meeting."

Beyond the Beltway

Maryland. Danielle Mclean of ThinkProgress: "Baltimore was rocked this week by one of its most violent days in history, after a series of shootings that left the city searching for solutions to its deadly epidemic of gun violence. News reports said a total of 14 people were shot in one daylong stretch that was not even 24 hours long.... Homicides -- most of which are gun-related in Baltimore -- are reported to be up 10 percent year-over-year in the city.... Gun violence has become a national emergency in the US as over 350,000 people have been killed by firearms over the past decade. This includes nearly 40,000 people who were killed by guns in 2017 alone, CNN reported. That marked the deadliest year for gun violence in recorded history." --s

Virginia. Mihir Zaveri of the New York Times: "Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax of Virginia, who has been accused of sexual assault by two women and is facing calls to resign, compared himself to lynching victims in an unplanned speech before the State Senate on Sunday and said he was standing firm in the truth. Mr. Fairfax, who is black, spoke for about five minutes from the dais on the last day of the session, and referred to bills previously passed by state legislators that expressed regret over past lynchings in Virginia." ...

... "Come on, Dude." Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "It's pretty disgusting that Fairfax would imply these allegations are part of a racist plot to unseat him, and reference the history of lynchings, considering both of his accusers are women of color." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As I recall, at least two of the women who accused Clarence High-Tech-Lynching Thomas of harassment were women of color. But the old Senate white guys fell for Thomas's umbrage, & the country has been paying for it ever since. P.S. I never got the "high-tech" part of it. What's high-tech about testifying before a Congressional committee? Cameras in the committee room maybe?

Way Beyond

Israel. David Halbfinger of the New York Times: Prime Minister Benjamin "Netanyahu, his future imperiled by prosecutors and political challengers alike, has enraged Jewish leaders in Israel and the United States by striking a bargain with a racist anti-Arab party whose ideology was likened by one influential rabbi to Nazism. Even pro-Israel groups in the United States that prefer to air their disagreements quietly have issued public condemnations. The furor has aggravated already fraught relations between Israel and Jews in the diaspora, undercutting American and European Jewry's efforts to fight anti-Semitism at a time when it is on the rise on both continents."

Brazil. Jaiana Cesar, et al. of The Intercept: "The repression of labor at Fiat Brazil [in the late 1970s] came thanks to coordination between the security apparatuses of the Brazilian government and a massive clandestine espionage network operated within the company itself.... Fiat's internal espionage division employed dozens of civilian and military spies who investigated the lives of workers and helped the abusive dictatorship put agitating workers behind bars.... While Fiat's network of spies operated far beyond the factory walls, closely tracking workers' activities, the company also invited government repression onto its premises.... Fiat's spying operation in Brazil had a parallel back home in Italy. Fiat engaged in the same pattern of espionage in Italy during the 'Years of Lead,' a time of Italian political and social turmoil in the that ran from the late 1960s through the late 1980s[.]" --s

The Silence of Bob Mueller

In the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai," based on a French novel, the commandant of a World War II Japanese prison camp in Burma orders British POWs to build a railway bridge across the River Kwai in order to connect Rangoon & Bangkok. The British POWs purposely do sloppy work in an attempt to sabotage the construction, but the main character, Lt. Col. Nicholson -- who is the senior British officer among the POWs -- wants to show the Japanese that the Brits are superior to the Japanese. He orders a couple of British engineers in the POW group to design a better bridge in a better place, then orders his men to build the bridge right, which they do. Just as the POWs complete the bridge, a group of British & American commandos parachutes in to plant explosives with the intention of destroying the bridge at the moment a group of Japanese dignitaries will cross it in a celebratory inauguration. Nicholson sees the detonation wires & tries, unsuccessfully, to stop the explosion.

Bob Mueller is beginning to seem a lot like Nicholson. As the President* of the United States runs amok on a daily basis, undermining the Constitution and its established institutions, degrading the Congress, the courts, the free press & human rights, Bob Mueller plugs along on his super-secret mission, releasing as little information as possible, thus hamstringing the Congress (especially now that a Democratic majority in the House could do something about President Run-Amok). Mueller's latest filing, 800+ pages condemning bit player Paul Manafort, does little or nothing to carry the story forward. While the country tumbles under Donald Trump's corrupt, authoritarian, right-wing regime, we find out Manafort is a "hardened" career criminal, something we already knew. And in the larger scheme of things, so what?

We are told that, like Lt. Col. Nicholson, Bob Mueller is an exemplary, by-the-books leader who is methodically building a perfect structure. Not a bridge, but a series of air-tight criminal cases. Right. Against an ambitious twerp named George Papadopoulos. Against a young Dutch national named Alex van der Zwaan. Against Rick Gates, Michael Cohen (on an SDNY referral) & Roger Stone. Against Russian hackers who never will face trial. The only person Mueller targeted -- as far as we know now -- who held a position of power within the U.S. government was Michael Flynn, and by the time Mueller obtained a guilty plea from him, Flynn too was a private citizen. Against Donald Trump., the leader of the criminal ring? Bupkis. Indicting the mob boss -- the one miscreant who holds great power -- would be wrong.

Bob Mueller received his appointment in mid-May 2017. It is impossible to believe it has taken him nearly two years to find evidence against Donald Trump, especially since Trump himself has so often volunteered that evidence and sent out pointers to even more criminal and corrupt activities. One could make a credible argument that Mueller is constrained by the special counsel's mandate. Or that he's trying to give us sneak peaks in his court filings. Isn't Mueller a citizen first, before he is special counsel? And if those sneak peaks are meant to be directional markers, why are Mueller's court filings so heavily redacted?

Lately I've been hearing, from Andrew McCabe, among others, that Bob Mueller loves investigating. Digging into the evidence to prove his case is Mueller's thing. Investigation is his milieu. He's a stickler for the rule of law. Well, that's very nice. Proving the British were superior to others was Nicholson's purpose. Building a better bridge was his method. Look how that worked out. While Mueller builds his cases against bit players, Donald Trump is expanding his criminal enterprise. While Mueller fiddles, the Trumpster fire is burning bright.

Bob Mueller owes us an indictment; if not a criminal indictment, then a sweeping indictment of Trump's conspiracy to turn the U.S. presidency into a personal fiefdom in which Mueller's vaunted rule of law is being employed as nothing but a means to punish Trump's perceived enemies.

It's high time to break your silence, Bob Mueller.

The Commentariat -- February 24, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump spent his Sunday morning in his own unique way, tweeting away about his admiration for the worst people in the world. This time it was North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whom Trump is scheduled to meet in Vietnam to discuss, as Trump put it, 'Denuclearization?' Boasting of his 'great relationship' with Kim, Trump called the brutal dictator an asset to his country with a potential for great things[.]... Conducting diplomacy with dictators is sometimes just part of the job, but Trump is unique in his insistence that the brutal dictators he's conducting diplomacy with are, in fact, good people.... Trump's admiration, he explained, stemmed from Kim's ability to consolidate power at such a young age -- something Kim was able to do through a campaign of assassinations and terror." ...

... Josh Smith & Hyonhee Shin of Reuters: "North Korea's state media criticized U.S. Democrats and American intelligence officials on Sunday for 'chilling the atmosphere' ahead of leader Kim Jong Un's second summit with ... Donald Trump this week.... In some parts, the article appeared to echo Trump's own recent talking points, which have blamed former President Barack Obama for taking the two countries to the brink of war.... One U.S. government Korea analyst ... said the commentary appeared aimed at softening Trump up ahead of the summit."

Connor O'Brien of Politico: "... Donald Trump is preparing to ask Congress for yet another increase in defense spending in the coming weeks. But his plan would evade federal budget limits by stashing nearly a quarter of that money in an off-the-books account -- and both Democrats and Republicans say it won't fly in Congress. The White House plans to stuff as much as $174 billion of its $750 billion request for national defense for the coming fiscal year into a special war fund, according to reports, allowing the administration to maintain its long-sought military buildup without violating a 2011 law aimed at reining in the deficit. The gimmick is especially striking given that Trump budget chief Mick Mulvaney once fought to limit the very same war account, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations fund." Mrs. McC: Guess we'll have to have a war against Mexico, so Trump can further fund wall."

"Eight Days in May." Jeff Toobin, in the New Yorker, writes a brief review of Andrew McCabe's book The Threat. "... anyone who has followed Trump will recognize the accuracy of the portrayal of him in 'The Threat.' And Trump's disrespect for the norms of American democracy extends well beyond his personal dishonesty and pettiness. It can be seen at the level of policy, too, and his transgressions in that realm are now threatening the constitutional order."

"We Shall Fight on the Beaches...." Quint Forgey of Politico: "House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff on Sunday threatened to call Robert Mueller to Capitol Hill and subpoena his investigative findings if Attorney General William Barr does not make public the special counsel's highly anticipated report. 'We will obviously subpoena the report. We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We will take it to court if necessary,' Schiff told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC's 'This Week.'"

Gregory Korte of USA Today: "A federal judge in Texas has declared that the all-male military draft is unconstitutional, ruling that 'the time has passed' for a debate on whether women belong in the military. The decision deals the biggest legal blow to the Selective Service System since the Supreme Court upheld the draft in 1981. In Rostker v. Goldberg, the court ruled that the male-only draft was 'fully justified' because women were ineligible for combat roles. But U.S. District Judge Gray Miller ruled late Friday that while historical restrictions on women serving in combat 'may have justified past discrimination,' men and women are now equally able to fight. In 2015, the Pentagon lifted all restrictions for women in military service. The case was brought by the National Coalition For Men, a men's rights group, and two men who argued the all-male draft was unfair." Miller is a Bush II appointee. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Um, did this fairly right-wing organization accidentally strike a blow for women's rights?

*****

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Chad Day & Eric Tucker of the AP: "Woven through thousands of court papers, the special counsel has made his public report. This is what it says." Read on. Mrs. McC: It's worth noting that much of what appears in the court documents relates, hardly surprisingly, to chargeable criminal activities. It's possible that Trump never did anything -- or at least not much -- that would elicit a guilty verdict in a court of law but that he did plenty that does rise to the level of "high crimes & misdemeanors."

The Company Trump Keeps. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is a 'hardened' criminal who 'repeatedly and brazenly violated the law,' prosecutors told a Washington federal judge. But they recommended no specific punishment for those crimes, saying that is the practice of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whose office brought the case. Prosecutors noted that federal guidelines call for a sentence of 17 to 22 years, although under Manafort's guilty plea in his D.C. case, the maximum he faces behind bars is 10. The special counsel team said it may ask for Judge Amy Berman Jackson to impose a sentence that runs after any prison time Manafort is given for related crimes in Virginia federal court. 'Manafort chose repeatedly and knowingly to violate the law,' prosecutors said, from 'garden-variety crimes such as tax fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and bank fraud' to 'more esoteric laws' involving foreign lobbying." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... The sentencing memo, which is here (via Axios), is more than 800 pages, mostly appendices. Adam Davidson of the New Yorker says there's nothing in it.

Ken Vogel & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "In the nearly two years that ... Robert S. Mueller III, has been investigating whether there was collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, few figures seem to have offered more tantalizing leads than Konstantin V. Kilimnik.... Mr. Kilimnik pops up repeatedly as a possible connection, with ties to both sides that are as enigmatic as they are deep.... Dozens of interviews, court filings and other documents show Mr. Kilimnik to be an operator who moved easily between Russian, Ukrainian and American patrons, playing one off the other while leaving a jumble of conflicting suspicions in his wake."

On the Mar-a-Lago Dessert Menu: Conspiracy Cake. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort appears to employ a pastry chef who frequently posts online about her belief in the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. Elizabeth Alfieri, a Florida pastry chef, has posted dozens of times on Instagram using QAnon hashtags and slogans, often using pictures taken at Mar-a-Lago itself. Alfieri's Instagram posts were first reported by 1100 Pennsylvania, a newsletter that reports on Trump's properties. On Christmas, for example, Alfieri posted an Instagram picture of a gingerbread house in what appears to be a Mar-a-Lago ballroom. The side of the gingerbread house is emblazoned with a 'Q' made of blue frosting and dusted with glitter." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps the most famous "presidential" cake -- up till now! -- is the Martha Washington cake. Hereinafter, it could be the Trump conspiracy cake: four cups of flour; five whites of goose eggs beaten to stiff peaks; too much sugar; a cup of Diet Coke to moisten; three cups of the nuttiest nuts; topped with 7-minute icing, glitterly blue"Q"s decorating the sides & three cups of finely shredded-orange peel arranged in a weird, thin bouffant.

Brian Faler & Aaron Lorenzo of Politico: "The average tax refund issued so far this year is down by 17 percent, the IRS said, a steep decline that promises more headaches for Republican lawmakers. The agency released data late Friday showing refunds are down for the third consecutive week, with the typical payment made through Feb. 15 totaling $2,703, compared to $3,256 during the same period last year. This filing season is the first under Republicans' overhaul of the tax code, and lawmakers have already been under fire as some taxpayers find their expected refunds smaller or gone altogether. The payments are sacrosanct to many Americans who rely on them to fill holes in their budgets.... Democrats ... have accused Republicans of manipulating people's withholding in order to boost workers' paychecks last year, ahead of the midterm elections, though that would sap their refunds come tax time. The House Ways and Means committee is planning to hold a hearing soon on the issue." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Bowden of the Hill: "The Pentagon announced Friday that it would direct an additional 1,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to install barbed wire along existing border fences. Defense officials said at a news briefing that the total size of the U.S. deployment of troops to the southern border would reach 6,000 by March 1, with 140 miles of additional concertina wire to be installed.... The news came as Pentagon officials on Friday also refused to say whether the Defense Department would seek congressional approval to appropriate billions of dollars for President Trump's project to construct a wall along the border. 'It has been the practice of the Department of Defense to request approval and it's not required by law,' an official told reporters when asked whether the department would move forward without congressional approval." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Okeson of DC Report: "The Trump administration has drawn up plans for another tent city for migrant children in Texas [at& Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo] that would hold up to 7,500 children in a camp built on or next to a former dump and not far from Superfund sites.... 'Public records show the migrant children&'s housing site proposed for Goodfellow will be built atop a former landfill, in an area riddled with lead, benzene, and other chemicals particularly hazardous to children,' said Lisa Evans, an attorney for Earthjustice. A health department spokesman said the Goodfellow site and other proposed sites in Arkansas and Texas are not under active consideration at this time. Our nation's only temporary camp for immigrant children is now in Homestead, Fla., near another Air Force Base. State child welfare regulations don't apply to the camp." --s

Melanie Zanona of Politico: "House Democrats are laying the groundwork to subpoena the Trump administration for a trove of documents relating to its controversial migrant family separation policy at the border.... The House Oversight Committee will vote next Tuesday to authorize three subpoenas for the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human Services, teeing up the first subpoena of the panel's new Democratic majority." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump's pick for ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Knight Craft, is a major supporter with deep ties to the coal industry who has argued that 'both sides' of the climate science debate are equally valid." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: And you know there is not a chance the Coal Queen won't be confirmed. Senators unanimously confirmed her by voice vote as ambassador to Canada. Jen Kirby of Vox says she may have a bit more trouble this time around: Her both-siderism on climate change "is sure to worry Democrats, and will likely be a topic at her confirmation hearing -- especially since combatting climate change is among the UN's major goals." Once again, the U.S. will be a major international embarrassment.

Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) claimed the Green New Deal -- a plan to rapidly decarbonize the entire economy -- would 'outlaw plane travel.' But while the resolution ... makes no such claim, it does fail to consider a game-changing technology for cutting the carbon pollution caused by air travel while still traveling by air: electric planes.... Norway ... anticipates starting passenger flights on electric planes by 2025. The country, also a leader in the use of electric vehicles, is aiming for all short-haul air travel to be completely electric by 2040.... Seattle-based airplane manufacturer Zunum Aero['s] ... CEO and founder Ashish Kumar says their 'roadmap would place aviation on path to eliminate all short-haul emissions by 2040, equating to 50 percent of all emissions from the sector, aligned with the goal set by Norway.'" --s ...

... Feinstein's Hollow I-Know-What-I'm-Doing Defense. Bill McKibben in the New Yorker: On Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told off a group of young people -- one as young as seven -- who met with her in support of the Green New Deal. Her argument: "You know what's interesting about this group? I've been doing this for thirty years. I know what I'm doing. You come in here and you say, 'It has to be my way or the highway.'" I don't respond to that. I've gotten elected, I just ran, I was elected by almost a million-vote plurality. And I know what I'm doing. So, you know, maybe people should listen a little bit." McKibben: "The irony is that, when Feinstein said she's been 'doing this for thirty years,' she described the precise time period during which we could have acted. James Hansen brought the climate question to widespread attention with his congressional testimony in 1988. If we'd moved thirty years ago, moderate steps of the kind that Feinstein proposes would have been enough to change our trajectory. But that didn't get done, in large part because oil and gas companies that have successfully gamed our political system didn't want it to get done. And the legislators didn't do anywhere near enough to fight them."

Presidential Race. How Not to Kick Off a Campaign. John Bowden of The Hill: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Friday that Native Americans should be 'part of the conversation' on reparations.... Warren's remarks came as she continues to navigate blowback from her previous claims to Native American heritage. She apologized earlier this month for previously identifying as Native American. Warren, who also apologized recently to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test to show that she had Native American ancestry, said the apology was meant to include identifying herself as Native American while a professor at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.... Warren previously indicated support, along with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), for reparations for black Americans affected by slavery. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro also suggested support for reparations for black Americans." --s

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Even before Democrats finish draftin bills to create a single-payer health care system, the health care and insurance industries have assembled a small army of lobbyists to kill 'Medicare for all,' an idea that is mocked publicly but is being greeted privately with increasing seriousness. ctors, hospitals, drug companies and insurers are intent on strangling Medicare for all before it advances from an aspirational slogan to a legislative agenda item. They have hired a top lieutenant in Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign [-- Lauren Crawford Shaver< --] to spearhead the effort. And their tactics will show Democrats what they are up against as the party drifts to the left on health care." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Shaver's campaign job, according to Pear, was "to put marginal states into play." How'd that work out?

William Pitt of TruthOut: "If Donald Trump is the Devil waiting at that moonlit crossroads to tune our guitar at the cost of our souls, Mitch McConnell drove him there and paid for the gas.... McConnell was featured in a recent Wall Street Journal article about ... the mainstreaming of progressive policy initiatives. 'I can pretty safely say,' he declared, 'this is the first time in my political career that I thought the essence of America was being debated.'... That essence -- the belief that the nation and its population are a gilded platter to be gorged upon, a fertile field to be plundered and despoiled for profit with the people serving as replaceable tools for the aristocracy -- is McConnell's poisoned birthright, and he defends it with all the powers at his disposal, just as his colonial predecessors did. By recognizing this, we recognize Mitch, and all who rally to his banner.... McConnell's 'essence' is a con, a sham history inflicted upon us from our first kindergarten recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance: 'With liberty and justice for all.'... Men like Mitch McConnell flee the very notion of those six words, because at the far end of the struggle for equality lurks a bill to be paid. Nothing so final as a guillotine awaits them at the conclusion; merely a sharing of power and wealth, of rights and privileges, which is anathema to them and their rampant belief in their own superiority." --s

Follow the Money. Lucky Lindsey Hit the Jackpot. Mrs. McCrabbie: Last week I opined that the reason Lindsey Graham had gone from Trump-eating mad dog to Trump lapdog was because Lindsey had an election coming up. Well, Ken W. did some excavating & found an even more likely reason, espoused in a story published last September: "The Intellectualist, a left-leaning news aggregator, points out that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has received at least $800,000 in campaign donations from a man with ties to Putin-allied oligarchs, which could explain why the Senator has been increasingly supportive of President Trump lately.... [The megadonor, Len] Blavatnik, and oligarch Viktor Vekselberg met attending university in Russia years ago, and together they now own a 20.5% stake in Rusal, oligarch Oleg Deripaska's aluminum company." Look for Russian cutouts like Blavatnik to tame other prominent GOP Trump critics. Moscow on the Potomac is looking more & more likely.

Juan Cole: "American television news, having fainted with the vapors at the very idea that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) might openly say that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobby for Israel that directs money to the campaigns of American politicians, has abruptly fallen silent on the issue of Israel's prime minister openly allying with a party [the Kahanist 'Jewish Power' (Otzma Yehudit) Party] linked to a tendency known for its stone racism.... Kahane's Jewish Defense League was considered the most dangerous terrorist group in the US by the FBI in the 1970s and 1980s.... Jewish Power calls for the ethnic cleansing of the 20% of the Israeli population that is of Palestinian heritage.... If Netanyahu is prime minister again in coalition with Kahanists, the Israel lobbies will suck it up and find some way to praise the Kahanists and seek to stop anyone from criticizing them. Apparently they can get 70 senators to join them in taking any ridiculous stance." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: "A newspaper in a small city in Alabama that drew condemnation over an editorial calling for the Ku Klux Klan to 'ride again' has a new editor and publisher: a 46-year-old black woman. The new editor,Elecia R. Dexter, is taking over The Democrat-Reporter, a weekly newspaper serving Linden in western Alabama.... The newspaper's longtime editor, Goodloe Sutton, who is white, stepped down this week amid widespread criticism of an editorial he wrote railing against 'Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats' and calling for the return of the most infamous white supremacist group in the nation's history. In an interview with The Montgomery Advertiser, he went even further, suggesting that the Klan 'go up there and clean out D.C.'... After the editorial was published, [Ms. Dexter] said, she and Mr. Sutton had a 'very open and direct dialogue.' She was debating whether to stay in [her clerical] job [at the paper] when he offered to turn the newspaper over to her, she said."

Kansas. The Art of the Shame. Aris Folley of The Hill: "A Kansas state lawmaker [Ron Highland (R)] issued a public apology this week after his daughter penned an open letter publicly condemning his decision to back an anti-LGBT bill.... The lawmaker's comments came after his daughter, Christel Highland, posted an open letter Wednesday on Facebook asking the Kansas Republican why he would 'openly attempt at policy that elevates hate and hurts my family or friends.'... 'I love you, I always will, in spite of your flaws,' she wrote. 'I cannot, however, condone your cruel actions. Shame on you.' Shortly after the letter was released, Highland's father said that his decision to back the legislation 'was a mistake.' House Bill 2320, the legislation at the center of the controversy, characterizes same-sex marriages as 'parody marriages'[.]" --s

Mississippi. Joshua Eaton of ThinkProgress: "A pro-Confederate rally Saturday at the University of Mississippi, or 'Ole Miss,' in the town of Oxford, claimed to be a defense of Southern heritage instead of racism. It also began with a prayer of thanks to Southern plantation owners for teaching 'heathen' Africans about Christianity." --s...

...The Daily Beast: "Several Ole Miss basketball players knelt during the national anthem Saturday afternoon, before a game against the University of Georgia that was played about a mile away from a Mississippi pro-Confederacy rally." --s

North Carolina. John Bowden of the Hill: "A judge in North Carolina on Friday tossed out the state's constitutional amendment requiring a voter ID, citing prevalent gerrymandering in the state's General Assembly. Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins wrote in a ruling late Friday afternoon that the North Carolina General Assembly is so gerrymandered that its members do not truly represent the state's residents and thus should never have proposed a voter ID amendment in the first place. 'An illegally constituted General Assembly does not represent the people of North Carolina and is therefore not empowered to pass legislation that would amend the state's constitution,' Collins wrote. Collins also tossed out a second Republican-backed amendment implementing a cap on the state's income tax." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Alan Blinder & Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Republican politicians across the country have for years railed against the threat of voter fraud. Some have made unproven claims about how rampant it has become in order to pass voter ID laws and open sweeping investigations. The sanctity of the vote, they have said, must be protected at all costs. But when a hard-fought congressional election in North Carolina -- in which a Republican candidate appeared to narrowly beat his Democratic opponent -- was overturned this week because of election fraud by a Republican political operative, the party was measured, and largely muted, in its response." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Italy. Hannah Levintova of Mother Jones: "A bombshell investigation published Friday by Italy's L'Espresso magazine reveals a plot that might sound familiar. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of the hard-right Lega Nord party, L'Espresso reports, last year sought a 3 million euro funding commitment from Kremlin-linked entities to finance his political campaign. The scheme, reportedly organized by a loyal aide and former spokesman to Salvini named Gianluca Savoini, enabled the money to flow to Lega Nord covertly, tucked behind an ordinary-seeming oil export deal between Italian and Russian companies.... There is no clear indication of whether this money ever actually made its way to Salvini and his party.... L'Espresso reports that the deal came to be in October 2018 when Salvini, a self-proclaimed fan of Trump and an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made an official trip to Moscow, disappearing after a press conference and mysteriously ditching his Italian press pool only to reappear the next morning.... The next day, reporters overheard Savoini take part in a hotel meeting with Russian oil executives working out the details of a deal that would for a year send 250,000 euros monthly to the Lega Nord, disguised as diesel sales[.]" --s

Venezuela. Mariana Zuñiga, et al., of the Washington Post: "A massive effort to break President Nicolás Maduro's blockade of humanitarian aid descended into violence and chaos Saturday across the string of border flash points -- showing both the growing defiance of Juan Guaidó and the U.S.-backed opposition but also Maduro's willingness to fight back. In a day of fast-moving developments..., anti-Maduro crowds at a Colombian border town faced tear gas fired by Venezuelan units, cheered as dozens of Venezuelan security forces switched sides and tried to rescue desperately needed aid packages from burning trucks. In all, 285 people were injured and 37 hospitalized on the Colombian side of the border, according to Colombia's foreign minister. At least four were killed on the Venezuela-Brazil border after clashing with pro-government militias. In the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, the embattled Maduro danced at a pro-government rally, mocked the United States and broke off ties with neighboring Colombia. Late in the day, Venezuelan navy vessels threatened to open fire on a ship carrying 200 tons of aid from Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, governor of Puerto Rico, said in a statement. He said he had ordered the vessels to abandon the area temporarily, decrying the threat as 'unacceptable.'"