;)
The Commentariat -- January 24, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
The Washington Post is live-blogging shutdown developments today. Trump's bill failed 50-47 to reach cloture.
Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday subpoenaed Michael Cohen.... The move comes a day after Cohen delayed his public testimony before the House Oversight Committee over alleged 'ongoing threats against his family from President Trump' and members of his legal team, Cohen attorney Lanny Davis said in a statement Wednesday." Mrs. McC: Per on-air MSNBC reports, the Senate committee is requiring Cohen to testify in mid-February.
Greg Sargent: "Pundits can claim all they want that Pelosi is being 'as petty as Trump' [in disinviting him to deliver his SOTU address during his shutdown], as if this is all just a matter of interpersonal conduct. That objection is now irrelevant: What really matters is that Trump will not deliver the speech. He will not use this ceremony as a platform to browbeat Democrats or to spread gales of disinformation about the shutdown and about the wall fantasies driving it. He will not use its pomp and elevating power to, in effect, launder his profound bad faith and the resulting deep imbalance of the situation. Perhaps the only antidote to the false-equivalence fog machine is the reality of power -- the power of 'no.' I don't mean to overstate the long-term significance of this capitulation. Instead, my point is that it gets at the deeper problem we all face here: Trump and his GOP enablers are proceeding as if the 2018 elections never happened.... This is the whole reason for shutting down the government: To break the influence that the Democratic House has over whether Trump's wall will be funded, by threatening severe harm to the country until Democrats rubber stamp what he's demanding.... The true nature of the staggering malevolence driving Trump's misconduct here is also being obscured by a great deal of both-sides media coverage." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As you know, this is nothing new. From Day 1 of the Obama presidency, Mitch McConnell & his ilk wanted to pretend a Democrat president did not exist, right down to deciding a Democratic president did not have the right to naming a Supreme Court nominee more than a year before the end of his administration.
Sylvan Lane of the Hill: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that he was confused why thousands of federal workers, who've already missed one paycheck, are relying on food banks during the partial government shutdown. Ross said on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' that he didn't understand why some of the roughly 800,000 unpaid federal workers have flocked to food banks for meals instead of taking out loans against back pay guaranteed by a bill President Trump signed last week. 'I know they are and I don't really quite understand why,' said Ross, who's reportedly worth roughly $700 million.... Hundreds of banks and credit unions have offered low- or no-interest loans against back pay to federal workers who will not be paid until the shutdown ends. But thousands of those employees are still struggling to cover basic expenses, and furloughed federal contractors may not receive backpay at all." ...
... Katie Galiato of Politico: "Gary Cohn, the former top economic adviser to ... Donald Trump, told MSNBC on Thursday that his former boss has 'got to get the government open' and allow a steady flow of immigrants into the U.S. to maintain economic growth. Cohn, a former executive at Goldman Sachs, was director of the National Economic Council until earlier this year, when he stepped down amid disagreements over the president's tariff policies.... 'We have over 7 million job openings. We have less than 7 million unemployed people in the United States,' he said on MSNBC. 'If we want to continue to grow our economy, there's only one way to do it -- allow immigrants into the country.' Cohn, who last week called the shutdown 'completely wrong' in an interview with The Boston Globe, added that negotiations should wait until the shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history and in its 34th day, is resolved."
Sam Blum of Popular Mechanics: "Speaking on Monday at an award ceremony in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., [Association of Flight Attendants union President Sara] Nelson suggested the collective power of furloughed workers and their allies could potentially signal the end of the longest government shutdown in the country's history: 'Almost a million workers are locked out or being forced to work without pay. Others are going to work when our workspace is increasingly unsafe. What is the Labor Movement waiting for? Go back with the Fierce Urgency of NOW to talk with your Locals and International unions about all workers joining together - To End this Shutdown with a General Strike....' Though the AFA does not represent employees impacted by the federal government's shutdown, Nelson advocated the cause for a general strike as a matter of solidarity, citing the 800,000 caught in the crosshairs as the deadlock continues in Washington." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's a pretty good idea. Federal employees can't strike, but members of private-sector unions can. If the flight attendants & pilots walked out for a few days, grounding almost all U.S. commercial flights, Trump & McConnell might get off their asses. It should not have to come to that, but most of what's going on in Right Wing World should not be happening now. ...
.. Brian Faler of Politico: "The IRS is facing tax season amid the shutdown with new rules that could complicate filing for millions of Americans -- and a potential shortage of workers to handle the returns -- raising the possibility of refund delays and angry taxpayers. As it prepares to accept 2018 filings beginning Monday, the administration has recalled tens of thousands of IRS employees, but there are already signs that some will be no-shows because they're facing the prospect of working without pay. An IRS union says some are taking advantage of rules allowing them to stay home if they face financial hardships. The public, meanwhile, will be filing for the first time under Republicans' sweeping tax overhaul, H.R. 1, and many will surely be confused by changes made as part of the biggest tax code rewrite in a generation. At the same time, even experts are unsure whether workers have had the correct amount of taxes withheld from their paychecks, which could mean that many people accustomed to receiving refunds may instead owe the IRS. 'The politicians are playing with dynamite if something goes wrong during filing season,' said former IRS Commissioner Larry Gibbs.... 'If you don't pay refunds to people who are expecting them on a timely basis, all hell breaks loose.'"
*****
The Trump Shutdown, Month Two, Ctd.
Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "House Democratic leaders said on Wednesday that they were prepared to offer President Trump a substantial sum of money for border security ... but not for a wall and not until he agreed to reopen the government. 'We are going to be talking about substantial sums of money to secure our border,' Representative Steny D. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic leader, told reporters. Representative James E. Clyburn, the No 3. Democrat, told reporters separately that Democrats could back a $5.7 billion funding measure that included drones and refitted ports of entry -- but no wall. That is the amount Mr. Trump has demanded for the wall he wants to build on the southwestern border. 'Using the figure the president put on the table, if his $5.7 billion is about border security, then we see ourselves fulfilling that request, only doing it with what I like to call using a smart wall,' he said." ...
... Update. New Lede: "President Trump said late Wednesday that he would deliver his State of the Union address once the federal government reopens, capping a day of brinkmanship with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who told the president that he was not welcome to deliver the speech in the House chamber while the government is partly closed. 'As the Shutdown was going on, Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter shortly after 11 p.m., hours after he had said he would look for another venue for the speech. 'I agreed. She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative - I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: "She's a silly girl. You can't expect her to be consistent. I'm being a rational gentleman, because there's no point in battling a silly girl over an ultimately unimportant matter." Subtext: "She's got me by the balls on this. Uncle!" ...
... A Fence by Any Other Name Is Still a Fence. Jose Del Real of the New York Times: "For nearly a year, President Trump has pointed with pride to a renovation project replacing two miles of border fencing in Calexico[, California]. He hailed it as 'the start of our Southern Border WALL!' -- to the great consternation of many of the town's residents, who are wary of becoming the public face of a hard-line immigration policy that most here do not agree with. The attention the president's tweet brought was surreal, in part because the construction replaced an unsightly stretch of steel fencing that was already there.... For many [Calexico residents], a sense of apprehension turned to anger when the military installed barbed wire on top of older border fencing, which runs through downtown. 'This community is basically being used for political purposes,' said [Maritza] Hurtado, who served as the town's mayor until December. 'And it's happening throughout these border cities that are just like ours.'" Hurtado said the Border Patrol came to the town three times to explain that the replace fence was not "the wall." "And then here comes Trump and says, 'It's the wall!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Aris Folley of the Hill: "A man from San Antonio [-- Manuel Lopez, Jr.,] has organized a 'search party' dedicated to finding a wall in the city that President Trump referenced over the weekend. While speaking to reporters on Saturday, Trump boasted about the effectiveness of border walls while specifically mentioning San Antonio. 'Everybody knows that walls work,' Trump said at the time. 'You look at San Antonio, you look at so many different places. They go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities, immediately.' The Houston Chronicle points out that while San Antonio's overall crime rate has gone down in recent years, it cannot be attributed to any type of border wall. The city is roughly 150 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: As I recall, there is a wall around the Alamo, which is kind of fitting inasmuch as Trump is treating his stupid wall as if he were Davy Crockett making a last stand at the Alamo. ...
... Matthew Choi of Politico: "One of ... Donald Trump's top advisers said on Wednesday that the partial government shutdown could suffocate the economy this quarter if it persists, leading to zero percent growth. As the shutdown stretches into the 33rd day and roughly 800,000 federal employees are poised to miss a second paycheck, Kevin Hassett told CNN that the shutdown could contribute to a dramatic drop in gross domestic product growth." Mrs. McC: Yes, but it's nice to know that as the economy tanks, so many federal employees are enjoying the vacation Hassett was touting a few weeks back. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... BUT Trump Doesn't Care. Damian Paletta & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has pressed agency leaders to provide him with a list of the highest-impact programs that will be jeopardized if the shutdown continues into March and April, people familiar with the directive said.... It's the firmest evidence to date that the White House is preparing for a lengthy funding lapse that could have snowballing consequences for the economy and government services." Mrs. McC: Mitch McConnell, you'd better be working up a veto-proof deal. ...
... OR Maybe Mitch Is Good with the Forever Shutdown. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked legislation on Wednesday that would reopen most of the government currently closed during the partial shutdown. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) went to the Senate floor to ask for consent to take up the House-passed bill that would fund every agency and department impacted by the partial shutdown, except the Department of Homeland Security, through Sept. 30. McConnell, however, objected. It's the fourth time he's blocked the bill to reopen most of government. He has als blocked, as recently as Tuesday, a House-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8. Democrats have been coming to the floor on a near-daily basis while the Senate is in session to try to bring up the House package, even though the GOP leader has said he will not allow them to come to the Senate floor." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rachel Maddow sort of obliquely suggested someone else who might be good with the forever shutdown of the U.S. government: Vladimir Putin. Just sayin'. ...
... "Do I Really Look Like a Guy with a Plan?" Jonathan Chait: "If Trump extracts a win from his shutdown, he will immediately start plotting out his demands for the next one." Chait compares Trump to the Joker character in the Batman film "The Dark Knight." It ain't just Trump, either: "Republicans are inherently more suspicious than Democrats of political compromise.... Republicans in Congress have found it difficult to negotiate anything, especially on a bipartisan basis, without angering their compromise-hating base. And so the party has developed an attraction to hostage-taking as a means of achieving its goals. The distinction between hostage-taking and normal negotiating is that it involves taking steps that the hostage-taker agrees are harmful, in order to leverage concessions." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: While it certainly seems expedient to let Trump think he won -- even if he didn't -- so he can go stand in the desert in front of wall, Chait suggests that anything Trump can spin into a win is a mistake. Ergo, IMO, the $5.7BB in border security Democrats are floating now might be a mistake. On the other hand, all this assumes Trump is a rational person who learns to behave better after someone foils one of his diabolical desires. There is zero evidence for that. Last night, someone talked him into pretending to be semi-gracious & semi-reasonable in accepting defeat in the SOTU-speech standoff, but it won't take him long to come up with petty, destructive schemes to retaliate against "Nancy," schemes that likely will have the significant side-effect of hurting millions of Americans. We have a monster for president*, backed by a coterie of demons. ...
... Denver Post Editors: "Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner's spokesman told us Wednesday he intends to vote for a clean funding bill that would open the government with no increased border-security funding attached. It's the right thing to do.... When we allow funding measures and budgets to be tied to policy objectives and pet projects, everyone suffers.... This 33-day, partial shutdown is driven by ... Donald Trump's demands for $5.7 billion for a wall on America's southern border. It should stand as the last time our politicians abuse federal workers as though they are disposable pawns in a grander game of political chess."
Daily Beast: "Former White House chief of staff John Kelly, along with four other former Homeland Security secretaries, has called on President Trump to end the partial government shutdown in order to ensure national security.... 'We call on our elected leaders to restore the funding necessary to ensure our homeland remains safe and that the Department's critical national security functions continue without compromise.' The letter was reportedly signed by Kelly, Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano, and Jeh Johnson." Mrs. McC: The lede is misleading. Not surprisingly, the former DHS secretaries blame both sides; the lede suggests they put the responsibility solely on Trump. They didn't.
Association of Flight Attendants: "On Day 33 of the government shutdown, National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Paul Rinaldi, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) President Joe DePete, and Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) President Sara Nelson released the following statement: 'We have a growing concern for the safety and security of our members, our airlines, and the traveling public due to the government shutdown.... Staffing in our air traffic control facilities is already at a 30-year low and controllers are only able to maintain the system's efficiency and capacity by working overtime, including 10-hour days and 6-day workweeks at many of our nation's busiest facilities." ...
... "Will Work for Pay." Marissa Lang of the Washington Post: "On the 33rd day of a partial government shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands without pay, union leaders and furloughed federal workers marched into the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday and demanded a meeting. When office staff refused, a dozen of them took a seat in the hallway outside.... U.S. Capitol Police officers arrested 12 protesters for staging a sit-in outside McConnell's office. They were pulled up from the floor and led away, their arms zip-tied behind their backs. Each was charged with a misdemeanor. The frenzied scene outside McConnell's office -- where a dozen protesters continued to chant 'We want to work' and 'Where is Mitch?' -- was the climax to an afternoon of protests and confrontations meant to draw attention to the growing desperation of federal workers.... The protest, led by several unions that represent furloughed federal employees and out-of-work contractors, drew hundreds of workers to Capitol Hill. About 800,000 furloughed workers will face the loss of a second paycheck on Friday."
Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump said he would look for alternative venues for his State of the Union address on Tuesday, appearing to capitulate after Speaker Nancy Pelosi again told him she would not invite him to deliver it at the House until the government reopens. The decision came after a tit-for-tat between Mr. Trump and Ms. Pelosi over the State of the Union address. Mr. Trump told Ms. Pelosi on Wednesday that he would deliver the speech in the Capitol next week as originally scheduled. Ms. Pelosi fired back that he was not welcome unless the government was fully open. It had concluded, at least by late afternoon, with Mr. Trump declaring at the White House, 'The State of the Union has been canceled by Nancy Pelosi because she doesn't want to hear the truth.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Congratulations, Donald; that's two lies in one sentence. Pelosi did not cancel the SOTU address; she just said he couldn't give it in the House of Representatives. And her reason for denying Trump the accommodation was that he shut down the government, not that she was afraid to hear all the true things she expected to come from the mouth of a man who has lied more than 8,000 times during his presidency*. In yesterday's commentary, Akhilleus had some excellent suggestions for alternate venues. ...
... See update to Sheryl Stolberg's story, linked above, for Trump's capitulation.
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday she will block President Trump from delivering the State of the Union address in the House chamber until the government reopens, rejecting the president's demand to deliver the speech on Jan. 29. In a letter to Trump, Pelosi said she would not move forward with the legislative steps needed for the address to take place. 'The House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the president's State of the Union address in the House chamber until government has opened,' she wrote. By refusing to schedule a vote on the resolution, Pelosi is preventing Congress from meeting in a joint session for the purpose of hearing Trump's address.... [The letter] comes just hours after Trump informed her in a letter that he would move ahead and deliver the address at the Capitol on the 29th, essentially daring the Speaker to scrap his plans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Anthony Salvanto, et al., of CBS News: "Seven in 10 Americans don't think the issue of a border wall is worth a government shutdown, which they say is now having a negative impact on the country. But partisans don't want their own side to budge: 65 percent of Republicans say President Trump should refuse a budget unless it includes wall funding, and 69 percent of Democrats think congressional Democrats should keep refusing to fund it. Among Americans overall, and including independents, more want to see Mr. Trump give up wall funding than prefer the congressional Democrats agree to wall funding. Comparably more Americans feel House Speaker Pelosi is handling negotiations better than the president is so far." ...
... Steve Peoples & Emily Swanson of the AP: "A strong majority of Americans blame ... Donald Trump for the record-long government shutdown and reject his primary rationale for a border wall, according to a new poll that shows the turmoil in Washington is dragging his approval rating to its lowest level in more than a year. Overall, 34 percent of Americans approve of Trump's job performance in a survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That's down from 42 percent a month earlier and nears the lowest mark of his two-year presidency. The president's approval among Republicans remains close to 80 percent, but his standing with independents is among its lowest points of his time in office." ...
... Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump's disapproval rating is at an all-time high amid a historically long partial government shutdown and concerns about the president's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll. Nearly 6-in-10 voters -- 57 percent -- disapprove of Trump's job performance, compared to the 40 percent that approve. In addition, 54 percent of voters blame Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill for the government shutdown. Only 35 percent blame congressional Democrats." Mrs. McC: Forty percent of adult Americans are stupid and/or irresponsibly uninformed.
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Paul Manafort's lawyers on Wednesday strongly disputed claims by prosecutors working for the special counsel that Mr. Manafort repeatedly lied to them, including about the transfer of campaign polling data to a Russian citizen with ties to Kremlin-run intelligence services in spring 2016. The lawyers argued in a new court filing [which is heavily redacted] that the prosecutors had wrongly interpreted honest memory lapses and innocent misstatements by Mr. Manafort as deliberate attempts to deceive them about his interactions with the Russian citizen, Konstantin Kilimnik, who received the polling data in 2016 as Donald J. Trump was closing in on the Republican presidential nomination.... Judge [Amy] Jackson has scheduled a hearing for Friday on the prosecutors' accusations." Mrs. McC: Hey, he's an old man. He's rotting in jail. He's been doing this stuff for years, lying to everybody. Don't expect him to remember all the shady stuff he pulled.
Darren Samuelsohn & Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen is trying to delay his public testimony before the House Oversight Committee, with Cohen's lawyer citing 'ongoing threats against his family' and his continued cooperation with investigators. Cohen had been scheduled to testify on Feb. 7 at the highly anticipated hearing, which his attorney Lanny Davis noted he had voluntarily agreed to. But because of the threats, which Davis alleges came from Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani 'as recently as this weekend,' and because of Cohen's 'continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen's appearance will be postponed to a later date,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Maggie Haberman: "Mr. Trump denied that he was outright threatening his former lawyer, telling reporters in the White House that Mr. Cohen has 'only been threatened by the truth.' [Rep. Elijah] Cummings said that Mr. Cohen had 'legitimate concerns' for his family's safety. 'Efforts to intimidate witnesses, scare their family members, or prevent them from testifying before Congress are textbook mob tactics that we condemn in the strongest terms,' he said in a joint statement with Representative Adam Schiff, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.... Mr. Trump has repeatedly suggested on Twitter that Mr. Cohen's family members be investigated. In a recent interview with Jeanine Pirro, the Fox News host..., he called for Mr. Cohen's father-in-law to be investigated without citing details."
Gail Collins: "There are a lot of theories about why Rudy Giuliani is still Donald Trump's lawyer. Maybe his crazed, contradictory rantings are a canny plot to confuse the public about what's actually going on with the president's Russia-connection scandal. Or maybe the fact that Giuliani works for free is more attractive than the fact that he does a dreadful job. Or maybe it's just that he is the one person who makes Trump look good.... The depressing part is that this is just one more piece of evidence that Donald Trump surrounds himself with people who have both terrible judgment and terrible aptitude for the jobs they're supposed to be doing."
Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into the White House security clearance process, an inquiry that promises to put a spotlight on how ... Jared Kushner overcame concerns to gain access to highly classified information.... Last February, NBC News reported that more than 130 political appointees working in the Executive Office of the President did not have permanent security clearances as of November 2017, including the president's daughter Ivanka; Kushner, her husband; and the president's top legal counsel. Kushner has since obtained a clearance, according to his lawyer, despite reports that he has been targeted for manipulation by foreign governments. [Committee Chairman Elijah] Cummings [D-Md.] said he is seeking documents relevant to the NBC news report." ...
... Rachel Bade of Politico: "House Democratic investigators launched a probe on Wednesday into the Trump administration's use of security clearances and temporary security clearances, accusing the White House of playing fast and loose with the nation&'s most guarded secrets. Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings laid out lines of inquiry on the matter in a letter to the White House, naming former national security adviser Michael Flynn and top officials who he wrote should have raised red flags. The panel will press the White House to provide Congress with information about how and why it issued some security clearances, which Democrats note is required under federal law. Democrats have said the White House has so far refused to provide that information." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: And while they're at it, they should look into Trump's use of unsecured phones, including the device he calls "the flat one," which might have a phone app." ...
... Andrew Desiderio & Anita Kumar of Politico: "... Donald Trump's administration has known for months that House Democrats would be aggressive in wielding their oversight powers this year. But its scattershot response to the first inquiries has left the distinct impression that the White House doesn't have a serious plan for how to deal with the onslaught of investigations to come, according to multiple lawmakers and people close to the White House."
Kevin Poulsen of The Daily Beast: "Russian oligarchs and Kremlin apparatchiks may find the tables turned on them later this week when a new leak site unleashes a compilation of hundreds of thousands of hacked emails and gigabytes of leaked documents. Think of it as WikiLeaks, but without Julian Assange's aversion for posting Russian secrets. The site, Distributed Denial of Secrets, was founded last month by transparency activists." -s
Vanity Fair has published an excerpt of Cliff Sim's insider book on the dysfunctional Trump White House. "A particular case in point involves Kellyanne Conway.... (Though it was really Jared Kushner, if anyone, who was actually in charge.) As counselor to the president, Kellyanne managed to land a job with no fixed responsibilities.... Early on she was content -- very content -- to sit back, go on TV, and let rivals eat one another alive. And she was predictably resentful of both Ivanka and Jared's immovable status in Trump’s orbit.... It became hard to look long at her without getting the sense that she was a cartoon villain brought to life." Simms relates an episode in which, for a short time, he could read her text messages: 'Over the course of 20 minutes or so, she was having simultaneous conversations with no fewer than a half-dozen reporters, most of them from outlets the White House frequently trashed for publishing "fake news." Journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Politico, and Bloomberg were all popping up on the screen. And these weren't policy conversations, or attempts to fend off attacks on the president. As I sat there trying to type, she bashed Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and Sean Spicer, all by name.... She was talking about [Trump] like a child she had to set straight." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Many have wondered how the Conway marriage works, what with George's often bashing Trump & Co. on Twitter. It would seem the marriage works because the couple is largely in agreement.
White House for Sale. Michelle Ruiz of Vogue: "[T]here are new reasons to suspect that Ivanka [Trump]'s business dealings could potentially pose a conflict of interest with her official White House role: On Sunday, the Chinese government awarded Ivanka's now-defunct company four new trademarks (including for wedding dresses, sunglasses, and, um, child-care centers), in addition to a fifth that applies to art valuation services and charitable fundraising that was approved on January 6. The timing is terribly convenient -- coming just as President Trump has begun engaging in negotiations with China amid the ongoing trade war.... This isn't the first time the First Daughter's dealings in China have overlapped with government action." --s
Mrs. McCrabbie: Here are a couple of things you probably didn't know about Pat Cipollone, the new White House counsel: he's a graduate of Covington High School, "Fox News' Laura Ingraham has called Cipollone her 'godfather' and 'spiritual mentor' because he helped the conservative commentator convert to Catholicism in 2002, according to The Post." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.
** Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Drought in Central America has helped spur refugees to our southern border, the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) said in a major report recently released to Congress. But, as the GAO also warned, the Trump administration has stopped efforts by the State Department, begun under President Barack Obama, that were aimed at addressing the nexus between climate change and migration.... The bottom line is clear: The worse climate change is the more refugees the United States will see, but Trump is not only pushing policies that will make climate change worse, he wants to stop federal agencies from even thinking about and planning for climate refugees." --s
Akela Lacy of The Intercept: "The Trump administration on Wednesday made a quiet move that opens the door for the religious right to use the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act to discriminate against able foster parents whose religious views are in conflict with those of an agency. On the 33rd day of the government shutdown, Steven Wagner, principal deputy assistant secretary at the Health and Human Services Administration..., signed a waiver giving special permission to a federally funded Protestant foster care agency in South Carolina to break federal and state law, using strict religious requirements to deny Jewish, Muslim, and Catholic parents from fostering children in its network." --s
Matthew Chapman of Alternet: "On Wednesday, a report from the Anti-Defamation League documented every known extremist killing in the United States in 2018. And according to its findings, right-wing extremists were responsible for every single one[.]... Since ... Donald Trump was elected, the number of hate crimes has risen sharply. In addition to violent rhetoric about his political opponents, Trump and his GOP allies have fanned the flames of right-wing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about liberal Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire George Soros -- none of which has contributed positively to political tensions in America." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The story suggests to me that the FBI & other law enforcement agencies have done a very good job foiling "outsider" terrorists, but have not got a handle on the home-grown ones. As much of the anti-terror effort -- including at the local level -- is funded by the federal government, this may be a failure that starts at the top in more ways than one. ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Robert Mackey of The Intercept: "Paranoid conspiracy theories about George Soros -- the liberal philanthropist and financier cast, in starkly anti-Semitic terms, as a shadowy puppet master bent on toppling governments -- are now so common that it is easy to forget that this viral meme was first injected into the far-right imagination by Fox News more than a decade ago.... [Bill] O&'Reilly first introduced Fox News viewers to his caricature of Soros as a shadowy financier bent on 'imposing a radical left agenda' on Americans on April 23, 2007." --s
Mariana Zuñiga, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Nicolás Maduro [of Venezuela] on Wednesday faced the gravest challenge to his authority since assuming power in 2013, as the U.S.-backed opposition claimed the legitimate mantle of leadership, and President Trump promptly recognized him as Venezuela's interim president.... Subsequently, Maduro [gave] U.S. diplomats 72 hours to leave after U.S. recognizes opposition leader as interim president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, facing fallout from a lawsuit claiming she fired an aide who said she was sexually assaulted by a supervisor at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, said on Wednesday she had decided to resign as the foundation's chairwoman. Ms. Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat in her 13th term, also stepped aside temporarily from an important House Judiciary subcommittee chairmanship, the committee said. Ms. Jackson Lee made the decision to step aside from both roles as pressure was growing within her own party to account for the claims in a Jan. 11 lawsuit brought by a woman who worked in her congressional office.... Ms. Jackson Lee has adamantly denied that she fired the woman for retribution after the woman indicated she wanted to pursue legal action, but she planned to say Wednesday that she would step aside nonetheless."
#SheToo, Ctd. Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News: "Republican Senator Joni Ernst says that she was raped in college by someone she knew and that her ex-husband physically abused her, making her one of the highest-profile women in her party to allege assaults in the era of the #MeToo movement. Ernst publicly disclosed the rape in an interview with Bloomberg News, which she decided to do after details of her divorce from husband Gail Ernst were reported this week.... Ernst may face fresh criticism for her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh...."
Kate Sosin of the Advocate: "An estimated 13,763 transgender service members face dismissal as the Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would allow ... Donald Trump's transgender military ban to take effect. The Williams Institute estimates there are currently 1.4 million transgender Americans in the U.S. That means nearly one percent of transgender Americans stand to lose their jobs under the ban.... Service members who have a diagnosis of 'gender dysphoria' before the policy takes effect are grandfathered in. So are active members who have transitioned three years prior to enlisting or who have no plans to transition medically while in service. Overwhelmingly, however, trans service members will not be covered by that exception.... [By one count,] just 937 transgender service members currently meet the exemptions that would clear them for service."
Ben Kesslen of NBC News: "A gay student who [as class valedictorian] was barred by the Covington diocese from speaking at his 2018 graduation [from Holy Cross High], is 'not surprised' by the Covington Catholic High School video.... 'It was only a matter of time that something this school community did would blow up to this degree, and I think they need to be held accountable,' [Christian Bales said.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona. Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "A nurse at a Phoenix nursing home who had been assigned to care for a woman in a vegetative state who was raped and later gave birth to a child was charged on Wednesday with sexual assault, the police said. Detectives at the Phoenix Police Department took the nurse, Nathan Sutherland, 36, in for questioning in the case on Tuesday, the police said, and collected a DNA sample from him that matched that of the child, a boy who was born on Dec. 29. Mr. Sutherland was booked on Wednesday morning at the Maricopa County Jail on one charge of sexual assault and one charge of vulnerable adult abuse, the police said."
Michigan. E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "In a dramatic shift, Michigan is withdrawing from four lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as the state's new Democratic leadership moves to make good on climate action. Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) announced Tuesday that Michigan will drop the EPA lawsuits targeting federal air regulations which the the state joined under the previous Republican leadership." --s
Way Beyond
Joe Romm: "Australia is in the midst of an unrelenting, record-smashing heat wave that has left temperature maps so red the country looks like it's on fire. The country has hit highs exceeding 120°F (49°C) during the day. And New South Wales set a new record for all of Australia last week when nighttime temperatures never fell below 96.6°F (35.9°C). The temperatures have been so brutal in South Australia, in fact, that heat-stressed bats are literally falling out of trees." --s
News Lede
New York Times: "The gunman who burst into a SunTrust Bank in Florida on Wednesday made the five women he found inside lay [sic. "lie"] facedown on the floor before he shot them each in the back of the head, killing them, according to an affidavit released on Thursday. And when he was done, he called the police to tell them what he had done. On Thursday the police identified three of the five victims -- four female bank employees and one female customer -- and said for the first time that a sixth person inside the bank in Sebring, Fla., escaped when he heard the shooting begin around 12:30 p.m. The suspect, Zephen A. Xaver, 21, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with five counts of first-degree premeditated murder. Nathaniel Heitkamp, a friend who said in an interview that he met Mr. Xaver five years ago at a mental health facility in Indiana, said, 'He had an obsession with violence.'"
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